Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar

by Blackdrag-rose

Hero: Dangers of Molten Mount

After a few minutes of rest, and Spike kept track of the time so he could tell Spyro how long they had been resting, the group got up from where they ended up resting and headed over to where the Dark Gem had been resting earlier, even though their focus was on the couple of stone platforms that formed a path of sorts that lead over to the stone dragon head, which would allow them to access Molten Mount, the next realm of this island that they would be tackling head on, though based on what they had seen in Stormy Beach Spike had the feeling that they might be facing the bulk of the Dark Master's army in the next realm and the realms leading up to where the soul of their foe was hiding. Once they reached the area the Dark Gem had been resting in Spyro was the first one to jump over to the first of the small stone platforms, fragments of part of the ceiling that collapsed when the sinister gem was shattered, before he crossed over to the second one and opened the way for one of the others to follow him, where he knew that either Cynder, Spike, or Ember would be the first to do so, and then leapt over to where the stone dragon head was resting, something that allowed him to see that there was a path that lead deeper into the mountain. Of course the tunnel did happen to have a dark crystal that was guarded by two bear traps just beyond the opening he had stopped at, something that he felt was rather interesting, to which he charged through the dark crystal and used his Ice Breath to freeze the pair of traps so they could be broken to pieces, even though he did have to take a moment to jump over a small break in the ground to reach the area that the second one was resting in, which was around the time that the others caught up with him and noticed what he was doing. None of them were mad that he had started without them, as there were no enemies in their immediate area and that was what they were focused on, which was when they moved forward and approached part of the tunnel that had a metallic chest that was surrounded by two straw baskets, ones that Ember smashed to pieces with a Horn Dive, freeing the gems that had been trapped inside them so they could be added to the bag that Spike carried, before they focused on what was just beyond those containers.

The set of stone steps that were behind the three containers had no enemies guarding it, which was rather weird since all of them were expecting a few Armored Gnorcs to be positioned between them and the area they were heading towards, before they stopped when they emerged from the tunnel, which was another surprise since everyone was sure that they would have headed straight into the mountain without stopping at all, before noticing that the area they were now in lead to where the true volcanic mountain rested, one that had a few rivers of lava slowly moving out of it, not to mention the charred path that was in front of them that some trees had once been resting in, even though their charred stumps were all that remained for them to see.

"So this is Molten Mount," Aurora commented, where she and the others took a moment to take in what they were seeing right now, even though it was more due to the fact that this was the first time she and Flame had ever been to this area and were seeing it for the first time, even though it appeared that Spyro and the others might have been to a place that was similar to this in the past, during one or more of their previous adventures, "well, it... certainly lives up to its name, based on what we're seeing at the moment."

"And we're going to be going through this place to find the Dark Master," Flame added, though that did make him wonder just what sort of enemies they would be facing in this area, especially since none of them had any idea on what might be waiting for them this time around, and he suspected that the Guidebook that Spike pulled out every now and then, the one Moneybags had given him at the start of this adventure, wouldn't be of much assistance in what was going on at the moment, hence why he and Aurora were focused on the molten area they would be progressing through.

"Reminds me of the Isle of Bozibig, if I'm being honest," Cynder said, referring to one of the four major islands that were near the main island that Warfang rested on, something that only Spyro and the majority of her friends would know about thanks to the adventure that had brought them together, before she focused on the mountain itself for a time, because something told her they might find what they were looking for if they headed over to it, before she glanced at the others for a few seconds, "its probably due to the massive volcano that this island is named after, though hopefully this volcano remains docile and doesn't start erupting on us while we're exploring this realm... either way, I'd like to get moving, as I'd rather not give the Dark Master a chance to do whatever he's trying to do as we push through the remaining realms that he has taken over."

