(Silver's P.O.V.)

-End of the five days' journey-

Castle Malaga is beautiful, alright, but the United Talons knew all too well that the facade of the place is only a lie to the wickedness inside as I have. Why, Jasmine and Eilonwy can feel the dark magic easily enough.

I exhaled sharply as I can make out far more guards, perhaps a hundred...Did Cruella manipulate and dehumanize the villagers to follow her? Adam muttered grumpily, "The shield's bigger with this one...I can only reach the courtyard beyond the walls.", a frustrated look on his face as he looked at his magic mirror.

Sure enough, I can see signs of a garden and some benches, and a well...wait, a well? I blinked in surprise, "Adam, see the well? Ask the mirror to see if there's actually a tunnel underneath the well.".

Adam nodded, "Good eye, Silver. We can sneak in that way if there's a tunnel.", before asking the mirror politely, and I watched carefully as the mirror's surface seemed to zoom down the well, and went left, right, down, left, right before I see signs of collapse, but through a hole in the giant pile of rocks and such, it zoomed a bit more further, and upwards into a crevice of grass and wheat, hard to see from the surface until you came upon it by incident since it looks like a gopher hole, and someone had filled the bigger areas of the tunnel in..

I looked closer and saw a couple of landmarks that should make it easier to find, and nodded to Adam, "Good job, Adam. I'll have Pippa look into it.". I headed over to the group of girls, and called out politely, "Pippa, may I have your assistance? Turns out there's a collapsed tunnel to the courtyard well in the castle.".

Pippa grinned lightly, "Sounds like a job, dragon style!", shifting into her dragon form, and I smiled, "Have Adam help you with the mirror, he knows the spot to start.". Pippa growled with a nod and walked off to Adam while I looked at the other girls including Emma.

"We need to cause some destruction to overwhelm the guards.", I said in affirmation. Emma grinned lightly, "I believe I have an idea. Jasmine, do we still have some rope left?".

Jasmine smirked lightly, "More than plenty.", and Emma glanced at Zuri, "Ready to be a risktaker once more, Zuri?", and Zuri laughed heartily, "If you're thinking what I'm thinking, yeah, I am totally in!".

Eilowny looked confused, "Care to fill me in?", and I nodded in agreement, and Emma smiled widely, "We're doing a couple of explosion detonations. And I bet Logan will help out in lighting up the second line.".

I blinked in slight understanding, "Like grenade fireworks at the same time?", and Emma nodded, "Basically, yes. And Eilowny, you and Jim stay with the horses. Rather not have them scattering like bunnies with thunderstorms.".

Eilowny nodded, "That certainly makes sense. I'll go tell Jim then.", leaving the other girls and me. Emma exhaled lowly, "Once the tunnel is prepared, I'll lead the way with Haku, he's in charge of the grenades for the courtyard guards, and Silver, you'll be behind, along with Jason and Pippa, and Adam. Jasmine, you're with Logan, and you'd have to watch for the signal while Logan is watching Zuri's back while she's at the wall.".

We all nod at the tone of her voice, recognizing that she's using her commander voice, yet I'll always follow her no matter what. It was a few hours of careful work and silent observation until we were able to travel all the way through the tunnel.

The moon and the stars are bright tonight, so that's a relief for we'd need all the light to fight, overtake the guards, and of course, save the castle and all it contains, through from what Emma explained, there will be quite some damage to the walls, to the ballast towers, and perhaps some of the cliff hardstones too.

Inside the tunnel, we managed to have Pippa and Adam provide light in their own way, with Pippa's fire lighting up torches and Adam's magic mirror glow almost all the way until Emma saw that we were close and told us to douse the torches and Adam to ask the mirror to turn off.

We had a rope ladder for aid to get out of the well once Emma and Haku sets out the grenades, and within five minutes, I heard explosions below the rope ladder, and heard Emma's order, climbed up and over.

To my horror, the guards is a gruesome mix of monsters, looking like goblins has mated with orcs all at once, and once we all spread from the well, there came many battles even after the grenades killed quite many of them.

It was so fleeting fast as I fought with my faithful sword and managed to pick up another weapon from a dead guard, a spike-bat, and I was filled with the tunnel vision of surviving and fighting, ignoring all the sounds including the explosions in the distance until I saw him.

I spat angrily, "Scroop.", glaring at the very pale, black-haired, gold-eyed man, and he hissed lowly, "Well, well, if it wasn't ole John Silver. Looks like you survived the ocean, leech.".

I snorted at him, "Understatement of the century. You ain't looking too good yourself. I surprised that you sufferin' from staying too long from the sea. How's Hook? Is he still bellyachin' about the brig exploding on fire?".

Scroop growled angrily, "He' be having a grudge about ya if you talkin' about that. Me needed a break so came here, figuring that workin' for Cruella be useful for a while.".

I scowled at him, "And here we are again. Enough talkin', let's fight, me and you!". Scroop smirked wickedly, "Smartest thing you ever said!", holding up his pair of machetes. Before long, we came into fighting, landing hits and bruises, and eventually, I overpowered him when I broke his machete with the spike-bat, and hitting him into the ground.

I sneered at him, "You lose, I win.", and Scroop narrowed his eyes, "You've gotten tougher, Silver, but not tough enough.", before drawing out a bottle of pink liquid, and drank it, "You're gonna die, leech.", just as his skin bubbled like lava, and he shrieked out in pain.

I backed off when I saw him growing, his skin changing into colors of black and red, his face contorting into a monstrous mesh of fangs and multiple eyes, and his body, gods, his body was growing extra arms/legs, taking upon some sort of strange pincers and sharp claws. (Think Scroop as a combination of his spider form and Captain Nathaniel Flint's alien body from Treasure Planet)

He was only half as tall as an orc, but still dangerous, and even more when he's like this, I have no doubt, but I knew I must get rid of him before he hurts anyone else. Scroop hissed, "S-Silver!", charging for me, and I fought back as best as I could.

It was increasingly difficult to dodge his pincers or claws when I went for an opening through, I managed to score some cuts, yet he was somehow more agile, attempting to scar me. When I managed to go for his upper arm, landing a nasty hit with one of my swords, he grew angry which I figured for. He's always been a hothead, having a temper.

He went for my cyborg leg, somehow managing to mangle it up to pieces, causing me to lose balance, but not before landing a punch into his face, causing him to shriek out in anger. Before I knew what was coming, I felt pain across my face, losing power in my cyborg eye, falling with a thud as my back ached loudly in pain, and just as I was gaining focus once more, I felt more pain in my chest, no, up above my chest, barely making out a machete deep in my shoulder, my mouth suddenly dry...Did I scream?

I felt dizzy and tired, and I saw Scroop push his ugly face into my face, "P-perhaps Hook will pay me g-generously for hearing about the loss of your arm.", before I screamed out in pain, feeling the machete breaking though bone, making me feel like I was about to pass out.

I then heard a roar, but strangely, not either Logan or Pippa's, seeing something flash over me, hearing Scroop scream as he was battened away by a large, clawed paw. I saw beautiful dark blue fur with white stars all over, seeing a familiar gemstone, and I breathed softly as I weakly smiled, "Emma.", feeling my body fade, but I couldn't go, I can't go without telling her...tell her that I love her, and that I am so damn proud of her about becoming a gorgeous dragon.