The last thing Forzen wanted to do this morning was get up and go to school. It was Glaenday, the first day of the school week, and the first day of school since the venomfang incident on Marouday last week. School had been cancelled on Xurday, which was when the meeting had been, and then Lorinday was also cancelled. Master Hyrath had said that it didn't make sense to have one lone day of school before entering the weekend, and he thought it would be much better for everyone to have another day off to recover.
Apparently, many parents had come to Master Hyrath and other teachers with complaints about their child's safety, both with the threat of Forzen's existence, and of dark dragon spies, who everyone also blamed Forzen for, considering the venomfang was only there to get close to Forzen so she could capture him. Many parents had come to him saying how their children had been traumatised from the event, particularly those who had come so close to death: three who were poisoned, and several others who had escaped the venomfang's nasty tailblade.
Master Hyrath had made it clear to the parents, and even to Muras in case Forzen needed it, that there was free counselling for all of the students in relation to the recent venomfang attack. He claimed that in this current age of darkness, amidst a war, no one would ever be truly safe, but he had vowed that his goal was to do his best to ensure safety for all the students and teachers that attended the school. His goal was to make sure everyone was protected while they learned.
Today was going to be awful. It was going to be awkward and horrible being around everyone at school, but not only that, he had been booked in for a training session with Cynder after school today. It was his second ever session with her, and he was glad that both Muras and Torialis would be there, but just being in the same room as Cynder terrified him, particularly after his last session.
The moment he stepped into the schoolgrounds, all eyes were on him, cautious and terrified. The main courtyard was rather empty, most of the students opting to hang out elsewhere before school started, the venomfang attack still very fresh in their minds, but those that were there were very quick to make their way out of there.
Forzen sighed sadly, grabbing a seat at one of the benches in the corner of the courtyard. He looked around. They had done a good job at cleaning up the courtyard from all the blood and puddles of poison that scattered across the ground. There were still a few dead patches of grass and melted pavement, but the worst parts had been fixed. Forzen hadn't ever paid attention to what the courtyard looked like before, so it was weird to take it in without the venomfang corpse there, bleeding out onto the ground. He usually walked straight through the courtyard without paying attention to anyone or anything; the fight on Marouday had been the most amount of time he had spent in the front courtyard of the school.
Eventually, the bell rang, pulling him from his thoughts. He stood and made his way to his locker, grabbing his books for maths and literature classes to start the day. The moment he stepped towards his locker, everyone else in their lockers around him stepped back, giving him room. Forzen winced at the terrified looks everyone gave him.
It was strange. Everyone had gone from being so hateful and violent towards him, to now terrified and distant. They wouldn't even touch him. While he was happy they weren't trying to beat him up anymore, this was the last thing he wanted to replace that.
He didn't mean to scare anybody. He was just trying to protect everyone against that venomfang, and against creatures like that, violence is necessary. He also had a large size disadvantage, so he had to be creative. Forzen could see why it scared everyone and understood it well, but it still didn't make it any less hurtful that he had terrified and traumatised most of the school.
For those who didn't see the fight? Forzen was worried what rumours would be going around now.
The young purple dragon sighed, before stepping forward, opening his locker and grabbing his books, feeling the weight of every cautious eye on him, everyone silent and still. As Forzen turned, ready to go to class, he looked at everyone, who was still staring at him.
"I'm not going to hurt any of you, you know that right?" Forzen said gently.
"I don't believe that for a second, moras'tov!" a lightning dragon exclaimed. "We saw what you did! We saw what you're capable of! None of that is normal for someone of your age!"
"Yeah, you could kill us with ease if you wanted to!" an earth dragoness added.
"But I don't want to," Forzen replied.
A confused, unsure silence washed over the dragons. Forzen sighed sadly, shaking his head, before turning and making his way towards his first class of the day. As usual, he sat in the corner of the room, alone. The students almost completely went quiet when Forzen walked in the room, too scared to talk or make any sound once the purple dragon's presence graced the room.
The day had barely started and he hated this.
Even Master Tegliath seemed a lot more cautious of him than he had before. He had been the first teacher to somewhat help him and look out for him, offering him private tutoring outside of school, which Forzen had only taken two sessions with him so far.
But, Master Tegliath didn't address his cautiousness, nor did he address Forzen at all in the class. He just taught the lesson he needed to, and the class went along fairly smoothly. Forzen just spent the lesson existing in the back, taking in the lesson and trying his best to take as many notes as he could. He wasn't comfortable drawing attention to himself to ask a question, and he didn't think Master Tegliath was comfortable with him walking up to him after class to ask a question or request another tutoring session. For now, Forzen was on his own.
Literature was much the same. Mistress Yorrine was taking the class through the results from the practice exam and giving feedback on things that the class needed to work on, but the air was still quite tense, particularly as Mistress Yorrine was marking the roll. Luckily, she didn't seem to care much, but Forzen found her hard to read in general. Everyone else was uneasy when Forzen's name was called out and he responded, acting like they had just been reminded of his existence there and that his existence was a bad omen.
Recess was rather uneventful. He didn't bother going up to get food, not wanting to worry about getting in a line full of students afraid of him, and he also had no idea how the staff serving the food would react to him. He figured it would be better to wait it out a little bit, and maybe try at lunch. Keyword 'maybe'. He'd starve himself if he needed to. He'd gone a day without food before, it's not like it was something unusual for him at least.
Physical education concerned him. He knew Master Ploroth had it out for him; none of the physical education classes had been all that great, and he always ended up with some rather unfair punishments, oftentimes for things he didn't do. Sometimes Master Ploroth would give punishments to the rest of the class as well, as a way of pitting the class against him and making them hate him more.