Spyro nodded his head in agreement, due to the fact that he was the only other individual in the group that had an idea of what she was referring to, thanks to their shared past, before they moved out of the tunnel and started to explore Molten Mount, though the first thing they did was locate a few metallic containers that were in front of them and Ember lit a small firework that was near the tunnel's entrance, though instead of it heading over to the containers that were resting near them it smashed into a container that was in the rock wall to the right of the tunnel's entrance. The group was surprised by that, just a little bit anyway, but it gave them some gems and there wasn't much time for them to complain about what they had just witnessed, so what they did was move forward and kept the metallic containers in mind for later, since they would either find a firework to smash the containers or a Supercharge Gadget that would allow them to smash through all three of them, though as they walked forward it was easy for them to determine which option it was, as there was one of the Professor's Gadget Pads resting on the other side of the charred path they were following, one that just so happened to be one of the Supercharge Gadgets. As such Spyro stepped through it and rushed back to where the containers were resting, smashing all three of them to pieces while Sparx made sure to collect the gems he freed, though once that was done they headed back to where the rest of the group was standing and noticed that the next part of the path seemed to be a number of stone platforms, which were resting on top of a sea of lava and had birds of fire guarding it, where their new enemies weren't exactly Phoenixes, like what Flame and Aurora were thinking since they looked nothing like Sol and the rest of his kind, so Spike determined that they had to be Fire Birds, but all that meant was that these foes could only be taken down with their Ice Breath or, if someone wanted to try it out, possibly even the Water Breath. Bianca was the first one to lash out at the Fire Bird that was in front of them, where she loosed a quick wave of ice that froze her target in the air and she let it drop into the lava that rested below it, even though the gems it had been made from landed on the edge of the platform that was in front of where the Fire Bird had been flying, though as she did that the rest of the group was able to see something that would slow them down a little, there were geysers of flames spewing from the lava and that made them stop for a few seconds, only to jump over to the next platform when the geysers were down.

What was interesting was that there were only two platforms resting in the lava and that it brought them to an area that had a few stone steps, which allowed them to access a higher area that had a fireworks crate resting near a Fire Imp, a small creature that was bipedal and was made out of pure fire, though much like the Fire Bird the newest foe was also weak to their newly acquired Ice Breath, as Elora did that and watched as it fell into the lava below them, as it had been dancing in the air before trying to throw a Fireball at them, even though she did move out of the way so Flame could light the fireworks crate and blew it up, freeing a few more gems for them to claim. From there they jumped over to another platform, which was the top of a rock pillar, and found that the other side of it was being guarded by another Fire Imp that was also dancing around the space it was supposed to be guarding, though a quick burst of Spike's Ice Breath took it down and opened the way for them to jump over to the path that was on the other side of the gap that was in front of them, one that had a charred tree and who knew what else, so each of them kept their guards up as they glided over to the path and landed near the ruined tree. As soon as they landed it was easy for the group to spot a pit to their right that had lava they needed to avoid, especially since it launched a bit of lava into the air for a few seconds, so what happened next was that Amelia broke a nearby straw basket for the gems as the others walked up to where a bipedal hyena, who happened to be wearing a light green robe over her light orange colored fur, which had brown spots and a white chest area, was standing, though they could see that she was carrying a wooden staff in her right hand, one that was either enchanted to withstand the heat or she didn't care too much about it if it were to catch fire. It was a little odd to see a Hyena in this area, where Spike was labeling her in the same manner as he had done to the Penguins that they had helped back in Frostbite Village, though while he thought about what they were seeing, and was curious as to what she might ask them to do, where he was sure that she was female based on the shape of her body and chest area, Hunter smashed a dark crystal to bits as he and Amelia joined the rest of the group, as both of them were interested in hearing what she had to tell them, as it could be a clue that would help them find the Dark Master or any of the remaining dragon eggs, even though they were a little caught off guard by how much she seemed to be laughing.

"What's got you laughing?" Flame asked, because he was curious as to why she was laughing so much, even though the most likely explanation was due to the fact that she was a Hyena, as he and Aurora had heard that some of them had a rather serious condition where they laughed at everything and anything that was said or happened in the area that they were standing in, as a normal Hyena usually limited what triggered their 'laughter buttons', or at least that was what some of them said when asked about their laughter, though while they had heard of the Hyenas it was still hard for both him and Aurora to imagine that they actually lived in the dangerous area they were standing in.

