A few days passed, and Ma'vhelma had been pretty impressed with Spyro's progress. She was very happy that he had learned how to find his fire aura on his own, and had also got him involved in more intense combat training, pitting him against magma trolls so he can practice using his anger and adrenaline in a controlled way to effectively use his fire element. He struggled to start with, but as usual, he had improved significantly.
Today, Spyro was trying to put into practice a new move he had learned two days ago. It was a super volatile move, called the bomb sprint. It had a similar concept to the comet dash yet again, however involved leaving a trail of fire magic behind the user as they run; this is a very concentrated trail and doesn't use up a lot of energy. It is also specifically fire magic, so it appears more like a glowing orange streak rather than fire, as it does not burn. Then, the user can use the remaining energy they have within them to send out a massive burst of energy running along the streak of fire magic, acting much like a fuse. Several massive explosions are sent running down the streak of magic, and can prove to be very devastating and dangerous.
Spyro had taken the whole day to learn it, but Ma'vhelma was very impressed when he did. However, she was worried for this moment, where she would proceed to ask him to use it in battle with a squad of magma trolls.
The purple dragon took a battle stance as he watched Ma'vhelma summon the magma trolls. Five of them all began to step out of the deep magma in front of him, moving ominously towards him. Spyro leapt out of the way as one of them spat a large glob of lava at him, and he narrowly missed the splash of lava that went everywhere.
Spyro then proceeded to rush towards the magma troll, grabbing it by its throat with his jaws as he soared past it, before turning around and hurling it at another one, knocking them both to the ground. A third magma troll rushed at Spyro to knock him out of the air, but he whirled around and delivered a swift kick to its face.
Landing firmly, Spyro curled his claws into the rock surface, bracing as the last two magma trolls rushed towards him, eyes burning brightly. He swiftly dodged them, their attacks hitting thin air. The other three magma trolls had recovered by this point, and had stood up ready to aid in their attack.
By now, it was time to attempt using the bomb sprint. He lowered himself to the ground, ready to burst into motion. He collected his fire energy within him, much like he would with the comet dash and fire aura. He had done this before; it wasn't that hard. He would be fine.
Spyro broke into a sprint, weaving between the five magma trolls, leaving the orange streak of fire magic behind him. He got up to the fourth magma troll before it caught him off guard, knocking him off balance and sending him crashing to the ground. He lost his hold on his magic and the orange streak dissipated behind him.
The magma troll landed a good few blows on him, and was joined by two more. He kicked them all off him, but before he could get up, he noticed another one in the distance spit another glob of lava at him. He reached out with his paws towards the lavaball, feeling the heat of it growing ever closer to him. He managed to stop its movement in midair, before he threw it back at the magma troll. It didn't do much since magma trolls were made of molten rock and pretty much immune to fire, but it did get knocked to the ground due to the force of the large lavaball smashing into it.
Spyro turned and saw one of the magma trolls he had kicked off him was standing up again, rushing towards him to deliver another blow to his face. Adrenaline rushed through him, and he rolled sideways to avoid the attack, before rushing to his paws and breaking into a sprint again, attempting the bomb sprint once more.
As he ran, he looked behind him to see what the magma trolls were doing. He completely forgot about the fifth one, which was getting ever closer to him as he sprinted in its direction. When he whirled his head around to look in front of him, he was greeted by the magma troll shooting towards him.
Abandoning focus and letting adrenaline take control of him, he released the rest of his energy all in one wild blow. The fuse detonated, and an explosion way bigger than Spyro had intended went off, sending him and the magma trolls flying. The Magma Crypt rumbled with the shockwave from the bomb sprint.
When the smoke cleared, Spyro lay on the ground, wincing in pain as burns covered his body. Most of them weren't too bad, but he had some pretty serious ones on his legs and wings.
Spyro looked around, noticing the five magma trolls limping back into the lava pool below Ma'vhelma. He looked up at Ma'vhelma, who looked down at him with disappointment.
"By the ancestors, Spyro, focus!" she scolded.
"What was I supposed to do?!" Spyro grunted as he slowly stood up. "Adrenaline runs high in fights like these!"
"Let the adrenaline fuel you, don't let it control you! Adrenaline isn't bad but when it makes you lose control of your elements and put you and your allies in harm's way, then it becomes a problem!"
