Chapter 36: The Dark Dragon Duel

After the charge, Ryu just couldn't wait anymore and charged energy that gathered in his mouth. All five of Ryu's heads followed his lead, inhaled deeply, and exhaled fire of their respective color. However, all four of the good guys fighting him found ways of repelling it. Link took his sword and swung it at the green blast, and with a flash, the green fire was blocked. Mario blocked the red one's flame with a blast of his own. Fox spun his staff and the yellow flames splashed harmlessly off like rain on an umbrella. The blue flames were easily deflected when Sonic put his arms up, palms forward and the flames bounced off at another angle. Ryu's red eyes widened in surprise and so did the other four pairs.

"WHAT?!" Ryu asked in surprise.

"How could Ryu be blocked THAT easily?" Wyvern asked, equally shocked.

"THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!" Firedrake said, looking at Ryu.

"That's so shocking, it's not even funny!" Salamander said, not even bothering to laugh.

"Well, THAT'S new." Drache said, surprised that Salamander didn't even giggle.

Link, Fox, Sonic, and Mario had just deflected his attacks when they proved to be equal to his power. Now, Ryu saw them for the threat that they were…too late.

Link charged with his sword out and was ready to slice Green Salamander's head in two, but the green dragonoid simply curved to the side to evade the attack and tried snapping at Link with his massive jaws. However, the only thing Salamander caught in his mouth was a whole lot of nothing. Salamander struck forward like a cobra only missing Link by inches. Green Salamander belched green flames at Link, causing the Hylian Hero to fly to the left and used this as a good distraction to reach forward and smash his head into Link. Link somersaulted through the air and Salamander was there to meet him again. Link quickly regained his balance and performed a perfect horizontal slash that caught a good piece of Salamander's green scales. Normally, the Master Sword couldn't have harmed him all that much, but since it was enfused with the power of the Chaos Emeralds, it cleaved the green head right off its neck. Ryu roared in pain as the green neck and head vanished in green light and reappeared as Green Salamander. Salamander was floating through space, remaining perfectly still and continued to float through the abyss of space. Link smirked as he saw the crazed warrior breathe his last and float aimlessly through space. Then, in the second before going back to battle, Link noticed that Salamander still had the humorous smile on his face as he floated lifelessly through nothingness. Perhaps he thought death was funny, too.

"I never liked him anyway." He commented.

"WHAT?!" Ryu asked in surprise.

Ryu barely had time to respond when Fox flew forward and struck Drache's head with his staff. Since the staff was also powered by the emeralds, the yellow Dragonoid felt like he had been clunked on the head with a sizeable rock. Drache shook the cobwebs out of his head, regained his posture, and blasted yellow flames at Fox, who countered with a few energy rings to block the attack. Drache paused for one second too long, because Fox spun his staff again and created a wave of energy that severed the yellow head, returning Drache to his original self and sending him to Green Salamander's fate.

Ryu growled as he retaliated and shot purple flames at Fox just when red flame shot from Wyvern's head. Unfortunately, Link blocked the amethyst inferno with a strike of his sword and Mario blasted golden flame to intercept Wyvern's fire. Unfortunately, they forgot about Blue Firedrake's head as it lashed forward like a cobra. It virtually had Mario, Fox, and Link in its teeth when a golden streak flew forward and smashed into its visage. The impact sent the blue head cringing backward. The blue head shook Sonic off its nose and tried snapping at him. His jaws closed around Sonic and tried to keep them shut, but Sonic, with his newfound strength, pried the jaws open and flew out just when they slammed shut again. Firedrake blasted blue flame at Sonic again, but the golden hedgehog simply created an energy orb. When the fire touched the orb, the sphere of energy began to grow rather than blow up. When Firedrake stopped, the orb was easily the size of a house and Sonic grinned as he chucked it at the blue head like a baseball. The orb collided with Firedrake and the serpentine head screeched in pain as it disintegrated. Ryu, surprised at how a simple hedgehog did that, stood still for one second too long.

Mario shot a pillar of fire at the red head and as soon as it engulfed Wyvern, it burned the red Dragonoid into space dust. In less than a second after that, Sonic created a huge energy orb just when Link created a vertical slash. Fox joined in with his energy ring attack and Mario unleashed a giant golden fireball. The result was an explosion that made an atomic bomb look like a firecracker.

"YEAH!" Sonic cheered as he put up his fist.

