Leaving Tigra under the watchful eyes of Arata, I headed out into the desert accompanied by my team of Guardians. A part of me didn’t want to drag anyone else into my struggle against the darkness as it had already claimed the lives of so many of my friends, but I had come to realise when I was fighting against Cutter, that I could not do this alone.

Much like the tales of Fang I grew up on, he met many Animalia, and fought beside those who still stood beside the light, and my fellow Guardians were no different. Dash had grown up reading his stories on the walls of caverns around the city, Zack’s father Gual had worked beside mine and Link had seen the true horrors the darkness brings to those who are weak against it.

“Anyone of you fought a scorpion before?” I questioned, sensing the portion of power I had placed upon the scorpion.

“No.” Dash was the first to answer.

“Most of the time any relation to scorpions would not dare go near Cathopia, knowing it was guarded by King Alton, rumours say he is a pro fighter against such species, even the Animalia kind,” mentioned Zack.

“They aren’t supposed to get that big,” commented Link.

“That way.” I quickly changed direction, using Larana to pull me along. “This thing is fast.”

“The sand is not easy to run on,” moaned Dash.

“Focus,” I snapped. “Scorpions and Scorpio are known for their poison, if you at all feel in danger of being stung, get back.”

“And let you have all the fun,” smirked Zack, coming up beside me. “Fang, we already know the dangers of facing the darkness, have faith in us and none of us will ever let you down.”

I glanced at him, then at Dash and Link. “I do have faith in you, I just don’t want to lose anymore of my friends.”

“Friends,” repeated Link. I guess it had been a long time since he had one of those.

“Alright, we’re right above him, stay back while I draw him out,” I ordered. The three of them stopped, jumping away from where I was. I jumped in the air, spreading Larana’s wings wide. “Now pull!” I shouted, holding out my hand where I connected instantly with the portion of Larana’s power, grabbing hold of it I pulled it back, like a fish on the end of a line.

I felt some resistance, but in this form my power with Larana was more refined, pulling and pulling, the sands began to move, shifting slowly into a mound, then with one last pull the scorpion was air borne, away from the ground.

“What?” Scorlax and my line of sight met. “Fang!”

“Now!” I shouted.

On my order Dash, Link and Zack went into attack mode, jumping up to meet the airborne scorpion, unable to move or resist off the ground. Dash imbued his short sword with lightning as he struck at the scorpion’s body, the lightning concentrated enough to travel up to Scorlax, who cried out.

Zack using his elemental skills of shadow, duplicating his dagger, throwing them masterfully across the scorpion’s body, even landing one in Scorlax’s shoulder.

Link’s sword became enveloped in fire as he dug his blade into the scorpion’s belly, pulling it along, coming away from the opposite side. I had noticed as he summoned his fire, that it only shimmered with his dark power, which was to be expected it was where he drew his power from.

“Away” I ordered as the scorpion came to land with a crash, everyone stood on guard as I landed too. “Scorlax,” I said his name as I saw the dark aura his body was emitting, including that of the dark scorpion and the desert around us.

“I didn’t expect you to respond so quickly,” he remarked, touching the scorpion. “I won’t be underestimating you like Cutter did.” His dark aura spread further around the scorpion as the wounds inflicted healed, not this again, I thought.

“You forget one thing, this time I don’t fight alone,” I commented, catching a glimpse of a purple crystal around his neck, just like the one Cutter had devoured, did all of them have that thing. I would have to make sure we destroyed him before he could use it.

“You forget, you are in my playground now, you Feles don’t stand a chance in the desert, the heat, the ground soft, a perfect hiding place for my kin.” He raised his arms. “My army.”

“Watch yourself!” I shouted as the sands all around us began to shift, one by one large scorpions rose from beneath the sands. The dark energy had corrupted them, transforming them into a monstrous size, much like what Vali had done.

“Well, you won’t be surviving this,” smirked Scorlax.

Link glanced over to me. “May I let loose?”

“Yes, but do not…”

“I know,” he responded before I could finish.

