A week had passed since Forzen's first training session with Cynder. Since then, his scars had healed pretty well, even though his face would be permanently marked by the events of that training session. Muras had allowed Forzen to have it easy to also get over the mental and psychological pain that he had endured from the session, and so had postponed his own training sessions with Forzen for a few days.
The only training he had done was during combat class at school, which he knew he couldn't skip out on, and he was fine with it. Just two days ago, Forzen had also been moved up from intermediate to expert combat, which had worried him, but after three weeks in intermediate, Master Almai had decided that Forzen would be better off in the expert class, particularly after upping the difficulty on some of the simulations during intermediate combat and watching him emerge victorious, something that Master Almai wouldn't expect from any of the intermediate students.
Master Almai had also questioned him about the scars on the first combat lesson he had after the training session with Cynder, but he had refused to tell him, just wanting to focus on the class. To ease his worry, however, Forzen did tell Master Almai that it wasn't from school or from anyone in the school. It didn't make Master Almai any less concerned, but he seemed happy enough with that answer.
Throughout the week, Forzen had tried to spend some of his alone time doing what Cynder had asked of him back in the training session, now that he had time to be on his own and do it, without the pressure of Cynder's prying eyes and her awful tests. It had taken him two days, but he had eventually been able to reach out and feel air. He could feel it surrounding him, soft and motionless, almost invisible, but still there.
He hadn't managed to figure out how to manipulate the air around himself to make him move even faster or to manipulate it in the form of an attack—this was something he hadn't quite had a chance to practice, but for today's combat lesson, he planned to try it out. However, he had been practicing using wind to pick up and move objects around. He had figured out how to use the air around books to pick them up and move them through the air towards him, and eventually he had gotten to the point where he could move his bookshelf from one side of the room to the other. The bookshelf was tricky though, due to its size and weight being much larger than what Forzen had been practicing with beforehand.
Forzen wasn't sure what he could do with the wind element. Could he hold opponents in place? Hold their elemental attacks in place? Could he manipulate the air around him into other attacks that weren't just tornados? He wasn't sure, but his goal today was to find out.
The purple dragon walked into the classroom and sat down at the very back of the seating, as he usually did. He watched as more students filed in, before Master Almai closed the door and made his way towards the centre of the room, looking over his students. He marked the roll, before beginning the lesson.
"Alright, so today, we will be doing a round of duels, where you will be pitted against each other in a fight. The rules are no lethal blows, no furies, for those who have figured out how to use them, and the battle will be over when your opponent has been knocked out, pinned down for ten seconds, or has forfeited," Master Almai said.
The moment he said that, Forzen's blood froze. He knew this moment would be coming, due to the nature of this class, but Forzen had always been dreading it. He had to fight a real dragon.
"Wait, so we're fighting against each other?" one of the students asked.
"Yes, Larissa, that is what I said," Master Almai replied.
"I don't want to fight against him!" Larissa exclaimed, pointing back towards Forzen, who shrunk back in his seat.
"Me neither!"
"I don't want to fight him either!"
"Same with me, he'll kill us!"
"Well too bad, someone's going to have to. He's going to need to go through this lesson as well," Master Almai said firmly.
"It's alright. If no one wants to fight I'm happy to sit out," Forzen said softly.
"Forzen, you're not sitting out and that's final. I know you don't want to fight anyone either, but sparring is part of this class. You know this."
"I know. Sorry."
"If it makes it easier, we'll get the match with Forzen done first so it can be out of the way and we don't have to worry about it for the rest of the day, deal?"
"Yes, Master Almai," a chorus of voices replied reluctantly.
"Alright. I won't do this every time, but since this will be the first time, I'll do it this once. And there will be more sparring lessons, so I want everyone to know that there is a chance I will pair you up with Forzen, okay?" Master Almai said. "Does everyone understand?"
"Yes, Master Almai," a few students murmured, and a few others nodded hesitantly.
"Great. Alright, Forzen. Down here in the ring. With you, I want…" Master Almai started, looking around the students sitting in front of him. "...let's go with Corahgul."
The ice dragon sitting in the middle of the seating sat up straight, his eyes wide with concern. "Wait, me?" he stammered.
"Yes, you. Get over here."
Forzen watched as Corahgul stammered a bit more, before hesitantly standing up and making his way down into the ring. "Please don't be too mean to me," Corahgul murmured, strong fear edging his voice.
"Likewise. Let's just get this over with; I really am not keen to do this," Forzen replied.
"I don't trust that. I'm sure you're just jumping with joy on the inside to be able to beat someone's face in."
"Corahgul, let's not antagonise, please," Master Almai scolded. "This is simply a sparring match as part of education, not an official duel or proper fight. If I feel it is getting too out of hand, I'll put an end to the fight. I'm sure you know this already, Corahgul; you've done enough of these to know how they work and how I deal with them."
"Yes, Master Almai," the ice dragon said.
"Forzen? Do you understand?"
"I do. Thank you," Forzen replied, his eyes gleaming with a faint gratitude that only Master Almai saw.
"I only hope it doesn't have to come to me having to step in," Master Almai said, taking a quick warning glance towards Corahgul, before he turned and stepped out of the ring.
Forzen and Corahgul stared at each other. Both of them were as scary as each other to them. Neither of them wanted to fight. The thought of hurting an innocent dragon, even in a regular sparring match, which was a normal part of dragon life and training, upset Forzen significantly. The thought of going up against a powerful purple dragon whose affiliation was still unclear terrified Corahgul, particularly when no one knew much about Forzen, and many had immediately jumped to suspecting him as devilspawn, a dragon with evil intent.
They watched as the energy barrier went up around them, shutting them in the ring with each other.
"On my count. Three, two, one, fight!"
Corahgul burst immediately into action, leaping into the air and whirling around. As he did so, he let ice shards form around his tail, before flicking them off his tail at Forzen. The purple dragon leapt out of the way of the barrage of ice shards coming towards him, before he had to dodge again as Corahgul came down to try and land on top of him.
Forzen ducked as Corahgul ran forward and tried to slash at his face. The purple dragon whirled around in place, sweeping his tail underneath Corahgul's paws. The ice dragon collapsed to the ground, before rolling around to try and stand up before Forzen could attack him while he was down. However, to Corahgul's surprise, Forzen made no move to attack him. Forzen was too scared to attack. He knew he had to, but just doing it was the hard part. This was different than Muras telling Forzen to use an electric attack on him as a demonstration. This was an actual fight. Even the tail sweep felt wrong to him.
Forzen burst into action again as more ice shards were shot at him. He leapt out of the way of them, but was suddenly caught off guard as Corahgul let out a beam of ice breath at him, freezing his paw to the ground. An awful chill went up his body as his paw froze, and Forzen tried to pull his paw out of the ice that had encased it and kept it on the ground.
He looked up to see Corahgul lunging towards him, his fist reared back, preparing to punch him across the face. Forzen let out a cry of fear, before finally, he let loose an attack. Lightning shot out of his mouth towards Corahgul, and the ice dragon suddenly shot backwards from the force of the lightning bolt. He landed on the ground with a thud, coughing as he stood himself back up.
As Corahgul recovered, Forzen looked back down at his paw, before running electricity through his body and out of his paw, trying to use lightning to break through the ice. A small yellow explosion went off, sending shattered pieces of ice flying everywhere, freeing his paw.