"Those rock monsters over there burnt down my house," the Hyena stated, to which the group raised their eyebrows for a moment as they heard that, as it sure sounded like something that no one should laugh at and confirmed what Flame had been thinking about a few moments ago, that they were dealing with one of the Hyenas that laughed at everything, even if nothing funny was going on at the moment, before she tried to focus on them, which everyone could see was hard for her to even do given her condition, "I'm actually quite sad and upset by this turn of events, but, as you can see, I'm one of the Laughing Hyenas, who laugh at everything that happens, even the most upsetting or heartbreaking events... maybe you could get rid of those rock monsters for me?"

What surprised the group for a moment was that Aurora offered to deal with the Rock Monsters, of which there were four of the more humanoid shaped earthen creatures, which Elora determined were much like the Earthshapers, save for the fact that their bodies were bulky, though as she jumped over into the area she could see that each of them had a rather dark mist coming from their eyes as she approached them, something that Spike realized meant the Dark Master might have placed the Rock Monsters here to stop them in their tracks and maybe even take some of them down in the process, only for Aurora to tilt her head as she stared at her enemies. The area the Rock Monsters were in appeared to be a couple of platforms resting near the edge of a lava waterfall and there seemed to be a Dark Gem off in the distance, even though there was a shop pad nearby that they would ignore, as there was no reason for the group to worry about Moneybags at the moment, before the group noticed that the structures that were near them appeared to be the remains of the Hyena's house, or at least that was what they assumed they were seeing, before they focused on what Aurora was doing as she walked up to the first foe she would be dealing with. It was in that moment that Spike noticed something interesting, there was a dark aura surrounding the first Rock Monster and it growled at Aurora as she came to a stop in front of it, but what she did was open her mouth for a few seconds and that caused the darkness around the creature to disappear not even a few seconds later, revealing that it was something made from the shadows and not actually a Rock Monster, even though Spike was sure that there were some of those creatures in this realm for them to deal with, before Aurora moved out to where the other three enemies were standing and, as Spyro and the others expected, repeated the same thing on all three of them, causing the shadows to disappear in a matter of minutes, since she took her time dealing with them. Spike took a few moments to think about what they were seeing, even though the Hyena was laughing at everything she was seeing as she let the others break down the couple of metallic chests that were in one of the ruined structures and smash a dark crystal that was nearby, before he determined that these had to be creatures of fear that the Dark Master had summoned to either stall them or deal with them, but it seemed like laughter might be their weakness, and once the fourth one was taken care of the Hyena handed over a dragon egg, a yellow one with white spots, which Spike sent back to the Nursery as the others headed over to where Aurora was waiting for them.

Along the way they found a side passage that might be a tunnel leading deeper into the mountain, or at least the next part of the realm that needed to be cleared of enemies and stolen items, even made sure to smash a bullseye chest and a pair of metallic chests that were near it, before they reached the area that Aurora was standing in, where she jumped over to the lone earthen pillar that the Dark Gem was resting on and then smashed it with the Horn Dive, something that caused a number of rocks to float out of the lava that rested below them and connect to the pillar that was nearby, meaning there were two paths for them to check out now. Instead of getting a chance to talk the group noticed that there were three Fire Imps dancing above the new path and they seemed to be taunting them, to which Flame loosed a few bursts of his Water Breath and confirmed that the water was enough to take care of these enemies, though that was when they noticed that there was a red robed bipedal being that held a staff in his right hand, meaning he had to be a summoner of some kind, but as Flame got close to him he fled not a few seconds later, using his magic to teleport over a floating platform that just so happened to have three more Fire Imps dancing over the path it followed and lead right to a dragon egg, where this one had a flame design on it, to which Bianca stepped forward and used a small bit of her magic to freeze the three foes where they were dancing, sending them right into the lava that was below them, before Hunter and Amelia loosed a pair of arrows into the air and pinned down the Fire Summoner. Spike made sure to freeze the Fire Summoner before he had a chance to flee with his magic, allowing Cynder to smash the ice block while Ember made sure the egg was just fine, where Spike determined that this was the tenth egg of the flame design and that they wouldn't be finding anymore of this type in the future, which put a smile on Ember's face since that meant they had rescued a whole set of Capora's dragon eggs, but even she knew there were more of them for the group to find, hence the reason she jumped onto the nearby platform and let it take her over to where a portal rested, where she used her Ice Breath to freeze the Fire Imps before reaching the end of the path and jumped onto the area that the portal was in, though from what she could tell taking down all of the Fire Imps and the Fire Summoner didn't do much.

