FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 13

" Dammit" Cynder whined at the brink of tears as she pressed her legs firmly on the ground

The painful shocks running along her spine were excruciating, being thrown like an unwanted toy is not her most favorite feeling to say the least. The pulsing pain in her back was agonizingly irritating but so was the dizziness that unfortunately is a close companion with every strong collision.

As she tried to push herself up a yell full of anguish escaped her throat and she dropped on her belly, her legs were numb, not to mention that every bone in her body hurt like hell and rebelled against her every attempt to put them to use.

And the wings.

Those hurt too, and smelled like a frazzled lizard, Cynder chuckled scathingly. She's a dragon and she compares herself to a lizard, if only Cyril would hear this, where has her draconic pride run off to? Who cares, she's in pain, she has all the right to whine, nobody is here to tell her how to behave, nobody is here forcing any rules on her.

Rules.

Her moist eyes widened with sudden focus and determination, the master plan consisting of only two rules flashed across her mind. Stay alive, prevent Spyro from going berserk. How will she follow those rules by lying here?

Groaning Cynder began to pull herself up again, her legs shook with numbing pain but she was raising. Then she felt a piercing pain shooting through the bottom side of her left hind leg as if she was standing on something sharp.

With a yelp she instinctively reacted and kicked her paw away, just to get rid of the stinging pain and it was a bad thing to do. The three still not fully awakened legs just couldn't hold her weight and once again she dropped on the ground with a muffled thud and a grunt. The slight gust of wind her collapsing body created pushed dust and every small object from behind her towards her snout. Among those objects she noticed a small rock rolling on the ground with a tiny drop of red on one of its sharp edges. The reason for her misfortune.

But is this really a misfortune?

Cynder pressed her nose to the ground, the grass smell nice, it was soft, the perfect nature's blanket, everyone deserves a tiny break, even in the heat of battle. There is so many dragons out here that when one of them leaves the playground so to speak, like her for instance, nobody would even notice. Why everything has to be on her shoulders?

" Ouch!" the dragoness let out a muffled yelp when something fell on her head and landed in front of her forehead

She raised her eyes to notice a small rock in front of her nose, from where did it come from?

" OUCH!" another small stone bounced off from her head

Cynder turned her eyes towards the direction from which the rocks kept falling, they were coming from the wall she collided with. She winced when another one of those small rocks dropped on her black head.

" Alright!" she growled irritated " I'm getting up dammit!" she snorted " Even stupid buildings are against me"

The dragoness pressed her paws against the soft grass again. And stopped there.

The ground began to pulse, delicate tremors were being sent through the earth, like there would be a huge beating heart hidden underneath the dirt. Her body was bouncing to its rhythm, as if she was dancing to the thudding song.

To the familiar thudding song.

Cynder recognized the notes which got more louder by the minute and she didn't like this even a bit. With a resigned sigh she looked straight ahead, in the distance she spotted the golem she fought with Spyro heading in her direction, its flaming rocky body clearly visible under the azure sky.

" Of course you had to move against me. As if I didn't have enough problems on my head already!" she roared at the approaching figure indignantly and accusingly

Cynder hissed when a bolt of pain shot across her battered body after the ratty blare.

She forgot about this discomfort the moment another even more familiar noise cracked the sky like a thunder, a noise she can identify herself with. Cynder looked up, the sky was filled with plenty draconic figures, flying like birds in a formation, with the exception that this special draconic birds were flying straight at the ground. She narrowed her eyes on the dragons ahead, trying to spot that one single distinguish yellowish glow.

And there it was, something blinked at her from above, just like a mirror would be reflecting one of the sun's many rays.

" Would you look at that" the dragoness muttered in awe " He did it"

As she observed the drakes above she noticed the formation changing form, some of the dragons split from the main group, quite understandable seeing that there are many golems out here. Yet her feminine instinct forced her to focus on the groups that were diving on her side of the battlefield.

Cynder narrowed her eyes even more, she jumped from one draconic group to the other, looking for something, she didn't know what but ironically was sure that she recognizes it when she sees it. She kept on scanning the dragons until her head forcefully stopped on a descending pair of dragons.