Master Ploroth had called on Forzen long before the class had even started. Forzen had arrived there before several of the other students were there, and therefore before even the roll call had begun. "Hey, purple va'gier. Get over here," Master Ploroth demanded.
Va'gier… ancient draconic for 'killer', Forzen thought, thinking back to some of the ancient draconic lessons he'd had with Muras, to help prepare him for some potential insults that several dragons might hurl at him, such as 'moras'tov'.
Trying to hold in his annoyed huff, Forzen made his way towards Master Ploroth. Walking past some of the students, he was made aware of many of their concerned, scared expressions. He passed Fjor'gand, who instead stared at him with a dark, hateful expression. As he got closer to Master Ploroth, the large fire dragon stepped back defensively, spreading out his wings wide. "Not so close, you freak!" he exclaimed with fear.
"I'm sorry," Forzen whimpered, shuffling back a bit.
"I cannot, in all good conscience, have you participating in today's game of pawball after what you did on Marouday, understood?" Master Ploroth said.
That made sense. It was a contact game, where players would often tackle each other to gain control of the ball. After Forzen's violent display on Marouday, he wasn't surprised that Master Ploroth was afraid to put him in a game that had the potential to go wrong so very quickly if physical contact went too far.
"Yes, I understand," Forzen murmured softly. "Was… there anything you wanted me to do in the meantime?"
"I was originally thinking of having you just sit out and watch, but that's giving it to you too easy. Instead, I want you to run laps all lesson."
"What? All lesson?!"
"You heard me, moras'tov. Now go!"
"Now? But you haven't done the roll call."
"Now! Get to it!"
Not expecting the sudden yell, Forzen burst into action, starting to run laps around the oval while the rest of the class used the field section inside the track to begin playing pawball. He was awfully tired after the first few minutes, and a few times he had slowed down to a walk, only to be yelled at by Master Ploroth from the other side of the oval to pick up the pace.
He had combat next, which he was not looking forward to. He was exhausted from doing nothing but run laps.
All day, Forzen couldn't think how the day could get any worse, but it managed to get worse as he walked into expert combat, and Master Almai began the class today with: "Today, we'll be continuing where we left off and do another round of duels."
All hell broke loose as every voice rose, pleading Master Almai not to pair them up with Forzen. Forzen felt his blood freeze at the thought of having to fight someone else. It was awful enough having to fight Corahgul on Marouday, the combination of him not wanting to fight another dragon and the immense fear he could feel from Corahgul making the fight an awful experience. Now, after everything Forzen had done on Marouday afternoon, the fear was now increased tenfold inside the hearts of every student in the classroom.
"EVERYONE, THAT'S ENOUGH!" Master Almai roared over the ruckus, slamming his tail heavily on the ground. "You know what I said last lesson. I will be pitting everyone up with Forzen at some point. I will not take no for an answer."
"What if I say no?" Forzen asked.
"Forzen, you know that's not an option!" Master Almai replied firmly. "We've talked about this as well."
"Just… THINK!" Forzen yelled. "Think for one second about everything that has happened since the last lesson! I don't blame anyone for being afraid! Even I'm afraid! I know I'm strong; it's why I don't like sparring with others, because I'm scared of seriously hurting them. And right now… it's too soon after the… the venomfang attack. It's too soon to throw me in there with everyone else. You're the teacher; you're not the one fighting me. I don't think you would be too pleased if you were being essentially forced to spar with me while still processing what you saw back in that courtyard."
"I… Okay, you're right. I didn't think of that when I planned today's lesson. I'm sorry everyone," Master Almai said. "I had two sparring lessons planned for this week, but for this week, I won't get Forzen involved, just to give us a chance to calm down, process everything that's happened, and mentally recover. But, I do want Forzen back in the ring with you guys for sparring next week, understand?"
"Does he really need to be monitored in the ring with us?" a fire dragon called out. "Does he even need to be here at all? I mean, he killed a venomfang, all by himself. He's twelve, he had no chances of survival against that thing, and yet he won effortlessly."
"He didn't escape unscathed."
"Neither did you!"
"There's always room for improvement, even with someone like me. Trust me, he would benefit being in there with all of you. And all of you, even more so. I think you all deserve a bit more of a challenge."
"If a challenge is all I am to the class, I want no part of it," Forzen scowled. "Sure, I don't like the thought of sparring, but if I'm only here to be a mere challenge or potential roadblock to everyone else, I won't do it."
"Forzen, you know it's more than that. You will benefit from this too, trust me," Master Almai replied. "Now, enough of this conversation; I've already agreed that now is too soon to be making you all fight Forzen, so I'll put that off for both of the sparring lessons this week. He will sit out and watch for both lessons. I don't want any excuses about fighting Forzen if I pick you next week, unless they are actually legitimate concerns. I won't take a mere 'I'm scared' or 'he's evil' as an excuse."
"But he is!" an ice dragon piped up.
"Evil, no. Scary, I won't say I disagree. But your fear can be your greatest weapon in a fight if you know how to use it well. Now, enough of this! Lyrin and Enaria, you're up."
Forzen watched as two lightning dragonesses stepped forward, making their way inside the ring. He watched them fight, before the rest of the class followed. He did have to say it was kind of cool watching the sparring matches, since he knew it was all monitored and supervised safely. That didn't stop him from hating being in the sparring matches, though. He hated the thought of attacking and potentially hurting someone, even in a sparring match. He was surprised to see how brutal some of the blows were, though. Some of them drew quite a bit of blood. He was surprised such attacks and violence wouldn't be allowed in the school, but as he thought a bit more on it, it was combat class, particularly expert combat. This was the top combat class the school offered, so Forzen didn't imagine that there would be much holding back involved.