Once she reached the end of the path, however, Ember found that Sgt. Byrd was standing in front of the portal, meaning he must have found another Speedway to tackle for a dragon egg and a Light Gem, before spotting a golden chest near it as well, something that Spike would want to take a look at, to which she waited for a few moments as Spyro and the rest of the group landed near her, though as soon as that happened they focused on their friend, as they wanted to hear what he had to say before headed through the portal and tackled whatever challenges were waiting on the other side, which would give them a short break before they got back to what they had been doing earlier.

"The heat here is more than I was expecting it to be... I don't know how you handle it!" Sgt. Byrd remarked, though it was in that moment that he staggered for a moment as he felt the heat pull back, as if he had been cooled off by something or someone, as the latter was more reasonable when he took a moment to think about what was going on, before he took a few seconds to shake his head and stand straight once more, showing that he was ready to tell them what was going on before he headed through the portal, "Anyway, I have found another Speedway and thought it would be best to show our foe that we are superior in the air, though I wanted to tell you first, before I up and disappeared on you."

"Understandable, so we'll be here, waiting for you to return," Spyro replied, to which their friend nodded his head, to show he understood what Spyro was saying, before he headed through the portal and departed for the Speedway that was on the other side, where the rest of the group scattered around the area that they had found and rested for a few moments, though as they did that he glanced down at his body for a moment and realized why none of them had been affected by all the heat that was in this area, "Spike, you put that Frost Aura spell on us earlier, when we first entered this area, while we were taking in what we would be going through, didn't you?"

"I did, and I made sure to give Sgt. Byrd the same spell before he flew off," Spike stated, where he used his magic to unlock the golden chest that was resting nearby and smiled as he found that it contained a Light Gem inside it, one that he added to the bag that contained the others he and the group had recovered since the start of this adventure, before he paused for a moment as he glanced at Aurora, as what she had done to the creatures of fear was rather interesting and that it was worth talking about for some time, before Sgt. Byrd returned with good news, "What did you do to those creatures? They were creatures made of fear, an element that not many can conquer, and yet you beat them easily."

"Its... something one of the older dragons of Capora, one everyone refers to as 'Grandmother', told me, that I shouldn't be afraid to face my fears and that I should laugh at them," Aurora replied, almost sounding like it was something that she was embarrassed by, that she would face such a dangerous creature, four of them to be exact, and do such a thing to each of them, but at the end of the day she had bested all of them without taking any damage in the process, which was rather impressive since she and Flame were still totally new to the adventurous lifestyle that the rest of the group was used to at this point in time, "Truthfully, I wasn't expecting that to work so well, but, after seeing what happened, I'm glad it did, as it might mean that the Dark Master's weakened after everything we did during our previous battle... or at least I'm hoping its that way, given my lack of any real fighting experience."

While Spyro and the others took in that information Cynder informed Aurora and Flame that they were doing quite well for their first adventure, as they had adapted to what the rest of the group did when they engaged all of the enemies they had faced so far and it made her wonder what the pair would be capable of if either of them took the time to actually train with one of the more experienced dragons, like Titan for example, before she sat next to Spyro as everyone waited for Sgt. Byrd to return to the area that they were resting in, so he could hand over the dragon egg and Light Gem that he would find in the Speedway he was currently tackling. Not a few moments later Sgt. Byrd returned to the area they were waiting in and revealed that, as the group was expecting, he was successful in taking down the challenges that the Speedway had thrown at him and, more importantly, he had some items to return to them, where it was easy for them to see that the dragon egg was one of the purple ones with a few stars on it, the eighth of its set by Spike's count, and a Light Gem to add to the bag the others had been stored in, though once that was done Sgt. Byrd headed off and departed from the area that the portal was resting in, allowing the others to leave as well and head for the tunnel they spotted earlier. It was then that they found that there was a small platform between the edge of the area and the start of the tunnel, once more resting in the middle of a decent sized river of lava, though while there was a side area that had a pair of metallic chests resting in it, where that was where Aurora smashed the chests to pieces as the others found an Armored Brute standing in the tunnel's entrance, who fell as Spike froze it with his Ice Breath and let Elora take it down by smashing the block of ice to pieces, allowing them to advance into the tunnel and see what else this place had to throw at them. The tunnel, as it turned out, was only wide enough for one of them to move forward at a time, so what happened first was that Spyro used his Water Breath to take down the Fire Imp that was standing in their way and then stood to the side so Ember could rush forward, who used her Ice Breath to freeze the Armored Brute that was behind her brother's downed foe, even if she had to jump over a small gap or two to do so, before using her armored body to smash through the block of ice and take down her foe, though once that was done she beckoned for the others to follow as she moved forward.

