"What happens in the Final Four?" Crimson asked. It was a dark night; the full moon was high in the sky, casting an eerie white light on them.
"Well," replied Stoney, avoiding the question, "you might not want to know that. Chances are you won't get there anyways." Crimson looked at him, confused. Stoney was always up-front and he always said he believed she would win.
"I do want to know," Crimson persisted. She didn't like it when Stoney didn't want to tell her something.
"The top three dragons receive medals. The dragon in last place…they are stripped of everything they own."
"Everything?" asked Crimson.
"Their name, their breeder, their home, everything. Even…even…" Stoney couldn't bring himself to say the last words.
"Even what?" Crimson piped.
"Even their lives," Stoney finished. "Now let's go to sleep." Crimson didn't like that idea. She fell to the ground and rested regardless, still believing that she would easily win the Dragon Games.
Crimson woke with a start.
"Stoney! What did you mean, about dragons losing…" She stopped talking when she realized where she was. Most of the other 127 dragons in the Half were staring at her. Embarrassed, she shied away into a corner. The dragons slowly began to go back to doing whatever it was that they were doing.
"I could beat you," said a persistent voice from behind her. Crimson turned to see a Blazing Dragon and a Sonic Dragon behind her, arguing.
"Yeah, fat chance," muttered the Sonic Dragon. "I could ace you in a flash. You'd lose before you realized that the race started."
"You're a clumsy fool, Spark. It's not all about speed."
"Most of it is," argued the Sonic Dragon.
"Both of you…could you just stop arguing and race?" said a third voice. Crimson looked to the source; there was a Chrome Dragon behind her. Could that be…the Chrome Dragon from before round one? Crimson thought for a moment, then sighed. Nope. That one was male.
"That's what I'm trying to get this dimwit to do," replied the Sonic Dragon. The Blazing Dragon snorted.
"Alright then, let us race!" Crimson turned away, uninterested. Her mind randomly went back to her race against Wocky. Those obstacles...the sun, and moon one. Then the rainbow and gemstone. Against Blizzard, it was so much more normal…and then Sierra, a tough competitor. And then last time, against that cheating Evergreen. A realization suddenly hit Crimson. There are no rules in the Dragon Games! If I don't do what Oakheart did, then the dragons that do will have an advantage. Could these games be so horrible?
She remembered her dream/memory. I didn't understand what Stoney was saying. The fourth place dragon gets to the second-to-last round, and then dies a humiliating death. We're getting into the more dangerous rounds-I mean, look at what happened with Oakheart! Losing is going to mean getting hurt soon. Or even more injured. She remembered the announcement of the injury just before the fourth round, and what she had done to Oakheart in the fifth. These Dragon Games are horrible! For some reason, the end of the third round popped into her head at that moment. "'I hate you!' Blizzard had screamed. 'I hate you!'"
Crimson scanned the crowds for dragons she knew. The Sonic Dragon and Blazing Dragon were still racing around and around , hugging the wall of the half. She also noticed the Chrome Dragon watching from a distance, and the Swamp Dragon that had pranked her. However, she failed to see Cucoo or Luna. Can dragons still be transferred between halves? Or are those two gone for good?
Suddenly, Crimson noticed Flurry on the ground. Was he injured? she thought, rushing over. Flurry was breathing heavily and looked utterly exhausted. A Sakura Dragon was on the ground next to him, looking like it was as worried as Crimson.
"Flurry? You okay?" Crimson asked, her voice filled with worry and unhappiness.
"Yeah," Flurry responded weakly. "You're not going to be happy if you go against the strongest dragon there is…and win."
"Huh?" asked the Sakura. "You don't mean…"
"Yes, Blossom, I mean Luna," Flurry spat. "That Moon Dragon; she was pure evil. After I scored twice, she made it her personal goal to make my life a nightmare. She battered my wings, smashed my head, and then scored twice. At the last second, I managed to block her third shot. Needless to say, she was angry about it. The round went on for more than an hour. I was in a never ending storm of pain." W-wow. Nothing Crimson had done even came close to comparing to Flurry beating Luna. "And I don't think anything will be harder than that."
"I thought my match was hard…" muttered Blossom. "Amazing. Simply amazing." Crimson nodded.
"Cucoo's gone," Crimson remarked, thinking that Flurry might want to know. "Could she have been transferred?"
"Nope," Blossom answered. "No more transferring."
"One less dragon to beat down," Flurry muttered.
