Time for a new chapter, the fight between Darkmire and the guardians. Exciting yet challenging to write in equal measure. I have a music choice for this chapter too, Darkmire goes through quite a variety of emotions in this chapter, and the song is best for when she is at the height of her arrogance: Oogie Boogie's Song, from Nightmare Before Christmas.
It's much more fun, I must confess, with lives on the line!
Not mine of course, but yours, old boy? Now that'd be just fine.
Story now!
Flare gazed at Darkmire from amidst the rubble and blasted ground of the city of Warfang, calm and graceful facing off against cruel and intimidating.
The black dragon raised her head and corrected her posture, her tail doing a mocking twirl to copy the movements made by Flare. She had been pushed irritatingly far, why, she had even been made to use her magic. She needed to recenter herself, clear her mind.
Unfortunately for her, however, Flare had no intention of giving her that chance.
The fire guardian raised a paw.
"Burn."
She clicked her fingers and Darkmire was consumed in a roaring pillar of fire, the heat from the flames making Volteer take a step back, while Flare and Cyril were able to remain in place watching the barely visible figure within the inferno falter and stagger briefly, before recovering.
After a few seconds Flare made a swiping motion and the flames cut out, revealing Darkmire still standing. On her black scales the burns did not show up very well, only her horns appeared to be scorched, but clearly it had hurt.
"Amazing, I've never seen mana saturation so high. You're going to be difficult to burn." Flare said. "But we fire dragons have ways around that."
She clicked her fingers again and instead of a pillar of fire the flames erupted in a crack like thunder, a much smaller but higher pressure fireball, more like the explosion of a grenade. This time Darkmire felt it, hissing in annoyance as her eyes and eardrums were assaulted, her scales cracking and blistering from the impacts.
Flare did it again, and again, stepping closer, the impact of the explosions growing stronger each time as Darkmire's defensive wing shield was battered aside.
Once Flare was close enough Darkmire blocked an explosion with a shield of wind and then sprang forwards, only for Flare to deftly slip under the grab, making Darkmire look clumsy by comparison. Before the black dragon could follow up the attack a pillar of stone slammed into her jaw from below with force that would have knocked out any ordinary dragon.
With a grunt of annoyance and surprise Darkmire stepped back, only for the ground to be missing under her feet, making her flinch to recover her balance, the flinch opened her up to a pillar slamming into her chest, making her gag and splutter as she was winded. Her head curved down, and a third pillar met her jaw once again with brutal efficiency.
Out of all the dragons present only Malefor was truly able to admire the tactics with which Terrador beat down Darkmire while never appearing on the surface to present a target. He predicted and disrupted her every step, putting stones into place like mousetraps before Darkmire had even realised where she was going to be, and used every movement she made against her, never allowing her into the air nor to get a moment of time to think and plan.
Rocks shifted and spread, and Darkmire found herself dragged down into the ground on a mixture of quicksand and crumbling unstable dirt, while being relentlessly hit with stabbing and crushing pillars of stone. Flare stood over her with a merciless gaze and once again clicked her fingers, adding on even more pressure with explosions like flashbangs that blinded, deafened, and concussed the black dragon.
This was simply unacceptable. Darkmire used a vice of wind to trap her head in place, then unscrambled her brain with a spark of purple magic.
"That's enough!"
Her voice crackled with fear magic, the red element shooting outwards and slamming into all five guardian dragons, along with Malefor and Ignitus. Among them all Cyril and Flare shrugged off the effects within a few seconds, but the others were left wide eyed, gasping, their focus on their magic disrupted. Ignitus had been affected the worst, hitting the ground with a grunt as his muscles locked up, his eyes glazing over.
Darkmire ripped her way out of the ground, and this time when Flare snapped Darkmire caught the explosion in a bubble of wind and then launched it towards Volteer, blasting the struggling lightning dragon off his feet while Flare frantically cancelled as much of the blast as she could.
Darkmire's vision went black, and as soon as she realised her eyes had been impaled by shards of ice the shards grew and ruptured inside her skull, destroying her brain.
"If there's one thing Imperia does better than yourselves it's killer instinct."
Cyril said, rearing up on his hind legs and creating an ice storm designed to obliterate even Darkmire's unnaturally durable body into pieces.
Before he could finish his attack the body of Darkmire lurched upwards without using its limbs, moving like some horrible puppet as it darted towards Cyril without even looking at him, the paw catching him by the throat before he could react.