The ice dragon leapt forward again, claws outstretched ready to slash him, but Forzen stepped back again. He dodged a few swipes from Corahgul, before he finally let out his own attack. The punch landed, and Forzen almost felt sick when he felt the heavy impact of Corahgul's jaw on his fist. Corahgul staggered backwards, groaning in pain, before he leapt forward and headbutted Forzen. The purple dragon retaliated by punching Corahgul again.
Forzen was the one to step back, his breath heavy and heart racing as he realised that he was actually hurting another dragon. He hated this.
He didn't have to win, did he? Surely he could just… let Corahgul win?
He was forced out of his thoughts as he felt several blunt ice shards slam into the side of his head, shattering on impact. He was lucky they were blunt, as sharp ones could have pierced the flesh and stuck themself into his head, and that was something he absolutely did not want.
Stumbling backwards, Forzen shook his head to reorient himself. He leapt backwards to try and put space between him and Corahgul, using his wind element to try and spring himself further backwards, which worked.
Using his wind element reminded him of his whole goal of making this lesson a chance to practice. He'd gotten so caught up in the fact that he was actually fighting another dragon that the adrenaline and horror had gotten in the way of his goal. Clearing his mind, he tried to focus on his goal. He didn't have to win. He could throw the match and end it once he felt he had done enough. But right now, he wanted to try some things.
He watched as Corahgul inhaled, ready to fire more ice shards at him. As the ice shards shot out of Corahgul's maw, shooting at high speeds towards him, Forzen tried to feel the air around the ice shards. It was hard, due to how fast they were travelling through the air, but eventually, he got it. He increased the pressure all around each shard, much like a fist grabbing hold of it.
Suddenly, the ice shards came to a halt in mid-air, just a few inches away from his face. He had caught them and brought them to a stand-still.
"What?!" Corahgul exclaimed, fear edging his shout.
I did it! Forzen thought, trying to keep his excitement to himself.
He looked at the ice shards that hang suspended in the air, their blunt forms all pointing at him with intent to hurt him. Forzen then tried to push the ice shards out away from him. Pushing at the air in front of the ice shards, he flung them out in a wide angle away from him, but also from Corahgul, not wanting to deflect them back towards him.
"How are you doing that?" Master Almai whispered to himself with awe, although Forzen could hear it due to his sound element, all his elements on edge due to the fight.
Fear began to control Corahgul as his attacks started getting more desperate. He spat more ice shards at Forzen, who once more caught them in the air with his wind element, holding them still. The more Corahgul did this, the more his ice shards began to get sharper and sharper. Forzen wasn't sure if Master Almai had noticed, but these could easily pierce his flesh now, as opposed to the blunt ones Corahgul had been attacking with earlier.
Forzen leapt back as suddenly Corahgul lunged at him, claws outstretched. The ice dragon assailed him with fast and violent swipes, claws intent to catch him and draw blood. Forzen dodged as much as he could, but one lucky claw caught the edge of his cheek, opening a new wound above one of his scars. He could feel the thin beads of blood dribbling down over his scar.
The purple dragon spun around, swiping his tail underneath Corahgul's feet and sending him collapsing to the ground. Corahgul barely got time to stand before Forzen completed his spin, stretching his wings out wide and slapping the ice dragon across the face with them.
Adrenaline got the better of Forzen. He was already fighting back, and now his body was starting to get in a really bad spot because of it. His body, fueled by adrenaline, moved faster than his mind could, and so he then suddenly spat out a few strong bolts of lightning at Corahgul, preventing him from standing up, before using his wind element to pick him up and throw him into the barrier at the other side of the ring. He grunted as he hit the energy wall, before he slumped forward and landed face-first into the ground.
Forzen finally caught himself before he could do any more damage, and immediately stepped back with fear. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go that far!" he exclaimed, his body shaking as his mind caught up with everything his body had done on autopilot.
Corahgul looked up at Forzen with fear in his eyes. "He wins. I'm done," Corahgul whimpered.
"A swipe with a tail, a strike with lightning, and then getting thrown to the other end of the ring, and you're calling it there?" Master Almai asked, a little bit surprised. "You're in expert combat; you've been through worse, from myself and other students. Why are you backing down so soon?"
"His powers scare me. After seeing… whatever he did to hold my ice attacks in place… I don't want to know what else he can do with those elements of his. I don't even know what other elements he's capable of using," Corahgul said. "Even with few attacks as well, Forzen's strong; there was a lot of power behind some of those strikes, particularly the lightning."
"Very well; I guess this is the first time anyone's really fought with him, and I suppose none of you are really familiar with his elements since he just moved up from intermediate to expert combat this week," Master Almai murmured with a shrug. "Forzen has the first victory of the day."
Silence.
Master Almai glared at the rest of the class and made a motion with his claw to get them to applaud, which only a few students did, hesitantly.
"You don't have to make them applaud for me, Master Almai," Forzen said, picking up on the motion. "There was nothing good about what I did."
"Don't be too humble about it, Forzen. You're a good fighter."
"That's not what I mean!"
Master Almai stepped back in surprise, not expecting Forzen to suddenly yell at him. The large earth dragon looked down at the younger purple dragon, feeling slightly intimidated by the angry, yet hurt glare that he was giving him.
"I hit him," Forzen continued, a bit quieter as he tried to keep his frustration in. "You know my stance on fighting other dragons, Master Almai. I know it's required of me due to what is taught in this class, but it doesn't mean I can't hate what I did. I know everything that happened in the fight was tame compared to normal, but… I just don't think I can go all out on another dragon."
"I understand, but I can't give you exemptions to certain aspects of class just because it makes you uncomfortable. As much as I know your viewpoint very well, this is something that needs to be taught to the class, including you. Even if it's a matter of protecting yourself if you get jumped, being able to hold your own against another dragon is important. Besides, it helps me assess your skills a lot better than a mere dummy can. As helpful as dummies are, they can be limited, and they can't think like a living, breathing opponent. This is why we have live sparring matches with peers, as far back as history records it. Even outside of school, in the army, we do this. If it helps, I can let you know ahead of time if we're doing a sparring lesson, to help you prepare yourself mentally beforehand."
"I'd prefer not to do it at all, but for now, fine," Forzen huffed. "Anyway, are we done? I think the others should have their sparring matches now."
"You're right. Please, go to the chest and grab some red gems for that cut. Corahgul, do you think you'll need any?"
"I don't think so. I just got slapped a few times and then hit with some lightning. I think I'll be fine without; I don't think I'm bruised," the ice dragon said.
"Great," Master Almai said, before turning to the class. "And to everyone else as well, the rest of you will be fighting Forzen at some point. I think it'll be a good challenge for all of you, and after all, he needs someone to fight against. Don't be afraid; he has your best interests at heart, and as you saw just now, hurting any of you even in a controlled sparring match is the last thing he wants to do."
"You don't have to stand up for me, Master Almai," Forzen murmured, before walking over to the red gems chest with his head low.
Forzen could tell Master Almai had an argument against his statement, but the earth dragon held his tongue and instead proceeded to continue the class, calling up the next two students to fight each other.
The purple dragon made his way back up the grandstands, sitting in the corner as he looked down upon the sparring matches. Now that these students were fighting each other, with Forzen not in the mix, there was high amounts of friendly competition as they all tried their very hardest to beat each other, not holding back. There were heavy blows, some bloody cuts drawn, but nothing too serious as this was still a controlled setting in the school.