There was another Fire Imp just beyond where Ember was standing, someone who was taken down by Hunter using one of his blades and caused him to glance at Spike for a moment, like he was silently accusing Spike of enchanting his blades while he wasn't looking, something that caused the dragon in question to shake his head for a moment, as he had done no such thing and assumed that the Fire Imps, even though they were made from fire, could be cut down by ordinary blades and weapons, but once they were done with that foe it was easy to find that an Armored Brute and an Armored Warrior were standing near two metallic chests. Neither of those foes lasted all that long in the grand scheme of things, as Bianca froze both of them with a pair of Ice Bolts and opened the way for Flame and Aurora to smash their foes to pieces, though Ember smashed the chests that were nearby as the others moved down the next part of the tunnel, where they found one of the swinging stone axe traps and an Armored Brute on the other side of it, one that Spyro froze with his Ice Breath and then smashed with a quick swing of his tail, opening the way for them to enter an area that had a number of wood poles in the stone wall to their right, a path that lead the way forward. There were also two Fire Imps in this area and an Armored Brute standing at the top of the short path that the wooden poles formed, where Spike manipulated some of the moisture to form a pair of Water Bolts so he could take down both of the Fire Imps in seconds, which worked like a charm, and that was when he jumped over to the platform they had been guarding and found that there was a Light Gem resting on it, so he added it to their collection as the rest of the group used the wooden poles to get up to where the other foe was waiting, as in the dragons used the Pole Spin technique to get up to where their foe was standing and smashed it to bits after one of them froze it, leaving Hunter and the others to jump on top of the poles to follow them. After the Armored Brute was taken care of they walked out of the tunnel and entered another area of the mountain that had a few Fire Birds guarding the next part of this realm, though what they did first was smash the bullseye chest and a pair of straw baskets, though as Ember smashed the bullseye chest, and Hunter and Amelia did the same to the baskets, Elora rushed through the air and smashed the three Fire Birds that were guarding the stone platforms that were in front of them into the ground, which also opened the way for them to access another shop pad, even if they ignored those devices for the most part, but as she did that she found a ruined bridge to the left that would have lead to a side area, something that all of them were going to find their way to at some point in the near future.

The group also found that there was a pair of metallic chests, a pair of straw baskets, and an Armored Brute that just so happened to be guarding a cannon, so what happened was that Spike froze their foe with a short burst of his Ice Breath so Elora could smash it to pieces, opening the way for the others to smash open the containers as Hunter took control of the cannon, something that allowed him to focus on a few metallic containers that were off on the side area they were staring at, of which there were tree targets and he smashed them with ease, before he smashed a ruined stone wall that would have blocked the way forward, but once that was done he climbed off the cannon and noticed that there were two more enemies guarding the way forward. The two Armored Warriors didn't last very long, not when Spike enchanted the pair of arrows that Hunter and Amelia prepared with an Ice enchantment and those arrows froze their targets, allowing two of the others, Ember and Cynder, to smash through them with ease, though with those enemies done they ignored the side path to the right, as they would likely be coming back this way later on, and used the wooden poles to move towards the next part of this realm, doing what they had done in the final part of the last tunnel they had explored, though one thing all of them kept an eye on where the three Fire Birds that were off on their left. The set of wooden poles brought them to a rocky area that happened to have a torch, which seemed to be unnecessary and they left it alone since it seemed wrong to mess with it, even though Spyro smashed the pair of straw baskets that were waiting for them and let Flame and Aurora start jumping along the tops of the rock pillars that seemed to be leading them to the large rocky area that the now ruined bridge would have lead to, though as they did that Bianca loosed three Ice Bolts into the air and took down her targets, as she struck all three of the Fire Birds and eliminated them with ease, allowing the pair to lead the group over to where the metallic containers had been resting, though they were stopped in the area that the ruined rock wall had been resting, as there was a Fire Summoner and nine Fire Imps guarding the area, who must have appeared after Hunter had shattered the rock wall, which was when the group lashed out at their targets without wasting a single second. The reason it was too easy for the group was due to the fact that Elora smashed the Fire Summoner into the ground with a kick to the back and a swift kick to the head when it tried to blast her, leaving Spike and the others to either use the Ice or Water Breaths, or the elements in Bianca's case, while Hunter and Amelia used their melee weapons to take their targets out, before the group of enemies were taken care of and they headed over to the area the containers had been resting in, which allowed them to collect the gems Hunter had freed earlier, along with a Light Gem that was claimed instantly.