"Also she dodges better than you."
Darkmire cackled as the sparks regenerated her again.
Her fingers were like a vice, like being caught in the advancing grip of a glacier. Cyril clawed at her wrist for a moment, then increased his assault of ice spikes harder than ever, but Darkmire radiated cold, using her own ice element to neutralise his attacks.
"Oh no, you're not taking this away from me, none of you!"
She snarled, a wave of sticky shadows like glue splattering against Imperia as the silver dragoness swooped down to try and help, sending her tumbling to the ground, trying to wipe the tar like substance off herself.
A blade of fire appeared in Flare's paws and she darted forwards, lashing across Darkmire's chest and then trying to cut off the hand which held Cyril, she deflected ice, then wind, and then she was in range and the sword left deep scratches on Darkmire's red underbody as the black dragon was forced to rapidly step back, only to feel the earth shift under her feet.
Taking advantage of the moment of distraction Flare cut Imperia free of the shadow bindings, then threw her sword at Darkmire, slamming into her chest and punching through the scales several centimeters, a blow that would have impaled a less powerful dragon.
"No, no no! You will watch this!"
Darkmire roared, blasting into the air with a pulse of wind magic, her grip on Cyril only tightening.
"Your first death is here, Ice guardian!"
She put her other hand on Cyril and twisted, and horrible cracking sounds filled the air, while Darkmire stared down at the others, watching in malicious glee as Flare's eyes blazed white hot with anger, Volteer cried out in horror, and Imperia screamed up at her with rage.
Before any of them could act Terrador surged out of the ground on a massive wave of stones, letting lose an echoing bellow of fury, an enormous clawed hand of earth reaching for Darkmire, while the limp body of Cyril was gently brought down to the ground and laid there, head twisted at an unnatural angle.
Darkmire rose higher, laughing mockingly, before Imperia appeared above her and slammed her down into the stones which wrapped around her.
The dark dragon used wind magic to remain in the air, even as Terrador rose towards her with metal looking stone clad around his fists, beginning to throw punches supported by stone and dirt, and Imperia remained above trying to push Darkmire downwards, the two of them together barely able to keep her in place.
Even higher in the sky above Spyro was standing in the upside down surface of the Warfang colosseum, suspended above where the fight below could easily be viewed. However Spyro only had eyes for Cynder, who was floating beside him with a red tendril of magic coming from her mouth and going into the skull of the real Darkmire, the frail and malnourished creature with ragged horns, who was protecting herself in a bubble of shadow, eyes glowing so brightly with fear magic they were visible through her closed eyelids, reduced to little more than a living battery for the dream version of Darkmire in her fighting prime who was below.
Cynder's expression was relatively peaceful, but as he watched Spyro saw a slight vicious smirk appear on her lips, and he knew she was about to hurt Darkmire.
The red tendril became a lance and slammed into Darkmire's head, making her scream and thrash around, the shadow bubble breaking, and the magic keeping the gigantic stone structure in the air vanishing. Spyro found himself shoved against the sand, the ground beginning to approach, first slowly, then rapidly, and Darkmire continued to scream.
Spyro grabbed Cynder, seeing her emerald eyes flick open as she took a moment to process where she was, Spyro created a ball of earth around them to protect them from the impact that was coming.
The dream version of Darkmire flicked blood from her claws into Imperia's face, laughing mockingly, then faltered as she felt the dream warp and weaken, the sensation tugging on her mind, suddenly she felt like she couldnt breathe. Imperia and Terrador were similarly effected, but before any of them could act the falling colosseum slammed into them and then crashed to the ground in the middle of the city.
Stone groaned in protest before crumbling, dust and sand bursting out from the collapsing structure as it impacted the earth.
Malefor blocked shattered stones with a shield of ice, protecting himself, Ignitus and Volteer.
"I think its time I enter the fray, our target is present." He said, striding forwards into the cloud of dust.
"Ohhhhh Cynder. Cyndy Cyndy Cynder."
Darkmire's voice grated out, a wing bursting out from under the rubble, the battered black dragoness dragging herself to her feet.
"So this is where you were creeping off to. Now where is she?"
Shadow oozed up around the stones and began to throw them aside as the dream Darkmire dug for her real body, then grinned as a tide of darkness pulled the fragile and skeletal form of her real self close and deposited the barely conscious figure at her feet.