"Ma'vhelma… I'm sorry," Spyro coughed. "I'm really trying, I promise!"
Spyro hobbled over to his satchel, which he placed towards the entrance of the Magma Crypt, taking out a few red and green gems and breaking them over his body to heal him and replenish his mana. He could still feel the pain somewhat, but the majority of his burns were gone.
"Please let me try again," Spyro pleaded.
Ma'vhelma blinked, before sighing. "Okay, one more go. If you can't get it today, we're done for the day. The last thing I want is to put you in harm's way of your own element," she said.
Spyro nodded. "Okay, I understand."
With that, the five magma trolls made their way out of the lava pool once more, and Spyro adapted a low battle stance to prepare for their attack. The magma trolls all lunged towards the purple dragon, who stepped backwards as they advanced on him, blocking and dodging attacks. He sent a few punches back at them, and even caught a lavaball in his paws before hurling it back at the group of magma trolls, scattering three of them as they fell to the ground, thick lava covering them.
The other two lunged at him to knock him to the ground. He dodged one of them, but the other was able to latch onto him. Spyro thrashed about for a bit, managing to throw the magma troll off him pretty quickly.
While the magma trolls were all down, Spyro took this time to attempt the bomb sprint once more. He felt the fire energy building up inside him, and then burst into a sprint, letting the energy run out of his body in an orange streak behind him.
Two of the magma trolls managed to stand back up, but Spyro was able to leap up into the air, grab one of them and then hurl it into the second one, knocking both into the ground. Then he continued running, making his way around to the other three, which had also just stood back up. Spyro dodged the swipes for the first two, weaving his way between them, but the third one caught him off guard.
The third magma troll managed to swipe Spyro's legs out from underneath him, sending him falling forwards as he rolled onto the ground. The shock from the blow and the heavy impact made his focus slip, and the energy was let out again.
With another large detonation, the streak let out a massive explosion. Spyro ended up burned from it again, even worse than the first time. Going to his satchel for red gems didn't even heal himself up fully.
"Spyro, go back to Manzithot. We're done for today," Ma'vhelma deadpanned.
Spyro's heart sank. He was hoping not to receive a similar outcome but things didn't turn out how he had hoped. "Please Ma'vhelma, give me one more try! I know I can do this!" Spyro cried.
"No. You're not ready today, and you need rest. I refuse to hurt a pupil where I can avoid it. If you want to practice the move on your own later, you can, but I'm not putting you through another simulation today. Get to know the bomb sprint, so you don't have to think as hard on it as you do now. It feels like you're relying on thinking about it that the moment you get hit or something unexpected happens, everything falls through and the whole fuse detonates."
He hung his head low. Spyro knew she was right, but he didn't want to admit it. He hated feeling like he couldn't do something; he was the purple dragon after all, he was supposed to know anything. Even more so now that he was destined to be the Grand Elemental Master.
"I feel like a failure," he murmured.
"It's just another challenge to work on," Ma'vhelma said. "You will have plenty of these throughout your time learning to be the Grand Elemental Master, many of them outside fire. Every element will have moments like these. You just need to get to know the element, learn it well, pay attention, and keep in touch with the elemental energy inside you. The moment you lose your grasp on that, you are no longer in control of your element."
Spyro just nodded. He murmured a quiet 'thank you', before he stood and left, grabbing his satchel and holding it firmly.
Throughout the walk back, Spyro thought real hard on what Ma'vhelma had said. Every element was going to have a moment like this, where he had to keep connected to the elemental energy so precisely that any slight loss of focus could cause it to blow up. That scared him. Sure Ma'vhelma said it would get easier with time the more he becomes familiar with the elemental energy, which he would have to do all over again every time he picked up a new element, but it still worried him.
The fact that he burned himself when the bomb sprint detonated before he intended was a scary one. He could potentially hurt his friends, or even kill them, if he went too far and abandoned all of his focus and connection to the elemental energy he would be using.
He just hoped that each element would feel somewhat similar when he's drawing it out from inside him through his body. He was only ever used to the simple moves for each element, that all of this had felt like relearning them all over again. He was not looking forward to doing this for every element, especially the ones he was unfamiliar with.
