School was yet another day of all of Forzen's schoolmates and teachers being very cautious of him, and trying to avoid Fjor'gand and his gang, as well as Du'ryal. He hadn't seen much of the null dragon around, but after his last few interactions with him, Forzen was not keen to force himself around Du'ryal. The brown-scaled dragon had been very intent on letting him know that he would beat him if he wanted to, and that he didn't need elements to do so.
The day had gone by very slowly as classes dragged on. It was good that lunch was starting now, but Forzen also hated lunch since that was where he ended up in the same room as the entire school, where none of the other teenagers wanted him there. They all looked at him with fear or hatred. It was always an isolating, awful feeling whenever he walked into the room and received several dozen pairs of eyes immediately lock onto him with contempt and caution.
Forzen made his way immediately to the queue to grab food, his stomach rumbling slightly. He stopped in line, and watched as many dragons pushed forward in the line, squeezing up against each other to try and stay away from him. Letting out a sad sigh, the purple dragon took one step back, allowing them to spread out again, albeit only slightly compared to earlier.
What can I do to make people accept me? What can I do to make them at least tolerate me? Forzen thought dejectedly.
"Oh ancestors, of course the purple dragon's here in line," a feminine voice complained under her breath from behind him.
"Be quiet, Kaala!" another female voice hissed.
Forzen turned back, suddenly aware of the whisper, his sound element picking up on it. As he looked behind him, he saw a group of four girls join the line behind him, also keeping their distance. Three of them were ice dragonesses, and one was lightning. Recognition washed over him as he realised this was Frostine's friend group, seeing her standing on the right side of the group, her head lowered, her eyes staring up at him with complex emotions: fear, caution, confusion, and a little bit of embarrassment was evident in her eyes. Meanwhile Kaala, the ice dragoness who had also been present during the venomfang attack, was arguing with Zena, the lightning dragoness.
"Great, now he's looking at us," Kaala hissed back.
"You started it by talking about him!" Zena argued.
"You girls aren't doing a good job about being discreet, you know that right?" Forzen murmured.
Him addressing them shut them up. Kaala let out a squeak of fear as he spoke to them, and Zena froze in fear. Layana, the other ice dragoness, stepped backwards a bit, shivering with fear, while in the corner of his vision, Forzen could see Frostine's cheeks flush with embarrassment, however the way she flinched and stepped backwards as well showed her fear.
Forzen just let out a sigh, shaking his head. "I'm not going to hurt you, you know. You don't need to worry," he clarified.
"I find that hard to believe after what you did last week!" Kaala snapped.
"Enough, Kaala!" Frostine hissed at her friend. "Just let the conversation go already!"
"I was trying to protect you two, you know that?" Forzen said.
"I don't believe that for a second!" Zena exclaimed. "How can someone like you want to protect someone?"
"She's right," Layana murmured from the back of the group.
In an even smaller voice that only herself and Forzen could hear, Frostine whimpered, "But what if he did?"
Frostine's blush got stronger as Forzen picked up on her quiet whisper and his eyes moved towards her. She whimpered a little under his gaze and shrunk in on herself. The purple dragon then turned back to the other three, who were glaring at him with caution and anger.
"I am just here for some lunch, same as you. I would really prefer it if you didn't talk about me like that behind my back, please," Forzen asked politely, before turning back around to look forward, knowing he wasn't going to get any other response from them, or at least a desirable one.
The girls' silence was loud, and it took them a few minutes right as they were starting to get close to the serving station to start talking amongst themselves again. Forzen did his best to shut out the sound of their voices, not wanting to impede or eavesdrop in their conversation as he had done earlier.
It was hard to do that; he had been so used to his hearing being so active and hypersensitive since he unlocked his sound element that he didn't know what it was like to not accidentally eavesdrop on other people's conversations. However, it got him thinking: if he could increase the amount of sound that he and others could hear, could he do the opposite? Could he make himself hear less? Could he shut out the sounds around him?
He didn't know how to even attempt doing that, but he decided to give it a go. He reached deep within himself, feeling his essence core and trying to pull out the sound element within it. As he did so, he imagined the space around him, the vibrations moving at high speeds towards his ears. He then tried his best to compress the sound waves as they neared his earholes, and squeeze the life out of them.
As he did so, he slowly started to hear the world around him begin to muffle, the sounds of everyone talking in the lunch hall getting softer and softer, until it was all just one muffled cacophony of mumbles, none of the words intelligible.
Wow, that's actually a very helpful use of the sound element, Forzen thought.
He let go of his hold on the sound barrier around his ears, letting all of the sound flood back in. He almost winced very visibly once the sounds assaulted his eardrums once more, his extra sensitive hearing working against him. He then brought it back, trying to replicate it again, and he smiled as the sound muffled up once more. He held the barrier in place for a while, enjoying the quiet, as he never really got to experience this much quiet in the middle of the day since coming to Warfang and starting school.
