The Darksield Chronicles

Chapter 30: Preparations

Dark Cynder POV

Dark Cynder walked through the streets of Warfang, thinking dark thoughts. She was glad that her master had finally freed her to do his bidding once again. She grinned, remembering the look of horror on the creature's face when she had attacked it. And soon, she would finish the job.

Suddenly, her head jerked up. Something was approaching the city gates. Two somethings. She flared her wings and took off toward the gates. By the time she arrived, Dark Spyro and Dark Flame were already there. She exchanged a wicked grin with each before glancing at the gates. Two cheetahs were standing there, their eyes glowing bright.

"What is it?" Dark Cynder asked in her reverberating voice.

One of the cheetahs stood at attention. "We found the creature. It is currently raising an army of fire scorpions to fight you."

Dark Cynder frowned. If Cynder's memories were correct, the creature was deathly afraid of fire scorpions, so why was it working with them? She shook her head. No. She needed to focus. She glared at the two cheetahs.

"Very well," she replied, "we shall take this information back to the guardians and our master and let them decide what to do."

Dark Cynder jumped into the air and flew back toward the temple, Dark Spyro and Dark Flame right behind her. Within fifteen minutes they landed outside the temple and walked inside. At the end of the hall, the black crystal glowed. Apparently, someone had decided to move it.

The guardians walked over.

"What is it?" Dark Terrador demanded.

Dark Cynder told him of what she had learned.

Dark Terrador's face grew hard, and he turned toward the crystal.

A deep voice emanated from it, a voice of power and command.

"Summon all the inhabitants of Warfang and prepare them for battle. Cynder, stay here and guard the crystal. We must keep everyone under its effects for at least a day before I am ready to return. Everyone else, prepare for battle."

Everyone nodded.

Dark Flame POV, 5 Hours Later

Dark Flame glanced at the army assembled around him. It was an impressive setup. Moles manning catapults in the back with cheetah archers, and dragons and cheetahs with swords in the front. The guardians, along with Dark Spyro and Dark Flame, stood at the front of the army, waiting. Malefor had said that he could sense the creature coming. And so, they waited.

Before long, three shapes emerged from the tree line.

Dark Flame recognized the creature as it strode toward them beside a pair of fire scorpions. Dark Flame's eyes narrowed. He had never seen fire scorpions like that before. Nevertheless, he prepared to attack, as did the rest of the dragons.

"Hold!" Dark Cyril shouted.

Dark Spyro glared at him. "Why?"

Dark Cyril pointed. "The creature is waving a white flag. Apparently, it wants to talk."

Dark Flame grunted but stayed where he was.

The creature drew closer and stopped roughly thirty yards away. The creature surveyed them, then its eyes snapped toward the guardians. Even from a distance, Dark Flame could see its eyes shimmering in the sunlight.

"Guardians," it called. "I will give you this one chance to surrender."

Dark Volteer laughed. "And why would we do that?"

The creature glanced at him before returning its gaze back to the army as a whole. "We need not fight today. We are all on the same side. Malefor is controlling you. Let us help."

Dark Spyro laughed. "So, you finally figured it out. Yes, we are under the Dark Master's control, and we are happy to stay that way. Now we give you the chance to surrender, so that we may kill you quickly."

Dark Flame bared his teeth in agreement.

The creature looked them over one last time. It sighed. "I'm going to give you one more chance to solve this peacefully. Otherwise, we will have to settle this the old-fashioned way."

Dark Flame laughed. "You and what army?"

In response, the creature whistled, and suddenly the ground began to shake. A horde of fire scorpions marched out of the trees and stopped behind the creature. There were at least six or seven hundred scorpions total, which was still small compared to the thousand cheetahs, dragons, and moles but the scorpions looked like they were ready for a fight.

The creature spread its hands. "How about this army?"

Dark Spyro glared at Dark Flame, who decided to look down at his claws. He just had to ask.

"Enough of this," Dark Spyro growled, and he turned toward the army. "Fire!"

The moles launched their catapults; the cheetahs fired their bows, and the dragons sent a wave of elemental attacks toward the scorpion army.

Dark Flame grinned. There was no way that the enemy would be able to survive.

Then the creature shouted "Now!"

Immediately, there were multiple flashes of light.

Dark Spyro POV

Dark Spyro shielded his eyes. What was going on? When the glare faded, and he could see again, he beheld a sight that he never thought he would ever see. Instead of an army of fire scorpions, he was looking at an army of creatures that stood on two legs and were at least nine feet tall.

Each creature had pitch black armor that was smooth and highly reflected, with silver accents and connected by blue fire. Each chest plate had some sort of silver dragon symbol on the front, and each creature had shoulder armor with a slight curve at the tip and silver wings with black membranes neatly folded against its back. And protecting each one's flaming blue eyes was a silver and black helmet with a line of silver spikes starting at the forehead and lining the top of the helmet only to end in one bigger spike that was pointed backward.

Each creature held a blue flaming sword and a black and silver shield with a black dragon symbol on it, the hilt of each sword resembling a pair of black dragon wings.

The creature shouted, "Shields up!"

The army followed the order and crouched down, raising their shields and locking them in so that they formed a wall of steel. The creature raised its own shield as well. The projectiles from the army of Warfang rained down and slammed upon the shields. Boulders bounced off; arrows ricocheted; fireballs fizzled; icicles shattered, and lightning reflected, barely leaving any marks.

Dark Spyro stared. What was happening? He launched a blast of convexity at the front line, along with several other dragons, but the enemy soldiers stood up and leveled their shields in front of them. The blasts of convexity hit hard, but they just bounced off. Dark Spyro was stunned.

Nothing could survive a blast of convexity. Nothing.

The creature's shield disappeared, and it stood up. It glared at the dragons. "Like I said, you should have given up when you had the chance."

The creature started to glow.

When it was done, it looked almost exactly like the other enemies except that it held two swords instead of one and its eyes had reptilian pupils. It raised one of its swords and leveled it at Dark Spyro's army.

"Dragon Blades! Attack!"

The creature charged forward, a sea of enemies following in its wake, some of them spreading their wings and shooting into the sky. The creature spread its own wings and took to the air as well.

Dark Spyro spread his wings and shot into the sky, along with several other dragons. He flew toward the creature and prepared to fight.

Below, the army of Warfang charged forward toward the enemy. One way or another, this would end.