Chapter 36

The Fall
Part II: The Purple Dragon
~

I have a long and proud tradition of ending on cliffhangers; I can't help it, I'm afraid. Still I'm posting all of these parts in such rapid succession so you don't need to wait too long.

Now, enough playing around.

Song for this chapter: 'Monster' by Skillet. Many people on this site already know this song or have the band on their list of favourites. If you do then that's great, but even if you've never heard of it I want you to find it and play it. It's the song I've been planning for since chapter three, it's Dark Spyro's song, finally.

The time for playing around is over.

Start the song...

Start the chapter:

Spyro's brilliant white eyes narrowed, he turned his head slowly as he looked around. The Dragonslayer hummed in his paw, but he didn't even glance at it.

Chains clinked as he stood, and then he growled. Dark Spyro stalked forwards several steps and the chains groaned as they tried to hold him. With lazy kicks of his four legs Spyro shattered each one. His tail slashed the air violently until it too broke free.

Slowly his wings spread, and darkness shrouded his body.

A storm of energy flickered around him, growing darker with every moment. By the time Spyro had raised his head to stand straight his body was barely visible, a solid centre to the cloud of power he had summoned.

Then his eyes focused on Malefor, and they glowed white hot with hatred. A horrible snarl emerged from his throat as he crouched, and then he lunged straight at the elder purple dragon.

A band of pale metal appeared at Spyro's throat, connected to the tower floor by a cord of green energy. The band pulled Spyro up short a few metres away from its anchoring point, the sheer speed of Dark Spyro's leap caused his body to keep moving forwards even as he was jerked back by his neck.

Spyro's snarl became a strangled gargle as he was caught in a whiplash motion that threatened to break his neck. He fell to the ground in a graceless heap, clearly injured. The darkness around him faded slightly. He did not get up, but he was still breathing raggedly.

Malefor floated down to the platform, keeping a wary distance. Cynder took a step towards him, unsure what to do, but was also held in place. She too was held to the platform by the snake chain.

"What? How is this still here?" She was stunned.

"I never removed the chain binding you two together. I simply deactivated it for a time. I wanted to be sure of being able to trap you again if I needed to." He glanced at Cynder briefly as he explained, then he began to gather his magic. "Now you've forced me to do this. I'm sending the both of you to Convexity for now. Cynder I'll get you out as soon as possible, I swear I will."

Malefor sent his power down into the platform below them and a bright purple circle formed, with a staple trapping Spyro and Cynder at its centre. The chain was hooked to the staple, keeping them held down.

"Everything within the circle will be transported. Spyro shouldn't harm you, even in his current state. His feelings for you are still present."

Power hummed as Malefor charged up his trap. Then the snarling started again.

Spyro staggered back to his feet, the darkness around him shrank but grew more solid as it did, making him look much bulkier then his true form was.

He sacrificed all of his speed and grace for pure power, charging across the platform at Malefor like a bull, but again he was painfully stopped by the snake band. Spyro roared in anger and pain as the metal dug into the scales around his throat. His claws cracked the stone, gouging deep slashes in it as he tried to keep walking. He hissed in fury but was unable to escape, his tail lashed and swiped at the air.

Malefor ignored him, rapidly circling around his trap to where another purple symbol was glowing. He touched this other symbol and the floor within Spyro and Cynder's circle began to turn smoky.

Cynder struggled to remove her chain, but she had no idea how to do it. Spyro grabbed his in his claws and squeezed, but even with his massively increased size and power he still wasn't able to break it.

"I should complement Imperia on her work. Those chains are extraordinary." Malefor had relaxed slightly now that he'd completed the ritual that would send them to Convexity. "I'd complement her right now, if she'd shown up when she was supposed to. And if she had then we wouldn't even be here, because the whole reason I brought her along was to use her to prevent a situation like this from happening." Malefor muttered in annoyance, he glanced around. "Where is she, anyway?"

Spyro's roaring stopped. Malefor instantly looked back at the younger purple dragon, very wary of any change in his mental state.