He let go of the barrier around his ears once more as he arrived at the serving station, trying to do it at a much slower rate to ease his ears back to the noise of the lunch hall. The ice dragon serving him was jumpy and stammery as he always was whenever Forzen showed up at the station; it was honestly starting to annoy Forzen. But he ordered his salad anyway, before picking up the plate in his mouth and making his way to the empty table in the corner of the lunch hall which had pretty much become Forzen's table. No one else sat there, ever.
As he walked through the aisle of tables, he suddenly felt his paws get sweeped out from underneath him as a dragon swiped his tail at Forzen's paws. The purple dragon stumbled forward, dropping his food to the ground. Before it could land all over the floor, Forzen activated his wind element to catch it all in mid-air, before he landed with a thud on the ground. The dragons at the table he was walking past burst into laughter, mocking the purple dragon for being so 'clumsy'.
Can I please just go to my table and eat in peace? Forzen thought with a huff, before he placed his food back on his plate in midair, and then proceeded to use his wind element to hold the plate above everyone else and out of reach so that it couldn't be messed with.
He watched as a dragon from another table shot an ice shard up towards the plate, but Forzen just caught it in the air with his wind element as well. He made his way back to his table, his plate floating behind him, before he sat down, facing the room. He looked up at the ice shard still suspended in the sky and then let go of his hold on it, letting it drop to the ground. Tiny fragments of ice sprayed into the air, flying into the face of the ice dragon that had shot it. Forzen could hear the ice dragon's frustrated complaint, but he barely paid attention to what was said.
He ate his food quietly, sitting by himself and doing his best to stay distant and unobserving. He didn't want to come across as sketchy or as if he was planning something by looking around the room and watching everyone. There had been a few times during some of his lunch breaks where he had caught himself watching the other teenagers, mainly out of envy. He would watch as they ate together, talked together, laughed together.
Forzen wished he could have friends like that, but he knew it was just a wish and nothing more. In this day and age, a young purple dragon like him couldn't have friends; no one deserved him worthy of friendship. All of the teenagers here hated him, whether they were older than him or his own age. The amount of scorn he'd received from twelve-year-olds, fifteen-year-olds and sixteen-year-olds was crushing. He knew some of the students here got as old as eighteen; he didn't want to interact with the teens even older than Du'ryal.
Du'ryal scared him, even though he wasn't very physically intimidating due to his lean build, but he was quite tall, even for a sixteen-year-old, putting him at a much larger size than him. The eighteen-year-olds would be starting to hit their major growth spurt into a full-sized adult dragon, so they would be even bigger.
Sure, he had fought a venomfang the size of a fully grown dragon. It had been scary, but he knew he could fight back against it. All the students here were innocent dragons who were on the same side as him. Getting freely beaten by the older dragons here was not something that he wanted any part of.
The bell pulled him out of his thoughts. It was time for the next class.
He watched and waited for the majority of the lunch hall to leave, before getting up himself and making his way to the lockers. Forzen grabbed his things for his next classes, before making his way to the first one. There weren't a huge amount of students walking around, as Forzen had waited as late as he could to ensure he wouldn't be caught up amongst crowds of students who hated him, but also to make sure he wasn't late to class.
However, halfway through his walk to history class, a sick feeling twisted his gut. It felt very similar to when he had met the venomfang who had disguised herself as Eleizen.
No way. There's no way this is happening again, Forzen thought, freezing in place as he looked around frantically, trying to find who would be the potential attacker. The venomfang was literally only last week; why does this have to happen now?
He whirled around, unslinging the satchel with his books from his shoulder and placing it on the ground beside him, almost expecting a fight to break out at any moment. He watched as his surroundings became very barren of any other dragons. He knew he would be late to class. But it unnerved him that he was still feeling that uncomfortable, dark sense. The feeling didn't go away.
In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he realised it was stronger than it was last time.
He couldn't discern what it was or where it was coming from, though.
Cautiously, he moved to pick up the satchel again, before continuing his trip to class, breaking into a quick jog to prevent himself from being any later than he needed to. As he rounded the corner, he was suddenly jumped by two dragons: a lightning dragoness and a fire dragon. They both lunged out at him, and Forzen was quick to launch himself backwards away from their claws and teeth.
Forzen reached out to feel their spirit traces. Poison and fear.
Ancestors help me.
Lightning burst out of Forzen's jaws towards the two dragons, and they dodged nimbly, letting the bolt of lightning slam into the wall of the building behind them, leaving behind a slight scorch mark from the angry electricity. The 'lightning dragoness', who bore the poison spirit trace, giggled darkly. "Wow, we have a feisty one on our paws," she said. "We weren't expecting you to make the first move."
"Cut it out, venomfang," Forzen spat. "I know what you are. You are my enemy."
"You know, it would be much easier if you just came along with us," the disguised fearbringer said, his voice low and dark. "That way we could avoid a fight. I know that's what you really want."
"And honestly, we'd prefer not to hurt you. The Dark Overlord would be pretty pissed if we returned you all mangled up," the venomfang added.
"You think I would ever join him? That monster? Never. You can't make me."
"You know better than to speak of your father like that."
"He's not my father. I want nothing to do with him. He has no control over me."