"It's the same number of dragons, regardless of who loses, isn't it?" Crimson asked, confused. "And one of our friends losing isn't good." Crimson stopped short. I called Cucoo my friend. And now Flurry's a friend. What if I end up against Flurry? I…how could I do that? It's one thing with a total stranger. A horrible thing came into Crimson's mind. What I'm with a friend in the final four, and make him or her place fourth? I…kill a friend? Kill someone I know?
I can't win. Nobody wins in these stupid games. Flurry had fallen asleep, and Blossom was cautiously watching the anger on Crimson's face. Crimson puffed away. Cucoo is out. I'm the last Panlong Dragon in this half, and probably in the entire Dragon Games. I beat Wocky, Blizzard, Sierra, and Oakheart. I will not lose!
"Where's the announcer when you need him?" muttered a Fire Dragon far from Crimson. Crimson felt the same way. How long have we been waiting? An hour, plus the time I was asleep? Even though the next round would be a nightmare, waiting here was almost worse. Impatiently, Crimson flew to the other side of the half.
Only 128 dragons in space that fit 250 earlier. The half was comfortable, and Crimson quickly found a nice, quiet spot. She curled up and tried to fall asleep, hoping that the next match would start soon. However, her mind buzzed. 'D-do you know what the next event will be?' Crimson asked Cucoo in her mind.
'Dunno. First event is always racing; last event is always fighting. The others are always swapped around.' Crimson eventually fell into an uneasy sleep, remembering the past rounds of the Dragon Games in her dreams. Eventually, her rest was interrupted by an announcer; a different one than from the past rounds.
"Hello! Wizards and witches, breeders and dragons, and just plain old civilians: welcome to the sixth round of the Dragon Games!" Predictably, this was followed by a minute of applause. "Only 256 of the original 98,720 are still here. These dragons are the best of the best, but only half of them will move on to the final merging." More applause. Do they ever get tired of clapping and cheering?
"The event this round will be a famous one. Last Games, it was last match of the semifinal; it determined who won, and…the grand loser. Allow me to introduce…" The announcer trailed off.
"Airball!" shouted a random audience member, and the rest soon followed. "Airball! Airball! Airball! Airball!" Another ball game? I sure hope this one's not as…painful.
"The rules of airball are simple," began the announcer. "Each dragon is on a small area made of six tiles. The dragons hit the airball back and forth, and if it hits a tile, it bounces off and disappears. If the airball doesn't bounce off and falls through, the dragon whose side it fell on loses the match." That's simple. "Dragons will be attempted to be paired with dragons that have equal ability flying or walking."
"Good luck with that," Crimson heard Flurry mutter. She grinned to herself. He thinks so highly of himself, doesn't he?
The ceiling remained closed, but the ground below began to open. Not fighting it, she rushed in. Airball. Sounds strange. The floor closed slowly, and there was a strange, booming sound outside. The magic worked as usual, and Crimson fell asleep.
Crimson woke up to something wet and cold on her scales. Opening her eyes, she immediately saw a strange grid of twenty-five slick, blue tiles with the alphabet on them. She looked up; Rain and Storm Dragons seemed to be creating a thunderstorm. Oh. It's supposed to make things harder. But I'm not a land dragon…
She turned to her opponent and then recoiled in shock. A-a Rainbow dragon? That' s insane! Equal ability…this is not equal ability!
The Rainbow Dragon slowly opened its eyes and got up. It shook its head.
"Really with the rain?" the Rainbow Dragon shouted at the sky. Crimson nodded. Are they kidding with this?
"Let match H1#001, Crimson vs. Spectra, begin!" shouted the announcer, followed by mad clapping from the audience that was much louder than the last four rounds were. Wait. #001? We're the first match? she thought incredulously.
A small, orange ball dropped from the sky with a loud thunderclap. Two strange magic symbols danced in the air. The one that looked like an upside down A went to Crimson's side; the other, S-shaped symbol went onto Spectra's side. The orange ball fell onto Crimson's side. Lunging for it, she slammed it with her tail. Spectra zoomed into the air and countered, sending the ball hurling at Crimson's face. She spun around and whacked the ball again.
This time, it hit Spectra in the chest and the ball fell onto the ground, burning a hole through the tile labeled G. The ball bounced back onto Crimson's side, and the G tile crumbled and fell to the ground. Crimson hit the ball again, but Spectra was prepared and slammed the ball upwards. What the…As the ball fell near Crimson, an idea struck her and she blew her elemental breath onto it, sending it towards Spectra.
Spectra easily countered once again, and they went on for a few minutes. She's good! Finally, Spectra hit the ball extremely hard and it pelted Crimson in the face, going down and landing on the N tile. A bolt of lightning boomed in the sky. Angry, Crimson got ready to hit the ball; but Spectra sent it much lower than she expected and the ball hit the Y. Gaah!