Cynder couldn't make out the features, the image was way too blurry. She rubbed her eyes, narrowed them and craned her neck as far as it would go. She was like a captain of a non-existing ship, cleaning the glass of her spyglass before adjusting the focus to better observe the sea.

Her mouth went slightly open, her throat let out a faint gasp, there were enemies on the open azure sea above, two of them were closing in quickly, ready for a boarding.

It was the malachite pirate and one of his lackeys. ARRR!

" Oh sure, why not, come, attack. Don't mind me, oh no! I love the misery" with a sad derisive snort she dropped her forehead onto the grass with a muffled thud " Was me being born so much of a crime?" she sighed into the earth

A small rock dropping on her head was all the response she was given.

She winced and with a hiss put her paw on her head where the rock hit and looked at the sky indignantly while rubbing the aching spot.

" it was a rhetorical question!" she shouted to an invisible, malignant, pesky narrator

Her eyes once again narrowed themselves on the two approaching drakes, at least now however she doesn't have to hurry. Wherever Spyro is currently he has to fend for himself, those two up there aren't going here to help her stand up, in fact they would be thrilled if she wouldn't stand up at all.

As stupid as this will sound Spyro is much safer wherever he is, or no matter how many golems he is fighting with right now. If this is what it takes to protect her friend from succumbing to his dark side, if this is what it takes to protect these people from the wrath of Dark Spyro...so be it.

Not that they will appreciate it, it seems that her destiny is to remain in the shadows. Literally and lyrically.

Accepting her role in all of this mess Cynder rested her chin on the soft grass and let out a tired and somewhat anxious deep breath through her nose. Her eyes remained opened, strictly focused on the green ground, yet with a corner of her emerald orbs she saw two massive black legs ahead, they were getting bigger and bigger with each passing second.

Cynder wasn't even bothered by the intensifying tremors running across the earth, she was like a cat who didn't see anything else expect a small black shadowy dot sliding on the ground in front of her. Not really interested in attacking it, but still always vigilant.

The dot slid swiftly to the right edge of her perception and her emerald eyes followed it, the dot remained there while shaking with each tremor. Or perhaps the spot followed her eyes? The point jumped to the opposite edge of her perception where it remained completely still. Her body was getting magically warm, as a mythical creature her scales and veins were like sensors for any kind of magical energy. Both that flowing inside and the foreign approaching from the outside.

The black spot jumped once more but this time it has vanished completely, with a stoic breath Cynder looked ahead. She caught a glimpse of a reddish ring and a spark of a huge fireball before she felt the familiar black dot spreading underneath her and sank into the ground.

She reappeared at the side of the building into which she was hurled, craning her neck slightly forward was enough to see clearly what was happening in the place she occupied some seconds ago. The weakened wall collapsed completely under the force of the shockwave, rocks rolled onto her recent green mattress which soon scattered in every direction when a powerful fireball exploded on them.

Fire burst in every direction after the collision, some of the flames found their way into the house through the recently created opening and momentarily set on fire every flammable object within. Already used to the chaos of a battlefield Cynder kept her head cool, yet even in familiar surroundings surprises happen. For instance she never expected the malachite dragon who always was after her blood throwing himself at the golem which just turned in her direction, ready to chasten her for her dodge.

The little unexpected moment was enough to force the dragoness out of her focused trance, this is why she gasped and turned towards the window at her side when suddenly something crashed loudly within the burning building. Fire was dancing behind the transparent mirror, even from here she could feel the heat wafting from the inside. It was quite a horrid view in a way, even if empty, a burning house represents how fragile even the most secure place in the world can be.

However at this time, the growing image of a red dragon in the corner of the window's glass was way more troublesome.

With a squeaky yelp Cynder jumped forward and landed flat on her belly. Those guys were expecting a shadow walk from her, yet no matter how well versed so to speak they are in her abilities nobody can truly foresee exactly where she will pop up next. This is why she had those quickly flowing several seconds that most likely saved her head.

