Strongest
It took basically no time at all for Red and her mother to get back to the top of the mountain in barely two minutes, barely an inconvenience at all, which is good because they both despised inconveniences!
When they reached the top they could very easily see the still incomplete palace carved against the mountain. There were towers and spires and such carved at the top, but there were walls missing and the ceiling wasn't done. Oh and the decoration sucked, her mother agreed with that, so she could say it.
During the short trek back home, Queen Scarlet had a rather wide grin on her face after that conversation with the fish, and Red couldn't lie, she was feeling like that as well.
"Red, aren't you just thrilled to bits about this? Going to Pyrrhia, to a school located in my kingdom, it's all just so perfect, wouldn't you think?" The queen said, her mood very good right now.
"Oh yes I am! The school part does not sound all that exciting, given that these dragonets," Red snarled with disgust. "Are there, but at least I'll get to see your magnificent home."
"Actually, the presence of these dragonets is just perfect," Scarlet replied. "But I'll get into that soon, for now just do what you usually do, and then do the same business in the arena as always."
"Of course your majesty. Oooh I just realized, out there I'll finally get to fight the other half dozen tribes! Feeling the claws of the Icewings on my throat as I burn them down, the feeling of my bones breaking from a Seawing slamming their tail while I claw their gills off, ooh and I'll see what these other Pantalans can actually do! I heard Silkwings got some sort of secret super weapon," she said excitedly, starting to speak fast with a wicked grin as she got these mental images.
"And of course, if you can get your talons on some Rainwings, a royal in particular, you should pull off these most annoying fangs! Out there is an exhilarating world, Red, although I recommend you wait a few days, learn the best targets to start, no?" Scarlet said, following her excitement.
"Of course, my queen," she just quickly nodded while deep in her imagination.
Queen Scarlet walked in by herself into the main entrance to the top, the surrounding Skywings making sure to step aside and look in reverence.
But when Red walked down the same hall a few moments later, everyone backed off even more and they looked at her in fear and terror, making her grin even more as she bared her teeth to everyone present, making them look even more nervous.
Red's daily routine was simple:she went to the training center, got in front of a dragon dummy, and began to beat the heck outta them while trying to dismember it as fast as she could, or make it bleed out the most of its stuffing possible by slashing or biting right at the weak points.
And when that was done, she switched from talon-to-dummy and instead picked up either a sword, spear, knife or other types of sharp weapons, and with the aid of a very scared and very scarred dragon, she'd practice her use of weapons so she could grab whatever might be in a room and use it if needed.
Her routine also included the most boring part of the day as well, where she had to read scrolls talking about the biology of other dragons, and where weak points, organs and vitals are located, and it was so incredibly boring, yet she knew that her mother meant well, it's all to make her the ultimate warrior, the best after the queen herself, a worthy bodyguard! A true Champion!
…. And then she had to take the actually boring lessons due to being a princess! Now that one was harder to justify besides just repeating to herself "The queen wants it. The queen wants it." Apparently she was meant to believe that pure brute strength and combat skill are not everything for a queen, and she needed to be at least 5% smart or something dumb like that. Simply getting the basics of reading, writing and giving out orders, blegh!
But finally, they were approaching sunset, which meant it was time for the final activity to end the days on a high note: fighting.
At the very middle of the mountain was the most important place in Red's opinion: the arena. Made a wide circular room carved in the stone, there were a few dozen rocky seats at the sides for anyone to sit down and watch the show, and meanwhile at a higher up balcony by a wall was a wooden throne where the queen got to sit and enjoy.
And being the second most important and strongest dragon in the Sky Kingdom, well, Sky Mountain, she was the main attraction in nearly every single event.
So at least the boring hour of lessons had a single positive, it always made her feel all the more eager to get into the arena right after and spill some blood, either hers or from her opponent.
Another very smart idea from the queen, have the worst right before the best so I can enjoy it even more, she's so good. Red would often think after these classes when walking over to her favorite spot.