"That can easily be changed if you decide not to cooperate. So, last chance. Come with us, or we'll take you, by force."
"I belong here, not in that filthy place with walls painted with blood that you somehow call home," Forzen growled.
"You belong here? Even though they beat you, mock you, hate you?" the fearbringer snarled.
"I belong here more than I ever did at Dark Peak."
"Alright. I guess we're taking you by force."
Immediately, the small yellow and blue bodies of the impostors shifted into the large, intimidating forms of a venomfang and a fearbringer. The fearbringer launched himself at Forzen, clamping his jaws around his neck. Forzen cried out in pain as he was lifted up into the air and thrown across the small courtyard. He used his wind element to keep himself from slamming into a metal pole that held up a large piece of material to provide shade in the middle of the day.
He lowered himself to the ground and ducked as a glob of poison slammed into the pole behind him. He looked at the venomfang with shock. "What happened to not wanting to harm me? Your element kills in seconds!" Forzen exclaimed, before releasing more bolts of lightning out of his maw.
The venomfang dodged every single one of them, smiling darkly all the time. "Our element is very useful for killing, yes, but it has other uses and chemical makeups that are not lethal. We just choose not to use those types of poison as our sole purpose is to kill," she explained, before laughing wildly at Forzen's shocked expression. "You didn't know this? Does your own poison user know of this?"
"General Cynder? I… I'm not sure."
"Hah! Even the great Terror of the Skies knows nothing about how her most powerful element works!"
She spat several more globs of poison at Forzen, and he dived out of the way of the onslaught of green liquid slamming into the ground behind him. As he looked back, he noticed that the poison that the venomfang was spitting out was much thicker and gluggier than normal, and also was not sizzling through the ground or metal pole.
What the hell is this? I don't even want to touch it to find out what it does to me, Forzen thought, a shiver running down his spine.
The fearbringer ran up to him from the opposite side, his mouth glowing red. Forzen let out a terrified scream as he leapt into the air quicker than the fearbringer could process it, before a siren scream tore out of his mouth, red sound waves slamming into the ground. Very soon, indigo sound waves had washed over the fearbringer as Forzen let out his own shriek attack. The fearbringer winced initially, before laughing and leaping up in the air towards Forzen through the tunnel of indigo sound waves that surrounded him.
Forzen dived out of the way, narrowly avoiding the fearbringer's horns from slamming into his stomach. He formed two wing blades in his paws and flung them at the fearbringer. He ducked under the first one, sending the wind blade slamming into a tree near the corner of the courtyard. The second one slammed into the fearbringer's eye, and it snarled in pain as blood streamed down his face from his eye, the blade slicing into it before dissipating into thin air.
The fearbringer bore its ugly fangs in an angry snarl, before large orbs of phantom fright began to form around him. Forzen looked back behind him and saw the venomfang approaching him, the thick, gluggy venom dripping down her jaws. He let electricity build up around him, before shooting two bolts of lightning out of his paws in opposite directions, one towards the fearbringer and one towards the venomfang. They both dodged.
The venomfang then launched herself forward, claws outstretched. Forzen dodged her first swipe, but her second caught him across the face. He stumbled backwards, and the venomfang saw her chance to slash him across the chest, trying her best not to score a lethal kill. Thin beads of blood dripped down Forzen's face and chest, and he landed on the ground with a cough. His chest burned with pain as it heaved from his coughing, and he let out a croaky moan of pain.
Forzen then watched as a large black-and-red-scaled paw descended over his face, intending to hit him with a heavy blow to knock him out. With a loud shout, Forzen reached out with his wind element and caught the paw, balled into a fist, in mid-air. The fear bringer above him growled with fury, and before he could make some other attack, Forzen let loose another wind blade, sending it soaring through the fearbringer's wrist. The disembodied paw shot into the air, spraying blood all over the ground, the fearbringer, and Forzen.
With a savage roar, the venomfang leapt forward with incredible speed, completing what the fearbringer had tried to do. She slammed her fists down onto Forzen's head… twice… three times… before lightning burst out of his chest and enveloped the venomfang, causing her to seize up and collapse to the ground.
"Stop fighting!" the fearbringer snarled. "You can't win!"
"I've already beaten one of you before!" Forzen snapped back. "So try me!"
"How in the—?"
"Wait, you can't mean… her, right? The other venomfang that the Dark Overlord sent here to spy on you?" the venomfang asked, her body just barely recovering from the angry electricity that had been coursing through her body.
"Yes. I killed her."
"So, our Purple Prince is a killer," the fearbringer said with a nasty smile. "Perfect."
"How can you say that? She was one of our own! He's supposed to be killing them, not us!" the venomfang spat back.
"We can work on that. The fact is, he now has blood on his paws. This is a great start, and knowing all that the Dark Overlord is capable of, I know he can use this to his advantage!" the fearbringer replied. "Now, back to our task at hand?"
"I won't let you take me back to him!" Forzen snapped.
"You've told us this already," the venomfang growled, before lunging at him and grabbing him by the throat in her claws mid-lunge. She continued her massive, forceful leap forward, and they soared through the air with Forzen's small throat in the venomfang's large paw. "You will be ours, whether you like it or not!"
