Silver's cry range throughout the battlefield, echoing by the other dragons as they joined her, roaring out their stubbornness, their unwillingness to give in. They would fight to the death. It was evident in everyone, even the dragons who often didn't battle often. They all watched as the final wave of A.O.D.H's incredible army crashed down toward them, not faltering, not wavering.

The hunter's army fell upon them, and the battle for Sky Mountain continued. The sky was coloured in fire, ice and earth. Lightning bolts streaked throughout the battlefield. Beams of light melted the insides of metallic machines and the green energy of life took what life there was from the humans inside. But they were hard pressed. A telekinetic dragon was overwhelmed by four of the machines as they broke his wings and back. An acid dragon found herself skewed on the end of a large sword, and disgruntled growl of surprise the only thing that escapes her maw as the light died from her eyes.

Through it all the silver dragon flew, dashing out of the way of many of the opponents trying to catch her, and dodging past a controlled dragon that attempted to blast her with fire. She let her shell shrink from her wings and body, increasing her speed and agility and making her more mobile. She narrowly avoided a punch from one of the metal hands, and responded by sending a large spike from her maw and into the culprit's stomach, piecing the human inside, before turning to look at her true enemy.

He had seen her, and was now hovering in a single place on the outskirts of the battle, watching from within the glass cockpit of his elronium mech. A smile was on his face, and the scar on his neck bulged angrily, giving him a rather hysterical look. A dragon saw him and flew toward him, opening its maw to fire an earth missile towards the hunter. It was stopped as the robot put up a hand, a long metallic spike firing from within and catching the earth drake in the throat, killing it instantly.

Anger bubbled through Silver as she barrelled forward, ignoring the rest of the battle. Jurien raised the metallic hand of his machine again, a controlling device settled on his hand, and then he fired, sending the octopus like thing toward the dragoness. She didn't even bother to put her shell back up, and instead encased the device in metal, dodging out of the way. Jurien frowned in surprise, surprised by her speed, and before he had a chance to react, she slammed into him, her metal shell forming over her whole body in less then a second.

The force behind the clash stunned Silver, jarring her wings, back and neck, but it hurt Jurien more. His machine was flung backwards by the force as the dragoness continued to drive into him, causing them to plummet toward the ground. She grappled with him, tearing at the elronium metal but unable to piece it with her claws.

They crashed into the forest below, Silver being flung from the machine and hitting a tree with enough force to knock it over. She grunted as pain lanced down her back, winding her and causing her to take a large breath of air. She staggered to her feet and coughed, before looking up at her enemy with a fierce snarl.

The machine slowly got up from where it had landed as well, the man inside breathing heavily. He was uninjured, but the machine had a number of dents and scrapes in its exterior. It took a running step forward, charging toward the dragoness, Jurien grinning maniacally. He swung down at her, only to find the she had already moved, the metal fist creating a hole in the ground.

Silver whipped her tail around, causing it to grow longer and sharper, lassoing the machines legs and pulling, causing it to fall to the ground. Inside Jurien grunted, throwing a wild punch in her direction. She jumped out of the way, still keeping her lengthened tail around the machines legs, tightening the coil as much as she could. Normally a machines legs would have been cut away by now, but the metal around Jurien's machine was far stronger then usual.

Two small missiles suddenly dropped from its wrist, fire shooting from their back and shooting toward the dragoness. She grunted in surprise and put up her wings to block, not able to dodge this time. The force of the missiles caused her to be thrown, and then yanked to a stop by her still connected tail. She let out a yelp as she collided with the ground and was winded once more, her full metal form protecting her from most of the damage caused.

Quickly hauling herself to her feet again, she felt something yank on her tail, causing her to fall once more. She let out a snarl as she was dragged backwards, a hand slamming itself into her neck, gripping it with crushing force. Her metal moaned under the pressure, but still held. The machine lifted her up, having managed to untangle itself from her tail, holding her in the air.

She roared at him, staring at the human behind the glass with fury in her eyes. She struggled, clawing at the hand holding her and striking the glass with her tail, trying to damage the machine. The glass was surprisingly strong, and her attempts at breaking it came to naught. Deciding on a different approach she summoned metal to her throat and opened her maw, firing a ball of metal into the glass dome. This time the glass cracked, the elronium ball falling to the ground below.

Jurien's smirk turned to a scowl, and he threw Silver into the ground. The dragoness grunted, before feeling something step on her head, and force itself down. She let out a cry of pain as the force of the robots foot attempted to crush her head. She tried to pull herself from underneath, but it was to strong.