"Uh-huh! GO MARIO! GO MARIO! WHOOP DRAGONOID BUTT!" Mario said, doing a funky dance.

"Quiet!" Link shouted.

Sonic and Mario stopped their cheering in confusion. However, they noticed that Fox and Link were staring right where the blast should have been. There was Ryu, standing there with his head alone on his body and…he was laughing.

"Pathetic fools. You may have killed my generals, but you will not kill ME with such ease. You've just brought about my WRATH!" Ryu roared.

Ryu closed his eyes and then snapped them open, revealing red eyes and yellow pupils that made him look even more like a monster. Then, his whole body began to change. His neck shortened and his muscles strengthened until he bore surprising resemblance to a tyrannosaurus. His spikes lengthened and sharpened until they looked less like spikes and more like jagged blades. His arms lengthened in proportion to his body size until they were about half as long as his legs, which were more like T-rex feet. The spikes on Ryu's tail turned into razor-sharp blades the color of an amethyst and Ryu spread out his large wings, which were now blood red, and a blade came out of each of his wing joints. (Remember Godzilla from the American movie? Picture him but with wings and a blade-covered tail.) A low growl emanated from this abomination and then let loose a roar that would have quaked the earth itself.

"Whoa." Link said in amazement.

"Yikes!" Mario said.

"That is one FREAKY mutation!" Fox pointed out.

"I can hardly blame you." Sonic agreed.

Then, Ryu spoke for the first and last time in this form.

"Ultimate form or not, you must realize YOU ARE DOOMED!"

Link smirked.

"Let's see if your actions can back up your mouth, Ryu." He challenged.

Ryu, not really liking his own words used against him, let loose another bloodcurdling roar. Then, with a single flap of his wings, he charged.

All four of them scattered, causing Ryu to fly harmlessly past them. Sonic flew like a falcon and brought a huge sphere of energy into Ryu's body. This was the same sphere that brought death to Blue Firedrake. But when the sphere hit THIS GUY, it didn't even leave a scratch. Ryu's new scales were like body armor and, though it didn't hurt, he turned to see who would do such a thing. He raised his massive hand and swatted Sonic away like a fly. Sonic somersaulted through the air and Ryu was about to devour him when a blast of golden flame shot him right in the forehead. Mario's attack proved just about as successful as Sonic's and didn't even leave a trace of burning. Ryu flapped once with his mighty wings and created a massive gust that blew Mario back a good hundred feet. Ryu spun, without looking, and planted his blade-covered tail into Fox. Fox flew backward and caught himself in mid-fall as Link created an energy disc from his sword, which again proved unsuccessful. Ryu snapped at Link, only to see the agile Hylian shoot away like a golden bullet.

"Man! What does it take to beat this guy?!" Link cursed as he saw that his attack had absolutely no effect.

Ryu's plates suddenly began to glow a bright purple as his reptilian face turned into a malevolent grin. As he opened his mouth, out came a huge blast of energy with two smaller ones spiraling around it. Link quickly raced away and saw the blast hit the asteroid they were on just seconds ago. When the blast hit, it destroyed the whole space rock with an explosion greater than that of a meteor impact and created a new asteroid field. Link, Fox, Mario, and Sonic united this time and combined all their attacks to bombard Ryu. Sonic's energy sphere hit first, closely followed by Mario's golden flame. Then Link's Master Sword energy disc hit and Fox's energy wave topped it all off. When the energy rings hit when all others did, it created a massive explosion.

"No way he's gonna survive THAT!" Link said, determined to see this Dragonoid die.

"YES!" Mario cheered.

"As much as I hate to say it, that would have been TOO easy." Fox said, cautiously.

"Uh, Mario? Don't cheer just yet." Sonic said, pointing to the cloud.

As Mario looked, he found that his cheer was for nothing, because Ryu soared out of the cloud with a loud ROAR and swatted Mario, Fox, and Link with his tail. They all scattered through space and regained their balance just when Ryu flew toward them and had his arms raised to swat them, but Sonic quickly flew forward and collided with Ryu's nose. Ryu felt like he had received a punch there, but thanks to his thick scales, all the blow did was send him back a bit and jar him. He took care of the golden hedgehog by exhaling sharply through his nostrils. Sonic flew backward and Link went to meet him with a stab of the Master Sword that only resulted in clanging metal and impact sparks. Ryu turned sharply and backhanded Link with his mighty hand, sending the Hylian hero tumbling through space. Mario and Fox dove like falcons at him, hoping for some kind of injury to show. It didn't, seeing as Ryu simply withstood it without a scratch and blasted them with that same blast that destroyed the hunk of rock. Even in their super-forms, they still felt the pain of the blow and went spiraling backward. Link, suddenly seeing a situation, did the only thing he could when he was faced with a tough problem.

