Chapter 28: Onslaught

With their previous mishap behind them, The Knights of the Dawn and their four dragons allies had soon flown back up into the air of the Demon Domain. However, they were not flying anywhere nearly as high as before. Instead, they were only flying at a height of roughly two-hundred feet or so.

Having flown around for several minutes so far, the group had not yet succeeded in locating Murdred's castle. However, while locating the massive structure would've been optimal at this point, there was still an acceptable, more feasible second choice, should they so happen to find it.

"Up ahead," said Firesquall. "There's a mountain directly in front of us!"

"I see it too!" noted Skyfrost. "Slightly to the right."

"Is that it?" asked Kendra, who could see some sort of landmass off in the distance. "At one o'clock?"

"Beats me," said Firesquall. "We don't know much about telling time."

"I think I see what you mean," said Warren. "Carry on! You know, I'm glad you dragons are going to be getting home-schooled. There's a lot you need to learn."

"If we don't pull this off, we may not live to see the first day of school," said Ingrid.

"Don't remind me," said Seth, not wanting to think about the consequences as to what would happen if they were to fail their current mission.

Before long, the dragons had reached the mountain that they had spotted. The mountain was not enormous, as the summit was barely higher than the altitude they had been flying at. Having reached their destination, the dragons flew down onto a ledge near the very top of the mountain.

"Good," said Raxtus, as the riders all climbed down from their dragons. "On this mountain, Seth can remain up high, while still keeping his feet on the ground."

"Give it a shot, Seth," said Geminus. "The rest of you, stay by Raxtus and myself. We'll try to keep you shielded."

"Okay," said Seth, as he walked out towards the edge of the ledge. Looking down, he could see the crag of the mountain running down towards the ground below, which was a steep drop all the way to the bottom.

Seth closed his eyes. Once again, he attempted to sense the darkness that was flowing throughout the Demon Domain. As if it were a sixth sense of his, Seth soon felt a tingly feeling coursing its way through his body. Surely enough, he was able to sense a wave of darkness. Thought it was feint, it was easily the most potent negative vibration he could sense. Suddenly, it hit him. This was the exact same sensation he had felt when he had detected Murded's castle in the past.

Opening his eyes, Seth looked around, then pointed towards an eleven o'clock position. "That way! I sensed Murdred's castle!"

"You sure?" asked Kendra.

"Course I'm sure! At least, I hope I am. Anyway, it's the direction I was getting the strongest reading from. No reason not to check it out."

"I've got no objections," said Warren, as he hopped back onto Firesquall. "Seth, Geminus, lead the way."

Okay," said Seth, as climbed back up onto Geminus' back. "Let's go!"

The dragons took off from the ledge and flew in the direction from where Seth had sensed the force of darkness. With no other indication of whether or not they were heading in the right direction, the group found themselves but with no other choice than to follow Seth's intuition.

After flying in a straight line for several minutes, Seth spotted a large structure as it began looming on the horizon, probably about one mile ahead. "Up ahead! You guys see that?"

"I do!" exclaimed Skyfrost. "Could it be?"

"It is!" cried Firesquall. "It's Murdred's castle! Come on! We're almost there!"

"So what's the plan?" asked Ingrid.

"Simple," replied Raxtus. "We fly across the moat. Then, when we reach the other side, all the fairies will focus their energy upon the barrier. If we succeed in breaching it, terrific!"

"And if you don't...," said Seth, turning his head away from the group.

"Oh, Seth..." said Geminus.

Within a minute's time, the dragons were closely approaching the perimeter of the moat. However, before they could continue any further, a large, black figure suddenly crashed into Firesquall, knocking the wyvern and Warren off of their flight path.

"Oh my god!" gasped Kendra. "Are you okay?"

Before either Firesquall or Warren could give a response, the figure, which was constantly moving too fast to get a proper look at, swiftly flew towards Kendra and Raxtus. Kendra held on for her life as the fairy dragon was knocked aside, but still managed to stay airborne.

"You stupid thing!" snapped Firesquall. "Take this!"

Firesquall shot a blast of fire at the perpetually moving figure, which appeared to be vaguely humanoid and sported bat-like wings. However, none of Firesquall's shots managed to hit the figure.

