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Chapter 20

Apes

Without wasting much time, the four of them immediately left the company of the dragonflies and headed to the base of the mountain. Now with their final destination in sight, Izrayl couldn't help but feel a bit jittery. He was nervous, and an odd feeling began to surface inside him as the mountain drew near. Eventually, they broke out of the forest, and into a clearing, with the base of the mountain a few feet in front of them.

"Okay, the tree branches aren't that thick here now, we can fly it up there," said Spyro.

"Let's do this then," said Cynder.

"Uh…guys…" said Izrayl.

"What is it?" asked Spyro.

He noticed that the ice dragon had a confused look on his face as he stared in front of them.

"What in the world…?" Sparx asked, turning his head, to see what had caught Izrayl's attention.

"Is that a…?" Cynder asked.

"That's…" said Spyro.

Coming out of the side of the forest, was an ape. And it wasn't just an ordinary ape. This ape was strikingly familiar. His appearance was disgusting; his body was hairy, and wart-covered. He was an enormous ape with one eye as a green shining jewel. Several scars run across his demented face, giving him the aura of a skilled fighter. He wore a purple, horned helmet that looks very similar to a Viking's helmet. He wielded a pair of scimitar swords and a long staff brimming with magic.

It was none other than the Ape King himself.

It was Gaul.

"…Gaul…" finished Cynder.

The ape chuckled, as he spun the scimitars in his furry hands, giving them a little sword show. He walked with prowess, his emerald jewel eye sparkling in the light. The three dragons and one dragonfly could only just stare at the completely unfathomable sight before them. Spyro's head was literally buzzing away with questions, most he couldn't answer himself. And he guessed that Cynder too was surprised as he was.

Both of them knew, and had seen for themselves, that Gaul had died back at the Well of Souls.

How was it that he was here?

How was it that he was even alive to begin with?

"Hello Spyro…" he said. "Missed me?" He grinned, showing them his pearly white ape teeth.

"Gaul? How are you alive?" asked Spyro.

"Does it matter?" he asked. "What matters, is now…"

He then growled, as his dual wielded scimitars began to glow a faint dark purple color, along with his staff, which now floated around him.

Spyro and Cynder both recognized the purple glow. It was Convexity.

"I can exact my revenge…" he smiled maliciously at them.

"Does this mean you're in charge of the apes?" asked Sparx.

"Of course you idiot! I'm the ape king!" he replied.

"Was he that mean even before? I don't know, because I wasn't there when you fought him," Sparx asked, whispering it to Izrayl.

Izrayl then glanced at him surprised. "How should I know? This is the first time I've seen this crazy ape!" Sparx blinked.

"Oh, right."

"You are not going to get anywhere near that crystal on my watch," he said.

"How do you know about that crystal?" asked Cynder. Gaul scoffed.

"I've said too much now; time for you to DIE!"

And with that, Gaul swung both of his scimitars to the ground, and it immediately let out a strong force of energy, heading straight at them. Spyro knew that if they got hit by this, it'll be very painful. Instinctively, everyone dodged out of the way. Spyro and Cynder dodged to the right whilst Izrayl and Sparx to the left. The convexity blast collided with the trees behind them, resulting into a medium sized explosion, crippling the trees in half.

"That's new," said Cynder, standing up.

"I'm guessing whoever brought him back to life charged him up," said Spyro.

"And we're only just getting started!" exclaimed Gaul.

Not letting the dragons get up, Gaul began to glow again, this time of a green faint color, as flames of the same color began to surround him.

"Let's see how you dragons like to get burned!"

"QUICK! RUN!" shouted Izrayl as he hastily stood up, grabbed Sparx out of the air, before running out of the way. Gaul didn't miss a beat, as he turned around and began to burn the area where Izrayl was earlier.

"You can run! But sooner or later, I will burn you!"

Izrayl panted and dodged out of the way as Gaul sprayed the flamethrower like fire at him. The heat was unbelievably hot. He couldn't even turn around and go on the offense, since he had him pinned down. Spyro and Cynder on the other hand were in the same position, running around Gaul in a circle, trying to avoid the green hot flames.

"Spyro, you go around the back! I'll try and distract him!" shouted Cynder, stopping in her tracks.

"Okay!" exclaimed Spyro.

Cynder jumped and dived out of the way as Gaul's stream of flames tried their best to hit her. Spyro did as well, and charged up an earth shot, before firing. The large boulder flew to the air, and was on a collision course on the distracted ape. However, it was stopped midway, by Gaul's floating staff.

"What the!" exclaimed Spyro, surprised to see the high speed boulder, stopped by the floating staff.

