Episode 3: The Underground Passage

Joe and Max travelled towards the city of Serland, in the northern reaches. There were already traces of destruction in the way. As they grew closer to the Mountains that separated the city from the rest of Angara, they noticed the bodies of the merchants froms Serland. It seemed they had a nasty encounter with the werewolves.

"They will pay for this…" Max said.

"Hurry" said Joe, "If the city is under attack we will need to find and rescue the elder priest amongst hundreds of werewolves. And getting him out of there won't be easy"

"Wait. If it's such a huge army, they won't be able to pass through the cave easily. And if they go through the Mountain Pass, they can take easily three or four days to the other side…" Max looked at the road leading to the Pass. The forms of hundreds of wolves easily seen against the white snow of the mountain.

"They are ahead of us by two days, at least…" Joe thought " We could easily reach the city before them by taking the underground passage. But they must have left someone guarding it's entrance…"

"All right, we'll go through the mines. But…" Joe looked at Max, who understood clearly what he meant.

"I know. Probably twenty or thirty. Nothing difficult for us, eh? Let's go!"

…………………………..

There were not twenty or thirty werewolves in the entrance. There were eighty. At least. But they posed no threath to two experienced and well trained djinn hunters.

Joe stabbed his last werewolf with the Flaming sword technique, but between the death growls and roars he heard " Please… avenge… us…, Captain Seth…". Max appeared, covered in werewolf blood.

"There's someone else inside the cave. Apparently the leader. We'll have to be extra-careful kid." But as he said this a man came out of the cave. He was covered in wolf skin and was tattoed with strange designs and runes. He had pointy ears, long teeth and claws. A strange power emanated from him. And a hostility like they had never felt before.

"Joe and Max, I presume" he said, grinning. " I've heard so much about you. But you don't seem like the powerful warriors that everyone is talking about".

"And you must be Seth, the Captain of these beasts" Max interrupted him. He was ready to attack him. Then, he charged. A rushed attack that didn't even touched the werewolf. He was too fast for him. Max turned around and attacked with his mighty axe. Seth evaded the first blow easily, ducked the second, and laughed as he leaped over the third. He quickly punched Max in the face, throwing him out of balance, but the punch was soon followed by a second, third, and fourth attack, his arms moving so fast that only a blur could be seen. At last an uppercut sent Max flying, and he fell, unconscious, against the rock wall of the cave.

It then ran towards Joe, who was now prepared for the attacks. Seth launched a barrage of punches and kicks that could have been deadly, except for the fact that Joe was almost as fast as him. He sent a fireball, but Seth evaded it. Then he ran quickly in circles around Joe, now creating some sort of tornado around him, but Joe quickly casted a firewall around himself, forcing Seth to leap backwards to escape.

"Not bad," He said "but this is only the beginning!" and then he reached for an earring in his left ear.

"Zephyr, I command you!" He shouted "Make me faster! Faster! FASTER!" It was a tone in his voice like that of a madman, but he glowed purple for a second, and Joe realized that Zephyr was a Jupiter Djinni, as the wolf tribe was connected to Air's Rock and the Wind Powers.

But now Seth was extremely fast, moving from place to place in the blink of an eye. He charged towards Joe, and punched him in the stomach. But before he could fall down, he was hit again, this time with a kick to his chest that sent him flying. He landed not too far away, but the hits were very powerful. He didn't stood up so easily.

Joe knew that he had to think quickly, but there was no time, He knew he had to buy time. But what spell would slow down the werewolf, even for an instant? The answer came quickly.

"Pyroclasm!" He cried.

Seth charged again, and as he approached he evaded the volcanoes that appeared under his feet. But he was soon trapped in a fiery circle of lava.

Seth was far too fast to be burned with it, and as he leaped towards Joe, he spinned in mid-air so the fire itself receded, and landed outside the circle. He was now within striking range, but just when he was about to hit him, Max attacked from the distance.

"Grand Gaia!"

The werewolf leapt backwards, barely evading the attack.

Then Max took a topaz from his left hand. It sparkled faintly with a golden light.

"Ground, I command you! Use gravity to hold my foe!" Several orbs appeared from nowhere and entered the werewolf's body, holding it against the ground.

"Now Joe, finish him!"

Joe charged all of his psynergy in his hands, a bright red light surrounding them. Then he pointed them at the werewolf and cried "Rising Dragon!"

Suddenly a column of fire shot from underground, taking the werwolf with it. It rose several miles in the air, exploding fiercely. When the attack finished, there was nothing left of him.

Suddenly a white and blue creature appeared next to the crater. Joe approached it and said calmly:

"You must be Zephyr"

The creature nodded.

"Come. We don't have much time left."

The djinni obediently jumped into the sky and divided into several spheres of energy and entered Joe's body. A ring with a purple gem appeared in his hand.

"He did put up one hell of a fight, eh kid? But we showed him, eh? We showed him who was boss, didn't we?" Max seemed to forget that he was knocked out before he even attacked.

………………

Night was falling and the werewolf army was now well in it's way toward's Serland. They entered the cave, unsure that they could reach the ice city before them. In a desperate race against time, they were running out of it. And each minute that passed in the cave, brought doom closer and closer to the City and the Lighthouse.