Eventually, the class was over, and it was off to lunch. By this point in the day, he was starting to get hungry, so he made his way to the queue to get served his food. His heart sank as the five dragons in front of him immediately went silent when they saw him arrive at the queue, stopping their conversations with each other to just be cautious about him, shooting him quick, frightened gazes. He looked behind him and saw two more dragons join the queue, but standing a few steps back as to not be too close to the purple dragon.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Forzen said gently. "You don't have to stay that far away from me."
The fire dragon at the front shook his head quickly. Okay, worth a shot, Forzen thought to himself as he turned back around.
It wasn't much better when he got to getting served. The dragon serving him hardly spoke, just stammering in a nervous, frightened wreck, trying to please the scary twelve-year-old in front of him.
"Oh, g-g-g-good afternoon, wh-what would you l-like?" the ice dragon stammered.
"Just a salad with some berries and maybe some cheese as well," Forzen said.
The ice dragon quickly threw his lunch on the plate and handed it to him. The purple dragon frowned at the slightly messy presentation, but he couldn't be bothered mentioning it. Instead, he muttered a small thank you, before grabbing his food and walking to the back corner of the lunch hall as usual.
He hated the amount of eyes that were on him as he walked to his spot. He was getting scrutinised by pretty much the whole school, and it was incredibly uncomfortable. He didn't want to make a scene, so just sat with his back towards the rest of the room, before beginning to eat his food.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, just another lesson where he was spent under watch of frightened, cautious eyes. It was actually kind of distracting from the class.
Ancestors, I hope this all blows over soon, I hate it, Forzen thought.
Before long, the school day was over. He made his way to his locker, put everything away, before walking back through the main courtyard to leave the schoolgrounds. As he did so, everyone stopped. The courtyard was silent. It was like everyone was expecting him to pick another fight. He wanted to say something, to prove that he wasn't going to fight anyone, but thought better of it and just continued walking. He didn't want to aggravate anyone or accidentally start something.
So now, he found himself on the way to the Warfang Temple for his next lesson with Cynder. He gulped nervously, fearful of what Cynder would do to him. He knew they would be under the watchful eyes of Muras and Torialis, but it still terrified him. He hadn't even had another training session with Muras after Cynder had abused him, and then the venomfang attack happened. He was basically having two lessons in a row with Cynder, which was not what he wanted to do.
But first, he had to get permission to enter the Temple from the guards standing out the front of the Temple. It hadn't gone awfully last time, but it could have gone better; he hoped that he wouldn't have to spend time convincing them that he had a training session with Cynder again.
"Stop, purple devil. What brings you to the Warfang Temple?" one of the guards asked.
"Can everyone please stop calling me that?" Forzen muttered under his breath.
"What brings you here?" the guard repeated sternly.
"I've got a training session with Cynder this afternoon in the training arena. Can I be let in please?" Forzen asked.
"Are you sure about this?" the second guard asked, turning to the first, whispering cautiously. "What if he's lying so he can get in and break apart the Temple from inside?"
"Frélix did also say that Torialis would be supervising the purple dragon's training sessions in the weekly guard briefing this morning. Maybe the purple dragon's telling the truth?" the first guard whispered back.
"A purple dragon telling the truth? Now that would be a miracle if I've ever heard of one!"
"Are you going to let me in or not? I really don't want to be late again," Forzen deadpanned.
"Oh, fine! Come on, I'll take you there," the first guard said with a roll of his eyes, before opening the door.
"Thanks, but I know my way there now," Forzen replied.
"I don't care. I don't trust you, so I'm taking you. Now let's go."
This time it was Forzen's turn to roll his eyes, before he stepped forward and followed the guard down the Warfang Temple's halls towards the training arena. Inside was Cynder, Muras and Torialis standing in the centre of the room, talking.
"Do I even need to be here doing this?" Cynder asked Torialis, her voice impatient and huffy.
"Yes. You are the only one capable of teaching Forzen his wind element, so that is what your role is while we have him here," Torialis replied.
"He already knows it! I'd argue he knows it better than me! I've never seen anyone use wind the way he did on Marouday, and he learned it all on his own!" Cynder scowled. "Having me here doing this is pointless! It's a waste of my time, and more time I have to spend with that blasted moras'tov!"
"Don't you dare call him that!" Muras roared threateningly, pointing an angry claw at her.
"I will call that devilspawn what I want," Cynder spat. "So stop me, I dare you."
"YOU TWO, ENOUGH!" Torialis bellowed.
"Hey guys, I'm right here, you know?" Forzen piped up, causing all three pairs of eyes to whirl around to stare down at him.
"Right you are. I'm sorry you had to overhear any of that awful conversation," Torialis said, before throwing Cynder a brief angry look.
"I'm not," Cynder scoffed.
"It's alright. Please, let's just… let's get to the lesson," Forzen murmured.
"Great. I don't know what you want me to teach you. You've already figured out more than I can teach you. I may be good with my element but wind manipulation of that level is something I can't do, nor is catching another dragon's elemental attack."
"Oh, stop complaining and come up with something at least," Torialis scowled as he walked up to the grandstands with Muras to monitor the lesson. "It if makes you happy we'll make this the last one until Forzen discovers another one of your elements, how does that sound?"
"Fine with me," Cynder said with a shrug, before turning to Forzen with a snarl. "Don't you dare discover one of my other elements, got it?"
"I don't plan to," Forzen murmured, staring up at Cynder's bared fangs hovering in front of him.
"Good. I guess we can do an endurance test today. I'll set you up with enemies, and you will keep fighting, using only your wind element, until you drop."
"Don't be unfair on him!" Muras called from the grandstands.
"SHUT UP AND LET ME RUN MY LESSON, OR I'LL JUST LEAVE AND YOU CAN RUN IT FOR ME!" Cynder screamed at the older purple dragon.
