//------------------------------// // Training from Tartarus // Story: Elements of Terra // by Skillet3479 //------------------------------// Disclaimer: I don't own MLP. If I did this season wouldn't be going by so fast The ragtag unit of dragons was slowly waiting in line for there weapons. Cobalt who was the first to make it into line due to her fast speed retrieved a long sword from the armory. Up next was a very awkward looking dragon who was the only one thinner than Spike. "Name?" "Huô MacDougal at your service." "Well then MacDougal, what's your weapon of choice?" "I'll take the wrench!" "The wrench?" Chi Fu asked in a baffled tone "Why would you want a wrench; you can't fight with it!" "Yes but I can build many things with it, so my arsenal will be the biggest out of anydragon here!" MacDougal answered to the irritated councilor who responded as he walked off "Your funeral brat, next." "Jiāng Biān. I'll take the magical transforming orb." The red and blue striped dragon asked as the General tossed him the orb from the armory doors. "Next!" "Night Stalker. Got any really big scythes?" The black dragon asked before catching his black bladed weapon with his left claw and walking off. Next up in line was Silent Scout who curiously stroking his leathery chin while deep in thought "What is it Penguin Drake?" "First off, call me when you get you're wings forcefully ripped off, and second I'm having trouble deciding whether I should go with a war hammer or a battle axe?" Silent Scout explained before an odd combination of an axe and hammer fell into his claws. "There I used my Weapons Magic to fuse em'. Now quit your bellyaching and get your ass in gear. And keep that attitude of your's in check; you got that you fartknocking disgrace to all dragon kind!" "Sir yes sir. Silent Scout answered rapidly and respectably, since unlike Chi Fu, Nubuatan not only held real power over him but was intimidating even without it. Spike was next in line to retrieve his weapon before he found himself lifted up off the ground and placed in the back by a familiar red dragon "Better luck next time Shorty." "至少拿出一些更好的侮辱驴"Spike mumbled to himself under his breath. "I'll take the meteor hammer." Slovachek pointed to one of the last weapons in the armory, as Nubuatan tossed him it and he sneered at the younger purple dragon who was currently last in line. Spike walked into the armory to find to old looking and beaten looking broadswords that were connected at the hilt and could be seperated into two separate weapons. Disappointed in his bad luck Spike silently walked over into the file where Scout patted him on the back. "Now that you all have your weapons you'll be sparring with one another at the end of the week. We will also do this at the end of your second and third week to check your progress at the end of the week. But first we'll be training you up in which usage of wings is not allowed. We shall begin effective immediately!" A large explosion of sleep magic then bursted out of the ground which put everydragon into a deep sleep immediately on impact. The last thing Spike saw before he drifted off into slumber was Nubuatan marching towards him. Day One "Hey Scar wake up. Something's not right." Night Stalker said to his half-asleep friend who woke up confused as ever. Once he regained consciousness and his eyes adjusted he noticed that it was around 11:30 at night and was surrounded by Night Stalker and Silent Scout, where as Cobalt was still recovering herself. Before he could really figure out what had happened they noticed Nubuatan gliding above them and roaring "Welcome to Tartatus men. Hope you like platypus venom!" "What do you think he meant by that?" Cobalt asked to her friends through the darkness as she rubbed her eyes and stretched before they all noticed orange balls flying their way. Spike's body tingled as they drew closer which made him realize what they were. "Flaming arrows! Everybody get down!" Spike screamed as he rolled behind a rock. Cobalt now behind the rock and fully awake screamed in frustration "That nutcase is shooting flaming arrows at us on our first day! Errr Night!" "Yes my love? AAAAAAGGGGGHHHH" Night asked while avoiding the arrows himself before losing his focus due to attraction and getting hit with a silent one. "Don't forget the platypus venom. It activates all the pain receptors so it doesn't kill you, but it sure makes you wish it did." "AAAAAAAHHHHH. OH SWEET SCORPAN IT HURTS!" "And you know this because?" "Back in Equestria I was an assistant librarian." Spike explained his knowledge. "Man he's an even bigger nerd than you are Scout!" "Thank you for the much needed information! OW! Where did you even come from!" Silent Scout said as he was hit by more covered arrows. "So