The building literally exploded when the big dragon crashed into its wall just mere inches behind her tail tip. Tongues of flames shot from the already burning building, as well as from the drake who just used some kind of an aerial form of Spyro's Comet Dash. Not to mention that the shooting stones were instantly heated by the magically imbued flames.

Instinctively Cynder crawled away from the destruction, the heat was unbearable as it is, besides the annoying scorching pain she managed to come out of this situation pretty unscathed. Long live her instinct, it would be much worse if she didn't drop to the ground when she did.

An irritated growl rumbled behind her, the dragoness looked behind her shoulder and noticed the red dragon furiously emerging from the building with one swift jump. He instantly spun in her direction while still sliding on the scorched earth, his tail gracefully followed in the wake of his rump, as gracefully as a male could manage that is.

The angered dragon shook his head fiercely, tiny stones and sparks flew in every direction. The drake roared ferociously the moment he got rid of the annoying obstacles, as a fire dragon he was completely indifferent to the hot flames wafting from the crumbled building. He had other priorities in life, and his risen paw was already seeking one of them.

Seeing the reddish paw coming her way Cynder once more used her Shadow element to get away from this dangerous situation. When the big silver claws slashed at the ground only grass shot into the air instead of a draconic feminine blood.

The black dragoness emerged some meters behind the attacking drake, yet instead of preparing a counter-attack she just hovered in the air eying the dragon ahead who's gaze meticulously scanned the ground around his paws.

" Come on!" Cynder wailed and the red dragon instantly faced her with a snarl. Seeing his reaction the dragoness raised her paws defensively, which with the ominous shadowy coat that embraced her claws gave her a somewhat comical look

" Can we let bygones be bygones for the time being?"

" Shut up!" the drake roared and slashed at the hovering female

Cynder made a swift flap with her wings and pulled back, deftly avoiding the strike " Don't listen to Capro! He's brainwashing you! Why do you think he's taking care of the golem? It's simple! He's using you to wear me out, somebody has to do the dirty work for him after all!"

" I've said SHUT UP!" the drake breathed fire at her

The black dragoness dived moving out of the way of the elemental fire yet still feeling its hot touch on her back. " Look around you!" Cynder exclaimed when she once again stopped in the air, safely away from any danger, at least for now

" We have a common enemy here! You're not stupid, you know that I haven't created those things, if I did I would never let them attack me, I'm not a fan of delusions when it comes to fighting. I'm a rather straightforward type"

" I know, you made sure that me and other survivors of the massacre of my home city remember that!" the dragon leapt forward, trying to crush the female in between his powerful teeth

Cynder dived again, using her agility she slipped right underneath the drake's firm jaw, leaving behind her the sound of snapping razor teeth, like the sound of a guillotine.

" See?" the dragoness said while she stopped right above the dragon's back. " I'm telling the truth" she avoided another bite " You get on my nerves too but I know what's at stake here and I put all those soldiers in front of my anger. And I know you are able to do the same, just look into your heart"

" I only want to look into yours" the fire dragon roared and tried to crush the dragoness again, with the same effect " Especially when I claw it out from your chest" he growled and lunged once more

It was clear that the time to shove some sense into the dragon's head was over, however she was aware that even the slightest aggression against those self- righteous dragons, even in self-defense will make the situation even worse.

The drake slashed at her twice, she avoided those strikes, however even her natural agility wasn't enough to counter what came next. The dragon was an experienced fire wielder so the moment he opened his mouth a huge ball of flame appeared and split into four fireballs the moment he sent it at her.

The incoming fiery projectiles formed some sort of a strange figure. Two of them were flying in a vertical line, where the one on the highest point was moving slowly farther and farther towards the sky, while the one on the bottom stretched into the opposite direction. Between them two more balls could be seen that leaned to the west and east.

The formation effectively prevented any form of escape, Cynder thinking quickly pushed to her right flank, yet unfortunately she wasn't fast enough to dodge the fireball in the middle. The flaming ball hit her and exploded at the impact, the hot shockwave made her spin in the air uncontrollably while forcing a painful scream out of her throat. And that wasn't the end of her misfortune.