He winced watching some of the fights; he didn't know if he could be that violent towards another dragon. It especially unsettled him watching earth dragons drive their opponent's face into the ground several times in succession, lightning dragons hold a lightning breath attack for an extended period of time, not ceasing the flow of electricity into their opponent's body. He had to sit and watch as his classmates delivered some pretty heavy blows and punches, as well as quite a few large swipes of their claws, sending a few droplets of blood spraying over their bodies and the floor. It was especially visible on the pale blue ice dragons, as the dark red blood contrasted the most out of all of the dragons who participated.
Eventually, the lesson had finished, and it was onto the next class. He had maths next, which was good for him. He didn't care much about the content in the class; it was a bit tricky sometimes and he didn't really enjoy it, but at least Master Tegliath was nice and didn't have anything against him like most of the other teachers here.
He was pulled out of his thoughts as he hadn't been focusing on where he was going, and felt himself bump into another body. Flustered, he realised he'd collided with a group of girls his age also going to the same class as him; he had seen them before sitting on the other side of the classroom, although he didn't know their names. Three of them were ice dragonesses, one was a lightning dragoness, and the other was a fire dragoness.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" one of the ice dragonesses exclaimed, narrowing her piercing ice-blue eyes at him.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Forzen murmured nervously, stepping away from the group of girls. "I didn't see you there."
"Maybe you should use your eyes more," the lightning dragoness said, large amounts of sass edging her voice as she whipped her head around.
The other dragonesses followed. The ice dragoness who had spoken to him kept her gaze on him for a little while longer, before turning back to her friends silently. The other two ice dragonesses immediately started to laugh and gossip about him, to which he shook his head and rolled his eyes. However, as he looked back at them, he noticed the fire dragoness slowing down behind them, as her gaze still remained fixed on him. Despite being a fire dragoness, her gaze was cold and judging, and he felt small and targetted under her gaze.
The calmer, quieter ice dragoness turned around and called out to her. "Eleizen, are you coming?" she asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm… I'm fine, Frostine," Eleizen murmured before turning and running back to the group.
Forzen watched as they walked ahead of them, moving at a faster pace than he was. He kept his eyes fixed on Eleizen. Something about the way she looked at him creeped him out. Her gaze didn't feel right for a normal dragon. He could sense something about her, and there was something off about her.
He just shrugged it off, believing that maybe she was just a cold and scary type of person when around those she didn't like. After all, he didn't know anything about her. He'd never talked to her or even been around her much. However, in all the time that he'd been at this school and seen her in passing and in classes, she had never made him feel this unsettled before.
What had changed to suddenly make him feel so on edge simply just being in her presence?
As they all made their way into maths class and the lesson began, Forzen couldn't help but notice Eleizen glancing over at him intermittently throughout the lesson. The moment he would look back at her, she was back into her work as if nothing had happened, or went to talking to Frostine and the others. He still couldn't shake off the fact that something was off about her; feeling her gaze on him made him feel sick.
Lunch was next, and he sat alone once again, sitting on his thoughts. He had looked around for Eleizen, feeling greatly unsettled from earlier, but was glad to see them on the complete other end of the lunch hall. He could see Eleizen subtly looking around as well, probably for him, so he sank back down in his seat and tried to make himself small, ducking behind the shapes of the other dragons sitting between each end of the large room.
The more he thought about how Eleizen's gaze made him feel, the more he felt that there was something… dark… behind that gaze.
Back in Dark Peak, there had been the very off chance that Spyro himself had come in to teach Forzen. One of the things that Spyro had taught him was that every dragon had a spirit trace, which if another dragon was in tune with it enough, they could feel other dragons' spirit traces. Usually, spirit traces felt like their element, but it also contained the quality and purity of their spirit, and a bit of their personality too.
Forzen had fallen out of practice with doing this, but there was a chance that Eleizen's spirit trace was so bad that it unsettled Forzen even without actively reaching out to feel her spirit trace. He remembered how Spyro's had felt. It was crushing, pure evil, awful. It had made him throw up when he had tried to feel his spirit trace.
Since getting more in tune with his elements, it seemed his senses with feeling spirit traces had risen as well. Maybe he was unconsciously tapping into that sense due to how suspicious he was of Eleizen, having never seen her before and seeing her just… stare at him.
He knew he had to get a bit closer to her to be able to feel her spirit trace properly, which getting in close vicinity of her was not something he was too keen on just doing. Maybe he'd have to wait until the next time they were all walking to a class they shared together. So far he didn't know what other classes Eleizen had, but it was a safe bet that she could probably be seen hanging around Frostine and her group of friends. He also knew she was in his maths class, so that helped as well.
It wasn't long before lunch finished and it was back to class. He made his way to the lockers to grab his books for his last classes of the day: history and literature, before making his way to the history classroom, where Master Hyrath was waiting for them, watching as all the students filed into the classroom and sat down.
As usual, Forzen sat in the back corner of the room. He sat there, staring out of the classroom window, before he suddenly noticed Frostine's group, including Eleizen, walk in and make their way to their seats. Like before, the fire dragoness was staring directly at him as she walked in. Forzen shivered in discomfort, before he tried to calm himself down, before reaching out and trying to feel her spirit trace. Due to the smaller size of the classroom compared to the lunch hall, he was able to do it a lot easier.
He didn't remain calm for long, as horror creeped into his soul. He tried not to freak out too much, as to not give away what he had just done, or make a big scene in the classroom.
As he reached out and felt Eleizen's spirit trace, he was shocked to feel absolutely no fire in there. Instead, her spirit trace was toxic and venomous, corrosive and evil.
She was a venomfang in disguise.
Forzen knew that Spyro had created dark dragons who could disguise themselves who were used as spies, but he had never seen or felt one up in person before.
This was awful. Why was she here? Was she spying on him? Was there something else she was spying on for Spyro? What information was she about to pass onto Spyro? How long had she really been here, working her way into Frostine's friend group to be in the school and close to Forzen? He had never really paid too much attention to the other students around him, and had hardly seen much with Frostine's group.
She had also been here just as long as he had. He had assumed that Eleizen was a student that had been here all her life, much like the other students. Had Spyro sneakily sent her out the moment Forzen had escaped Dark Peak? Did Eleizen figure out how to enroll herself in the school at exactly the same time that Forzen had been enrolled?
What were her plans? Would she kill anyone here? Would she capture him?
Forzen needed to get rid of this venomfang.
I can't do it in the middle of class. That will go so bad, particularly with Master Hyrath here. I'll have to deal with her after school, Forzen thought. But how do I go about it? How do I prove that she's a venomfang? How do I deal with her? I have no clue how the disguise magic works.
"Forzen!" Master Hyrath yelled, pulling him from his thoughts. "Are you here?"
"I… what?"
"The roll call."
"Oh! I, uh… y-y-yes, I'm here."
"Thank you. Pay attention next time."
Forzen winced, before nodding. He barely noticed a few students, Frostine's group included, snickering and giggling about him, and it made him blush in embarrassment. Alright, I need to pay attention in class. No more venomfang thoughts. I can think about… that thing… later, Forzen thought.
"Now, today we will be focusing on one of the first major battles of the War of Blood and Bone: the Fall of Astigaar," Master Hyrath explained. "This happened shortly after Lord Darvarol of the Blood Cult of Lograwl had declared war on Warfang and its allies, and attacked a neighbouring city called Astigaar. This attack brought an end to Astigaar, wounding Warfang's allied forces, and the city never managed to come back, leaving it an ancient ruin as of today.
