The Rise Of The Dark One
Everyone in Vonderland watched on, shaking in fear as a vortex of green magic appeared on the ground again, shaking the school's foundation as it released tremors through the ground. Most of the students outside quickly back peddled away from it as it grew, fully aware of what was released the last time this happened.
"Everyone, get inside the building NOW!" Miss Crystalgazer screamed, storming out the main doors. Not waiting for the students to respond, she quickly pulled out her wand and shot bright blue streams of magic at the students, magically manhandling them into the safety of the castle.
"This doesn't look good." Rai commented, giving up on trying to keep his balance and floating into the air.
"It doesn't feel any better." Namine said warily, pulling out her daggers. "Get ready for a fight. Whatever's on the other side of that vortex, they have very dark minds."
Just as she finished speaking, the portal flashed brighter the before and with a puff of smoke, ten creatures. Three were overgrown dragon flies, all of which were dark orange, nearly red. Two others were fierce looking griffons, both bearing scars across their faces, and the other five were clearly harpies, women with blood red wings and feathered legs, ending with sharp, wicked talons, just like their hands.
"Something tells me that they didn't come by to say hi." Jake stated, glaring at the creatures. "Dragon UP!" Fire covered his form before bursting away, revealing the red dragon. "Stop them before they hurt anyone." Jake ordered. The others quickly nodded and took off, Jake and Rai into the air and Namine towards a group of students frozen in fear as a harpy quickly approached them, cackling all the way down.
"Finally, I found the passage releasing Zarlak's forces. Only I bet the Guardians saw it too." Cassie said as she hovered a mile high in the sky over the vortex, her tone turning sour at the second sentence. "No matter, I'll just take care of this before they get the chance." With that, she dived back towards the ground, wand already in hand and a cocky smile planted firmly on her face.
Gwen, Ubos, Gus and Verne glared out the window as the dark creatures shot into the sky and started terrorising the school. This was exactly what they were afraid would happen. It proved that Zarlak wasn't strong enough to break the seal yet, but his forces were more then capable of doing damage on their own.
"We've gotta get out there and stop them before they destroy the school." Gus growled, pulling out his wand.
"But you can't!" Ubos shouted, shooting up right in front of the half elf. "If you do, others, particularly your teachers, will notice that you have experience fighting such creatures and while become suspicious as to how. If you go out there, fighting in front of everyone, you will endanger our mission. And unless Zarlak succeeds in returning to the surface, that must not happen."
"But we can just let those creatures ransack the school." Gus argued.
"And the teachers will be to busy trying to protect the students." Verne added in agreement.
"Which is where the Guardians come in." Gwen responded, raising her blue glowing hand to the window, causing it to flash blue before bursting open. "We'll take care of them. You guys stay put." Getting reluctant nods from the boys, she gave them a small smile before jumping out the window and charged toward the battlefield.
"Are you sure they can handle it? I mean, they are outnumbered." Gus asked nervously, frowning at the battle sight.
"Don't worry, they've face far worse then these guys." Verne responded, running to the window. "I can't wait to see them in action." He added excitedly. Gus and Ubos could only chuckle as the fan boy in Verne returned as they joined him by the window.
Namine made it to the group of students and quickly threw a mental assault at the harpy just as it was about to strike. It screamed as it's head exploded with pain and crashed to the ground as it's hands shot to it's temples, the mental anguish cancelling out the ability to fly. Namine was about to knock it right out, but was distracted as a boy behind her screamed. Looking up, her eyes widened in horror, she quickly dropped her focus on her power and pushed the students down, narrowly avoiding the talons of another two harpies.
Seeing the two feathered pests swooping back around, and the third one on the ground getting back up and angrier then ever, Jake pulled himself into a power dive, tucking his wings, arms and legs as close to his body as he could.
Pulling herself back to her feet, Namine gritted her teeth as the harpy she'd attacked surged right for her, talons ready for the kill. Thinking quick, she thrust her daggers forward, clashing them with the talons, blocking them, but stumbling backwards with a gasp, unable to compare with the dark creature's strength. It only got worse as she sensed the other two coming back.
Just as she was about to scream for the kids to move, another, familiar mind crossed her senses and she sighed in relief as a red blur shot over her head.
Opening his wings again as he got close to the ground, Jake glided right over the group Namine was protecting and blew a stream of fire right at the approaching harpies. The pair screamed at the shot before banking to avoid it. However, one couldn't move quick enough and was hit right across their left side. Screaming like a banshee, the harpy fell to the ground with a loud thud and didn't rise again.
Not wasting time, Jake moved on to the other. This one however, proved to be a bit more of a challenge. It shot straight towards him and lashed out with all four sets of talons fiercely, clearly infuriated.