As she said this, the venomfang raised her arm, before throwing Forzen at full force into the building they were approaching: the combat block. An awful pain surged through Forzen's back as he felt himself slam straight through the wall and into a full classroom of senior students, aged sixteen to eighteen, just about to start their own expert combat lesson.
Screams and cries filled the room as the bloodied purple dragon slammed through the wall with an explosion of rubble, his body rolling limply on the ground until he came to a stop at Master Almai's paws.
"Forzen, what in the hell—?" the large earth dragon stammered.
"Dark dragons," Forzen spluttered with a heavy cough.
The venomfang suddenly burst into the room with a roar of pure rage, sending more rubble flying everywhere. Behind her came a fearbringer with only three paws, the fourth paw nothing but a stump dripping with fresh blood. "You imbecile! Control your anger and think!" the fearbringer scolded.
"What's done is done! At least maybe we can have some fun and let loose after we grab the Prince," the venomfang snapped back, a disgustingly sadistic smile pulling at her lips as she mentioned 'having fun'.
The fearbringer looked around at the fresh meat in the room: an adult dragon, and many older teens, before he scoffed. "Fine. But Forzen is our utmost priority, got that?" he growled.
"Got it."
The venomfang lunged towards the students. She then found herself toppling to the ground as she slammed into a massive wall of earth. She barely had the time to get up, before a large green paw pressed down on the back of her head, keeping it pinned to the ground. Master Almai was standing on top of her, glaring daggers at her. The fearbringer then lunged at the teacher, grabbing him by the shoulders and throwing him off his comrade.
"Guys if you can help, please do!" Master Almai ordered. "You're all seniors, most of you eighteen! You can handle this; we've trained exactly for this moment!"
"Why would we help? They want the purple dragon, don't they? Let them take him; he doesn't belong here," one of the students snapped back.
"DO YOU WANT THEM TO TAKE FORZEN BACK TO DARK PEAK?!" Master Almai roared.
"Uhhh… I guess not. That wouldn't be great."
"Besides, it's for your own protection," Forzen croaked as he stood, spitting blood from his mouth. "They aren't out to kill me, but they will kill the rest of you if they get the chance. Fight for your lives."
"Why would we listen to you, moras'tov?" a second student spat, narrowing her fiery red eyes at Forzen.
"JUST DO IT!" Forzen screamed.
"YOU DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE GREAT PURPLE PRINCE?!" the venomfang snarled at the same time, as she launched herself towards the student.
Forzen tried to intercept the venomfang, but the fearbringer let out a siren scream at him. He leapt out of the way, panic filling him as the siren scream soared over his head. Master Almai was too far away to pick himself up and run to intercept the venomfang, but he started moving to do so anyway. The fire dragoness who had insulted Forzen let out a fearful scream at the sight of a massive, real venomfang launching towards her, eyes wide with fury, thin beads of saliva dripping down her jaws, ready to kill.
Two ice dragons came to the rescue. A massive ice shard soared into the venomfang's mouth, wedging itself in between one of her large fangs and the gum above it. A second one slammed into her chest. The force of the ice shards broke her momentum, sending her falling down to the ground with a thud.
The venomfang tried to stand, growling angrily, but was downed again as an earth missile slammed into the side of her head, a pained shout escaping her throat. Running forward, an earth dragon leapt at her and punched her in the side of the face where he had just shot his earth missile, his fist encased in hard, heavy stone. A lightning dragoness then ran forward and spat lightning at the venomfang. She screamed in pain and rage, her body convulsing with electricity once more.
Forzen got up to help the older teens with the venomfang, but was intercepted by a heavy slap in the side with the fearbringer's tail, sending him crashing back to the ground. He slid for a few metres, before coming to a stop. His head throbbed with pain, his vision spinning.
Through his spinning vision, he saw a large black and red form move over the top of him, followed by a red glow. He panicked, struggling underneath the fearbringer's grasp, suddenly realising that he was pinned to the ground by the monster. Fear gripped him, even before the attack hit him. His mind flashed with nasty images, both of the mind and of the past.
No.
No!
NO PLEASE DON'T!
The siren scream rushed out of the fearbringer's mouth at full force, and to Forzen's luck and relief, soared over his head as Master Almai rushed forward and grabbed a hold of the fearbringer's horns, before pulling his head back. He then released a point-blank earth missile attack, sending it shooting in through one cheek and out of the other. Dark red blood streamed from both of the fearbringer's cheeks, and he turned to Master Almai with an angry roar. Master Almai thrust his head forward, slamming his forehead into the fearbringer's. The fearbringer staggered backwards, trying to regain his bearings as he shook his head.
Screams of fear from the other students reached Master Almai's ears, and he turned to Forzen, who was just starting to stand up now that the fearbringer was off him. "Forzen, go deal with the venomfang attacking the other kids; I'll hold off the fearbringer!" the earth dragon ordered.