As for the seats, besides the Skywings that already live here, the Sandwings and Nightwings were allowed to enjoy some entertainment as long as they paid by helping for the day on the construction or sustaining of this new palace. And of course, Hivewings were not allowed, if Wasp would be dumb and not trust Scarlet nor let her enter her so-called fancy hives, then the Queen of the Sky could do the same.
Red entered from a side of the arena, standing proudly and with a confident smirk as she let out a puff of smoke from her nostrils while flexing her talons.
For the first time in several months, the seats were all completely filled up today, and Red wondered what it was, thinking about it she did see many Skywings flying in and out of the mountain, so maybe they were telling the other tribes to come over if they wanted?
A minute after Red entered and everyone was on their seats, the queen stood up from her throne overlooking the arena and extended her wings.
"Welcome everybody! I am just so glad that many of you could attend, because today's exhibition will be incredibly thrilling to witness!" Queen Scarlet announced. "My champion, Red, will sadly be leaving this island in 3 days to join the rest of the world," the expressions of many dragons turned to shock and confusion. "But it's not the end of the world! To celebrate such a wonderful event, I decided to fully test her capabilities before her grand departure, to give us one heck of a show."
"Today, Red will be facing off against ten opponents."
Suddenly from the opposite side of the arena, several Skywings walked forward at once, making a total of 9, all of them armed with weapons and wearing light armor.
"Oh, and all of these at once," Scarlet added with a grin.
"Oh that's great!" Red exclaimed, baring her fangs at the many dragons standing a distance away from her, stomping her talons on the ground. "Nine? My personal best is only 5, thank you, your majesty!" She said with absolute confidence, earning a nod from the queen.
Meanwhile, the group of dragons, which had been looking confident enough considering their superiority in numbers, began to look at each other and shuffle nervously after seeing how unbothered she was by this fact.
"Same rules as always, other than that give it all you've got. So begin now!" Queen Scarlet commanded.
The arena's rules, due to the fact that there's a very limited number of Skywings in the island, killing is sadly forbidden to not lose every single warrior after a few weeks. Other than that, knocking out or maiming the opponent is all fair game.
Three of these dragons charged forward at once, two were wielding spears and another a sword, the spear duo tried to quickly circle around from her sides while the swordwielder went from the front to close her in from most directions, but she didn't even try moving back or to take off.
The moment these dragons stopped right in front of each side, the spear wielders both thrusted forward, and she responded by dropping herself down to the ground and having them hit the air right above, and not even a second later she did two things: did a quick turn on the floor to bring her jaws to one of the front talons of the side dragons and bite down hard, and with the same movement of her body she slapped upwards with her tail and hit the spear off the other dragon's talons and into the air.
The one she bit quickly screamed in pain, so the sword one made its own move by chopping down to Red while she was on the ground, but she assumed something like that would happen and quickly pulled back with teeth and talons on the dragon she had bitten, making them stumble forward and on the path of the sword, with the eyes of the one widening the sword widening as they tried to stop the swing, but still ended cutting off a horn.
Red let go of the talon she was biting onto by releasing a short plume of fire right onto it while moving her head away, then caught the sharp falling horn and threw it to the one with a sword. She held back from aiming a direct hit to the chest, deciding the stomach would be good enough. The pained cry a second later proved she was right, alongside the sword being dropped
There still were half a dozen other dragons besides the ones she was already beating up, and the rest were starting to close in as well. So she grabbed the spear she had hit into the air a few moments earlier and fell nearby and stood up. With a spinning motion she hit hard the head of the disarmed dragon with the shaft, and poked at a talon that was trying to grip the sword again and made it flinch.
One of the dragons from the larger group took off and flew into the air, making the three next to Red scramble off as the one in the air began to spit fire at her, with her diving out of the way before taking aim for a moment and following by throwing the spear to that one, who tried to swerve to the right, but still got hit on the side and right beneath a wing, making them lose altitude.