smart guy, have any clue how we can get out of this?." " 'Fraid not Cobalt. I may have read a lot of books but none of them said anything about flaming poison covered arrows. Let me see have anything that could act as a shield." Spike said as began to dig through his pockets "Let's see, parchment, quill, waterproof ink, twine, some unused balloons I got during the Ponyville Day competition…Nope nothing." "I think I might have an idea of how to get out of this." Scout said as he crouched down besides them and pulled the arrow out of his arm. "And what would that be?" "Simple Scar, considering the fact that I haven't amputated my arm from agony I'd say the silent arrows aren't tipped with venom while the fire ones are. So all we have to do is deflect the lit ones as they get close with our weapons and avoid the quiet ones as best as we can. Scar, i'm afraid your rapiers are likely too weak to sustain much damage.That light over there is probably the goal. So we have to make it to that point; understand?" Both dragons stared silently at their friend for a moment before Cobalt spoke again "I think Scout just out-geeked you Scar." "Yeah sure Cobalt. You got all that over there Night?" Spike asked his friend." Night shot him a grin and whipped out his scythe which guarded him from the flaming projectiles "I hear you, loud and clear Scar. Now let's get over there!" The group of dragons diffused across the battle field where they found themselves tripping over other unconscious dragons every once in a while which resulted in an silent arrow to the scales. Spike took extra precaution to not wound his back and flipped around whenever an arrow came by and let it strike him in the chest. "Ooooh this looks fun. It's a good thing I'm an immortal draconeques otherwise this would be really horrible for me." Discord said as he appeared behind the arrow dodging Spike. "Not in the mood right now. Considering the fact that these swords are pretty fragile the only thing I can do is run." Spike said before he tripped over his own feet. He guarded himself in fear from the arrow that was about to hit him only to realize that it passed right through him with no problems. "Hehe, lookslike being the element of fire has some more perks. All I've got to do is keep avoiding the normal arrows!" Right after he said that though a multitude of regular oak arrows flew in his direction which he had to guard with his arms. Thankfully due to the mercury test they only hurt as much as a bite from a fire ant. He didn't have to pull out the arrows and just kept running "Oh I'm sure you'll win our little bet. It's not as if you've already been hit with let's see… exactly 32 arrows so far per say." Discord said while running alongside in accounting get up. "Shut…the…hay…up!" Spike yelled to him as he was continuously hit by arrows. After a few more minutes of running like mad through the field from the the arrows Spike finally made it over and jumped to the where Nubuatan stood over him. He landed on his back where Nubuatan gave him a small smile and pulled out of his shoulder "I have to say Private First Class Silent Scout came up with sure was interesting." He knelt down to the smaller dragon and whispered into his ear "But you do realize that everytime you got hit with an arrow you got points deducted, right Private Pinface?" Spike felt his heart drop when his superior said that and walked away back to camp. "Hey if it makes you feel any better you did better than those little girls who can't take a bit of incredibly painful venom." Nubuatan told his underling as he walked away. Scar could only drop to his scaly knees from the shame of his loss before his jaw dropped as well and Discord made his presence known once again and put his jaw back into place before cracking up "Ohohohoh Private Pinface. Do you think they teach them funny insults in big angry drill sergeant school?" Discord teased before noticing Spike he was still frozen from shock and walking off in a huff. Day Two Night Stalker and Cobalt were picking arrows out of their scales, where as Silent Scout was oddly completely clean. "Nice strategy Country Boy. And how did you not get hit?" "How was I supposed to know that you lost points for how many arrows that hit you! And for your information I'm really good at avoiding things. Got to be agile when you don't have wings. But I really am sorry for making you guys fail so badly." "Hey I don't know what your apologizing about; at least you got a promotion from all this." Spike revealed as he walked up to his friends. Both Cobalt and Night Stalker had not heard of his promotion in rank and were very surprised. "Wait a minute, Scout got promoted?!" Cobalt asked her thinner friend. "If Private First Class is an improvement from a