Title: The Fallen
Co-authors and/or betas: None
Genre/s: Action, adventure, war
Summary: Basically an alternate version of "Broken Bonds" and the outcome.
Ratings: PG-14
Main character/s: The Penn gang, Moordryd, Word
Concrit: Encouraged
Mary Sue: Unsure (but hopefully not)
Pairings: Various
No. of chapters: As of now, 3
Complete/ WiP: WiP
Warnings: Contains violence, blood and possible character death
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Booster. But I do thought up of Shayde.


Chapter 1: All Is Lost

"Spratt! Now!" Artha yelled out in desperation.

Word looked up and saw Spratt running towards them with a vial in his hand, filled with real liquid gold draconium.

Word turned to Moordryd and commanded, "Stop him!"

Before Moordryd could react, Spratt threw the vial towards Artha. As the vial was tossed into the air, both Moordryd and Cain dived towards the vial in an attempt to intercept it in mid-air. They were determined to stop Artha from getting hold of the vial; from getting his dragon back. But their plan backfired when they ended up knocking into each other in an embarassing manner, completely missing the vial.

Artha saw this blunder and knew he has a chance to bring Beau back to the light. He held up his left hand and prepared to catch the vial. But before he can get hold of it, disaster struck him when an energy whip flew out of nowhere and knocked the vial away from his hand's reach. He watched in agony as the vial flew in the other direction and fell hard on the ground, smashing the vial and spilling it's content all over the floor.

No...It's gone...

Artha looked around for the source of the distraction. At the corner of his eye, he saw Moordryd still on the ground, but in his right hand was his trusty energy whip. On his face was a wicked grin of satisfaction; satisfied that despite the blunder, he managed to prevent Artha from getting hold of the suspiscious vial.

Word smiled evilly and reminded the Dragon Booster, "Whatever your plan was, looks like it has failed miserably." He turned to Spratt, who was still standing at the far end, and yelled out, "You won't get away with this, miserable whelp! Moordryd, seize him!"

Despite the pressure from Beau's paws, Artha yelled out, "Spratt! Get out of here now!"

Not having time to protest, Spratt fled the scene as both Moordryd and Cain got back to their feet and gave chase.

Artha watched as Spratt ran for his life, away from harm. He can only hope that the boy can find a way out of here and not end up being caught. He cannot imagine what Word will do to him if he were to be caught.

As Spratt and his pursuers disappeared from Artha's view, an agonizing roar blasted into his ears from above. He looked up and saw Beau tossing his head around wildly. He wasn't sure what's going on, but judging from his facial expression, he looked like he was struggling. With a glimmer of hope, Artha thought Beau was trying to fight the black draconium influence from his mind and body.

Come on, Beau. You can do it. Free yourself from the influence!

But his high hopes were dashed cruelly. Instead, he saw Beau's body glowing black and more purple markings began growing and spreading throughout his body. What Artha did not know was that the reason for Beau's struggle was that more of the black draconium influence was taking over his mind and body, corrupting him and conquering his already-weakened gold draconium influence.

For Artha, he has to admit, his transformation was menacingly beautiful. The purple line markings were far more exotic and elaborate than his gold markings. The lines grew from his sides and they spread themselves to his hindquarters and front, forming stripe-like markings. More purple lines spiraled itself around his forelegs and up to his shoulders. Artha watched in amazement as, in his view, he saw the markings climb it's way up Beau's neck and to his head, where they spread along his lower jaw and eventually settling itself at his chin.

Meanwhile, from his saddle, Word was in awe by the transformation going on. A sudden glow attracted his attention and he looked down at Beau's head. On his head, where a purple patch covered his gold bonemark, he saw the gold outline of the bonemark flickering, as if struggling to maintain it's existence. But it's attempt was futile as after a while, the outline turned from gold to black and when it was fully consumed in black, it just blinked out with a bright flash and it was gone.

When it was over, Beau was panting hard, his mouth hanging open. Both Word and Artha was stunned by what has just taken place. The former black-and-gold dragon lowered his head and looked down at Artha. Without warning, he hissed nastily at Artha and he applied maximum pressure onto his paws and onto the human below him. Now he was trully bent in crushing Artha.

Artha struggled to break free and pleaded Beau to stop, but 'his' dragon didn't respond at all.

Word laughed wickedly while watching Artha begging for mercy. "It's too late, Dragon Booster! Your Dragon of Legend has fully absorbed the black draconium. He's now permanently corrupted by it and there's not a single thing you can do to bring him back again. Without your dragon, you are powerless to do anything, which means my plan to start my Dragon-Human War shall commence without resistance!"

Word laughed out loud again, drowning out Artha's anguish cry as Beau continued crushing him. He tried vainly to free himself from Beau's paw without much success. He knew his armour won't last long and if the armour failed to protect him, nothing can.

I've failed you, Beau. Forgive me...

********

Spratt ran into the Dragon Eye headquarter and along the dark corridor of the interior. He can here several footsteps behind him and by the frequency of the sound, it was getting closer. Knowing that he couldn't run much longer, he have to find a place to hide at least.

Fortunately, he saw a room ahead of him and, with a last mad dash, he dived into the room and slammed the door shut. As he was leaning against the door, his pursuers slammed into the door frame, rattling his teeth as they tried to barge their way in. Spratt looked around for a way out but realized that there were no windows in the room.

For a moment, he thought it was all over for him, until he realized what's in the room. It appears the room he was in was a storage room, where all the gears and tools used by the crews for racing were stored. Spratt looked around desperately for a tool to help him get out. But before he can make his move, the door sprung wide open and he was thrown to the ground. Looking up, he saw Moordryd and Cain approaching him.

"There's no escape for you now, shrimp," Cain said arrogantly.

Spratt backed himself away from the approaching teens when he saw a flash stick jutting out from a box. Without hesitation, he grabbed hold of the flash stick and aimed it at them. Before Moordryd and Cain could react, Spratt activated the device and it went off with a flash. The flash temporarily blinded them and seizing the opportunity, Spratt fled from the room. But before going any further, he smiled to himself and turned back to the storage room. While Moordryd and Cain was still trying to recover from the flash, Spratt dodged between them and grabbed the flash stick.

Before leaving, he kicked Cain's leg and headed out of the room. When he exited the room, he called out, "That's for calling me a shrimp!"

**********

Spratt headed back out into the compound with flash stick in hand. When he exited the headquarter's interior, he saw the Dragon Booster being pinned down and crushed by his dragon. Or what's left of his dragon.

He hid himself behind the wall and prepared himself. When he felt he was ready, he jumped into action and charged towards where Artha was. "Dragon Booster! Look away!"

Artha turned to where Spratt was. Before he can say anything, he saw Spratt aiming the flash stick in his direction and immediately closed his eyes and turned his head away.

By the time Word saw Spratt aiming the flash stick at him, he can only cover his eyes with his arm before the boy activated it. The flash may not have gotten Word, but it certainly blinded Beau. The black dragon roared in anguish and took a few steps back, obviously stunned by the flash. This allowed Artha to roll out from under Beau and he staggered back to his feet, coughing. Spratt ran and help Artha stand on his feet.

When he can stand on his own, Artha placed a hand on Spratt's shoulder and said, "Thanks, Spratt."

Spratt smiled at him in appreciation, but soon they are interrupted by a menacing growl. They turned and saw Beau growling at them, furious at Spratt's action.

"Get them!" Word ordered.

"Let's get out of here. I know a way out," Artha said as he and Spratt fled for their life. Artha can hear the humming of mag energy from behind them and when they approached the ledge, they jumped down just as a black mag-burst narrowly passed over their heads. They landed safely on the ground and continued their run as Beau appeared at the ledge and fired several more mag-bursts at them. Artha led Spratt to the manhole where he came out from and they both jumped into it.

After watching them disappearing into the hole, Beau hissed in displeasure as Word soothingly stroked his new dragon's head to calm him down.

"Let them go. They're of no concern to me anymore."

Just then, Moordryd and Cain appeared, each armed with a mag staff. Cain hissed, "Where's that little shrimp? I'm gonna make sure he'll pay for that!"

"That's enough. They're gone, but at least the Dragon Booster didn't leave with his most valuable possession," Word replied while patting Beau's head.

The dragon was still growling at the manhole where Artha and Spratt had escaped. Suddenly, he stopped growling and jerked his head upwards as if he had sensed something was coming. Word realised Beau's behaviour and tried to figure out what has caught his attention. Soon, Word also felt it.

There were several loud thuds and stomps coming from outside the compound as it grew louder by the second, rattling the compound's foundation at the same time.

"What's going on? What's causing those tremors?" Moordryd asked aloud when he felt the ground shaking.

Word smiled and replied calmly, "My army." Without any commands, Beau leaped down from the ledge and ran towards the compound wall. As he was approaching the wall, he mag-jumped onto the top of the wall and peered at the horizon. What he saw made Word rubbed his hands in glee.

Heading towards the Dragon Eye compound were hundreds of dragons of various colour and type, marching along the road and towards the entrance of the compound.

"At long last, I can finally start my Dragon-Human War without interruption, and there's not a single person in the world who can stop me now. Not even the Dragon Booster himself."

Word let loose his most wicked laugh ever as the army of dragons began closing in on the compound.


END OF CHAPTER 1



(How is it? Is it worth continuing? Let me know! :) )

definatly worth continuing. I LOVVEEE it!!!!!! :faint:
please continue and add another chapter soon ^_^
good job(gives cookies) :cookie: :cookie: :cookie: :cookie:

I agree with Dolphinliss, it's worth continuing. :cookie: I like how you've continued from broken Bonds with your own twist on it. I also like how Moordryd was able to recover from his embarrassing fall and, in his mind, be the one to save the day. :D :cookie:

Thanks for the reviews! If it's worth continuing, then that's fine by me. :)


Chapter 2: Into Exile

Artha led Spratt down the manhole and they traveled along the dark underground tunnel that leads them out of the Dragon Eye compound. For Artha, losing Beau was like losing a member of his family. Already 'losing' a father was bad, but losing a close friend as well was like a hammer blow to his head. He felt miserable at the moment, but despite his emotions, he had to carry on his duty to lead Spratt and himself to safety.

As they approached the tunnel's exit, Artha gestured Spratt to stop for a moment when he activated his wrist-link.

"Parm? Are you there? Where are you now?"

On his wrist-link, Parm appeared with a concerned look on his face and replied urgently, "Artha, we've noticed a large group of dragons heading towards the Dragon Eye compound. What's going on?"

"I'll explain later. Right now I want all of you to head back to the stables immediately," Artha ordered sternly before sighing, "I'm afraid I've got some...bad news."

"Back to the stables?" Kitt barged in as she appeared on the screen. "What about Beau? Have you got him back?"

Artha sighed again, "That's the bad news."

**********

By the time Artha and Spratt arrived at the stables, everyone else were already waiting around the stable ground restlessly. They were very concerned and anxious with the situation that was developing around the city; with people reporting their dragons acting strange as well as fleeing from their riders. What they didn't know was how bad the situation will deteriorate further into.

However, for Lance, that concern soon disappeared from his thoughts. When he saw Artha with Spratt by his side, his face brighten with joy and he ran towards his friend and brother.

"Spratt! You're all right!" Lance chirped happily as he hugged his friend with relief.

"Yeah. If it wasn't for the Dragon Booster, I would be in for a lot of trouble with Moordryd and his dad."

Artha smiled weakly when he saw his little brother hugging Spratt. He was glad that Lance has finally reunited with his best friend. Sadly, it's the opposite for him.

Leaving Lance with Spratt, Artha headed to where Kitt and Parm was. They rushed at him and was about to bombard him with questions when he raised his hand to stop them. He then said, "I know you have lots of questions, but we'd better take this to Mortis as well." He turned to where Lance was and said, "Lance, stay here with Spratt first. The rest of us have some important matters to attend to. If anything happened, just give us a call and we'll be there."

"But...all right," Lance obliged with a dejected look on his face.

"Don't worry. It shouldn't take long, I hope." When that's said, Artha gestured Kitt and Parm to follow him and they headed to the elevator that will lead them down to the Dragon Temple. Artha pushed the handle aside and the door to the elevator slid open.

Upon entering the elevator, Kitt asked impatiently, "So, what's the bad news?"

"The bad news is-" and the elevator door closed shut.

**********

By the time they reached the Dragon Temple below the stables, Artha had reverted back to his normal self. But his friends looked terribly distraught and disturbed over what Artha has just revealed. Kitt was disturbingly quiet while Parm has a very stunned look on his face, not being able to fully comprehend the news.

All was happening too fast for them. At first, he was the perfect friend for all of them, a fighter for justice and peace; the next thing, he ended up becoming a slave to a man bent on starting a war for his benefit.

Upon hearing footsteps echoing the temple's interior, Mortis, who was standing at the center of the temple, turned to meet the approaching teens. When he saw the depressing looks on their faces, he knew what was to come.

"What happened?" Mortis asked concernly.

Artha sighed dejectedly, "It's Beau. I've...lost him. I failed to let him drink the gold liquid draconium."

When he heard Artha's report, he looked disturbed, much more than Kitt or Parm. He inquired calmly, "How did it happen?"

Artha then described what had happened to Beau and how he ended up failing to deliver the vial to his dragon as Mortis listened with patience. When Artha was done with his description, Mortis sighed with disappointment and feared for the worse.

"Looks like our worst fears has come. Beau has now fallen under Word's control, which means he can start his Dragon-Human War without opposition."

Parm asked, "Is there any way we can bring Beau back to normal?"

"Come on, Mortis. There must be something we can do to bring Beau back," Kitt pleaded.

"I'm terribly sorry, but there isn't. By now, Beau had fully absorbed the black draconium in his body. His blood now flows free with pure black draconium, corrupting his mind and heart in the process. Worse still, his gold bonemark may have faded beyond existence as well by now. I'm afraid not even the amount of liquid gold draconium I have currently can bring him back."

"No..." was all Parm said before trailing off, too suprised that not even Mortis can do anything for Beau.

Suddenly, the alarm went off and Mortis immediately avtivated the main screen. What they saw on the screen confirmed Mortis' fear.

The screen showed dragons of different classes and colours attacking the city without remorse. Some of them, especially the bull- and earth-class dragons, were demolishing buildings while others were attacking any humans that got in their way. At the same time, the screen also showed humans fleeing for their lives in all directions, desperate to get away from the rampaging dragons.

"Oh no," Kitt said, placing her hands to her lips.

Mortis shook his head and admitted with great sadness in his voice, "Word has finally got his wish. And what we have dreaded most has become a reality; the second Dragon-Human War has begun."

While everyone else looked away in horror, Artha continued staring at the screen. He couldn't believe that Word has used Beau, of anyone else, to start his Dragon-Human War. It was, in Artha's opinion, a cruel irony for Beau as he was born to stop the war from happening, not start one. But the worse of all for Artha was that this disaster was avoidable had he been more careful.

This is like a nightmare. It's just so unreal, Artha thought as he placed his hands on his forehead in disbelief. "What should we do now?"

Mortis immediately replied, "I want all of you to head back up to the stables, gather whatever necessities you can and meet me back down here. We're getting out of here."

"To where?" Parm asked quickly.

"To the Wastelands, where the Dragon Priesthood resides. I'll report to them about the current situation and also seek permission for our entry. Hopefully they'll understand our situation and will grant us permission."

"What about Spratt? We can't leave him on his own, not when this whole mess is going on," Kitt asked with concern.

Mortis didn't answer immediately. He thought for a moment before admitting, "I guess we have no choice but to take him along as well."

When they have no more questions in mind, Parm and Kitt immediately left the temple in a hurry, but Artha was still staring at the screen, shell-shocked at how this is turning out.

"Artha?"

He heard Mortis calling his name softly and he turned to meet his mentor. He shook his head and sighed, "It's all my fault. I should've been more careful with the vial. Now, I've lost my best friend forever."

Mortis went to console Artha by placing a hand on the teen's shoulder. He then countered, "No, Artha. It's not your fault. I know you've tried your best to bring Beau back, and Beau himself won't give up that easily without a fight. You may have failed in succeeding, but at least you failed trying to succeed than not trying at all. For a consolation, at least that's something you should be proud of."

Artha pointed out, feeling slightly better, "I think you have a point there, Mortis. But I still can't believe that all this is happening right before our eyes."

His mentor nodded, "I guess fate has already decided that this is our future, and we should just accept it."

Before Artha can say anything else, he heard Kitt yelling from a distance, "Come on, Artha! We've got no time already!"

Artha turned and saw Kitt standing by the elevator door and waving at him to join them. He turned back to Mortis and assured, "We'll be back," and he left Mortis alone in the temple, joining his friends to do what they've been told earlier.