Forzen just nodded, before turning and making his way towards the venomfang, watching as she spat corrosive, deadly poison once more, watching as it just narrowly missed the students and started to burn into the seating in the grandstands and ground. He launched himself into the air, forming some wind blades and hurling them at the venomfang. She let out a snarl as the wind blades cut into the back of her head, leaving deep lacerations that bled green. She turned back, noticing Forzen hovering above her, flapping his wings to keep himself in the air.
She let out an angry roar, and Forzen noticed with surprise as she opened her mouth that one of her large fangs had been yanked out, green blood spilling from the hole in her gum, and part of a broken ice shard sticking out of the gum. He then noticed that she was building up another attack, and the thick, gluggy poison shot out of her mouth at him. He quickly flew to the side, narrowly dodging the attack as it arced in the air and fell back down onto the ground with a splat.
The purple dragon then released a shriek attack, indigo sound waves tearing down on the venomfang. She collapsed once more, snarling in pain and holding her ears. Forzen than hurled himself down towards her, claws outstretched. He latched onto the back of her head, and the moment he did this, the venomfang got up again and started thrashing around, trying to throw Forzen off her.
As she got up, an earth dragoness created two earth daggers in her paws, before leaping up at the venomfang and thrusting her weapons into the venomfang's neck, before letting gravity do its work as she fell down the entire length of the neck, sending green blood spraying everywhere.
In the meantime, Forzen had climbed up onto the venomfang's forehead, and had now proceeded to dig his claws into her head, letting the lightning build up in his claws, ready to overload her head, and therefore the dark crystal inside, with electricity. However, the moment she felt his claws dig into her flesh, the venomfang started to throw herself around, and now the small purple dragon was now trying to hold on and not be thrown off.
A fire dragon and an earth dragon ran forward to help. The earth dragon shot earth missiles into her left wrist, giving it the look of a spiked bracelet made out of rock, while the fire dragon breathed huge amounts of fire at her paws, burning them. The venomfang kicked and snarled in pain, before she spun around and swept her tail into all of the teens standing in front of her, sending them slamming with a thud into the ground a few metres away.
Meanwhile, Forzen was still latched onto her head, so she flung herself at a wall, slamming her head into it, as well as Forzen. The purple dragon received the main force and impact from the attack, which caused him to let go of the venomfang. He fell to the ground with a thud.
Forzen groaned as he tried to get up, but found himself suddenly crushed as the venomfang's large paw pinned him to the ground forcefully. He looked up, seeing her large, snarling fangs inches away from his face. He struggled frantically in her grasp, but found he couldn't win, particularly now that it was down to a matter of force and strength.
Adrenaline overtook him as he watched her open her draws, the thick, gluggy poison forming around her one large fang. She was about to spray his face with the strange, unfamiliar substance. He could hear some of the other students running up to attack her, but they were batted away again by the venomfang's tail. In the corner of Forzen's vision, he could see the fearbringer getting involved as well, having broken away from Master Almai and moved to get the other teens away from the venomfang.
Heart racing, lungs fighting for breath, and body now moving on autopilot, Forzen's essence core called on the plasma element lying dormant within him. The outer corners of his vision brightened as he felt the plasma element forming inside his eyes, and then with a large crack, let the energy out.
The laser beams tore through her mouth, ripping open a chasm along the centre of her tongue, before shooting a hole through her throat. The venomfang let out a scream of agony and shock, staggering off him and looking at him with horror. His autopilot wasn't over, as another attack tore out of his eyes, this time of the explosive kind.
With a loud crack and a heavy explosion of red energy, the venomfang's head combusted. Green mist rose ominously into the air, before the venomfang fell to the ground, rivers of green blood spraying down her face where her brains had been blown out. Her head had been blown open to the point where her skull had a massive hole blown through it, and a large chunk was also missing from her brain, which had been scattered all over Forzen and the wall. Tiny shards of the dark energy crystal in her head was also scattered around the place, but it was miniscule compared to the amount of brain pieces now covering the ground.
Screams filled the room, and even Master Almai let out a loud shout of fear, having not seen Forzen's new plasma element yet. Even the fearbringer looked at him with a strange expression, a mixture of disbelief and horror. "No way!" the fearbringer exclaimed, before lunging at Forzen. "Alright, you're coming back with us now!"
Forzen rolled to the side, dodging the fearbringer's swipes. The fearbringer snarled in frustration, before his entire form started to glow with a soft, eerie red. Orbs of phantom fright lifted from his body, as well as strange, hideous tendrils of fear energy began to protrude from his midsection.
The orbs of phantom fright shot at Forzen, but he dodged them nimbly, crying out in fear as they missed him by way less than an inch. He collapsed on the ground as he missed his landing, and rolled around. He briefly watched as two of the phantom fright orbs took down some students, and he cursed as he realised he had gotten the other students harmed. Master Almai ran forward to grab them, pulling them away from the fight, as they started kicking and screaming in horror as they became swallowed by their hallucinations.
The purple dragon didn't get a chance to recover from the sight as he suddenly felt the tendrils of fear energy grab him, lifting him up into the air. They wrapped around him tightly, and he found himself looking down on the fearbringer, staring up at him with a wide snarl, showing off his awful, jagged teeth, all four of his eyes staring into Forzen's very soul. He could feel the tendrils squeezing around him, and he couldn't move. He was struggling to breathe.