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Forzen heard Muras mutter under his breath; Torialis seemed to hear, as he elbowed Muras in the chest disapprovingly, shaking his head.
"Anyway, step in the ring, whelp. Once you're ready, I'll keep the enemies coming. To keep you on your paws, I'll throw in a mix of different ones. And remember, only wind. I don't want to see any lightning attacks or sound element shrieks."
"I understand," Forzen murmured, stepping into the ring, watching as the orange barrier appeared around him.
"Great. Now begin."
Three full-sized shadowclaws appeared in front of him. They leapt into action, lunging at him, claws outstretched. Forzen shot himself underneath them with his wind element, before summoning a large tornado around them. They spun around at high speeds, before Forzen through them out to the sides, sending them slamming into the orange barrier around the ring.
One of the shadowclaws turned and breathed shadow fire at him, to which Forzen dived out of the way, countering with his wind breath. The shadowclaw was sent slamming into another shadowclaw that was standing up, before the third one dived into its shadow and lunged through the ground at him. The shadowclaw burst up from underneath Forzen, and he barely had time to move. He got away from the lethal blow aimed at his chest, but the shadowclaw still managed to strike into his arm, leaving behind some deep claw marks.
Forzen reached out and felt the air around the shadowclaw, before forcing it down and increasing the pressure around it. The shadowclaw fell to the ground with a thud, groaning and hissing in protest as it felt its body be crushed by Forzen's wind element. Forzen saw out of the corner of his eye one of the other shadowclaws rush towards him, and so he reached out again, deciding to try something new. Much like the elemental attacks he had caught, he tried to catch the shadowclaw in midair, being fully aware that this was now a much larger target, specifically a target that was larger than him. To his surprise, it worked, and the shadowclaw became frozen in midair, growling in frustration as it tried to move, fighting against the air holding it firmly in place.
Now Forzen turned to the remaining shadowclaw that was making its way towards him. It ran at him with full speed, before whirling around, swinging its awfully sharp tailblade at him. Using his wind element, he fought against the shadowclaw's momentum, slowing down the attack, before ducking underneath the tailblade as it soared over his head.
He launched himself into the air, flashing his claws up the entire length of the shadowclaw's neck, causing black blood to spill from the wounds. It staggered backwards, growling in pain and anger. Forzen, still suspended in midair, then brought his claws down across the shadowclaw's face. It snarled, before letting loose a massive stream of shadow fire at him.
With a large flap of his wings combined with a push of wind magic, Forzen thrust himself up into the air over the shadow fire attack, just in time to avoid being singed by the fire. The shadowclaw lifted its head to aim up at him, but Forzen came down at the shadowclaw at high speeds, aiming down at the back of its head. He brought his tailblade down, digging it deep into the shadowclaw's flesh and running down the back of its skull and down its nape, leaving a long slice down its nape that bled black.
Turning around and noticing how deep the wound was, Forzen whirled around and let out a blast of wind that shot forward at high speeds, pushing into the large slice wound. The force of the wind blast opened the wound a bit more, making it deeper and wider, before he did it again and again, opening up the wound quite wide. He found himself reaching forward with his claws, grabbing hold of air as if the shadowclaw's neck was there. He then proceeded to pry his paws apart as if trying to rip open the wound even more, and the shadowclaw screamed in pain as the wind pressure pushed against both sides of the wound in its nape, prying its neck open from behind. The wound got wider and wider, spilling torrents of black gore, before Forzen could see each of the arteries running down its neck, both the ones supplying blood to its body and the ones supplying energy from the dark crystal to its body.
Forzen felt the air around his paws and formed it into some sort of wind blade, before hurling it at the slice in the back of the shadowclaw's neck. He watched as all the arteries were sliced into two, and a spray of blood shot out of the front of the shadowclaw's throat as the wind blade shot out the other side of its neck, tearing easily through the remaining flesh that was just barely holding itself together. The shadowclaw collapsed to the ground, black blood spilling from both sides of its neck.
That's the part I hate doing, Forzen thought, looking at the gore spilling onto the floor. I hate being messy, but I either have to rely on my lightning overload strategy or be messy with my wind element; I'm too small against these creatures to be efficient with my tailblade; I won't reach the crystal in the chest, nor could I complete a decapitation.
Forzen then turned to the other two shadowclaws. He looked at the one still lying on the ground, getting crushed by wind pressure. He increased the pressure around the shadowclaw tenfold, and it howled in pain as its body was crushed beyond its limit. The compression on the shadowclaw's body was very visible, the squashing of its form very visible to everyone watching underneath the very visible distortion of air around it.
Its bones snapped as its body crumpled, its flesh breaking down and black blood spilling from the fresh wounds that the broken bones made. There was a cracking sound as the shadowclaw's ribcage shattered, the broken bones crumpling and shattering the dark energy crystal inside its chest. Purple mist rose from its wounds.
Okay, so that wasn't as messy, but it took a lot of effort to do. Probably not the most efficient way to fight, particularly in a long-lasting fight, Forzen thought.
That left the third shadowclaw left to deal with. Forzen turned to it, ready to launch himself up at it to start his killing blows, before he was tackled from the side by a large ape. It wasn't as big as the shadowclaws, but it was still much larger than him. Four smaller apes stood behind the larger ape. Each of the apes bore jagged swords and heavy clubs. Forzen shuddered; it was his first time ever seeing an ape in the flesh and ancestors, they were ugly.
Each of the apes burst into action simultaneously, letting out a raucous battle cry. Forzen whirled his tailblade around, slicing one of the apes across the face, cutting into its eye. He continued his full-body spin and swiped his claws at another ape, slicing it across the chest. They both staggered backwards, clutching their bloody wounds. The third ape made its approach, swinging its sword at Forzen, but he swung his tailblade around and parried the attack, before swiping his tailblade around and cutting the ape's hand off. The remaining two apes leapt at him from opposite sides, and Forzen let out a wind blast, sending them both flying into the barrier.