"Aww, are you mad about your friend?" Jake taunted, looping around and behind the bird lady as she lashed out with both arms. "Well, join her, I think she's calling for you anyway." He added before launching a brutal kick into her back, followed by a whip from his tail to her wings. Screaming again, this time in pain, the harpy plummeted to the ground and crash landed right on top of the other one.
Sending a mental message to thank Jake, Namine realigned her daggers for the tenth time to block the harpy's talons and concentrated on it's mind again. The harpy cried out and backed off, clutching it's head again as it wobbled, this time going through a dizzying sensation. No longer having to worry about being stabbed, she focused harder and like when Rowce and Snerrot attacked, put her enemy to sleep.
Sighing, she took a moment to relax herself. Unlike the others, she didn't have much experience in this sort of situation after all. Catching her breath, she turned to the students.
"Get inside. Hurry, it's too dangerous out here." As the shaking students did as they were told, Namine turned back to the portal, intent on finding a way to stop it.
Rai shot like a rocket through the sky with a smirk, effortlessly dodging the mandibles of a giant dragonfly and the talons of a harpy.
"Come on, surely you can do better then that." He sneered, almost casually pulling himself back, away from their strikes. Turning right, he flew in between them, smirking as they launched themselves at him. Pulling up at the last second, he laughed merrily as he watched them collide and drop like rocks to the ground.
Blue blasts caught his eye as they shot down at another dragonfly and expecting to see Gwen, he turned and frowned at the sight of Cassie, wand in hand and shooting a barrage of blue bursts at the harpy below her, not even noticing the one coming in to attack from above.
"Look out!" Rai shouted, shooting of in her direction as fast as he could.
Cassie merely gave him a glare through the corner of her eye and kept going down, attacking her evasive target. Taking a little more time to aim, she fired a blue stream at the bird lady and finally managed to land a shot, the magic spinning around and constraining it like rope. Struggling desperately, the dragonfly fell from the sky and joined it's beaten allies with a hard landing on the ground.
"Yes! See that wind boy, I anything you can do, I can do AAAHHHH!" Cassie screamed as she turned, only to find the last harpy just inches above her, it's talon ready to crush her head. With no time to react, and absolutely terrified, she could do nothing but stare with wide eyes as the cackling creature prepared to kill her.
"HI-YA!" Just as it's talons were a mere inch from Cassie's head, Rai shot by, faster then a bullet, and buried his fist right in the harpy's abdomen. The harpy screeched in pain, but before it could even be thrown back by the force of the punch, it was slugged in the face by a spinning heel kick to the head. The now ragged looking, semiconscious creature was completely unable to stop it's decent until it had already caused a large explosion of water from the middle of the school's lake.
Turning back to the purple-haired witch, Rai let out a soft sigh of relief at seeing her unharmed before a look of anger crossed his face.
"What is your problem? You rushed recklessly into battle and don't even bother to pay attention when people are trying to warn you of the danger you could easily avoid if you just take the time to pay attention to your surroundings. Do you have some kind of death wish?" He yelled, throwing his arms out in exasperation.
"I was doing my job and stopping a harpy." Cassie retorted as her fear and shock went away, being replaced with her fiery temper.
"You aren't fit for the job." Rai snapped viscously, making Cassie gasp. "True heroes take the time and care to know what's around them and work with and listen to their allies as best they can to ensure that everyone, themselves and every innocent bystander, comes out with minimal harm. You're not interested in what's for the best of us all, you're only out here to prove how great you are, which, as we've just seen, leaves you extremely vulnerable to attacks and makes you a liability to the rest of us."
Cassie could do nothing but stare in shock as he flew off. His words had hit her hard.
Back on the ground, many of the students screamed, running frantically and shooting spells randomly over their shoulders as the griffons dropped in on them. More then one student already had sever scratches down their back and the griffons looked keen to do it again.
"AAAHHHH! Someone help!" One kid screamed as a griffon's talon crossed his shoulder just enough to tear through his shirt. Screeching victoriously, the griffon increased his speed and prepared to slash again.
"Terra Orior!" Just as the griffon was about to make it's killing blow, four large blocks of earth shot up from the ground and struck home, knocking both griffons twenty yards back and pressed them into the ground.
"Well, that wasn't too hard." Gwen commented, letting the blue glow of magic around her hands die down.
The ground chose that moment to shake again, causing the children to scream in fear as the last few still outside dived through the castle doors and slammed them shut. The Guardians gathered in near the portal and tensed as it pulsed quickly.
"You had to jinx it, didn't you?" Rai glared at the sheepish sorceress.