"If you think I'd go down that easily, you're wrong!" exclaimed Gaul, not even bothering to turn around.

Spyro now was left to stare as the staff began to glow and sent the boulder towards him. He was about to move, when he couldn't. He looked down in horror, to find his feet bound to the ground by roots magically summoned there by Gaul.

"You're not going anywhere!" exclaimed Gaul, laughing maniacally.

"SPYRO!" exclaimed Cynder in horror, as she saw the boulder heading towards the purple dragon. Spyro struggled, but the roots wouldn't budge.

"This is going to hurt..." he said to himself.

But before he could feel it, there was a loud crash, along with a thud. He opened his eyes, only to find a large mass headed straight at him. The two bodies collided, sending the two of them skidding across the forest floor.

Spyro groaned, opening his eyes to see who had saved him from the boulder.

It was Izrayl.

His body was lying limply beside him, his chest covered with cuts and a large bruise, no doubt from the boulder.

"Spyro!" He looked up, to see Sparx flying at him. "Is he okay! I tried to stop—oh my gosh!"

"You take care of him Sparx. We'll deal with Gaul," said Spyro, standing up.

"Okay!" replied Sparx, flying over to Izrayl's limp body.

Cynder on the other hand, dived left and right, trying to avoid Gaul's flames and his two floating scimitars that were both slashing dangerously in the air.

She couldn't keep this up. She already had gotten a cut across her chest that was bleeding freely, along with a part of her tail that was singed.

The fight was going south; in favour of Gaul.

The two scimitars floated back to their master, who was smiling gleefully.

"Say goodnight Cynder!" he shouted, before unleashing another convexity blast.

Cynder's eyes widened, as she saw the blast heading straight for her. She tried to dodge, but instead, she got caught in the splash explosion of it. Dust, dirt and rock exploded as her body skidded across the forest floor, coming to a halt at the side. She groaned, feeling the pain shoot across her body.

"Cynder!" exclaimed a voice. She looked to her side, to see Spyro running to her side.

"Are you okay!" he shouted.

"I'll live," she replied.

"Good," said Spyro, letting out a short relieved sigh.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to hit him with everything I've got."

Cynder realized what he was going to do. He was going to use Convexity on him. Spyro stood up, and accessed the power resting dormant within him. In a matter of moments, he was glowing purple, and he could feel the strong power coursing through him. Gaul, realizing what the purple dragon was going to do, charged himself up as well. He too began to glow purple, in the preparation for the strong attack. To try and aide him, he summoned a firewall, which created a thick black smoke, to try and conceal him.

Spyro was left with no choice. If he wanted his attack to connect, he needed to charge right at him.

Without even giving it much of a second thought, that was what he did. Cynder watched from the side as she saw the purple dragon charge straight into the thick black smoke. Within moments, there was huge explosion accompanied by a blast of light, blinding her completely. Dust was in the air, covering the battlefield.

A few moments later, the dust began to clear.

Cynder could see Spyro standing at the side, panting and looking tired completely. He was breathing heavily. The Convexity attack he must have done must have taken quite a toll on him. Plus the fact that his body was covered in cuts and bruises had something to say about it.

At the center of clearing however, was a medium sized crater. The explosion must have caused it.

Cynder stood up, tipping slightly as she felt a bit dazed.

"Spyro…are you okay?" she asked, walking over to him.

"I'm fine…" he said. "I forgot how much Convexity can take at you."

"Is he still alive…?" she asked.

The two of them cautiously walked to the side and peered down the crater. Shock and horror filled there eyes, as they both saw Gaul kneeling on the ground, coughing. He was alive, but was definitely wounded by the attack.

"I forgot how strong that attack was…" he said to himself, before looking up. He jumped out, and landed at the other side.

"Well, it was fun playing with you two, time for me to go," he said, before grinning at them again.

In a blink of an eye, he was suddenly engulfed in green flames, before disappearing into thin air.

"How it is…that he was still alive…?" said Spyro to himself.

"Let's figure that out later. Right now, we have to get ourselves patched up," said Cynder.

She walked over to the side, to find Izrayl's body no longer where it was resting earlier. Instead, it was a few feet near the crater. It must have been blown towards there by the shockwave.

"I agree…we have to head back. I think I need to get some rest," said Spyro shaking himself awake. Cynder looked up and saw that the sky was beginning to grow dark. The sky itself was slowly turning, from a shade of blue, to a shade of yellow, as sunset began to show signs.

Author's Notes:

Okay, for the sake of the argument this is my reason. For those of you wondering how the Dragonflies know about the dragons, it'll be explained in a future chapter.

Please take some time to R&R.

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