Blood Bonds

Part 30 - Another Battle Won

The battle was still ongoing, but it raged harder with the presence of the anomaly's head poking through the smashed ceiling, causing an occasional blast of Phantom energy to intercept the heroes' fights. Light flooded in from the pale sky above as Sonic managed to outrun his shadow clone, but he couldn't see the Chaos Emerald anywhere on Mephiles that he could reach. The blue blur began to spin-dash the dark creature, only to be slammed halfway by another beam of red energy and knocked out of the air. He hit the ground rolling, but Cyanic was there to help pull him back to his feet. She straightened her crooked glasses, looking around at the mess the hallway had become.

Shadow had joined in, attempting to shoot a Chaos Spear into the dragon's mouth whenever he could, though the beast seemed to retain memory from last time and clenched its jaw shut when he was in close range. The shadow mob was still coming strong, but fortunately, Juke seemed to be quickly running out of energy. His blade was disengaged from his hands as Mighty grabbed the lynx from behind and supplexed him.

"Is it just me..." Valorie huffed, kicking one of the dark minions in its shins. "Or are these things never-ending?" The silhouette she had knocked down only proved her point by jumping back to its feet and locking into an arm wrestle with her.

"Mephiles is going to keep sending them so long as he has that emerald!" Batanna called from overhead, "but whenever I try to get close enough to strike, that dragon spits at me!"

"We need a strategy." Whisper called quietly, but her soft voice was drowned out by the sound of fighting and by the enraged shrieking of the anomaly.

"We need to form a strategy!" Sonic yelled.

"Shadow, can you and Mighty hold them off while we talk?" Cyanic requested, getting a grim nod in reply. "We'll make it fast."

She as well as her two friends joined Sonic and Whisper, and they huddled in a circle as the two guys warded off their opponents. It was a fast chat, as Cyanic had promised, and they all nodded in agreement, before rejoining the fight. The three counselors all began harassing the dragon, leaping daringly about its face and smacking the thing's metal mask, then leaping away as it opened its maw and prepared a Phantom charge. At the same time, Whisper's wisps flitted over the battle with small crystal shards in their clutches, aiming their bodies certain ways as the wolf prepared to shoot. Sonic simply helped the other two guys distract the silhouettes from attacking the girls.

"Ready... FIRE!" Batanna yelled, sweeping up into the air last second as the dragon released its attack. Whisper fired her Wispon at the same time, sending a beam of bright light at her wisps. It reflected off of each crystal shard they held and went straight for the hovering shadow prince as the Phantom blast caught him from behind.

The mighty blow left him weakened, and Sonic sprinted in, spin-dashing Mephiles into the wall. The blue hedgehog clasped the magenta emerald and stood back to watch in satisfaction as all the shadow clones melted into the ground and dissipated. However, the dragon wasn't finished.

"Mephiles, you're no longer being offered our services at F.V.R." Valorie stated professionally, standing beside the once-again cobalt hedgehog. "Batanna, help me escort him to the strongholds."

"With pleasure," the lavender bat landed on the other side of him. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"It was fun while it lasted," was all he said, and the prince of darkness allowed himself to be dragged away to his prison cell by the two counselors. Mighty followed them, an unconscious lynx flipped over his shoulder.

"Now we can focus on-!" Sonic's sigh of relief was cut short as the dragon pulled its head out of the hole it had made in the ceiling.

"Where does it think it's going-?" Shadow teleported out.