regular Private, then yes, yes he did." Night patted his bashful friend on his scaly head and told him "Congrats, man and on the second day too!" "Well we've still got a few more days of this and judging by the position of the sun in the sky, I'd say we have about thirty minutes before Captain Loon calls us back over for more screaming metal death traps." Cobalt cracked before opening her knapsack and tossing plastic bags filled with sushi and vegetables "And don't forget about keeping our metabolism up. Good thing we have experience cookin' eh Scouttie boy." Spike was reluctant to eat it the contents at first due to his personal distaste of greens, but remembered this was likely the best option because of the cook's hatred of him, leading him to consume the fish and veggies. "Nice food Cobalt. Normally I hate vegetables but this is really well cooked. Albiet I do my own cooking most of the time and I'm not good at cooking greens. Better at fruit." "We lived in a place well-renowned for its food ya know. And stuffy assholes but that's a story for another time. Now keep up the chewing if you want Captain Nubuatan off your butt." Cobalt responded to her friend before sticking another roll into her mouth. "One of the few benefits to living there." Scout grumbled to himself before he was knocked down by something thrown at him. Spike looked over him to see it was a pole with bags of rocks tied to the ends and proceeded to look in the direction it was thrown to see Nubuatan above them "Look alive ya' mares. Time for your exercise. Be at the edge of those mountains before sundown!" He dropped three more on Night, Cobalt, and Spike and flew off into the direction of a nearby valley. Night was vocally irritated "Are you frickin' kidding me! We just got done running through a field of flaming death, what the hell?!" "At least we got time to eat a bit of breakfast. Now let's g to running! You know, before they send out the wereponies!" Cobalt teased her purple friend, tussling his spines as she sprinted off "She's kidding about those right? Right?!" "Who cares; she's just so gorgeous I'd pay 5,000 tetza just to see her running. With sweat shining off her magnificent scales I-" It was at this point Scout whispered into his friend's ear "He's going to be like this for a while. It's best that you start running." Heading the larger drake's advice Scar placed the heavy bar on his back and began running, despite the strain on his body it took; however after a few minutes he felt himself slowly running out of steam as he ran. Though this partially because of his small chuckling from his comrades back from behind. "Great Wall of Han Night Stalker, you need to get a hobby. One that's not ogling ladies!" "How about poetry? My first piece will be about a beautiful mare." "Your completly missing the point!" "Ok, then how about cooking." "We both know that your cooking tastes like gorgon droppings." "Who the hay said I'd be cooking for you. I only cook for my friends and beautiful women, not fat bastards like you." "Well you must not be a very good friend if your constantly trying to poison em' with your crappy cookin'! And what the hay is a woman anyways; is that even a real world?! "Can it you spineless coward!" "I could demote you in five seconds." "I'm a private dumbass, it's litteraly impossible to demote me you Dodo!" "Well congratulations, you're a garbage boy!" "胆小的污垢猴!" "角质的猪!" About thirty minutes late Spike was running down the trail and sweating like a pig in the summer sun. He had no idea how far he was down the trail or where everyone else was; all he knew was that he had to keep running no matter what. He broke from his thoughts when Night came from behind. "Hey Scar, how you holding up." "I'm sweating buckets, my eyes are about to pop out of their sockets, and my backs is coming into splinters. So I'm doing pretty good." Spike answered his black scaled friend. "Hey at least your skin doesn't attract heat. Good thing I don't wear shirts or I'd be fried shrimp in no time." "Where's Scout? Did he pass us already?" "Yeah, Parkour boy is agile for somedragon so big. But I guess you'd have to be if you had no wings." Night explained looking slightly uncomfortable as he brought up the second issue. "You really don't like each other do you?" Spike asked. "Nah we just argue from time to time. Albeit it can get pretty heated, especially as we get older and stronger." Night answered before Spike tripped over what appeared to be another root of licorice. Night stopped dead in his tracks and ran over to him "Are you alright Scar? Your knee got cut pretty bad." "I'm fine, we should probably keep moving to get up there before sundown, so the Captain's not too upset." Scar tried to ignore the cut before his knee gave