Spectra hit it again, sending the ball spinning above Crimson. Unwilling to let her take away another tile, Crimson aimed a shot at the hole where the G-tile had been, but Spectra forsaw the move and aimed at the broken Y-tile. Crimson lunged for the ball and barely countered. She has an advantage now. If I want to win I have to aim at one spot, which is easy to predict. She has two spots to aim at. The ball careened out of her control, and Spectra did the move where she hit the ball far into the sky. Crimson prepared to counter it, but suddenly Spectra started breathing sparkles at her. Crimson shook her head to stop the sparkles from getting into her eyes, and the ball slammed into the X-tile. Aah! One tile away from losing!
Crimson angrily shot a blue fireball at Spectra, but the Rainbow Dragon managed to evade it and hit the ball at the same time. Crimson slammed the ball, aiming at the back row of tiles. Spectra countered with an extremely hard shot, and Crimson rushed to counter it. She didn't get there in time, but the ball fell behind the grid.
"Foul! Crimson gets to take away one tile. Crimson, please touch the tile on your grid that you would like to be taken away from Spectra's grid." Crimson tapped the O, which was far enough from the G to make it hard to predict what she was doing. On Spectra's side, the O fell and collapsed. The now-yellow ball fell with a thunderclap onto Crimson's side. Taken by surprise, Crimson tried to hit it, but it hit the C-tile and bounced off.
Spectra, smiling, whacked the ball again. Tired, Crimson slammed it towards the O. Spectra countered easily.
"That all you've got?" she leered, shooting her elemental breath at Crimson. How can she keep going? Crimson wondered, countering. They sent the ball back and forth a few times, and then Crimson shot the ball extremely low. Catching Spectra by surprise, the ball almost sank into the C-tile, but was countered at the last second. Crimson found herself falling onto the slippery grid just to counter. The rain chilled her to the bone.
The crowd began breaking into chanting, with most of them cheering for either Crimson or Spectra . Spectra hit the ball directly upwards for a third time. Crimson watched in horror as it flew towards the broken C. Crimson, zooming towards the ball, noticed her Breeder in the front seat, watching her. C'mon. Do it for him. Do it for Stoney! For Wocky, Blizzard, and Sierra! Don't you dare fail!
Crimson hit the ball with her nose, sending it flying in the wrong direction. She gasped.
"Foul! Spectra gets to take away one tile. Spectra, please touch the tile on your grid that you would like to be taken away from Crimson's grid." Spectra slammed her tail into the Z. Crimson watched in horror as it melted away before her eyes, falling down. For the first time, she glanced at what was below the grid. There was a seemingly endless abyss with something at the bottom that could have been water. What if you were a land dragon? Y ou'd have to keep careful footing…no wonder they paired dragons with equal ability. If I was against a flightless dragon, I would win for sure.
Spectra hit the green ball, watching as it flew towards Crimson's XYZ hole. Crimson, angry, whacked the ball with her tail again, ignoring the utter exhaustion invading her mind. I will not disappoint my Breeder. I will win. The ball flew high into the air. That's like Spectra's signature move. If I could counter that well enough, I might be able to turn this around. Remembering the first time Spectra had used the technique, Crimson shot blue fireballs at the ball. She missed, and flew at the ball, hitting it over Spectra's head. Spectra grinned and watched the ball fly, expecting a foul, but it landed on the E. Angry, Spectra roared at Crimson.
Crimson suddenly slammed the ball low, towards the E-tile. It didn't go far enough. Spectra lunged at it, but the ball fell through the hole where the O used to be, into the abyss.
"Crimson wins!" shouted the announcer. W-what? The winning shot had been instinctive, and Crimson found it hard to believe that winning had been that easy.
"Good game," Spectra called out to her.
"You're not upset?" Crimson asked, confused.
"I made it far enough. The later rounds are going to get more and more dangerous. I'm just glad I got eliminated before I got a chance to be hurt."
"What do you mean?" Crimson asked cautiously, watching the wizards repair the grid and get ready to take Crimson back to the Half.
"The dragon that places fourth dies. Last Dragon Games, six of the top eight dragons suffered a broken limb in the third-to-last round." What? "And, even though they help you heal now, the last few rounds are an extreme, cutthroat challenge. If you break your leg, you're expected to keep competing, and competing, or you're eliminated. Cast aside like roadkill. I made it far enough. I'm happy with what I've accomplished." Magic zapped into the air, and Crimson was dimly aware of the rain stopping. Her thoughts buzzed as sleep came over her. Cutthroat…broken…roadkill…
Crimson fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of pain and death.