With the area taken care of, and they were sure of it after a pair of hidden straw baskets were smashed, the group glided back to where the cannon was resting, with Bianca making a brief path of platforms for her, Hunter, and Amelia to use so they could keep up with the dragons and Elora, before they discovered that three Armored Warriors were guarding the pair of stone platforms that lead to the tunnel and one was in the new tunnel they would be heading through, to which the group repeated what they had done earlier, Hunter and Amelia used Ice enchanted arrows to freeze the first two so Ember and Cynder could smash them while Elora flew to where the third one rested and dodged its sword swing, which let her knock it off the edge of the opening. Once those three enemies were taken care of Spyro stepped to the front of the pack and lead them into the tunnel that their foes had been guarding, a tunnel that, just like the other ones, had lava filled gaps in the ground, though this one was twice as large as the last one they had walked through, but the first thing he did was use his Water Breath to take out the pair of Fire Imps that were right in front of them, opening the way for Spike to freeze the Armored Brute that was behind their foes so Flame could smash it to pieces, even though that was when Aurora took a moment to walk by her friend and used her Water Breath on another Fire Imp before it could hit Flame, and then used her Ice Breath on another Armored Brute that was behind her target, all so Cynder could smash it. From there they found an area that had a path that split, with the path heading to the left appearing to head right to a Dark Gem that had one of the dark crystals near it, while it was hard to tell what the central path had in store for them, so Spike froze the lone Armored Warrior that was guarding the left path and let Elora smash it as they headed into the more open area, which was about the same size as the area the split rested in, though that was when Ember smashed the Dark Gem to pieces as the others noticed that there was a lava waterfall nearby, but when the Dark Gem was shattered it caused the lava waterfall to solidify rather quickly and then it shattered into a mass of large fragments that fell into the pool that was below it, causing the group to raise their eyebrows once more, since this seemed wrong to them due to no more lava coming from the upper area it had been coming from, though that was when they noticed that the upper area was sealed off as well, allowing them to enter a new part of the realm they were exploring.

This area appeared to be near the edge of the volcano, one of them anyway, and there appeared to be a path leading even deeper into the massive mountain, where each of them took a moment to wonder how much longer it would be before they found a path that lead deeper into their foe's domain, where the first thing they did was take a few seconds to smash a pair of metallic chests that were resting in front of the path they would be following, allowing them to collect the gems that had been inside them, before Spyro used his Ice Breath to freeze the Fire Bird that was near the first of the platforms he and the others had spotted, even if there was a missing platform between this one and the next one. Of course most of them had a way around that problem, as the dragons and Elora could just fly over there while Bianca used her magic to form a few steps for her and the others to follow after them, though as they reached the second platform Elora punched the Fire Bird in the face as soon as they got close to it as the others noticed that this area had three buttons that needed to be pressed at some point, no doubt to open a door or something, where Ember struck the first one and they watched as some wooden platforms, with bolts connected to the bottom of them so they could be raised or lowered accordingly, moved upwards a tiny bit. The second and third buttons proved to do the same thing, appearing to form a path leading up to an area that looked like a dead end from where they were standing, even though Spike did take out a Fire Imp with a Water Bolt so the others could glide over to the area the platforms were in and made their way over to the start of the path in question, something that allowed them to get up to where a Light Gem was resting, though as that was added to the bag the others rested in the group noticed that there was an Invincibility Pad resting below them, where all of them jumped down to where it rested, mostly to see if they could locate the reason behind it being here. After a few moments Spike determined that this Gadget Pad was kind of useless in the grand scheme of things, not when he and the others could fly above the lava, to which they started to make their way towards the passage that had brought them here in the first place, with Ember stopping by an upper area that she noticed as she was flying through the air and found that there were five metallic chests, a bullseye chest, and a bunch of gems, all of which were added to the bag that Spike was carrying, before she rejoined the group after clearing out the side area she had discovered.