out and his skin's split even worse. "Ok just don't move bro." Night ordered him before pulling his gi from his satchel and tearing off the sleeve to form a makeshift bandage, which he tied around Scar's knee. "It's a good thing I know first aid. I'll do more when we get back to the camp. I'm going to fly you over to the rendezvous point." Night said as he spread his wings, but to his surprise Scar placed the rocks back on his shoulders and began limping at top speed down the trail. Night sped up himself and began running next to him "Scar what are you doing? You can't afford to run with your leg in that condition." "I don't care; Nubuatan said no flight and I'm not going to get you in any more trouble with him." Spike said as blood trickled from the bandage before he lost all feeling in it and the limb gave out. This didn't cause the dragon to relent though, as he placed the pole into his mouth and began to crawl. "Have you completly lost your mind?" "That's a very distinct possibility. Now you get yourself moving so you don't have to go another week without eating." Spike ordered his friend, but was surprised when he lifted him up "What are you doing? Your only going to get yourself in more trouble with the Captain." "Doesn't really matter that much to me. Your going to be vulture bait if you lose enough blood. And since I consider myself an aspiring doctor, I won't leave an injured dragon behind!" "Come on Night; it doesn't even hurt!" Spike tried to convince him of his resistance to pain. Needless to say, he failed. "That's probably because it's asleep you moron!" "Ok look I have an idea that will satisfy you without angering the Captain. I'll just put my gi around you and hide until we get there. Then when Chi Fu and Captain aren't looking, I'll drop down in front of the finish line." Spike explained his plan. Night Stalker however was less than impressed "That's not a bad idea, but we'd have to be extremely careful or extremely lucky to pull it off." The black scaled dragon was cut off when a howl came from behind. A howl Spike was all too familiar with. He turned his neck to see a large pack of pissed off timberwolves were coming their way, and used his good leg to accelerate Night Stalker's pace "Well I guess we know why these are called the Timberwolf Mountains now. I thought Cobalt was just joking about that though!" "Well clearly she wasn't, otherwise we wouldn't be running for our lives from a bunch of them!" Spike said, inwardly regretting he left the Element of Fire back at his tent. "These things are native to Central Equestria. And you said you're from there right? Do you know how to deal with these things at all?" "A friend of mine usually just kicked them really hard and they fell apart. But there are way too many of them to fight back. We just need to run as fast as we can with our three legs." Spike said to his partner in misfortune as they sprinted down the path away from their pursuers. Day Three "So basically you two chowderheads got chased by a bunch of overgrown piles of kindling. Oh man, no wonder the Captain bit your heads off again." Cobalt teased her friends. "Oh shut up Cobalt. I just can't believe we're stuck without food again." Spike grumbled as Night Stalker put the stitches into his leg. Night Stalker stood up to admire his handiwork before explaining "Now the thread in those stitches is made from wolfram, so you'd have to hit it really hard to break them, and the magic conducted into it will heal you in two days. But that still doesn't mean you should do something stupid and breaking them." "Alright doc, whatever you say." Spike said playfully before a weight was tossed into his mouth. He spat out the weight along with several teeth "Igneelese Dragons can regrow their teeth like sharks right?" "Time for your next exercise ladies. Group in the field over by Scylla's Lake for today's lesson." "And by exercises he means crazy stunts that could get us killed, or like Scar if we screw up. Joy bunnies. Hopefully I'll be able to add another win to my tablet." Cobalt said sarcastically as she spread her wings and took off at a breakneck pace. "The what?" "A stone tablet she lugs around to keep track of how many people she's beaten; she'll do anything to get marks on there. But his crazy exercises won't do much good unless you've got the fat to turn into muscle, so I whipped you up some Jasper Tempura to produce a bit." Silent Scout said as he passed around the crescent shaped dish with Jasper's engrained into the crust. Spike looked at the dish with both delight and slight confusion before and invisible Discord whispered into his webbed ear "Tempura is a Draconic dish made with seafood and vegetables, with gems as an optional ingredient (usually Jaspers or rubies). They're