**********

For the citizens of Dragon City, it really felt like a nightmare.

Their quiet night was shattered by the screams and cries from dragons and humans alike. People and dragons who were jolted from their slumber evacuated their homes in panic as large bull- and earth-class dragons rammed and demolished buildings around the city, littering and blocking the streets with debris. Some of the rampaging dragons tossed carriages parked by the street sides with their mag-energy like children's toys, hurling them either towards the fleeing crowd of humans or into buildings. The devastation has already sparked fires in several parts of the city. With the ensuing chaos, it was virtually impossible to put out the fires.

For the humans, what happened next was beyond their belief.

As the humans fled in large crowds, some of the dragons gave chase. People who either stumbled or couldn't catch up soon fell victim to either the dragon's mag-blasts or their claws and teeth. Some of them tried to defend themselves with whatever weapons they had. Some managed to fend off the attack and escaped, while others weren't so lucky.

It was a cruel twist for the humans. Their everlasting peace with dragons was suddenly shaterred in just one night. But what they didn't know was that one of their own has started this mess in the first place, with the help from an unlikely source...


Meanwhile, Dragon City Security have their own problems to contend to. Due to the intensity and scale of the dragon onslaught, they were forced to split themselves into several, but smaller, groups. While the other groups spread out to other sections of the city, Captain Faier led his group to Mid City.

However, things doesn't look good for the captain there either. His group was now surrounded by several dragons at a junction in the city. Despite the odds, Cpatain Faier motivated his men to fight on, using their shields, staffs and trapping gears. After an intense battle, the humans managed to either turn them away or trap them with their trapping gears. Their own dragons were almost depleted of mag-energy in the battle.

"We've...turned them...back," Captain Faier said between pants. He turned to his men and was about to congratulate them when suddenly, they were flung backwards and end up being stuck to the wall...by trapping gears.

Captain Faier turned to meet the new attacker. But before he can get a good view, he too was hit by the trapping gear and he ended up with his fellow officers, stuck to the wall. When he do get a glimpse of the attacker, he was shocked that it wasn't one attacker, but three attackers in the form of wraith dragons.

"Wraith dragons? But how?-"

His question was about to be answered when he saw the three wraith dragons moving aside to let someone through. As if volunteering to answer that question, Word showed up with an evil smirk on his face, riding on Beau as his new black dragon approached Captain Faier and growled loudly at the human. On Word's hand was a joystick-looking controller.

Captain Faier watched as the city's most powerful man approached him and his men. "Word Paynn! What's going on? What's the meaning of this?"

"Patience, my dear captain. Patience," Word retorted slowly. He then raised his controller and moved a small, yellow analog stick on it, causing the wraith dragons to back off.

It was soon evident to Captain Faier and he blurted, "You? You're the one behind the wraith dragons all the while?"

Word snickered at the captain's shock. "I guess you've found out the answer already."

Captain Faier then looked down at Beau. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw how different and sinister it became. "The Dragon Booster's dragon? What have you done to it?"

Word snickered again and replied, "You have too many questions, captain. Too many questions, but too little time to answer them all for you." He didn't answer that question as he turned on the comm-link on his saddle and requested, "Moordryd, are you in position?"

Moordryd's image appeared on the screen with a satisfied look. "Yes, Father. We're all in position."

Word smiled when his son gave him the reply he wanted. "Good. You may proceed with the plan." When that's said, he turned off the comm-link.

"What are you planning now?"

"Oh, nothing. Just sending my son and a few wraith dragons to drop by your headquarters." Word grinned when he saw Captain Faier's mouth dropping open in disbelief. He then assured, "As for you, I have other plans in mind for you and your men. And don't worry, it won't hurt at all."

Captain Faier and his men can only stare at each other, wondering what this mad man has in store for them.


Meanwhile, down at Precinct, Moordryd was given the green light by his father to proceed with his plan. He then ordered Decepschun to knock out the power circuit to Dragon City Security headquarter. With a single mag-blast, the power was cut off instantly and the whole headquarter was plunged into darkness. Once the power was out, he sent his father's wraith dragons in. One of the wraiths was a brown earth-class dragon and it rammed straight through the main door, allowing the other wraiths access into the building.

Moordryd watched from outside on Decepschun's saddle as the wraiths emptied the building, dragging or magging whoever they caught out of the building. Within minutes, the whole building was emptied and a total of fifteen security officers were rounded up by the wraiths.

"Take them away," Moordryd said sternly and watched as the officers were hauled away by the wraiths. "Without Dragon City Security, there's no way the city can defend themselves now against my father's wraith army," he reminded himself and laughed out loud in delight, not believing that he's finally on the winning side for once.

And for Moordyrd, this victory was as sweet as any of his race victories.

**********

Back at the stables, everyone was busy packing whatever belongings and gears they can. Although Spratt wasn't familiar with the stable, he still managed to lend a helping hand to anyone who needed extra hands. While the humans carried their own belongings, their dragons took responsibility for the gears, magging whatever gears they could to their body.

When they're all ready, Artha opened the elevator door. But as their dragons were coming along as well, they were forced to take separate trips down to the Dragon Temple. Parm led Cyrano in first along with Lance and Fracshun while the rest waited for their turn. While they waited, Spratt looked around and noticed someone was missing. "Where's Dragon Booster?"

Kitt turned to Artha and whispered, "Great. What are we going to say?"

Artha was eyeing the boy with curiosity in his face. Suddenly, he replied, "You're seeing him right now."

Spratt turned to where the reply came from and was suprised to see Artha grinning at him. He gave him a sceptical look and asked, "Are you trying to fool me?"

Artha simply shrugged and retorted, "Suit yourself."

Spratt was still sceptical over what Artha has just said and he looked at Kitt, "Is it true? That Lance's brother is the Dragon Booster?"

"Well, he just admitted. What more can he say?"

Spratt's jaw dropped open. He couldn't believe that Lance's brother is the legendary Dragon Booster. He was so shell-shocked that he remained like that until the elevator returned back up for their turn. As Kitt waked Spratt from his trance and was about to urge Wyldfyr into the elevator, Artha heard noises coming from outside which sounded like several dragon footsteps.

"We'd better get moving. Someone's coming, and I don't think they're here for just a visit," Artha warned as they quickly entered the elevator. Artha took one last glance at the stable entrance before backing himself into the elevator as the door slid close.


Just as the elevator door closed shut, Cain and the Dragon Eye crew arrived at the stable. Upon entering the stable compound, they dismounted from their dragons and Cain ordered, "Spread out and search for the stable brats."

The group of five crews ransacked and searched the whole stable compound and its interior, but found nothing.

After almost fifteen minutes of searching, they meet back at the entrance with nothing to report. Disgruntled, Cain climbed back onto Coerschun's saddle and turned on his comm-link.

"Moordryd, we've searched through the entire stable. The stable brats were nowhere to be found."

"Hmm. Looks like they had fled upon hearing the news of the attack. No matter, with the Dragon Loser out of job, they're no longer our concern. Return back at once!"

When Cain turned off the comm-link, he relayed the order to his crew members and left the stable empty-handed.

**********

Once they've reached the Dragon Temple, Parm was waiting by the elevator panel. He quickly said, "Hurry, everyone else's waiting for you!"

"What are you doing?" Artha asked curiously.

"Just making sure no one finds out about the elevator or the temple," was Parm's reply as he revealed five grenades in his hands. "Go on. I'll catch up with you."

When Artha, Kitt and Spratt left the elevator, Parm activated all the grenades and tossed them into the elevator before running off. Five seconds later, there was a loud explosion as the blast slightly rocked the interior. Artha looked back and saw flames bursting from the elevator before dissipating into the air, leaving what's left of the wrecked elevator.

Parm led them to another section of the temple, mostly unknown to all of them. They soon reached a large hall where Lance and Mortis were waiting for them near a large door. When all of them had arrived, Mortis confirmed, "Good news. The Dragon Priests has granted us permission to seek refuge in their temple."

"Where is this temple?" Artha asked.

"In the northern part of the Wasteland. I'll lead you there," Mortis assured. He then slammed his staff on the floor, in which a small area of the floor around the staff glowed. It turns out to be a switch as the large door behind them suddenly slid open slowly. As more of the door slid open, they were stunned by the titan that stood behind it.

Standing before them was a gigantic bipedal dragon, much bigger than any of their dragons. It stared down on the humans below it and roared in a non-threatening manner. Everyone except Mortis took a step back as the latter smiled and turned to the frightened teens. "Don't be afraid, he's just my dragon, Tyrannis Pax."

The bipedal dragon lowered down his head, allowing his rider to pat his head. Soon, Artha and his friends weren't afraid of the behemoth anymore.

"But how in Magna Draconis can it grow so large?" Parm asked, still amazed at its size.

"For your information, Tyrannis Pax is over fifty years old. He's been my racing dragon throughout my racing career."

"You mean you race too?" Kitt asked.

"Yes. I made it all the way to the Academy. But sadly, I lost out in the final rounds of races." When no further questions were asked, Mortis dipped his head slightly. He knew that one day this moment has to come, but he wasn't expecting it to come so soon and not in this manner.

He eyed both the Penn brothers. "Artha? Lance? I...have something to tell you before we leave." When he saw both brothers looking at him wonderingly, he continued, "I know my actions may sound cruel a little, but, please forgive me."

"For what?" Artha challenged.

"For this." Mortis then removed his helmet and everyone gasped in disbelief. Behind the mask, all the while, was Connor Penn, very much alive and well.

"Dad!" Lance reached out and hugged his father for the first time in months.

Artha was as shocked as everyone else around. "Dad? Wh-why didn't you tell me earlier? Why did you pretend to disappear in the first place and then disguising yourself as someone else?"

Connor looked down with sadness in his eyes. He knew what he did was very wrong to his sons, but he has a good reason for his actions. "It's because of the threat that Word Paynn posed to me and you. I'm not trully sure of his full intentions, but when he knew that I bred Beau back into existence, he saw you and Lance as an opportunity for him to take Beau away. He may threaten to harm you and Lance just so that he can force me into surrendering Beau. If I faked my death and disappear, he may not be able to rely on that tactic anymore."

He saw both Lance and Artha (as well as everyone else) staring at him. He again apologized, "I'm terribly sorry, Artha. I do this for you and Lance's safety, and it's against my will to abandon both of you either."

Artha understood the amount of pressure his father was in at that time. He suddenly ran forward and hugged his father tightly. He then sobbed a little, "I'm very sorry, dad. Because of me, I've lost Beau. Now he's gone forever!"

"It's okay, Artha. Like I've said earlier, I don't blame you for that mistake. I believe you've tried your best already to bring him back. Be proud of that effort at least."

Spratt watched as Connor consoled his grieving son for the loss of his dragon. For Spratt, he felt terribly guilty for he's the one responsible for the loss of Beau. He tried to hold back his tears when he realised that he's the culprit.

"Mr. Penn? We'd better go now. We can't stay here for too long," Parm reminded sympathetically.

Connor pushed his sons a little and replied, "Parm's right. We'd better get going now." He then gestured to Tyrannis Pax and the giant dragon magged his rider up to his saddle. Artha then took to hitch on Wyldfyr's back and Spratt on Fracshun's back. When everyone was ready, they proceeded through the door and out of the temple, with Connor leading the way.

Artha then took one last look back and whispered, "Goodbye, Beau. Goodbye, my friend."

**********

By dawn, half of the city was in ruins. Fires were still burning amongst the ruins and the morning sky was choking with black smoke. The streets were littered with rubbles, destroyed or burning carriages, and those who had fallen under the dragons' rampage. As for the survivors, although some managed to escape the onslaught, others weren't so fortunate. Those who managed to survive the attack but caught by the wraith dragons were soon rounded up and led to Word's citadel, where they will 'learn to serve their new leader'.

From atop a higher platform, Word and Beau watched as the large crowd of captors, both dragons and humans, were led into his citadel by his army of wraiths.

"At long last, my plan for war has worked to perfection. Down City, Precinct, Work Town, and Mid City are now under my control. As for Sun City," Word shifted his gaze to where Sun City was, "it will only be a matter of time before it too will crumble when I unleashed my army of wraiths."

He grinned at the prospect of conquering the most advanced city. "But to do so, I need your help again." He looked down and stroked Beau's head to grab his attention. "Beau? Why don't you call on your army of dragons again for me, mm?"

Beau, the new Dragon of Evil, obeyed with a grunt and called out to his fellow dragons again with his mighty and majestic roar. This time, his roar was loud enough to reach Sun City and it will be a matter of time before all the dragons there started turning against the humans.

And the whole vicious rampage will start all over again until Sun City ends up being like the rest of the other cities as well.


END OF CHAPTER 2


A/N: Sadly, due to the huge load of assignments (thanks a lot, school! <_< ) I won't be able to update the fic until perhaps by June. Sorry for the inconvenience, fellow readers. :unsure:

EDIT: BTW, pleease read and review. Thanks... :poof:

At last, chapter 3 is up! :faint:

But before that, just a reminder that I've updated my fanfic header to match the required format and changed the "pairing" segment to this:

Anyway, on with the story... :poof:


Chapter 3: A Bleak Future

Connor led his sons, Artha and Lance, and their friends down from his temple to the Wastelands, where the Dragon Priesthood order resides. The Wasteland, a barren land scarred and defiled by the war, was no place for the faint-hearted humans or dragons to venture in. Besides the unfertile land, the war itself has also left behind terrifying creatures that most people had not seen before. Those who are brave enough to venture into the Wasteland may discover something that will send them running for their lives. Or worse, it may even cost them their lives.

Despite these disturbing facts about the Wasteland, Connor managed to navigate his younger followers around the land without stumbling into any trouble. He led them through a series of ravines and past several ancient structures left behind by the past empires. The journey has lasted for over almost two hours now.

"Are we there yet?" Lance asked impatiently. "This journey is as long as I thought."

"Don't worry, Lance. We should be there within a minute," Connor replied, raising his voice slightly so his youngest son can hear his response from Tyrannis Pax's saddle.

The first landmark that they passed by were two pillars, each with a dragon's head carved on top of it. From the dragons' opened mouths, each has an orb of light glowing from within, creating an eerie effect for visitors who passed by them.

"Are we there yet?" Lance asked again.

"Didn't you here what your dad just said? He said that we should be there within a minute," Parm chided in.

"Actually, it's more like 'we're here' now," Connor countered. Everyone looked ahead of him and saw a huge cave ahead of them. They noticed that at the cave's entrance was a giant emerald-green sliding door and a stair. Standing by the opened cave entrance were ten Dragon Priests, three of them were on dragonback. The dragons were quite similar to Tyrannis Pax, but slightly smaller. All of the priests were also holding staffs similar to the one Connor used as Mortis.

As the visitors approached, it was soon apparent that the cave was in fact the Dragon Temple, or rather the entrance to the temple. One of the priests walked forward to greet their expected guests with open arms. "Welcome, my dear friend, Connor Penn."

Connor brought his dragon to a stop and his dragon automatically magged him down to face the leader. "Tannis," was all Connor said and he bowed down in respect.

When Connor returned to eye level, Tannis continued, "My dear friend, is it true about what you reported earlier?"

Connor nodded slowly. "It's true."

From behind the mask, Tannis was in shock over this disaster. Losing the Dragon of Legend to an enemy was the last thing he wanted to hear. After the initial shock, he sighed softly to express his concern, and then looked up at the youngsters whom Connor led.

"And I suppose you brought your sons and their friends along too?"

Connor looked back at the teenagers and replied, "Yes. I would like you to meet my sons, Artha and Lance," he gestured to his sons, who obliged quickly by getting off their saddles and greeting the leader of the Dragon Priesthood by bowing their heads down slightly, "-and also their friends; Kitt Wonn, Parmon Sean and Spratt." The three of them responded in a similar manner as well.

Tannis nodded in satisfaction at the teenagers' behaviours. He turned back to Connor and asked, "Is there anyone else with you?" Upon seeing Connor shaking his head, he turned back to his fellow priests and signalled them to stand down and return into the temple. When all the other priests returned into the temple, he said, "Come, let's go in. It's not safe to be out here for too long; not at this time."

Connor then led the youngsters into the temple as Tannis entered into the darkness of the temple's interior.

**********

As Artha and his friends were hanging around the temple's main hall, Connor and Tannis held a meeting with nine other elite-ranking priests in the meeting chamber. They gathered together to discuss in what could be the meeting of the century.

"My fellow priests," Tannis started out, "a great tragedy has occurred; a tragedy that non of us were prepared to hear. The great Beaucephalis has been corrupted by our enemy, Word Paynn, who has used him to summon all the dragons in Dragon City to wage war against humanity."