For the rest of the day, Spyro spent a good amount of it just sitting on the streets outside. There wasn't much going on aside from everyone working in their own home workshops, most of which were unoccupied as a lot of them worked in the Fireworks throughout the day. It was a lot quieter compared to the Fireworks, and Spyro really liked that. Besides, he was able to get a lot more fresh air being outside, which wasn't saying much due to the air at Manzithot already being quite smoky anyway, but it reeked inside the Fireworks.
Spyro remained in quite a bit of pain from his burn wounds that weren't fully healed, and he really hoped that another round of red gems tomorrow would help, because it was a work day tomorrow and Spyro didn't feel like dealing with the furnaces while he was already burned.
"Hey, mister. Are you okay?"
The voice snapped Spyro out of his thoughts. He looked down towards the voice, to see a young fire dragoness, only about six years old, looking up at him with big orange eyes. He was taken aback by the question, as no one had really asked him that throughout his time here in Manzithot.
"Um… yeah, I'm okay," he replied.
"Are you sure? You look hurt," the youngling said, tilting her head slightly as she ran her eyes up Spyro's arms and face, which were the most badly burned parts of his body.
Spyro blinked, before letting out a soft chuckle. "Yeah, kiddo. I'm good. A little hurt, but it's not too bad," he said.
The youngling reached forward and tapped Spyro's burned paw quite forcefully. Spyro winced, lifting his paw and hiding it behind his other arm out of her reach. The youngling just giggled. "You are hurt, silly!"
"Look, I'm fine, really."
"My dad says burns are bad and need to be taken care of immediately."
"Well, your dad is absolutely right," Spyro said with a soft smile. "I have taken care of these as much as I can; it's just a matter of waiting for my burns to heal now."
"Oh, okay. Who are you by the way? I've never seen you around before."
"My name is Spyro. I'm here for some training."
"Training? As in for fighting?"
"Um… yeah, I guess so."
"Are you going to see my dad? He used to be a guard! He could teach you."
Spyro chuckled. "Thanks for the offer, little one, but I've already got someone to teach me," he said.
He suddenly realised, after the youngling had brought up her father twice, that there was no other adult in sight that seemed to be a relative of hers. Everyone in the workshops were either drakes, manweersmalls or moles. There was one workshop that housed a small dark red dragon, who Spyro didn't think was related to her. He was suddenly a bit worried for her, especially since she was so young and walking about all on her own talking to a stranger.
"Hey, is one of your parents around? Are you lost?"
"Nope! I was just delivering some coal that my dad made to one of the blacksmiths down the road; I'm going back home now!"
"Okay, well you should probably go back now. You don't want to make your parents worried now, right?"
"Good idea. They'll probably want me to help with some more jobs. Alright, goodbye Mister Spyro!"
"And don't go talking to random strangers okay?"
"It's fine; I do it all the time, and my friends too! None of the grown ups care enough to talk to us anyway."
With that, the youngling ran off down the street. It was a really weird concept that no one cared enough about the kids to talk with them or do anything with them. It was probably a good thing considering everyone was so preoccupied with their work here that no one seemed to have time to think of malicious things to do to kids or other people like some Warfangians would, so at least it was safe here. Spyro still hated the constant work mindset that everyone had here, but he supposed that if it was getting in the way of crime, it had some positives to it.
The next two days of work were quite rough on him. He was already mentally and physically exhausted from the training, and his burns had still not yet healed. Spyro didn't want to use too much of his red gem stash so he opted to let them heal naturally; as much as he vowed to stick with the decision, he was starting to regret it. Working with the furnaces all day didn't seem to help the healing process, and Spyro had ended up with some new burns too.
Once he was able to leave work just after sundown, he had sat along the same street he had after returning from the Magma Crypt, as it was near his room, and it was one of the more silent streets. The air was much cooler now that the sun had set, although that wasn't saying much due to the large amount of heat in the air from the town of furnaces, as well as the volcanic environment they lived in. But, Spyro enjoyed what cool air he got; he was always a big fan of cooler temperatures, especially when it had a bit of a brisk breeze to it.
