CHAPTER 3

            Ashgar watched as his ash hyren was reduced to dust by Lanyx's scythe.  The Cald shadow magi drew back his scythe before he dreamed up a core grag to battle Ashgar's remaining creature, a drakan.

            "Your hyrens aren't that strong, are they?" Lanyx said mockingly.

            "I don't need hyrens to kill you, traitor," Ashgar replied.  A fireball appeared in his hand.

            The core grag charged towards Ashgar's drakan.  Ashgar aimed and fired.  The fireball hurtled towards the core grag with blinding speed.  If everything went according to the way Ashgar planned, the core grag would be blown to smithereens before it could attack his drakan.

            But Ashgar wasn't experienced in battling Core creatures.  He had never fought a core grag before.  As the fireball reached the core grag, the core grag started to burn with black fire.  The burning core grag split into seven pieces of small chunks of burning mass, creating a rain of fireballs.  The first few shots destroyed the drakan while the rest flew straight towards Ashgar.

            Pain filled the Cald magi's body.  He was shot back a few metres before he crumpled down onto the ground.

            "You're no fun," Lanyx said.  "I wanted to fight Barak, not you. You're just a useless old geezer."

            But Ashgar wasn't done yet.  Ashgar leaped up onto his feet faster than any normal old person could do.  He wasn't just an old geezer.  He was an old geezer with power.  And spells.  Lots of them.

            "FLAME GEYSER!!" Ashgar shouted.

            The ground underneath Lanyx turned red.  He didn't even have enough time to scream as a column of lava erupted from underneath him, sending him flying.

*           *           *

            "CATACLY...no.  Too big.  MINI CATACLYSM!!" Harror shrieked.  (A normal cataclysm would have blown half of the battlegrounds away, herself included)

            Nimbulo watched helplessly as his dream creatures were knocked off the battlefield one by one.  Harror was obviously stronger than she looked.  Nimbulo had made a mistake by underestimating the Arderial shadow magi.  If it weren't enough that she had powerful Core spells at her disposal, she had also mastered a few Arderial spells.  Cataclysm was one of them.

            "Alaban!" Nimbulo shouted as he dreamed up a serpent-like Arderial creature.  He had to act quickly if he wanted to beat Harror.  She had youth, speed, and power in her.  He had knowledge.  It wasn't much, but it would have to do for the time being.

            "Heh," Harror grinned.  "Dark ayebaw!" she shouted, dreaming up her own dream creature.

*           *           *

            "Go timber hyren! Crush that shryque!" Orwin commanded.

            Warrada and Hrada watched as their dream creature was ripped to shreds by the giant dream creature that Orwin had dreamed up.  Hrada was limping slightly since he was still hurt from the flying boulders.

            Warrada turned to her brother and gave him a menacing stare.  "Let me choose the dream creature this time."

            "How was I supposed to know that Orwin had a timber hyren that big?" Hrada exclaimed.

            Warrada dreamed up a chaos jile to battle Orwin's timber hyren.  "Come on, old man," she said.  "My brother may be an idiot—

            "HEY!" Hrada shouted, nudging his sister.

            Warrada just ignored her brother.  "My brother may be an idiot, but I am not."

            "You're the ones who corrupted Evu," Orwin said slowly.  He stepped forward, his eyes burning with rage.  "I won't forgive you for taking Naroom away from me.  You will pay!"

            "Make us," Warrada smiled slyly.

*           *           *

            "Look around you, Rayje.  Look at all this fighting.  You know that you can't win this battle," Agram said slowly.

            Rayje walked up to his construct's lowered hand and leaped onto it.  The construct placed Rayje on its shoulder.  "Maybe.  But I'll be damned if I let you win without a fight."

            "Heh.  Your choice," Agram replied.  His core hyren stretched its wings above Agram.  "Let us begin then."

*           *           *

            "You're no elder.  I just knew that fighting you would be so easy," Chur said as she shot out another beam of dark energy towards Kyg'n.  The Kybar's Teeth magi gave out a shout before he was slammed into a wall behind him.

            "Damn it, I don't understand," Kyg'n groaned as he tried to stand up.  His body felt as if it had been thrown through a giant blender.  The pain that he felt now was intense.  He had never felt such pain before.  "How could you be so strong?  I've tried everything..."

            Chur kicked Kyg'n in the face.  "There's nothing you can do, weakling."

            "Maybe," Kyg'n reached down his pockets, as if he were searching for something.  "Maybe if you corrupted me..."