There were moderately loud murmurs and shocked expressions being expressed throughout the room. When they quieted down a little, Tannis continued, "According to Connor's son, Word has already started the invasion by the time they left. Fortunately, they narrowly evaded the onslaught that has occurred in their city. With the dragons by his side, it will only be a matter of time before Word finally conquers Dragon City. I fear that once that's done, he will turn his new army against us, seeking vengeance for his expulsion from the order."

More murmurs this time, louder than before. One of them stood up and replied, "If that's the case, we will have to be prepared for the defence of the temple and the order. If what you predicted is true, Word can strike at any time; he may even strike as early as tomorrow!"

Some of the priests around him voiced their opinions to each other, pondering and calculating if such a possibility may occur. Tannis broke up their small discussion and responded, "I agree. A defensive perimeter must be set up and we have to organise a few groups to act as sentry. However, despite this worry, I doubt Word will dare to attack us anytime soon with just an army of dragons. Our ancient but powerful weapons can easily repel any straight attacks from his dragon army. But regardless, we should be prepared nonetheless."

Another priest stood up and replied, "But what about the Dragon of Legend? His presence alone may have a huge impact on the outcome of the invasion."

Tannis remained silent over that statement. He turned to Connor, who nodded slightly in agreement, before turning back to his priests. "As for facing the Dragon of Legend, Connor has a possible but controversial solution."

Given the cue, Connor stood up, cleared his throat, and replied, "I proposed we create another Dragon of Legend."

Immediately, the other priests looked at each other in astonishment. Breeding another Dragon of Legend?

"How? That's almost impossible given such a short period of time? Not to mention the number of attempts needed," the priest who replied earlier questioned him.

Tannis answered on behalf of Connor, "It's not impossible if we use the dragon growth-enhancer machine."

"But that machine is not fully reliable. There is a fifty percent chance it may create a deformed dragon; you should be aware of it. Furthermore, how can we create without a gene from the Dragon of Legend?"

"Yes. I'm fully aware of the machine's notoriety. I even vowed not to use it again; but considering the grave situation we're in, we have no choice but to take our chances. As for your second concern, Connor can answer that."

Now it was Connor's turn again to respond, "Before I left the temple, I took a vial containing Beau's blood sample with me. I thought of using the sample to create another Dragon of Legend using the dragon growth-enhancer machine. I'm fully aware of the risk that the sample could be wasted if the growth process fails, but it's a risk I'll take nonetheless."

Tannis glanced around at his fellow priests, waiting for any response. "It's now or never, we must make a choice. To take the risk, or not to take it and risk facing imminent defeat."

The other nine priests discussed among themselves. After five minutes, they stopped their discussion and the one closest to Connor stood up and explained their verdict, "We have reached a decision; we all agreed to use the machine to create another Dragon of Legend. We would rather try our luck than doing nothing."

Tannis nodded with satisfaction. "A risky, but bold choice, my fellow priests."

Connor smiled at the decision reached, relieved but also worried of the outcome of their efforts. However, he felt someone else should also be notified about this agreement too.

**********

Artha sat by the pillar with his head on his knees while everyone else was just standing around. The atmosphere around them was that of gloom and sadness. Their bright lives had suddenly made a turn for the worst, their future shrouded in complete uncertainty.

"I'll miss Beau. Do you think he can somehow come back? I mean, he's the Dragon of Legend, right?" Lance whispered to Kitt.

Kitt placed her hand on Lance's shoulder and replied, "I don't know, Lance. I do hope for a miracle to happen too; but, when I thought back of what happened to the city..." She trailed off, not wanting to continue. She expects Lance to know what she means.

"So, does this means that...Beau's the bad guy now?"

"I know it's hard for you to swallow, but I'm afraid it's true."

Lance looked speechless, accepting the fact that their best friend was now an enemy was a bitter statement for him to accept.

Spratt, who heard Lance and Kitt's conversation, sat down and placed a hand on his forehead in guilt. "It's my fault. If it wasn't for me, this whole mess would not have happened in the first place. Now I've ruined everyone's lives." He looked like he was about to burst into tears. He then felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and was suprised to see Artha standing by his side. Furthermore, instead of an angry look, his expression was that of sympathy.

"No. I don't think you're fully responsible for this whole mess. As Beau's chosen rider, I too should bear the responsibility of losing him. I guess we're even now."

Spratt didn't say anything else after that. If there's a moment of relief for him, it was not getting yelled at by a raging Artha.

"So, what do you think your father and the priests are going to do about this?" Parm asked Artha.

Artha now turned to Parm. "I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see."

"Not for long," Lance said when he saw his father walking towards them.

Everyone else turned to where Lance was looking. They gathered together to hear what Connor has to say about the meeting.

"How's the meeting?" Artha asked first before everyone else can bombard his dad with similar questions.

Connor cleared his throat and answered, "The meeting goes out fine, but we did reached some difficult decisions. Firstly, we might be expecting an invasion on the temple some time in the future."

The teenagers looked at each other, with shocked and worried looks. Parm blurted, "B-but I thought the temple will provide us with safe refuge."

"Not when Word's our enemy. He knows of the whereabouts of the temple and the priesthood, and that the priesthood is the only opposition that might threaten him. That is why the priesthood will be placing sentries around the area of the temple to warn us of any signs of an invasion."

"But we can't just sit here and do nothing," Kitt complained.

"I know, that is why we also planned to use some of your expertise too." Despite the questioning looks etched on the teenagers' faces, Connor continued, "Parm, your scientific knowledge may be of great use for us. Artha, Kitt, you both will be going through training to enhance your fighting skills."

"How about us?" Lance asked on behalf of Spratt and himself.

"You're both too young to fight. But you can still help out in lighter jobs." He then walked towards Artha and broke another decision that his eldest son must know. "Artha, there's something I must tell you."

"What is it, dad?"

Connor sighed and continued, "We also planned...to create another Dragon of Legend."

"WHAT?" Everyone blurted out simultaneously, totally caught by suprise by Connor's revelation.

"But how's that going to be done?" Parm asked curiously.

"With Beau's blood sample that I brought along, we can create another Dragon of Legend using the ancient dragon growth-enhancer machine."

"That's great! Now we can have another Beau!" Lance chirped excitedly.

"However, there's a possibility that things may go wrong and we might end up getting a deformed dragon, which is something I wanted to avoid. As of now, we can only cross our fingers and hope things go according to plan."

"How long will the process take?" Kitt asked.

"Depends. It might take months for the growth process to reach completion, providing we don't run into problems, that is."

Artha stared at his dad and replied sternly, "I've just lost Beau, and now you're going to create another one? What about the original Beau you created?"

"I understand how stressing it was for you to lose Beau to Word, but we have to accept the fact that Beau is now an enemy, a major threat to all us here. We have to find a way to stop him or this temple will be doomed."

"How? By killing him?" Artha shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe you're going to do something like this!" He then walked off from the group, obviously upset and stressed.

"Artha!" Lance called out to his brother but to no avail.

"Let him be for the moment. He just needs some time, that's all." Connor explained to Lance. He looked and saw his eldest son disappearing into the depths of the temple's interior.

END OF CHAPTER 3


(Please read and review. Thanks. :) )

Well done!

*claps hands* :cookie: :cookie: Wonderful chapter!!!!!! Make a new Dragon of Legend? Now that was a twist I didn't expect. I love it though, great idea! More cookies for you! :cookie: :cookie: :dance:

Aww, thanks for reading and reviewing my fics, fellow readers! I appreciate it a lot! :wub:

Didn't expect that, eh? :D Well, expect more of the unexpected as the story progresses, I hope. ;)

Now, on with chapter 4:


Chapter 4: The Three-Sided Star Dragon

It had been twelve months since the fall of Dragon City. No one in the Dragon Temple knew how life must've been in the city, especially with Word Paynn now the citizen's new leader. They can only imagine how the people were forced to live under Word's tyranny and his expectedly large army of wraiths.

Meanwhile, inhabitants of the Dragon Temples can only go about their daily schedule. The Dragon Priests took turns in patrolling the perimeter of the temple on their gold dragons, keeping an eye for any signs of Word's spying wraiths. At the same time, Connor, and sometimes together with Tannis, helped Artha and Kitt in their melee combat training and higher-levels dragon riding skills.

Parm, on the other hand, was taught higher technical and gear handling skills. From his training, he learned more about the functions of various gears that the Dragon Priests used; ancient gears that Parm never heard of before that were used in the first war. Lance and Spratt, due to their young age, only helped in moving gears and other objects around the temple.

Unknown to all the teenagers was the creation of the new Dragon of Legend. Connor forbade anyone of them from disturbing the process while he and the priests were working. As a result, none of them knew how it will turn out, whether it was a success or a disaster.

Once in a while, Tannis would take over Connor's training duties so that he can work on the process. As of now, the situation was going fine, but Connor refused to let his guard down if anything wrong were to happen. If things goes well, he expects the process to complete in a few months time.

If only things goes well...

**********

Three months later.

Artha and Kitt sauntered into the meeting hall, which was much larger than the meeting chamber. They had just finished their training and they were panting in exhaustion. As they entered the hall, they found Parm, Lance and Spratt waiting at the center of the hall. Before them was a large door, with Connor standing by it.

"So,...what's up,...dad?" Artha asked, panting between words as he squat down to rest his tired legs.

Connor answered proudly, "It's a success. We managed to create another Dragon of Legend."

Everyone raised their eyes in excitement. They can't believe Connor managed to succeed in a process that he and the priests thought was risky. He managed to beat the odds.

"That's great news!" Spratt said excitedly.

"Can we see him? Pleeease?" Lance pleaded, his hands clasped together in a pleading gesture.

"All right. I'll take him in. However," Connor warned, "be prepared to accept anything you saw or view of him. That's the best we can do." Connor then opened the door and entered to get the dragon.

Meanwhile, Kitt knelt down besides Artha and asked, "Do you think you're ready to accept whatever your dad has done?"

Artha looked at Kitt, not replying immediately. He then just said, "If what my dad's doing is for our benefits, then I can't complain much. I think I just needed some time to get used to, that's all." He smiled at her to state his point.

When Artha got back up to his feet, Connor came in but with his right hand still behind the door. He eyed his small, younger audience and inquired, "Ready?"

Everyone nodded, with Lance nodding vigorously.

Connor then opened the door wide and brought in the dragon. Immediately, there were mixed reactions among the audience. Artha and Kitt had a suprised look, Spratt was staring at the dragon blankly, and Lance's and Parm's mouth were hanging open in complete shock.

"That's Beau?" Lance pointed out. His dad just smiled and turned to the dragon.

The new dragon was unlike anything that they had seen before. The dragon had three colours; light gold, black and white. The light gold colour on his head ran down along the top of his neck and his spine. The black colour covers the front portion of his upper jaw, the sides of his head and along the sides of his neck, body, legs (from shoulder blades to the elbow) and tail. And the white colour covers his lower jaw as it travels down the bottom of his neck, chest, belly and down from the elbows of his legs to his paws. Furthermore, there was a golden line that acts as a boundary that separates the black colour from the white colour. The frills on his legs and under his chin were white with two light gold stripes running along the edge.

Besides the colourings, they also noted the dragon's physical appearance. Although he managed to retain most of Beau's original looks, there were still some differences being noted. The horn on his snout was sharper, with the back horn longer than the front; his chin was slightly shorter compared to Beau's; the frill under his chin was slightly smaller, but the frills on his legs were long, covering from his elbows to his paws (just inches from touching the ground) and they were pointing upwards; his light gold claws were longer and slightly curved at the tip; and his tail was long, almost whip length on dragon's scale, but minus the frill.

"Wow. He looks just like Beau," Artha said, as the dragon smiled at him.

"And smiles like him too," Kitt added in, smirking at how similar the dragon's cheesy grin was.

Immediately, the dragon launched his lighter gold mag-energy towards Artha and lifted him up before settling the teenager on his back.

"Whoa!" was all Artha could say as he was hoisted off the ground and placed onto the dragon's back. He was taken aback by the dragon's quick reaction towards him. He felt as if the dragon recognized him without any introduction. He patted his head slowly, eliciting a low purr in response, and turned to his dad, "The dragon seems to be able to recognize me before I even know him. Did you tell him anything about me?"

"I don't have to. His mentality is similar to Beau's. In other words, he knew all of you from Beau's very own mind, and that means he also knew that you're the Dragon Booster too," Connor explained.

"That's drac! Now we got ourselves a new Beau!" Lance said excitedly.

Suddenly, the dragon's body began glowing gold, as Artha knew what was to come. As expected, a particular area at the center of his head glowed the brightest and with a sudden flash, it was over. Artha looked over at the dragon's head to inspect it, and was suprised at his finding.

"Huh?"

What he found was a bonemark that does not resembles the original star bonemark. Instead of a five-pointed star, the star only had three-points. Artha urgently called for his dad, "Dad, something's not right. Look at his bonemark."

Connor went over and looked at the bonemark on the dragon's head. "Hmm, just as I expected."

"Expected?" Parm asked curiously, suprised at Connor's point.

"Remember, there's a possibility that something might go wrong in the process and that the chances of the process achieving perfection is one in a hundred thousand. Seems like we're just slightly unfortunate that we didn't get a perfect Dragon of Legend."

"So, what does this means now? Is it bad?" Spratt asked with a concerned look.

"Not really. This is not the first time I'm seeing something like this happening before. This result only means one thing; he have weaker mag powers compared to Beau."

"Weaker? That's very bad," Parm blurted.

"It is, which means he has a disadvantage in terms of mag powers. But apart from his weaker mag powers, he should still maintain all of Beau's original abilities." Connor looked up at Artha, who looked slightly bothered by this worrying fact.

"I guess despite having a new Dragon of Legend doesn't means anything if he's still weaker than Beau," Artha expressed his concern. The dragon heard what Artha said and he craned his neck, his golden eyes staring at his rider questioningly.

"No, Artha. Just because you feel inferior doesn't means you're on the losing side. This dragon may be weaker than Beau, but remember, he shares a similar mentality as that of Beau's. If he faces a tougher opposition, he will learn how to overcome his opponent eventually."

"Providing if he can survive his encounter with Beau first," Kitt cut in.

"You know, considering he's much different than Beau, I decided to give him a new name," Artha suggested.

"Oh? And what's that gonna be?" Lance asked his brother, cocking his head slightly to the side.

"I noticed his mag stream was a much lighter gold and so does his gold colourings, I decided to name him Shayde."

"Shayde?" Everyone asked simultaneously (except Connor, who just raised his eyebrow curiously). Even the dragon himself made a questioning grunt at that new name.

Artha sighed, "I have to admit, I don't think it's appropriate for me to name him Beau. Doing so only makes me think more about him and...after what happened on that fateful day, it makes me really depressed."

Everybody understood how Artha felt. In response, they nodded in agreement while the dragon looked down with pity in his eyes.

"If that's how you felt, then so be it; it's your decision. From now on, Shayde will be your next closest ally," Connor said soothingly to his son.

Just then, Tannis came in to meet with the gathering group. He first went to where the dragon was and studied him. After a moment, he turned to Connor and commented, "I'm impressed at the outcome, Connor. Different as he appears, he's still a fine specimen."

"Thank you, Tannis."

"But the dragon was not the reason why I'm here. It appears that we have a visitor who volunteers himself to join and help us fight Word Paynn."

"That's great. But who is this person who wanted to help us?"

Tannis then signalled in a welcoming gesture to whoever was behind the door. A figure walked silently into the hall, dressed in a black outfit, with his head covered in a black cloak.

The figure then removed his cloak and revealed his face. "Hello, my fellow friends. My name is Rivett and I am from the Mechanist."

"The Mechanist? Who are they?" Spratt inquired.

"The Mechanist is part of the ancient Grey Draconium Empire, and they acted more as traders for the warring empires," Connor explained. He then turned back to Rivett and inquired, "But the Mechanists normally don't take sides. What's with the sudden change in policy now?"

Rivett replied sternly, "Yes, it is true that we Mechanists don't favour anyone in a war. But in this case, they can count me out. I felt that what happened to the city was an outrage, something that should not happen in the first place." Everyone listened closely to Rivett's statement. "For months now I've been spying on activities in the city. All I can see were wraith dragons and their human riders patrolling the streets and people and dragons who were not under wraith control were forced to live in fear of this tyranny. Worst of all, upon closer investigation, the one who's behind all this suffering was Word Paynn. It was this discovery that has led me to make a decision to help you fight Word and liberate the city from this tyrant."

"I bet finding this temple is no easy task," Kitt asked in a slightly teasing manner.

"You can say that."