Forzen looked down, noticing the disembodied hand lying down on the ground, still holding the large ape sword. He rushed forward, prying open the lifeless fingers from around the sword handle, before using his wind element to lift it up into the air. Using it like the earth missile from the fight against the venomfang, he propelled the sword around the ring with his wind element, slicing through the throats of all of the apes, before turning it around and thrusting it into the shadowclaw's chest, shattering the crystal inside its chest with a crack and a cloud of purple mist. Blood flew from the wounds of all the victims as the bodies fell to the ground.
He then became aware of a venomfang and a large earthen creature appearing in front of him. The earthen creature was strange, its arms being made of strong branches and vines, as moss covered its large wooden feet, shoulders and face. Long branches rose from its face like horns, and it wielded a large, spiked club, as well as a wooden shield. It was massive, being about the same size as the venomfang. Covering its chest was hardened clay and dirt, and large wooden plates covered in spikes covered its mossy shoulders.
From outside the barrier, he heard Torialis and Muras exclaiming in protest at Cynder, but they were yelling about the venomfang being brought into play, not this new, unfamiliar creature to him. I've literally already killed a venomfang on my own; I appreciate and understand the concern, but come on. I can fight this thing, Forzen thought.
The large earthen creature swung its massive spiked club at him, and as he dodged it, it slammed down onto the ground, cracking it from the force of the attack. It swung the club again, and Forzen dodged again. This time, it slammed into the ground where one of the ape corpses lay, and it exploded in a large spray of red blood as its body was completely decimated from the force of the slam.
Meanwhile, the venomfang stood back and shot poison attacks at Forzen. He reached out and caught the poison attacks in the air, before throwing them at the large earthen creature. The barrage of poison attacks slammed into the earthen creature, and there was the sound of sizzling as the poison began to eat its way through the wood that covered its body. Anywhere that was covered in clay and soil seemed to be fine, but the poison was still slowly eating through it.
Forzen launched himself in the air as he noticed the earthen creature take a large swing at him again, propelling himself towards the venomfang. The venomfang rushed towards him and opened its jaws wide, preparing to take hold of Forzen's body in its jaws and bite down hard, but Forzen was too fast for it to catch him. Instead, its large, nasty fangs clamped shut over nothing, before the earthen creature completed its forceful swing and slammed the spiked club with incredible force into the venomfang's face.
Green blood sprayed from the venomfang's mouth as a few teeth were spat out, and several heavy grazes were also present on its cheek, which also bled green. The venomfang roared angrily at the earthen creature, before turning to Forzen, roaring at him. Quickly, Forzen created another wind blade and shot it at the venomfang, and it soared into the venomfang's open mouth, into the back of its throat, and out the back of its head. A gurgling shriek tore from its jaws as it choked on the blood now running down its throat.
The earthen creature leapt into the air at Forzen, aiming a large downwards blow of the spiked club at him. Forzen let out a large gust of wind that sent the earthen creature flying backwards. As it slammed into the barrier, it dropped its spiked club and shield. Forzen took this chance to lunge at it and begin clawing into its chest, digging his way through clay, moss and soil, before finally digging into flesh, sending olive-green blood spilling down the earthen creature's chest.
It roared in pain, before reaching up with its small hands and grabbing Forzen, before throwing him off to the side. He looked behind him to see the venomfang swinging its tailblade around, ready to slice him in half in mid-air. He frantically let out a wind blast, sending the venomfang off balance and crashing into the ground, missing its target.
He wasn't able to stop himself from soaring through the air, so he landed heavily into the orange barrier as well. As he slid to the ground, trying to recover, he suddenly became aware of a soft burning sensation in the back of his eyes. It wasn't awful, but it stung and was very uncomfortable. He blinked, his vision going in and out of focus. He slapped himself in the face to try and snap himself out of it, and he ducked as a large glob of poison soared over his head.
Forzen got up and ran to the venomfang, ducking underneath another tailblade swipe, before he launched himself up and, aided with his wind element, thrust his fist into the underside of the venomfang's jaw, it staggered backwards, before dropping to the ground, dazed. He the reached out towards the air around the venomfang, before applying pressure on it much like the shadowclaw he had crushed with wind pressure earlier.
As he let the air pressure do its job, he turned back to the large earthen creature, who had stood up and grabbed its spiked club again. He didn't have time to react as the club swung around, finally scoring a hit on Forzen. He felt the large spikes dig into his flesh, before the rest of the club hit him and sent him flying off to the side. He landed hard on the ground, rolling around a few times with heavy thuds before he came to a stop. He coughed up blood, and then winced again as the burning in his eyes suddenly got stronger and stronger.
"Stop the fight, please!" Forzen pleaded, but either Cynder didn't hear him or was ignoring him.
Through his fuzzy vision, Forzen saw the wooden shield still lying on the ground behind the earthen creature, which was now advancing on him. Forzen used his air element to turn the earthen creature around, before taking hold of the air around the shield and thrusting it forward into the exposed flesh in the earthen creature's chest. The bottom of it pierced through the flesh, splinters going everywhere, and the earthen creature staggered backwards, blood spilling from its chest as the bottom of the shield sat embedded into its chest.
The pain in his eyes got stronger once more, and he let out a scream of pain, reaching over his eyes and screwing them shut. "STOP THE FIGHT!" he howled.
"For the love of the ancestors, Cynder, turn the simulation off!" he heard Torialis roar, before everything finally deactivated.
The enemies, dead and alive, all disappeared, and the orange barrier dissipated, leaving Forzen lying down on his back in a puddle of red, black, and green blood. Muras and Torialis ran to him, checking if he was okay.
