FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 49

Hearing Cellsa speaking about the Upper City of Skyward as if it would be some kind of echelon of prestige embroidered some images od luxury in the group's heads, especially when having Ignus' house still stored fresh in their memory banks. The red dragon had a style, whether they liked it or not did not matter as much as the fact that his house stood out among this scenery.

At least from the inside.

If they wouldn't know that royalty is living here they would never guess that this part of Skyward belonged to the elite caste. The Upper City was far more bloody and depressing than the lower levels were, the bloody petals that they saw below were present here in far more higher numbers, yet contrary to the lower levels none of the petals reached the street area, but that did not change the general first impression of this place being far from welcoming.

It was all due to the strange membrane stretching above the roofs of the buildings which most likely reached across all the Upper City, with most likely some other "filtration" system somewhere out there that dumped the excess of the petals to the lower level so the membrane wouldn't collapse under the weight of the pilling petals alone.

Even if ignoring the danger of the filtration system malfunctioning at some point that would bury the Upper City under the bloody mass above, the look of the special ceiling by itself was distressing enough. The view making their scales crawl, even Sparx' wings started to flutter faster than usual.

Due to their experience on the battlefield and being the fanged predators the two of them were, their brains came up only with one similarity this ceiling could be compared to.

Sinew.

The transparent membrane looked like a huge, stretched to the brim sinew and it was clear that it wasn't made from a single material, instead being stitched together from many pieces. There were some dots and lines that most likely put the pieces together, the thickness and look of such places really reminded them of pieces of bones with still slices of fat clinging to them, all of it burned so it would all tie together.

And the crimson petals dropping on the membrane only intensified the macabre first impression further, the previous comparison of them being floating blood cells in a bloodstream became that much more potent.

The sense of dread got only stronger when the experiences of past hours came back to them, the reputation of Bones, the torturing chamber they fell in, the feathery hats the sisters were wearing and finally the conspiracy between Ignus' guests who clearly participated in prisoner trafficking. All of it, and most likely many more things that they missed, painted a grim picture regarding the prisoner's fate.

They really started to doubt Iris' image of her wondrous mother she so adores. No creature that had any sense of purity in their hearts, and love was one such trait, would feel comfortable living under such conditions.

The Moonborne's theory about Athron being after Spyros's blood might not give it all of the credit, the three of them feared that the image Iris painted about her mother might not be the one they'll meet.

They could only hope that this wasn't what Iris was seeking from the beginning and all those stories and theories were depressing projections of her hurt mind.

Aside from the intimidating ceiling above, the upper part of the city wasn't welcoming either, here the mushrooms that dotted the cave were bigger and in greater numbers, clearly preferring to thrive near the top of the whole cave than down below. Plenty of them were growing from the buildings, covering them with a peculiar, brownish slime that dripped from their caps, among which glistened the reddish petals like rows of rubies.

It would be almost impressive if not for ceiling and the thick air in this place which kept scratching the back of their throats as if they would be drinking blood from a still pulsing vein. Even the crimson light the mushrooms were giving away seemed to be much weaker here due to the muck on the buildings than down below.

Clearly the highborn still didn't invent a filtration system for this particular problem.

"This place looked better from under the blanket" Sparx commented with his typical sarcastic humor, there was no smile on his face though, lips were scrunched together, too busy projecting the discomfort he felt as he scratched his itching throat

"Focus, your whining doesn't interest me" Ignus snarled viciously, the tension that for some unknown reason to them built during their rest was still there perhaps stronger now in the face of probable danger

"He is right uncle" a bolt of freezing shock traveled along the red dragon's spine at the sound of the voice, flicking the tail upwards when it reached the rump. His head turned automatically towards Iris who spoke up, the viciousness was still there, but mixed with some manner of dizziness that they couldn't truly identify

Whatever it was and whether Ignus was as much as uninterested in Iris' whines as he was in Sparx' he never announced, remaining uncomfortably silent.

Cynder cocked her head, as weird as it might sound she saw her own reflection in the dragon's snout, reflection from days gone now when she drooled over Spyro, unable to read hints of his romantic buildup and the lack of courage from her side to actually do anything about it.

Frustration. Frustration painted the fire dragon's snout.

The roots of their relationship ran deep and she wasn't sure she wanted to know where they lead judging by the uncomfortable tension.