Dark Spyro's magic was withdrawing, and absorbing into Spyro's scales. His extra bulk vanished as easily as it had come, and when Spyro shook himself his movement was natural and had all of his easy grace.

His white eyes began to dim, but the look on his face remained equally ferocious. The magic wasn't disappearing, it was strengthening him.

Cynder watched in growing horror as the entire cloud of magic soaked into Spyro's body. His scales dulled, losing their bright lustre but not their colour. His eyes dulled from blank white to a fearsome yellow, revealing slit pupils and a savage gleam of triumph.

"Finally… Freedom."

Dark Spyro's voice was distorted and changed; it grated against Cynder's ears. It was still recognisably Spyro's voice, which only made the sound more horrible.

"Not for long." Malefor said evenly.

Dark Spyro began to laugh. He raised the Dragonslayer and used it to cut the energy chain. He twirled the spear lazily and then rammed it into the ground, cutting through Malefor's magic and the circle blinked out of existence.

"You, failure Dark Master, are deluded. Did you think I was a fool?" Dark Spyro laughed harder, staggering slightly as he lost his balance.

Malefor stepped forwards. "The Dark Master is a failure, and I destroyed him just like I'll destroy you. Up until now I have been, all modesty aside, a remarkable success."

"You talk bravely, but you can't hide your fear from me." Spyro pointed the spear at him threateningly. "I'm stronger than you are!"

"You're strong, certainly, but I don't think you're that strong yet, Dark Spyro. This is your first time in full control, the first time you've reached this level of power, you can still be defeated."

Dark Spyro turned his back on Malefor carelessly, he spun in a circle, laughing softly now. As he moved the wind swept under him and lightly threw him into the air. The Dragonslayer flashed gold as he twirled it, smoothly transferring it to his rear left paw and holding it with that. He landed gracefully, once again facing Malefor, several metres away.

"I like freedom, I like it a lot. Freedom to fly and play and kill, the only thing that's stopping me is you."

Malefor didn't respond. Spyro again used the wind to leap across the platform to the opposite side.

"This is fun! This mind is marvellous, very well educated; it has so much potential, and many nice little tricks already assimilated. Your memories and skills would be even better, but Spyro's are more than adequate. Also Dark Spyro is a dreadful name. I want a new one. Maybe… Doom? No that's hopelessly cliché."

"You're growing in power rapidly." Malefor said. "But you can still be stopped." Dark Spyro cocked his head thoughtfully.

"Are you going to try yet another fallback plan or clever little trap?"

"I always have tactics, but I had nothing prepared for this eventuality. I'll just have to take you down myself."

"So now we fight? Single combat between the two purple dragons of legend! Surely a battle that will go down in history." He grinned. "When was the last time two dragons like us fought?"

"Only a few days ago; when I fought and defeated Spyro and Cynder." Malefor said dismissively.

"I am NOT SPYRO!" Fury burned white hot within the dark dragon.

Dark Spyro blazed forwards with a roar, using wind to accelerate. Malefor dove out of the way, but Spyro turned in mid-air and bore down on him, his claws flashed with lightning as he swung for Malefor's head.

The elder purple dragon caught Dark Spyro's attack, expertly deflecting the lightning and then turning it back on its creator. Spyro yowled in pain and Malefor swatted him out of the air, slamming Dark Spyro into the ground with enough force to crack the platform.

Spyro was barely slowed down, he slashed his tail forcing Malefor to leap into the air and then he surged upwards, shooting a hail of icy needles at the other dragon.

Malefor glowed with heat, melting the needles before they hit, and responded by hitting Spyro with a wall of wind, throwing him backwards.

There was a pause. Spyro's smile grew.

"I haven't lost any mana, I could do this forever. Or I could try something bigger."

Dark Spyro's body glowed as he focused a massive amount of energy, he opened his mouth and boiling heat emerged from within.

Malefor cloaked himself in a blue bubble an instant before Dark Spyro spat a massive fireball at him, the explosion was deafening, Cynder covered herself with her wings and used wind to shield her scales from the fire. But as the flames cleared Malefor stood completely unharmed.