"There's more?" exclaimed Ingrid, as several more figures appeared, all of which proceeded to deliberately crash into each of the dragons.

"These guys are relentless!" said Skyfrost, as one of the figures collided with his wing. "It's too dangerous to fly across the moat with these guys assaulting us!"

"We better take care of these guys on the ground," said Warren, "before we go plummeting into the lava!"

The dragons all dove down towards the ground near the edge of the moat. As they descended, the creatures still continued to ambush them. Eventually, they reached the ground, where it would ideally be harder for the creatures to continuously charge into members of the group.

Now that they had landed, every member of the group faced in a different direction, including upwards.

"Where'd those things even go?" asked Kendra, who failed to spot any creatures zipping around in the air.

"Hey, as long as they're not bothering us, I ain't complaining," said Seth.

"Uh, you guys..." said Skyfrost cautiously.

"What?" asked Seth, who was wondering what Skyfrost was even fretting about.

"Oh no," chimed in Firesquall, as he pointed down along the edge of the moat with his wing.

Stampeding across the edge of the moat was what appeared to be a huge horde of various monsters. There had to be at least one hundred of them, too many to properly count and even so much as analyze. From what Kendra could tell, she couldn't make out entire figures within the crowd, just a mess of claws, horned heads, massive sets of needle-like teeth, and leathery, bat-like wings.

"Monsters!" exclaimed Ingrid. "And there's way too many of them! We've got to get out here!"

"I didn't come all this way just to run away!" snapped Seth, as he whipped out the Pyruby.

"Seth's right," said Warren, as he readied the Sapphazure in his hand. "We stand our ground."

Soon Kendra, Seth, Ingrid and Warren were all holding their relics forward, while Skyfrost and Firesquall readied their breath weapons. By this point, the monster horde was only a number of yards away from the group. At this distance, it was possible to see just how large some of the monsters were; many were easily several stories tall.

"Now!" shouted Warren, as a stream off water gushed out of the Sapphazure. Likewise, the rest of the group all joined in with fire, ice and electricity. As for Kendra, she used the Emerock to rip out a chunk of the ground and hurled it towards the incoming monsters. While some of the monsters at the front of the pack hollered in pain, the crowd kept moving closer.

"There's too many of them!" exclaimed Ingrid, as electricity flowed out from the Diavolt. "We can't take them all on!"

Before running into the group head on, the horde of monsters spread out around the group, until they created a semicircle around them. The group was now surrounded on three sides, the vacant side being the edge of the moat. Now that hey had taken position, the monsters all stepped forward towards the group.

"What do we do?" asked Kendra. "We can't call upon the fairies! We need to save their power!"

"The fairies wouldn't be enough help now!" exclaimed Geminus. "This is too much for anyone!"

"We have to get out of here!" cried Raxtus.

Before Seth could so much as react, a large arm covered in shaggy orange fur reached forward and wrapped its fingers around him. The figure that had grabbed him let out a loud, booming chuckle.

"SETH!" shrieked Ingrid.

"Let me GO!" shouted Seth, as he tried to wriggle his way out of the monstrous claw that had grabbed him.

Suddenly, Seth experienced a strange feeling working its way through his body. He didn't quite understand what it was, but one thing was for sure. He was angry.

"LEAVE US ALONE!" roared Seth, who could feel as darkness flew out from every angle of his body.

At that moment, the monster that had been holding Seth placed him back down on the ground.

Everyone looked around at the monsters. In spite of their breathing and the occasional eye blink, all of the monsters were now standing completely still.

"What... happened?" asked Kendra.

"My darkness," said Seth. "I think it's grown stronger. Stronger enough to assert dominance over all of these creatures of darkness."

"This is bad," said Warren. "You may have stopped the monsters, but it's a sign that your condition's getting worse. We need to get away from these monsters and get into that castle right away!"

"I understand," said Seth. "Just one more thing. "Be gone, monsters! All of you! Get out of here!"

As if on cue, all of the monsters turned around and began walking away from the group, albeit in an unnatural, almost mechanized fashion.

"NO!" hissed a familiar voice. "Don't listen to him!"