Both nights he had returned to the street, amongst the few villagers returning to their homes, Spyro noticed the young fire dragoness running down the street, seemingly back to her own house. She'd stopped and had a chat with him for a bit on the first night, to which Spyro had tried to cut her short so she could get home quickly, not wanting her parents to wonder where she was.
Tonight, however, she said that she had told her father about him, and he wanted to meet Spyro. The purple dragon just blinked. "Your father wants to meet me?" he repeated, shocked at the notion that someone actually wanted to see him and talk to him in Manzithot.
He couldn't be sure if that was a good thing, however.
"Yeah, come on! I'm sure he's making dinner now!" the dragoness said, grabbing him by the paw and pulling him.
"Okay, I'm coming!" Spyro said, standing up and following her.
The purple dragon couldn't help but feel wrong about this, for many reasons. This was a kid he had barely met, who he had only ever seen out on her own, who had now told her father about his existence and now he wanted to meet him. Spyro couldn't help but feel uneasy. Not only would this type of situation never happen in Warfang, it would be considered creepy if it did. He felt like a creep, but with how drastically different the culture here was, Spyro was holding out hope that it wouldn't be seen the way it would be in Warfang.
What felt even more weird was that Spyro didn't even know this child's name. She was just some random child who he had met on the street, now to have her father want to see him.
"Hey, umm… I never asked, what's your name, little one?" Spyro questioned, knowing he would feel somewhat better if he at least knew her name.
"Oh, I didn't tell you, Mister Spyro? My name's Firi!" she said with a large smile.
It wasn't too much longer before she turned towards a small house that was also decorated with a decently sized workshop out the front of it, much like the other houses in Manzithot. Firi ran straight inside. Spyro stopped at the door, which was wide open. He didn't feel right entering.
Inside he could hear Firi shouting, "I'm home! I brought Mister Spyro too!"
A few moments later, a large, bulky fire dragon turned the corner, walking up to the front door to see Spyro staring awkwardly into the house. The dragon was large and intimidating, with a large scar running along his left jaw, and his left horn completely missing. He wore a soft smile, however; it was the first genuine smile Spyro had seen in Manzithot.
"Ah, you must be Spyro. My daughter told me about you," he said.
"Yeah. I hope you were alright with her talking to me," Spyro murmured.
"Well, considering you're an outsider, I was a little worried, but the culture here can be pretty damn intense, and can make many visitors scared of acting up, so I figured you would be fine," the dragon said. "Plus, you are the purple dragon after all, I'm sure you can't be that bad."
Spyro just nodded, not knowing what to say; he was especially baffled that this dragon seemed to actually know who he was, as opposed to everyone else in Manzithot. "Uh… thank you, I guess?" Spyro stammered.
"Please, come in; dinner's just about finished."
"Are you sure? I mean, I don't want to intrude."
"I insist! Plus, I'm sure you're living over at that dingy hotel complex, aren't you?"
Spyro just blinked. The fire dragon chuckled, knowing Spyro's silence meant 'yes'. He turned around and beckoned Spyro inside, to which the purple dragon awkwardly followed. Spyro followed the fire dragon down the hall, past two bedrooms, and out into a large kitchen space, complete with a table to eat at. The oven was a massive furnace, which Spyro wasn't all that surprised at now considering how many houses were surrounded by massive furnaces and blacksmithing equipment.
"My name's Lagaedar, by the way," the fire dragon said as he made his way over to the furnace, taking out a large pile of steak. "I used to be a Warfangian guard before I came here six years ago."
"Warfang?" Spyro repeated, the mention of his home piquing his interest—he also figured that was why Lagaedar acted so differently from the rest of the people in Manzithot. "Your daughter told me you were a guard, but she never told me where you were from."
"Yeah, started training since I was thirteen. I always wanted to be a guard, and I absolutely loved it. Trying to join during the war probably wasn't the best time for it though."
"Yeah! Daddy got hurt real badly!" Firi exclaimed, bouncing energetically as Lagaedar placed some steak on her plate, before he then served Spyro. "He lost a whole horn!"
Lagaedar just chuckled. "Yes, I did. It wasn't cool when it happened, but I guess the missing horn and the scars are cool to show off now. Makes me look a bit more intimidating with it all," he said.
"Yeah," Spyro said. "I know the feeling."
"Did you fight too?!" Firi shouted.