The drake instantly shot a tiny fiery dot at the highest fireball, it cut through the air like an arrow and collided with the fireball. It exploded, it was too far away to actually hurt her but the fiery shockwave that was released was strong enough to hurl her at the ground anyway.

Cynder hit the ground with a loud thud, dirt burst into the air as she bounced from the ground, every new bounce forced a yelp from her.

Two unwanted prances,

three,

four,

five.

The sixth one was barely able to lift her from the earth, instead of pushing her into the air the dying force of the shockwave hurled her across the ground until she eventually slid to a stop, wafting choking doses of dirt and dust into the atmosphere. The brownish mist effectively obscured vision.

The pain was horrible.

She began to cough as she pulled herself up from the ground, this was it, either she starts protecting herself or she's as good as dead. Diplomacy time was over. Cynder's eyes stung from the dust hanging in the air but even from mist she noticed a flicker of freshly ignited fire.

She rolled on the ground to the side, the draconic fire pierced the brown veil with ease and cracked like a huge torch just a meter or two from her rolling body. The dragoness hissed through clenched teeth, forcing back the cough and the yelp of pain from the heat down her throat. The vision is obscured, there is no need to betray her position for the dragon again.

Fighting with pain Cynder pushed herself up, another fire breath wafted through the mist, yet this time it was a prolonged one. It started from the position where she was earlier, moved right, just to make a wide arc and broach in her direction. The dragon is not taking any chances, he will burn the whole ground just to make sure she's not coming out of this fog alive.

The dragoness leapt into the air, flapped her burned wings with great effort several times before pressing them to her body. She began to spin, faster and faster with each passing second. A powerful wind sprang up from nowhere, at least that's how it looked from the dragon's point of view.

The dragoness was fully aware of her capabilities and the capabilities of her Wind element, and from this confidence the draconic Twister was born. The brownish choking cloud dispersed in a moment, clearly revealing the tongue of flame sliding quickly towards her, and the opened mouthed owner of this fire breath came into view soon after.

She is one of the dragons who stopped Malefor, a breath of a single common dragon is no match for her powers.

The moment the drake's fire breath reached her spinning form it was momentarily stolen by the twisting wind swirling around her. The dragoness moved straight into the hot breath, as she spun she could see fiery dashes flickering before her eyes as the draconic breath was being defeated by the summoned nature's reaper bit by bit.

The dragon was retreating slowly under her pressure but he still kept attacking.

The air around her was getting unpleasantly warm, if the drake would continue his offensive she doubted she could withstand the heat. Powerful or not she needs to tip the battle in her favor, and the unhindered focus on the Twister will do just that.

Small rocks began to levitate, just to be sucked into the draconic tornado moments later. Cynder concentrated on the red dragon, the swirling rocks around her began to gush at the dragon one by one, like projectiles fired from a small fast shooting cannon. It didn't matter that the stones were tiny, the speed with which they have been thrown out of the twister turned the small missiles into sharp rough needles.

And the dragon felt their sting.

The fiery drake was wincing and flinching, the fire coming out of his mouth wavered, for a moment it was intense just to weaken soon after, even the speed he was falling back increased.

She noticed she was getting the upper paw, yet the dragon in his stubbornness wasn't about to give up just yet. The whizzing wind intensified, it was roaring around her with a deafening rumble, getting stronger by the minute. More rocks where sucked by the draconic tornado, this time they were bigger, almost the size of a melon.

The moment they were hurled at the drake he was pushed into the defense.

The dragon tried to keep the fire breath going but the pain caused by the bigger stones was just too much. With a roar full of anguish and anger he stopped his attack and covered himself behind his massive wings, clenching his teeth and withstanding every dose of shocking pain. He was not about to give up, he pressed his paws firmly on the ground and sunk his claws into the earth, however the wind was too powerful now, even for him. The dragon struggled to remain in place but to no avail, his claws left deep scratching marks on the earth when he was being slowly sucked into the cyclone.

