Well, Chapter 10 is here. I hope it's good because unlike the others, I didn't write this one out first. Anyways, hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.
Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana belongs to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.
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Chapter 10: All Hell Breaks Loose
Kain had Hanna help him stand, despite her protests, and she helped him walk to the door. Once there, she opened the door and Kain, being the stubborn person he was, refused to let her continue to aid him in walking. He did well, all things considering, but he still stumbled every now and then, Hanna staying at his side to make sure he didn't fall.
After a short while, they made it to the makeshift conference room where all the leaders except Kera and Jacy were arguing over their next move. Even Aingeru, who was normally very quiet in the meetings, was in on the dispute. The two of them entered and all of the leaders went silent and looked at them.
None of them were quite over the apparent resurrection of Hanna, and they looked at her with looks of slight shock. However, Kain had things that needed to be said and he wasn't sure how they would react when he told them.
"I know where Hanna was for the past five years," he said slowly, placing his hands down on the table both for support and dramatic effect, "or, I have a pretty good guess anyway. But that's only part of what I need to tell all of you. And believe me; the second part is much worse than the first."
"Tell us what you need to tell us, Kain," Aingeru said calmly, contrasting the shouting attitude he had earlier. The others nodded their agreement, with Smoke adding a small grunt.
"Hanna was…Merikh's prisoner. I got a glimpse into her memory and saw him through her eyes," he told them, all of them, Hanna included, widening their eyes in shock, "And even worse, I think he's sending his army here, soon."
"How long do you believe we have?" Acelan asked, his features shifting slightly as he spoke.
"Not very," he said, "I suggest warning every—"
Kain suddenly collapsed, Hanna quickly moving to catch him. She held him gingerly as she sat there on her knees. Everyone watched as she placed her palm on his forehead and closed her eyes. After a moment, she removed her hand and opened her eyes.
"He'll be fine," she told them, "but we may have even less time than we thought."
"What makes you say that?" Fera asked, eyes narrowing.
"Well, besides the giant fireball heading right for that window…?" she asked sarcastically. The others immediately turned around to see that the young blonde had been speaking the truth, there was indeed a fireball heading right for the boarded up window.
Marie attempted to use her control over the elements to make the fireball go out, but it was useless. Realizing this, Fera shifted into her dragon form and placed herself in front of the others just as the fireball smashed right through the boards. It collided with the dragoness and knocked her back several feet, but she skidded to a stop just in front of the ones she was protecting.
"Get Kain out of here and warn everyone," Smoke shouted as he readied the rifle he carried on his back, "Now!"
Hanna nodded quickly and picked up the unconscious man she had in her lap. She hurried out of the room to find that several fireballs had hit the building and everyone was trying to put out the fires before they spread. None of them noticed, as she did, the army of dark creatures heading towards the building.
"The fires are the least of our problems!" she shouted as she ran through the room, back to the infirmary to warn Jacy and Kera. However, as she was heading there, a giant grey-skinned troll smashed through the wall beside her and knocked her on her rear. She was frozen in terror as the beast let out a monstrous, blood-curdling roar.
Just before it charged, though, Kain's eyes opened and he ran at it with a black blade in his hand. He jumped and stabbed the troll right through the chin and the blade pierced all the way through its skull. It flailed for a few moments, Kain holding onto his blade tightly as it did, before it fell onto its back, dead. He pulled his sword out of its head and turned to look at Hanna with a grin on his face.
"C'mon, we've got work to do!" he said.
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Arana swung a paw at Cain's face, but the crimson dragon ducked under the swipe and head-butted her in the chest. She stumbled back, the wind knocked out of her slightly, but Cain didn't attack her while she was disoriented. Serenity quickly jumped off Cain's back and ran over to where Arcaein was chained up so she wouldn't be hit by any of the attacks. Arana recovered after a moment and launched a wave of shadow fire at him, but Cain countered it with his own fire. The two continued this for a few seconds before stopping.
"Why are you holding back?" Arana demanded angrily.
"Because I'm not trying to hurt you," he told her, "I'm trying to get through to you."
"You're a fool," she scoffed before she ran at him, preparing to release a glob of acid at him. Cain could see the green colored liquid dripping from her mouth, however, and dug deep to find an ability he swore to never use again.
His body was engulfed in flames until it seemed he was made of them. His eyes turned completely crimson with no other visible color and glowed malevolently. He waited for the black dragoness to reach him before he tackled her, causing her to accidently shoot her acid at the wall next to Arcaein.
Meanwhile, Mara had continued on with her ritual of summoning Ragnarok back to life, using the fight as a distraction. Nite and Fian noticed this, however, but were unable to get past the two brawling dragons. The midnight-blue dragon used his element to launch a blast of what looked like starlight at the cuffs that held Arcaein. He broke them, and then he fired a smaller burst at the dark crystal collar and broke it.