And she did not stop there, instead taking off and darting straight to the falling dragon with her talons extended. That dragon could barely react with eyes wide open as she held them during her charge forward, and maintaining that speed for the most part, rammed straight to the group of dragons with another dragon.
Most moved out of the way, but she managed to hit two that were too slow to react at her unusual tactic, getting knocked down to the ground and below the dragon she used as she released her grip for a moment, before getting behind the dragon she'd just charged with, taking hold of their tail, and began to flap her wings to lift up with them dangling from the tail… Before just dropping it back down on the two dragons that were starting to stand up from the ground, hitting them once more and knocking them for good.
Now that she was on the air, the largest dragon of the group flew over to her while throwing some fire at the same time which she quickly dodged before he was at melee range now and tried to claw at her, his large claws scraped against her side and drew blood when she tried to move so she retaliated by throwing not even fire, but smoke at his face, momentarily blinding him and getting him to cough, all the while she flew up to the large dragon's back and casually got on top of him as she started clawing at his back and biting the back of his neck while he screamed in pain and started flying in a frenzy while trying to shake her off.
But after a few moments of fun she just jumped sideways to a wing and pressed her talons against it, stopping the flapping and making it uneven, plus her added weight he would quickly start plummeting down to the ground, which she sped up by twisting that wing.
Afterwards, there were just two dragons still standing: one with a spear, and another with a dagger. She smiled wickedly as just casually stomped closer to them.
"Is that all you've got? Big final match and I'm barely hurt!" She said in a mocking tone.
The one with a spear tried to quickly throw it at her, but she merely moved her head to the side and it missed, hitting against the ground, so she picked it up.
"Nope, you did it wrong, this is how you throw a spear," Red said as she blew some fire onto the spearpoint before moving her talons in a throwing motion… Which she feigned, these two dragons having already quickly dodged to the side for no reason, so now she just threw the spear to the one wielding a dagger with almost deadly accuracy as it hit the right side of their chest, if it weren't for the rules she could have aimed a little more to the left and get an easy killing blow.
That one fell, and there was just one more opponent, so she just casually slowly walked her way there while the last one looked in panic and shivered, seeing all of their fallen teammates… Before just dropping the spear, curling down on the ground and starting to cry.
Red just raised an eyebrow at this. "Well, guess that settles this whole battle, too easy!" She announced, flaring open her wings and standing on her hind legs for just a moment to be at full height before getting back on all fours while the crowd cheered.
"Oh my, yet another brilliant match for our champion, is she just completely unstoppable?" Queen Scarlet announced, her expression showing that the battle was perfectly entertaining enough for her.
And then the queen opened her own wings and dived down to the opposite side of the arena, staring down at Red.
"Or maybe not that unstoppable, considering that I said there would be ten opponents today, so we're still missing the last battle of the day," Scarlet added, baring her own fangs at Red as she looked in complete shock.
"Queen Mother!?" Red exclaimed, taken aback by this. "Are we actually going to fight!?"
She couldn't lie, the thought of that was filling her with excitement and making her feel all happy and jumpy, she knew that Queen Scarlet is without a doubt one of the deadliest and most skilled dragons in all of history, so this would be a dream match.
"My champion is leaving for potentially months or maybe even years. I haven't put such a talons-on approach for a while, but I can't just let you leave without granting me the most thrilling fight I'd have in over a decade," her mother replied while getting on a battle ready stance.
"Then I hope this will bring you back to the-" she was about to say "glory days" but stopped herself from doing so for very obvious reasons. "Good days."
The queen's eyes narrowed slightly as she let out a huff, likely too smart to not realize what she was about to say, and she flexed her talons.
"I'd hope so too, that I didn't give you all this training just for you to fall short here," Queen Scarlet replied, starting to circle around, so Red did the same.
They circled around each other for a few moments, locking eyes, and then Red made the first move by dashing to her mother.
Immediately they got into talon-to-talon combat, with Red attempting to slash, but Scarlet easily moved her own talons to block her strikes or push her talons away, before going for the offensive immediately after, Red needing to be more evasive due to her mother being superior in raw strength so she can't just block her too.