"So how you can help us?" Connor asked.

"I can help you spy on any of Word's activities in any parts of the city."

"Spying, eh? I'm sure this would be helpful for us," Artha said.

"Indeed," Tannis agreed. "This would help us know in advance about any of Word's activities, especially signs of any invasion. Very well, then. You are now one of us. You may proceed with your duty."

"Very well, sir." Before leaving, Rivett eyed Artha and inquired, "And I presume you must be the Dragon Booster, isn't it?"

"H-how did you know?" Artha stammered, not realising that someone else knew of his secret identity as well.

"Isn't it obvious?" Rivett pointed below him and Artha realised that he's still on Shayde's back.

"Oh, right. Silly me."

Rivett smiled and headed out the door. Before he stepped out, he said sympathetically, "That dragon in the street, leading his own troop of dragons in patrolling the streets, has a large chin and frills on him. He's your dragon, right?"

Artha was silent by Rivett's revelation. He just nodded slowly.

"I'm terribly sorry for your loss." Once said, he left the hall and disappeared from everyone's view.

"That must've been hard to swallow," Kitt said.

Tannis returned back to the group, particularly to Artha. "The rest of you are allowed to return to your daily routines. Artha, take your dragon and come with me."

Artha watched as Tannis left the hall. He then urged Shayde to follow the Dragon Priest as well.

**********

Artha and Shayde exited the temple and followed Tannis to an open field. For a moment, he thought he may have to travel far from the temple to some unknown destination. Then, Tannis stopped and this gave him the order to halt Shayde in his tracks. They looked around and view their surroundings. The open field was littered with debris and rubble of various sizes and shapes from ancient structures destroyed during the first war. At the very limit of their sight, they managed to catch a glimpse of what looked like fortification walls stretching along the horizon and around the temple.

"What are we doing here anyway?"

Tannis eyed the youngster and answered, "This is where your training begins."

Artha's eyes narrowed in dismay when the priest mentioned 'training'. "Another training?"

"Yes, but this time, training with your new dragon. It's an entirely different subject when it comes to training with your dragon. Furthermore, you will be trained in using some of our ancient mag techniques; skills that you can only learn in the Academy." Tannis continued further, "Moreover, with the threat of Word launching an invasion, we cannot neglect the training of the Dragon Booster."

Artha sighed to himself. Great. Looks like being the Dragon Booster means double the training compared to Kitt.

"Firstly, transform into your Dragon Booster armour."

Artha did so and placed his long, unused amulet into his gauntlet. Immediately, his body was engulfed by a brilliant gold aura. It has been a long time since he last felt that sensation coursing through his body, and as it was happening, it felt so foreign to him now. Finally, the transformation was complete and for the first time in fifteen months, Artha was back in his Dragon Booster armour. He stretched himself and sighed happily, "Boy, it feels good to be back in business again. Don't you think so?"

Shayde replied with a nod and a grin on his face. Just like Beau, he was all too familiar with Artha as both his rider and the Dragon Booster.

Artha then asked, "So, what's next?"

"Now, I want you to focus your concentration. Let your dragon power up his mag energy and let it flow through your body."

Artha closed his eyes and concentrated, emptying whatever thoughts he had from his mind. When he felt he was ready, Shayde powered up his gold mag energy and channeled it to his rider. It's now up to Artha to try to let the energy flow through his body. He gritted his teeth hard in an attempt to try to channel the mag energy. After five minutes, he still felt nothing and he gave up.

"It's no good. I can neither feel nor receive the energy."

"That's because you're using force. Forcing yourself will not help you, it will only create more strains and pressure on yourself and this will disrupt the energy flow and your concentration. Try again, but this time, let the energy flow naturally on its own, without your force.

Artha understood what Tannis was trying to say and started again. He closed his eyes and Shayde powered up his mag energy once again. He repeated what he did earlier, but this time he calmed himself and relaxed his mind. Immediately, he can feel the energy coursing through his body and his body started glowing gold like Shayde's.

"Good. Now let the energy gather itself around your hands."

He did so, raising his hands forward and transmitting the energy to his palms.

"Now open your eyes, but maintain your concentration. This will be crucial in combat."

Artha slowly opened his eyes. He was aware that his body was glowing gold, but kept his excitement out of mind first. Due to the presence of Shayde's mag energy, his vision was covered in faint gold, as if he's wearing gold contact lenses.

"Notice that there's a large rock to my left. I want you to aim your hands at it and release the energy."

Artha aimed his raised hands towards the rock and when he got it in sight, he released it. A mag stream flew from his hands and it got hold of the rock, enveloping it in gold. For Artha, it felt like the rock was in his grasp and when he tried raising his hands higher, the rock was slowly lifted off the ground. Shayde's eyes widen as he saw the rock being raised from the ground by his rider.

"That's it! You've done it!"

Artha couldn't believe what he's doing. Excited, he tried moving the rock around. Wherever his hands moved, the rock followed in that direction. After toying with his new powers, he gently placed the rock down and disconnected the energy flow to his body. Eventually, Shayde powered down as well and gave Artha a congratulating bark.

"Excellent. I'm pleased with your performance, Dragon Booster."

Artha just smiled in response, not knowing what else to say.

"I want you to repeat what you did earlier with the rock, but this time, fling your hand in a throwing manner."

"Fling my hand? Okay." Artha repeated the entire process with Shayde and when the energy has gathered itself on his hands, he flung his right hand in a throwing gesture. A ball of mag energy was sent flying from his right palm and upon impact with the rock, it blew up into pieces.

"Whoah!" was all Artha could say as the rock disintegrated. Shayde glanced at his rider with a satisfying grin.

"What you had just executed was the ancient mag claw technique. It's a basic but highly useful skill that you will surely need in combat," Tannis explained.

"Basic? You mean there's more?"

"Yes. There are more advanced techniques to be learned, young hero. But for now, you will need some rest to regather your strength for tomorrow's trainings. That will be all for today; you are dismissed."

Tannis left the area and headed back to the temple while Artha removed his amulet and transformed back to his normal self. He dismounted off Shayde's back and stroked the side of his head. "You've done a good job so far, boy."

Shayde replied with a low bark and a smile.

Artha shrugged, "Not bad for a dragon who does't look anything like the original Dragon of Legend in history. Come on, let's get some rest for the day."

Shayde was taken aback by Artha's compliment and when his rider was about to walk off, he smiled wryly and with quick reflexes, he wrapped his long tail around Artha's legs and lifted him off the ground, dangling him upside-down.

"Whoah! Hey!"

Shayde chuckled as he watched Artha flailing his arms about in mid-air. When he saw what Shayde was doing, he looked at him funny and admitted, "Okay, so maybe my dad's right about you. Apart from your looks, you're still thinking like Beau."

Shayde grinned cheesily at his rider and proceeded to release his leg as Artha fell to the ground in a heap of dust.


END OF CHAPTER 4


(Please read and review. Thanks. :) )

Cool story, and very funny. I love it when Beau hangs artha upside down. Nice to see Shayd doing it as well.

Please continue. Here's a cookie for ya :cookie:

Still really sad about Beau. Shayde seems nice. and he certainly has Beau's sense of humour.

Awesome chapter! Shayde is one cool, drac dragon. :cookie:

Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad everyone's enjoying it. :wub:

Here's chapter 5:


Chapter 5: Reunion of Lost Friends

For three weeks, Artha and Shayde trained under Tannis and several elite-ranking priests in the training obstacle under the temple. The pair went through various types of training, from advanced dragon-riding skills, to advanced ancient mag techniques, and to advanced melee combat skills.

They trained with all their heart, determined to improve their teamwork and to be a leading example to their friends, boosting their morale and confidence in preparing themselves as time slowly ticks away and the likelihood of an invasion increases. The pressure will be on the pair, especially on Artha's shoulders as the Dragon Booster.

Little do they know that the situation will become increasingly difficult for everyone in the temple.

**********

While Tannis, Connor and four other Dragon Priests were discussing about possible defensive plans, Rivett came in to report about his findings in the city.

"What news have you got, Rivett?" Connor asked as he turned to meet their scout.

"This is quite disturbing. It's been five days in a row now that I've spotted orange dragons roaming side-by-side with wraiths. It looks as if they're working together," Rivett reported with a concerned look.

"Orange dragons?" Connor was stunned by the news. "Odd. What are they doing in the city hanging around with wraiths? What do you think, Tannis?"

"This is rather troubling. And I'm afraid this new development might make things even more difficult for us."

Just then, Artha and Lance walked pass by their dad and noticed the worried look on his face. Artha stopped in his tracks, with Lance following his move, and slowly walked up to his dad to check on him.

"Is everything all right, dad? You looked worried."

Connor turned his head to meet his sons and replied, "I am. There's been a worrying development in the city in the form of orange dragons. Rivett claimed he has spotted several of them patrolling the streets with wraiths."

"Orange dragons? What are they doing there?" Lance wondered himself.

"I'm not sure," Connor expressed his opinion. "But what worried me is..."

Connor's conversation with his sons was interrupted by a lower-ranked priest walking hurriedly towards the group. He reported urgently, "Tannis, we have a visitor who claims to have vital information for us."

"Send our visitor in."

The priest left the group to get their visitor. When the priest returned with their guest, Artha and Lance was suprised by the newcomer's appearance.

"Reepyr?"

With the priest's help, the red-haired man entered and joined the group. He was panting and almost fell to the ground if it wasn't for Connor coming to his aid. Artha rushed towards him and checked on his condition. "Are you all right?"

Reepyr replied slowly, "I'm fine....Just...exhausted." He looked up and smiled weakly at Artha, "It's good...to see you again, Dragon...Booster."

"What happened?"

"There has been...a great betrayal among us....Propheci..."

"What did Propheci do this time?" Artha demanded.

"He...left to...join Word Paynn."

Everyone who heard Reepyr's statement looked at each other in shock. This is definately a new development that will make things even harder for them.

"Lance, get a seat for Reepyr," Artha requested.

Lance obeyed and quickly grabbed the nearest chair as Connor helped Reepyr to his seat. Once he managed to catch his breath, Artha asked, "Can you tell us everything on how this happened?"

"It started with the news that Dragon City has fallen under Word's control. This, of course, enraged Propheci who despised the fact that a human has taken over the city, and thus over dragons as well. Don't take this seriously, Dragon Booster, but since your escape from the Track of Doom, there had been unrests among us. Some wanted both humans and dragons to live in peace like what you've told us to, but others like Propheci refused and remained adamant that dragons should rule over humans. And of course, that news made things even worse now."

"So, what happened to your crew now?" Lance asked.

"Since then, it was clear that the Prophets were split between following Propheci to the city, or following me to remain here and not interfere with other's business. But despite this split, we still negotiated about this issue and tried to reach an agreement. After twelve months of negotiation, at first Propheci, through a human representative, agreed to our terms. But it was all a plot as Propheci caught us by suprise and locked us up. It was then that I realised my mistake about trusting Propheci too easily, but by then, it was too late and he abandoned us with his army of orange dragons heading towards the city."

"But Propheci is not the type who allow any humans to rule by his side. So what's that about joining Word?" Artha asked with confusion.

"He joined Word not because he wanted to, but just like what happened to us, it was also another one of his plots. Before leaving, he revealed his real plan; to overthrow Word Paynn at the right opportunity and to rule Dragon City for himself."

"Great, just what we need; a deranged dragon bent on taking over the city for himself," Rivett complained.

"We have to do something," Artha suggested.

Reepyr agreed. "I'm with you, Dragon Booster. But as of now, the only thing I can suggest is to be on the lookout for any orange dragons. Propheci might send his scouts out to the Wasteland."

Connor then turned to Tannis and replied, "If that's so, I suggest we should inform the sentries and scouts about this new development."

"Agreed." The Dragon Priest then turned to Reepyr. "You'd better get some rest now."

"Very well. But before I go, I would like to request for your permission to join your group."

"What contribution can you provide?"

"Knowledge about Propheci and his orange dragons. I've been working close with him since he chose me as his rider, and throughout the years I had gained valuable knowledge about his behaviour. And I can use that knowledge against him."

"If that's the case, then you are most welcome to join us. It will be to our advantage to have someone who have knowledge of our enemy."

Reepyr nodded in appreciation and tried to get up, with Artha immediately rushing to his side. "I'll help you."

"Thank you." Reepyr was helped by the teenager as the latter led him to the temple's dormitory.

After a short distance away from the group, Artha asked, "So, how did you manage to escape?"

"It was no easy task trying to break free from our cells. It took many attempts to disable the door's locking system, and even when we managed to escape, we still needed time to seek a proper refuge until I decided to lead them to the Dragon Temple."

"Those past months must've been hard for you and your crew, wasn't it?"

Reepyr closed his eyes and nodded without saying anything. "We've...also heard news of your dragon falling under Word's control. It must've been difficult for you to endure the loss of your dragon."

Artha didn't reply; he just glanced at Reepyr before returning his attention in bringing him to the dormitory. Halfway through, the comm link on Artha's wrist alerted him and he activated it.

"Artha, how's Reepyr?" Connor asked.

"We're about to reach the dormitory. What's up, dad?"

"I need you back here as soon as possible. It's rather urgent."

"Understood." He turned to Reepyr and said, "About losing my dragon, yes, it was difficult to endure. But there's nothing I can do but to accept the fact that he's gone. It's just fate, I guess."


By the time Artha returned, his friends, Connor and Rivett was waiting for him at the meeting chamber.

"What's the urgency?"

Connor explained, "Parm claims that he has received a distress signal coming from the city. I'll let him explain further in detail."

Parm continued where Connor left of. He revealed one of his gadgets and said, "My tracking device here detected a faint distress signal coming from the city; from Down City to be precise."

"How can we tell if your device is accurate?" Lance questioned.

"I can confirm that," Connor replied. "Apparently even the priests in the communication center has received the faint distress call. I suggest we should investigate the source; who knows if there are those in need of our help."

"So, who's going?" Spratt asked.

"Considering the extent of the situation, I suggest we form a group of three to investigate the source, and I propose Artha, Kitt and Rivett."

"Scales. I wanna go to," Lance complained.

"I'm sorry, Lance. But it's too dangerous out there in the city with all those wraiths and orange dragons prowling the streets; and I don't need a large group anyway." When he's done explaining his reason to Lance, he turned to the three chosen ones and briefed, "Okay, listen up. Your objective is simple; investigate the source of the distress call. If you found refugees at the source, take them back here; the city is no longer a safe place for them."

"Sounds simple if you count out those wraiths and orange dragons," Kitt said.

"Then I'll make sure your path to the source is clear. I can scout ahead of you and pinpoint locations of patrolling wraiths and orange dragons," Rivett volunteered.

"Good idea," Artha commented.

Kitt stared at Rivett and wondered, "I was wondering; how can you evade detection while you're scouting in the city?"

"Like this." Rivett raised his right hand to reveal a device on his right wrist. He then pressed a button on the device and slowly, his body vanished into thin air.

"He disappeared!" Lance gasped.

"No, he's just invisible, using what I would call a 'personal cloaking device'," Connor explained.

"You can say that," came Rivett's reply from where he was last seen standing. "Now will you excuse me, I have some scouting to do first. Parm, your tracking device, please?"

Parm extended the tracking device and he felt it being taken from his hands by an invisible force.

"While you're scouting ahead, we'd better get to our dragons," Artha said and he gestured Kitt to follow him to their dragon's stable.

**********

Even with the street lights on, they had failed to lift the gloomy atmosphere that haunt the streets, what's more in Down City.

On their respective dragon's back, Kitt and the Dragon Booster roamed the streets silently. Kitt took the rear position, watching her and her partner's back while Artha led her, following Rivett's instructions in taking the safest route and away from patrolling wraiths or orange dragons. Once in a while, Rivett, who prefer the higher grounds of rooftops as it allows him to scan a wider range of area, communicates with Artha via the comm-link on his saddle to warn him of patrol movements and also to lead them through alleys as possible shortcuts.

With Rivett's guidance, they traveled through vastly deserted streets and through narrow alleyways wide enough for only one dragon to fit at a time. They could not believe how quiet the streets were; they may be in Down City, but regardless, the atmosphere was never this gloomy and eerie compared to the past. Even Wyldfyr, who has spent most of his life here, felt slightly uncomfortable at the silence that haunts the street.

Is it me or is Down City becoming more like a ghost town? Artha wondered. He glanced back to Kitt and asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Not much, but I must admit that this place is much creepier than before. Even Wyldfyr thinks so." She looked over at Wyldfyr and saw him nodding in agreement.

They had already travelled for almost an hour, and Artha wondered if their journey would've been shorter if it wasn't for those pesky wraiths and orange dragons patrolling the area. He turned on his comm-link and asked, "Rivett, how far away is the source of the distress signal?"