Once Jurien was satisfied with the dragoness's yelps, he picked her up by the tail and swung her into a nearby tree. The tree creaked, before cracking and falling down atop the dragoness. She grunted as it landed on her, the metal armour still managing to protect her. It hurt, and she whimpered softly, her vision blurring out for a moment. It wasn't meant to go like this.

Roaring Silver shook herself, clearing her vision and forcing herself to her feet, lifting the tree with her. It was heavy, but she had lifted heavier. With a snarl she threw it to the side and looked back at an amused dragon hunter, sitting and watching her with a confident look in his eye. She smiled back at him, causing him to frown in confusion.

She opened her maw and fired a stream of elronium at the machine's feet. Jurien's eyes widened and he quickly attempted to move, but was already too late. Gritting his teeth he put his hands forward and fired another two rockets in her direction. She took the two rockets out of the air with two well-aimed spikes from her tail.

She then flung another volley of spikes directly at the glass cockpit of Jurien's machine, causing the man to grunt in surprise. He flung up an arm, blocking the spikes, but they were sharp enough to cut into the elronium exterior leaving them embedded inside. Now that he was trapped on the ground Silver had the advantage. She launched herself into the air with a flap of her wings, using the cover from her tail spikes to take off without too much of a hassle.

Now above the human she fired another ball of metal at the cockpit, scoring another crack in its hard surface. Jurien had an angry scowl on his face, and pressed a couple of buttons in his machine, switching his weapon from missiles into a large automatic gun, mounted on the machine's arms. He pointed them up toward her, and began firing round after round of bullets toward her, the gun shells falling from the machine like rain.

Silver grunted and flew higher, the projectiles ricocheting off her metallic shell. They were larger then normal bullets, and heavier as well. Each one that hit her knocked her slightly off balance, and whenever one hit her wings she nearly fell from the air. It made it difficult, but she managed. Once she had cleared the trees she looked back down towards him, narrowing her eyes, before closing her wings and pulling into a dive.

Bullets tore past her, one or two catching her in the snout or underbelly, making sparks fly from the shell. She twisted in the air, trying to avoid as many as possible. It was strange to think that without this shell, she would have been killed had any of the bullets hit her in a vital spot, and they would have been extremely painful in any other place.

Jurien saw that his weapon had little effect on the dragoness and gritted his teeth in annoyance. He doubted his machine would survive this attack, and decided it was time for a change in tactics. He grabbed his suitcase from one side of his cockpit and a shining elronium sword from the other, before hammering the eject button with its hilt. The machine shuddered lightly, the glass blowing away, followed by Jurien as he leapt out just as Silver plummeted into the now empty machine, crushing it into the ground.

The human smiled and quickly hurried to hide behind a nearby tree. Silver came from the crash dazed but unhurt. She staggered a little and shook her head, before glancing back at the now ruined machine a small grin on her maw. It was then she noticed the glass window had been removed, and there was no crushed body of a human inside. The smile turned to a worried frown, and she glanced around the forest with a snarl.

Something suddenly hit her flank, the metallic clang echoing through the forest. She let out a small growl of surprise. There were two yellow flashing beeps... and then bang! Silver cried out as she was thrown to her side by the small explosive, tumbling a couple of times before coming to a standstill, groaning. She staggered to her feet when another bomb went off. On her shoulder this time. She cried out and was thrown once again.

Jurien grinned as he walked out from where he had been hiding, his red handgun/drill held in his right hand; while the black-gloved hand had some sort of gauntlet encasing it, and the sword hanging by his hip. He fired another three of the yellow explosives at the dragoness, and as each one went off she let out a cry of pain, the shocks from the attacks sending spirals of pain through her body.

He stopped, allowing the dragoness to stagger to her feet once more, breathing heavily, an angry look in her eye. She hated that weapon. The last time he used it was clear in her mind. The first time the two of them had fought. She had been destroyed by it, not able to even attempt a counterattack at the continuous onslaught. Even if she had grown in size and power since then, it wouldn't help much against something designed to defeat metallic dragons. But she had grown smarter as well, and learned a lot more about what she could do.

As Jurien brought up the drill once again, Silver let her metal shell shrink rapidly until it was but a spot on the back of her neck. The yellow explosive flew toward her... and then bounced of her scales, falling to the ground. With only a second before it went off Silver hit it with her tail, sending the explosive right toward her enemy. He let out a cry of alarm and flung up his left arm, the gauntlet glowing, and then the bomb exploded, sending him backwards, head over heels. Surprisingly no damage had been done, and he quickly stagged to his feet, his black suit ruffled and ripped by his slide over the ground.