I drew Raziel and Arata, if I wanted to get to Scorlax now, I would first have to get through his army of hundreds of dark scorpions. I took in a deep breath as the scorpions came at us, tails lashing forward. I stepped to the right letting my power of purification spread down my blades.

I jumped behind this scorpion, slicing it down the middle, then moved to the next, cutting off tails and pinchers, striking at the heads, cutting legs, moving from one target to the next without hesitation, dodging left or right, jumping over head, pushing down with the wind.

“Wind cutter!” I shouted sending waves of razor-sharp wind in the direction away from my team, who were handling this far better than I thought.

Dash’s speed was hindered slightly by the sand under his feet, but his moves were still precise, the scorpions unable to keep up with his speed, slicing and making his foes explode as he supercharged them with lightning energy within their bodies, he had come a long way. He held a different expression upon his face, instead of his usually happy go luck, act like a silly idiot, he held a wild look, much like I had seen in the expression of a wilds, after all he had grown up like one. Did that make him a wilds or something else.

Zack was less all over the place, staying in one place as he executed defensive measures, moving with the scorpions, shifting in the last second to avoid, then struck with a single devastating blow, wouldn’t expect anything less from the son of Gual.

Link mainly kept to his flaming combination of burning through each scorpion’s exoskeleton, he was far more aggressive than Zack and Dash, less refined in his training, but he would improve with more battles.

I focused on the dark energy that was seeping from every destroyed scorpion, they felt more like the dark crystals, perhaps they were trying different methods to spread their darkness. I had to release my purification abilities to prevent the energy from getting too much. I didn’t want to expose my team to too much of the stuff.

“Impressive,” commented Scorlax. “I see why Dumah wants to keep you around, but I’d rather see your bodies forgotten within the sands.”

He had said similar things as Cutter, something about Dumah wanting to keep me around, what did they even mean?

“Don’t worry I’ll get to him upon my list eventually,” I responded as we had finished off the scorpions.

“You could never defeat him in a real fight,” snorted Scorlax, raising his hand, the giant scorpion rearing up. “You cannot comprehend the true power of the darkness, let me give a taste.” He touched the pendent around his neck, releasing large amounts of dark energy from it.

“Get behind me!” I shouted as they came to my side. I held my hand out to purify the dark energy before it could do any harm to them. Link came beside me holding his hand out as he absorbed the energy too.

I was surprised to see this happening, I was wrong to keep him out of my fight with Cutter, he could have helped with the absorbance of the dark crystals.

“What the heck is that?” said Dash, the amount was so much it was visible to them.

“This is dark energy,” answered Link as his body faintly glowed purple.

“Dark energy?” wondered Zack.

“It is what spreads the darkness, it corrupts all that are weak to it. In concentrations like this it can be fatal,” I mentioned glancing back. “It is what spreads within the walls of Cathopia, what made King Alton do such horrible things to those around the city and what I have had to fight as a Warrior of Fang.”

“The essence of the eternal dragon,” said Dash as the energy dispersed, revealing the scorpion right above us, swiping his great pinchers down at us.

“Like squashing bugs,” he laughed.

I held my hand up, creating a barrier of wind, so sharp it cut the scorpions pinchers off on impact. “Now!” I ordered as we jumped into action. He had been sloppy in coming this close to us.

Dash dashed around him, creating a line of lightning as he went, preventing the scorpion moving anymore, getting zapped when it came into contact with this ring. I’d never seen a technique like that before.

The scorpion’s tail lunged forward, the poison dripping like a green ooze. Zack was the first to react throwing multiple shadow daggers, taring the end of the tail to pieces, but not long after it was destroyed did it start to regenerate.

“Together Link,” I said pointing Raziel’s sword forward, him standing next to me as he released a breath of fire. Link nodded summoning a storm of fire around him, directing it at the scorpion. With Larana’s wind I fuelled the fire even more, the scorpion catching alight in a blaze within seconds. I wondered if this would be enough to take care of the beast as Scorlax jumped from the back of the scorpion escaping the blaze, his response confirmed its defeat, he would be next.