quite tasty if I do say so myself." The purple dragon put the snack into his mouth, and moaned from the delight of the flavor. Spike had now found a new favorite food "Sweet Celestia this place is amazing. Why didn't I come here sooner?" "Probably because only really high ranking officials in Equestria or really old ponies know about this country. If everypony knew about the Rebellion, then they'd have to know about the Sarric Empire. And considering the fact they have a living weapon strong enough to decimate an entire city, it's probably best that they don't know" Night said as he walked towards the nearby fields with Scout and Spike following after. "Now I assume you know why we're practicing here of all places today? Anyone of you mush brains who actually went to school should know the Legend of Scylla right?" Nubuatan asked the group of dragons before him. That's when MacDougal raised his hand "Well you see, Scylla was a beautiful dragoness, but she was also more avaricious than the most carnivorous Greed, and she would do anything to get money. So she married rich lords, widows especially before poisoning them and any of their children with radium. Then she would grab their fortunes and life insurance policies to strike it rich. She was caught when she tried to flirt with General Travis, who would later turn out to be Igneel III. For trying to lead astray and murder her lover, Queen Athena transmuted her into the form of a water demon and banished her into this lake." "Correct, and for today's exercise, you'll be chained to those weights I've passed out until your down at the bottom of the lake, at which point you'll he able to break the chains and swim to shore like a bitter crazy she-devil is at your heels. Probably because she will be." Spike was paralyzed with fear more than he'd ever been in his life, even more than when he'd nearly been eaten alive by King Sombra. This was mostly because this creature had a personal vendetta against his blood relative and would probably center her assault solely on him if she learned Athena was his mother. He was broke from his thoughts when another much older dragon mouthed off "What a load of bull! Any idiot would know that's just an old mare's tale!" "Oh really?" Nubuatan said in an irritated tone before grabbing the dragon by the face and tossing him, kicking and screaming into the reportedly haunted lake. A few minutes passed before the drake came back with a large bite mark on his chest, several missing spines, and was screaming and flailing around hysterically. "Any questions?" Nubuatan said turning to his troops. "I just wet myself" Biān said paralyzed by fear like most of the other dragons. "Good, you can take a bath in the lake with the monster. Now let's get to chaining you to these weights." Spike felt his heart pacing incredibly fast as he drifted down into the unknown. For all he knew the monster could be right on his tail waiting to slaughter him in a millisecond. While the others were right next to him for a time, they quickly vanished into the darkness of the water. Night Stalker wasn't faring much better as his eyes darted back and forth around the wet environment, inwardly shouting every time he saw a shadow. Normally he wouldn't be so frightened, but his body mentally restricts him from assaulting a girl, leaving him an open target. He was broken from his thoughts when he saw a bright figure coming from the darkness of the water. Night began desperately began trying to break the stone weight on the lake floor, but stopped when he got a good look of the dragoness approaching. She had seafoam blue scaled, and long wavy spines with a gentle stare that came from her baby blue eyes, beauty that instantly entranced Night Stalker. Completely lost in the gorgeous lady before him, he set down the weight he set down the weight and began to drool, even more so when she began to dance. So bad boy, wanna float with me? the dragoness said flirtatiously at it approached Night who nodded vigorously in excitement. This anxiety was severely dulled once she grabbed his face with her sharpened claws and revealed her true form. Her hair-like spines became much more wild and tangled, her once gorgeous blue eyes dilated to nothing but a pale void, and her teeth grew into long and pointy cones. As opposed to her previously melodious voice, she rasped to her victim "Good, cause we're going to be floating down here forever!" Night Stalker desperately began thinking of a way he could get out of the situation without harming the she beast, deciding on one by beginning to flap his wings as strong as possible before slamming his foot down onto the stone weight, with the force of his wings sending him up and out of Scylla's grasp. For about 10 seconds. She