"That's one black dragoness, now where-"
A pebble slammed into Darkmire's eye with enough force to turn the pebble into dust, a purple spark correcting the damage as Darkmire jolted back and rubbed her face.
"Hurts doesn't it, bitch." Cynder growled, Spyro dusting himself off beside her, compared to Darkmire both were looking relatively unharmed.
"Oh I'm going to show you the meaning of-"
Her voice was cut off with a strangled gagging sound as Imperia punched her in the throat, then zipped up into the air. Terrador reached out with stone and grabbed her, yanking her head down by the horns and trying to bury her.
Darkmire resisted with a pulse of wind magic, but the magic was weaker than she expected, and she hissed in annoyance when she realised Malefor was approaching and reaching out to disrupt her control. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Imperia reach the apex of her arc and begin to dive back down, building up momentum for a powerful hit.
She gave them a snarl of challenge, bracing herself, then reaching up and stopping Imperia's dive with a single finger.
For a moment everything was perfectly still, the kinetic energy rippling down Darkmire's arm as she stole it from the silver dragoness.
"I knew you were going do that."
Imperia purred, then hit darkmire in the elbow and eye with two quick jabs. The black dragoness hissed and the power she was stealing escaped her control, the hiss turning into a screech of pain as her forearm snapped itself into pieces.
"Harder than it looks, right?"
Imperia snickered.
"Enough out of you!"
Darkmire screeched, and a spear of shadow slammed into Imperia's chest, then retracted, dripping blood.
"Not again…"
Imperia whispered, grabbing her chest and looking down at the blood in her paws.
"Imperia!" Malefor dashed towards her, but Darkmire grabbed him.
"Well well well, look who got distracted!"
She laughed.
"Enjoy her last moments now. And don't squirm."
With a claw she cut Malefor's spine, forcing Malefor to heal himself.
"Don't save me."
Imperia said softly to him, then turned and in a graceful leap she landed beside Cynder.
"Imperia?" Cynder said.
"Hey Cyn, stabbed in the heart again. Tell the real me to be more careful, okay?"
"I can heal you!" Spyro said, reaching out.
"No." Imperia said firmly. "Save your strength. I have a bit of time left, if you're lucky you may be able to end the dream before I even die, and in that case did I really die at all, right?"
She gave them a pained grin.
"Remember I love you both, I never set out with the intent of sacrificing my life for you two, I want to live a long and comfortable life, but I'd never regret it either. I'm a lucky lady, getting to sacrifice myself for you twice."
"I love you too." Cynder said, brushing away some tears. "You're a real Imperia to me."
"Oh stop it you, you're making me feel guilty about refusing healing."
"Then don't!" Spyro said desperately. "Let me heal you, please!"
"Your healing isn't as efficient as Malefors, it would drain you too much, and if you heal me then Darkmire will make you pay. This is her weakness, remember?"
"Right…" Spyro said softly. "Well I love you as well, Imperia."
The silver dragoness blew them a kiss, and then she was gone.
Darkmire watched Imperia come with a sneer, but then her eyes widened in surprise as instead of going for Malefor she grabbed the weakly stirring real Darkmire and in a deft movement launched her straight towards Cynder.
Darkmire threw Malefor aside and beat her wings, intending to fly towards Spyro and Cynder, but Imperia met her in the air and sent them both tumbling to the ground in a flurry of claws and wings.
Malefor rose to his feet, rubbing his throat and shivering as he tried to come to terms with the damage he'd just suffered.
"Look at you and your fucking hero moment! Ruining a good death!"
Darkmire screeched angrily, trying to clamp her jaws around Imperia's head, only for the silver dragoness to flick blood in her eyes and once again pummel her into the ground with super speed.
"All of you shut up and sit down!"
Imperia was unable to laugh, although she would have liked to, the world was growing fuzzy for her but she continued the beatdown with even more frantic speed than ever. She had no reason to hold any mana back for self preservation now, and she found herself reaching speeds she had only ever been able to reach during solitary practice before, it was exhilarating.
As soon as Darkmire got a moment to think she tried to shield herself in shadows, but a bolt of lightning slammed into her and Volteer stepped up beside his mate, sharing a simple glance into her eyes and nodding.
A glowing white hot Flare tackled Darkmire from behind, blazing so hot that even through Darkmire's defences she was being burned on contact.
Cynder knelt down beside the body of the real Darkmire.
"Naptime is over now."
She dug her claws into the skull of the other dragon, and listened as both versions of Darkmire began to scream.
