Dark Weapon Rising

Chapter 9
Survival
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Everywhere I looked there was carnage in all different forms. Limbs, wings, fire, blood, heads, darkness, elements, and worst of all bodies seemed to fall all around me. Anything that moved towards me aggressively I decided to be a target and I made my best effort to strike it down immediately. Deep roars echoed around the mid-air battle scene as dragons fought their own kind ruthlessly simply because of a disagreement upon politics. Malefor I knew was out there somewhere at the root of all of this, and my stomach turned in that knowledge. How somebody could be turned from a polite young dragon into a blood thirsty monster I wasn't quite sure.

I caught a glimpse of a yellow body moving into my direction with talons exposed as he attempted to get on my flank. I rotated to face him and immediately began pulling energy from the land sending it into the dragon's side leaving a massive red gash where it had stuck him.

I reeled at what I had done, but I didn't have time to react as I felt a slip stream of air whirl past my back. I glimpsed a dark purple extremity and threw my tail barb towards it hopelessly as Malefor vanished back into the battle. My scales burned red with anger towards the betrayer as I envisioned my claws blazing through purple scales until Malefor screamed out for mercy.

The mayhem before me jolted me back into full alertness, however, as an orange dragon streaked down from above and pieced into my fragile wing membranes. I threw my wings around violently pulling myself free only to find myself fluttering gently towards the ground with eight complete punctures through my flight enabling extremities. I yearned to retract them into my body as the loose strands waved excruciatingly upwards. Thin fibers all around the holes grew ever thinner and thinner until finally the cells became too thin to withstand and were washed into the air. My lungs and vocal chords lashed out their displeasure simultaneously without restraint.

A stagnant body of a dark dragon raced past me, and I realized that my dissolving wings were the only things keeping me from the same fate. I found myself craning my neck each direction to watch the acid of pain slowly burn into me.

My bottom suddenly ran into something solidly and I was whisked away upon it. Friend or foe I wasn't going to allow my wings to fail me so I tucked them in. The pain didn't alleviate.

Below me was an ocean of burnt red scales which shimmered with the smallest of light that was available in this dark overcast. "Ignitus?"

Horns turned to the side before me revealing the wavy outcropping of an eye which told me exactly who it was. I hadn't known him truly, but at least he wasn't about to kill me. Or whose side was he on?

He seemed to have heard my thoughts, "Don't worry; I'm on the same side as your father."

Adrenaline races through my veins causing me to shake while blood and anguish washed over top of me as well. I conjured up my composure just enough to reply, "Ok."

Above me I saw four dark dragons lash out together at a single ally. The claws of one of the dark dragons ran down the underbelly of the light dropping huge red chunks down behind us. Solids slowly inched their way forward from the back of my throat, but I forcibly subdued them from my maw.

Ignitus fought his way around a red dragon, and we were suddenly on the outside of the battle scene. All that was visible from here was the mass if dark dragons who were standing along the outside of the battle containing it. Ignitus looked back at me, "You can't fly now can you?"

I shook my head.

"I was afraid so. Well, I guess that we're going to have to find Malefor together in this mess. We've lost this battle, Terrador, but there may be a way to return Mal back into himself. If we could find him, I think that you could make all the difference."

The pain was still throbbing in my side, and I could hardly stand it. I knew that tears were about to burst forth from my eyes. "I'll try to help you."

A tear trickled down from my face and ran up over the bridge of my eye onto my cheek. Another followed it closely behind, and then another, and then another. The dam had been broken and now the water ran free.

Through my water drunken eyes I caught a glimpse of a purple extremity slipping around the bend of the battle scene. I screamed "There!" and pointed to where it had been.

Ignitus bobbed his head, "I'll get there to him."

He pulled in behind the dragons creating the ball and ran his claws across their backs. In our wake we left behind blood, and shrieks of agony. Where ever the dragons fell to the Earth more broke out of the encirclements and broke away to shelter. A yellow and purple body rounded the corner and nearly ran directly into us. Ignitus diverted route at the last possible second and Malefor ran directly beneath us. Whirling around to face him once more we both hovered in place.

"So Ignitus, how does this all make you feel?" Malefor asked, his voice was deeper than any that I'd ever heard before to the point that it was almost unable to be understood.

Ignitus didn't move at the question.

Mal looked at the fire dragon with a fierce concentration, "Well?"

Ignitus stared back at the youngling, "How do you feel about all of this? Terrador was nearly killed, who knows where Shandra is, and do you know how many dragons have died here Malefor?"

Malefor threw his head back and laughed a deep menacing laugh, "It is all irrelevant to what my task is! You are all weak, and the dragon race is vulnerable because of it. It is only through me now that the dragon race can become anything more than a race of putrid animals. You don't understand, nobody fully understands how weak you all really are compared to me!

"You were damn right to oppress me because I was simply your worst nightmare, and now that I have broken free from your bonds nothing is going to stop me. You know how many thousands of dragons are on board with me in this deal. After this next generation all dragons will be directly descendant from me and stronger for it! Don't you understand? The world will be a better place after I'm gone, and you'll all thanks me for it eventually."

Ignitus shook his head, "You will never kill all of us, and your brood will never see the light of day, Malefor! I'll see to it personally!"

Mal chuckled into the air and motioned towards us with his front paw, "Kill him!"

Hundreds of dragons launched themselves towards us, while in the distance I noticed the outcropping of hundreds of dragons gathered peaceably together. A dragon that I recognized as Shandra stood upon the city wall in front of them all directing traffic and making a speech.

Ignitus hovered in place ignorant of the attack that was closing in upon us. I thought to fly away, but remembered that I couldn't. Ignitus continued to speak towards Malefor, "You're going to wake up someday, and know that that is your last day, Malefor! I will defeat you in this game of yours!"

"I look forward to it, Ignitus," Malefor replied motioning his flapping wings towards the masses that moved towards us, "I wish you luck."

Malefor turned and started to fly away, just as a blue energy was thrust through me from Ignitus's body. The attackers ran into it and bounced off as Ignitus jolted into full flight and broke free from the lot of them leaving them all confused where they were.

The battle was over, Malefor had won, and more than half of the dragon race was on his side in the matter ironically. I tapped Ignitus on the shoulder, "Why are there so many on his side?"

Ignitus looked back to me, "The weak of mind he had tricked into belief with his dark form of magic. Others simply were already there at his disposal."

"What will we all do since we are not strong enough to defeat him?"

"Most of us will likely go into hiding, while some sort of board or group will be left to deal with this. I will bring this up tonight at the council. I do hope that there are enough left to have a meeting."

That's when my mind shifted towards my father. He had been on the very forefront when it had all started. I looked down to the pile of carcasses below and somewhere deep inside I knew that he was gone. A pang of fear and anguish hit me, but it quickly dissolved into a deep hatred towards Malefor.

I vowed to fight his threat with everything that I had, regardless of the cost. Whatever it was that was left to me was fully expendable, and I was going to devote the rest of my life to an excellence on the battlefield. When Malefor came knocking on our doorstep again, I was going to be ready.

I looked at my broken wings and shook my head angrily, "I'll never ever let this happen again."

A/N: Wow, I'm sorry that the completion of this story took this long, and especially that it was only on the final chapter. I hope that some readers tagged along for the entire ride. This is the kind of writing that I enjoy most, and regardless of what the view numbers and favorites on this were I enjoyed it much more than my lemons and romances. Thank you all for reading and I hope you have enjoyed. Please leave any thoughts or feelings you have about this story in a review, and flames are fully welcomed if you so desire.

Thank you for reading, and remember that without you none of this is possible,
Cornys