"Alright, calm down, Firi," Lagaedar chuckled with a slight bit of firmness in his voice. "Inside voices, please."
"Sorry."
Spyro just smiled at the interaction; seeing a normal father-daughter interaction brought back a sense of normalcy to him; he liked it here. "To answer your question, Firi, yes I did fight," Spyro replied. "I didn't get as hurt as your dad, but I went through my own share of pain."
"Firi, Spyro here is a very special dragon. He had a very big part to play in the war, and it's because of him we're all still alive," Lagaedar explained. "He's the reason we won."
"Whooooa, that's so cool! Spyro's really that special of a dragon?" Firi exclaimed.
"Yes, he is."
Spyro now had his own questions. "Wait, you said you moved here six years ago. I only beat Malefor five years ago; how did you know we won? I mean… no one else here seems to remember the Belt of Fire," he asked.
Lagaedar frowned slightly. "How about we keep the conversation light for now?" he said softly to Spyro. "I'll answer your questions, but I don't want to go too heavy into it while Firi's around."
Spyro glanced at Firi, who was beaming widely at him, before he glanced back to Lagaedar. Spyro could see a lot of pain in Lagaedar's eyes, and Spyro knew there was not a happy story there regarding the move. Spyro began to notice that it was just Lagaedar and Firi here; there was no mother. He could already start to put the pieces together. Spyro just nodded in reply, before Lagaedar murmured a quiet 'thank you' to him.
Firi seemed oblivious to the exchange between the two adults, and Lagaedar immediately put a smile back on his face. They continued to talk about much more lighthearted things, and Spyro zoned out for most of it, just enjoying his meal. Just the quality of the steak was much better than what the hotel ever served him.
Eventually, once they were all finished, Lagaedar left to go put Firi to bed. In the meantime, Spyro went to clean up, washing their plates.
It wasn't long before Lagaedar came back out of Firi's room, his eyes downcast. "Spyro, can we talk outside?" he murmured.
Spyro just nodded, before following Lagaedar out into the backyard. They sat down on the hard rocky ground as they stared up into the night sky. There was an uncomfortable silence for a while, until Lagaedar decided to speak.
"So, about your question earlier…" Lagaedar started. "I did not move here on great terms. The war did a great toll on me. While you were in the Time Crystal, Malefor's forces had attacked Warfang several times. I lost my horn and got all these scars from those sieges. My mate, Tera, was extremely worried for me. She was gravid when I was hospitalised, and she was scared that with the increasing attacks, and the lack of hope that much of Warfang had at the time, that I might not live to be around for our child, or that she might even die, our child along with her. Once she voiced her concerns to me, I knew we could not stay in Warfang.
"I became aware of Manzithot not too soon after, and saw how removed it was from most of the larger civilisations. I knew it would be much safer to stay here, so I left the military and decided it would be best to move here. The night we intended to leave, however, the grublins attacked, and what made it worse was that Tera fell into labour in the middle of the streets. She delivered the egg quite quickly, but she was unfortunately unable to move. The grublins were gaining ever closer to where we hid, and she made me leave with Firi's egg. I heard her dying screams as I ran.
"Ever since then, I have felt nothing but regret every time I think about Tera. I was a guard, who swore an oath to protect, but I couldn't even protect my own mate. I've always felt like I failed her."
"Lagaedar, you didn't fail," Spyro said, putting a paw on his shoulder. "You protected Firi. Your daughter is alive and well, and one of the most happy things I've ever seen. Especially in this town. If Tera wanted you to leave, then she got what she wanted. Her daughter is safe, and that's all that mattered to her. By protecting Firi, you protected Tera's dying wish. I'm sure she would be very proud of you."
The fire dragon turned to Spyro struggling to hold back tears. "Do you really think so?" he whimpered.
"I do. I'm sure of it."
Lagaedar sniffled, wiping his eyes. "Thank you Spyro. That means a lot," he murmured, before clearing his throat. "At that time, as you probably know, however, you and Cynder had not been found from… wherever you were. The guardians were searching endlessly to find you two, and had sent out many scouts—dragons, cheetahs, panthers, hawks—to find you.