"The members of the Blood Cult had joined with Lograwl's army to perform many blood rituals to drain the inhabitants of the city of their blood. Meanwhile, Lograwl's forces would take on Astigaar's forces, brutally slaughtering them. Of its whole population of thirty thousand, twenty-five thousand were killed, and the remaining five thousand were taken back to Lograwl as slaves. This was where the torture and barganing began throughout the war."
Master Hyrath then continued to go into more of the details about what happened during the attack, as well as what the Blood Cult was. Even though the war had been started by the leader of the Blood Cult, Lord Darvarol, Master Hyrath hadn't really taken the time to explain that yet, only briefly mentioning a few things about the Blood Cult where he felt necessary, since he was focusing on the rest of the events regarding the start of the War of Blood and Bone.
The topic alone unsettled Forzen greatly, particularly since hearing all the bloody stories just reminded him of some of the things he saw back in Dark Peak, particularly watching Jaarsol's mate, Kyoren, be murdered in front of him by Spyro. He shivered as the images flashed in his mind, icy blue scales being torn apart, baring pink flesh underneath it that also got split to create rivers of dark red blood. Underneath that was bone, as Spyro had hacked through Kyoren's body to the bone, tearing out his ribs and using them as daggers to stab Kyoren in the face with them.
Go away, go away, go away! Forzen pleaded silently, squeezing his eyes shut and raising his paws to his head, trying to massage his temples as he felt a headache starting to throb at his mind.
Another unsettling wave washed over him as he suddenly felt Eleizen's gaze on him. He lifted his head up and looked over to the other side of the room, and sure enough, the disguised venomfang was staring at him.
"Forzen."
The purple dragon snapped his gaze back to Master Hyrath, who was now glaring at him intently. "Pay attention; this is important for your exams at the end of the term. I don't want to catch you staring off again, got it?" he said sternly.
"I understand. I'm sorry," Forzen murmured.
"And Eleizen. Eyes on me, not the purple dragon in the back corner of the room."
Forzen could feel the disgust and contempt oozing from Eleizen as she was talked down to by the principal, but luckily, she just sucked it up and nodded her head.
For the remainder of the lesson, Forzen found himself half-paying attention to the content. He was trying not to think too much about some of the content that was being talked about, due to the talk of blood and torture and several other awful things bringing up memories of Dark Peak; not only that, the presence of the venomfang in the classroom was still ailing his mind as he tried to figure out what to do about her presence. Should he talk to a teacher about it? Would they believe him? Would they just claim he's lying? Or would him mentioning a venomfang bring up more reason for others to believe he was evil?
He didn't know what he should do; he almost felt like it was safer, albeit stupider, to deal with her himself. How would he reveal her true identity to everyone? Would doing that also 'prove' the false rumours that people had about him? As much as he didn't want to fight her, maybe it was the only way to deal with her.
At least she was a venomfang. He had no problem fighting and killing awful creatures such as a venomfang. Those evil creatures deserved death. They were a disgrace to the dragon race, beings created solely for murder and torture. They were soulless, heartless, incapable of feeling any emotion aside from bloodlust and anger.
Eventually, history ended, and it was onto literature. It was a practice exam, so they spent the entire lesson huddled over their desks filling out answers to their exam on the book they had been reading. However, Forzen found himself struggling to focus, with Eleizen sitting a few desks down from him. They were sat in alphabetical order, meaning there were only a few other students between him and Eleizen.
I can still feel her watching me, Forzen thought with a shiver. Ancestors, I just want to get out of here. I feel so unsettled it's making me feel sick. I've seen a few venomfangs in my time at Dark Peak but until now I've never felt so awfully threatened by them, even though I've always known they were awful beings. She's actually scaring me quite a lot.
Every time Forzen looked over at Eleizen, her eyes shot back to her paper, acting like she hadn't spent the last few moments just staring at him, studying him. He feared for what was going to happen after class.
At long last, the bell rung, signalling the end of class, and therefore, the end of the school day. Forzen made his way to his locker as quick as he could, trying to get away from Eleizen. He sighed in relief when he finally got to his locker, stopping there for a bit to catch his breath, before opening his locker and putting his gear inside. He closed it, locked it, and then stepped back ready to head back home.
Only to find himself colliding with Fjor'gand as he stepped back.
I don't need this now, damn it! Forzen thought.
"Hey moras'tov, watch where you're going," the earth dragon scoffed. "You could have killed me."
"I wouldn't have, and you know it," Forzen said. "I'm sorry for running into you. Please just… leave me alone."
"You started this fight; you can't back out of this!" Fjor'gand snarled, advancing on him.
"I didn't start any fight! I accidentally bumped into you; that's not starting a fight! I don't even want to fight!"
Too late. Fjor'gand reached forward and tried to claw at his face. Forzen leapt backwards to get out of his grasp, but found himself colliding into yet another dragon, not looking at where he was going.
He turned around and saw red scales. He had run into Eleizen. Frostine and the rest of her friends were standing behind Eleizen, huddled up together in fear. Even Eleizen wore a slightly scared look, and Forzen felt anger at the faked fear she was putting on towards him.
"Don't hurt me, please!" Eleizen pleaded, stepping back with her friends. "Either of you!"
"Don't worry, missy. We all share an enemy with the moras'tov here. I won't hurt you as long as he's around. Taking down the purple devil is my priority," Fjor'gand said darkly.
"Eleizen, you don't fool me. Fear doesn't suit your kind," Forzen growled. "And as for you, Fjor'gand, I'm not looking for a fight with you."
"Do not speak my name, devil," Fjor'gand snapped.
"What are you talking about?!" Eleizen cried. "Why are you threatening me?"
"Leave her alone!" Frostine exclaimed.
"Why are you trying to start a fight for no reason?" the ice dragoness beside Frostine asked.
"I'm not trying to start a fight, but I will fight her if I have to," Forzen said, gesturing to Eleizen, who squeaked in 'fear'.
"Step back everyone! It looks like he's starting to get violent for once," Fjor'gand ordered Eleizen, Frostine and their friends, as well as the crowd that was starting to surround them in the courtyard. "I've been preparing myself for this moment: the moment where the beast finally snaps, the moment where the monster truly shows his face."
"I truly do not want to fight; all I've been asking since the moment we met is for you to leave me alone. Is that seriously so hard to do?"
"You're standing here acting all innocent and weak, yet you're threatening her? Moras'tov, I've seen the way you fight in combat class, before you were moved up into expert combat. You have the power of a monster, you're cold and calm, you're more skilled than any of us!"
"That's true; he did a move today in expert combat that shocked even Master Almai!" a fire dragon from the crowd exclaimed.
"Exactly! Do you see my point?" Fjor'gand scowled. "You are a threat to all of us! You are either too blind or too stupid to see it, or too dumb to realise that we're not falling for your innocent façade, but you are a devil, a monster just waiting to break free from his chains!"
"You think I'm a monster?" Forzen shouted. "No, the only monster here is her!"
Forzen stretched out his wing towards Eleizen, who let out another frightened squeak. "What the hell are you talking about?!" Frostine snapped. "Eleizen has been one of my closest friends for seven years, and you have the nerve to call her a monster?!"
"Frostine, you have to trust me on this."
"Trust you?! You have no trust! You can't be trusted!" the other ice dragoness shouted. "Look at who your father is! Look at your scales! Look at your power! One way or another, you're destined to be evil, to destroy things, to destroy others!"
"Let's face it, Forzen," Fjor'gand started, the use of Forzen's actual name sending chills down the purple dragon's spine. "You have no friends. You have no future here. Your destiny, like your father's, is one of evil and malice. I don't even know why the guardians and Master Hyrath let you come to this school. I don't know why the guardians let you stay in Warfang. Give up the act. Return to Dark Peak. We won't blame you. In fact, we all expect it."