"Forzen, talk to me. What's happening?" Muras asked.
"I don't know! My eyes just started burning! It hurts!" Forzen exclaimed.
"Could it be a new element? Fire?" Torialis asked Muras.
"I've never heard of fire burning in the eyes like this," Muras replied.
"Look after him, I'm going to grab Ash."
Forzen heard loud, frantic pawsteps as Torialis ran out of the room. "It's alright, Forzen. Torialis and Ash will be back soon," Muras said softly.
"Can't you use fire? Why does Torialis need Ash?" Forzen asked in amongst his pained groans.
"Ash might have a better idea on what's going on. I can use it but I don't understand it the way he does, being the fire guardian, after all. He was also trained by Ignitus, who was a very skilled user of fire," Muras explained.
"I've never seen a young fire dragon react this way when they discover their element," Cynder murmured. "Are you sure he's not overreacting?"
"Oh, you try having the heat of a dozen suns burning inside your eyeballs!" Forzen snapped.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" Cynder threatened, and the sound of her pawsteps made Forzen realise she was approaching him.
"YOU HURT HIM AND I'LL MELT YOUR FACE OFF!" Muras roared defensively, to which Cynder actually stopped, to Forzen's surprise.
The intensity of the heat got even stronger, and Forzen let out another loud scream as steam started to rise from between his closed eyelids. "Damn, this isn't normal," Muras murmured.
A few seconds later, Torialis and Ash came sprinting into the training room. "Forzen, it's Ash. I'm here to help. What's happening?" Ash asked quickly, breathing heavily.
"My eyes just started… burning! I don't know what's happening to me!" Forzen exclaimed. "It happened in the middle of the training session and nothing caused it!"
"His eyes are steaming… that's not normal for fire. Nor is a burning sensation in the eyes," Ash murmured. "Forzen, can you open your eyes up?"
"It hurts!"
"I know it does, but please, can I look at your eyes?"
It proved to be a challenge to open his eyes, and when he did, all he could see was a blurry mess of colours, seeing primarily red, which he assumed was Ash leaning over him. However, what Ash and the others saw shocked them. Forzen's eyes were horribly bloodshot, and they glowed with a faint red. Steam rose in clouds from his eyes once his eyelids opened.
"Ancestors, I've never seen this before. I don't know what to make of this," Ash said, his voice frantic and confused.
"How do we help him?" Torialis asked.
"Ice maybe? Would that help cool his eyes?"
Forzen watched as a blurry purple figure made his way towards him, and he felt a cold air around him as Muras reached forward with his paws, icy mist blowing from his palms. The sensation of cool disappeared as the heat intensified in his eyes one final time, tearing a scream from his throat.
A blinding red glow built up inside the back of his pupils.
"THAT'S NOT FIRE, GET DOWN!" Cynder screamed, launching herself at the dragons standing around Forzen, tackling them to the ground.
Forzen's vision went white.
With a bloodcurdling howl of pain, a blinding red beam tore from Forzen's eyes, shooting up into the ceiling. A massive explosion rocked the room, sending rubble and ashes flying. Muras, Torialis, Ash and Cynder all cried out as the ceiling crumbled and rained down on them, a large hole being left there from the attack.
"What in the hell was that?" Ash exclaimed.
"Plasma. That was plasma," Cynder breathed, her eyes wide with fear as she shook rubble and dust off her. "He has another sinister element."
"He what?" Torialis asked.
"He has two sinister elements."
"What the hell was that?!" a new voice shouted as Frélix, Derilan, and a dragon guard all rushed towards the room.
"It still hurts!" Forzen screamed.
"Is there more coming?" Muras demanded.
"I think so!"
"Aim up, exactly where you did earlier."
"What's happening?!" Frélix asked.
"He's unlocked a new element," Torialis explained, before another scream left Forzen's throat and another blinding red beam shot out of his eyes, straight up into the sky through the hole he had torn through the training room's ceiling.
"Plasma," Derilan breathed, fear crushing him.
"Yeah… another sinister element," Cynder growled.
"Derilan, are you okay?" Ash asked, noticing as the cheetah began to shake in terror.
"That… that element was used to decimate my home…" Derilan whimpered. "Spyro… killed everyone… using that element…"
Almost immediately, Derilan's face skewed from horror to hatred, and he reached for his sword and lunged into the training room towards Forzen. Torialis rushed forward, intercepting Derilan as he swiped his paw around, knocking Derilan down with his palm. Torialis then held him there, as Derilan squirmed underneath, screaming bloody murder.
"He'll kill us all! He'll kill everyone! He needs to die!" Derilan howled, his trauma gripping him like a vice.
"No one is dying here, got that?" Torialis scowled.
"Is everyone okay?" Ash asked.
"I think we all are; my main concern is Forzen," Muras replied.
"I can't see," Forzen whimpered. "I can't see, it's just spots and white and shapes."
"Is the pain gone?" Ash questioned.
"Yes. I can't see."
"So he's just unlocked another sinister element, one that could kill us all if he's not careful with it?" Frélix clarified.
"Yes, that's correct," Cynder growled.
"Great, just what we needed! Another element we know nothing about how to control or use."
"We do have a library we can use to try and find some old books regarding the sinister elements," Torialis said. "We may have to go looking at those. And Muras?"
"Yes, Torialis?" Muras replied.
"Training starts tomorrow. We need to get his sinister elements under control. We will be learning alongside him, but we need to make sure that he won't accidentally harm someone, or worse, kill someone."
"Yes please, I don't want to do that," Forzen piped up. "But can it wait until I can see properly again? I… I don't know what I'm looking at. I can't see."
"Hey you," Frélix said, turning to the guard beside him. "Go grab one of the doctors from the infirmary so his eyes can be looked at. Now."