Cynder didn't want to hurt him...badly, it would make things only worse for her if somebody saw that she is beating up one of her own. They wouldn't care who started this, they would throw themselves at her, not knowing that only a handful would actually reach her. Dark Spyro would take care of the rest.

That is why she stopped, the twister she made out of herself was still fully operational so to speak, but it wasn't moving anymore. She just remained in place and sucked every possible stone in close vicinity just to hurl it at the covering drake. After some time even the big rocks that were once a house were lifted from their spot, eventually slowly cleaning out the rubble that the dragon made out from one of the walls of the crumbling house.

She wanted him to finally give up, dragons have a high threshold for pain but even they have their limits. The dragon seeing that she isn't continuing her charge decided to push forward, in his stubborn stupidity trying to ignore the flying rocks.

He kept on moving forward, stones smashed against his body but no matter how many flinches such collisions caused him, he still kept on walking. Making a very formidable shield from his wings, his membranes were bleeding, in some places quite badly but he still kept on walking.

The idiot.

Cynder channeled her Wind element even stronger than before, she tried to play it nicely but if he doesn't understand subtlety so be it, he'll have it the hard way. The collapsed wall was shaking, the solid stones from which it was made from began to raise in the air one by one, and those were quite massive solid blocks, able to crush a cheetah under their weight easily. She lifted all of them, the stones began to swirl all around her accompanied by their smaller variations. If she wasn't a fighter Cynder noticed that she would make quite a good maid, the wind cleaned all the rubble from the collapsed wall, opening up a second entrance to the burned building.

She hurled one of the slabs at the dragon, he let out a painful wavering roar, staggered on his legs before covering himself behind his wings again with obvious grimace of pain wrinkling his snout. The dragoness hurled another slab at him.

Same reaction, and still that annoying stubbornness kept him going.

Another slab.

Still the same thing.

Cynder knew that he has his limit, and it wasn't far.

Another throw.

She was right.

The last rocky explosion finally took a visible toll, the dragon's legs bent under the weight of the constant bombardment, his bones no longer able to fuel the rest of the body with necessary amounts of strength. However no matter how battered the drake was, he didn't want to show any signs of weakness, the moment his belly touched the ground he immediately sprang back up on all fours, even if his legs were shaking from exhaustion.

About time.

The dragon seeing that his stubbornness isn't paying off prepared his bloody wings and leapt into the air with an furious roar. The first few several flaps were shaky and very uncoordinated but they did the job and lifted the heavy draconic body into the air. If Cynder only wanted to she would shoot him down with ease.

But she didn't, mostly because she didn't want to, but there was something entirely else that drew her attention.

In the distance behind Capro and the golem she saw the only purple dragon alive, she would recognize her friend even from the clouds. He was currently engaged into a skirmish with one of the golems, as much as she wanted to help him, she knew she just couldn't do it. Something at the back of her mind warned her of incoming danger, and the reason behind it wasn't the fire dragon above or Capro ahead.

It was Spyro.

She could see him clearly from here, no doubt if he would raise in the air he would notice her too, and the link between them would mean the end of both golems and dragons.

She just can't let that happen.

Cynder was aware that the dragon above was resting and preparing himself for her attack, if the battle between them would continue...she needs to hide. She needs to hide from her best friend as stupid as this sounds.

The dragoness quickly scanned for a rock or something else big enough for her to hide behind it, or inside it. She instantly thought about the burned down house but then again the idiot who attacked her won't just let her be, and the flying stones when he would follow her would certainly draw Spyro's attention.

She needs to think of something else.

Then her eyes landed on the pair of enemies fighting ahead, there wasn't much space between the building and the two fighters but it was enough. If it comes to a confrontation between her and the red drake, and something told her it will, she and the fire dragon will fit there, and when that happens all she'll need to do is to play this right.

The golem is huge, Capro as a dragon fairly in his adulthood is quite big for his age, the two of them will serve as the perfect obstacle. Not to mention the idiotic fire dragon above, that one was a typical fully grown male, he will easily fill any gap between the two fighters, she'll just need to maneuver him properly.