The dream split, the sky turning red, stones melting and flowing like water.
She opened her eyes in the real world and saw for a moment the purple sky of convexity, the bubble, Darkmire floating above them. She beat her wings once, dragging them slowly and clumsily down to send herself drifting towards Darkmire's body.
"No! nonononononoNO!"
Dream Darkmire's power exploded with the force of a bomb, a wind sphere made of thousands of razor blades starting from her body and spreading out, obliterating the ground and everything it touched.
Within the sphere Flare glowed like a star, blazing brighter and brighter with every second until it was impossible to look directly at what was going on.
Imperia created a wind shield, but the attack ripped through it along with her body. She was hurled away to land draped carelessly along the ground, chest and forelimbs a mess of blood, no life in her bright blue eyes.
Flare remained in the full force of the blast, still holding Darkmire in a strangling grip, but as the explosion faded the fire dragoness swayed in place, her flame fading and going out, slowly, slowly she fell to one knee, then to the ground, her gaze never leaving Darkmires, never losing it's defiance until she too was laying on the ground lifelessly.
Terrador had dived into the earth, and he emerged from the ground battered and bleeding, one of his wings shattered and hanging limp at his side, even his normal composure was broken, his eyes wide with shock and horror at the incredible amount of power and what it had done to his friends.
The body of the real Darkmire was wrapped in a purple tendril of energy, snatched away from Cynder and pulled back into the clutches of her dream self, panting and snarling like a feral animal.
"Too close, too close. You thought I wouldn't get serious!? You fucking thought I wouldn't get serious! WELL NOW I'M SERIOUS!"
She gazed at Cynder with a furious look in her yellow eyes.
"You thought I wouldn't notice just because your friend was dying, you thought wrong. Now give me your mind, I'm sick of you and your little red clouds fucking around in my skull!"
Darkmire lashed out and a hammer of fear magic the size of a mountain slammed down on Cynder and Spyro, catching every other dragon there and sending them to the ground. Cynder's mind was beaten and hammered, she had felt something resembling this before, when the real Darkmire had decided Cynder was probing too deep into her mind and thrown her out, but where that wave had merely clipped Cynder with a glancing blow this was a direct hit.
All of Cynder's mental shields were torn away from her, and her mind was laid bare. Darkmire wasting no time in ripping information out.
"Oh whats this? We have to stop her in this dream, if she's allowed to exist for too long she may escape into the real world!? So I can reduce the real body into nothing but a vessel through which I can live in your world forever? No need to breathe or sleep, no Pleasure lingering in my mind like a disease? Bet you didn't want me to know that."
"What did you say?" The real Darkmire rose to her feet on shaky legs. "I created you to be my-"
"Oh shut up you loser." Dream Darkmire clicked her fingers and laughed as her real body was frozen solid in a golden crystal. "Dream on that for a while. Get on with making my real world manifestation already. Idiot."
Her eyes locked back on Cynder, a new look of triumph in her eyes. She breathed in deeply, then out again, calming herself, giving Cynder a crooked smirk.
"Wasn't that just a magical fact to know? Aww, you look so sad, did I find out a little secret? I wonder what else you're hiding from me?"
"No!"
Cynder screamed, throwing up defenses again as the red magic crashed down on her again, but she might as well have been using wind shields on the element for all the difference it made, magic slammed into her mind again, driving her to the ground to crawl on her belly as Darkmire yanked another one of their precious aces out of her mind.
"Oh my, you mean we have the ability to stop time and you never told me!?"
Darkmire cackled.
"Lets test that out real quick. Oh Terrador, oh Volteer!"
Cynder, Spyro, Malefor and Ignitus were all dragon time users and they felt Darkmire focus and attempt to assert her dragon time control over the world. For a moment things slowed, the sky flickered purple, but then with an irritated grunt Darkmire let it drop.
"That's going to take some more practice, aren't you all lucky? Go ahead and try it on me yourselves though, I saw in Cynders mind that if you use your own there is a chance my abilities will spark to life out of instinct. I don't need this trick really, but I'm sure it has interesting uses for inflicting suffering which I'll discover later. Lets get the first deaths of these two out of the way shall we?"
Volteer and Terrador were still on the ground, the radiation from Darkmire's fear attack slowing their reactions. Despite that, and his injuries, Terrador threw up a wall of earth and then dragged Volteer underground with him.
