Rise of the Guardians Book 4 Chapter 9

                                     Rise of the Guardians

                                    Book IV:  Heroes Reborn
                   
                                   Chapter IX:  The Valiant


             During the mission on Voradi Three, Spyro was abducted by an alien vessel under the noses of the Maldorians. Akyre urged the captain to search for him and due to the fact that Spyro was considered a planetary delegate, Derrivick had no choice. The did pick up a Class R9 Frieghter leaving the planet. They were in day three of their pursuit for imformation on the whearabouts of their Avalarian friend.
     Meanwhile, Spyro was lying on a sandy surface just beginning to wake from his sleep. Around him he began to hear the roar of a lagre crowd, smell what seemed to be gunpowder and smoke, and feel the heat off of the burning sun. He opened his eyes with a groan, still dazed from the tree trunk that hit him three days ago. As he stood up his sides and back legs pained from where he had been imobile for three days. He looked around to see thousands of aliens roaring from the stands, a 17ft deep pit filled with sand, bones and metallic debris, and a large glass dome covering the arena. Next to the arena, Spyro was in, was another arena with a fight currently going on. Thankfully, during his unconsciousness, Spyro had enough spirit energy to heal his injuries making it so he won't be fighting as a wounded warrior.
     "Ah, you're awake." said Memlak as he walked from the fark entrance located on the inner wall of the arena.
     Spyro immediately recognized him and said, "I know you. You're the one who took Brigarr from the trading post."
     "Yes. He was a promising fighter when he first faced an opponent. But he is no longer with us. He was killed in the first set of the Black League and his remains were fed to the Gulak Razor hounds." Memlak replied.
     "Why have you brough me here?" Spyro asked as he shifted to attack Memlak.
     "You are Brigarr's replacement. Seeing that dragons are capable warriors, you could make this company rich. You yourself could be a very rich man if you win."
     "Yeah well you're going to have to find yourself another fighter. I refuse to be part of a barbaric game such as this." Spyro replied hoping that Memlak would let him go alive.
     "Very well, just try to let the Xenaktaur win at least."  Memlak said before starting for the arena exit.
     Behind Spyro came the sound of galloping. Just as he was about to face his opponent, Spyro was smashed across the back by a giant fist, picked up by his tail and flung into a sheet of metal wall. The puny dragon smahed into the wall with a loud thud leaving a dent in it. Spyro pained from the impact, looked up and saw his enemy. The alien stood 18ft tall, yellowbrown striped skin on his upper body, four large arms, with the head of a rhino, and the lower body of a massive black bull. The beast came charging at Spyro like a wild animal as the small dragon immediately darted to the left to avoid getting crushed. The crowd cheered for the Xenaktaur (Zen-Ahk-Tar) as Spyro quickly took flight in a futal attempt to flee. As he approached the top of the arena, Spyro impacted an energy barrier keeping him inside the arena. The Xenaktaur picked up the metal wall and hurled it at Spyro. Quickly turning around to see the wall flying at him, Spyro reacted by using his plasma element to cut the wall in half. A purple beam was fired from the mouth of the dragon as the large wall was cut in two pieces. The crowd was astonished to see a creature do that and began to cheer for Spyro. They wanted to see him do more. Seeing he had no choice but to fight for his life, Spyro created a fire swarm and darted to the brute. Like a comet spooling into the atmosphere, Spyro smashed into the Xenaktaur with bone crushing force causing a cloud of sand to envelope the arena. From the cloud Spyro was thrown like a ball by the alien, but the dragon managed to regain his stability in flight. Spyro sent a high voltage surge into the cloud making the denseness of the sand light up with charged particles. The Xenaktaur let out a roar in pain but was overpowered by the roar from the cheering crowd. As the could disapated, the beast fell to the ground and died from the burns and the electrical trauma.
     The crowd began to yell, "Duun Gha! Duun Gha! Duun Gha! Duun Gha!"
     Spyro had no clue what they were chanting as he fluttered his wings to land on the arenal floor. After touching down and folding his wings to his body, Spyro was picked up by a J'Tahl from behind. The aliens massive hand enguled the back of Spyro's head as he tried to fight his way free.
     "What do you say ladies, gentlement and cogenators?! Does he Live or Die!!" Memlak spoke enticing the crowd to decide Spyro's fate in victory.
     The massive Ubmyran brute slamed Spyro to the ground and positioned his four hands to snap both Spyro's neck and spine. Up on the large holo-screen came a red symbol standing next to a green symbol both indicating his chances of life and death. There was another set of symbols below them inducating the number of votes. Spyro could not tell what the alien symbols meant nor could he acertain what the intentions of the people inside the stadium were. The numbers stopped and Memlak came up again on the megaphone. Spyro's heart raced as he feared for his life. But he mostly feared that if he died there, he would never see Akyre again.
      "1423 votes live, 12 votes die." Memlak announced then asking Spyro, "What is your name, young warrior?"
     The Ubmyran released Spyro and helped him up. Memlak pointed to mic to Spyro's face for him to answer.
     "Um...Spyro." he nervously answered.
     Memlak returned his eyes to the audience and annoucned, "Ladies, gentlemen and cogenators...give it up for SPYROOO THE VALIANT!!!!"
    The crowd cheerd for the young dragon. Theyy knew that in the 4th set of the Blue League, no newcomer has ever killed the Xenataur in his first day as a fighter. Spyro didn't know what to think at first but returned a nervous smile to the crowd. Memlak and the J'Tahl guard escorted Spyro into the arena exit.