Cynder immediately killed the elemental energy flowing through her veins, the howling wind died instantly even before she and the spinning rocks landed on the ground with muffled thudding sounds. Not really dwelling on the moment she dashed into the building, just to buy herself some more time.

It worked, she could see the red dragon above through the many cracks and holes that now make up for the building's décor. For a moment he just hovered there, completely surprised by her move, clearly expecting her to continue her offense and not to run away just like that. Eventually the drake shook off his shock and went after her, cautiously, expecting a trap it seems or just didn't want to risk another blind attack like earlier.

However no trap was coming, Cynder just waited for him to get close enough, and when he did a terrifying shriek greeted him. The dragon momentarily jumped back with a startled yelp, he didn't run away but couldn't press forward either, that screech still echoed within his head.

The dragoness however didn't waste the opportunity, not wanting to strain the patience of her Luck she slipped out of the building, making sure the dragon sees where she is going. When he finally managed to quench back his fear he once more went after the female, yet this time he decided to make his way around the house.

Cynder was there where she planned, waiting for him, her tail swinging slowly from one side to the other. With a snarl the fire dragon stepped out from behind the building, his massive tail tearing parts of the cornice as it slid threateningly along the house. He let out a challenging growl as he began to sidestep on bent paws from left to right while not leaving the black dragoness from his sight.

She emitted a defiant growl of her own " How about we do this the old fashioned way?" she bent on her legs and brandished her razor sharp teeth in a cocky grin " Or are you too scared to try?"

The dragon lunged at her without a word of warning, his powerful paw cut through the air in one fast crosswise swing. Cynder expected such a move from him, before the strike could do any damage to her she backflipped out of its way.

The drake tried again using his other forepaw. Cynder swiftly rolled on the ground to the side. Her enemy was about to slash at her again, she momentarily sprang up on all fours and darted towards the drake. His big paw cut the wind behind her as she slipped underneath his foreleg, biting his other paw and slashing at the risen one with her tail.

The dragon jumped back with a painful roar, the moment he leapt into the air Cynder jumped too, straight up, and managed to delicately scratch his scales. The smell of draconic blood hung heavy in the air, the scent disgusted her, she has enough dragon blood on her claws as it is.

The male threw himself at her again, this time however trying to smash her in his powerful jaws. She avoided his maw with another graceful backflip, her enemy was obviously not used to seeing dragons doing such acrobatic moves but that didn't discourage him in the slightest.

He continued his attack, Cynder dodged another strike by one of his powerful claws by simply jumping backwards, seeing that the male was expecting another acrobatic leap from her she decided to lunge forward. Before the drake could react she managed to catch his leg with her silvery natural weapons right below the elbow.

Wanting to punish the dragoness for her dirty fighting the dragon bounced up and tried to claw his frustration on her feminine body, but she was already gone from his reach, circling him for unknown reason just to wait there for his attack, as if taunting him, trying to show that he is nothing in comparison to her.

The sassy bitch.

Her plan was working, at least for now. During her attacks, and especially when she retreated she stayed hidden behind the big dragon. Whenever she got the chance she threw quick glances at the battlefield, and surprise, surprise the dragons were winning. They have already taken out some of the golems, they aren't as indestructible as one may think, with good tactic everything can be defeated. However when you're alone it isn't a simple task to take out a golem, Capro is a good example of that, or perhaps you just need to see the weakness appearing on the golem's rocky body to count it as one.

This is good news, she doesn't need to hurry, she only needs to stall the drake for as long as she can. In due time the battle In Boven will end and the remaining dragons will be too busy cherishing the victory to bother with her, hence avoiding a gruesome fate from Dark Spyro.

The red drake attacked her again, more ferociously this time. He slashed at her with one paw, she avoided the strike by jumping to the side. The drake followed soon after with his other foreleg, Cynder ducked under the horizontal cut just to quickly leap forward above another strike while curling into a fast spinning ball with her tail tip as the deadly tongue of it. That blade like tip managed to cut the dragon's chest before she landed just below his neckline.