"You are coming back to Dark Peak, my Prince. You are too dangerous to have running free here. I'm sure your father will be very proud to know of this new element you've picked up," the fearbringer growled.
"I'm not going back! I won't!" Forzen choked as one of the tendrils snaked its way around his neck.
"You don't seem to be in a position to bargain, Forzen. I'm sure you know I have the elemental advantage over you, right?" the fearbringer asked, a sickly grin pulling at his lips.
"I do. I know this all too well," Forzen whimpered.
"Then you shall do well to obey me, and by extension, your father."
He felt the tendrils of fear energy pulse with even more energy, and he could feel them start to excrete their energy into him. He could see his vision going red, twisting hideously. A horrid scream tore from his throat as he pleaded for mercy, pleading for anything but this. His heart raced faster than it had in a long, long time, and he felt his throat constricting even further due to the fear that was taking hold of him.
His body went on autopilot again. He started to feel a burning sensation through his whole body, similar to what he experienced with his eyes when he first unlocked plasma, but this time it was much quicker and much hotter. He felt his entire body built up with plasma energy, and within a matter of ten seconds, the energy exploded out of him.
Sparks of sizzling red energy sprayed throughout the room, causing everyone to scramble even further back from Forzen and the fearbringer. Meanwhile, Forzen was dropped to the floor as the tendrils of fear energy were overcome by the plasma explosion, and the fearbringer staggered backwards, howling in pain. His face was completely devoid of scales, baring nothing but charred, burning flesh and some slightly exposed pieces of skull.
"ALRIGHT, I'M INTERVENING!" a new voice shouted, as yet another large earth dragon burst into the room, however this earth dragon was covered in dark runes. The earth dragon turned to the fearbringer and gestured towards him to come. "You, we're leaving, NOW."
"But Forzen—" the fearbringer murmured.
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" the corrupt earth dragon snarled. "You will die if you try to take him! Our priority now is to report to the Dark Overlord and revise our plans! NOW COME ON!"
Forzen just watched in horror as he studied the earth dragon's features. He saw through the large muscles, the dark runes, and the adult-sized body. He heard through the dark, gravelly voice that had come with the adult body. He had spent enough time in his early years with this dragon; he knew exactly who this was.
"D'varin? Is that you?" he asked.
"The one and only. You're lucky, pest. I may still hate you, but we're on the same side now," the earth dragon spat.
"We are not on the same side!"
"You cannot deny your heritage or your calling as the purple dragon. You may have been let off for today, but we will take you back, Purple Prince."
With that, D'varin spread open his large wings and took off, bursting through the roof of the classroom, with the horribly wounded fearbringer following behind him. Forzen just looked up at the sky, watching as they flew away. He then looked back at Master Almai and the older students, and his face fell.
His vision still tinted red and warped, he watched as everyone stared at him with horror. But what made him even more upset was the wounds that they bore. He knew they were fake wounds, painted over their bodies due to his hallucinations, but the vision haunted him nonetheless. They all bore very similar burns and scorch wounds as the fearbringer did, many of them missing faces or having entire limbs burned to the bone, some of them with charred eyes or mangled jaws, and even Master Almai appeared horribly wounded, as both his eyes hung loosely in his eye sockets, bright red and charred in places, his horns and face misshapen, and his chest caved-in and also horribly burned.
The two dragons that had been knocked down by the fearbringer's phantom fright attacks writhed around in horror, screaming bloody murder at him. Their faces were equally as misshapen in his visions from his 'plasma element' and their rage, as savage fangs filled their mouths and their eyes glowed red with fury, as they hurled insults and accusations at him. Forzen didn't know if any of them were real or not, but he hated them.
He jumped as the first sob escaped his throat, and his throat constricted as he tried to hold back another.
STOP IT. PLEASE STOP IT.
He couldn't hold back the sob. The second one came out in a strangled cry, sounding like something between a hatchling's wail and as if he was about to throw up. He caught the sob mere moments after it escaped his throat, trying to hold it in before it got even worse.
He looked beside him towards the venomfang corpse, which was now staring at him in the most fearful expression he'd ever seen on a corpse. The worst thing was that this venomfang no longer looked like a venomfang. Her form had taken on the lightning dragoness she had been posing as, albeit looking more adult due to the larger size, and the gore that spilled down her face was red instead of green.
"Forzen."
The purple dragon turned around to look back at the others, seeing as Master Almai had taken a few steps forward, his face drooping and small bits of flesh dripping down his face as he spoke. Master Almai spoke again, and it sounded like he was saying two things at once, likely what he actually said, and what his slight fear coma was making him hear. It was hard to make out what he said, but he was sure that underneath the layer of 'you murderous devil' was a layer of 'are you okay', but the more seconds that passed after Master Almai spoke, the less sure Forzen was of this.
It took everything within him to not let out another sob as he opened his mouth to speak. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," Forzen whimpered, surprising himself with how broken he sounded.