"You all stand here claiming I am the evil creature while the actual evil creature is standing right there, and all of you are oblivious to it!" Forzen scowled. "No matter how much you all allow yourself to be fooled, I won't! I read your spirit trace, Eleizen! You are no fire dragon!"
Forzen watched as surprise and anger flashed in Eleizen's eyes.
"You think you can fool us with that claim? I have known Eleizen for most of my life! I know her! She is a fire dragon!" Frostine screamed.
"Stop trying to bring up false leads to lure us away from you, devil!" Fjor'gand snarled, stalking closer to him; Forzen noticed a few other larger dragons were moving forward in the crowd, doing the same.
"Just listen to me, I promise you she's evil!" Forzen exclaimed.
"Shut up, moras'tov!" Fjor'gand snarled, before throwing himself at Forzen.
The purple dragon stepped backwards, dodging Fjor'gand's tackle, before several pointy earth missiles were shot at him. Forzen batted the first three out of the way, and used his wind element to catch the fourth one as it shot forward towards the centre of his head.
He was then grabbed from behind by two lightning dragons, before being thrown to the ground and several volts of electricity being pushed throughout his body. He screamed in pain. The pain suddenly got worse as a fire dragon ran up to him and heated up his paws, before pushing his paws into Forzen's chest. Steam began to rise from his chest as it sizzled from the red-hot heat from the fire dragon's paws.
"Please, I don't want to fight you!" Forzen cried.
"Yeah, sure thing, devil," the fire dragon snarled.
"Plead and scream all you want, we're killing you right now," one of the lightning dragons growled.
"Get off me!" Forzen screamed.
Through the three dragons holding him down, burning and shocking him, he saw Fjor'gand looking upon the scene in front of him, grinning with dark glee as he watched the purple dragon writhe in pain. And behind him, Forzen could see Eleizen.
She was smirking at him.
Her 'friends' didn't seem to notice, as they watched the scene in front of them with fear. Frostine turned to talk to Eleizen, and her demeanour suddenly went back to scared. It angered Forzen so much to see this venomfang sneaking into the school and fooling everyone. Everyone was in danger and they weren't letting him actually do anything to help them, and instead found themselves wrapped around her claws.
Forzen had never felt anger like this before. He hated feeling like this, but he needed to act on it. This venomfang needed to be dealt with.
Now.
Before she could trick anyone else and put the rest of Warfang in danger.
He let out a huge burst of wind from around him, sending the three dragons holding him down flying, and Fjor'gand staggering backwards.
"Ancestors, he attacked!"
"He fought back!"
"Get a teacher!"
"We're all going to die!"
The frightened screams were sickening. He hated what they were saying about him, what they were seeing him do. This wasn't a controlled match, this wasn't a spar. While there had been minimal damage and he hadn't intended to hurt anyone, he had attacked those dragons. Luckily, they would only escape with minor bruising or grazes at worst.
Staggering to his paws, he pushed his way past Fjor'gand, before rushing back to Eleizen. He punched her. The 'fire dragoness' fell to the ground with a scream. Frostine and her friend screamed. Forzen felt himself get grabbed from behind and pulled back again. He was then tackled by five different dragons, including Fjor'gand.
"Hold him down! Hold him until a teacher gets here!" Fjor'gand ordered.
"Get off me!" Forzen shouted.
"You punched her!" an ice dragon snarled.
"She's not what you think she is!"
"You're just making up excuses to attack others now that you're finally comfortable here!" another fire dragon growled.
"I'm not making anything up! She's a—"
Forzen didn't get a chance to say that she was a disguised venomfang. Fjor'gand had grabbed his horns and used them to slam his head into the ground violently several times. He kept going, and going, and going, and Forzen swore his snout was broken.
Calling on his wind element, he moved the air around Fjor'gand to shove him to the side, throwing him to the ground and sliding off to the side so he had a clear view of Eleizen. He didn't plan his next attack. A shriek of sound energy suddenly tore from his throat towards Eleizen, who was just struggling to her paws with the aid of Frostine and the other ice dragoness. Eleizen fell back to the ground, and Frostine and the ice dragoness leapt back in fear of the strange indigo sound waves rushing towards Eleizen.
The red-scaled dragoness screamed in pain, and Forzen swore he could see a flicker of black and green stripes.
The sound element can disrupt illusions! he thought proudly.
The dragons on top of Forzen beat his head into the ground, stopping the attack. Fjor'gand rushed up to hold the purple dragon's head still, squashing his face into the pavement. A few more dragons rushed up to help, some holding the back of his head to keep it in place, others standing on top of his tail to keep him grounded and unable to use his tailblade to attack others, not that he was planning to.
I have to use one more wind attack on you all. I'm sorry, Forzen thought.
He pushed out with his wind element, and all the dragons pinning him to the ground were thrown off him. Hastily, Forzen stood, and aimed at Eleizen. Another shriek tore from his throat at her. He quickly glanced around him and saw more dragons rushing to throw him back down to the ground. He put up a lightning barrier around him, stopping them from getting inside.
Meanwhile, Eleizen had collapsed onto the ground rolling around and screaming in agony as the deafening sound waves enveloped her. Everyone watched as her red scales started to flicker. She raised her paws to her ears, before clawing at the side of her head.
Her blood was green.
A few fearful cries and gasps went out through the crowd as they watched green blood similar to that of a venomfang pouring from Eleizen's flesh, her red scales going black, touched with green stripes.
Forzen didn't let up the shriek attack. He amplified it, hoping to kill the venomfang using it.
However, a loud roar sounded beside him, as Fjor'gand rushed forward, braving the lightning barrier around Forzen. He leapt into the air, feeling the lightning coursing through his system, but he completed the leap and crashed into Forzen, ending his attack. Fjor'gand clawed and punched at Forzen, who was still trying to gather his bearings from being thrown to the ground so suddenly.
Forzen kicked out at Fjor'gand, finally separating the earth dragon from his body. Forzen stood and created distance between him and Fjor'gand. The earth dragon stood, before screaming at him, his voice trembling. "YOU MONSTER! HOW CAN YOU CLAIM YOU'RE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU STAND THERE DOING THAT TO HER?!" Fjor'gand screamed, gesturing towards Eleizen.
"I attacked her for a reason," Forzen said, as calmly as he could. "As you know, I don't attack others. I don't fight, and I most certainly don't kill."
"I'm not claiming you were trying to kill her! I'm claiming you were trying to turn her into a venomfang! I saw those black and green scales and the green blood!" Fjor'gand snapped.
"I can't turn people into venomfangs," Forzen replied bluntly, and he watched as Fjor'gand's face fell.
Fjor'gand somehow seemed to get the feeling that Forzen wasn't lying. For the first time, Fjor'gand believed him. The fear on his face was proof of that. However, the earth dragon was still adamant that Forzen was trying to do something evil, and he stood there trying to make excuses.
"I don't know, you could have been putting an illusion on her, on all of us! You could have been trying to pit us against each other, to make us fight amongst ourselves, while you waltz around and kill the rest of us!"
"I can't create illusions either. No matter what excuse you try and come up with, none of them will ever come close to the truth. That fire dragoness over there is a venomfang."
All eyes turned to Eleizen. She was pulling herself up onto all fours, her friends now keeping their distance from her. "Eleizen. Tell us it's not true. It can't be true!" Frostine exclaimed. "We've been friends for seven years! You can't be a venomfang!"