"Aww, no need to run. More like no point in running!"
Darkmire laughed and reached out, shadows surging from her to make a gigantic clawed hand which carved out a huge section of earth and lifted it up, thousands of tons of rock ripped out of the ground and raised up with ease. Once she had lifted it high enough Darkmire flicked her wrist and the earth blew apart, revealing Terrador and Volteer inside.
Darkmire raised two clawed fingers and speared both Terrador and Volteer in the chest with shadows, then made a brushing aside motion and hurled them away. Spyro closed his eyes and looked away as the bodies hit the ground.
"And that's the end of the guardians. How ignominious really. Aside from Flare they all kind of died with a whimper rather than a blaze of glory, huh?"
"They're braver than you'll ever be." Cynder said coldly, looking over at Ignitus who was looking haunted even though he knew the real guardians were, for now, safe and well. Even from a distance they could smell the blood still sticking to Darkmire's shadow blades.
"Your words sound a bit hollow there, dear little Cynder, sit quietly and behave yourself now, before I squeeze some more information out of your juicy brain."
Darkmire spread her wings, and black clouds formed in the sky above them, a thoughtful expression crossed her face and she pointed upwards.
"I need to stretch properly."
Her other three feet dug their claws into the ground, and she pointed a long narrow finger up at the moon hanging on the horizon.
She curled her finger like a hook and then locked her arm out as if pulling on a vast weight. The amount of mana she radiated increased sharply, shadow magic energy so intense it was hard to breathe.
The night sky seemed to reach out and wrap tendrils around the moon, and Darkmire pulled, gritting her teeth with effort, muscles and veins standing out on her arm as she hissed with effort. Inch by inch the moon began to rise, barely perceptible at first before crawling across the sky as Darkmire grinned in triumph.
Cynder and the others all felt gravity shifting around them, like the whole world ever so gently tilting as the massive celestial body moved faster than it ever naturally should have. In the world outside Warfang tides were reversing, crashing against each other and starting the first ripples of tsunamis which would last for weeks.
"That's… Impossible." Malefor whispered, eyes wide. "This has to be a dream trick. Cynder?"
Cynder shook her head. She didn't understand the full nature of the dream, but there wasn't a scrap of fear magic being used to create an illusion, Darkmire was moving the moon with shadow alone, and the scale and weight were accurate to the real world, or at least to their best knowledge of the real world. What Darkmire was doing here and now was legitimately within her powers.
Twilight fell on the world as the moon crept in front of the sun, and Darkmire raised both forelegs, sinking all her claws into the air, the ground beneath them rumbling as Darkmire fought to stop the momentum she had created, every fibre of her body straining with effort before the moon gradually stopped, ringed by fire, a dull grey sphere unlike it's usual green hue, hanging ominously in the air now and casting a shadow over Warfang and much of the rest of the world.
Darkmire returned to all fours, shaking her legs and panting slightly, before grinning up at them all mockingly.
"Much better now. Oh, and do you want to know the best part? My mana pool didn't even feel that. I could do it again, a dozen times, a thousand times. How would you like to be crushed by a moon? After I take a moment for my body to recover I'll make it happen. But while we wait I'm sure there are some more secrets for me to take."
She swept a paw towards them.
"Now kneel."
A wave of fear magic drove them back to the ground, before homing in on Cynder and once again raking over her mind.
"Oh how much you hate this, it's delicious. The violation of your mind being unthreaded by a superior force. All the horrible memories it brings up for you. The things you swore would never happen to you again. What information do you have for me this time?"
Darkmire's head tilted curiously.
"A Dragonslayer? A spear designed to kill dragons both in magic and body, to cut through all healing ability. And in the real world its in your possession. In the dream it would be in Imperia's, a pity she never got the chance to use it. I'm sure I have no need of such a thing, but I'll take it just because I want it."
Spyro gritted his teeth in anger, despite being on the ground right near Cynder and taking nearly as much of the impact from the red element as Cynder was taking he somehow found it within himself to begin dragging himself to his feet.
"Guess… we're all out… of secrets then…"
He spread his wings protectively in front of Cynder, trying to block the fear magic from reaching her.
"How sweet. Of course you know that the hate element pierces flesh like its not even there."
Darkmire laughed, before gesturing to him in invitation.
"But please, continue, by all means."
Spyro shook his head, his body was clumsy and not responding very well to him, but his magic was alert and ready.
