We clashed blades, claws, hooves and hands. My band of warriors took the fight to the changling rebels while I stood off with the mechanical beast.

“Skin them alive!”Cried a changling from the group of marauders. Pyro shot a glare over to the one speaking and smiled.

“You!” The fiery stallion pointed to the changling,”You’re the first who’s gonna be broken in half!” He ran to the changling with his sword in hand, roaring a mighty battle cry. Striking fear into the hearts of the changlings.

As steel brushed against steel, Terra stood over Axton. With one of our allies in eminent danger, it was imperative to guard our fallen friend. Some brave but foolish changlings attempted to take Terra on head on, but were slaughtered as they neared his blades and razor sharp claws. “Stay back.” Terra simply said, but the ignorant changlings wouldn’t heed his warning. Three changlings tried to circle around him and rush the large dragon but to their dismay, he shot a scorching fire blast out of his muzzle as he roared.

Two out of the three turned to smoldering ash, the lone survivor ran for his life but it was quickly ended by the ever so quiet Night Strife. As the changling fell to the ground, Night quickly rushed by and retrieved his throwing knife from it’s back without losing his momentum. He used knives, for ranged and close quarters combat. The dark blue stallion was swift as the wind and accurate as all hell. “We warned you all, now you pay the price for your ignorance.”

Pyro had slain many changlings, the thick green blood covered his face and upper torso. It was truly menacing, but it served it’s purpose as a fear factor to the changlings. He continued to hack and slash his way from fight after fight. Exhaustion was beginning to take hold of the blood soaked stallion and his actions slowed. The changlings saw this as an opportunity to end the stallion but he was soon backed up by Night Strife. As they stood back to back, they roared to the skies and sent chills through the air.

I stood in the heat of battle with the metallic stallion, readied with my blade in hand. “You can’t expect to beat me, you barely look to have any skill. I have many life times worth of knowledge in terms of battle.” He stated as he brought up something off his back. It looked to be his wings at first, but as it raised it manifested into a cannon of some sort. “You’ll never defeat me!” He broke out into a fit of laughter,“You’ll never beat me!” A sinister smile crept along his face. His cannons begun to light up with a red beam. I quickly realized what it was and dove behind a tree. Just as I hid, the beam shot at the trunk of the tree and turned the once solid tree into toothpicks.

“Fucking great, ranged.. I don’t.. wait.” I quickly reached to my holster and retrieved my first artifact, the magic-fueled sawn-off. I took it into hand and watched as my mana ran through the coils leading up to the bulb mounted on the side of the gun. Once it glowed with a bright, shimmering light, I turned to the mechanic stallion and readied my weapon. “Two can play that game.” I dove behind the cover of a log in our small battle field as another blast came from his cannon. I stood from cover and aimed down the sights at my opponent.

As I pulled back the trigger, I felt the end of the barrel rumble at first then the rest of the gun, slowly running down my arm. There wasn’t a shot but a shockwave of lightning coursing its way through my arm. I gripped it to try and calm the pain but to no avail. The gun fell from my grip as I clenched my fist together. The metallic stallion cried out in laughter at my misery, and as I wiped my hand forward to tell him to shut up, a charge of lightning shot into the stallion.

He cringed back and forth, and was left stumbling from the pain. Through heavy pants, he asked,”What the... hell was.. that?”

I clenched my hand together and was unsure at first, I hadn’t learned the elemental spell of lightning yet but when I looked to my gun, I realized that it must have taught it to me once I pulled the trigger. ‘But if it did, then why didn’t it do it inside the cave when I first pulled the trigger?’ I thought to myself. I remembered that I tried it with the left hand and not the right. Since it required my mana to run, it couldn’t function yet.

“We’ll, are you just gonna stand there looking stupid, or are we gonna fight?” asked the stallion. I turned to him as I picked the shotty off of the ground and smiled.

“Coming from the guy with a light twitch.” I was true, and he knew it as he gave a light twitch as the shock still coursed through his body. He growled at my remark and it placed a grin across my face, I quickly through my sawn-off into the air just overhead of the stallion and as he fixated his gaze on it, I bolted towards the him. As I neared, he realized it was a simple distraction and returned his gaze to me.

As his eyes landed on me, I slid right under the stallion and bounced up. As I took to the air with my leap, I took hold of his cannons and ripped them off of his body. He let out a painful cry as they were removed. “You bastard!” He yelled. I threw the amputated ‘limbs’ into the grass and caught my sawn-off in mid-air. I fixated my aim on him and readied my finger on the trigger.

“That’s cheating!” cried the metallic stallion. I smiled as I aimed to his leg and pulled back the trigger. His leg turned to mush and fragments of shattered bone. A loud cry of pain left the stallion’s mouth as he called to the sky. “My leg!” I looked to him and gazed into his eyes with fury fueling mine.

“You were only so lucky, it could’ve been your life.” I told the grief stricken stallion. He looked to me with a hateful and loathing glare. “Now leave this place, I don’t want to see you around here ever again.” I turned to walk away but was struck with a small stone to the back of the head.

“Leaving? Just like that? Can’t even take a life? How are you supposed to be a guardian when you can’t even work up the nerve to kill?” Asked the stallion.

I turned to him and said,”Being a guardian means more than simply killing, it’s about protecting others. Even if it’s from themselves. I’m sparing your life because of two reasons. One: You’ve learned your lesson with that now missing leg of yours, and two: I’m don’t plan on killing anyone anytime soon, I promised her.”

He clenched his teeth and growled at me, his left eye was twitching in anger. His expression quickly changed from one of anger to happiness,”Well, I guess I’ll be leaving now. Minions!” Cried the stallion. Within a seconds notice, the changlings that were still alive, roughly about ten or so, ran up to the stallion and carried him off.

“Where are they going?” Asked pyro as he strode beside me, sheathing his sword in the process. He was now dripping with the blood of the changlings and some of his own.

“They’re finished. They won’t be coming back anytime soon.” voiced Night Strife.

I turned to the two and shook my head,”No. They’re not done, not yet.”

“Why did you let them go? Wait... before you answer that, tell me Dark, how many books do you read?” asked Pyro.

“Well, I used to go to the library nearly twice a week so a fair amount, I’d say.”

“And in any of the stories you’ve read, When can you see the good guy let the bad guy get away, only for them to come back better, faster and stronger?”

“A few.”

“You’re starting to see my point then, eh?”

I turned to see if they were gone and unfortunately, they were. “Well.. fuck.”

Condemned: The fuck man! You could've ended him right there!
Dark: Shut up. It was a mistake and you know it!
Condemned: There is just so much you could've done instead of sparing him! Dammit!
Dark: Condemned.. I'm warning you...
Condemned: Or what? You gonna spare me as well? Frightening.
Dark Tackles Condemned to the ground and they continue their idiotic fights over nothing. They don't seem to notice as Chrysalis walks into the room and watches as the two fight.
Chrysalis: Why do I let you two stay here in the Hive? You both should be living in the dog house.
Condemned whist fighting: You let us stay because I'm awesome and Dark's at least paper trained.
Dark whist fighting: Screw you Condemned! You die tonight!