//------------------------------//
// Corruption: Dueling Dragons 
// Story: Another Hatchling 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	The inside of the Leviathan Seed was much the same as the other two, half mineral and half organic with critters scampering around the inside of the first chamber.  The only major difference Samus noticed as she hoped out of the ship was the valve-like door having been torn out of the wall, along with a good chunk of the wall, which was now weeping Phazon.  Realizing Spike had literally torn through it, she quickly charged after him.

She could hear the sounds of battle as she rushed through the narrow passage beyond, racing over the forms of some sort of defensive tendril creature that had been torn out at the root.  The wall at the opposite end had been slammed outward, leaving a wide gap with ragged edges.

Inside the central chamber, scorch marks, ice formations and water puddles, and dancing electricity covered the entire chamber.  Huge openings high up in the four walls pulsed as two draconic figures swept in and out of them, alternately clashing and circling.  Blood and other things rained from the air to the floor as the battle increased in intensity, and ferocious roars punctuated by shrieks of pain or triumph deafened the ears.

Samus stared in awe as two equally powered dragons at their full strength did fierce battle with one another, all the weapons at their disposal being unleashed full force in a fury that could reshape worlds.  Their movements were too fast for her to get a lock on Ridley.  There was too high a chance she'd hit Spike.  All she could do was watch.

...where's a popcorn vendor when you need one? she thought silently to herself as she watched.





Discord grinned widely as he snapped his talons, teleporting a bag of popcorn into everyone's hands, hooves, or claws as the case may be.  "If only we could have seen the whole fight from the beginning," he pouted.  "That would have been incredible."

Spike hesitated.  "Actually..."  Reaching over to his gauntlet, he disconnected the holographic projector.  Setting it on the Map table, it hummed.  After a time, an image of the Leviathan Central Chamber was projected, with Spike visible charging in.  "It fell off while I was charging, and that's how I discovered it could follow along behind me and record things."

Excitement raced through the air around the table as everyone looked up eagerly to watch, as Spike prepared to fill in his thoughts at the various times.





As Spike charged into the central chamber, he let out a challenging roar.  He knew Ridley was here as Guardian of the Seed.  He could feel it.  It was time for dragon to fight dragon.

Before he could react, Ridley dropped down from the ceiling, his bladed tail whipping around to stab him in the neck.  As Spike pulled back, he felt his scales shift to cover the wound, but his visor gave him a status update.



Fazite gland punctured.  Healing in process.  Estimated time till complete recovery, 10 minutes.  Use of Fazite Breath in the meantime highly dangerous.



Fair enough, Spike growled as he prepared for battle.  That would have made it too easy, anyway.  Deciding not to give Ridley a chance to strike again, Spike lunged forward, wings mantled and teeth bared as he leapt, knocking his foe to the ground on his back.

The two struggled for a time, wrestling for dominance as they exchanged strikes of claw, wing, teeth, and tail blades.  Unable to get a clear strike with the points of their various weapons, they weren't able to do any serious damage to each other.  Ridley managed to briefly get the upper hand, pinning Spike beneath him as he opened his mouth wide.

Seeing metal plates hanging open over a wound in Ridley's chest - where he'd been injured back on Norian - Spike reacted quickly, sending a shock of electric breath into the wound.  Ridley screamed in pain as he fell back, leaping into the air to try and gain an advantage.  Spike quickly pursued him into the air.

Spike pursued Ridley, firing blasts of flame, frost, and electric breath at him indiscriminately, trying to land a hit on him to take him out of the air.  Ridley wasn't about to hold still for it, however, and fired back with his own flame breath in beams, blasts, and spheres.  Spike managed to evade each blast, trying to close the distance.

The pair began to circle each other both in and out of the central chamber, closing on each other for intense clashes where neither was entirely certain whose claws, teeth, and tail blades were whose.  The only thing in either of their minds was rage, as both sought to tear the other apart.