"Why would I make something like this up?" Forzen asked. "Some dark dragons have the ability to disguise themselves, occasionally taking on the forms of others, and over the years, more and more of them have received this ability. 'Eleizen' is one of them."
"That's not true! Eleizen, prove to us, to everyone, that you're you!"
Eleizen didn't respond. She brought her paw to her bleeding head and wiped it, pulling her red-scaled paw back to see dark green blood smeared across it. Her crimson eyes finally flashed a bright, toxic green, her pupils slitting. "I didn't realise Lord Spyro had taught you how to read a spirit trace. I wonder if Lord Spyro himself forgot as well, since he was the one who sent me," Eleizen growled, her voice now low and raspy.
"No. No! No, this can't be happening!" Frostine sobbed.
"He wouldn't have sent me if he knew the plan would be flawed, or maybe he just thought you weren't as in tune with being able to sense a spirit trace as you were," the venomfang said with a dark grin. "But my task isn't over yet. I will take you back to him. I will take you back to Dark Peak, back to our dark lord. And then once I return you, he will reward us. For you: power. Power and rule."
"I don't want it. I don't want any of what he has to offer me," Forzen growled.
"You better listen to your father, Purple Prince. You know what he's like when he's angry."
"I'M NOT GOING BACK!"
"Then I'll just have to take you!" Eleizen snarled. "I'll knock you out and take you back, and maybe I might have some fun around here as well. Lots of bodies to break, lots of flesh to feast on!"
Without hesitation, Forzen let out another shriek at Eleizen, and she stood her ground, wincing in pain as the indigo sound waves surrounded her. Her red scales flickered black and green, and she wobbled as she stood. She looked beside her through the sound waves, seeing Frostine and the other ice dragoness staring at her with terror.
Forzen suddenly realised with horror what was happening.
She spat venom.
He stopped the shriek so he could call on his wind element, reaching out to try and catch the globs of thick green liquid in mid-air. The venom came to a halt mere millimetres away from Frostine's face. Frostine screamed with fear as she scrambled away from the disguised venomfang.
Eleizen didn't stay disguised for much longer. She'd finally chosen now to lower her disguise. There was no point trying to stay disguised when her true identity had already been given away; everyone had seen her scales flicker and green blood dripping down her face.
Besides, part of the disguise was shrinking herself down to be the size of a twelve-year-old. As the size of an adult dragon, there was no way she could lose against a bunch of kids.
And so, her scales rippled into sleek, shiny black scales with green stripes. Her flesh went green and her teeth grew into long, terrifying fangs. Her tailblade became long and jagged. And she grew.
Very soon, a full-sized venomfang stood in the middle of the school courtyard.
Panic took hold of everyone.
Eleizen swung her tailblade around, intent on slicing through the bodies of a long line of teenagers behind her. Forzen saw this move, and instantly reached out and sent a blast of wind out from between Eleizen and her targets, sending the other students flying backwards out of Eleizen's reach. She then whirled around and sprayed poison at some more students, to which Forzen also used his wind element to catch the poison in the air.
He then launched himself at her, wanting to distract her from the other students. He latched himself onto her head, reaching around and digging her claws into her cheeks, before flashing his claws upwards. He felt green blood staining his claws, as well as something squishy as he pierced Eleizen's left eye with one of his claws.
She roared in pain, throwing her head around, finally managing to throw him off her. He was sent flying into a group of teenagers, feeling many bodies collapse underneath him and on top of him. They all scrambled to get up, which they did just in time to dodge some poison globs that Eleizen had hurled towards them. Forzen caught them in the air just in case.
Forzen stood and let out another shriek at Eleizen, disorienting her and deafening her, before he quickly put a stop to his attack and let out a flurry of lightning attacks, a mix of lightning breath, orbs of lightning that he formed in his paws and threw at her, before leaping onto her head again and clawing his way in, ready to perform the killing blow on the crystal in her head.
Eleizen snarled, before she held her breath, before pushing outwards. Glowing venom shot out of her wounds and the spaces between her scales, and Forzen quickly used his wind element to get out of the way of the venom spraying out of her. The venomfang turned around and cackled, venom dripping down her face and head, stopping Forzen from grabbing onto her head.
Forzen roared, creating a large tornado around Eleizen and lifting her up into the air. He didn't think about this however as Eleizen spat out more globs of venom from inside the tornado. She didn't even care about aim, she just wanted to attack someone. Globs of green liquid flew out of the tornado in every direction, and Forzen found himself struggling to hold them all in the air. The toxic bombs rained down on the courtyard, leaving large puddles of green liquid everywhere.
Most of the teens had managed to escape the poison rain, but three of them weren't so lucky. They went down, poison splattering over their bodies, before they started screaming and howling in pure agony.
By this point. Three teachers had been brought to the scene: Master Almai, Mistress Galia, the visual art teacher, and Master Talvor, the teacher for the lower levels of combat classes. They all screeched to a halt in horror at the sight before them: students fleeing from the scene and running around in terror, poison splattered all over the ground as well as hanging suspended in the air, three students downed with poison sprayed all over their bodies, and in the middle of the courtyard, Forzen fighting a large venomfang.
"Talvor, go to the barracks and get Cynder. NOW!" Master Almai shouted, and Master Talvor sprinted away without a second thought, a streak of lightning following behind him as he used his lightning element to speed himself up. "Galia, get the children to safety! I'll help Forzen!"
With that, Master Almai turned and barged his way into the fight, trying to be careful of the poison puddles covering the ground, watching as the venomfang clawed Forzen across the face, leaving behind deep, bloody gashes that ran from one cheek, across the bridge of his snout, to the other. She lashed out at him again, trying to catch his eye like he had to her, but was shoved away as Master Almai slammed into her from the side, causing her to stagger backwards.
The venomfang snarled at him, before immediately spitting venom at him. Master Almai cried out, dodging the attack, but he suddenly noticed the attack screeching to a halt before it was even close to hitting him. He looked down and watched as Forzen leapt into the air, his fist sparkling with lightning, before he punched the venomfang in the cheek in a spot that didn't have poison dripping down it. There was a crackle of electricity as the blow made contact, and the venomfang snarled in pain and anger.
"Look at you, scrambling for help from one of your weak teachers," she taunted. "This will be fun!"
She leapt at Master Almai, who sidestepped her lunge. She stepped towards him, thrusting her head forward with her jaws outstretched to bite down around his throat. He batted her away by smacking her in the side of the face, before shooting an earth missile at her. She smacked it sideways with her wing.
Master Almai tried again, and this time watched as it shot forward faster than he had released it, watching the wind part behind it. The venomfang tried to deflect it with her other wing, but it tore straight through her wing membrane, before embedding itself into her clawed eye. She screamed, reaching forward to pull it out, but Forzen leapt up and with a huge breath, let out another gust of wind, using it like a hammer to push the earth missile even further into the venomfang's eye. Her scream was awful to listen to.
"It's over, Eleizen! If you can even be called that anymore!" Forzen growled.
"Eleizen?! But that's a student!" Master Almai exclaimed. "She's in intermediate combat!"
"She was a spy, sent here to get close to me and recapture me!"
"Call me whatever you want; we have no names!" the venomfang hissed. "But sure, call me Eleizen. Soon Warfang shall know of the dragoness who attacked her schoolmates, her teachers, and took Forzen back to Dark Peak, before returning home and digging herself a grave! So yes, you can call me Eleizen!"