"Fall back!" Link shouted.

Sonic, Fox, and Mario shot a few strange looks at Link, but then saw Ryu gathering energy and quickly retreated, the blast missing their toes by inches. They zipped about and found some shelter behind an asteroid, but it wouldn't be long before Ryu sniffed them out, so they had to act fast.

"I don't know how to stop this guy. We've tried projectiles, physical attacks, and team attacks but we haven't even done the slightest amount of damage to him. How can we hurt him?" Link asked, angrily.

"I think I may know…" Sonic said.

"You do?" Mario asked.

"I didn't see any weak point." Fox pointed out.

"Ah, but you didn't look everywhere, did you?" Sonic asked.

"What do you mean? I checked every part of his body and every bit seems to be armor-plated in attack-resistant scales." Fox said, trying to make sense.

"What about the mouth? I saw the inside of his mouth when he almost blasted us and it's not armor-plated." Sonic answered.

Everyone nodded in approvement, but Link's hate for Ryu was fueling him to finish this himself. He held up his sword and Sonic went up to him.

"I'll get him." Link said, almost going out from behind the asteroid.

"No. Ryu's only going to open his mouth long enough for us to strike when he uses his energy blast. If we try, we'll have to be REALLY fast." Sonic pointed out, pulling Link back behind the asteroid.

"So, we'll have to MAKE him TRY and blast us." Fox said, answering the problem.

"Let's-a go, then! We have a universe to save!" Mario said, putting his fist up.

"For once, Mario," Link said with a slight grin, "I'm going to heed your words."

Link, Sonic, Fox, and Mario came out from behind the asteroid and saw Ryu, searching for them. He was still trying to sniff them out, so he didn't know their position. And they needed to let him know of their presence in order to attack, so they did the only thing they could.

"HEY! LIZARD LORD! OVER HERE!" They all shouted.

Ryu's red eyes looked to his right and then narrowed as he saw all four of them line up with Mario in the lead, Fox close behind, then Sonic, and finally Link following behind. Then, with a low, challenging roar, Ryu soared at them like an eagle after its prey. When he did this, the heroes knew that it was time to do or die. They just hoped that they would DO.

Mario prepared to send a golden fireball down Ryu's nose. However, Ryu simply blew him away with a single flap of his wings. But just as Mario tumbled away, Fox charged with his staff out. Ryu caught him with his tail and would have laughed if he could. He was about to blast the two he swatted with his ultimate energy blast when Sonic rushed up and caught him in the nose. Ryu grunted in surprise and snorted Sonic off just in time to close his jaws on the incoming Link, swallowing him whole. For everyone else, all hope had just faded and the universe was doomed.

"NOOOO!!!" Sonic, Mario, and Fox said all at once.

For one second, all was quiet save the echo of Sonic, Mario, and Fox's screams. Then suddenly, Ryu started screeching in pain and kept trying to pick something out of his mouth with his claws. When he opened his mouth, Sonic glimpsed Link standing on the dark dragon's tongue with his sword stuck up the beast's mouth. If this had been a normal sword, this wouldn't have done anything. However, since this was the Master Sword, and it had been combined with the powers of the Chaos Emeralds, its power was now much more powerful. Link was putting all his weight on his blade and then he got an idea. When he dug it in as deep as it would go, he unleashed a blast of energy that went right through the roof of Ryu's mouth, dribbling black blood everywhere. Ryu's screeches increased and his attempts to get Link out of his mouth increased.

"He can't do that alone!" Fox pointed out, seeing Ryu almost catch Link with his claws.

"You're right. We've got to help him!" Sonic said, putting his fist up.

"Y'know, Sonic, if we all die like this, I just want to tell you I've always admired your speed!" Mario said quickly.

"Wow, Mario, I didn't know you cared." Sonic pointed out.

Then, in a streak of several golden-orangish lights, they dove at Ryu like falcons.

