I hit the ground hard and rolled across it before I stood up on the other end of the valley.

The ice that had formed on impact really added some dramatic flair. I raced into the sea of human soldiers and the ground froze under my feet. My sword cut down soldiers like they were nothing. Frost exploded out of me and blasted people in every direction. So, this was what it was like to be powerful.

I heard the dragons roar above me, I just hoped that was Erin murdering them and not them eating her. I heard the flap of wings overhead and a dragon's shadow flew right over me. Then it landed in front of me.

Soldiers were running in every direction to avoid the dragon, meanwhile I couldn't take my eyes off its face. Smoke curled out of its nostrils, and I could feel the heat radiating off its orange scales. Someone slid from the saddle. Gem.

I clenched my jaw. The arm wielding my sword was shaking. I wasn't tired or scared. I was angry.

The dragon took off leaving me and Gem standing there. She had a bruise growing on the side of her face. "Scott, don't do this." Gem said quietly.

"Don't. Do. What?" I asked in a low voice.

"Just come back with us! We- we can help you!" Gem pleaded. "Don't hurt anyone else."

My face contorted in rage. "YOU THINK I WANT TO HURT PEOPLE?" I shouted. "I LEFT because I hurt YOU. I LEFT because I didn't want to hurt anyone else! It's your own fault we're back. Why couldn't you have left us alone? None of this would have happened if you had just let us be! WHY AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU!?" I felt tears streak down my face and freeze but I didn't care much at the moment.

"Your overwhelmed and confused, please listen to us!" Gem cried.

"I'M NOT THE ONE WHO'S CONFUSED!" I charged her and slammed her against the earthy wall of a mountain, pinning her by the neck. "I know exactly what I'm doing." I watched the frost from my hand started to creep up her throat.

"S-Scott." She choked, but I ignored her. Then something hard hit the side of my head. A sudden ringing exploded in my ear and before I knew it, I was blasted sideways to the left. Someone screamed, I think it was me. The right side of my head felt hot and sticky, the ringing remained in my ear. I think I had dropped my sword, but right now I couldn't move.

I managed to open my eyes; I was staring at the stormy sky. I felt the side of my head. It was covered in blood, and it was agony to move my arm. But I gritted my teeth and staggered up. The blood on my hand started to crystalize and freeze. I didn't know blood could freeze but apparently it could.

My right eye's vision had become blurred, but I saw Fwhip, holding up Gem. By the looks of it, she was gasping for air. Fwhip had tried to blow me up. It was a miracle I was alive; it must have been one of his low-grade bombs.

Fwhip must have thought it had killed me or he would have been straight over here to finish me off. I saw my sword laying on the ground and I took my chance. I sprinted towards Gem and Fwhip, grabbing my sword on the way. Then I drove my sword through Fwhip's upper arm.

Fwhip screamed and I withdrew my sword, backing up a few feet. Fwhip stared at me through wild eyes. "How are you alive?" He asked, his voice shaking.

"Strong willpower I guess." I growled. It was strange, I could barely hear my own voice from the ringing in my ear. I felt Gem staring at the right side of my face, but I completely ignored her.

Fwhip drew his own sword, with his left hand. His right arm was pretty useless right now. If I was lucky, he might bleed out.

"Fwhip, don't." Gem coughed.

"Come at me pointy ears." Fwhip sneered. Boiling hot rage overwhelmed my thoughts and I swung my sword in an arch above Fwhip's head. The ginger raised his sword to block it, but strength surged through my arms and my blade slid halfway through his.

Fwhip's arms shook as he tried to keep me from splitting his skull open. I kicked him in the stomach, and he smashed into the mountain I had held Gem in a chokehold against.

Fwhip slid down onto the ground, wheezing. Gem couldn't do anything; she was too weak to stand. "I think the Tay line is about to come to a bloody end." I spat.

I held my sword above Fwhip's head. Tears were streaming down Gem's face as I plunged my blade down.

But my sword made a chink noise against something, the point less than 6 inches from Fwhip's face. It was stuck in the prongs of a trident.

Jimmy twisted the sword from my hands and hit me in the chest with the blunt end of his trident. I staggered back a few feet, looking at Jimmy in shock.

"You stay away from them." He said, his voice shaking.

"Jimmy, back away." I said.

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM THEM!" He shouted.

"Fine." I said. "That's how it's gonna be." I lunged for him, grabbing the trident right underneath the prongs and yanking it from his hands. I slammed him against the rock and elbowed him in the stomach, once, twice, three times.