"You killed the real Eleizen and buried her, didn't you?" Forzen accused.
"Does it really matter? No one will know the real story once I've massacred everyone here! For all anyone knows, I AM ELEIZEN!"
"What the HELL is happening here?!" a new voice screamed as Cynder landed, Master Talvor behind her.
"Ignore this! The kids, NOW! They're poisoned!" Master Almai snapped, feeling slightly wrong that he was ordering his old boss around, but hardly caring due to the kids' safety being at the front of his mind.
Cynder took a closer look around the battlefield, noticing the three poisoned students lying scattered in the courtyard. "You, and you!" Cynder ordered, pointing to Master Talvoy and another student who was still standing around, hiding behind a large tree and spectating the fight in equal parts awe and horror. "Grab the other two and bring them to me!"
She then reached forward and grabbed the closest student, lifting him up gently in her jaws, wincing as blood and melting flesh dripped from his face and onto the ground below him, before rushing backwards as far from the fight as she could. Master Talvoy grabbed an older girl, whose flank was sizzling away, her flesh also melting and turning grey, and the other frightened student had brought back a younger girl, who had poison splattered all over her wings and running down her sides, causing almost her entire torso to rot away. The girl could be saved but unfortunately her wings would have to be amputated. The older girl would survive with mostly scars. The male would have a disfigured face, and most likely, an eye that didn't work.
Meanwhile, the fight continued in the middle of the courtyard. Master Almai swung his clubbed tail around, slamming it into Eleizen's face hard. Green blood sprayed from her mouth, a few droplets landing on Master Almai. He then let out another earth missile, which Forzen once more propelled forward with his wind element. The earth missile slammed into Eleizen's neck, and she hissed with pain.
She swung her tailblade around, the awful jagged edge swiping across Forzen, leaving a nasty, deep cut running up the entire length of his right flank, dark blood spilling aggressively from the wound. Eleizen continued the swing, bringing the tailblade up and slicing across Master Almai's chest. He staggered backwards, collapsing to his haunches as blood spilled from his chest, the wound awfully deep. He swore when he realised just how deep it was, and how close Eleizen had been to cutting out his heart.
Master Almai got so lost in the thought that he was too slow to dodge Eleizen's next attack. She flung herself at him, digging her fangs into his neck. She bit down so hard that Master Almai thought she would bite clean through his neck; he could feel the pressure, the pain, the massive fangs searing into his flesh. He cringed as he felt her thick, wet tongue lapping at the blood spilling from his throat into her mouth.
He looked down and saw Eleizen's lips pulling into a nasty grin around his throat. He reached up, gripping her jaws firmly and trying his hardest to pull her off him. Forzen used his wind element to also try and force open her jaws. He cried out in pain as the air moved around his raw wounds, deep and bloody, painting his entire neck dark red. Finally, the sickly long fangs had been pried out of him, and with a surge of energy, Master Almai pulled even further, hearing a loud crack come from Eleizen's jaws.
The large earth dragon stepped back and suddenly felt very nauseous, his neck burning with incredible agony. He looked back at Eleizen's wide, broken jaws and saw small green droplets hanging from her fangs, mixing with the dark red blood that covered her teeth, lips and tongue.
She had poisoned him.
Not wanting to leave Forzen alone, he rushed over to Cynder anyway. He would die if he didn't, and he was no use to Forzen if he was dead.
The moment Master Almai bailed, Forzen let out another shriek at Eleizen, and she cried out in pain, staggering backwards. He held the attack as long as he could, intensifying it as much as he could. He watched as more green blood spilled from Eleizen's earholes, and some even began to spill from her nose and under her eye sockets.
She lashed out, swiping at him with her claws. Forzen dodged her first attack, but her second one got him, her claws digging into his other flank, sending him sprawling to the ground. He got up and released a strong beam of lightning that caused Eleizen to falter.
"ENOUGH OF THIS! JUST COME WITH ME!" Eleizen screamed angrily, her words slurred due to her broken jaw.
"Never!" Forzen scowled.
Eleizen just roared in frustration, slamming her paw on the ground with rage.
Forzen just laughed. "Let's face it, you're stuck! You only know how to kill, but Spyro needs me alive! You need me alive, otherwise this whole mission of yours was pointless!" Forzen taunted. "How do you win now, knowing you can't resort to just killing me?"
"I will beat you into the ground until you are unconscious, and then I will drag your limp, saggy body back to your father and plead for forgiveness!"
"You think Spyro will forgive you? He has no forgiveness in that black, evil heart of his! Besides, he has a whole army of dark dragons. You're expendable! He can easily replace you!"
"His slaves are expendable! Not us!"
"You do his bidding, do you not? Are you not just slaves in a different way?"
"SHUT UP!"
She tried to make the first move, spitting more poison at him, but Forzen caught the poison in the air once more, bringing the attack to a halt. He then noticed the earth missile was still digging into Eleizen's throat, and so reached out and used his wind element to make it move again. He put a huge amount of force behind it, watching as it shook around inside Eleizen's throat as it tried to continue moving again.
Eleizen screamed in rage, lunging at the small purple dragon with her claws ready to strike, before she collapsed to the ground right in front of him as the earth missile finally gained enough force and acceleration to tear through the rest of Eleizen's throat, shooting out the other side.
Forzen stepped back, still controlling the earth missile, as he turned it around and shot it back into her neck the other way, and it shot cleanly in one way and out the other. He did this several times, before Eleizen's throat was covered in bloody holes, strings of flesh hanging from the wounds, and her head wobbling on top of the neck due to how little flesh was now holding the neck intact. Forzen could see four thick arteries that pulsed with green energy, marking those as the ones connected to the crystal inside her head.
The purple dragon turned the earth missile around, ready to sever each of the arteries and kill Eleizen, but the venomfang rolled over, and the earth missile went soaring into the pavement. The earth missile shattered as it slammed into the hard ground, and Forzen cursed as he realised his best weapon had now been destroyed.
Groaning in pain, Eleizen stood up, her head hanging loose on her neck as she was barely in control of it. Her neck was like a fountain of dark green as blood poured from it and covering the floor in puddles of dark green.
"This isn't over, Purple Prince of Darkness," Eleizen spat. "Even if I do lose, Lord Spyro's forces will come back, stronger, and stronger, and stronger! You cannot win! He will recapture you, and he will make you his dark prince!"
"I am not his prince. I am not his son. I will never join him. Now die, creature of evil," Forzen growled.
He lifted his paws and bent the wind around Eleizen to his will. He felt the space between the holes in her neck and pulled. Green blood sprayed everywhere as the remaining pieces of flesh were torn apart, lifting her head from her neck. However, the four glowing arteries remained intact. Forzen dropped Eleizen back to the ground, before stepping forward through the puddle of dark green blood and with a large swing of his tailblade, severed each of the arteries, one at a time. Eleizen's screams grew more and more painful with each severed artery, before she was silenced when the last one was cut.
Soft green mist rose from Eleizen's neck. She was dead.
Forzen stood over her, suddenly feeling the pain searing through his flanks, and he collapsed into the puddle of green blood, almost slipping on it as he fell. He felt his head spin from the pain, but eventually managed to struggle back to his paws. He stepped backwards, being cautious of the puddles of venom still on the ground. As he stepped away from the battlefield, he still noticed the large amounts of bright green liquid suspended in the air. He let go of his complete hold on the wind element, and the venom came splashing down all over the ground.