Iris was looking around the place with an empty stare, the soul that was supposed to be there evaporated somewhere, her steps were slow too as if her paws would be trudging through disgusting muck. She seemed to be so fragile all of a sudden, as if the entire place would be against her, like she would be expecting it to soon collapse onto her.

She was like a cornered prey who reached a dead end, yet instead of rising the last, frustrated will of clinging to life she looked like she just...gave up.

Cynder swallowed uncomfortably, surprised herself that she felt any pity for Iris considering what she had done, but she couldn't help herself, she was certain she would have the same, empty look if Spyro would turn his tail at her.

Skyward was a place that ruined dreams.

"Not you too" Ignus mumbled pitifully

"This city" Iris whispered quietly, her eyes trailing the bloodied sinew above "It's a shell. You created a shell uncle, again" her eyes fell on the red dragon, her frame shrunk in sight, she looked so miserable that one could suspect to see her fall apart soon "This is where you've learned it"

Ignus opened his mouth, but instead of words only a rough hack came through, his tongue curling inside in fear.

"Dudes" Cellsa slurred, stumbling in between the trio while rubbing her aching head "Are those two holding a claw against each other private parts or something? They look so tense like both of them want to romp the other aggressively" she retched quietly "Ugh" she blinked blindly "What was I saying again?"

Cynder and Spyro looked at each other uneasily, it didn't matter what precisely happened between the two, what mattered is that both of them were scarred by the experience in some way and even the young Ignus gets mashed by the history that Iris projects on him.

It was very hard to wrap one's head around it.

"Slurring" Sparx corrected the electric dragoness "It has nothing to do with speaking" he dashed towards the girl, prying her mouth slightly open to fling the tongue that stuck out back inside "And you crazy lady stop sticking that nose everywhere, or the headache might be the least of your worries"

Cellsa snorted, uninterested "You sound like my boring brother"

The dragonfly shrugged.

"At least one of you has his eyes opened"

"Orbis always says that I'm blind!" the spark of electricity jumping between the girl's horns flashed brighter as if chuckling "You sure you're not some worm that crawled out of his ass?"

Sparx sighed.

"I won't comment that"

"He says that too!" the dragoness laughed, prancing around lively, or so she tried since the moment she sprang away from the group the tormenting headache struck again with such a force that stars appeared before her eyes

It was that confusion that made her unaware of approaching paws from behind her, she only realized that something was wrong when she was lifted from the ground by her hair, stinging pain and initial shock widening her eyes.

"Not a fairytale it seems" a horse, female growl rumbled from above her horns that put the rest of the group on edge

Three hulking dragons donning intimidating battle armors stepped out from the murky shadows of one of the alleyways, the plates they were wearing were splattered with red dashes here and there, it was impossible to tell whether those were some sort of markings painted with the crimson petals or real blood.

In Skyward everything was possible.

Among them glistened familiar green gems that the dragons seem to treat like mere adornment, yet the trio recognized as shards of Spirit Gems.

"Squealers even in this district" one of the massive dragons gave Cellsa a deep sniff, his head immediately jerked back with a disgruntled frown "I've told you their stink will slip through"

"I want to remind you all that I took a bath yesterday so it is definitely not me that stinks here" Cellsa explained

"Shut up" claws sank into her shoulder, only now they noticed that they were gauntleted, the blades glowing bright green

The electric dragoness gasped when the binding magic started to drain her elemental energy.

"This is a Warden's child you're tormenting" Ignus stated calmly, flames glistening inside his nostrils

"Bro" Sparx mumbled quietly

"I know" Spyro whispered back, his muscles tense, just like Sparx he knew this type of armed bullies who taste a bit of power in their lives and get maddened by it

Just like Sparx he knew that there won't be a peaceful resolution here.

"King of rats is a rat still" the female holding Cellsa snarled viciously, displaying rows of sharp fangs "You should have known better. You should know that Athron doesn't tolerate vermin"

"What my sister tolerates or not doesn't matter as long as she doesn't control the guard, and the statement of the peacekeepers is clear. We don't hurt anyone under the protection of royal lineage"

"I don't recall seeing anything proving your royal bloodline" the female growled at Ignus "Your male delusion of importance is ending. It will be eradicated like all the vermin!" the snarling mouth spread itself wide, hungry teeth diving towards Cellsa's neck

Ignus remained still, obviously not interested in offering any more words of protests to the unfolding events.