"According to the device, we should be reaching the source soon," came Rivett's reply.

"Where's it coming from anyway?"

"If I'm not mistaken, it appears to be coming from an abandoned warehouse nearby. You can speed up now; I've checked the area and there's no sign of patrols anywhere on the main street. Just follow the road and you should see the warehouse ahead. I'll see you in front of the building. Over."

Artha turned off his comm-link and called back to Kitt, "We can speed up now. Rivett has found the source already. Just follow me."

"About time we speed things up a little. I almost fell asleep in my saddle!" Kitt grumbled and then urged Wyldfyr to follow Artha as their dragons sped along the empty road towards their destination.


Artha and Kitt managed to find the warehouse without much trouble as Rivett was already waiting for them by the front door. When he caught sight of the duo, he waved to signal of his presence to them.

Upon arrival, they scanned the area around to be sure that no one else was present and then Artha asked Rivett, "So this is where the signal came from?"

Rivett nodded quietly and passed Parm's tracking device to him.

"Yup. This is the place, all right. The signal's much weaker now, but there's no doubt that it's coming from inside."

Kitt warned, "But what if it's a trap, set up by Word to attract us?"

"Only one way to find out." Artha then urged Shayde forward to the door and when they're near, Artha gently knocked on the door frame twice.

Silence.

Then, just as Artha was about to knock again, came a loud reply from a familiar voice, "Who's there?"

The three of them looked at each other before Artha answered back, "It's me...the Dragon Booster."

Another silence.

As Artha was about to repeat his reply, the door frame shook a little and before their eyes, it slid open slowly; the doors creaked as the rusted wheels of the two sliding doors grind against its railings on the floor.

As the door slid open wider, Artha saw three human figures on their dragons staring back at him. When his eyes were adjusted to the darkness of the interior, he managed to get a good glimpse of the three humans and his eyes went wide when he recognized two of them, with their huge body size on the saddle of their bulky dragons.

"Phistus? Kawake?"

"D-dragon B-booster?" Phistus stammered, his suprised look was shrouded by the darkness of the building.

Artha waved at the former Down City Council leader when four more humans on dragonback appeared right before them at the entrance; Khatah and Sarjo of the Inner Order and Marianis (whom Artha doesn't recognise yet) of the Dragon Fish alongside her partner, Dorsull.

"Khatah?"

The leader of the Inner Order smiled wearily. "I have always dreamed and kept my faith that you're still alive. I guess my strong will and hope eventually pays off." He paused a moment before offering, "Please do come in. It's not safe out there; not at this time."

"Thanks. Let's go in, boy." Artha then urged Shayde to enter the building with Wyldfyr following him closely behind; Rivett decided to stay outside to look out for any patrols nearby. When they entered the building, Khatah, Sarjo, Marianis and Dorsull closed the door quickly.

Soon, everyone gathered together at the center. Being in the middle of the group, Artha soon noted the unknown rider besides Phistus. The rider appeared to be a woman, dressed in a white racing suit and on her helmet was a tornado emblem.

"It's been a long time since we last met, Dragon Booster. Too long," Kawake said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah. It would've been an even longer time if we didn't receive your distress signal," Artha admitted. "So, what happened to the Down City Council when Dragon City fell? I've never heard of you or the other crews since then."

Phistus sighed, "The invasion was like a nightmare for all of us. It caught us by suprise; we tried to flee and we were even forced to fight off dragons that attempted to block our paths. But what's unusual was that these dragons are not wraiths, but normal dragons like ours. It's like they were brain-washed into attacking us humans. But eventually, we were caught when we stumbled into wraith dragons who trapped us using trapping gears and ramming balls. I'm not sure what happened next as I was knocked out by a ramming ball."

"Actually, if I'm not mistaken, we were all knocked out," Khatah continued. "When we woke up, we found ourselves incarcerated in cells in some unknown location. For months we were locked in our cells; forgotten from whoever's behind this."

"What if we were to say that Word Paynn's behind this?" Artha suggested the fact.

"Yes, we knew about it when he visited us, with Moordryd by his side. I cannot believe that the Dragon Eyes is by his side, acting like personal bodyguards to him," Phistus growled.

"So if you're all caught at the same time, what happened to the other crews? I noticed Pyrrah and Wulph are missing," Kitt asked.

"And Vociferous," Kawake answered. "Just a few months ago, they were brought out of their cells along with their dragons by Word's wraiths. We had not heard of them since, until just recently when we all too were brought out of our cells. We were led out to the compound, on our dragon's back, by Word's wraiths. Once outside, we were shocked to find them...as wraiths. It was then we realised what Word has in store for us and with no escape, we consigned ourselves to join our fellow friends as Word's wraiths."

"So, how did you managed to escape eventually?" Artha asked.

"We would've ended up as wraiths if it wasn't for Chute's help," Phistus replied again, presenting the woman by his side. "She somehow managed to locate and free us from the guarding wraiths. Once the wraiths were taken out, we fled the scene and eventually, we ended up here in this abandoned building."

"And that's when you signalled for help."

Phistus nodded. "Yes. With Chute's signalling device."

Artha turned his attention to Chute. "So, I presume you're from the Dragon Wind crew judging by the logo on your helmet? I have to admit I have not seen you before."

Chute responded, "Yes, I am. We're well-known for our crazy, dare-devil flying stunts; reckless most of the time though." She grinned cheesily at him. "We have not met before because you're still street-racing while I'm already in the Academy."

"You're an Academy racer?" Kitt blurted out.

"That's right."

"Nice to meet you," Artha greeted and shook his hands with Chute. He then turned his gaze to his left to meet the other two riders on their nautilus-class dragons. "And who might you be?"

"I'm Marianis, leader of the Dragon Fish crew." Marianis then gestured to her partner. "And this is Dorsull, my second-in-command."

"Good to have you with us."

Khatah eyed Shayde curiously and commented, "I see you have a new dragon; a rather odd one. What happened to the black-and-gold dragon?"

Shayde just grunted and rolled his eyes in annoyance when he was labeled as 'odd'. Meanwhile, Artha had a tough time trying to explain what happened to Beau, but he did nonetheless. "He fell under Word's control when he was fed with liquid black draconium."

"Under Word's control? So if your dragon have the power to influence other dragons, Word can use your dragon to brain-wash the other dragons into attacking the humans," Marianis suggested.

"Yes, and that's just what he succeeded in doing." Suddenly, his comm-link received a call and he activated it. It was from Rivett.

"Dragon Booster! I've detected six wraiths heading towards you fast! You must leave immediate-argh!" Rivett was suddenly cut off from contact.

"Rivett!" Artha yelled out to the comm-link but it went blank. He turned to the others and relayed Rivett's warning, "Wraiths are coming this way. We have to leave now!"

Without any orders, Shayde bolted first towards the door, followed by Wyldfyr and the others. Instead of waiting for the door to be opened, Shayde rammed his way through the door, ripping it off its railings. He then paused at the entrance when he saw Rivett stuck to the wall by a trapping gear.

"You all right?" Artha asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Kitt, who was the nearest to Rivett, used her mag staff to disable the trapping gear while Wyldfyr magged him onto his back.

"Come on, let's get moving!" Artha yelled to the others.

"Too late for that," said Kitt as their path was blocked by six wraiths. All of them were armed with a green ramming gear and red thruster gears. They growled and hissed menacingly at the escapees.

Artha noticed that the six wraith bipedal dragons had wraith riders as well. He realised that Word has created a new type of wraith gear that can control both dragons and their riders. He eyed the wraith in the center and saw two gears attached to the rider's body, the larger one on the chest and the smaller one on the head.

Those two gears must be the wraith gear all together, Artha thought. Suddenly, he noticed something familiar about the center wraith. He peered closely at the rider, through the wraith gear, and was taken aback when he identified who the rider was.

"Captain Faier?"

As expected, he did not respond as he and the five other wraiths closed in on them.


END OF CHAPTER 5


(Please read and review. Thanks. :) )

sounds like they could be in trouble.
i like how you've brought in the other down city crew members. artha is going to need a lot of help in this situation.

I love how you escalated the action in this one! Trapped in Dragon City, nearly surrounded by wraiths...how are they gonna get out? :plot: Keep going, tis awesome! :cookie:

Very nicely done! I'm certainly enjoying this story alot and I hope to see more soon! :cookie:

Very cool chapter indeed, and I cannot wait for the next one. Please update quickly!!!

Wow awesome Job Burnout Beau. I love it, can't wait for more!

I'm glad everyone love it, and thanks for the reviews! :wub: It certainly gave me the will and strength to carry on with this fic. Things are about to get very exciting now. :D

On with the next chapter:


Chapter 6: Return of a Legend

The wraiths, led by Captain Faier, began closing in on Artha and the rest of his fellow partners; blocking their only way out in the process.

"Come on! Let's take them out!" Kitt challenged.

"Leave that to me and Shayde. I'll clear the way and when the coast is clear, you'll lead the rest of them out." Before she can object, Artha gave Shayde the order to charge and they charged head-on towards the oncoming wraiths like a fearless knight.

"Show off," was all Kitt can grumble.

The wraiths saw Artha and Shayde charging towards them and a wraith Captain Faier snarled at the other wraiths in a commanding manner. In response, he and his wraiths paused in their tracks and their wraith dragons began firing mag blasts towards the charging Dragon Booster.

Shayde saw the black mag streams coming towards him and with lightning reflexes, he dodged the blasts with ease, sidestepping and jumping with grace. As for his rider, Artha blocked any oncoming mag blasts with swings from his trusty jakk-stick.

Too easy, Artha smirked to himself as he swung his jakk-stick to cancel out the wraiths' mag blasts. As he was closing in on the wraiths, he saw that the wraiths had activated their ramming gear in an attempt to block his charge.

"You know what to do, Shayde. Show them what you're trully capable of," Artha whispered to Shayde and the tri-coloured dragon nodded, knowing what he meant. As they got even closer, he saw the wraith riders were about to activate their red thruster gears. But Shayde was not about to let them do that.

In a stunning display of his agility and skill, Shayde performed a slide which was followed soon by a hundred-eighty degree spinning slide kick. With the aid of momentum from his slide, he swung his powerful hind legs forward while supporting and balancing his body on one foreleg. The result was a devastating kick that knocked all the wraiths off their feet as they crashed down to the ground hard.

"Wow! I've never seen that before," Chute admitted.

"Me neither," Phistus followed.

Artha turned back to the others and yelled, "Kitt! Lead them out of here now while they're down!"

"Come on! Let's get out of here! Follow my lead!" Kitt ordered to the other crews as Wyldfyr led the way for the other dragons to follow.

Artha and Shayde kept a close eye on the dazed wraiths as Wyldfyr thundered past them with the rest of the pack following closely behind the red dragon. When everyone else had already left, he told Shayde to make his move and they left the scene in a flash, unaware that the red, evil wraith eyes of the captain were staring at the fleeing group, growling in anger.


Kitt and Wyldfyr led the group through the deserted streets while Artha and Shayde took the rear position. Within the group, Khatah and Sarjo were leading their fellow Down City crews while the Dragon Fish crews of Marianis and Dorsull being between the two bulkier dragons of Phistus and Kawake; Chute took the back end ahead of Artha. With Rivett on her dragon's back, she can only hope that she can navigate the group safely along the streets without stumbling into another group of patrols. It's the first thing she wanted to avoid at all cost.

Meanwhile, Artha has told Shayde to slow down so that they can cover the group's back. He was afraid that an ambush from behind can be disastrous and can cause disorganisation of the group's formation.

Suddenly, Shayde heard something coming from behind and upon looking over his shoulder, he saw Captain Faier's wraith group pursuing them, and closing in fast. He called out to Artha, who heard his distress calls and knew what was to come. He glanced back and thought, Just as I expected.

He immediately contacted Kitt and warned her, "Wraiths are coming in from the back!"

"Thanks for the warning, but why can't we just stop and take them all out for good measure?" Kitt suggested.

"It's too risky. I'm afraid we might only create more attention-" Suddenly, an idea popped up in his head. More attention, eh? "Kitt, I have an idea. You'll lead them back to the temple while I distract them away from you."

"And leaving you on your own against those wraiths? You'll never stand a chance against six wraiths!" Kitt objected, almost yelling at the screen.

"Don't worry about me; I have Shayde by my side. What's important is the crew's safety. Think about it."

Kitt fell silent. She knew that Artha was right despite the risk he's taking. "Fine. I'll take them to the temple. But make sure you return safely too because you ending up as a wraith is the last thing I wanted to hear." Once she obliged, she cut off contact with Artha.

When the message was passed, Artha told Shayde of his plan, "Slow down, boy. We're going to distract them from the group. When they're gone, it will just be you, me, and those wraiths." The tri-coloured dragon looked up questioningly at his rider before nodding in agreement. He then proceeded to slow himself down to jogging speed as the group ahead of them got farther away.

Chute, who's the closest ahead of Artha, heard her dragon Turbulence barking towards the back. She turned her head back and saw Artha slowly pulling away from them and she quickly alerted Kitt, "The Dragon Booster's slowing down!"

"I know, it's part of his plan to lead the wraiths away from us. Relay the message to the others and follow my lead."


Artha watched as the distance between him and the rest of the pack increases while it's the opposite for the approaching wraiths. Despite slowing down, he also told Shayde to slow down just enough that he can get the wraiths to pursue him instead of being overtaken, which can ruin the group's getaway.

To his relief, Kitt managed to lead the group far enough that he has lost visual contact of them. Good. They're out of my range of sight. No point worrying about them now if I can't save myself.

A ramming ball just zipped pass is head, waking him from his thoughts. Shayde grumbled at his rider, trying to warn him of the danger close behind.

"Sorry, my mistake," Artha apologised and said, "Let's get down to business." He looked back and saw that the wraiths were dangerously close now. "Okay, boy. Speed up now!"

Shayde obliged and switched from jogging pace to a gallop within micro-seconds. The wraiths were stunned by Shayde's instant acceleration and they quickly sped up as well, chasing down their target. In frustration, the wraith Captain Faier snarled and ordered his wraiths to open fire. The six wraith dragons began mag blasting at Artha and Shayde as the pair were forced to take evasive action.

Shayde veered, leaped and dodged to the left and right to avoid the wraiths' mag blasts. Hoping to shake them off his tail by sheer speed, he ran as fast as his legs can carry him and slowly, he started pulling away from them. But the wraiths had a solution to that problem; upon seeing the dragon ahead pulling away from sight, Captain Faier responded by ordering the other wraiths to activate their red thruster gears. With an extra speed boost, they managed to catch up with the runaway dragon.

"Looks like your idea of outrunning them backfired," Artha complimented as Shayde growled in frustration.

With the wraiths catching up, they resumed firing mag blasts at them; and again they took evasive action. Artha have to duck as low as he can, almost leaning on his saddle to avoid the mag blasts while Shayde ran in a zigzag manner. As a result, all of the wraiths' mag blasts failed to find its target as many of them either hit the ground or flew over harmlessly.

The wraith captain was seething with frustration and he devised a new plan. He hissed out something to the wraiths closest to the sidewalks and they responded to his orders without delay.

As Artha and Shayde avoided all incoming mag blasts with ease, the latter almost tripped when a trash can flew over his head and crashed to the ground in front of him with a loud clang. Fortunately, he managed to jump over it before he can trip over it. Artha just held on tightly as Shayde jumped over the trash can. When it was cleared, he glanced back and saw that two wraiths closest to the sidewalks were magging objects that they can reach on the sidewalks and tossing them in their direction.

"Careful, boy! It's not just mag blasts we have to avoid now!" Shayde got the idea already as he veered to the right, avoiding a flying bench that narrowly missed his left shoulder by inches.

Shayde took a sharp turn to the right into another street as the wraiths followed his path. Again, they attempted to take down their target by mag blasting them or throwing anything they can find on the sidewalks. The tri-coloured dragon was getting annoyed at those pesky wraiths chasing him down like hunters and was determined to take one down before this pursuit was over, one way or another. He glanced back and when he saw another trash can rocketing towards his back, he lashed his long, whip-like tail. Like a baseball bat, it managed to hit the missile and the force exerted by his tail's lashing actually sent the missile flying back to the pursuing wraiths. One of the unfortunate wraiths got smacked by the trash can and ends up tumbling to the ground.

Artha looked back again and saw one of the wraiths falling to the ground, unable to carry on with the pursuit. He grinned and praised his dragon, "Not bad, Shayde." Just then, a mail box whizzed pass his head and before it landed on the road, he tapped into Shayde's mag powers. With an extended hand, he launched a mag stream towards the mail box and got hold of it in the stream. With a fling of his hand, the mail box followed his hand's motion and it was flung back over his head and towards their pursuers. Again, another unfortunate wraith got whacked by the missile and it crashed to the ground in a heap of dirt.