"But I knew you had been found and had won when the… Belt of Fire as you called it… disappeared. No one else here recognised what was happening, as we have fires sweep around nearby all the time, but I could tell there was something different about the wall of fire getting closer to Manzithot; it felt… sinister and evil, somehow—it felt like it was something of Malefor's doing. Luckily, it never seemed to reach us. I saw it in the distance for two days, before it was gone. That was when I knew you were back, and you had won."
Spyro nodded. "Thank you for telling me, Lagaedar," Spyro said.
"Thank you for listening. I like it here a lot, but no one seems to care for each other, so I really haven't had anyone to talk to about this. I'm glad to have a fellow Warfangian here to talk to about this, and on top of that, the one who saved the world. It's… really inspiring to have you here."
Spyro just chuckled, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "Look, I was just doing what I had to do. I'm just glad I was able to save everyone, that's all," Spyro said.
"I know. I'm sure you must get a lot of praise, but… considering what you did for everyone… it means a lot," Lagaedar replied, to which Spyro nodded. "Speaking of having you here, what actually brings you to Manzithot? Surely it's not just for a fun holiday, right?"
"It's not, no. You see, I'm actually here for some training. Some… pretty intense training, if I may put it that way," Spyro explained. "To put it simply, there's… something else coming. Something that's even worse than Malefor, and I'm the only one who is able to stop it."
"Wait… what do you mean?" Lagaedar questioned, his face falling. "Worse than Malefor?"
"This new being is known as the embodiment of darkness, and… well, Vhel-Ak'rhair's no joke. You see, Vhel-Ak'rhair is part of an old prophesy, and… I think I am too. The prophesy talks about a dragon named the Grand Elemental Master, who is supposed to have mastery over every single element in the world. And as it turns out, the only type of dragon who can have multiple elements is a purple dragon, hence me."
"Oh… wow," Lagaedar murmured, trying to take in the information. A very serious look washed over him; Spyro could tell he was scared.
"I don't know the time frame of what's going to happen here, I really don't, but that's why I left the day after I found out about the prophesy, because I need to stop Vhel-Ak'rhair, and I need to be ready."
"I… I understand."
"I'm sorry to concern you, Lagaedar."
"No, Spyro. It's… it's fine. It's good to know this," the fire dragon said, before turning to look at Spyro directly in the eyes. "You beat Malefor, you can beat this… Vhel-Ak'rhair too. I'm sure of it."
Spyro just nodded a thank you to Lagaedar, before they entered yet another slightly uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Lagaedar broke the silence again, clearing his throat. "Anyway, so I take it then that you're here to learn your fire element?" Lagaedar questioned.
"Yeah, I am. The trouble is, it's much harder than I thought, and Ma'vhelma's quite a stern teacher sometimes," Spyro explained.
"Ahhhh, that old phoenix-dragon down at Magma Crypt? Yeah, she can be pretty tough from what I hear. If you want, did you want to have a spar to give you a chance to practice? Maybe I could even offer some tips. I'm no master, but I'm definitely way more advanced than a lot of other fire dragons in my elemental abilities. Plus, I was a guard, so I do know how to fight as well."
Spyro stared at him for a bit, before looking back up into the night sky as he tried to think.
"I would also love to have an opportunity to spar with the great purple dragon as well," Lagaedar added with a smirk.
Spyro turned to Lagaedar, pausing before returning the smirk. "Okay, you're on. Show me what you can do," he said.
"And you. I only want to see fire from you. Especially since you're the one learning it and needing the practice."
Lagaedar suggested they head over to the outskirts of the village, on the path towards the Magma Crypt. That way they wouldn't interrupt anyone's sleep or accidentally put anyone else in harm's way. There was a flat, spacious area that was absolutely massive, and Spyro and Lagaedar decided it would be a good place to have a quick spar.
The fire dragon was the first to sprint into action, rushing immediately into a comet dash towards Spyro. Spyro dived out of the way, before having to dive again before he was even standing, due to Lagaedar shooting straight back at him in another comet dash. Spyro reached out with his paws as Lagaedar thrust himself towards Spyro a third time, and felt the fire around Lagaedar. He spread his paws out wide, and the fire immediately dissipated, sending Lagaedar crashing into Spyro with nothing but his bare body.
