Chapter 20: Leonus' Revenge II: Final Confrontation
Spyro couldn't believe his eyes at this point. Hovering in the air about several feet in front of him was...
"Leonus?" He spoke.
But the purple dragon wasn't sure as he started his inspection. In front of him was something that was a cross between a lion and a muscular human.
The creature was bare in chest with the only article of clothing was a ragged grey pants. It has a muscular bicep figure, sharp claws from hands to toes, jaws for teeth, wings on its back supporting the body and something familiar to the purple dragon; the tail and the hair.
The tail was long with a sharp curve-shaped blade at the edge, and the long tentacles of hair, which dangled and slithered in the wind. Then, he saw something else.
Its left eye was cybernetic while the right red eye was seen.
Then, Spyro registered his thoughts as he tried to piece together the events during the encounters he had with this creature. The first time, he almost died on account of its tentacles. The second time, the whole thing was different compared to the first when he noticed the cybernetic eye and the blade at the tip of his tail.
At that moment, Spyro's eyes widened upon the death-defying truth.
"Holy crap, it is him." He muttered
Mentally, he wondered who was behind this creature's resurrection, yet he has little time to deal with that issue.
Leonus was in his way. And in order to advance into the lair, he'll have to engage into a final confrontation with this creature.
Spyro issued a determined expression on his face, but was unprepared for what was going to happen next.
"So, purple dragon, we meet again." Leonus responded, which took the purple dragon by surprise.
'He speaks?' Spyro thought, yet he shook the issue off and grew silence in response.
Leonus took note of this and issued an evil toothy grin.
"Silence as a response. Heh, Heh, Heh, Heh. Trust me, I can relate. But let's cut the flattery. The lair is behind me. You want to get to Lord Ripto, then try getting pass me." He said as he crossed his arms. "But I doubt you would perform such an effort."
Spyro kept his determination intact and spoke.
"We'll see about that."
Instantly, the two combatants lunged towards each other as their battle begins while under the watchful eyes of Leonus' creator, the lone lizardman who's perched on the balcony of the lair, with-holding his staff.
He chuckled evilly upon the sight.
"Yes. Tear that dragon to pieces." He said maliciously
The battle constantly rages on in Terra Techa. Momentarily, there were close calls and last minute rescues on the heroes' part while in the middle of eviscerating as many Riptocs as possible.
The Gem Seekers, meanwhile, were doing double time on the lizardmen and serpents. During the ordeal, none of them showed any signs of slowing down.
Momentarily, they would take their fair share of Riptocs to keep them from advancing towards the lab.
Strider activated his wristband that issued numerous projectiles of metallic stars in the direction of a few Riptocs.
Every single projectile managed to impale the recommended targets on contact with a random organ in their body before they grew motionless to the ground.
As Strider issued a kiss to both wristbands with a smile of satisfaction on his face, another vicious Riptoc instantly attacked him from behind.
As the attacking Riptoc opened its mouth for an enjoyable meal, Strider instantly shoved his left wrist in the creature's mouth before two metallic spears impaled through the back of its neck.
Then, he quickly retracted his wrist from the creature's mouth while the Riptoc fell to the ground motionless.
Panting, he inspected his bloodstained wrist-spear and sighed in frustration.
'And I just had it clean too.' He thought bitterly
He quickly got out of his thoughts and instantly went on the attack to the oncoming array of Riptocs while his fellow Gem Seekers did likewise with the opposing party.
Leonus struck a thundering right hook to the face of the prototype.
The prototype issued a dent upon contact while Spyro grunted from the impact of the attack.
Instantly, the prototype regained its composure before issuing a right metallic claw to the face of the hybrid monster.
Upon contact, three bloodstained claw marks were seen on the hybrid's face as Leonus roared in pain from contact.
Momentarily, the two airborne combatants went to blows and dodging each other's moves, both receiving damage from each other's strong attacks.
Multiple dents were on the suit. But it was nothing Spyro had to concern himself with at the moment.
Leonus, although slightly bruised and panting, lunged towards the prototype's position.
Spyro braced himself as the hybrid collided with the prototype's midsection.
While Spyro tried to fight him off, Leonus kept with the move while his tentacles of hair got to work on the prototype.
While struggling, Spyro took note of the hair of tentacles and thought that they wouldn't do any damage. He was proven wrong on that fact when they, to his shock, started chewing away at the metallic alloy bit by bit.
While Leonus cackled evilly, Spyro took note that the hybrid's weight was lowering him towards ground level. He needed to break off the move and fast before he collides to the ground.
First, he swiftly grabbed a hold of the munching tentacles and, with all his strength, yanked them off the suit.
Then, while the tentacles screeched angrily upon the removal, Spyro quickly dismembered the tentacles from the head of the lion, unleashing purple blood along the way.
That immediate action caused the hybrid to roar in pain, but it also caused him to loosen up his hold on the prototype.
Spyro took note of that feeling and instantly reacted by issuing a dropkick to the midsection of the hybrid.
The action alone was enough to send Leonus in mid-air before Spyro quickly used both hands to grab the hybrid by the right arm and, with one strong thrust, threw him all the way down towards ground level.
As Leonus soared at a fast pace, he slammed through the batch of trees and into the ground with a thunderous impact while dirt and debris follows afterwards.