"Yes, sir!" the guard responded, before bolting off down the hall and towards the exit of the Temple.
"Muras, I'm scared," Forzen murmured.
Muras' heart broke as he heard the young purple dragon's weak voice mutter those words. It felt uncharacteristic for him, as Forzen seemed to want to try and keep everything together, but this whole experience was breaking him down.
"I'm right here, Forzen," Muras whispered, sitting down next to him and helping him into a sitting position, before running his paw gently down Forzen's back. "You're safe."
"Am I? Right now I feel threatened. I feel like a threat. I don't like this feeling, I don't like this new element. It… it scares me. The thought of… destroying so easily… I don't want this," Forzen whimpered, wrapping his tail around himself and shrinking into himself a little. "I'm also scared because I don't know what this element does to me when I use it. I've… never had an element do this to me before."
"I've never seen this happen either," Ash replied. "Usually, when unlocking an element, or in your case discovering it, they can tend to come off a little strong. I know fire dragons who have gotten some very serious burns when their fire element finally activates within them. I've seen many lightning dragons electrocute themselves. I can't imagine your plasma element will keep doing this to you, but it has come on abnormally strong."
"Abnormal? You don't even know what's normal!" Forzen exclaimed. "No one here has ever seen a dragon unlock plasma before!"
"You're right. I'm sorry."
"I just… I'm scared of this element. I don't want it. I don't want sound either; I can literally kill someone by screaming at them for too long at too strong a volume, and even if I don't kill them, I will ruin their hearing. If all of the sinister elements are as destructive as this… I don't want any of them."
"I'm surprised someone like you can feel fear," Cynder growled.
Forzen couldn't see what Cynder was doing, but through the spotty white vision he could see a shape that he assumed was Cynder, just staring at him. Hearing her mention fear made him scared that she was readying her own fear element.
"Don't. Please," Forzen pleaded, his voice sounding more broken than he had intended it to come out as.
"Whoa, it's okay, buddy," Muras reassured him.
"I wasn't doing anything!" Cynder huffed.
"He doesn't know that. His eyesight's been messed with; he can't see you, or anyone right now," Torialis said.
"Alright, I hear there's a dragon whose eyesight has taken a bad turn," a new voice called as a doctor finally arrived.
"Oh, thank the ancestors," Torialis muttered. "It's the young purple one in the ring."
Forzen heard the dragon walking towards him, and his heart sped up, fear and anxiety washing over him. He shuffled himself closer to Muras, seeking comfort. "Hey, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you; I just want to check on you," the doctor said, his voice soft and gentle.
"You're… you're not afraid of me?" Forzen murmured.
"Honestly a little, but I knew what I was getting into. We were told prior that you were purple, and I wouldn't have accepted if I wasn't comfortable doing this. Now, can you tell me what happened?"
"Well, I was… I was training and partway through the fight I felt my eyes start to burn up in the back of them. I tried to push through the pain but the burning got worse and worse to the point where I had to ask for the fight to be stopped. It was… excruciating and awful. It felt like the heat of a hundred suns in my eyes. Then I released the plasma beams and… and now all I can see is white and spots and a few shapes. Like I can see that you're in front of me but I don't know what you look like."
"Okay. Can I take a look at your eyes properly? If you feel pulling around your eyelids, that's just me, okay?"
"O-o-okay…" Forzen stammered.
He then felt fingers pulling gently around his eyes, raising and lowering his eyelids to have a look at them. The doctor asked him to look up, down, and towards each side as he did so, looking at both eyes as well. He also watched as the doctor held something in front of his face, to which the doctor explained was a special crystal that allowed him to see inside the eye, to see if everything inside was healthy.
"Well, his eyes are very bloodshot and dry from the heat, but that'll subside over time, and his body's done what it needs to in protecting him from the insane amount of light he would've been exposed to. His pupils are very small right now. As to why he can only see white, I think his eyes just need to get used to it. It's an element that used to be common many millions of years ago among the sinister dragons, so it is natural. The only question is how you even have this energy."
"Purple dragons are able to wield sinister elements if their parents have sinister dragon blood," Muras explained. "I can't, since none of my parents were sinister dragons, but Spyro can, and therefore since he has sinister dragon blood, so can Forzen. Which of course means that one of Spyro's parents is a sinister dragon or also has sinister dragon blood."
"So sinister dragons aren't extinct then?" the doctor asked.
"No."
"Hmm, that's concerning. But at least it's good news for you, Forzen. Your body has sinister dragon blood in it. You're designed to handle this element. Unlocking elements can be quite strong for some dragons, and usually the second time they use it is much tamer with much less consequences on their body. I think that'll be the same with you."
"What happens if it doesn't improve?" Forzen asked.
"Then come and see me again," the doctor said, before turning to Muras. "Doctor Yavian, if you ever need me."
"Thank you," Muras replied.
"Now, all I can recommend is rest, and lots of it. Go home, rest, and maybe see if some red gems applied over the eyes will help. I hope it all goes well, and I hope I don't have to see you again for this problem, but I'm always around if it does become necessary. Rest well."
With that, the doctor turned and left.
"Alright, you heard the doctor. Let's head home, rest, and get you some red gems," Muras said, standing up.
"I can't see; how am I supposed to walk home?" Forzen murmured.
Muras just hummed in agreement, before stepping forward. Forzen felt gentle jaws biting around his nape, before he was lifted up in the air and placed onto something scaly; he assumed it was Muras' back. He felt Muras start to move, and they began to make their way home.
When they finally got home, Muras gently placed Forzen down on his bed. By that point, small bits of colour had slowly started to return to his vision, and he could see the larger details of Muras' face a bit more too. Muras left the room briefly, before returning with a small pawful of red gems.