Now free, Arcaein charged at the High Priestess with white flames licking at his teeth. Just before he could attack her, though, a green dragon smashed through the wall beside him and tackled him. The two rolled for a moment before separating. Arcaein recognized the dragon as Gabriel, the dragon Mara had brought through earlier, by the crimson markings on his body.
Out of the hole that he had created, came other members of Death's Embrace with various weapons made of various elements. They prepared to spread out and attack, but Arcaein launched a blast of white fire at them, burning them to cinders. After he did so, Gabriel slammed into him, using the older dragon's distraction to his advantage.
Cain, back to normal now that he had exhausted his ability, and Arana were circling each other, both looking for an opening in the other's defense to exploit. Both had scratches, bite marks, and burns covering their bodies that made them weaker, but neither showed it to their foe.
"Stop holding back!" she commanded, "There's nothing for you to show me about myself that I don't already know!"
"That's a lie and we both know it," Cain told her, "You stayed by my side all that time, not because of the power I offered you, but because you wanted to save me. I intend to return the favor!"
"Shut up!" she yelled, rushing at him blindly. Cain quickly sidestepped her angered charge and hit her side. She fell off balance and Cain used this to flip her into her back and pin her. Neither one of them had any energy left to use their elements so she was only able to struggle uselessly.
Nite and Fian did their best to fend off the Death's Embrace members that attempted to get into the room through the doorway, but they were slowly being overwhelmed. Fian had to dispose of his bow as it was useless in close combat and switched to his blade and dagger. Nite used his apparent starlight element and clawed and snapped at the cloaked people. However, it wasn't long before the two felt fatigue begin to set in.
Fian had taken an arrow to his left shoulder and merely pulled it out and threw it at one of their foes faces, but the wound was causing him a great deal of pain and he could feel his reaction time slowing. Nite had several slashes from blades made of various elements and had numerous arrows stuck in his body. He, too, was weakening and knew that neither of them would last much longer.
Just then, twin blasts of fire and lighting mixed together hit the crowd of enemies and opened a way for two familiar, purple dragons to reach the elf and other dragon. Both of the dragons were fully refreshed and the adrenaline pumping through their bodies helped quite a lot.
"Spyro? And Malefor?" Fian asked, stunned, "What the hell is going on here!"
"Long story short, Malefor's good now and had a quick way to get us here while Deryx, Talea, Cynder, Annabelle, and Dex freed the Guardians and other Generals," Spyro explained quickly.
"And what of Nguyen?" the elf asked.
"He's dead," the younger purple dragon said softly.
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Blane awoke to the sounds of shouting and gunshots. He quickly jumped to his feet to find he was in the middle of an apparent warzone. He had no idea how long he'd been out, the last thing he remembered was Rurik knocking him out of Aidan's head saying that he'd handle it himself.
He looked around to see he was in a mall of sorts, surrounded by monsters of every shape and size. He reached for his sword to find it missing and cursed softly. He saw a rifle nearby and was thankful that his training with Jacy and Kera had involved how to handle guns. He dove for it just as a demonic looking creature tried to grab for him.
After he got his hands on it, he spun around and began to fire at the creature's face while on his back. The bullets tore the red monster's head apart and it fell to the ground. He felt a strong hand grab him and pull him to his feet. He looked back to see an older man in military clothing was the one that helped him up.
"You must be that Blane fellow that Jacy told us to be expecting," the man shouted, making himself heard as he began to shoot at several of the different creatures everywhere with his own rifle, "Get to shooting, we need every hand we can get."
"Got it," the half-dragon said before he too began to shoot. He had no idea how he'd gotten here, but he could only hope that Aaron and the other gladiators were alright. He slowly made his way through the crowd of enemies, heading away from the old soldier, in an attempt to get to a group of people that were struggling to keep the creatures at bay while they tried to protect a group of children.
Blane finally reached them just as his ammo ran out and he smashed the now-useless weapon into the head of one of the monsters. It broke the ugly, deformed troll's skull, but the weapon also shattered on impact. One of the people tossed him a hand gun and he nodded in thanks before turning around and beginning to shoot at one of the creatures, a beast that resembled a giant man with only one eye in the middle of its bald head.
It took nearly the entire clip before the Cyclops fell down, crushing several of the smaller monsters behind it. The same person who gave him the sidearm then tossed him several spare clips while another of the people gave him another pistol of the same type. He once again nodded in thanks just as several of the monsters were engulfed in flames. Afterwards, a woman with bright orange hair fell into his still outstretched arms.