Silver snorted, standing with her wings spread and her legs crouched. She could see the hunter studying her carefully, unfamiliar with this new form of metal dragon. He had no idea they could make their shells completely disappear. The dragoness twitched her tail slightly, a little uncomfortable without her shell, especially in the middle of a battle, where she was vulnerable from every direction. But to defeat this dragon hunter it was her only option. She just hoped the training she had done over the past couple of weeks would pay off.

Jurien then grinned and raised his drill again, but this time instead of pressing the trigger that launched the yellow explosives, he fired one of the controlling devices. Silver snorted and shot it from the air with a glob of elronium. The man grunted in annoyance as his backup plan fell to earth without so much as a twitch.

Narrowing his eyes he put the drill into a hoister at his hip, and then in a single movement drew his sword. The metallic ring echoed through the air and Silver narrowed her eyes. She had expected a gun, or something similar, not a sword, and one made from elronium at that. The edge was razor sharp, evident by the sound it made as he drew it, and if he hit her with it, her scales would do next to nothing. She was vulnerable.

With a snarl she shot a stream of metal toward the human, hoping to finish the fight before it had begun. He simply moved up his left arm again, the gauntlet throbbing blue. The air seemed to ripple in front of him, and metal hit an invisible wall, solidifying before it even hit the human. The dragoness growled in surprise, it seemed she was not the only one with tricks.

The metal made almost a wave like barrier between her and the human, which he used, staying behind so she wouldn't be able to attack him from long range, at least from this direction. With a small grin she flapped her wings, soaring into the air with more ease then usual and flying up and over the metal barrier. She opened her maw and sent a number to spikes in his direction. However he had expected something like this to happen and dodged out of the way, the spikes thudding harmlessly into the elronium wall.

Jurien took off, running with surprising speed away from Silver. With a snarl she followed, easily passing through the trees, her new form making it a lot easier to dodge and weave. Whenever she had a shot she fired a number of tail spikes at the human, which he either dodged or blocked. She cursed him and sped up again, aiming to cut him off. But whenever she got in front he changed direction, causing her to switch back once again. It annoyed her to no end.

Finally, she had had enough. With a roar she swooped down toward him, talon's extended and aiming to run the human through. It was exactly the moment he had been waiting for, and as she came down he swung around, his elronium sword curling through the air. Silver let out a scream as pain erupted from her wing and she crashed into a ground, rolling out of the trees and into a small clearing right at the base of the cliffs surrounding the crater. It was the clearing that was right near her cave.

Whimpering softly she slowly pulled herself to her feet, glancing at her wing with remorse. It hung limply from her side, a long gash torn from the middle outwards. She had been lucky he hadn't completely cut the wing off. Blood began to well up at the wound, dripping onto the ground below. Shaking herself and forcing herself to ignore the pain she looked up to see Jurien walking out from the forest with a confident grin on his face. She snarled at him, spreading her weight once again.

He put up his gauntlet like a shield, and held the sword low to the ground. With a roar she leapt at him, lashing with her claws. He dodged to the side, twisting out of the way and swinging his sword at her unprotected side. A metallic clang echoed throughout the clearing and Jurien grunted with surprise when he saw that her metal shell had grown over where he had aimed for. Startled he wasn't able to move in time as Silver brought her tail around, hitting the human in the side and sending him tumbling across the ground. Surprisingly, he was unharmed, but his ripped shirt showed a strange assortment of what looked like metallic scales. Armour.

'So that's how he survived,' Silver thought, remembering the fight between him and her father, he had been wearing armour that prevented him from being crushed under Elron's tail.

Not waiting for him to recover Silver launched forward, knocking him to the ground with her claws. He grunted in surprise and attempting to bring his sword up, but Silver knocked it from his hands with her tail. For a moment the two looked at each other, staring with both hatred and malice, before the scarred man relaxed, knowing he had lost.

"Well... done..." he wheezed out in obvious pain, the first words he had spoken in nearly a decade, a smirk crossing his face.

With a roar Silver opened her maw and bit down on the human's head. Blood coated the inside of her mouth as the human shivered slightly. No scream came from him, and he simply accepted the pain. With a snarl Silver yanked backwards, pulling Jurien's head with her. She staggered away from the body as even more blood washed her mouth, tasting like salt. Coughing she spat the head out, along with the red liquid it had come with, and ran over to the pool of water, taking deep gulps to wash out the horrible substance.

Taking a deep breath she turned and looked back at the headless body of the man she had hated for so long. She expected to feel relief, happiness, even contempt, but as she gazed at the body she didn't feel anything. Not even the slightest bit of remorse. All she felt was a gaping hole in her heart where she had held the hatred for the man. Above her, the battle continued.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey guys! Second last chapter is done! Hope you enjoyed, vote if you did and comment what you thought. The last chapter will be out very soon, hopefully within the next two or three days. So See Ya!

Pennator^^