Eric dived into the trenches after Jay, but instead of following him into the Strategy Room, he continued on to where they were keeping Pyro. How did he know that he was going in the right direction? Well, still in sage mode (reply 12) he was able to pick Pyro's signature out from among the few dragons struggling to keep him pinned. Upon entering the chamber, Eric took a brief moment to take in the surroundings.
As the trench had functionally been built into obsidian, the prisoner holding area had had plenty of jagged points to discourage blindfolded dragons from wandering about aimlessly; additionally, heat was not going to bring down the walls, and cleverly enough, simply bashing the walls would only lead to more broken shards, more cuts, and more pain.
Not that any of that was really putting a stop to Pyro; though scorch release was not accessible to him and the chains made it difficult to really move about, the enraged Wind Country dragon still lashed out with his tail and natural fire breath. He swept his claws and tail about the ground, throwing the sharp shards everywhere his intended captors tried to jump to. Just being around him was a danger, but Pyro also had noticeably bleeding cuts all over him, particularly his hands and feet.
Could he feel the pain? Of course. Could he smell freedom? Maybe, the incoming reinforcements could be repelled. But he did not care; he could feel that the only thing keeping him bound to the floor were the chakra chains, and even they seemed to grow weaker the more he struggled. He could not see the dragons near him, but he could hear them, feel their presence. He shot another bit of dragon breath in one direction.
Three of them, all lightly armored. Well, one stunned and backing off from a spout of fire to the face, that was helpful. As they were distracted with Pyro, Eric withdrew his sword again, the Blade of Shadows, still charged with chakra (from reply 2) and pointed it in succession at the two dragons still engaging Pyro, firing two black beams of chakra at them.
Shadow Burst: Uverworld Kage
Since neither dragon got the full blast, all that immediately happened was them being pushed into the walls behind them, though this left them more accessible to Pyro. While Pyro sunk his claws into the exposed neck of the one to his right and bashed the other to his left with his tail, Eric, using his shadow to avoid damaging his feet on the obsidian floors, dashed towards the third one, who seemed to recover from the earlier fire treatment and noticed Eric.
Meanwhile, the bleating had long stopped, and the ash-stricken air was filled with dragons, some armored, some not, engaging each other in the air. Firestreams, blasts of wind, and even a streak of highly pressurized water cut through the air. Claws, teeth, and tails thrashed slashed and bashed, adding blood and some amputated gore to the chaos above. Had Pyro and company attacked earlier, now with the full buzz of the force present and in serious mode, it was likely that they would have either died or destroyed the entire area in an attempt at survival.
The dragons that were coming to reinforce did not entirely expect to catch their enemy all but sleeping, but were also not expecting there to be just this many of them; because of the nature of the fight, it was hard to tell friend from foe in the flurry of the air, though a sensor could pick up on subtle differences in techniques that facilitated communication.
Back on the ground, most dragons that could fly were either already airborne or were just now getting there; those that could not fly tended to the wounded, helped to organize anti-air fire, or observed the unfolding situation for tactical reasons. Thinking that Eric and Jay were on their side, most of the dragons paid little mind to the fact that neither of them had immeidately hurled themselves into the fray.
Reibi was not among this crowd. In the Strategic Room, a map in the center of the room the most definitive landmark, the one dragon commander could be found by Jay pressing and sliding and enscribing on the far wall, which stood out for not being made of obsidian. In fact, the Strategy Room seemed to have some sort of earthen interior, with a floor of stone. Glowing rocks provided illumination above, and Reibi's chakra continuously went out in surges as he tried to both direct his forces through telepathy and what looked to be physically. There was also a particularly large set of scrolls stacked neatly in the far right corner (if one were looking with the entrance to his or her back) that looked important.
But for Jay, who by this point would have entered unopposed, the most important thing in the room was Reibi.
Reibi was a sensor, and knowing that Jay might would follow him, had already donned a chestplate, perhaps in the combative mood now. Being under attack, after all, had a tendency to do that.