Spyro caught Lagaedar by his horns, before whirling him around and throwing him into the air. Spyro leapt up into the air with his own comet dash, hitting Lagaedar from underneath, before using another one coming down onto Lagaedar, sending him smashing into the ground.
Lagaedar coughed, before shakily standing back up. He then spread out his wings and shot up into the sky. Large fireballs began to swell up in Lagaedar's paws as he held them in front of him, before the fire dragon hurled them at Spyro. Spyro dodged them, but Lagaedar continued to make more. The purple dragon managed to dodge three more, before he got knocked to the ground by one, leaving a small burn on his shoulder.
Spyro looked up with horror as two more fireballs became hurtling down towards him. Adrenaline rushed through his body as he lifted up his paws, trying to feel the fireballs to take hold of them in mid-air and send them hurtling back at Lagaedar.
Instead, the fireball exploded, which Spyro wasn't too happy about. He knew Ma'vhelma would be scolding him about him not keeping focus if she was here. At the very least, Lagaedar's fireballs didn't hit him.
Lagaedar burst through the cloud of smoke that the explosion had left behind, knocking Spyro to the ground with a large blow to the face. Spyro quickly rolled around, swinging his tail around and knocking Lagaedar's legs out from underneath him. Spyro ran towards Lagaedar, leaping on top of him to pin him down as he delivered a few blows to his face.
The fire dragon was quick to then activate his fire aura. Spyro leapt off Lagaedar, his paws burned slightly from the fire aura. He then activated his own fire aura, rushing forwards and engaging in a fist fight with Lagaedar. They exchanged quite a few blows, their fire auras roaring wildly as they hit each other. Spyro at one point kicked Lagaedar in the chest, knocking him to the ground and out of his fire aura.
Spyro turned and was about to breathe a large inferno at Lagaedar, but he used a comet dash to leap out of the way, and Spyro's fire hit nothing. He looked up to see Lagaedar rushing towards him with another comet dash.
Instinct that Spyro didn't know he had suddenly took over, and he reached out with his paws, rearing on his hind legs, catching Lagaedar in midair by the flames left behind him from the comet dash. As if there was a lasso in his grasp, Spyro raised his paws and lifted Lagaedar into the air, before throwing him to the ground with a crash.
Spyro burst into movement with his own comet dash, zooming straight into Lagaedar, sending him flying into the air. Lagaedar, now sporting a black eye and many cuts on his body from slamming into the rocky ground, managed to recover quickly by spreading open his wings and regaining his composure in mid-air. His wings suddenly became alight with a roaring fire, before he started flapping them forcefully.
A large tornado of fire shot out from his wings and towards Spyro. The purple dragon stood his ground, once more trying to catch the fire tornado. It hung suspended in mid-air, before Spyro realised he was starting to gain the upper hand as the fire tornado started to move slowly back towards Lagaedar.
With a smirk, Spyro put as much energy towards the fire tornado as he could, and with a large burst of energy, sent it straight back to Lagaedar. With a loud shout, Lagaedar slammed back into the ground, smoke billowing from his body.
It was a quick spar, but it was clear they were done. Lagaedar didn't get up.
Slightly worried, Spyro ran to him, but breathed a sigh of relief when he realised the fire dragon was awake, breathing heavily, with a smile on his face. "I don't know what I expected the outcome to be, going up against a purple dragon," Lagaedar scoffed to himself, before chuckling. "Especially since you're on your way to mastery of the element. I had no chance. You did good."
"I uhhh… thank you? Will you be alright?" Spyro questioned as he helped Lagaedar to stand.
"I'll be fine, I have plenty of red gems at home. Plus, I've been burned and beaten worse than this before. I can handle it. Now, let's head back."
They walked slowly back to Lagaedar's house in silence, and Spyro was deep in thought. He was really happy with how the spar had gone. He was disappointed he didn't quite get a chance to try the bomb sprint, but it was probably for the best he didn't try to use it so soon after burning himself badly with it. He was happy to get practice on the other aspects of his fire element though.
He was also happy to be able to fight someone who also knew some of the new moves he did; it was much more of a challenge than most of the other fire dragons back at home, and he also got to see those new moves in action from someone who had been using them for much longer than him.