I hate this I hate this I hate this, Forzen's mind screamed. I haven't even been hit with a full fear coma yet and I'm already feeling this. Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT.
Moving faster than he ever had, he used his wind element to push himself into the air and out of the hole that D'varin and the fearbringer had left. He flew aimlessly, flying high over the school and then flying over the city, unsure where he was going. He didn't get very far, before his red vision twisted again, and the maimed, charred bodies and faces of the class entered his head once more.
Another strangled sob left him, and he lost control of his body. He fell out of the air, plummeting to the ground. He landed with a heavy thud on top of a building, before the momentum sent him rolling off it and back down to the ground, in the middle of a dark, thin alleyway, where not much sunlight made it in.
He curled up on the ground, hugging his tail close to him as his body shook, his eyes spilling tears, as he was unable to control himself. Luckily, it could've been much worse, but he still hated this feeling. He was vulnerable, he was crying, he was petrified, and he was unable to stop it.
All he could see were those faces and bodies. Not just those in the classroom, but those in the past, as his vision continued to form hallucinations in front of him. He saw the first venomfang he slayed, her head completely separated from her neck in a vicious, messy slice. He saw Eleizen, whose body was rotten and torn to shreds, blood gushing down her throat, as her eyes stared at him judgmentally.
He saw Fjor'gand, his face also burned and torn to shreds, his wings stripped from his back, and his back legs lying limply behind him from being paralysed, as he claimed he was right about him, before spitting at him with hatred. He saw Cynder, who was covered in blood. Blood leaked from her eyes as she cried blood, her chest was spilling blood, and Forzen noticed that blood was pooling from her rear as well. She sat there blaming him for all the pain he put her through when she laid his egg, for cursing her with a mother's heart, which had been torn from her chest when he was taken from her. She claimed he had betrayed her after finally regaining her trust. She had accused him of so many awful, awful things.
He saw the forms of everyone who was supporting him: Muras, Master Almai, and Torialis. They were all broken, battered, bleeding and burned, malformed and twisted. They threatened him, accused him of betrayal, wished him dead.
Then he saw the form of Spyro. A devilish smile pulled at his lips, revealing extremely exaggerated fangs. His crimson eyes burned with a dark, twisted love for a son that would carry on his evil legacy when or if he passed. All he said to Forzen was how proud he was of him. While most sons would dream of hearing that from their fathers, it only terrified Forzen even more. Forzen did not want Spyro to be proud of him. For that miracle to happen would have to mean that Forzen had committed something truly abhorrent. The twisted pride that was in Spyro's eyes aimed at Forzen was sickening.
Forzen didn't know how long he lay there trying to hide away from the apparitions that haunted him from his fear coma. Eventually, the red vision began to subside, and the hallucinations disappeared. When he was sure they were gone, he lifted a paw and wiped his eyes. They were still full of tears, and the feeling of the moisture now running over his paws unsettled him. He rubbed his eyes violently, trying his best to dry them.
He looked up, noticing that the sky was getting dark; it was late afternoon. Damn, I've probably been here for at least three or four hours, Forzen thought. Maybe even more. Thank the ancestors that wasn't a full fear coma; this was bad enough.
With a groan, he stood and trudged slowly out of the alleyway, looking around him before stepping out, suddenly realising he had no idea where in Warfang he was, and he was all alone. Regardless, he stumbled forward aimlessly, hoping to come across somewhere that he recognised. He thought about flying, but now that he was fully in his right mind, he was suddenly registering a lot of pain in his wing. He had sprained it when he crash landed, and didn't think he could fly right now. So, he was stuck walking.
As he walked, he also noticed how dry and rough his throat was. His thirst pleaded to be quenched, and his throat was raw from his screaming and crying earlier. Weak bastard, he insulted himself as the thought of him crying replayed in his mind.
His priority shifted to trying to find one of the water fountains that he had seen around Warfang. It didn't take long before he found one, and he ran to it, rushing to drink from it. Relief washed over him as the water ran down his throat. It was cool and sent a refreshing chill throughout his body.
After a nice, long drink, Forzen stepped back and monitored the streets around him. They were mostly empty, save for one or two dragons, and a few moles, felines or canines walking down the streets. It was a pretty quiet evening.
Forzen breathed a sigh of relief; busy streets were not somewhere he wanted to be right now. Not only was he alone, but as he looked down over himself, he still had blood sprayed all over him, both his own and the venomfang and fearbringer's. It had completely dried over the last few hours, but it was still an awful look, and he wanted to get rid of it all. It took everything within him to not jump into the water fountain and wash the dried blood off. It would be better suited for a bath when he got home.
Which I'm not looking forward to… Muras is going to be all over me when he finds out I've been missing for hours and return home covered in dried blood and old wounds, Forzen thought. I get he's supposed to look after me but his overprotectiveness can be way too overbearing sometimes. I'm also just… not in the mood for his questions right now.
After a few moments of walking, he heard Muras' voice from behind him. "Oh ancestors, there you are!" he exclaimed, rushing up to him and breathing heavily, worry painting his expression. "I was told what happened, we've been trying to look for you for hours!"