Spyro however sprang forward immediately, having regained his strength already from the draining dungeons he activated his Time power and instantly began his sprint, putting the world into a dramatic slow motion.

He reached Cellsa in several, fast strides, he immediately pried the paw holding her hair open, grabbing the falling dragoness by the shoulders and glided away with her back to the group, just in time before the protest of the universe got too loud and blamed him for altering the natural order of things.

Time returned back to normal.

With no claws draining her any longer the gasp Cellsa was letting out turned into a scared scream.

The fanged mouth that was out ot get her throat snapped tightly shut against the air, the intensity of the bite was so big that the teeth inside the female's mouth rattled in agony, making the fierce head spring back in pain.

The two remaining fighters stared wide eyed at the extended paw that was now empty, one of them shaking his head fiercely, as if thinking that he fell asleep.

Ignus too was shocked when the girl suddenly disappeared from view, for a second there he didn't know where he was himself as if his eyes would not be able to see the present any longer. It was a brief, but a very scary second of total loss where he felt meager and worthless, grazed by the existence of a power that greatly outgrows this mortal world.

A brief, scary second he hoped to never feel again in his life.

His eyes found Spyro instantly, with Cellsa lying by his paws, heart started to race in his chest, out of dread, respect and utter sense of defeat.

Could the world's obsession truly be justified?

The eyes of the snapping mouth widened, the female jumped back, watching her opened paw from a distance, twisting the draconic palm around, examining it from every angle in total horror like it would be rotting.

"What the hell just happened?" she mumbled incoherently

Cellsa kept on screaming, her cry cut out by Cynder's paw clenching over her snout and snapping it shut.

"Relax, you're safe"

The electric dragoness blinked, her oversized eyes looked from the ground at both Spyro and Cynder looking down on her, pupils kept jumping between the two hectically, following the tempo of the electric spark springing between her horns.

The shock was so unreal that even her creative mind of an addict couldn't cope with it.

Both the dragons smiled at her.

"Sorry" Spyro apologized sincerely

"You're good. You'll get used to it eventually, after like the tenth time or so" Cynder winked "But it's cool right? Like when you were a kid, falling asleep in one place only to wake up in another"

"Teleportation!" Sparx announced, giving the dragoness a poke in the nose "Not even your juice gives you such a trip, eh?"

The jokes and relaxed atmosphere coming from the trio worked on Cellsa even involuntary, the positive energy calming her racing heart, the dilated pupils shrinking closer to their normal size.

"It's not nonsense!" the third of the big dragons roared, his blare a mixture of determination and fear, a combination that stirred the rest of his combatants into battle stances

"Let us pass. We're heading towards the palace" Ignus sputtered, recovering from his shock in the face of danger

"You are not bringing this menace to the Queen, stay back sire, the blindness that clouds your mind is for Athron to deal with. We will solve the more standard matters here"

"Politics are tiring" the second of the females narrowed her eyes on the group, her armor began to hiss, through the cracks bright, green tendrils started to slip "Things would be so much simpler if they could be solved by brawn"

Spyro stepped in front of Cellsa, giving her a soft shove with his hind paw to get her out of the way.

"We don't have to fight, I come in peace" he stood determined, but a manner of dread still poked his heart, he knew that a fight was unavoidable, he's been in enough battles to see the signs, but it was again a fight between his own kin and those always made him stressful

He hated fighting dragons, every time feeling like he would be hurting his own family. It was stupid when you think about it since every dragon is his own, individual soul and yet that feeling was there and he somehow felt that it was more than just his personal morals, it reached deeper than that.

It reach down to raw survival.

Every wound inflicted upon a dragon lowers the chances of them to breed, every time they fight the chances of the genocide that Danox came here to prevent increases. This silent dread clinging even in a time that was already long gone.

He hissed through his clenched teeth, sparing himself the weird, existential tension he swore that despite what he just thought, he never felt before.

"There is no peace with you around vermin"

And then with no more warnings the three dragons swished their claws across their frames, the hissing pieces parted away, revealing satchels of green grenades within. Each paw picked one and immediately hurled the hissing with green mist bombs at the group.

They expected many things from the dragons, but never tactics that are similar to apes from their own timeline.

All three of them immediately scooped Cellsa from the floor, their combined effort speeding the process immensely, yet even though they all managed to jump away, the throws were clever enough to make them be in the blast radius no matter what.