It didn't take them all that long to return to the area that the split path rested in, where they found an Armored Warrior standing in the middle of the tunnel they were now going to investigate, one who was frozen by Aurora's Ice Breath and was smashed to pieces by Cynder smashing the ice block to pieces, before they found an area that two more Armored Warriors happened to be guarding, which contained the path leading even deeper into the mountain, though Spike and Bianca froze their targets with their Ice powers, the former using his Ice Breath and the latter using her Ice Bolt, which allowed Flame and Aurora to smash them apart. With that done they quickly cleared out the area the pair of enemies had been standing in, which could have resembled a chamber of sorts, and made sure to break a few straw baskets for the gems that were inside them, before they headed over to the tunnel that their enemies had been guarding, one that let them reach yet another shop pad, making the group wonder why there were so many scattered throughout this realm in the first place, before recalling that the Dark Master claimed that he had kept track of their progress with these, before they found a lone Armored Warrior guarding a ruined bridge, near some lumber that seemed out of place, much like the rest of the lumber that was scattered throughout the other areas of this realm. This time around Elora just kicked their foe in the chest and knocked it off the edge that it was standing on, opening the way for the others to glide over to an area that four Fire Imps appeared to be guarding, a set of stone steps to be exact, where Bianca's Water Bolts were enough to take all of them down so Spyro could lead the rest of the group into the area that their foes had been guarding, one that seemed to have a number of straw baskets, a bullseye chest, and a couple of gems that rested on the ground, before he found a tunnel that seemed to lead even deeper, though it was being guarded by two Fire Imps that he took out on his own this time around, using his own Water Breath to take them down, before coming to a stop as he found a fork in the road that had three directions for them to pick from. As it turned out all of the tunnels were connected, as Ember found a Thief in this area and immediately chased after it without waiting for the others to say anything, to which they stood near the entrance and waited for her to finish what she was doing, something that ended with her smashing the Thief into one of the walls and called for Spike to make sure the egg was just fine, a white one with green spots, before he sent it back to the Nursery so it could join the rest of the eggs they had recovered.

In addition to the Thief there was also a golden chest that Ember had spotted, where she lead them right to it and Spike stepped forward so he could unlock it, where he frowned for a moment as he found that only gems were inside it, ones he collected since he had gone through the effort to unlock the chest, before Spyro returned to them after dealing with one of the bullseye chests and some straw baskets that were resting on some stone pillars, though once this area was cleared out, and they were sure there were no other paths to take in this area, the group turned around and headed back over to where the latest split in the path had rested. A few moments later they headed down the main part of the path and found that there were a few straw baskets, not to mention a bullseye chest, before discovering an area that three more of the Armored Warriors happened to be guarding, where Hunter, Amelia, and Bianca froze their targets so Ember, Cynder, and Aurora could smash through the blocks of ice that surrounded their foes, though as that happened Spike found a couple of straw baskets, metallic chests, and another bullseye chest for the group to break, even though he was more focused on the next part of the tunnel, which just so happened to have a pair of swinging stone axes blocking part of the way, even if such a thing didn't matter in the grand scheme of things as they were able to simply move passed the traps with ease and move down the rest of the tunnel. After the swinging stone axes the group found three more traps, of the wooden spike variety, that just seemed out of place as they looked at them for a moment, even though it was easy for them to wait for one or two of the spikes to be lowered into the ground so they could jump over to the stone steps that happened to have a pair of Armored Warriors guarding it, where Spyro and Spike froze the pair with their Ice Breaths so Cynder and Elora could smash them to pieces, though that was also when Ember found a weakened part of the right wall and charged right through it, which allowed the others to see that she had discovered a small side area that had a pair of bullseye chests, a pair of metallic chests, and a golden chest inside it, where Spike waited for the others to smash the containers before he used his magic to unlock the more important chest and found that a Light Gem had been resting inside it, one that he added to the rest of the collection before they headed back outside so they could follow the main path towards whatever destination it was heading towards.