He turned around, covered in his and Eleizen's blood, and suddenly saw the looks of everyone around that was still present. Horror filled the gaze of everyone in the courtyard, including several new teachers that had run in to try and stop the fight before realising that a venomfang had intruded into the schoolgrounds. Even Master Hyrath was there, looking at the small purple dragon with terror.
Forzen looked over to Master Almai, who sat there with Cynder and the other downed teenagers. His gaze was touched with awe, but still had quite a lot of fear in it.
And then he looked over at Cynder. She was the most afraid out of everyone there. She wasn't even trying to hide it. She trembled. She whimpered. She was on the verge of tears. Forzen didn't even know Cynder was capable of tears.
Forzen had never seen Master Almai or Cynder afraid. That really scared him.
Finally, he looked back towards the venomfang, and his heart dropped. The carnage he had left behind was brutal. Eleizen's head had not been severed cleanly. Instead it had been mutilated and obliterated by his wrath, all from one speedy earth missile that had moved with more speed and more power than was natural for an earth missile. Her left eye had been torn apart, both from his claws and from another earth missile of Master Almai's that Forzen had drilled into it, a mixture of green blood and optic fluids spilling from it. Her mouth, drenched in a thick coating of Master Almai's red blood, lay wide open in a silent scream, wider than it should have been due to her cracked jaws. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth limply. Green blood spilled over the rest of her face from her nose, eyes and earholes, as well as the long cuts that Eleizen had given herself over the side of her head.
Yes, she was a venomfang. She was one of Spyro's dark dragons. She was one of the only dragons that Forzen would ever swear violence on. But looking at the carnage still made him sick.
In previous training sessions he'd had over his time in Warfang, he had preferred to go against the shadowfang dummies cleanly, trying to cut his way into an opening where he would then use his lightning element to overload its systems and destroy its life crystal that way. But Forzen wasn't able to get to her head where the crystal was located, as she had drenched her head in venom that would surely kill him as well. He could have tried to get in close to her neck, but by that point, adrenaline had gained too much control of him, and he had already watched Master Almai, as well as three other schoolmates, go down poisoned. He had just wanted Eleizen dead, and quickly. At that point, he had subconsciously given up on clean killing.
One more look at Eleizen's decimated throat sent his stomach revolting. He lowered his head to the ground and threw up violently, each retch agitating the savage cuts in both of his flanks.
Once he had finished throwing up, he turned back to Cynder and Master Almai. "We… we need to talk," Cynder said, her voice trembling. "You, me, your teachers, the guardians, Muras."
"Later," Master Almai said firmly, trying to take control of the situation; his voice was hoarse and croaky from how badly wounded his throat was. "Now, we need to clean up this… this mess. All the students still here, go home. School's over, especially now. And you three who were poisoned, go to the infirmary to get the rest of your wounds looked over; hopefully they don't scar."
"If you need any support after what you all just witnessed, this is just a reminder that we do have counsellors and support circles here that you can get in contact with," Master Hyrath added. "Now go. We'll keep everyone updated if we'll even have school tomorrow, due to this mess in the main courtyard, as well as needing to process everything that just happened, both mentally and in terms of the school."
As the students began to file out of the schoolgrounds, Master Hyrath made his way towards Cynder, Master Almai, and Forzen, talking in a softer, lower tone once he was standing right in front of them. He tried to stick closer to Cynder and Master Almai, quite wary of Forzen.
"I will be setting up a meeting with all the guardians tomorrow regarding this. I want all of this sorted as soon as possible. I want to know exactly what happened, and I want to prevent something like this happening again," Master Hyrath said firmly and quickly, before turning to Forzen. "And you. If you are to stay in this school, I want no more of that monstrous, beastly fighting, do you understand?"
"Master Hyrath, if I may, he was just trying to protect everyone from that venomfang… from… Eleizen," Master Almai croaked slowly, trying to pick his words carefully, and also trying to fight through his initial fear towards what he had just seen Forzen do. "I know the display might have been more barbaric than I think anyone, including Forzen, would have hoped, but he did not do it out of malice. Do not fault him for going all-out, as insane as his powers may be. You know that everyone else would give it their all too. No one would hold back on a foe like a venomfang."
The principal narrowed his eyes, looking between Forzen and Master Almai. "We'll see," he eventually huffed. "It depends on how tomorrow's meeting goes. Now you two, go to the infirmary as well and get your wounds checked up and your bodies cleaned of all the blood, both yours and that toxic demon's. Cynder, you're dismissed and free to go."
Cynder nodded, trying to put on her strong, emotionless exterior once more, even though Forzen could see through it that she was still beyond terrified. She then turned and flew away, leaving the scene.
Forzen just stared after her, feeling bad. Did I scare her like that? No, surely not. But what else could have scared her that much? She's dealt with venomfangs and the rest of Spyro's army for twelve years. I didn't even know she could feel fear, Forzen thought.
"Hey," Master Almai croaked, his voice cutting through Forzen's thoughts. "Let's go. We should both get ourselves looked at."
Forzen looked up at the large earth dragon, before suddenly noticing Master Almai's own neck wound. His throat was mangled and torn, large punctures from Eleizen's massive fangs sinking deep into his flesh, red blood pouring from the wounds. It wasn't anywhere near as brutal as the state Forzen had left Eleizen's throat in, but it was still ugly and uncomfortable to look at.
"Are you okay?" Forzen asked.
"I'm fine. Cynder got all the poison out, same with the other three teens that got hit. We'll probably all come out with various levels of scarring though; the other kids will probably have it way more severe than me," Master Almai said. "Now let's go, before we lose too much blood. Your flanks aren't looking too good."
"Yeah… let's do that."
So, that happened XD
Been looking forward to this chapter all year, so glad I finally got to write it. Loved being able to write Forzen fighting without holding back, and also writing more venomfang fight scenes. This also turned out much gorier than intended, so there's that as well lol. It also ended up way longer than I expected it to be (seems to be a running trend with these Forzen-in-school chapters lol).
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Dragon of Mystery: Life happens, you don't have to apologise! Sorry to hear about that by the way, hope you and your family are doing okay. And yeah, Cynder's feelings towards Forzen are very complex, and that won't change particularly after seeing everything she had just seen in this chapter. The events of next chapter will focus a bit more on the debriefing so we'll be able to get a bit more into the mental effects of the fight on each of the other characters later on.
MysticFire824: Thanks once again for reviewing! It's always good to see your reviews pop up :) I will say, the earth dragon 'favouritism' was completely unintentional lol. It was mainly because Torialis is the current leader of the guardians, Terrador took that role after Ignitus' death, meaning he was much more prominent in helping Cynder integrate into normal life after DOTD, and with Almai, I just thought earth suited him. On the other hand, there is Fjor'gand who's also an earth dragon, so they're not all amazing characters lol XD
I don't blame you for feeling that way towards Cynder. You can definitely see where she's coming from and feel for her for it, even though she's absolutely in the wrong and we've got a character like Torialis calling her out for it, something that's definitely needed. I'm also glad that the similarities between Cynder and Forzen are showing through, and I think the comparison I made in the last chapter was an important one to highlight, particularly for Cynder as well.
Derick Lindsey: Yeah the story isn't going that way but I won't lie it would be fun to do that hahaha. Glad you're liking Torialis a lot, I think he became everyone's favourite by the looks of it after that conversation with Cynder. Also I'm still working on the next GEM chapter I haven't abandoned it! It's just been a real struggle to write and Outcast has just come more naturally to me lol.
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Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and looking forward to seeing what you guys think of this!