Jimmy gasped in pain. He suddenly pushed off of the rock and sent us both tumbling across the ground.

I managed to stop us with myself on top of him. A shard of ice formed in my hand, and I held it to his neck.

"This isn't you, Scott!" Jimmy coughed. "What happened to my Scott?"

This surprised me. I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Instead, I pressed the icicle a little harder against Jimmy's neck, until finally, "I don't know. But he's gone and you'd better stay out of my way, or you'll be gone too." I snarled.

I stood up and for good measure, stomped on Jimmy's nose. Blood started to pour from it, and he clutched his face.

I turned around, Gem and Fwhip were gone. I gritted my teeth in frustration. I just needed to take out one of the rulers, just one and maybe they'd leave us alone. Sure, Jimmy was right there but... no it had to be one of the organizers. Fwhip, Gem or Sausage. Maybe even Shrub, she was the one who stole the crystal.

I retrieved my sword from the ground and looked around the battlefield. There wasn't anyone fighting for a few hundred feet. The ground was covered in snow, ice, frost, and blood.

I looked around for someone, any of the rulers. Besides Jimmy of course. I had looked behind me to see if Jimmy had left, which he had when a huge force pressed against my chest and slammed me to the ground. My vision flashed as sparks exploded in front of my eyes, and I looked and saw a huge claw pressed against my chest and torso. I was staring right into a dragon's face.

"HA, GOT HIM!" Came Pearl's voice from the saddle. I couldn't see her, nor did I care. The heat coming from the dragon's maw was making me dizzy. I felt some of the frost on me, melt and turn to water.

I couldn't get up. I couldn't move. My sword was out of reach. I was stuck. That's when I heard a shout, almost like a war cry. I recognized the voice, but my mind couldn't process anything that was happening from the heat.

A figure raced from the corner of my vision and leaped onto the dragon's snout. Their daggers stabbed into the dragon's face, gouging one of its eyes out. Scarlet blood splashed onto me, and the dragon roared in fury and in pain. The figure, which I now recognized as Erin, pushed off of the dragon. The dragon snapped its jaws in her direction, but she was out of its reach.

While the dragon was distracted, I clamped my hands on the dragon's ankle and concentrated as hard as I could. Ice started to spread, but it didn't just cover its scales, it replaced them. My veins were on fire, and I felt blood start to drip down my nose as I strained. Now the dragon's leg could have been a pillar of ice instead of an organic structure.

I shouted as I pressed as hard as a cold and the talon completely shattered. I rolled out of the way as the half blind and unbalanced dragon crashed to the ground.

Pearl jumped from the dragon as Erin hopped onto its neck and drove what I recognized as Fwhip's sword threw the dragon's neck, decapitating it. The head tumbled across the ground and down the valley, leaving a trail of blood and dragon insides.

I felt bile sear the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down and ran to join Erin. She slid off the headless dragon, dropping Fwhip's sword and gasping for breath.

"You, ok?" I asked.

"Yeah." She answered, then looked up at me. "What's wrong with your face?"

"Haha, very funny." I answered.

"No seriously, its covered in blood, what happened?" she asked.

"Bomb." I muttered. I heard a metallic clanging and my head snapped up. All the emperors were surrounding us, except for Pearl. Shrub had been absent the entire battle.

Lizzie, Pixl and Jimmy were pointing tridents at us. Fwhip had his crossbow, Sausage, Joey, and Joel their bows, Gem her staff, and Katherine her sword.

"We'll give you one last chance to surrender." Gem said.

"I will when hell freezes over." Erin growled.

"Your brother over there could probably make that happen." Sausage said. "Surrender."

I kept my mouth shut as I looked over each ruler, trying to find a weak link in their circle. I knew they wouldn't hesitate to kill us, so I had to make the right move and I had to make it quick.

"Scott." Erin hissed quiet enough that the others couldn't hear her. "Give me the crystal."

"What!? No!" I answered, completely startled by her request.

"Just give it to me!" she said impatiently.

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

"Do whatever you're going to do quick." I slowly inched my hand toward the crystal, but Fwhip noticed.

"Freeze!" he said.

A small smile formed on my face. "Freeze?" I ripped the crystal from around my neck and at the same time, I blasted a sheet of ice at Fwhip and Sausage. I grabbed Erin and shoved her to the ground as arrows flew at us. A stray one from Joey's bow hit Lizzie in the calf.

I shoved the crystal into Erin's palm before diving at Pixl and snapping his trident in half. I was just praying in my head Erin wasn't about to release our brother.