The drake roared furiously and tried to crush the dragoness like a little bug but she managed to jump out of the way. He then tried to bite her head off but this attempted also failed when she cut his cheek with the blade on her wing thumb and forced him to back off with a painful hiss.

He pulled back but was not about to give up, she knew that, that is why she returned to the same spot as before. He attacked her once more, the dragoness had a very hard time dodging his strikes but she managed somehow. However this time the drake didn't give her any opportunity to counter-attack, momentarily he spun around and swiped with his tail.

His reddish tail was sliding across the ground, kicking dust in the air, she didn't think it through, Cynder was sure that with her agility she will jump over it with ease. Her eyes went wide open when for the very first time she got a good look at his tail, especially the tip. It resembled a dorsal fin of a shark with a narrow sharp rounded tip, many small spikes sprouted from it.

The worst thing however was that the main round tip was quite tall.

With a startled yelp Cynder jumped, using her wings to gain altitude, but it wasn't enough. The spikes caught one of her dangling hind leg, especially one of them got hooked in her scales. She cried out but it wasn't the end of her agony, the speed and strength the dragon put into the swipe was enough to yank her body in the wake of his tail. However the small spike wasn't meant to hold onto things, this is why the swift slide of his tail was enough for the spike to tear a bit of the dragonesses flesh from her leg, followed by a cascade of blood gushing from the wound.

Cynder's agonizing scream only intensified after this unfortunate scenario which toppled her to the ground. She didn't even feel the force of the impact with the ground, the hot pulsing pain in her leg took the nerve's whole attention. Her warrior's spirit kicked in, before she knew it she was already pulling herself up while letting out all that boiling screams of anguish in groaning hisses through her clenched teeth.

The wounded leg acted like it had a mind of its own, not allowing to put pressure on it and punishing every such attempt with strong aching shocks. Cynder obeyed, instinctively avoiding more pain by bending the wounded paw slightly as every other living creature would do in her place, only allowing her claws to touch the ground delicately.

The thick tail was moving towards her again, the drake seeing that his attack was effective decided to continue it by sliding his tail back the route it came. As she threw a glance at the sliding tail Cynder cursed her stupid ideas, if not for all this no magic fight she wouldn't have to bite her lips almost to the blood just to spare her tongue the fate of being sliced under her own teeth!

Agony.

This is her reward for being nice.

" Story of my life" she whined to herself with resignation while still eyeing the incoming tail

There was something very interesting about it, besides the tip there were no spikes or anything similar sharp enough to pierce her body on the whole length of it, only a simple reddish thick scaly tail. If she would get slapped by it, the force of the swipe will hurl her away from the drake and this very bad position and she would be safe for a moment.

This was such a bad idea.

Deciding that bad ideas are her lifestyle Cynder began to quickly limp forward, or prance more like it, sometimes even using her hurt leg for support. She barely made it, the deadly tip no longer threated her, the tail however was only a couple of meters away. She tried to form a proper shield from her wings but ran out of time and received a powerful slap on her still not prepared draconic barrier.

Every possible bone within her wings rattled in agony, the slap was like an uncontrolled jump from a high building, if you won't bend your knees properly, you'll break your legs. Although her bones didn't break, it still hurt like hell.

Dust and grass shot in the air after her rolling body, in her state Cynder could no longer tell from where the pain is coming from. Between her feminine grunts whenever her head bounced off the ground she could hear the dragon roaring not far away from her and beginning his charge. After a couple of more quick spins she eventually stopped on a tree, a bolt of numbing pain shot across her whole left flank when after the impact. The force of the collision forced her to cough out dirt mixed with small amounts of sordid blood.

In between coughs she took a quick glimpse at the golem, it was all alone. With a frown on her snout and little coughs still scourging her lungs she focused her vision. Capro was heading her way, she saw that murderous shimmer within his callous grey eyes, he completely ignored the construct and concentrated entirely on her. The red drake abruptly ended his charge seeing his moving companion, there was something about the posture, the way he walked, or perhaps the malachite drake has already sent the fire dragon a meaningful look that made his intentions waver, splashed by the feeling of intimidation.