"Now we're both even," Artha reminded Shayde, his dragon grunted in agreement.

They passed through several different streets that made up the networks of roads in the city, attempting to shake the remaining wraiths off their back. But one wrong turn was all it takes to end this pursuit in favour of the wraiths, and that's just what happened.

Shayde planned to lose their pursuers by taking a detour off the main street and into an alley. Although the wraiths were still following their tracks, the confusing route of the alleyway allowed him to take several quick turns and this allowed him to shake the wraiths off his tail.

"That's a good move, boy," Artha praised his dragon's quick thinking. But all that relief was short-lived when Shayde suddenly braked to a screeching halt. Looming before them was a massive wall, too tall for Shayde to jump over much less climbing over it. It's a dead end for them. "Then again, I spoke too soon."

Before Artha can turn Shayde around, he heard stompings coming from behind and as he feared, Captain Faier's wraiths had found them. They moved in warily, the ramming gears on the wraith dragons activated. Artha immediately took out his jakk-stick and prepared to defend himself while Shayde crouched low, ready to ram through the line of wraiths if he had to.

Captain Faier gave the order to engage and all four wraiths fired ramming balls at Artha, but the Dragon Booster easily swatted them away with his weapon. Instantly when the balls were knocked away, all four wraiths fired mag blasts at Shayde, who retaliated with his own. The dark alleyway was soon lit up by the combined illuminations of black and gold light, flickering and pulsing with sheer intensity.

Shayde poured in everything he got into his mag stream. His teeth gritted hard against each other and his eyes were fully focused on his opponents. The deadlock lasted for almost a minute and Artha was getting anxious. Four against one. Shayde may be a gold-boned dragon, but I'm afraid he might exhaust himself quickly in this situation. This deadlock has to end. Just then, he got an idea.

"Shayde, I'm going to need some of your mag powers for a moment. I need you to transfer some of your energy into my armour." All Artha got was a concerned sound from his dragon, obviously not sure of the idea. He then explained, "Those wraith dragons are occupied by you which leaves them defenceless against a separate attack, and I'm the only one who can perform that attack. It's the only way to end this deadlock."

To make matters more difficult, the four wraith dragons began pushing forward along with their combined mag streams. Although their forward push have no effect on Shayde's mag stream, it certainly did a good job in pushing his body backwards.

Artha heard Shayde's razor claws raking against the ground as he was pushed back until his hindquarters was against the wall. "Come on, boy. We've got no time." Then, he felt Shayde transferring some of his energy into his armour as the three-sided star bonemark on his head glows brighter. He felt the energy surging around his armour in a brilliant gold aura. He turned his palms upwards and created a ball of mag energy in each palm; but this process also weakens Shayde's mag stream as it slowly shrinks in length. When he has gathered enough energy, he let out a cry and executed the mag claw technique; tossing three mag balls at the wraiths.

They failed to see them coming and the mag balls hit three of them hard, sending them flying backwards and crashing to the ground. Now, only Captain Faier was left standing; his lone dragon's mag stream was no match for Shayde's as the latter's mag stream cancelled out the wraith's. Without any resistance, Shayde's mag blast hit the wraith captain like a jousting pole and he was knocked down hard, joining the rest of the other fallen wraiths.

"Way to go, boy! Let's get out of here now," Artha said and urged his dragon to make his move. But instead, Shayde turned back and faced the wall, his eyes were looking upwards at the top. "Umm, Shayde? What are you looking at?"

Shayde didn't reply. He just crouched low and before Artha can ask again, he powered up his mag powers and fired a mag stream downwards from his hindquarters; launching them off the ground and up to the top of the wall with a mag jump. Artha yelled in delight and looked back down at the fallen wraiths. "So long, bumbling wraiths!" Artha screamed in a teasing manner as Shayde made it to the top of the wall and over it. But their joy was short-lived (sort of).

With his forelegs extended, Shayde prepared himself for a hard landing. As he was doing so, he saw three orange dragons patrolling the area...and they're right below him. With nowhere else to go, he braced himself and closed his eyes with an 'uh-oh' look on his face. At the same time upon seeing the orange dragons, Artha clenched his teeth and prepared for the impact.

The three orange dragons took the brunt of Shayde's body weight as the tri-coloured dragon crashed on top of them, kicking up dust and dirt all over the place. The impact knocked the wind out of the orange dragons as Shayde shook his head, feeling a little woozy.

"Whoa, some soft landing, huh?" Artha asked, feeling slightly shocked by the impact. Shayde only responded with a groan, feeling somewhat annoyed by the 'soft landing' comment as he got to his feet and leaped off the orange dragons. "We'd better go, boy. Looks like we've attracted too much attention now."

Within seconds, they're off running again. They headed in one direction this time, which may lead them back to the streets. When they do got out of the alley and onto the main road, they were suprised to find a group of three wraiths blocking their path. As they turned back, another group of three orange dragons showed up and blocked their only escape. They were surrounded now.

Artha turned his gaze back and forth to find a solution out of this trap. While he was thinking, the wraiths had their ramming gears activated and began closing in along with the orange dragons at the other end. However, what he didn't know was that Shayde already had an idea. All of a sudden, Artha heard his dragon chuckling. He looked down and saw him chuckling and grinning to himself.

"What's so funny?" Artha asked but Shayde didn't reply. At that moment, the wraiths opened fire with their ramming balls and the orange dragons with their mag blasts. The tri-coloured dragon coolly performed a mag jump and this results in a spectacular backfire; the ramming balls whacking the orange dragons and the mag blasts hitting the wraiths. Upon landing, nothing was left standing around them. Artha inspected the fallen dragons and admitted cheesily, "Okay, so maybe I sort of missed that idea."

Shayde chuckled again and sped off, jumping over the fallen wraiths and proceeded to find an exit out of the city. They took the road which will lead them to the dragway that can lead them down to the Wasteland. As they were on their way out of the city, the ground beneath them shook with a loud stomp. The longer the stompings, the louder and closer it got to the pair. Artha glanced to the back but saw nothing. As he shifts his focus back to the road ahead, his view was full of orange and Shayde almost collided head-on into whatever that blocked the road.

Both human's and dragon's eyes stared slowly upwards at the looming figure before them, which turns out to be a giant orange dragon. It stared down on them with its yellow eyes like a hungry predator. It was smaller than Tyrannis Pax, but even that height was enough to sent chills down both Artha's and Shayde's bones.

"Not you again," Artha said, referring to his first encounter with the giant in the Track of Doom.

The giant orange dragon then let out a roar loud enough to rattle the foundation of the city, which was good enough for Shayde to make his move. In a bold move, he darted under the dragon and between its legs, narrowly avoiding being trampled. It hissed in displeasure and turned to pursue the pair, stomping the ground hard enough to create cracks on the road.

From his saddle, Artha tried to repel the giant by tossing mag balls at it. But at the speed Shayde was in, it was difficult to get a clear shot. Shayde growled at Artha to forget about the mag claws if they kept missing, which he agreed and returned his attention on the road ahead. "You're right, boy; it's not doing any good for us. We have to find a way to the dragway that can take us to the Wasteland...and fast."

The chasing orange dragon stomped its way along the road as it fired its orange mag blast at the fleeing pair. As they were nearing the intended dragway, the orange dragon fired a desperate mag blast, which managed to find its target.

Shayde howled in pain as he was hit in the back by the mag blast. The blast sent him tumbling to the ground as he rolled along the rough road, only to be stopped by a railing at the edge of the road. The railing got dented by his body weight, which was just enough to stop him from facing a thousand meter drop to the bottom. He groaned as he tried to get up, shaking his head to clear his disorientation. He looked around for Artha and found him just beside his head, leaning against the railing as well.

"You okay, boy?" Artha asked, his hand to his head. His dragon responded with a slow nod of his head. As both human and dragon got to their feet, the giant orange dragon began moving in. Artha soon realised that their only escape was blocked by the giant's massive feet as it got closer to them. "Looks like we're done for."

Shayde gritted his teeth and growled, not wanting to give up just yet. As he was looking for an escape route, his eyes caught the edge of the road. He looked over the railing and down the endless pit. For some unexplained reason, his mind suddenly reminded him that he has went through this ordeal before although this was his first outing in the city. For this once, he decided to follow his instincts. He then magged Artha onto his saddle.

"Got any idea, boy?" Shayde nodded and looked over the railing. Artha's eyes went wide when he saw where Shayde was staring at. "Are you sure it's a good idea? You're-" his comment was drowned out when the orange dragon before them let loose another earth-shattering roar as it started powering up its mag energy. Shayde knew he has no time to argue with his rider; as soon as the giant opened fire, he leaped over the railing without hesitation.

"-still not used to your poweeeeeers!!!" Artha screamed out his lungs as he and his dragon began the long drop down to the bottom. He gripped his saddle's control sticks as hard as possible, hoping that his dragon knew what he was doing.

At the same time, Shayde felt the long frills on his legs ruffling wildly against the wind. As he felt the strong wind brushing against his skin, the 'ordeal' that his mind reminded him earlier now became all too familiar; and that's all it takes for him to make his next move. He closed his eyes and concentrated on releasing his powers with his mind. Soon, his three-sided star bonemark began glowing bright and he felt a tingling sensation on his sides. On instinct, he extended his forelegs from his sides and with a flash of gold, a pair of black frill-shaped wings sprouted from his side. With some effort, he managed to control his fall and eventually the fall turned into a downward glide.

Artha couldn't believe that Shayde has sprouted a pair of wings as they began their glide down to the Wasteland. "Drac move, boy! Dad's right about you; you trully have the potential to be a Dragon of Legend!" Artha screamed with joy and excitement as Shayde smiled to himself for his accomplishments.

A Dragon of Legend? Was that something familiar too? He chuckled to himself as he thought of another familiar moment.

They descended with ease down to the Wasteland, relieved that they managed to get away from Word's minions. Not far away, a lone dragon stood on top of one of the buildings in Down City like a sentinel, staring in the direction of Artha's delightful screams. He hissed in displeasure before walking off.

**********

By the time Artha got back to the temple, everyone was waiting for him patiently.

"Dragon Booster, you made it back!" Khatah spoke out excitedly as everyone turned to where Artha was.

"You managed to shake off those wraiths?" Chute asked.

Artha just shrugged. "Yeah, but it wasn't that easy though. I have to run all over the place just to lose them."

"I bet that must be tiring, Dragon Booster," Kawake said.

"It was." Artha looked down on his amulet and gauntlet before speaking out, "Fellow Down City crews, I have something to show you. Be prepared to accept the truth that you're about to witness." When he got the crews' attention, he removed his amulet and returned to his normal self.

The Down City crews gasped in shock when they learned that the legendary Dragon Booster was none other than street racer Artha Penn. Phistus broke the silence first, "Artha Penn? How's that possible?"

"Wait a minute; does that mean the Dragon of Legend chose you to be the Dragon Booster?" Marianis asked.

Artha just smiled and replied, "Well, yeah."

At one corner, Lance whispered to Kitt, "Must he reveal himself?"

"Since we're all on the same side, I think it's only a matter of time before they find out who the Dragon Booster really is. So instead of waiting to be discovered, might as well just show yourself." Kitt then walked towards Artha and tapped his shoulder gently. "Shouldn't we be discussing important matters?"

Artha just grinned and replied cheesily, "You're right. Sorry that I got too carried away." He then gestured everyone to gather around him. "Okay, we've got a situation here. According to the Down City crews, Pyrrah, Wulph and Vociferous were turned into wraiths by Word. Now we have to find a way to rescue them."

"But before we can go any further, we have to know where they are first," Parm said.

"You mean where they will be," Marianis pointed out. As Parm looked at her with a confused look, she continued, "I managed to overhear a conversation between Moordryd and Word before moving out to Paynn's citadel. I heard that they're going to be stationed in the Dragon Eye's compound within seven days."

"That's good information for us," Artha complimented. "Since we now know where they're going to be, we can launch an attack on the compound when the time comes."

Rivett suddenly stepped in. "Excuse me, Artha. But I have a proposition as well."

"What is it, Rivett?"

"Since the fall of Dragon City, I'm worried for the safety of a dangerous object; the Horn of Libris. I'm afraid that with Word gaining control of the entire city, he can easily find the horn and use it for his own purpose."

Spratt cocked his head and asked, "So, what are you trying to say? I don't really get it."

Rivett eyed the boy and replied seriously, "What I'm saying is that we must find the horn first before Word does. The horn can summon a dangerous grey-boned dragon named Libris. If Word summoned him, there's no telling what he can do to us."

Khatah nodded. "Rivett's right there. We must retrieve the horn before Word finds it."

Artha then said, "I understand your concern, Rivett, and I'm taking that issue into consideration as well. But about the horn, I have a good news and a bad news. The good news is I know where's the horn; the bad news is that it's in Precinct, in Dragon City Security headquarters."

"Oh, that's just scales!" Lance grumbled. "Now looks like we also have to find a way to get into the headquarters."

"Perhaps I can do that," Rivett volunteered.

"Okay, everyone. Settle down," Artha said and gestured everyone to calm down. When he got the situation under control, he resumed, "First things first; Rivett wanted to retrieve the Horn of Libris, while I wanted to rescue the the remaining Down City crews from wraith control. However, both of these issues are important and I cannot be in two places at a time. If that's the case, we'll split into groups of two; one with Rivett and the other with me. So, who's going with who?"

Everyone discussed the matters amongst themselves while Artha waited for a decision. After ten minutes, Phistus spoke out first, "I will follow you, along with Khatah, Marianis and Kawake. Khatah and Marianis will be taking their partners, Sarjo and Dorsull, as well."

Artha nodded in satisfaction. "That's good enough. How about you, Rivett?"

"Considering mine is only a salvage opeartion, my group will be smaller; Kitt, Parm, Chute, Lance and Spratt will be with me."

Artha raised an eyebrow and inquired, "You're taking Lance and Spratt too?"

"Hey, this is not my first time, you know?" Lance claimed. "Besides," he draped an arm over Spratt's shoulder, "two of us are better than one."

"If you insist, then I can't stop you. But be careful, the city is not a safe place anymore."

"Don't worry, Artha. I'll make sure they'll be safe," Rivett assured as he led his group away to discuss their plan.

When they're gone, Artha returned his attention to his group. "So, looks like we're all that's left. However, I do feel that we need something special to get through the compound and rescue our friends without any worry of being heavily outnumbered."

"Maybe I can help."

Everyone turned to the direction of the voice and they saw a little individual standing at the entrance, looking rather nervous. Artha recognised him. "Stewardd?"

"Hello, Dragon Booster. It's been a long time since I last saw you," Stewardd said.

"What are you doing here?"

"I heard you need some help. Dragon Priest want Stewardd's and Keepers' help. So, I come to offer help."

Everyone smiled at Stewardd's offer. "You just came at the right time," came Phistus' reply.

And at the right moment too, Artha thought. "Let's get down to our plans now, shall we?"

**********

Moordryd sauntered towards his father's table. He noticed that his father has a concerned look on his face; a look that he has not seen since the fall of the city.

"You summoned me, father?" Moordryd asked patiently. "I noticed you look worried over something."

"Yes I am, my son," Word replied with an eerie calmness in his voice. "It appears that there has been a disturbance somewhere in Down City. And by the number of reports received from my wraiths, this disturbance must be massive. I'm now awaiting for the arrival of my leading wraith. Furthermore, one of those reports involved an attack on the convoy that is leading the other Down City crews to my citadel."

"I'm aware of that attack, father. And I've dispatched some wraiths to search for them."

Word looked up and saw the wraith Captain Faier coming towards him. "Ah, my leading wraith has arrived. Let's see what he have in store for us." He got off his seat and took two cables that was attached to a monitor. As he was about to connect the cable to the wraith gear on the captain's chest, he noticed that the gear was dented by a massive force.

That's odd. What kind of an attack can dent my wraith gear? He will soon find out when he connected the cables to the gear. When that's done, he headed to a control panel and flicked on a switch. Immediately, the monitor was turned on but all he got was a blur screen due to poor reception. Hmm, the dent on the gear also affects its reception. But no matter, that problem can be solved.

With a few adjustments on the control panel, he managed to improve the reception. Although it's still blur, he managed to make out the video that was played before him. What he saw made him clench his fist in anger.

The video that was played on the monitor was very brief, but he can see (from the wraith's view) the Dragon Booster making his escape by jumping over a wall on an oddly coloured dragon. He paused the video and studied the dragon closely.