And as they started their duel, something exciting happened, Queen Scarlet started to sing, either due to the island's enchantment deciding this would be a good moment for it, or the Queen herself leaning into it, she began slowly and powerfully with a build up.
Princess Red, daughter of the sky,
Here you stand within the palace walls,
About to face the great queen so…
You better consider it a prelude of what is to come!
The queen forced Red to back off with a well timed fire in front of her, making the princess jump back and attempting retaliation by throwing her own fire, just for Scarlet to weave around it and charge, keeping the aggression.
I used to live at the top of it all
And then the world turned me down from the top,
With prophecies and pesky daughters
They took it all from me!
Scarlet's expression had turned more serious now, opening her wings and taking off, with Red chasing right after, the queen did a quick turn and a swipe of her tail which got promptly evaded as Red flew underneath her and raised her talons to scratch at her underbelly, but one of Scarlet's talons caught hers and threw her off and she almost hit a wall before stopping herself.
I was the greatest, I was the meanest,
The strongest and the deadliest!
The kingdom mine to rule, but by a spell I remain stuck!
So now, listen, Red, for this is your task.
At all costs!
Seek what was mine, remind them all from our time in the top,
Set up the spark, bring forth the war,
Remind them who they've all turned their backs to!
Red was still close to the wall, and was about to charge forward once more, before her mother took the first step and dove for her, so she quickly began to descend with her wings close to the body to evade, but Scarlet was faster and reached down to her and pushed Red against the stone wall, dragging her back against it as she flew.
At all costs!
Find that false queen, lie incarnate,
Stare her down and show her mistake,
Then prove your might and set things straight.
For in this world, might makes right,
Power will carry you across any plight,
And the kingdom shall atone,
When you take the throne.
Red's eyes widened upon hearing this, staring up to her own mother, who was looking at her as well with a smirk in her expression and a face that showed she meant it, before she threw her down to the ground.
My tribe is weaker,
Without a true ruler,
Without me sitting on that throne,
So at all costs!
Seek what was mine, remind them all from our time in the top,
Set up the spark, bring forth the war,
Remind them who they've all turned their backs to!
You're what they need, even if you ain't me,
A queen who gets what matters the most,
Might makes right, peace is a lie,
And forget about love, that just ain't it!
At all costs!
Set things straight, then of course set me free too,
We shall rule and we shall enact,
Revenge against those who took part in such act!
Our tribe is weaker,
Without a true ruler,
Without you sitting on that throne!
The song ended, but not the battle just yet, Red shook her head for a moment as she stood up and ducked to dodge a claw swipe.
Me… Queen? And not just the queen of this mountain, but of the actual Sky Kingdom out there!? I never thought she'd order me something like that," Red thought, dumbfounded and having lost concentration.
"Well that just ain't fair, your revealing song distracted my focus!" She exclaimed to explain why she was on the losing side.
"It's do or die out there, I sure hope that you can maintain focus when you get to the palace and challenge Ruby," Scarlet snarled, looming above Red, staring down in a way that it actually made her feel small, her gaze actually managed to frighten her. Red was the only dragon that could truly do anything for her mother, for her tribe, for her new kingdom.
"I never fail," Red said, gritting her teeth and charging forward, but it was very short lived as Scarlet moved her talon far faster than she could ever react, and landed a straight uppercut down on her head with such a strength that she fell back.
Next thing she knew, the queen's claws were right against her neck, leaving her in a position that would spill death if things were different.
"Seems like there's always a first time for everything," Scarlet commented. "Just giving you that much needed reality check. And so you know that Ruby will not be giving you second chances if you end up in this position again. Stay focused, stay deadly, always be the strongest in the room."
Author's Note: And with this, these latest four chapters were more of an actual intro for each member of the main cast, starting from the next chapter the trip to Pyrrhia will start, and that's when the story and characters will truly make a jump!