Dark Spyro snarled in anger and hurled himself at Malefor again, slashing at him repeatedly with the ferocity of a wild beast. Malefor received several cuts on his foreleg as he defended from Spyro's attack, even the slightest glancing strikes left deep wounds. Dark Spyro's strength was unnatural, and any blow that found its intended target would be devastating.

Normally dragons had to be both skilled and lucky to hurt another dragon using only melee attacks, only the most devastating blows would actually be strong enough to cut a dragons tough scales or break their hard bones, but the sheer level of power Spyro now had was completely changing the dynamic of the fight. Malefor couldn't afford to be directly hit by anything.

Malefor didn't like melee combat, indeed Volteer could probably have outfought him, and he wouldn't have stood any chance against Terrador. His combat skills were based around his strengths; defensiveness, deception, trickery and a vast arsenal of powerful magical abilities. He relied heavily on wind magic, forced to constantly retreat from Spyro's aggressive assault.

Dark Spyro was new to using wind magic, and while he was talented with all magic he emphasised power over control, using it only to close distance with Malefor to continue his attack.

Malefor rapidly took advantage of Dark Spyro's aggression, timing an earth shot to knock the younger dragon out of the air, he caught Spyro across the face with a wild tail slash as Spyro fell, and used that contact to create another shockwave which slammed Spyro back to the ground. He followed up with a series of lightning strikes, reasoning that Spyro hadn't yet learned how to manipulate lightning defensively while under such pressure. He may have been correct, but Spyro rapidly protected himself with clouds of dust instead, diverting the attack with earth and giving himself time to recover.

He rose to his feet, growling at Malefor and taking a threatening pose to buy himself a moment to think. He had less experience and skill, and he didn't yet know the full limits of Malefor's strength or endurance so it was wise to assume that he didn't have much advantage there. Malefor had been able to heal himself in the past, a trick Dark Spyro didn't yet know, so there was another disadvantage. Currently his main advantage was that Malefor thought he was made a savage beast by his transformed magic, when in truth his mind had lost none of its cunning.

Malefor surrounded himself with lightning, and then a second Malefor stepped out of him. Both were physically indistinguishable and there was no way to tell whether the real Malefor had stepped out or stayed still.

With identical smiles the two Malefors began to circle, flanking the dark purple dragon. Dark Spyro growled, his head flicking back and forth between them. Malefor was playing him as if he was stupid, but it was in his interests to keep the elder dragon thinking that he had no sense of strategy.

Dark Spyro hesitantly chose one of the Malefors and shot shards of ice at him, but the purple dragon evaded the attack. Spyro reached out with lightning, a wide area attack that swamped both Malefors in lightning. One protected himself, the other didn't.

Spyro turned to the Malefor that had protected himself, the elder dragon tilted his head in amusement. "Well spotted."

Spyro again hurled himself at Malefor, but he took care to be even more erratic and unpredictable this time, forcing Malefor to act defensively. The older dragon liked to understand his opponent before he struck, and would wait to see what weaknesses Spyro had that he could capitalize on.

Dark Spyro slashed furiously at Malefor, trying to tear through his increasingly strained defence. The lightning copy vanished as Malefor put all of his focus into staying alive. Malefor realised that he couldn't keep the melee combat up, he barely ever used his wings, tail or hind legs to strike with and using only his forelegs to fight with he was being overwhelmed. As usual he tried to solve his problem using magic, hitting Spyro with an earth shot to knock him off balance.

Spyro took the hit full on, he'd been expecting it, and he also expected Malefor to then go on the attack. The older dragon knew he couldn't heal, and would try to wound his legs until Spyro could no longer fight. His assumption was correct; Malefor's claws flashed as he swiped viciously, making Dark Spyro hiss in pain.

But Malefor didn't have Spyro's increased strength, and his blows merely stung. Normal dragons rarely hurt each other by striking. Spyro leaned into the attacks and they deflected off his hard scales.