Even as he had the thoughts though he could feel Darkmire pulling information out of his mind, unlike the violent assault she performed against Cynder his mind was relatively undefended and so she was simply reading everything he thought. He had to avoid thinking about things like Malefor being weaker in physical combat than he was in magical, although it was hard to avoid thinking about that when he was in the same state at the moment.
But at all costs he had to avoid thinking about Cynder communicating with Pleasure, and their plan for Ignitus to turn her into-
He narrowed his eyes.
"You nearly had me there. That's very sly."
"So Malefor has low capabilities in melee combat and panics when put under pressure? Good to know, good to know."
Darkmire snickered.
He should just give it up, he would slip up eventually, and tell her about their plan to-
No, focus on Cynder, he had to give her time to recover. He reached out, feeling the earth below his feet, nothing compared to the moon that Darkmire had moved, and they both knew it, but it was still his most likely element for keeping her busy.
Darkmire tilted her head and grinned, her level of magic spiking massively. Just like when she had moved the moon her mana radiated from her like a physical force, blazing so intensely that it felt like nothing could survive in its presence. The energy turned cold, leeching heat from the air.
Darkmire raised her foot and then stomped the ground, a pulse ran through the earth and ice magic froze it solid, hard as iron, near impossible for him to move. How much had she frozen? He couldn't feel an end to it for multiple miles in any direction, maybe the entire world. The temperature began to drop slightly, no longer from any direct action of Darkmire, but purely from the now icy cold ground leeching heat out of the air.
Darkmire flicked some dirt off her claw arrogantly, once again not having felt any drain from the godlike feat she had just performed. Her body, however, was suffering from channelling these amounts of energy without proper practice, a trickle of blood ran from her nose before she licked it away. Each time she would recover faster and faster. He had to fight her if they wanted their plan to-
He forced himself to stop, noticing how her eyes had shifted sneakily in his direction. Her mental manipulations were as strong as ever.
After a moment him of resisting the urge to think about anything Darkmire frowned in annoyance.
"I can still rip it out of any of you directly. Hurry up and attack, before I get bored. Maybe I shall take it straight from Ignitus, although I don't think he'd survive the extraction, and where would your little plan be then?"
She gestured to the devastated landscape around them.
"With a single strike I've just rendered this space rock uninhabitable to all but ice and fire dragons, and condemned them to starve on it or eat their dead friends and each other. Don't you see? You've failed. If I want your kind dead then I can just do this any time I choose. The only reason any of you are alive is that your struggles are entertaining and you cant feel pain when you're dead. For your sakes you'd better keep entertaining me."
"We weren't about to stop. I'll never stop fighting you, no matter what you do. If fighting you is to be my destiny then so be it."
Spyro said with a defiant growl.
"And if I'm going to lose I'll lose with dignity."
Darkmire laughed, opening her mouth to make a mocking response, but a flash of movement made Spyro look past her. Silver scales gleaming, a beat of her wings took Imperia into the sky, aiming the point of the Dragonslayer at Darkmire's head.
Darkmire sensed the movement and half turned, but Imperia was already diving, wings swept and tucked like a bird of prey. Darkmires eyes widened and she jerked aside, contorting her head barely out of the way of the blade. Imperia changed her aim, the spear slamming into Darkmire's chest and embedding up to the crossguard.
Darkmire made a sound of pain, grabbing at the spear, briefly stunned.
Imperia twisted with her paws, slamming Darkmire into the ground, then ripped the spear out with an ulgy wet sound, blood covering the blade.
"Suprise, I'm back again, and this time I'm unkillable."
Imperia stepped over the fallen black dragoness, aiming the spear at Darkmire skull and bracing it with a foot, then stomping down with it.
For a moment they all felt a moment of optimism, but Darkmires hand grabbed the crossguard of the spear, halting it milimeters before it peirced her scales.
There was a moment of contest, Darkmires muscles straining, hard as steel cables, fighting Imperia's magic, momentum and gravity. But then, inch by inch, Darkmire began to push it back up.
This chapter mostly flowed really well to write, even with a ton of powers and dragons involved. Sadly Volteer didn't really get a chance to do as much as the others, but overall I'm still happy with how it went. Every now and then I was challenged by different parts, like deciding what Spyro would say when he is trying to buy time for Cynder without really having a plan, and while dealing with the knowledge that they might be going to lose.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! As always I very much appreciate the read and I would appreciate a review.
Until next time.
-4Dragons