wasn't going to let her prey get away that easily so she grabbed his tail and slammed down onto the seabed, briefly causing him to let loose some oxygen. Before she could feast on his scaly flesh though, another weight was slammed against her head. She doubled over holding her injured crown, growling in rage at her purple attacker. Scar gave Night a judgmental leer, so the black dragon sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. The she beast pulled her self up from the ground and prepared to attack her chosen prey again, but noticed the familiar colors on the one who'd saved him. Absolutely livid, she charged at Spike and pinned him against a rockwall, attempting to bite his face off. Spike rapidly moved his head left and right to avoid Scylla's needle-like teeth, though he felt himself running out of steam in his neck. Night saw that his friend's movements were slowing down, and pulled out his scythe that he kept tied to his back, and swam towards them. Scylla was expecting this however, and immediately changed backed into her dragoness form "Oh please don't hurt me." Upon laying eyes on the beauty again, Night halted his blade and reverted back into his giggling state. This backfired as the beast reverted to its true form and knocked him as hard as possible into the rocks behind him, causing the dragon to lose all his oxygen. Spike could only watch as Night Stalker began wildly gasping around for air before falling comatose with a final apologetic look directed towards him. Since Scylla had to let him go briefly to fend off Night, Spike immediately dove for his dying friend only to be grabbed by the tail, and began pulling him in to meet a much bloodier fate. Luckily for him Cobalt was swimming above them and stopped in her tracks when she saw what was happening below, and blew some air bubbles which popped and made the words Cobalt was thinking "Hey Scout, Night and Scar could use some help!" Silent Scout (who was still chained to his weight since he landed in a patch of sea sponges making it nearly impossible to break.) heard of the dillema, and began thinking of a way to get out of the field without breaking his weight.It only took him a few seconds to simply pick up the weight and hop out for the sponges and charge. When Scylla saw both dragons charging at her she smirked and let and tore off Spike's tail, causing him to not only scream in pain similar to when he'd taken the Mercury Test and crash straight into Silent Scout. With one threat out of the way the she-beast stepped to the side causing Cobalt to impact with the seafloor. Scout regained his composure only to notice he had begun floating due to his high buoyancy. To keep from rising away from those in need of his assistance, he grabbed onto a piece of kelp to act as an anchor. It only held for mere seconds before breaking, and sending him floating up to the surface of the water. The brown dragon paddled rapidly to stay down, but his body's resilience against the water was simply too great. The only thing he could do was let out a frustrated roar as he bobbed back up to the surface. Cobalt rose from the crater and blew a small angry air bubble from her snout. She turned to her oxygen deprived friend and pointed at Night Stalker and redirected her claw towards the surface of the lake, before dodging another claw from the insane dragoness. Realizing what she meant, Scar became incredibly conflicted. Night had already been oxygen deprived for at least a minute and was likely not going to last much longer. But he didn't he want to leave Cobalt alone to face the beast. When he remembered the contents of his pockets from a few days Ayla, who began a mad dog through them, completely emptying it. He wrote his message on the parchment with the ink, before puncturing it with a claw, and tying the twine around the hole. Now he only had one thing to do left. He tied the string around Night's leg and stuck the ends of every balloon into his mouth before any remainder of air into the balloons. This caused Night Stalker to float up, due to the rubber and helium having less density than the water. Above the water Scout was waiting for his comrades to come back up, before he saw a figure coming up which he instantly recognized as Night. He went for the large and heavy rock next to him, and went back in to the lake. Once he grabbed his chivalrous companion, he let the stone go which caused his buoyancy to take affect once again, sending both of them back to the surface. However down below, even after having pulled her weapon out, Cobalt was still having trouble with her demonic enemy. Scylla swiped at her with her razor sharp claws though it defended each time. Eventually after being caught on the defensive one to many times Cobalt