Spinebreaker: the rise of skullcrusher

Chapter 8: Mount Tampalis

It was 8 am by the time I got home. Both Gigant and Hollowjack had waken up and were enjoying the cooked Alpha indom, which was almost finished. I came up to them and Hollowjack asked "So, where were you?" I replied "Meeting an old friend, apparently one of my neighbours has gotten injured because he fought off the Apex Indom to save his family, I don't think you know them". Gigant replied "The poor bloke, we'll just have to check up on him sometime soon". Hollowjack replied "Yes, of course, anyone who can fend off an Apex indom, or any Apex, is a friend of mine". "Thanks guys, I really appreciate hearing that" I replied. Gigant than said "What was the poor fellow's name?". I replied "Rocky, his name is Rocky the Yutyrannus." Hollowjack said "I will specifically ask Spyro to grant him and his family immediate protection, speaking of whom..."

From the distance I could hear the loud noise of wings constantly flapping, I looked up to see Lord Spyro flying towards us, damn, his wing span was massive, it was wider than me, Gigant amd Hollowjack standing together.

Spyro landed infront of us and said "Greetings dear Hollowjack, Gigant and of course, Spinebreaker. What in tartarus has happened to your back Spinebreaker!!!". All three of us bowed before him and than got up. Than I explained to him what happened yesterday and how I lost my sail. Above us Pterodactyls were flying closer on purpose to overhear the conversation, well, until both Lord Spyro and Hollowjack started spitting fireballs near them and scared them away.

After I explained, I thought I would hear a 'Sorry' from him or atleast symphaty, instead, Spyro just chuckled and said "That's perfect, the ritual usually requires the removal of a vital organ and it seems you did just that! More proof that you are the one from the prophecy." All three of us were dumbfounded. Finally Hollowjack asked "Spyro, what do you mean by ritual, and losing vital organs?" Gigant added "Yeah, I kinda like my vital organs as they---you know---allow me to live." Spyro just said "Do not worry my friends, all will be revealed soon." Now I, I was dumbstruck, Lord Spyro had chuckled at my condition, he seemed happy because of it, but before i decided to burst out in rage, I decided to trust the Emperor of ARK. After all their was a story about how he lead 50 men against 1000 amd came back with 5 casualties because they trusted him.

Anyways I asked "Than what are we to do Lord Spyro?" He replied "Right now we are about to go to Mount Tampalis where we will do the ritual, than we will come back here." All 3 of us were soo confused by this point. Gigant asked Spyro "How will we even get their my Lord?" Spryo said nothing and just snapped his fingers, suddenly a dome of energy started to rise above us and slowly cover us, I had heard about this. Apparently the bosses were gifted the ability to create portals around them to take them anywhere, this was because of the Overseers of the different provinces (meaning guardians), who had gifted them their ability. As the overseers were of higher level than them yet still accepted Spyro as king. The portal still took time to completely form. I said "Oh yeah, I forgot about this ability". I heard Gigant gasp in amazement and heard Hollowjack mutter "Show off" before we were teleported to the destination.

Imagine disintegrating into a trillion particles, going through a wormhole through the speed of light and than reforming on the other side, that's what I felt when I travelled the first time. We reached the bottom of a huge volcano, around us were plains and grasslands, but something was wrong, there was blood everywhere, I looked far in the distance, in the opposite direction from the mountain amd saw fighting going on between 2 massive armies, on one side were rexes, giganotosauruses, spinos, allosaurs, Carnatoruses amd raptors fighting, about 500 in total strenght, and on the other hand, I could see more than 700 skull crawlers and indoms fighting.

Gigant asked "My lord, where are we?" But it was Hollowjack who replied "This is the largest Volcano in ARK, and judging from the ferocity in which the indoms and crawlers are fighting, its like their defending their home, thus this means thag we are at the Island, but where are the lightening wyverns guarding the volcano?" I already knew the answer. I said "Look at that ledge on the mountain". All of them looked at a ledge on the side of the volcano where there were so many lightening wyvern corpses. I heard Hollowjack say "Those monsters".

Suddenly Spyro said "I dispatched a small army to take over the homeland of the enemy yet the battle is more harder than expected. This volcano is extremely important and cannot fall in their hands, like over here, battles are being waged in The Scorched earth, Abberation and the lost isles, only Extinction is safe but I fear that they will also be overrun soon, we are fighting a losing battle in scorched earth and the lost isles but stand a chance of retaining control of these other provinces. Now hurry up, we need to get to the top."

We started to climb up using the path (except Lord Spyro who flew up). Eventually after 10 minutes we reached the top, below us, the enemy had pushed the last of our army to the volcano, at this rate we would lose the Island as well. We saw Spyro with some TEK stuff which apparently he had with him, he cut his own hand and let the blood drip down into the crater to the lava, we eventually reached to where he was standing.

He started to say "Long ago, and even now, this volcano [Mount Tampalis] was used for ancient rituals, one of these was creating hybrids, that's how Skullcrusher and the skulldoms came into being, so I have planned to recreate their ancient foe the spinebreaker. And that's why you are here, all three of you, your help is necessary". Gigant asked "My lord, you already have the TEK, but you also need a Dino for the hybrid, so who is the Dino?" Spyro looked at me and saved "You Spinebreaker, destiny has proclaimed you as the one to stop the demons." I backed away, I couldn't belive what he was saying, me, a hybrid, absurd! I said the same thing "No, no, no, no. You're mistaken, I can't be one of the reactants, I am weak, and injured, n-no thanks Lord Spyro" Hollowjack replied "Spyro what you are suggesting is mad, if the lava doesn't finish him off than the pain of transformation will." Gigant said " Yeah, I can't bear to lose another friend!" Spyro sighed and said "Let's let Spinebreaker decide, so what will it?" He said as he looked towards me while saying the last part. I thought about it, I thought thoroughly and hard, if I accepted than I could die, but if I refused than my friends would die and all of ARK would suffer, I didn't really have a choice. I said "Let's do it".

Hollowjack screamed at me "Are you crazy, do you want to die!, after we just met!" Gigant also shouted "You idiot! Stop risking your lives for others!" I replied to both of them "I will be fine, destiny remember?" They both didn't look satisfied by my answer, Spyro on the other hand was beaming with pride. He ushered me towards himself and said "Okay, so now I will cut your damaged sail and let the blood flow into the Lava, than you will have to jump, but while in the lava, just remember one thing, the sentence 'I am alive' Otherwise you die. Understand?" I gulped in fear, but it was too late now. Spyro had teleported both Hollowjack and Gigant back to his throne with orders to wait for us there. They both had wished me luck and had vanished. And to make matters worse, our army had almost lost, Thank God we weren't noticed yet.

Spyro said "As soon as I throw you in, huge explosions and light will emit from the volcano and every Skull Crawler and Indom will see it and come here, so whatever happens, be prepared okay?" I agree, not trusting myself to speak just incase I scream or say no to the ritual.

Spyro than used one of his sharp nails on my back and I felt a sharp pain and liquid flowing out my back, straight into the Volcaono, next Spyro chanted and threw the TEK stuff into the Lava, where instead of melting, it just sank, I was about refuse out of fear when he stopped chanting and said "Go" I started to chant 'I am alive' and jumped.