The other Spyro had seen Cynder use this same tactic, when she'd fought an ice dragoness who was an expert at defensive fighting. She's allowed herself to be attacked by the ice dragon in order to prepare a counterattack that was devastating enough to finish the fight.

Imperia had once summed the idea up with a simple piece of advice: "If you can't be sure you'll get past your enemy's defences; then just wait until their defences are lowered before you strike."

At the time she'd been talking about assassination techniques, but the concept was just as true in the heat of battle as it was outside of a fight. Dragons were careless in combat all the time, if you encouraged that weakness and waited to take advantage of it… well… you could do just as well as Cynder had done when she'd used the tactic.

Spyro's grin was pure bloodlust and his eyes were cold and calculating. All the fury he had was perfectly controlled by his focused cunning, fire and ice melded together with the strengths of both and none of the weaknesses.

Malefor's claws hit his chest, and Spyro moved forwards with a straight jab that had all of his weight and strength behind it.

His clenched paw hit Malefor's exposed snout, and bone smashed with a wet crunch.

Malefor screamed and reeled back, his entire upper jaw had been destroyed by that single strike. Spyro roared in triumph and rammed him, and then his paw slashed up going for Malefor's chest.

Malefor's eyes were wide with shock and pain, he screamed again in agony, and for a brief moment felt genuine fear for the first time in his living memory. Milliseconds later his mind kicked into overdrive, Dark Spyro was coming for him again. The dark purple dragon's eyes were blazing with triumph and hatred, his teeth were bared and ready to bite.

Malefor spat blood in Spyro's eye, he had plenty of it available. Spyro yelped, totally surprised by the response, Malefor followed up by spitting fire. The fire came out bloody red, but it still burned hot and it was Spyro's turn to howl in pain.

Malefor dove to the side, barely evading another wild strike; he grabbed a cracked fragment of stone from the platform that had been broken off by a previous impact. He whirled around, the stone in his paw. He looked at Spyro's head, but he hesitated for a split second and in that time Dark Spyro had moved and the opportunity was lost. He instead focused on Spyro's rear leg, the one that still held the Dragonslayer spear. He pressed his paw against Spyro's upper leg and then accelerated the stone to massive speed with his wind magic.

The stone struck with the force of a cannonball, but with far more focus. It punched straight through Spyro's leg, doing massive damage to his muscles and leaving a bloody hole.

Dark Spyro's tail swung again and Malefor threw himself back to evade it. He staggered to his feet, tears of pain in his eyes. He focused magic on the wreck that had been made of his face, hissing slightly with relief as the pain dimmed. Bright purple light surrounded the wound and he felt his bones expand back into their natural places. His upper jaw reforming itself.

Dark Spyro was not so lucky. He wiped blood from his eye and his face hadn't been damaged by the fireball, but the wound in his leg was severe and bled heavily.

He couldn't put weight on his back leg, it wouldn't support him. He growled in annoyance and pain as he bent down and grabbed the Dragonslayer.

Dark Spyro spun the weapon, snarling. He stretched his rear leg, testing its reduced movement, then he saw Malefor healing himself and his eyes narrowed. "I want to do that!"

He almost sounded childish as he said it, but the fury in his voice was only made sharper. He stood on his wounded leg, it would have been immensely painful but Dark Spyro seemed not to care, blood dripped, forming a pool around him. His wound was healing unusually fast, Malefor could see it happening, at its current rate the injury would heal within an hour, but until then it would slow him down.

"You could have done a lot worse." Dark Spyro observed.

"You could have too, why did you strike my muzzle, not my eyes?"

"You know things, things I want to know. Learning them by myself would take too long, taking them from you is simpler."

Malefor nodded thoughtfully. "You know that I spared you, but there are always more stones to be picked up, do you really think you can defeat me?"

Dark Spyro chuckled and held up the Dragonslayer. Malefor looked at it warily.

"Ah. I see."

Dark Spyro growled in satisfaction, he prowled forwards, the spear tracing threatening circles in the air.