Luckily for them they had someone in their group who was familiar with such tactics and was willing to fight for them. And it was not Ignus who stepped back from the fight almost instantly, opting to become a silent observer for some reason.

Iris snarled from behind them, slamming her clenched into fists paws against the ground, cracking bolts of ice sprouted along the ground, stretching to the front of the group where in a blink of an eye the frost shattered the street into bits, morphing into a thick, solid slab of ice that reached upwards.

The grenades struck the wall of ice, splattering their draining mist all over its freezing surface. Spyro's scales tingled so strongly that he started to shake, the familiar elemental music filled his head to the brim, the amount of magic Iris used to create this wall was immense, it might look simple enough but he was familiar with all sides of the elemental potential to know that rising a wall big enough to cover all of them and withstand the blasts of explosives wasn't a simple trifle.

It was a sign of tremendous potential.

Serious potential.

The wall collapsed soon after receiving the blow, shattering into million small shards, revealing a hunkered down Iris in the far end who bent down had her menacing, piercing eyes burying into their enemies, her wings were opened fully, feathers resembling quills, sharp, standing on end and ready to taste blood.

The intimidating aura Iris was giving away stopped even her allies, her fierce figure making all of them freeze in place for a brief second.

Their opponents suffered the same fate, their pause however was far more profound.

"What is that?" one of the females mumbled as she skidded to a halt, her armor creaking roughly in response

"This is impossible" the second female added "Wind dragons do not wield ice magic"

All three gave the feathery dragoness a scrutinizing glare, seeing that attention Ignus stepped back even further, yet the moment he moved he saw the eyes encroaching upon him.

The red dragon blasted a ball of fire at Iris.

The dragoness gasped, she was so surprised by the incoming attack that she didn't manage to prepare herself properly for the strike, the feathery wings dropped to form a cover, but it was still a weak one, the fiery blast still managed to reach her, scorching the scales when the fiery shockwave blew her off of her paws.

"The fuck you're waiting for?! Kill this abomination!" Ignus breathed a stream of fire at the group of dragons

"The hell is he doing!?" Cynder yelped, still not believing that the fire wave was heading their way

Sparx quickly ascended, narrowing his eyes on the red dragon, he gave Marble the benefit of the doubt when the talked about Ignus, it was turning quickly just as she predicated, yet for him it was too fast, it just didn't make sense to sacrifice them all to a bunch of guards.

Something wasn't adding up, Ignus was playing a game, still he was certain that there was a better way of doing it than blasting them with his magic directly.

"Ignore him. He's not openly hostile" Sparx announced

"Nice way of saying he's not a friend either" Cynder braced herself for impact, shadows already circling underneath her paws

Spyro prepared his wings as shields, forming a protective barrier around Cellsa, both of them trusting Sparx' input that they didn't even consider coming up with any counter attack, noting to keep one eye on Ignus every now and then but mainly focusing their attention at the marauders.

The three dragons were stirred by the passing gust of flames as well contrary to the group they were attacking, there was no hesitation about deciding who their enemies were. The trio charged immediately, sprinting through the wavering tongues of flames, their powerful armors bursting with intense green light as they did so, absorbing the hungry, elemental flames that wanted to touch their scales.

In the distance Iris' scrambled from the floor, her tail tip glowing strong blue, after a single pulse her elemental magic traveled to the faintly present lines of ice that still didn't fade away under the blast of flames that so hungrily enveloped her flesh.

The pieces of stranded ice obeyed her call, springing into the air just as the dragons were crossing the line where the wall of ice shattered previously. The shards jumped up, the tiny needless not strong enough to halt a charging dragon, but it was enough to irritate the nerves and muscles in their legs, finding cracks in the moving armor, the freezing chill biting into the flesh like hungry hounds.

It was enough to slow them down.

Spyro immediately breathed a wave of earth magic that morphed into a ball at the end, discarding the fire with his wings he spun around, the magical chain extending from his mouth, with one, solid jerk the tip struck one of the running dragons in the flank.

The armor absorbed the blow, merely making the female that was struck to stumble instead of falling flat on the ground. A bolt of cracking, bright green energy bounced along the magical chain and straight towards Spyro, the draining force zapping the purple drake, the unexpected counterattack making him choke on his elemental energy, involuntary transforming the formidable chain into a fading mist by fits of rough coughs.