    Back on the Krogarrius, Captain Derrivick, Akyre, Cmdr Kemppanen and Lt Cmdr Krieg were in the officers briefing room interrogating the captain of the R9 fireighter. The captain wore a brownish red officers uniform adorned with small ribbons on the right breast plate indcating former military service, his nose balled down passed his chin and there were four oraphusies on both sides of his head for breathing and speaking. The top and back of his head were ridged runnind down the back of his neck. His skin was an almost purple, grey and blue mix with red eyes and orange pupils.
    "Acording to our bio-metric scans of your ship we found what looked to be scale residue from an Avalarian Dragon. The scale residue indicates the dragon was  purple." Derrivick questioned as he handed the alien captain the data pad with the information consistant to the investigation.
     "So what if there was whatever the hell you call them. I was paid for allowing my ship to be borrowed but I never expected to be without it for five months. FIVE MONTHS I never got paid for my hard labor. Do you know how much that adds up to for 1000 Quans a month?" The alien captain replied.
     "Our people do not use currency. Its been that way for almost a thousnad years." Ruby stated with a question following, "Who did you sell temporary use of your vessel to. Light armaments outside but reinforced storage cells inside, someone obviusly had the intention of capturing something they knew would be more than a handful."
     "What people, who pay well, do with my ship is not my concern. But I WILL NOT TOLERATE MY BEING HELD HERE AND QUESTIONED LIKE THIS! I demand to be returned to my ship." the alien captain shouted.
     "Fine, we'll return you to your..." Derrivick replied.
     Akyre stepped in and requested, "Hold on one moment, Captain. I haven't tried my hand yet. I know a way to get the information we want."
     Akyre glared at the alien as her eyes turned am evil red. Derrivick agreed to let Akyre question the alien captain as he and his two bridge officers walked out of the room. The captain became a little fearful of Akyre, seeing that her Fear Element was taking great effect. Her horns grew longer by 7 inches as did her claws, her wings became torn and tattered and her eyes started to glow a peircing red.
     "N..now if you think intimidation will get me to talk you're greatly mistaken." the captain said as he got up and tried to resist what was going to happen.
     "SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!!!" Akyre yelled, "You are going to tell me who you sold your ship to and if you don't, I will make you wish you were never born."
     Akyre walked around behind the alien and slammed his head into the table.
     "You think you have the courage to brave anything...You're wrong my friend." Akyre growled, "START TALKING!!!"
     Images of suffering, death and pain entered the aliens mind as Akyre sent her Fear energies into him. After 30 minutes passed by Akyre walked out as normal as can be. Derrivick and Ruby both wondered if she got the information needed but also wondered if the alien was still alive.
     "All he knew was that he sold his ship to five other aliens, four of them are from the Ubmyran home system. And he said something about a fighting coorporation." Akyre reported.
     "The Andromeda Fighting League? Thats supposed to be the most brutal type of fighting in the galaxy. Even the aduiecne determines weather or not the winner lives or dies." Krieg spoke, "It may be plausible that Spyro could have been taken there."
             "Yeah but where do we start looking?" Cmdr Kemppanen exclaimed.
             "Maybe the freighter captain knows." Derrivick implied.
             Akyre denied, "I doubt that's remotely possible."
             "Why?" Derrivick questioned.
     They walked into the briefing room to see the alien captain huddled in the corner shaking. Akyre had scared the living hell out of him as Ruby and Krieg went over to pick him up.
     "What the hell did you do to him?" Derrivick asked.
     Akyre replied, "What I had to do. Let's just leave it at that."
     Back at the AFL station, the entire station was beginning to lift off of the host planet after nearly 80 fights took place for the inhabitants. Spyro and what he now knew as the Blue League were all in the feeding hall. There were over 60 aliens who either fight or coach in the AFL. Spyro's coach was in fact an Ubmyran J'Tahl named Zular but he did not share the same views as his fellow warriors. Spyro and his coach sat down at a bench with 4 other aliens with their trays. Everyone was eating what seemd to be a clump of blue gel, some of which did not even touch it.
     "One thing you must learn here is that you never fight on an empty stomach. This stuff provides both protien and hydration; to key nutrients crucial to survival." Zular spoke.
     "I don't even know if I want to try it." Spyro said as he poked it with his indext finger, "It looks like it would bite back."
     One of the attending aliens stated, "Eh, it depends on how watery the substance is. If its too watery then its not good."
     "You seem to eat it anyway." Zular spoke.
     "Food is food. If you want to survive you have to make do with what you have." the alien spoke.
     "Another thing I forgot to mention is that you NEVER speak to another alien from a different league. More deaths from challengers occurr off the holo sensor than on." Zular spoke just as the Black League competitors walked in.
     Spyro looked and saw Brigarr alive and well leading the Black League. He got up from his seat to confront Brigarr, but first glimpse caused Spyro to notice that it wasn't Brigarr; Or at least not anymore he wasn't. Months of fighting changed him physically and mentally. His horns were longer as were his claws and wing talons, he had the look of a blood thirsty monster in his eyes, and he longed to kill any familiar face. Spyro knew his action would result in his death and went back to his seat. Brigarr turned around and spotted the purple dragon. He groweled while getting ready to attack him when the guard stopped him knowing what Brigarr would do. He glared at the guard and went back to his original task. Back on Avalaria, the tention was becoming greater, a lot of the civilians, soldiers and even the dragon council started a resistance movement. They were going to start a war with their invaders and nothing was going to keep them from retaking their home planet. But without the help of Spyro and Akyre; it would be a short war...