Malefor decided to step up his power level in response, Spyro knew little about the powers a purple dragon possessed beyond their elements and their Dragon Time. Dragon Time might help, but Malefor was cautious of trying to use it before Spyro did. However he had other options.

Spyro held the spear in his right forepaw, meaning he had only three legs to stand on. His rear left leg was barely functioning, meaning that in reality he had only two.

That was a considerable weakness.

Malefor reached out with one of his favourite abilities, sending a tendril of glowing purple energy to wrap around Spyro's wounded leg and yank it violently.

Dark Spyro yelped, falling, but a moment later the Dragonslayer cut through the tendril and he staggered back upright.

"Sneaky…"

Malefor hit Spyro with a wall of purple energy, staggering him, Spyro spun the Dragonslayer defensively, but Malefor simply wrapped wind around him and used it to smash Spyro into one of the pillars at the edge of the roof. Spyro had been ready for more purple attacks, but the wind couldn't be seen and therefore was not expected.

He created stone chains and wrapped them around Spyro, and then he began to cool the temperature rapidly around his opponent. Malefor began to heat his claws, preparing to raise the temperature around Spyro once it had gotten cold enough. The rapid fluctuation in temperature should knock Dark Spyro out without risking severe damage.

However Spyro did not cooperate, he flexed his wings and multiple chains shattered. Sensing the chilling temperature around him Spyro responded by glowing with heat. He raised his own body temperature at a slower speed, preventing Malefor from finishing his plan, and then Spyro gathered dark energy and blasted the remaining stone chains into fragments.

Spyro rose again, he growing stronger with every moment, he was beginning to experiment with how to use purple energy in the way that Malefor did, however his energy was dark, violent and smoky. He hadn't even realised what Malefor had tried to do, but he knew it had been something meant to take him down and he had no intention of allowing that to happen.

Dark Spyro went back on the attack this time, spitting more massive fireballs. Malefor protected himself with a shield of blue energy. The fire technique gave him total protection from heat and diverted the force of the explosions; he dropped the shield and spun Spyro's fire into several arrows which he shot at the younger dragon. Spyro caught two of the arrows on the Dragonslayer, making the spear blaze with absorbed energy, and he blocked the rest using a cloud of his purple magic.

Dark Spyro opened his maw and dark purple light glowed within, he was going to try to use Convexity. Malefor hooked purple energy around Spyro's horns and jerked him forwards, the beam of pure power narrowly missed him and seared a hole straight through the stone below them, making a hole in the top of the fortress.

Dark Spyro swiped the Dragonslayer around his head to break Malefor's magic, and then he lunged. Malefor created a bubble of purple energy that was proof against all physical and elemental attacks. Spyro bounced off the bubble once, but then he slashed it open with the Dragonslayer and attacked again.

Malefor twisted out of the way of the flaming spear and Spyro slammed into him. Spyro hit Malefor on the side of the skull with a head-butt and in that moment the fight was over.

Malefor stumbled away, stunned by the impact. His head was ringing and there was a blazing pain from his cheek, probably there was a crack in his skull bone. He couldn't find the focus to defend himself properly, he was dazed. His mind raged helplessly, a flow of urgent commands that his body was too slow to respond to.

Spyro swatted Malefor with his wing and the older dragon collapsed on the platform, winded. He tried to rise, but Dark Spyro held him down and then struck him with lightning.

Dark Spyro grinned, panting but looking very happy. "I win! Now I'll just keep you on the edge of death until I've figured out how to get what I want from you. Hopefully you'll be seeing me again soon." Spyro gave him a cheerful wave and raised a paw over Malefor's throat.

"No!"

Even as Dark Spyro swung a streak of silver flashed forwards and knocked his paw aside. Spyro's claws screeched against the stone as he coiled around to see who had interrupted him.

Imperia touched down gracefully on the platform before him.

As usual I'd love to know what you thought of this chapter. Please do leave a review.

The next chapter will be up soon. Until then let's let Imperia have her moment of awesomeness, shall we?

-4Dragons