"Turn around and finish the job!" said another voice.

Suddenly, the adlets emerged from the rear of the retreating crowd.

"You!" said Seth. "You three! Get out of here!"

"Hah!" scoffed Xipp. "Your darkness is increasing! Too bad it's not enough to overwhelm us!"

"Darkness, shmarkness," said Warren. "It's eight against three. What are we afraid of?"

"Forget them," said Skyfrost. "These guys can't even fly! We can just ditch them!"

"Oh yeah?" asked Xeero.

As Kendra readied the Emerock, Xipp and Xeero bolted towards Skyfrost and Firesquall respectively. Within seconds, the wyverns and adlets had gotten into two rather vicious scuffles.

Meanwhile, Xillch pounced onto Raxtus, and proceeded to claw away at the fairy dragon's face.

"Fight them off!" snapped Seth, as he prepared to aim the Pyruby at Xipp, who was attacking Skyfrost.

"No!" exclaimed Warren, "you'll hit Skyfrost!"

At that moment, Xipp and Xeero bounced off of Skyfrost and Firesquall, both of whom were lying on the ground, looking severely wounded. Very suddenly, the two of them both assaulted Geminus.

"We've gotta do something!" shrieked Ingrid, as the fairy dragons fought against the wyverns.

"Like what?" asked Kendra. "If we attack the adlets like this, we risk hurting the dragons!"

Xillch then slammed Raxtus against the ground and stepped on his head, then joined his kin in ganging up on Geminus. Within seconds, the pink fairy dragon was down on the ground as well.

"Still think we're wimps?" asked Xillch.

"Now!" yelled Warren, as he attempted to blast the adlets with the Sapphazure, only for them all to leap away from the incoming stream of water.

Xeero came down and landed directly on Kendra, pinning her body down against the ground. She attempted to shove the blue adlet off of her, but he was simply too big and heavy. Likewise, Xillch did the same to Seth, and prevented him from getting up as well.

Xipp came down onto Warren, knocking him down as well. However, rather than keeping himself occupied with Warren, Xipp went over to Ingrid, knocking her onto her back. Unlike the other adlets, Xipp picked up Ingrid and proceeded to hoist her up into the air.

"Put me down!" screamed Ingrid, unable to move her arms.

"You give me the Diavolt, weakling!" hissed Xipp. "Now!"

"You can't have it!"

"Then I'll have you... for a snack!"

"HELP!" screamed Ingrid, who squirmed in desperation as Xipp attempted to shove one of her hands into his mouth.

"INGRID!" screamed both Kendra and Seth, who were both unable to get out from underneath Xeero and Xillch.

If there was any time for Kendra to ask for the fairies' assistance, it was now.

"FAI-" shouted Kendra, until Xeero covered her mouth with his claw.

Just as Xipp was about to sink his teeth into Ingrid, a long, metal blade came jutting out of left side of the adlet's chest, directly where his heart was. His teeth just about to clamp down on Ingrid's hand, Xipp's body seized up and fell to the ground. Once Xipp fell, Kendra and Seth could see that Warren had been standing behind the adlet, and had stabbed him through the back of his chest with his sword.

Ingrid, who had fallen over while still in Xipp's grasp, was hyperventilating excessively, as Warren drew his bloody sword out of the fallen adlet.

"Xipp!" snarled Xillch as he and Xeero both turned their heads towards Warren.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" roared Xeero, as he picked up Kendra and tossed her towards Xillch. Xillch then caught Kendra and pinned her down next to Seth.

Warren attempted to counter the incoming adlet with his sword, but Xeero pounced on top of him, knocking him to the ground.

"WARREN!" screamed Seth. With Xillch's claw now covering her mouth, Kendra was unable to say anything.

Warren fought ferociously to fend off the big adlet, but it just appeared to be too strong for him to deal with. As Xeero raised one claw into the air, Warren proceeded to kick the blue adlet directly in his groin. Xeero let out a yelp as he lost his grip on Warren, who slipped out from underneath the adlet and stood up.

Warren tried to back away from Xeero, but was unable to keep the blue adlet away any distance further than the tip of his sword. Warren swung his sword around in front of Xeero's face, only for the adlet to clasp onto the side of the blade with his claws.