The two other dragons sprinted past their struck companion, both leapt into the air with one flap of the wings they both quickly slammed into the ground, their gauntleted claws pulsing brightly, sending a shock of greenish energy along the floor.

Cynder prepared to scream at the dragons but the wave of binding force that hit her cut the breath out of her lungs, making her spit and cough black clouds of smoke.

"Everything they do is charged with Binding magic! Both offense and defense!" Cellsa yelled from behind the duo, enveloping herself in a cage of cracking electricity that immediately flashed green when the shockwave of the binding force tried to reach her "Disrupt it with quick elemental jabs so you won't be overwhelmed by the return charge or go melee!"

Listening to her own advice Cellsa shot a stream of cracking electricity, it flew above the disoriented pair and zigzagged between the two stomping dragons, bouncing off their armors, contrary to the ice shards the electrical projectile didn't waste time with any small hindrance by looking for cracks, instead focusing completely on the plates. Plates that kept sending return charges each time the bolt struck them, but Cellsa withstood the annoying, draining effect well.

One of the dragons roared, his annoyed, glowing armor sending out a pulse of magic, it chocked the bolt that irritated him. The first struck dragoness recovered from her stumble and immediately swung her tail from the cover of her roaring partner, a trail of earth magic was sent from her swinging tail, strangely pulsing and vibrating as if it would be fed up with a casket of dynamites ready to blow.

The third dragon blasted a similar stream towards Iris, a fire breath, it rippled with green magic just like the earth lance.

"Oh yeah, and watch out for the explosions!" Cellsa shouted a too late warning

Both Spyro and Cynder dodged the lance with ease by jumping sideways, the earth bolt flew past them and just when they thought that it will be Cellsa who will have to deal with it a big, blinding explosion threw them flat on their snouts. What felt like dust clung to their rumps and backs, sinking its artificial teeth into their elemental veins, draining them of strength and feasting on their power.

"Charge your magic to burn that stuff away!" the electric dragoness yelled from behind them, staying on her paws, the cage that was protecting her evaporated with a cracking blast as it was hit by the same festering parasite like her companions

The overcharged exhaust evaporated the magical muck, spreading all the way to Spyro and Cynder to free them from the draining aspect of the attack as well.

Despite the fact that Iris was struck before she held herself better than her other two companions, with veins still pulsing with charged elemental energy she wasted no time but countered the flying stream of fire with her own icy one. It stood no chance against her overcharged attack that ate through the flames like it would be nothing, devouring the draining parasite by accident.

The attacking group was taken aback by the sheer force of the attack, all three absorbed the breath, their armors glowed so fiercely that one might think that they were about to explode, yet instead all three sent a return pulse of green energy back at the attacker. The strike of ice visibly hurt them despite their defenses, blood started to drip from some frostbitten cuts here and there despite the fierce defenses.

The reckless strike cost Iris much pain, despite her best efforts of turning her scales into diamond she was unable to withstand the overwhelming pressure of the counter magic, she dissipated most of the energy but there was still some that passed through. She was hit so hard that she slid across the floor for a few meters before rolling on her back and arching her spine up to inhale a desperate, painful chug of air that turned the world she saw black.

Sparx winced at the sight of the explosions, they underestimated these guys, they were no joke, of course they had all the reason to believe that they were throwing themselves at them all because of dumb ego, they wouldn't be the first, but it looked like they were confident in their capability to put up a fight even when outnumbered.

If they won't be careful they might use way too much health here than necessary.

"Hey you glowing sticks! Over here!" he darted down with a yell, dashing in front of the dragons, waving his arms hectically, avoiding the snapping mouths that tried to get him without a moment of hesitation

He sprung between one dragon and the other until he eventually flew under the belly of one, snatching a shard of the broken floor he reached for the gem attached to the armor, giving it a proper hit he managed to dislodge a piece of it.

These guys might be well trained and experienced, but there was never a school that could prepare one to deal with a glowing, overgrown fly. Sparx got what he wanted and retreated from the drakes with ease, one tried to blast his wings off but he was simply too dexterous to allow himself get struck.

He quickly dashed towards the choking Iris.

"Here, take it" he slammed his paw against her heaving chest

Piercing eyes glared at him from underneath the mask, wanting to crack his skull with the very same rock he was holding.

She clearly wasn't familiar with the digestion of Spirit Gems.

"It's a Spirit Gem, just think about taking it instead of being a grumpy lady just for once!"