pushed the claws away and plunged the blade into Scylla's chest. The water demon fell to the ground half-dead while Cobalt raised her sword, preparing to finish the job. However before the dragoness could give the final blow five spear shaped torrents of water pierced her back. Having successfully completed a counterattack Scylla charged at Cobalt with her own intent to kill. Right before she could though, a barely concious Spike swam over and nailed her in the face, before letting out the last of his air, and passing out from oxygen deprivation. By this point, Cobalt knew she was running out of options. She had no way of winning the fight, and her comrade was drowning a few meters away. With no thinking involved she picked up Scar and began to fly/swim back up to the surface. Unfortunately she wasn't as good in the water as she was in the sky, so the she-demon was right on her heels. The situation worsened when she felt herself get dizzy from lack of air. Despite this she continued upward, u till Scylla managed to get a grab on her ankle. But to Cobalt's shock after what sounded like a turret gun coming off and the demon let go of her while screaming in pain and rage. She looked up to see that Nubuatan was floating above her in the water with his wings spread and his claw turned into a massive machine gun. Though she was confused and partially irritated, Cobalt took the opportunity to seed up her pace and break the surface of the lake where Scout and an conscious but weakened Night "Took you two long enough." "No time talk, time for Night to stop Scar from…dying." Cobalt said as she dropped her unconscious friend onto the mainland. "I don't think he can really pull that off right now. He was in the same boat as Scar just a few-." "Don't worry my love, I will rescue him!" Night cut him off while preparing to treat him. "Oh right, Night will do anything for a pretty ness." Scout said irritably as Night opened up Spike's mouth and stood up to have enough distance to breathe four scarlet fires into Spike's mouth. "It's a good thing our breath is projectile otherwise that would be really uncomfortable." Night stated as he scuff d his hands and began to check for life signs before he heard coughing from Spike's head. "*cough**cough* That was way too familiar for comfort! I saw my life flash before my eyes! And there was a huge scar on the left side of my face, and I chased this goat who screamed like a little filly around the mulberry bush." "Pretty sure you hallucinated that last part, like I did with the captain saving us." Cobalt started before she heard a trottish voice from behind. "Actually that part was true." The silver dragon said as he flew down to his recruits. "Wait…That was real? Bbbut you were HELPING us, and your claw was a TURRET GUN! HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? DRAGONS CANNOT DO MAGIC!" Cobalt asked/screamed at Nubuatan, extremely confused. "Well we can, with magic circles. Normally, anything but inherently magical species have to draw them on the ground to perform spells or use a magical object. But igneelese dragons have developed a solution to it. Tattooing transparent ones onto our scales. Well mine aren't transparent but they're under my metal layer." "Okaaaayyy but that still doesn't explain why you helped them get away from that thing." Scout pressed his superior on the subject. "Cause I'm trying to train you not kill you. I'm watching over the grounds to intervene if it gets out of hand, which it did. But your going to need to be a bit more resourceful than that, cause come the time of battle, I won't be able to cover your butts." With that Nubuatan flew off in the direction of the camp, meaning that all the others must have already made it back "This week has really been kicking us hasn't it?" "Eh, just you wait till I really get to show my stuff." Cobalt reassured her friend. "We have been trying for to do so all week. But so far all it's gotten us (well at least me and Night) so far is shot, chased and drowned. And we haven't really learned anything from this." Spike said despondently before he had to catch a stone that Cobalt tossed at him between his claws "Hey what was that for?" "Just proving you wrong about how we haven't improved." "What?" "Probably couldn't catch that when you first got here couldn't you. But all that running from danger you've been doing lately has heightened your senses and made your reflexes faster. That's pretty useful, Scarry boy." Feeling a lot more confident now Spike lied down again before coughing up a bit more water. "Yeah, I guess it is." He stared at the sky and began to wonder what would happen next with a smile on his face. After all, it could only get better from there. Minus any worse case scenarios, that is.