While Xeero was preoccupied with the sword, Warren shot a blast of water from the Sapphazure at the adlet's face. Like a wet dog, Xeero shook off the excess water as best he could, then foolishly dropped Warren's sword in order to wipe his face dry.

As Xeero was still distracted by all the water that had soaked his face, Warren used the opportunity to pick up his fallen sword. Before Xeero could react, Warren swiped the sword directly theough Xeero's neck. A moment later, Xeero's body fell down to the ground. At this point, Xeero's decapitated head slid off of his neck, landing in a bloody puddle in front of the fallen adlet.

"That just leaves you," said Warren, pointing his sword at Xillch.

"Oh yeah?" asked Xillch, as he leaped off of Kendra and Seth. Before the two siblings could get their bearings, Xillch had scampered over to Ingrid, picked her up, then lifted the girl over his head.

"Put her down!" yelled Warren.

"Drop your weapons!" quipped Xillch. "Don't try anything funny or I'll kill the girl!

Terrified, Warren proceeded to drop both his sword and the Sapphazure from his hands, which landed on the ground by his feet.

Kendra wanted to attack Xillch somehow, but feared that by interfering, the adlet would harm Ingrid. Even summoning the fairies might take too long.

"You're more of a threat than this pest," said Xillch, as he tossed Ingrid through the air. Ingrid screamed as her body went flying into Kendra, just as she had gotten up, only to fall back down again.

Seth watched as Xillch chased after Warren. Deep down, he wanted to do nothing more than to attack Xillch with the Pyruby, but knew that he risked hitting Warren. Soon Xillch had chased Warren to the edge of the moat, with nowhere left for the human to run.

"Kendra," groaned Ingrid, as she crawled off her sister's body. "I'm sorry."

Xillch quickly lunged at Warren, and succeeded in pinning him to the ground. Seth watched in horror as Xillch attempted to gnaw at Warren, who narrowly managed to avoid the adlet's razor sharp teeth by slipping directly underneath his wolf-like body.

Kendra got up just in time to see Warren angle his feet upwards and thrust them into Xillch's stomach. Xillch quickly lost his grasp on Warren and was stumbling around on all fours, trying to maintain his balance.

Warren quickly got up and took a few steps away from Xillch. Just as Xillch turned around to face him, Warren came running at Xillch at a high speed and delivered a flying kick directly into his snout. Xillch let out a yelp, then unconsciously stumbled a few steps backwards. However, Xillch failed to remember that he was standing at the top of a cliff, and proceeded to fall back off the edge.

Kendra, Seth and Ingrid had all gotten up, just in time to see Xillch falling down the cliff, loudly howling in distress until his body plunged directly into the lava, failing to reemerge.

Warren let out a deep breath. "Wow. Am I glad I don't have to fight those three every morning!"

"And you never will again," said Ingrid. "Xipp, Xeero and Xillch. They're dead!"

"That was pretty awesome," said Seth, as he walked over to where the dragons were all getting back up onto their feet. "You guys better?"

"Yeah," said Skyfrost. "Mom and Dad were out for a moment, but they regained consciousness and healed us."

"Warren just took on all three adlets?" asked Firesquall. "By himself And won? But... how? They just creamed all of us!"

"Whatever I did, I'm not giving an encore," said Warren, as he picked up his fallen sword and Sapphazure.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Geminus.

"I'm a little bruised from all that," said Kendra, as she felt scrapes on her elbows, underneath her sleeves. "Nothing serious though."

"I think we all took a bit of a whooping," said Seth. "Those adlets fight dirty."

"I think a little healing is in order," said Raxtus. "You deserve it."

Raxtus and Geminus both exerted a white, mist-like breath upon Kendra, Seth, Ingrid, Warren, Skyfrost and Firesquall. Within seconds, Kendra and Seth could feel the pains and scrapes throughout their bodies suddenly healing up.

"Great," said Ingrid. "We're all better, and there's no more monsters to deal with."

"Ingrid," said Kendra, as she pointed across the moat to the castle. "There is still one final monster we need to deal with."

Seth slowly nodded. "And he is by far the worst one of them all."