Link continued to try and keep his sword in Ryu's mouth, but he wasn't doing a good job. Then, he heard a familiar voice.

"Link! WE'RE GOING TO BLAST RYU! GET OUT OF HIS MOUTH!" Sonic's voice shouted.

Link looked out of Ryu's mouth and saw his three friends coming to his rescue. What was he going to do? He didn't have time to fly out of Ryu's mouth before the blasts hit. However, he didn't have much time to consider it, because his friends were already gathering energy at a phenomenal rate.

Sonic, Fox, and Mario couldn't stop now. If they did, they would have to retreat because Link's assault wouldn't slow Ryu down one bit. And attacks at that magnitude would be enough to damage someone even if they were in their super form. Link didn't seem to worried and seemed to be gathering energy, but he wasn't using it. Then came the moment Sonic had been fearing; the energy stopped gathering. Without further hesitation, Sonic emitted the biggest energy orb he could summon. Fox produced the most powerful energy rings possible and Mario produced the hottest fire he could muster. Link, while in Ryu's mouth, saw the attacks coming for him and his mind raced with almost lightspeed. Then he thought that if Sonic could use Chaos Control, then maybe he could. However, he had to act almost immediately; possibly microseconds.

Just when Link got the idea, all three attacks hit Ryu's mouth and continued down his windpipe and into his lungs and other internal organs. Ryu felt his organs burn like a backfire of his own blast went down his own throat. Ryu roared in pain as he slowly changed back to his original, twenty-foot self, and began falling through space. Then, he began to speak in a very pained voice.

"NO! WHY IS THIS?! I AM THE ULTIMATE EXISTENCE! I'M DESTINED TO BE SUPREME RULER OF THIS UNIVERSE! I AM THE DRAGONOID KING! GRAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGHH!!!" Ryu cursed as he fell through the abyss.

Back in the other worlds, Dragonoids started to recieve unimaginable pain. In less than a second, they collapsed onto the ground and vanished in a puff of blood-red smoke. As most people looked up, the black hole, which was looked the size of a hurricane cloud, started to get smaller until it shrunk right out of existence. Several people stood there as clouds began to part, making way for the sun and the birds began to sing again. The heroes had won, but one person was missing…

Sonic just stood there, gazing at the dead Dragonoid falling through space. Fox and Mario flew over to him and put a hand on both of his shoulders. Fox, however, was the only one with something to say.

"He was very brave, Sonic. He gave his life for the universe and we have to honor that." Fox said, holding back tears.

"It's not that. It's just…I seem to be the one who killed him. I'll never forgive myself for this." Sonic said, in what could only be described as grief.

Then, there was an unnoticeable flash of green light and someone appeared behind Mario. This thing went over to Sonic and said three words.

"What's wrong, buddy?"

Sonic knew that voice and his eyes widened in surprise. Then, slowly, he turned around and saw Link right behind him, his red eyes sparkling like rubies. Sonic's own red eyes sparkled as his face broke into a smile that almost split his cheek line.

"LINK! H-How did you…" Sonic began, but Link answered before he even finished.

"I used Chaos Control to teleport before the attacks hit me. I knew you had to use your most powerful moves, so I had to stay put if you wanted a good hit on Ryu. What? Bad idea?" Link explained.

"You had us worried SICK, MISTER!" Mario said, poking Link in the chest with his finger.

Everyone shared a laugh at what Mario did and it lasted for just a few seconds. Then, after the laughing died down, Sonic knew what had to be done.

"Alright, guys. It's time to get us back to Hyrule. I believe we have friends there, waiting for us." The super hedgehog said.

"Yeah. I've been longing to see my world without the Dragonoids. Let's go." Link said, accepting Sonic's words.

"I don't see why not. I wouldn't mind seeing Hyrule one last time before the adventure's over." Mario said, shrugging.

"Of course, Link. And I believe we have more than a home waiting for us. We have family and friends. So, c'mon, Sonic. Let's get us back home." Fox said, agreeing.

"Alright, then. Everyone, circle around." Sonic said.

They did so as Sonic began to concentrate energy from his body. The golden hedgehog closed his eyes and then snapped them open as he shouted two words.

"CHAOS…CONTROL!"

In a flash of golden light, the war of the Dragonoids was over. Fifty thousand years of terror had finally come to an end…

VICTORY!!! SO LONG, RYU! HAVE A HAPPY AFTERLIFE!