"We?" Forzen groaned.
"Me, Master Almai, Torialis, and Ash. We've been all over Warfang for the past four and a half hours trying to find you! Well, Master Almai and I were; Torialis and Ash only joined the search an hour ago."
"Muras, I'm fine."
"You are not fine! You were ambushed, almost captured, put in what Master Almai described to be a partial fear coma that was incredibly strong, and you were crying!" Muras snapped.
"I don't want to do this now. Or here."
"Okay, we'll talk about it when we get home."
"I'm not talking about anything."
"Forzen, trust me. Talking about this will help."
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT, OKAY?!" Forzen screamed, recoiling when he suddenly realised how loud and angry he sounded—he didn't like sounding like that; it reminded him too much of Spyro. "I just… want to go home, wash all this blood off me, and go to sleep."
"Forzen—"
"No talking!" Forzen said firmly.
"You're going to need to at some point. It won't do you any good to keep this all in."
"I don't want to! What don't you get about that?! Just take me home so I can wash up and sleep."
"I… fine. If that's what you want…" Muras murmured.
Forzen just mumbled a small thanks as Muras turned and walked back home, leading the way for Forzen. He opened the door, letting Forzen in.
"I'll be back. I should let the others know I found you," the older purple dragon said. "I won't be gone long."
"I can believe that," Forzen said with a roll of his eyes, before turning and making his way towards the bathroom.
He ran himself a bath, before sitting down inside it and starting to scrub the blood off his scales, being careful not to irritate the wounds on his body. Once he was done, he stood out of the discoloured red and slightly green water, drained the bath, and began to dry himself. Then he made his way over to the basket of red gems, breaking them carefully over his wounds to try and heal them a bit. The holes in his flesh began to close up, but having left them for so long, they weren't able to close over properly. Instead, some thin scars were left behind, giving him even more to sport over his pristine purple scales.
Then he made his way to his room and slumped down on his bed, curling up and trying to go to sleep. It was still early in the evening and neither he or Muras had eaten yet, but Forzen wasn't up for eating. All he wanted was rest.
A few minutes later, there was a small, gentle knock on his bedroom door. Forzen looked up to see Muras peek his head inside. "Hey, Forzen. You alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine. Just leave me alone," Forzen groaned.
"I will. Sorry. I just… wanted to make sure you were okay. I worry for you, you know that, right? I care for you."
"I just want to be left alone right now. Please."
"Okay. Did you want me to bring dinner up for you?"
"No."
"Alright. I, uhh… goodnight, Forzen. Sleep well."
Forzen flinched as the visions from his partial fear coma flickered in his mind once more. "I'll try," Forzen replied, feeling very confident that he wouldn't be able to sleep well, and that his dreams would be plagued by his horrible hallucinations from earlier.
Muras just gave Forzen a small smile, before turning away and closing the door behind him. Now, Forzen's room was shrouded in darkness, besides a tiny little bit of light from the almost complete sunset shining through the window.
He rolled around several times, trying to get to sleep. It took him several hours of just lying there to finally be able to fall asleep, but he woke up several times in the middle of the night from horrid, grotesque nightmares. Forzen wished nothing more than to never have these nightmares again, and kept asking the ancestors to take away his nightmares, but sure enough, every time he went back to sleep, he would wake up barely an hour later from a dark dream riddled with blood, gore, and horror. Sometimes he would last barely twenty-five minutes before it was another nightmare. The worst part was, it would take almost forty minutes each time to get back to sleep.
It was around the third hour in the morning before Forzen finally got sleep, and woke up by the sixth hour with the sun, finally waking up without a nightmare for the first time that night.
This one took a bit longer to write; had a bit of writer's block near the start of the chapter, amongst a heap of other things over the last week, particularly going to a metal festival (which was super fun btw). But I finally got it done, ended up slightly longer than I expected, and I'm quite happy with how it came out.
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MysticFire824: The sinister elements being mutations of regular/dark elements was briefly explained back in Chapter 26 of Demonised. As a refresher, plasma is electricity, sound relates more to fear rather than wind (due to their base attacks both being scream attacks), lava relates to fire, and ethereal, which is a mutation of telekinesis, a magic type rather than a dragon element, however I plan on hopefully expanding the ethereal element a bit more to try and make it a bit more unique. But yeah that's pretty much what sinister dragons are: a mutation of dragons with regular/dark elements, and they became much more bloodthirsty and sadistic, being the dragons that introduced things like torture to the dragon world.
Yup, trauma is a big part of Forzen. I've started to unpack it a little with this chapter, but we're getting close to some of the parts where we uncover a big part of Forzen's past that he's been keeping from everyone. The next arc kicks off in the next chapter.
Dragon of Mystery: Yeah word of Forzen's plasma element hasn't left those who already know about it, and only Muras, Torialis and Doctor Yavian know the more intricate details behind it. You're right, Cynder's better off left in the dark for those details (although it isn't likely at this point hehe).
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Alright that's it from me for now! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, let me know what you thought of it, and have a great rest of your day/night!