"Did you need me to break these over your eyes or do you think you can do it?" Muras asked.
Forzen looked down at the ground where Muras had placed the red gems. He could see a fuzzy clump of red in his vision, but he could barely see each individual gem. "I… I think it might be better if you do it," Forzen muttered.
"Okay. Tilt your head back and look straight up."
The younger purple dragon did so, and he could faintly see Muras' paws hovering directly over his face, holding some small red gems inside. He crushed them in his palms, before letting the mist and tiny crystal particles spill down over his eyes. He flinched, feeling them settle over his eyes, before his eyes absorbed them.
Almost instantly, his vision became much clearer. It still wasn't perfect; his vision was still quite blurry and still tainted with a strong white tinge, but there was a lot more colour back and he could see a lot more detail than he could earlier.
"Did that help?" Muras asked.
"Yeah. It's not perfect yet, but it's an improvement," Forzen replied.
"Okay. That's good to hear. Hopefully some rest will help it a bit more too. We can break some more red gems over them in the morning if need be."
"Okay, thanks."
"Listen Forzen, about earlier, it's… it's okay to be scared with these new powers of yours. I know they're a lot to deal with, and they're very uncertain, since we don't know a lot about them, but Torialis and I… we're here to help. We're going to be learning with you, and trying to help you learn to control these scary elements."
"You act like you know what it's like to be scared of your elements. You only have fire, lightning, earth, and all those elements. The basic, normal, safe ones. What do you know about being scared of your elements? What do you know about being scared that you could hurt someone because you have no control over such an unknown element?"
"Because for a time, I was. I unlocked convexity long before I became Malefor. I know you haven't and might not know what it is yet, but it's basically an element that only purple dragons—and Cynder—have the ability to possess. And it is scary. It's very strong and very volatile, and it… it has a darkness to it. I was terrified of it in my late teens when I discovered it.
"Even now, I fear the dark elements. For a time, I had the ability to use them as Malefor due to my exposure to darkness. I haven't tested to see if I can still use them, and I don't want to. Poison, shadow, fear… they're terrifying elements as well. I fear them. They're most of the elements that Cynder has and I know she still fears them, particularly poison."
"But there's lots of information out there about them, particularly since Cynder is here and knows them very well," Forzen murmured. "With these sinister elements, there's… there's nothing about them. Sound already scared me. Plasma terrifies me. I don't know what the other sinister elements are or what they're like, but… I don't want any more of them. There's so many things we don't know about these elements and I wish that I could just throw them out of my essence core and not even have the ability to touch them again."
"I know. But these elements… you'll have to live with them. That's why I want to help you learn about them, so that way you don't have to fear them so much. And the good thing is, you're good at figuring your elements out. When you have that on your side, as well as Torialis and I doing some research on it and learning along with you, what is there to fear?" Muras asked.
"I don't know. Just the uncertainty of it all and the danger it poses scares me," Forzen said, before picking up on what Muras had said earlier. "Do you really think I'm good with my elements?"
"Forzen, you had one very unhelpful lesson with Cynder, where you knew nothing about the wind element, and over time, you've grown such a strong understanding of it that even today Cynder went 'I can't teach you anything'. You may be powerful, Forzen, but I think your true strength lies behind your skill in your elements, and how in tune you are with them. You may seem clueless and frightened regarding your new elements, like you were with lightning, but given time, I think you can overcome even plasma."
"I don't know. Maybe."
"Have a think about it a little. Believing that might help you get your mind off the fear. Anyway, I'm going to leave you to rest now. I'm going to head off to the library to try and find some books so I can do some reading on sound and plasma before our lesson tomorrow. Does that sound good?"
"Yeah. I think so."
"Alright."
With that, Muras left the room, leaving Forzen to himself. Forzen knew it was still late afternoon and the sun hadn't even set yet, but he found himself falling asleep very quickly, the exhaustion from the entire day, particularly from the intense training session, causing his body to shut down and force him into sleep.
Poor Forzen getting dealt the toughest battles yet again, that's a rough new element to unlock out of nowhere. It was also really fun to write that scene and try and make it as chaotic since everyone's panicking quite a lot after that first plasma beam comes out. I wonder if plasma was what you guys were expecting when you saw this chapter name hehehe
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Dragon of Mystery: *bows* You're welcome XDDD In all seriousness I am glad I'm actually able to make people feel for Forzen and some of the other characters as well; as I was getting a decent way through Demonised I actually thought all the violence and gore and everything was getting in the way of the more emotional sequences, which is partially why Outcast ended up being not as violence-focused (although as you've clearly seen there's still a lot of action and gore in here), and it's allowed me to focus more on the emotional/psychological side of what these situations are doing to everyone a lot more, and I think it's helped me be able to write emotional scenes better too.
I also was not expecting Fjor'gand to get that much development XD I wanted him to have a little bit as this story went on, but as I wrote the last chapter, I felt the urge to explore how Fjor'gand was feeling and break down his confusion a bit more into the story, and the rest kinda just came with it, and I think it worked. It was good to bring a bit more development to him as well as opposed to him being the one-dimensional bully character.
MysticFire824: I will be honest, I haven't seen that take before, and while I personally don't see it in too many Dark Spyro stories to be totally honest, I can definitely see it applied to this one, and I really like the layers you've managed to pull apart with it. Always really like seeing new takes on things that I hadn't thought of before, particularly when it comes to my own work. Gets me thinking even about my work, y'know? It's really interesting. Hate definitely is a running theme throughout this story and that was intentional since the very first draft of Outcast, but I hadn't actually thought about all the different layers of it and why each character hates. I like it a lot XD Just goes to show that even though you can plan a story really well, there are other takes or sides of things that the author may not have even thought about.
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Thanks everyone for reading, hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you in the next one!