As they did that the group had to jump over a stone platform to reach an area that had another weakened wall, one that also contained a golden chest and a pair of straw baskets, though once the containers were dealt with Spike unlocked the chest and found that it contained one of the remaining dragon eggs, a pink one with white flowers, which he sent back to the Nursery as he determined that they had recovered all ten of the pink eggs, before Ember smashed another wall down and looted the area that was on the other side, which had two bullseye chests and a pair of metallic chests, though once all of the gems were collected they headed back outside and climbed the stone steps that were near them. It didn't take the group all that long to get up to the top of the steps and then jump over a lone stone pillar so they could reach the next part of the tunnel, where they found a few Fire Imps guarding the area in question, though Bianca was more than ready for them this time around as her Water Bolts knocked all of them to the ground with ease, allowing the others to focus on an area that a lone Armored Warrior happened to be standing in, who fell as Spyro used his Ice Breath and Cynder used her tail to smash it to pieces. From there they made their way through an area that had some fire geysers, which blocked them from reaching some dark crystals, ones that looked like there might be another way to get over to them, though that was when the group found another Armored Warrior blocking the way forward and quickly took it out, even though this time it was Hunter and Elora that did the honors, before they jumped over a gap while its fire geyser was down and found a Dark Gem resting in front of them, something that Aurora smashed to pieces as soon as she saw it, which caused a pair of close walls to form from the small pool of lava that was in front of them, no doubt leading to another section of the realm that they were currently exploring. Before anyone used the new set of close walls Cynder headed over to the right and made sure to smash all of the dark crystals they had seen a few moments ago, just to make sure they left nothing behind, before she rejoined the group as they started to climb up the new path that had been created for them, despite the fact that they had to jump over a ruined bridge so they could get to the next stone platform that everyone could walk on, which was also when they found an elevator shaft that seemed to head into the ground, like it was connected to the start of a mine or something.

It was in that moment that Spyro called for them to take a short break, for a few minutes away, as he was positive that this would take them to the start of the next realm, whatever it was called since Spike was probably looking for that small bit of information, and he wanted to make sure they were well rested for whatever dangers might be lurking in the mines that would be their next destination, all while wondering what the Dark Master was doing in preparations for their next fight, one that he hoped they would be ready for when they found him, even though he was hoping Malefor showed up, since they needed his help this time around, and knew that they would find out what was going on in the near future, once they found their target's hiding place.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

Molten Mount:
Eggs Recovered: 5

Total Eggs recovered: 66 / 80

I kinda get the feeling the game devs were running out of idea's at this point for realms lol the group as always is just crushing it of course. I did find the hyena bit interesting along with how aurora confronted the fear beasts. As always another great chapter, looking forward to the next. keep up the great work

[Comickook]

Once again, REALLY good job on the exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. I really loved how the gang continue to handle things so well here (particularly how they helped that hyena and the mention of Spike using the frost spell to protect Sgt. Byrd from the volcano's heat like he has with the rest of them). And Aurora laughing off those fear creatures is a really good Mythology Gag to the second part of the MLP: FiM pilot (to the point where she pretty much seems a shoo-in for Element of Laughter if she, Flame, Cynder, Spyro, Ember and Spike DO become the dragon versions of the Elements of Harmony).

Anyway, very definitely looking forward to more of this.

[zachary12]

nice work.

[Dragon52096]

10387682
The devs were running out of ideas for the original spyro games. That's why they stopped making them and then sold the game to the people who made the legend of spyro trilogy.