            "Are you surrendering?" Chur smiled.

            "Uhh..." Kyg'n slipped a ring onto his finger.

            "No."

            Chur didn't have time to react.  Kyg'n had kicked her in the face before he somersaulted away.  Where had the sudden burst of strength come from?

            Kyg'n tossed away a small green stone that Chur recognized as a dewstone.  She cursed herself for not finishing Kyg'n when she had the chance.

            "Heh.  Gotta get me more of those.  Ullig's rocks really work," Kyg'n whispered to himself.

            But still, what difference would it make? Kyg'n was still going to lose.

            "Yaargh!  Go darge!" Kyg'n shouted as his ring started to glow.

            Just then, the ground under Chur started to move.  Slowly, a large figure rose.  It was a darge, a Kybar's Teeth creature that was known to be resistant to the power of the Core.

            "Giving up now would be an insult to Targ'n's memory.  I'd rather die first," Kyg'n said defiantly.  He picked up his climbing staff, knowing that the battle was far from over.

*           *           *

            The gorath gave a yelp of pain as it was dragged down onto the ground. One of its chains was now in the hands of Rayje's colossus.  The large robotic dream creature was dragging the gorath around as if it were a mere ragdoll.

            Meanwhile, the construct was engaging Agram's core hyren.  The construct had the advantage in power, but the hyren was faster.  Most of the attacks that the construct had launched so far had ended in failure.

            Rayje was still standing on the construct's shoulder, barking commands and giving orders.  The core hyren was still flying around, still full of energy. Rayje's creatures, however had began to slow down.

            The colossus gave one last punch, destroying the gorath. Only the core hyren remained.  But Rayje was so busy paying attention to the hyren that he didn't notice Agram pointing his hand towards him.

            Purple sparks of energy started to appear around Agram's outstretched hand...

*           *           *

            "You WHAT?" Tony stood up.  He was in a totally different place now.  The last place he remembered was the dark and damp region of the Core.  Now, he was in Tryn's living room, which was far from being dark and mysterious.  It was bright and cheerful, with all those Barak portraits on the wall.

            "Rayje told us to bring you here," Tryn said.

            Tony made his way towards the door.  "Geez, who does that guy think he is? Does he think that he can do everything on his own?" He slipped on his animite rings.  Tryn had completely healed all of his creatures, and Tony was now ready for battle.

            "But what I don't get...is how he destroyed all of my hyrens in one shot," Tony said slowly.  "Is he really that powerful?  I did defeat him the last time..."

            "I don't know.  Rayje is fighting him as we speak.  Maybe he'll get a bit tired out if we fight him one by one," Barak suggested.

            "One by one," Tony muttered.  "Won't that take too long?"

            "Hey, what's the rush?" Tryn smiled brightly.  "It's not like Agram is calling up a powerful spell that will wipe out the entire Core if we don't hurry up, right?"

            "Uhh..." Tony didn't know the answer to that.  Come to think of it...what was Agram up to?

*           *           *

            Rayje fell to the ground with a loud clank.  Agram had just blasted him off his construct and now, he was lying on the ground with a severe pain running down his back.

            "Can't stop now," Rayje told himself.  Grimacing in pain, the magi stood up.  Strangely, he felt lighter.  He looked at his hands, his body, his waist...

            "MY BELT!!!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

            Rayje's belt was lying on the ground where he fell.  So were his sword and shield that were attached to it. 

            "AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!!!"

            The belt was cracked in the middle, which loosened its clutch around Rayje's waist.

            "MWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

            Rayje started to cry.  It deafened everything on the battlefield.

            Agram forced his hands onto his ears.  "W...WHAT THE—

            Even so, he could still feel Rayje's cries piercing into his skull.  Everyone was suffering the same situation as Agram.

            "MWWAAHAAAAAAA!!!"

            Agram couldn't take it any longer.  "WHAT ARE YOU SO FURIOUS ABOUT?!  IT'S JUST A SMALL CRACK!!" he bellowed.

            "I DON'T CARE IF IT'S SMALL OR BIG!!!  IT'S STILL CRACKED!!!  MWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"  As Rayje's cries grew louder, the rocks and sand that covered the Core's lands started to float, defying gravity.  Rayje's body gleamed in bright yellow light that swallowed the darkness around him.  His fists clenched and sparkled with white energy.  The "destruction" of his "unrepairable" and "legendary" belt had made him unleash...

Something.

            "HYYAAAAAAAARRGH!!!"  His eyes turned red.

            "YOU WILL PAY!!!"