Anything she was going to say in response was quickly cut out as four flame throwers shot from the centre of the portal, right at them. Only Gwen's quick reflexes and her shield saved them from being barbequed.
"Whoa, even I can't do that." Jake commented, looking at the flames' source in awe. Raising an eyebrow, Rai turned to him and sighed in frustration at the sight of wonder and excitement on the reptile's face.
"Yo Jake, place fan boy later." He snapped, hitting Jake upside the head. "This is actually a serious problem."
"I can sense four dark minds coming from that portal." Namine called, staring intently at the centre of the portal. "Brace yourselves, here they come."
A pair of blue and yellow wings were the first thing to break through the portal's surface. The group tensed in recognition as the being continued to rise, revealing a reptilian body like the dragon they'd fought before. However, this one was slightly bigger and had four heads as apposed to two and none of them looked pleasant.
"In the name of Zarlak, you shall all perish." The four heads shouted simultaneously before shooting another bout of flames at the young heroes.
"Don't think so! Wudai Star Wind!" Rai shouted defiantly, throwing his hands up. The powerful resulting winds clashed with the flames halfway and redirected them back at the dragon. Unperturbed, the dragon merely rose higher into the air, dodging the flames without so much as a care, before shooting again, this time rapidly shooting fireballs repeatedly.
"Give us some credit." Jake shouted cockily. Staying still for five seconds, he created a clone of himself and both shot into the air, dodging fireballs with ease as they shot back with flames of their own. Making it through the barrage, both Jakes pulled their fists back, claws at the ready.
But before they could do anything, the four headed dragon thrust one head out like a striking snake, catching both off guard and snaring one in it's teeth. The Jake screamed in agony and the other Guardians watched I horror as the teeth ripped straight through him. However, the team's fears turned to relief as the slain Jake dispersed in blue chi. The dragon however, had wasted no time on that, and quickly lashed out at the real Jake with his tail.
"AAAAHHHH!" Jake smashed hard into the ground, groaning painfully. Namine quickly took off to help him, energy already gathering in her hands.
"Alright, you've caused enough trouble for one day." Gwen growled, her eyes and body glowing blue as she rose seven feet into the air. "Octem Montitus!"
The blue beam hit home causing all four heads to roar in intense pain. Unable to focus, it lost control over it's wings and plummeted to the ground, Gwen's energy accelerating it's decent the whole way. Cheers from the school's students and teachers shook the castle as the beast's legs were consumed by the vortex, quickly followed by the rest of it.
However, just as everyone was sure they were safe, a dark laugh echoed throughout the entire school. At the same time, green magic from the portal surged up Gwen's blue beam, following it up to it's source. Gwen had only enough time to gasp in shock before the magic reached her.
"AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!" She screamed as the dark magic tore through her. The energy dug deep into her before it started pulling away, leaving Gwen feeling weaker and weaker. Unsure what was happening, she forced her eyes open and wasn't pleased with what she found. The green magic wasn't the power leaving her, the dimming pain was merely from her body going numb. It was her own magic. Blue tendrils, lightly covered in green, were bursting from her entire being and were drawn right into the centre of the vortex. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"Gwen, hold on, I'm coming." Rai cried, shooting off like a rocket. He quickly got to her side, but just as he touched her, the green magic on her skin burst at him, knocking him away with a scream. Righting himself in the air, he shot back towards her again, just as the last of her energy left her. With nothing left to steal, the green magic followed the blue back from whence it came, leaving a thoroughly exhausted Gwen to fall into Rai's arms.
"Gwen, are you ok?" Rai asked worriedly, dropping to the ground next to Namine and a fully healed Jake. Not waiting for the answer, Namine stood up and placed her hands over the red head, intent on healing her.
"So weak. My magic's gone." Gwen managed to whisper before her eyes closed and she fell into unconsciousness.
"Namine, is she going to be ok?" Jake asked looking down worriedly at the sorceress.
"Physically, she's fine. But she's been drained of almost every drop of her magic and energy. She'll need to rest for a while. And have a big meal when she wakes up." Namine answered as she put her hands down, sighing sadly.
They didn't have time to worry about her anymore as the dark laughter increased in volume and malice. The portal responded in kind, becoming brighter and brighter, almost turning yellow. With one final flash, it exploded up and outward, blinding everyone in sight. When the light cleared, screams of pure terror came from around the entire school. Looking at where the portal had been, Jake, Namine and Raimundo tensed, shivering at feeling of pure evil coming from a chuckling man with long black hair and beard, clad in a blue robe. In his hand was a wooden staff with an eerie, yellow orb at the top.
"Beware surface dwellers. I have returned and more powerful then ever." Raising his staff, he laughed maliciously as green energy shot from the orb, covering the entire school.