"Thanks, handsome," she said, looking up at him with light-green eyes.
"Not a problem," he said, grinning. She kissed him on the cheek before jumping out of his arms, drawing two handguns of her own and opening fire on some of the remaining creatures. He was caught off-guard, but was brought back to reality quickly by the sight of a giant fist headed right for him.
He bent backwards under the punch, before grabbing the arm as the owner of it began to pull it back. He found himself face-to-face with a giant man with a bull's head. He didn't have long to take in its features, however, as it flailed its fist in an attempt to shake him loose. Reacting quickly, Blane let go and put both of his pistols in front of him and shot the beast-man in the chest.
It stumbled back before letting out a ferocious roar and charging at him just as he rolled on the ground and landed in a kneeling position. Blane saw the sharp horns headed in his direction and tried to shoot again, but both of his guns clicked with the sounds of empty clips. Growling in frustration, Blane ran at the beast. He willed his own horns to grow and collided with the Minotaur. As he was considerably smaller, Blane was able to hit it right between the beast's horns.
It roared in agony, lifting the half-dragon up off the ground as his horns were still stuck in the monster's head. It shook its head for a few moments before Blane was able to pull himself loose and brought his hand, after he had willed his claws and scales to grow, down right between the spot his horns had been moments before. Due to it being weaker in that spot, his hand went right through the skull and Blane pulled his arm out, finding it covered in dark red blood.
The Minotaur fell to the ground and Blane jumped off as it did, landing on his feet in a crouching position. The beast landed on its front, just inches from where he was. He stood up and grabbed one of the Minotaur's horns and broke it off near the tip but with enough for him to use it as a weapon.
He looked at the crowd of enemies still standing, grinning, and said, "Who's next?"
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Jacy and Kera jumped back as a giant creature that they recognized as a blue and green wyvern smashed through the wall of the room they were in. It skidded to a halt in the spot where they'd been moments before and let out what sounded like a cross between a hiss and a roar. The two quickly brought their hands to cover their ears in an instinctive response to the sound that berated against their eardrums.
It stopped after a moment and Jacy used the time to bring one of his elemental katana, this time an electric-yellow one with the word Energy inscribed on it. He swung it and an arc of yellow energy launched from the blade and collided with the wyvern, causing it to spasm as it sent thousands of watts of electricity through it.
Jacy and Kera used this time to escape the cramped room. They hurried out of the hallway and into the wide open space where the main battle was going on. The two could make out their friends and allies fighting against the monsters that obviously outnumbered them.
"How the hell did he find us?" Jacy shouted as he grabbed an abandoned rifle on the ground and tossed it to Kera who began to shoot at any of the creatures that tried to come behind them.
"I don't know, but at this point it doesn't matter," she responded, shooting a creature that resembled an Orc from Lord of the Rings right between the eyes.
"We've gotta find a way to get these damn things outta here!" Jacy told her, slashing through a monster that seemed to be entirely made of stone, "Or at least draw enough away that we stand more of a chance!"
"I've got an idea," Kera said suddenly, looking at the brown-haired man, "But we have to find my sister to do it!"
"Go find her!" he told her urgently, "I'll be fine here!"
"I'm not going to leave you here!" she yelled, shooting at another of the monsters as she spoke, "These things will tear you apart!"
"And they'll tear us both apart if you don't go try your plan!" he countered, making eye contact with her, "I'll be fine!"
"Fine," she relented reluctantly, "Just don't get yourself killed."
"As long as you don't either," he said humorously, smirking. She couldn't help but let out a small giggle at his attitude before she jumped into the air and shifted into her dragon form to look for her sister.
Jacy watched for a moment before he brought his last katana, one that was a mixture of green and brown with the word Life engraved on it. He brought both over his chest in an 'X' shape before scraping them together, creating a flurry of sparks. He stabbed the brown and green one into the ground and all of the beasts surrounding him found their feet covered with stone.
"Alone, each of these blades are powerful," Jacy said to no one in particular, "But when used with their opposite, they are even stronger."
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Merikh still sat in his room where the chessboard with models of people and creatures was. Hundreds of the monster figurines had been moved to surround the statuettes of about a hundred that represented the Survivors. He watched them closely as figurines on both sides were either knocked over or were crushed.
"The battle has only just begun," he said, chuckling darkly, "and this time, I will be victorious. Not even Jacy will be able to stop me!"
He let out an evil laugh that echoed throughout the building he was in, causing even his minions and followers to shiver with terror.
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That's chapter 10, hope you liked it.
I feel brain dead. I need to get outside more. Meh. I'm at the beach with a pool so, I'll decide which one I'll do.
Review 'cause I write better when I'm told people like me! Or when people tell me what I can improve on!