Chapter 13—The Docks. Again.
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"These again?" Volaron asked me when I had summoned him.
"If we can't defeat them they can destroy the city," I told him.
"Okay." He drew his sword and charged at the Flametropus.
We were able to destroy that Flametropus and Allie managed to banish another, but the third one was harder to defeat. It had somehow been evolved.
"There's a way to evolve creatures?" I asked John and Emma.
"Yeah. The Choten injected a Flametropus with evolution serum, and this must be the one," John explained. "Only the Masters know the spell of Temporary Evolution."
We watched as Allie Evolved Squeaky so that she could be better suited for it.
"We aren't allowed to use spells yet, though, since we're only at acolyte level," Emma explained.
"That stinks," I commented as we battle the Flametropus. It had backup, though, as the mysterious stranger from Friday appeared with his or her Dreadclaw dragon. It was able to destroy our creatures again.
"We need more powerful creatures if we're going to banish those!" Ray shouted.
I ran through my mental inventory of Light and Fire creatures and focused on one in particular. It was a dragon and would require a lot of mana to control, though, so I summoned a different Light creature to refill my mana stores and even give me an extra boost before I dismissed it.
"Bolgash Dragon!" Ray called. All off the Masters summoned dragons of varying degrees of power, and with them they managed to get rid of the Flametropus, but they were too drained of mana to destroy the Dreadclaw.
"We don't have enough mana to continue!" Allie shouted as we shielded ourselves from the Darkness Dragon's attack.
"I've got an idea, but it might take all of us to control the creature I have in mind," I told them.
"Do we have any other choice?" Master Jameson asked me.
"Not really, no," I told him.
"Alright, then. Summon your creature!" Kimora told me.
I focused my mana and made sure we were all ready before shouting, "Rise, Cassiopeia Starborn!"
"A Celestial Dragon?" Jameson demanded. "You aren't powerful enough to control that thing!" he added as a rift appeared in front of us and a huge Light Dragon stepped out.
"Cassiopeia, attack!" I commanded. The other Masters copied my command, using their slight amount of mana to aid me in commanding the creature. We were barely strong enough to command it to destroy the Dreadclaw before I had to dismiss it.
"Good idea with the dragon," Gabe told me, "but next time, make sure we all have full stores of mana."
"Yes, Master Wallace," I replied, exhausted from the effort of summoning and controlling Cassiopeia. "At least we know a creature powerful enough to beat that creature, though."
"Where'd the mystery duelist go?" John commented as the rest of the acolytes left.
"Probably made a run for it," Allie said.
"What did you tell you mom to get here?" Emma asked me.
"I didn't. She had to leave to do something for work a few minutes before you called me," I replied.
"She was already gone for something?" Jameson asked me.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, the creatures appeared about a minute before we contacted you," he told me.
"Are you saying my mom is involved in this?" I asked him.
"It is possible that she kept it a secret from you," he replied. "We will look into this possibility further. Until then, go home and act like nothing is going on."
We nodded and left for our houses.
As I arrived at my house I saw mom's car pull into the driveway, so I practically dove over some bushes to avoid being seen. I waited for her to enter the house before making a mad dash for my room. I was fortunate that my room's at the opposite end of the house, or else I never would have been able to climb through the window, dismiss the Stalker Sphere and pull out a sketchbook before Mom had a chance to open the door.
"Are you alright in here?" she asked me as she walked in.
"Yeah, fine," I replied. "What was going on at work? They never called you in this late before."
"It was nothing," she told me. "They just had some networking issues." Mom works as a computer technician at a local business. "I still need to make a few calls, though. I'll be in my office if you need me."
"Okay," I replied.
"You should get some rest, too," she added before she walked out.
I nodded and right as she closed the door I stood up and walked over to the door. Once I was sure she was in her office I summoned a Stalker Sphere and hooked it up to my phone so that I could watch and hear what it watches and hears.
"Remember not to get caught," I told the sphere. I made it turn invisible and sent it to Mom's office, where it passed through the open door and positioned itself in the upper corner.
Once I was sure it was placed in the proper spot I focused on the screen on my phone.
"Hey, it's me," I heard Mom say into her phone. There was chatter on the other end and I increased the sound sensitivity on the Sphere until I could hear the other person.
"The Duel Masters and their acolytes managed to defeat the Flametropuses we summoned and your Dreadclaw," the person on the other end. "Why couldn't you have been there? You would have crushed them."
I almost dropped the phone.
Mom's one of the bad guys?
I managed to recover and continued to watch the conversation.