In the end he didn't know if she listened to him or she simply acted on the impulse just to get him since the fire in her eyes burned brightly still, whatever wicked plan she had worked in his favor in the end.

Iris absorbed the gem, voluntarily, involuntarily, it didn't matter, what was important is that it worked, the murderous hate that bled her eyes vanished, replaced by an immense sense of relief and shock.

Bliss.

Her chest heaved for the last time and then fell flatly on the floor, he noticed the tip of her tongue dangling numbly from the corner of her mouth. He could imagine that gaining sudden power is nice but Iris looked as if she felt any sort of pleasure for the very first time in her life, bordering on some very untimely erotic breakdown.

Oh Ancestors, he hoped he didn't accidently kill her.

The trio of dragons weren't eager to wait for the solution of his dilemma, clearly ignoring what the dragonfly was doing, charging Sparx' companions instead, supporting their advances by more leaps forward, ground glowing under the touch of the Binding energy they released.

Spyro and Cynder followed mimicked Cellsa's tactic, covering themselves in their respectable magical veils to absorb the incoming strike, capes of poison and electricity embracing them. They moved back, increasing slightly the distance between them and the charging dragons, allowing the energy reach them a little bit quicker than the drakes.

The moment it crashed against them Cynder went into the offensive, this time having her breath in check she sent a wave of her Siren Scream at the dragons. It was an attack from a branch of magic that neither their armors and the dragons themselves weren't prepared to deal with.

The scream didn't trigger the shock from the armors, bypassing the defenses since it caused no physical harm. Their enemies were stopped in their tracks almost immediately, unprepared paws tied themselves together, each leg wanting to escape in its own direction, making all the dragons topple on the ground.

Spyro charged immediately right after his partner's attack, the experience they gained when fighting together kicking in without a hitch, making them look like they were a single, well oiled machine. Before Cellsa even comprehended what was happening, Spyro was already on top of the dragons, sinking both fang and claw into the plates of one of the females, bending the armor and reaching the joints near the shoulder.

A single jerk was enough to pull at the bone underneath, the forced move dislodged the armored plate, giving him enough space to remove it completely. He spat it out and instantly charged his claws with earth magic, he turned them rock solid and jagged, instead of biting into the exposed scale like many would do he thrust his powered blades along the exposed limb, accompanied by the female's painful roar he ripped scale and armor connection apart from underneath where it was the weakest.

The touched plates fell off so quickly that the draining charge they wanted to muster was barely affecting him at all.

He slowed down time again and repeated the same process for the two other dragons, focusing on their armors than causing any damage that would hardly hinder a dragon. He retreated after he was done and with a heavy breath let the reins of Fate go. The bending of natural order of things gave him a kick back, seeping exhaustion into the bones, he was still far from done but it was a clear signal already that he should be careful.

Sometimes he wished to have Cynder's magical reserves.

And while he pondered that thought his partner was already acting on his actions, starting her attack in perfect timing with the speeding up world. She leapt into the air, spitting orbs of poison and fear at the revealed scales, keeping the size of her attacks small enough as to not threaten the parts of the armor that was still in place.

The pain awoke the dragons from the shock of the sudden dread that tied their legs, however the moment they wanted to get up Cynder's bombardment reached them. The concussive force with which the fright orbs exploded paralyzed their limbs, making them fall again while the poisonous globs splattered against their exposed scales, lustfully forcing itself on the flowing blood, the toxic mixture adding dizziness to the already hindering effects.

Sparx felt pity for the poor sods, they were good, but unfortunately for them they had no idea what they were up against. They might have been prepared to deal with the light side of magic, having dragons of the common elements in the city after all, but there was no school in the world that could prepare them against the Dark side of the sphere paired with time manipulation.

The poor sods were unlucky to go against the two embodied avatars of such forces. It would be better for them to not know that Spyro and Cynder were the only two dragons like that, there were no other dragons like them that existed.

And as they say with great power comes great responsibility and that's why he tags along because it could quickly spin out of control and a trail of bodies in an already hostile city won't earn them much favors.

"Time to bail guys!" Sparx shouted, his body exploding with a fierce glow that immediately was acknowledged by Cynder's and Spyro's nodding heads

"Move Cellsa!" Spyro commanded, zapping the girl into action

"It's over already?" the electric dragoness mumbled, she was as dizzied as the dragons

When they began to run they were reminded of one small detail, even a well oiled machine when upgraded can hiccup, especially when the new parts still need some roughing up to do so they can work properly with the rest of the device.