As Spyro watched from inside the suit, a beeping sound issued before a computerized voice was heard.
"Recharge complete."
Spyro issued a sigh of relief upon that news.
"Finally."
Then, Spyro took note of something coming from the ground, but was late to react.
A speedy blur exploded from the batch of trees before instantly coming in contact with the midsection of the prototype.
As time virtually slows, the speeding blur materialized as Leonus, whose left fist came into contact with the midsection of the suit. As a result, it landed a huge dent on the suit.
As time resumes its slow process, Leonus' withdrew his left fist and, as time reverted to normal, unleashed his right fist to the same spot.
That attack alone was enough to send the prototype soaring in mid-air.
Struggling, Spyro managed to control his flight while the silent alarm issued inside the suit.
"Warning! Damage to suit minimal! Self-destruct sequence initiated! Thirty seconds to evacuate!"
"Abort self-destruct." Spyro commanded.
"Self-Destruct aborted."
With that problem taken care of, he issued his determined gaze forward. His target was hovering several feet away, so he has one shot at this. If he misses, he'll have to wait a while longer for a recharge.
Leonus took note of his hovering prey and growled inwardly.
It was an airborne standoff as Spyro narrowed his determined gaze to his target.
"Alright, Leo. Time for payback."
Instantly, the prototype lunged forward on the attack while Leonus did likewise. Each was gaining equal speed towards each other.
But before either one of them could collide with each other, Spyro, at an opportunistic time, issued the atomic discharger towards his opponent.
As the projectile soared at a fast pace, Spyro was hoping to catch him off-guard with that attack and end it quickly.
However, Leonus, upon quick notice, halted to a stop and evaded to the right side while the projectile narrowly passed him up.
Meanwhile, the lizardman, who was constantly watching the battle from the balcony, almost cheered upon his creation's evasive maneuver over the prototype's attack, but halted himself in doing so as he, to his horror, took note of a whitish projectile hurtling towards his position at a fast rate.
With no time to evade, he did the one terrifying thing he could do. And that was to scream!
As a shockwave explosion issued, the lizardman and the balcony itself was reduced to fiery rubble. But due to the effect of the blast, an earthquake issued inside the lair while concrete from sections of many walls were partially disintegrating.
In the air, Leonus took note of the damage on the balcony, but was shock upon realizing that his creator was no longer on it.
"Master." He softly spoke, mournfully
Then, his expression of shock turned to one of rage as he issued a vicious snarl before sharply diverting his hateful attention to the prototype.
Spyro also took note of the damage from the effect of his attack, but kept his determined attention to the enraged hybrid, hovering several feet away.
At first, he grew confused by the hybrid's expression, but quickly reverted back to his determined expression upon anticipation of what the hybrid said before.
"Like Master, like creature, I guess." He muttered.
With a snarl, Leonus spoke.
"Your blood…for my Master."
At blinding top speed, Leonus, with a vicious snarl, lunged towards the prototype's position.
But the prototype took to the higher skies to evade collision while Leonus took notice, halted on the spot, and took flight after his adversary.
Spyro was able to look down towards his opponent only to have the wind knocked out of him by a harsh punch to the midsection.
The punch was powerful enough to issue a hole in the suit. And as a result, the silent alarm issued. But the hybrid didn't stop there.
As Spyro struggled to regain himself from the blow, the hybrid was struggling to rip the prototype apart.
Spyro looked through the visor to find that it was almost in static while the hybrid was looking directly at him through the red lens.
"You are dead!" Leonus spoke.
"Warning! Damage to the suit severe! Self-Destruct Sequence Initiated! Evacuate in thirty seconds!" The computerized voice spoke.
As Spyro regained himself, he struggled against the hybrid in order to keep him from dismembering the suit with him inside. But he was on a time limit at the moment. The damage to the suit was severe, which means that he'll be unable to override it by voice command. He needs to evacuate before Leonus dismembers a piece of the suit that's connected to his bodily form, specifically his wings, arms, or hind legs.
"Fifteen seconds until self-destruct!" The computerized voice confirmed, while Spyro acknowledged it.
The purple dragon thought about doing it now, but he needs to time it right. If he evacuates too early, Leonus will find out and capitalize on his vulnerability.
"Ten seconds until self-destruct!"
"Evacuate now!!" Spyro commanded.
Upon command, the suit opened as Spyro exited from the back while Leonus was distracted.
Leonus, however, just tore the left arm of the prototype to find a beeping red light faintly issuing from inside the suit. Then, he noticed that there was no one inside the suit. But instead of seeing a dismembered body part, he heard a voice.
"Three seconds until self-destruct!"
In horrific shock, he quickly gazed passed the suit to find Spyro hovering several feet away smiling and waving mockingly in his direction.
With the same expression etched on his face, Leonus only managed to hear four words.
"Three…Two…One…Goodbye."
Beep-Beep
While hovering, Spyro used his left wing and hand to shield himself from the explosive double shockwave blast.
As soon as the blast seized, Spyro uncovered his eyes to find that the suit was destroyed…and so was Leonus.
With an exhausted sigh of relief, Spyro instantly went in the direction of the lair with two things on his mind. Save his friends and overthrow Ripto!