"WHAT?? The Dragon Booster got himself a new gold dragon??" Word frowned loudly.

Moordryd took a closer look at the image and gasped, "Another Dragon of Legend? How's that possible? I thought we already captured it."

Word suddenly calmed himself from his frown and answered, "Yes, we did. But something tells me that my old friend Connor was behind this. It appears that letting him escape was a mistake for me."

Moordryd looked at the dragon more closely and wondered, "Is it me or is this dragon tri-coloured? I realised that the dragon have three colours."

Word studied the image to confirm Moordryd's point. "Hmm, you have sharp eyes, my son. The dragon do have three colours, which means it is not a perfect Dragon of Legend. But nonetheless, it is still a threat to us."

"With the Dragon Booster spotted, I'm think he's the one who attacked the convoy."

"Not really. The report mentioned that a rider on a white dragon was the one responsible. I'm sure the Dragon Booster was there to lead the escapees to safety." He paused to think for a while before turning to his son. "I have a plan, Moordryd. With the crews rescued, they will certainly leak out information regarding our plan to move their wraith friends to your compound and the Dragon Booster will definately try to rescue them as well."

Moordryd interrupted, "Let me guess: set up an ambush?"

Word nodded, smiling, "Precisely, but not in a way you think it is."

"Oh? Then how do you want it planned?"

Before Word can reply, a group of five orange dragons entered the room with Cain riding on the leading one. Word turned his attention to the approaching dragons and greeted the one Cain was riding on, "What can I do for you, Cain? Or should I say Propheci?"

Since his arrival, Propheci has no rider since ditching Reepyr; but he was offered with Cain by Word despite his reluctance (and Moordryd's too). Ever since the Prophet's arrival, Moordryd was not comfortable with the presence of these orange dragons who had pledged their lives in ruling the world over humans, especially Propheci. He tried to reason with his father that these orange dragons cannot be trusted, but his father claimed that he has a 'special treat' for the Prophets when the time is right. They may be allies now, but Moordryd and Propheci will always be keeping a close eye on each other's intention.

Cain spoke for Propheci through the orange forcing gear, "I've come to report that some of my patrolling dragons had encountered the Dragon Booster and his dragon in the city. They engaged him but to no avail. They were last seen jumping over the edge of a road and I'm sure that they had escaped from us."

Moordryd snorted, "From you, not us."

Propheci and Cain hissed, "Wretched human!-"

"Silence!" Word yelled with authority. Both his son and Propheci quieted down but remained glaring at each other with hate. He clicked his clawed fingers and admitted, "He's right, the Dragon Booster had escaped from your dragons and my wraiths. We both have a fair share of the blame and that's all to be said. If you have nothing else to report, you may carry on with your duties, Propheci."

Propheci just nodded as he turned to leave the room with his fellow orange dragons. That meddling Moordryd Paynn. When the time's right, I'll deal with you first before going after your father. With you and your father-

Suddenly, the main doors to the room slid open and a quadrupedal dragon walked in slowly. Upon the dragon's arrival, the four orange dragons quickly moved aside, allowing space for the newcomer to pass by. It snorted with arrogance at the cowering orange dragons, until it confronted Propheci. The orange dragon stared through Cain's eyes at the dragon that stood before them, engaging in an electrifying staredown.

Both dragons stared eye-to-eye with hate. Moordryd thought of wanting to flee the scene until Word spoke up, "Propheci, be nice to our special guest now, will you? You don't want to make Beau mad, won't you?"

Propheci only growled in annoyance as he finally stood down and moved aside. Beau snorted in front of the orange dragon's face before resuming his short walk towards Word. With a soft hiss, Propheci left.

"So, what brings you here, my dear Dragon of Evil?" Word asked as Beau paused in front of his table. He emitted a low purr and leaned his head on the table gently. Word turned to Moordryd and suggested, "I think you should take him out for a little patrol in the city, could you?"

"Not a problem, father."

Before being led out by Moordryd, Beau raised his head and when he saw the image of Shayde on the monitor, he growled menacingly at it. Word looked up at what Beau was growling at and grinned, "I see that you noticed the Dragon Booster's new dragon."

He reached out and stroked the dragon's head softly. "Don't worry, you'll get your chance to meet it soon enough."


END OF CHAPTER 6


(Please read and review. Thanks. :) )

uh oh....that aint good. wonder what Beau thinks about shayde. Maybe he's jealous!!!

Cool chapter, great work!!!

strange twist. you just made my day. this is awsome.

Another great chapter! I like how Shayde and Artha escaped from the city, nice action! :) And drac way to end the chapter, I'm held in suspense. :cookie:

now i am expressin opinion. if i were artha or even beau i would still keep trying to save beau. though artha seems happy. wonder about beau though?one question. does artha get beau back?

Yes, I understand the situation. Artha will never abandon Beau that easily. But if you watch "Broken Bonds" again, Artha claimed that Beau's bonemark is fading by the moment and Mortis added that if nothing were to be done, he would end up as Word's slave for life. Well, that's what happens in my fic. :plot:

Stay tuned to find out... :)

Anyway, here's chapter 7:

Warning: This chapter contains mild violence


Chapter 7: A Tale of Two Missions (Part 1)

Seven days later.

Artha and Shayde met up with their fellow group partners outside the temple as they prepared themselves for the assault on the Dragon Eyes compound to rescue their friends from wraith influence. Before joining them, he had equipped Shayde with a simple green ramming gear.

"Is everyone ready?" Artha asked and received nods from his partners.

"We're more than ready to save our friends from Word," Kawake said confidently as he made final checks on Rumbyll before being magged onto his back; his wheelchair seat acting as the saddle itself.

Artha glanced around at his team and noticed that Phistus and Kawake had their dragons armed with light green deflection armour, provided by Stewardd and his Keepers crew. Furthermore, Khatah and Sarjo had their dragons armed with blue dragon star gear and blue agility assist gear while Marianis and Dorsull were each provided with a coral stun gear by Tannis which can be useful in freezing wraith gears.

As Artha and his team mounted on their respective dragon's saddle, Rivett arrived with his own team. He decided to move his team out on the same day as Artha's team.

"Ready, Artha?"

"You bet, Rivett." He eyed Rivett's team and noted that besides Chute's dragon, who was also equipped with a white aero gear, all the other dragons were armed with red thruster gears. When he saw Lance and Spratt on Fracshun, he requested, "Please take care of Lance and Spratt for me. I don't want them to get hurt."

"Don't worry, Artha. I'll make sure they return safely."

Just then, the two groups were joined by Tannis and Connor. Connor was the first to speak out, "I hope you all had planned this properly because I don't want to hear you returning as wraiths."

"Don't worry, dad," Artha assured. "We had already planned this out for seven days."

"Even then, Dragon Booster," Tannis warned. "You must be careful that no matter how perfect you plan was, there's always the possibility of failure. Your plan alone does not guarentee success; it also depends on external influences and a little luck."

"Thanks for the advice, Tannis. I'll be careful."

"Good luck." Tannis reached out and shook both Artha's and Rivett's hand before stepping back and leaving. Connor smiled and nodded to his son, proud that he has matured a lot since his arrival at the temple.

"Take care," came Connor's reply to Artha before joining Tannis.

Wyldfyr magged Rivett onto his back as the red dragon joined besides Shayde and Artha. "Good luck, hero. You'll be needing it more than I do," Kitt said as she urged her dragon onwards, leading the others to their destination.

"You too," Artha said softly before turning to his team. "Let's make our move now."

**********

With Artha's guidance, Shayde led the way to the Dragon Eyes compound warily. They knew that the streets around the compound will be heavily patrolled. Everyone will have to keep an eye on each other and the road ahead. The humans scanned their surroundings around them while the dragons focused on the road ahead.

Oddly enough, they did not had any close encounter with any patrols around the vicinity. It looked as if they were very fortunate into not running into any of them.

As the wall of the compound loomed over the dark horizon, Artha led them into the alley closest to the compound and gathered together with his team. "Okay, so far so good. Now comes the tricky part." He turned to Khatah. "You know what to do, Khatah; head to the control room and unlock the main doors. Once you're done, contact me and I'll lead the charge."

"Understood," Khatah acknowledged and he immediately left with Sarjo.

As the two Inner Order crews left, Artha returned his attention to the others and ordered, "Okay, let's get into position and wait for their call."


Khatah and Sarjo traveled another road that took them to the western part of the compound. They then took a platform that connects the main road to the western wall of the compound. Once they're there, they saw the same opening on the wall that they took in their failed attempt to retrieve the Horn of Libris.

Both riders dismounted from their blue dragons and headed to the base of the wall. Khatah turned to his partner and said, "You know how it's done."

Sarjo nodded and he and Khatah got to their positions. When they're ready, Khatah ran forward and sommersaulted into the air. While in mid-air, his hands caught Sarjo's outstretched hands and with his body in motion he lifted Sarjo as well and they both executed a perfect sommersault before landing perfectly at the opening. Once they're through, Khatah peeked into the compound and scanned the surroundings inside.

There were several Dragon Eyes crews patrolling the compound; eight in his view but there's certainly more. They were armed from blocking staffs to trapping gears. Furthermore, he also spotted four black psi-class dragons in his view and their presence will only make things more difficult for them. Besides the patrols, there were several tents erected around the compound, crates stacked up near those tents and perhaps flash lights from the top of the wall flashing down on certain areas of the compound.

As Khatah's eyes scanned further, he spotted what looked like a bunker at the base of the compound's higher stage platform at the far end. He saw that the bunker was lit and through it he saw a control panel. Guessing that the bunker was where their objective was, he gave the order to move in and he went in first as Sarjo followed behind. Like ninjas, they managed to land without making a single noise. They immediately went for cover behind one of the stacked crates as a group of two crews walked passed by. When the coast was clear, they moved out, sneaking ever so silently that not even the black dragons' sensitive ears heard their footsteps.

Once in a while, they will sneak from one cover to another, slowly making progress to their objective. While under cover, the patrolling crews and their black dragons passed through their intended path without arousing any suspiscion. Once the patrols moved on, they proceeded sneaking on to the bunker. If possible, they will try to use the darkness of the compound as much as possible and avoiding the flash lights at all costs. One wrong move and the whole mission will be in jeopardy.

However, as they were nearing the bunker, a black dragon suddenly crossed their path and the pair quickly scrambled for cover behind a stack of crate. Their scramble has alerted the black dragon, who decided to investigate the source of the suspiscious noise. It crept near the crate where Khatah and Sarjo were hiding, sniffing for any suspiscious scent nearby. Not satisfied, it decided to poke its head around the crate.

Before coming face-to-face with the black dragon, Khatah and Sarjo quickly scuttered away from their position and instead used the tent besides the crate as their new cover, leaning softly against it. They managed to avoid the dragon head that poked around the crate as it continued looking around the area. When it failed to find anything, it let out an annoying grunt and returned to patrolling the compound. Khatah sighed softly with relief as he and Sarjo returned to their position behind the crate.

Seeing that the path to the bunker was now clear, they moved quickly to the building and crouched against the wall. Khatah stood up slowly and peeked through the grilled windows. Inside, he saw a guard sitting by the control panel with several monitors showing certain areas of the compound. Slowly, they made their way to the front door and tried to open it without making a single noise. When it comes to opening doors, all it need was a creak to blow their cover.

Aware of creaking doors, Khatah tried to open the door as careful and gentle as possible. When the door knob turned quietly, he slowly pushed the door aside. As the door swung slowly open, Khatah then held it when it was wide enough for them to crawl through. With Sarjo close behind, Khatah crawled his way until he was behind the guard. They got up slowly and with permission from Khatah, Sarjo struck the guard on the back of the head with his fist. With the guard knocked out, they moved him away from the control panel and they searched for the main door switch.

After seconds of searching, Khatah found two buttons, one red and the other green, with an image of a door above them at the far right corner of the panel. This must be the one. He then reached out for it.

"Intruders!" Khatah whirled around and saw a Dragon Eye crew standing at the entrance with a mag staff pointed at them. Without hesitation, Sarjo grabbed the chair and slid it towards the crew. It managed to hit the crew by his knees and he stumbled away from the entrance. Immediately, Khatah pushed the green button and searched for the monitor that showed the front door. When he did saw the front door slowly opening on one of the monitors, he gave the thumbs up to Sarjo and immediately fled from the room and out in the compound.

As expected, the alarms went off, perhaps activated by the crew that found them. While running for their lives, Khatah turned on his comm-link and reported, "Objective completed; front door opened. You may carry out the charge."


Nearby, Artha received Khatah's order and said, "Understood. We're moving in now." When he turned off his comm-link, he ordered to his team, "Okay everyone. Get into position, we're charging in now."

Everyone got to their positions; Phistus and Kawake moved their dragons to Shayde's sides and Marianis and Dorsull behind Phistus and Kawake. When they're ready, Artha activated the ramming gear as it opened and covered Shayde's head and chest as Phistus and Kawake did the same with their deflection armour.

After one final check on his team, Artha yelled out with authority, "CHARGE!!!"

Shayde galloped ahead with Brutaris and Rumbyll by his sides, and Poseidos and Highdyve behind the bulky dragons, as the five dragons rumbled out onto the main road. They charged towards the main entrance of the Dragon Eye compound at full speed like cavalries, determined not to let anything get in their way. The Dragon Eye crews at the entrance saw the cavalry charge and wisely jumped out of the way as Shayde bashed his way through the door before it can fully open.

Chaos immediately broke out throughout the compound as crews and black dragons scrambled to repel the intruders. However upon entry, Artha activated the ramming gear as the gear on his dragon's chest shot out a ramming ball and it struck a black dragon in the head, sending it smashing into a tent.

"Stay close," the Dragon Booster commanded as his team stayed close together. They let their dragons attack with their mag blasts while their riders concentrate on knocking away any missiles launched towards them. Unlike the rest, Artha and Shayde faced the heaviest attack from the Dragon Eyes as most of them were focused in taking the pair out first. He swung his jakk-stick left and right, knocking away various missiles hurled at them from trapping gears to ramming balls. But when it comes to hurling crates, he needed Shayde's help as the dragon channeled his mag powers into his armour and he fired multiple mag claws at the crates, blasting them into smithereens.

Just like Artha, Shayde himself was occupied by dragons trying to either blast or charge him. But these attempts proved futile as any attacks aimed at him were countered with ease, either by dodging or returning fire with his own mag blasts. Any dragons that charged him were met with a slash of his claws or a kick of his hind legs.

The others had formed a good partnership as well. Marianis and Dorsull used their coral stun gear to freeze the gears on the black dragons (and the dragons themselves) while Phistus and Kawake (the heavy hitters of the team) finished off their helpless opponents.

Halfway fighting, Shayde saw a line of black dragons in front of him and realised an opportunity. He charged forward and as the black dragons were about to fire their mag blasts, he spun around and kicked the black dragon to the far right with his hind legs. The force of the kick sent the black dragon colliding into its partners and thus sending them sprawling to the ground.

"Not a bad move, boy," Artha praised as Shayde returned to his position with his team. "All right. Looks like there's still no sign of the wraiths. Let's move in further." Artha led the way as everyone followed while remaining in their respective positions. However, Artha was unaware of a rider who has his dragon armed with a purple tandem gear hiding in the shadows to his left. Kawake saw the hiding black dragon and warned Artha.

"Artha! Look out to your left!"

By the time Artha saw the black dragon, it was too late as the rider fired off the cable from the gear and it latched tightly on Shayde's shoulder. He let out a desperate growl as he tried to break free while the gear proceeded to drain his energy. Artha gritted his teeth in anger and summoned his dragon's mag powers. But before he can do anything, a dragon star shuriken flew out of nowhere and sliced the cable, disconnecting it from the purple gear.

When his planned failed, the rider tried to flee but was met with a kick by Khatah. The rider fell to the ground hard while his dragon fled the scene. However, it too was stopped in its track when Shock-Ra pounced on it from above. Not satisfied, the blue dragon mag blasted his black counterpart into a tent for good measures.

"Thanks, Khatah. I owe you one," Artha thanked Khatah while checking on his dragon.

"Not a problem at all." Khatah then mounted back onto his saddle while Sarjo joined his crew leader by his side.

"Great, we're all back together. Now we can search for our friends."

"Even if it means tearing this place down," Phistus suggested, tapping his hammer on his palms in a threatening manner.

"I'm afraid that won't be necessary, my old friend." Everyone looked up and saw Moordryd standing on the stage platform, smirking down on the group. By his sides were more of his crews and their dragons, all well equipped with gears.

"Moordryd Paynn, it's been a long time since we last met. In fact, the last time we met was exactly where we're standing right now," Artha reminded as Shayde growled at his rider's nemesis.