He smelled her blood, Cynder was sure of it, he recognized how deep her battle scars ran, he smelled her body weakening and he was about to take advantage of it.

And it that moment she felt that special phenomenon popularly called second wind filling her body.

She couldn't tell if it was caused by the natural fear of death or the simple satisfaction of wiping that barely visible triumphant and malicious grin from his ugly mug. With a challenging frown Cynder confidently wiped the blood running down her lower lip and pushed herself up. Surprisingly the pain in her leg was no longer so annoying.

Capro noticed her confident self-assured stance, his arrogant walk ended abruptly, the irritating triumphant smile twitched into a surprised grimace. For a moment he was completely frozen in shock.

It changed soon enough.

" Stop playing with her!" Capro roared, his snout was wrinkled by a comical grimace of wrath, that wanted to cry and scream at the same time

However the red dragon still found such outburst intimidating, his whole body shivered uncontrollably after hearing Capro's roar. But then he shook off the awkward feeling and got a good look at the malachite drake, he was younger than him, what gives him the right to bark orders at him?

The furious muscular dragon didn't answer his unspoken question. With another wrathful blare he threw himself at the golem and let out all that boiling anger on the creature.

Cynder turned her eyes at the fire dragon ahead, he was slowly making her his priority again if his flaring nostrils were any clue. However she wasn't saddened by this, she wasn't even bother by it, he was as noticeable as air was, with her renewed determination and in the open he has no chance against her.

In the open.

Everything suddenly became unimportant to her, panic was creeping towards her heart when she realized that this wasn't part of her plan, this was certain doom. The dragoness turned her wide eyes towards the village where all the fighting was going on, expecting to see Dark Spyro killing his way to her.

Nothing like that was happening. Spyro was nowhere to be seen.

Something was wrong. And it didn't take her long to find out, the number of golems increased greatly, it was like they appeared in the place of all the destroyed ones. There was total chaos going on there, it was hard to see anything with all those hulking figures moving about and the constant flashes of every possible elemental attack. The dragons were obviously in trouble, she has never seen so many golems before, and she is here wasting her energy on this stupid plan of hers.

The real enemy is out there and the fire dragon is attacking her, she could understand this yet. Roars, shouts and different kind of explosions were a part of this scenery sound from the very beginning, who would even react to the intensifying noise. But Capro, this is a different kind of story, he definitely noticed what is going on and just ignores it. There is absolutely no way she can overcome hate like this, it's time to bail and go where the real fighting is taking place, all paws are needed on deck.

Ironically Capro's also.

The fire dragon following the malachite drake's orders threw away their agreement regarding the claws only fighting. A huge wave of fire was coming at her and she wasn't even interested in deflecting it somehow. Instead Cynder sank into the ground once more using her Shadow powers and reappeared not far from the place where Capro was fighting the construct.

The malachite drake was genuinely surprised to see her, his wide eyed stare could be easily seen from behind the golem's arm. She needs to get out of here, and there is only one way of quick transportation that can make this happen.

This was such a bad idea.

Cynder started to run towards the construct's back, for a moment Capro just stood there, observing her moving form by jerking his head to see past the creature's thick rocky body, wondering most likely if she's completely right in the head since moments ago she did everything to avoid any kind of battle and now is running straight at him.

However she had no intention of moving around the golem, when she was close enough to the construct the dragoness leapt into the air. Raising above the golem's shoulders she released her already channeled Wind element in a form of a powerful gust. No matter how solid Capro was standing on the ground the gale was still able to push him away from the golem.

" Hit it in the crack on the back of its neck" Cynder said and momentarily pushed away from the golem with a couple of swift flaps of her black wings while channeling her Poison element.

When she decided she was far enough she touched the ground and let loose a boiling green glob of venom straight at the crack in the golem's natural armor. The construct reacted to her attack with one furious roar and immediately crossed its massive arms around its body and hunkered down.

Cynder sighed " This is going to hurt"