Iris sprinted in front of them, with a feral roar she leapt at one of the females, her mouth was hissing with ice magic, but instead of a breath a solid sting of ice materialized in between her teeth. At first the size of it didn't cause any worry, but when they noticed Iris' tail beating fervently, each pulse rising the level of the elemental aura they realized that this hate fueled attack rivaled that of a Fury, pinpointed to a single target only.

Iris slashed with her ice claws, her empowered blades splashing blood and tissue everywhere as she made a hole in the exposed leg before sinking the small lance within the bloody opening.

Her tail pulsed with blinding intensity.

The aura of magic surrounding her was like a tornado.

It was all going to explode.

And with that thought all of them realized that she primed a bomb.

"Iris no!" they all screamed, but it was already too late

The ice dragoness closed both of her paws and the trapped elemental force was exhausted from her tail tip like a choked flame of a candle. As she roared a thud could be heard from within the attacked female.

Spikes of thick ice burst from her body, piercing the eyes and flesh, the explosions were so strong that the flesh burst, gushing out blood and pieces of intensities everywhere, most gluing itself to the roaring Iris on top of the now tormented corpse.

Most of the spikes pierced the remaining armor as well and that paired with the death of its owner caused a reaction that none were ready for. A huge explosion of Binding magic followed soon after that threw Iris right at Spyro, Cynder and Cellsa, the force of it was so strong that it shook the earth, sending a pillar of green light right at the ceiling of the cave above that covered up Skyward from the sun.

The tremors that encircled the city were as powerful and soft like limbs of a waking up from hibernation bear.

There was a moment of silence as if Fate itself would hide in the corner out of shyness.

Then stalactites, mushrooms and crimson petals started to rain from the sky, the membrane that held the crimson rain was pierced by the falling projectiles with ease.

Roars of panic erupted from the city that could be even heard from the lower levels. Whatever put the guards of the city on edge now spilled into the Upper City freely judging by the increasing in tone screams and shouts.

The force of the explosion hurled the group at one of the buildings, the sheer momentum with which they were shoved was enough to turn them into a boulder that smashed through the weakened wall by the earthquake.

"Guys!" Sparx dashed after them, just in time to slip pass the falling fountain of rocks and petals that dropped from the ruined building and ceiling behind him

He saw his friends at the far end of the room of a luckily empty house, they were a chaotic ball of paw, wing and tail that he couldn't tell which leg belonged to who.

"Are you alive?" he cupped Spyro's bloodied snout, only from up close he realized in relief that the blood wasn't his but most likely that of Iris' victim

The dragon lazily opened up his eyes.

"Y-Yes, b-but t-t-the m-m-magic, i-i-I"

"I know bro" he cut Spyro off, they were drained, eating up the shockwave from such up close must have felt like Bone's entire dungeon would drop on you

He turned around quickly, leaving his friends alone and instead heading for the window, there was only one way to breathe some life in them and it all was fused with that armor. He wasted no time and cracked a small hole in the glass, just enough for him to slip through into the rain of petals that now freely poured into the Upper city.

Luckily the rain of rocks wasn't a big one and it seemed to be mostly over, at least in this part of the cave. He could see neither Ignus nor the dragons that attacked them, the explosion clearly blasted them away, what remained in place however was one single mound of red petals through which ice spikes protruded.

The slaughtered girl was the only memento of the recent fight.

He immediately dashed into the mound, his keen eyes having no trouble spotting the glowing gems, since most of them were stuck to the ruined flesh of the dragoness, the armor melting into her ruined body when it exploded.

He threw up twice when he plucked the crystals from the still bleeding body, each time an intestine seemed to graze his fingers as if to remind him of what they had done. Even in war and battle there are rules, such brutality was not even supported by ape mercenaries.

He wanted to blame it all on Iris but he knew that there was no point, she was a part of their group and the consequences, whether moral or otherwise, will be assigned to all of them, regardless of their internal protests.

He wasn't even mad, dreadfully realizing that he kind off expected it after everything he saw. Spyro will be drawing blood and gore to himself, there was no other way. The sad truth about it all was that it was unavoidable and the only thing they can do is to fight to keep their own organs from being added to the mix.

Something that he feared that not everyone from their growing group will have the privilege to do.