Spyro thought of the fire tornado move that Lagaedar did; he had never seen anything like that before. Curiosity filled his mind, he turned to Lagaedar. "Hey Lagaedar, that thing you did with your wings? What was that?" he asked.
"With the fire tornado?" Lagaedar said.
"Yeah; I haven't seen that before."
"Oh, it's something I just figured out many years ago. You know how wind dragons can create air currents by manipulating the air around them?"
"Yeah," Spyro said, very familiar with the wind element's attacks due to the countless times he had sparred and trained with Cynder.
"I figured I could attempt something similar with my fire. By lighting my wings on fire, kind of like a partial fire aura, but then releasing it along the air displaced by me flapping my wings, I can kind of shoot it forward like that. The whole tornado thing is a lot more intense and something I can only create by manipulating the fire on top of that, because obviously I can't create air currents strong enough to make a mini-tornado like a wind dragon can."
"Interesting; you might have to bring me out here again to show me, depending on if Ma'vhelma teaches it to me or not. That sounds like a very specific thing that it seems like you just… figured out."
"Absolutely. I figured it out during the war, and none of the other fire dragons in the army had seen anything like it; they were pretty surprised I figured out how to do it," Lagaedar chuckled. "Anyway, I'd be more than happy to show it to you at some point."
"Thank you, Lagaedar. Anyway, I think this is where we part ways," Spyro said as they reached the village again, where Lagaedar's house was to the right and Spyro's apartment to the left. "Thanks so much for tonight."
"Out of curiosity, where are you staying?"
"Just the little group of apartments over on the outer part of the village down there."
"Really? You have to pay for that usually. Do you even have granite shards?"
"No; I've been working in the Fireworks a few days a week to be able to pay for my time here."
"Spyro, come stay with us."
The purple dragon blinked, not expecting the offer at all. "I… I appreciate the offer, but…"
"Nope, I'm not asking you to, I'm telling you to. You're working non-stop day in, day out, whether that's at the Fireworks or training with Ma'vhelma. You need a break at some point. Go grab your stuff and tell whoever's at the reception that you're staying with me for the rest of your stay here. And next time you need to go to the Fireworks, go tell Mistress Elaren that you no longer need to work for money to pay for you to stay here. Take those work days to rest or practice your fire element."
"I… thank you, Lagaedar. I don't know what to say."
"Think nothing of it. It's the best I can do for a fellow Warfangian… and the saviour of the world."
It was weird hearing that title again. He never really liked hearing it back home so people had eventually stopped referring to him as such, and he especially never expected it out here in Manzithot where pretty much no one else knew who he was. He was happy however to be among someone who knew who he was, and someone who actually had a sense of respect toward him and others. Lagaedar was very much a normal person and he felt comfortable around him.
Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to spend the rest of the time with Lagaedar.
Spyro turned back to the red dragon and nodded. "Thank you; I'll grab my stuff and I'll meet you back at your place."
"Great, I'll see you in a bit," Lagaedar said.
It didn't take too long for Spyro to grab his things and settle in at Lagaedar's. It was only a two bedroom house—one for Firi, one for Lagaedar—so Spyro ended up sleeping on the floor in the family room; Spyro wasn't complaining though, he was just thankful Lagaedar was willing to open his house to him.
Spyro fell asleep pretty quickly, as he was exhausted from the spar he had with Lagaedar earlier. He went to sleep with a smile on his face knowing he would be able to catch up on rest not needing to work at the Fireworks, and knowing that hopefully he was able to get extra practice in to get mastery of the fire element even quicker than he had anticipated.
Hopefully it wouldn't be too long before he would master it.
Dragon of Mystery:Thanks for the review once again! I'm glad you liked the chapter, and the fire aura as well! I had to really try and figure out other ways to use the fire element, and also using the existing attacks like the comet dash to try and base some of the new moves off lol. I'm glad you like having Spyro be able to get frustrated as well; I wanted this to actually seem hard and to give him a few struggles along the way.
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Hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter! Feel free to leave a review! Also just a reminder that I do lots of other things like art and music, so for my art stuff you can find me on Twitter or FA as SKdaGamer, and for my music, I am on Spotify/Apple Music, YouTube, and Twitter as KAJCHE.
See you guys later with another chapter hopefully soon!