It was at this time that Samus entered the chamber, trying to get a lock on Ridley.  After a time, she lowered her arm cannon, focusing on watching the battle, ready to leap in should Spike need help.

Briefly, Ridley's eyes locked on Samus, and he snarled fury.  Diving, he tried to attack her, only to get knocked to the side by Spike.  Taking a page from what he'd seen Ridley do, he fired a sphere of electricity straight into the metal armor plates covering Ridley's wound.  The electricity coursed through rapidly as Ridley screamed in pain.  Samus quickly fired several Ice Missiles as Spike released a blast of flame breath, the mix of energies and temperature imbalance causing the armor plates to blast off of the enemy dragon.

Snarling defiance, Ridley leapt back, calling Phazon onto his body to shape armor to protect his wound.  With that done, he unleashed a Phazon charged flame breath straight at Spike, catching him all along his neck.

Spike screamed in pain as he fell back.  Pushing himself to his claws, he shook his head as Ridley leapt into the air.  He spread his wings to pursue, but Samus' hand was on his wing.

"Spike," she whispered.  "He's the better beast.  Be a better Hunter."

Spike let the words percolate through his brain for a time, then nodded, reigning in the raging dragon inside him.  Lowering one shoulder, he let Samus mount as the Spider Ball tech magnetically attached Samus' armor to his own where she sat astride his shoulders at the base of his neck.  Spreading his wings, he leapt into the air.

Ridley cackled as he saw them approach.  "Where is your pride, dragon?" he spat.  "Not only do you debase yourself to serve this mongrel, but you let her ride you?  You are no dragon!  You are an overgrown lizard, and I will spit on your grave as I feast on your entrails!"  He unleashed a barrage of flame blasts.

Spike spread his wings wide and high, riding the thermal the intense flame generated to claim altitude.  "I am more than just dragon, Ridley," Spike growled back as he soared over him.  Turning, he performed a brief aileron roll in the air, letting Samus aim straight at Ridley's skull and back with missiles before bombarding the internal vulnerabilities of the Phazite armor with her Nova Beam.  "Yes, I am dragon.  But I am also warrior!"  Curving downward, he slammed his opponent to the ground in a dive, claws locked.  "I am child!  I am Hatchling!"  Ridley swept his tail up, and Spike latched onto it with his teeth below the blade and tore the blade out from the root.

As Ridley screamed in pain, Samus leapt off.  Ridley activated his hypermode, and Samus hers as she held Ridley's upper jaw open.

"And I!  Am!  CHOZO!" Spike roared out.  As his visor informed him that his Fazite gland was fully healed and ready for use, he opened his mouth wide and exhaled a huge blast of Fazite energy straight down Ridley's throat.

Ridley's last scream of agony was cut off as his body exploded, blasting Spike and Samus backward and flooding their bodies with Phazon.





The recording cut off, as the surge of Phazon had temporarily shorted out the recording device.  It was good timing, however, as several of those observing had burst into cheers.  Shining even went so far as to give Spike a friendly punch on the shoulder.  "Nice one, bro!" he shouted out proudly.

Spike chuckled a bit.  "Yeah...got a bit carried away there, I'll admit.  Don't know where that bit at the end came from."

"But what did you mean, Samus?" Cadence asked curiously.  "About being a better Beast or Hunter?"

Samus smiled.  "Drawing out his primal side full force like that, Spike was fighting like a Beast.  While he was a great deal more powerful, by nature Ridley's far more vicious than he could ever be...a much better Beast.  But you don't need to be a better Beast to beat a Beast.  That's what Hunters are for."  She patted Spike on the other shoulder.  "He just needed to be reminded of that."

"So what happened then?" Rainbow asked eagerly.

Samus shrugged.  "Another Hypermode option - Hyper Grapple, basically Grapple Voltage with Phazon - and another Seed destroyed.  And then meeting up aboard the Olympus to plan the final stage."