"Deja vu, I guess?" Moordryd suggested with a grin. He then eyed Shayde and snorted, "So, you got yourself a new gold dragon." When he saw Shayde's three-sided star bonemark, he continued, "Looks like my father's opinion was right: he's not a true Dragon of Legend."

Shayde growled even louder, angry at Moordryd's accusation. Artha calmed him down before answering back, "He may not be a pure Dragon of Legend, but that doesn't mean he can't be one!"

"We'll see about that."

"Where's our friends?" Khatah yelled out to Moordryd, activating his weapon.

"Oh, you mean the remaining crews of the Down City Council? I thought you never ask."

After that reply, the group heard stompings coming from behind and around them. Immediately, wraith dragons began revealing themselves as they surrounded the group. All of them were riderless, except for the ones behind the group. Artha spun around and saw Pyrrah, Wulph, Trackyrr, Vociferous and Spynn, all as wraiths, coming in from behind. If the wraiths' presence weren't enough, Moordryd also ordered his crews by his side to join in as well. Clearly the group was surrounded and outnumbered as Moordryd laughed evilly.

"What do we do now?" Marianis asked in a whisper.

Artha studied the approaching foes carefully; his dragon hissed fiercely in an attempt to ward off the evil dragons. He turned to Phistus and Kawake. "I suggest the both of you take out the wraith dragons and Moordryd's crews; the rest of us will try to free our friends from the wraith gear."

Both heavy hitters looked at each other and their surroundings. After seconds of contemplating, they agreed but Kawake warned, "You'd better be quick, though. Because I don't think the two of us alone can handle all those wraith dragons and the Dragon Eyes crews."

"You got it." He called out to the others as Phistus and Kawake started attacking their intended opponents alongside their dragons. "Everyone else follow me." Artha told Shayde of his plan and the dragon obliged by leaping all the way to the back of the group and led the others away from the raging battle. While the heavy hitters held off their opponents, Artha and his remaining partners came face-to-face with their wraith friends; Artha facing Pyrrah, the Inner Order taking on Wulph's Army of the Dragon, and the Dragon Fish facing the Voice of the Dragon.

The two groups of five stared at each other. It wasn't long before the wraiths moved first when the five riders activated their ramming gears and fired five ramming balls at their opponents. To their dismay, Artha and his partners easily swatted them aside with their weapons and charged straight for them. The wraiths responded by splitting up; their dragons firing mag blasts at the charging group. As a result, Artha and his team had to split up and face their opponents on their own.


Khatah and Sarjo challenged Wulph and Trackyrr as they chased down the duo. As they neared the wall, they halted and turned to face the Inner Order crews. A wraith Hyve roared at the charging blue dragons and fired off several mag blasts at them while a wraith Pursoot magged the nearest object (which was a crate) and tossed it at their opponents. Khatah and Sarjo easily dodged the mag blasts as the former was almost hit by a crate if it wasn't for his dragon knocking it off course with his mag stream.

When they were near enough, their dragons magged them towards the wraiths with weapons drawn out. The wraiths responded by drawing out their mag staffs, but instead of challenging in a melee combat they activated their tandem gears and launched two cables which latched onto the blue dragons' necks. As their energy was being drained, the blue dragons cannot maintain their mag stream for long before being disconnected from their riders. Without any support, both Khatah and Sarjo fell short of the wraiths and ended up on the ground as the wraiths continued draining their dragons of their energy.


Meanwhile, Marianis and Dorsull tried to freeze the fleeing duo of Vociferous and Spynn with their coral stun gear but they could not get a clear sight of their opponents. Without warning, both wraiths slid and spun around to face the Dragon Fish crews. Their dragons fired multiple mag blasts at them and by luck they managed to knock the stun gears from their hands.

"Lucky shots," Marianis grumbled under her breath and before she can move her dragon, both wraiths charged at them with weapons drawn. Without any choice, both she and Dorsull had to engage the wraiths from their saddles with their mag staffs. They blocked and parried their opponents' attacks while trying to strike them at the same time. Both sides wanting the upper edge over their opponents.


A wraith Pyrrah and Phorjj stood their ground against the compound's wall, hissing threateningly as Artha and Shayde crept cautiously towards the pair.

"Pyrrah, I don't know if you can hear me but if you do, you have to stop this. Fight the influence of the wraith gear," Artha implored to the Dragon Flares leader, but all he got was a snarl. As if in response to that statement, Pyrrah activated the red thruster gears on Phorjj's shoulders on reverse as it spewed out jets of flame. Artha shielded his eyes while Shayde took a step back as a wall of flame separates him from Pyrrah.

When his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the flame, he saw Pyrrah's red eyes glaring through the wall of flames at him. But instead of staring back at those eyes, he was staring at the wraith gear. He was planning to disable it with his mag claw attack but that wall of flame might affect his accuracy.

It's now or never.

Artha gathered the mag energy in his right palm and when he's ready, he launched it towards Pyrrah. The ball of mag energy went through the wall of flame like a bullet and managed to score a direct hit on the wraith gear. Sparks flew from the malfunctioning gear as it began affecting the wraith influence on Pyrrah and Phorjj. Unfortunately, the gear managed to regain control of them and in retaliation, Phorjj magged Pyrrah towards Artha with her fire axe in hand. Artha took out his jakk-stick but he remained on his saddle. He eyed her carefully, his hands gripping his weapon firmly by his waist line.

This is my best chance to end this.

As she neared, Pyrrah let out a cry and lifted her fire axe above her head, preparing to strike the Dragon Booster. But that's all Artha needed; space. With a grit of his teeth, he thrusted his jakk-stick forwards towards Pyrrah. But the weapon wasn't aimed at her; instead it went directly towards the wraith gear on her chest. The jakk-stick made contact with the gear with a loud snap and the damaged gear sputtered more sparks. The disruption caused both Pyrrah and Phorjj to writhe again and without wasting anymore chances, Artha fired a mag stream from his hands at the sputtering gear, crippling it further.

Finally, the gear gave out and fell off Pyrrah as both she and her dragon returned back to their normal self. "Huh? What happened? Where am I?" She shook her head and upon seeing Artha, she expressed her joy, "Dragon Booster! How glad am I to see you again!"

"Me too," Artha replied simply as Shayde smiled at her. He continued, "Listen, Wulph and Vociferous were still wraiths and they're fighting with Khatah and Marianis. I'll check on Khatah while you help out Marianis."

Pyrrah leaped onto her saddle and acknowledged, "You got it."


Khatah and Sarjo got up quickly before Hyve could trample them. They prepared their weapons and stood before the wraiths without fear. Hyve and Pursoot hissed loudly at the two humans before them and opened fire with their mag blast. Both humans reacted by swinging their weapons to parry the mag blasts as the dragons continued their relentless attacks on the Inner Order crews.

"We can't hold them for long; we need our dragon's help," Sarjo suggested while ducking to avoid a mag blast.

Khatah knew Sarjo was right; they won't stand much of a chance without their dragons. After parrying another blast, he turned and ran to Shock-Ra who was loosing strength by the minute. He leaped onto his saddle and activated the dragon star gear on his dragon. It opened up and fired a shuriken at the tandem gear on Hyve's shoulder. The shuriken bounced off the gear but it was enough to cause a glitch and the cable fell off his dragon. Immediately, Khatah did the same to Pursoot's tandem gear as well, dislodging Shuko free. Once the dragon was free, he magged Sarjo onto his saddle and away from the line of fire.

"Together now. Aim for the wraith gear!" Khatah ordered as he and Sarjo aimed their dragon star gear at the wraith gear on Wulph and Trackyrr. When they saw the gear pointed at them, they ordered their dragons to open fire on the gear itself. But before they can open fire, Khatah and Sarjo acted first as they fired off multiple shurikens. The flying blades flew in line as it bombarded the wraith gear on both wraiths with excellent accuracy. This continuous bombardment was too much for the wraith gear to handle as it spat out sparks before falling off to the ground, billowing smoke.

Once the gear fell off, both Army of the Dragon crews returned back to normal. Wulph looked around dazedly and muttered, "What's going on?" He then heard footsteps approaching and when he looked up, he saw Artha and Shayde making their way quickly towards him and his partner.

"Are you two all right?" Artha asked with relief, glad that both of them were back to normal.

Wulph saw Trackyrr nodding slowly. "We're fine, I guess. What's-"

Artha cut him off, "No time to explain. We'll talk about this once we're out of this mess. Let's check on Marianis first."


Phorjj made a short distance run to the battle scene where Vociferous and Marianis fought. As she made her entrance to the scene, she saw Vociferous knocking Marianis off her saddle and Loqua was about to trample her. Not wasting any time, she pushed her dragon forward and with the ramming gear on she crashed into the wraith dragon hard, knocking her backwards. As she stood defensively between Vociferous and Marianis, she turned on her red thruster gears on reverse and created a wall of flame, obstructing the wraith's view.

As the wraith hissed in displeasure, Pyrrah told Marianis urgently, "Hurry! Find a way to destroy the wraith gear; my thruster gears won't last long!" Marianis looked around and saw her coral stun gear lying nearby. She immediately dived for it and pointed the gear at Vociferous. Once Pyrrah's thruster gears ran out of fire, she activated the stun gear and froze Vociferous before he can attack.

"He's frozen. Now's your chance, Pyrrah!"

The Dragon Flares leader acknowledged Marianis' help and with her fire axe ready, Phorjj magged her straight to the frozen wraith. When she was in range, she cried out and smashed the gear with all her might. The blow broke the wraith gear and it fell off from Vociferous as he returned to normal. He only groaned as Pyrrah and Marianis approached him.

"You okay?" Pyrrah asked.

"Whatever," was all Vociferous grumbled.

Suddenly, a mag staff flew overhead, nearly hitting them. They turned to where the staff came from and saw Dorsull being disarmed by a wraith Spynn. Before she can strike him again, Vociferous rushed to the scene and drew out his flash stick. He called out to her and when she spun around to meet him, he activated the gear and with a blinding flash the wraith was blinded. Marianis and Pyrrah followed that up by launching themselves towards the wraith and together they whacked the gear hard enough to disable it. As it fell off, Spynn returned back to her usual self.

"Wh-what happened?" she wondered, still suffering from the effects of the flash stick.

"It's okay. You're free from the wraith's influence now," Marianis assured as Dorsull leaped from his saddle to retrieve his fallen stun gear.

Moments later, Artha met up with the five of them with crews from both the Inner Order and Army of the Dragon behind him. "I see that the Voice of the Dragon's crews are also free from the wraith's influence. Good job." Soon, Phistus and Kawake also joined the rest of them but they have bad news.

"We managed to subdue the Dragon Eye crews but there were too many wraiths. Everytime we took out one, two more appeared and I bet Moordryd's behind the wraith's reinforcement," Phistus panted.

Artha heard stompings coming towards them and looking over Phistus' shoulder, he saw six wraiths making their way to his group of twelve. He immediately ordered a retreat. "Team, we're done here. Everyone head for the exit; I'll join you at the back!"

"But what about Moordryd?" Pyrrah asked, eager to get her hands on him.

"We'll get him next time. For now your safety matters more to me than your thirst for revenge." Artha gestured the way and Phistus led the group out of the compound. He looked up at where Moordyd stood and muttered, "I'll be back for you next time." He only saw Moordryd sneering at him in response. Little did he know that a black dragon stood patiently behind Moordryd, out of view from Artha's eyes.

Once everyone had left, Shayde made his move and ran for the exit. Ahead, Artha saw that Dorsull, the last behind the group, has already made it out of the compound and realised he's the only one still in the compound. As they were nearing the exit, he suddenly saw ripples forming from both sides of the exit. He and Shayde gasped when two wraiths revealed themselves to block their only way out. He shook his head in annoyance and turned to Shayde, "Don't stop to fight them. Ram them instead!"

Shayde nodded in reply and sped up. He felt the ramming gear opening up around his head and chest as he prepared to ram his way through, determined not to let the wraiths stop him or his rider.

But someone else did.

Suddenly, something hit Shayde hard on the back of his neck where Artha's saddle was. The blow caused Shayde to trip and he slammed violently to the ground, roaring out in pain. Artha didn't fare any better either; his saddle exploded under him as he was tossed off his dragon and he tumbled to the ground hard. Fortunately, his armour managed to protect him from any major injuries considering the severity of the fall.

The force of the blow sent both human and dragon tumbling along the ground until they came to a standstill just a few meters from the wraith dragons' feet. As the wraith dragons hissed at them, Artha tried to get up to face whoever knocked them down.

"Leaving so soon? I was expecting a fight." Artha looked up and gasped when he saw Beau approaching the fallen pair with Moordryd on its saddle. Behind them were the six wraiths that chased off Phistus and Kawake.

Beau...

Moordryd grinned when he saw Artha's expression. "Like what you see?"

Artha just grinded his teeth as he felt Shayde stirring nearby, trying to get to his feet. "What's all this about?"

"Still didn't know? I'm flattered, Dragon Loser. You see, I already knew you're going to rescue your wraith friends when you freed our other 'prisoners'. To tell you honestly, me and my father initially planned to fortify this compound beyond breach. But after being aware of your new dragon," Moordryd pointed to Shayde, "we decided that capturing you was a more worthy compensation for the loss of our wraiths."

Artha couldn't believe what he's hearing. So all this was more of a scheme to capture me?

But Moordryd wasn't done yet. He eyed a shaken Shayde as the gold dragon got to his feet wearily, still suffering from the effects of the blow. "Interesting dragon you got there. My father thinks it's an attempt by Connor Penn to raise another Dragon of Legend. But what I'm wondering is why letting a fraud do a Dragon of Legend's duty?"

Shayde growled painfully at the accusation. But when he came face-to-face with Beau, his mind went blank completely. He was shell-shocked at the sight of another dragon that looked almost like him. His blank mind was suddenly flooded with memories that he had never experienced before, adding to his confusion. Even Beau himself felt a sudden rush of memories that he had never encountered before, but he shook his head, putting those thoughts out of his head, as he growled back at Shayde.

"He's no fraud!" Artha retorted. "What the Dragon of Legend can do, he can as well!" He then powered up his armour and he threatened, "You'd better let us go, Paynn. Or else..."

Moordryd just folded his arms coolly. "Or else what?"

"You've got a lot of nerves, Paynn." Artha gathered the energy in his palm and let loose a mag claw at Moordryd. But to his utter disbelief, he saw Moordryd's body glowing black as Beau provided him with his mag powers and the teenager retaliated with a black mag claw of his own. Both attacks met each other and they exploded with a brilliant flash of black and gold.

Artha couldn't believe what Moordryd just did. How did he learned that?

Moordryd laughed out proudly. "Interesting move, Dragon Boo-boo. But looks like you're not the only one learning new tricks." Moordryd suddenly launched a mag stream at Artha. It caught him in its grip and with a swing of Moordryd's arms, he was tossed away as he ended up crashing into the wall. The impact left him dazed.

Shayde saw what Moordryd did to Artha and he roared angrily at him. Not satisfied, he charged straight for him as Beau let out his own roar. As Shayde attempted to pounce on Moordryd, Beau easily jumped aside, placing Shayde in a precarious position. By the time Shayde realised of his current position, it was too late.

Beau's hind legs planted a powerful kick on Shayde's shoulder, sending him flying to the wall. He crashed violently against the wall, leaving cracks on it, as he slumped tiredly besides Artha. Before both of them can get up again, Moordryd took out his right arm to reveal a trapping gear launcher. The other wraiths by his sides too were armed with trapping gears.

Artha's eyes widen as trapping gears rained on them. Within seconds, he was trapped to the wall by about five trapping gears. Shayde got the worst of it; he had fifteen of them stuck to his body as his massive frame was pinned against the wall. Due to the many trapping gears, he can barely even move as he only groaned out his frustration.

Artha tried to break free himself but to no avail as he heard the ground shook before him. He eyed tiredly at Moordryd as Beau snarled at him; his purple pupils showing no pity for him.

"If you wish to finish me off, then do it as you like," Artha panted.

"Finish you off?" Moordryd snorted and grinned. "I would, but my father have other plans for you; a plan that both me and him will enjoy."

Artha didn't know what he meant. A weak cry suddenly alerted his attention as he turned and saw Shayde being drained of his energy by three wraiths armed with tandem gears. Then, he felt something latched onto his chest and began draining his energy as well. He stared weakly at Moordryd as he drained his energy with his trusty energy-draining whip. Slowly, he felt his armour losing power as it began flickering weakly out of existence.

"Let's see who you really are first..." That was all Artha heard as he lost consciousness.


END OF CHAPTER 7


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