Chapter 5: Homefront- part II

Kari slowly got to her feet, tears still streaming down her face, her green and white nightgown sprinkled with dust that used to be her mother. Although saddened greatly by the loss of her own mother to some unknown person, her face was showing rage and anger towards the woman in front of her. A pale green aura was visible around her as she concentrated as well as she could, but her anger was clouding her thoughts.

The woman laughed in an evil sort of way. "Do you honestly think you can defeat me with such pitiful control of mana?" she said humorously. "You had so much more when you killed Aken!" she then smirked as she called her creature. A dark circle was formed and shot up a dark cloud. The cloud hung in the air before it began to take form, until a horse materialized in front of the woman. Sitting on that horse appeared to be a samurai, whose eyes shone purple in the dark as he held his weapon close. Kari was either to blinded by rage to see the real threat of the creature, or else she just wasn't used to seeing the creature known in the game as the Hand of Cruelty.

Kari focused as well as she could, hoping she could learn how to use her mana quick. She never had the chance to learn how from Diron or Nick, and she realized this wasn't a good thing at all. Yet she focused on her thoughts and managed to get a creature of her own out. When she opened her eyes, which were closed while she concentrated on her thoughts, she almost wet her panties when she saw the specter standing next to her. She realized a moment later what it was, a phantom of a dead nomadic warrior. The silent warrior stood in front of its master in an attempt to protect her. To her, his timing couldn't have been perfect, until she saw the dark samurai charge.

The phantom stood defiantly in the way, only to have the samurai literally plow through the mist of the creature without causing any harm. The blade weapon he held went through the specter and actually hit her. She screamed in pain as she felt blood trickling down her side, where the blade had cut into her shoulder. The woman laughed again. "Sorry, weakling," she taunted, "but my samurai can easily avoid a creature like that. Hell, he could easily hurt your phantom and not get hurt himself." That's when Kari saw it, an excessively dark aura around him in which no light passed through at all.

'No light…' she thought painfully and angrily, clutching her wounded shoulder with her good arm. Her eyes widened in realization. 'He is protected from the phantom.' She focused again as well as she could, being rewarded with an old artifact with ceremonial paper on it. "Phantom," she said painfully, "Get her while she is unguarded by her warrior." The phantom nodded and disappeared for a moment. The woman didn't see the creature reappear out of nowhere and pass right through her, a burn mark appearing where it passed through. It was that woman's turn to scream in pain, yet seemed to be enjoying it. Her yellow eyes locked with Kari's green eyes.

"I'm mildly impressed," the woman said, "but that was nothing compared to the pain you will soon feel!" The samurai charged again and sliced at her, ripping the material from her nightgown as he nicked her chest. She dropped to a knee as the necromancer then summoned a rat with what appeared to be tentacles sticking out of its samurai armored body. She grimaced as she forced herself to think of something else. She managed to gather some more mana, and felt she had enough for her other phantom. She tried focusing on it, being rewarded with a centaur standing with her nomad with a greenish glow to it. Its eyes glowed a bright white as it stood its ground alongside her.

The nomad then made its charge on the necromancer again. This time, the rat creature stood in front of its master and took the blow of the phantom, suffering from his entire middle being blown open by the heat that the phantom generated. The phantom glowed dimmer from the move, for the rat had held its blade in front of it and messed with the ectoplasm forces keeping the phantom in a semi-material form. Kari looked in shock as the tentacles enclosed around the hole in the rat and fused to restore the flesh there. A moment later, the rat was fully healed and the tentacles reappeared. "Nice try, but Kuro's taken tend to regenerate from attacks," the woman laughed. She then struck back. A villainous ogre appeared next to her from another black cloud while the rat and samurai charged in.

"Centaur, the horseman," Kari said, praying he would listed. He did and stood in front of the samurai warrior. The two entangled in a cruel melee which resulted in the samurai dead on the ground with his head taken off and bleeding on the ground. However, the rat made his strike and hit Kari herself, striking her leg deep enough to scratch the thigh bone and damage her gown even more. She really did fall on to her knees this time, and now she couldn't get herself back up.

She was getting rather angered about her predicament as she summoned her phantom tiger and waited, planning a defensive. She knew she'd need her warriors to defend herself, otherwise she'd be wide open to attack. She never should have waited, for another black cloud formed, this one with clacking chains being sounded. When the creature emerged, she saw an ugly creature with three eyes and horns for ears. His entire body was wrapped in chains that were broken. "Like my demon?" the necromancer said. "Yukora, the Prisoner. Although he will kill all non-ogres I summon if he dies, he is powerful enough to cause problems for you as he is." She smirked slightly. "For now, though, I won't attack."

Kari frowned. 'What is she thinking,' she thought angrily as she just attacked with her centaur in her rage, not even bothering to add additional creatures. As she expected, the necromancer's creatures couldn't get in the way and the wizard herself was struck in the side. She spat up some blood, but chuckled to herself. Before Kari could do anything else, the necromancer retaliated. She saw the creatures charge her and blocked the demon with her nomad, knowing it wouldn't kill anything anyways. She was then trying to get her tiger to deal with the ogre before she was bitten bad. She looked at her side to see her phantom tiger's teeth deep within her side, its eyes glowing black with possession. She barely had time to scream before the other creatures hit her hard, those with blades damaging her nightgown enough to have it half fall of while causing her to bleed even more. She struggled to keep herself up with her good hand, but could tell that failing to do something sooner was going to cost her.

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Diron froze in front of a simple, two story house after running for only ten minutes at full speed. His senses were tingling with mana. He could sense the mana of Kari as well as another wizard, yet also felt mana from other beings inside. Also, he felt something that irritated him as well. "There's a mana duel inside," he said, a red circle forming on his side as one of his creatures were summoned. A ring of fire formed before a Vulshock Berserker appeared, screaming in a rage. "…and someone is dead in there," he continued glumly.

Nick nodded as he summoned Kamahl the Pit Fighter. "Then lets pray that it isn't someone we or Kari know that died," Nick said. Looking at the door, he said simply, "Let's just get in and make sure she's alright quickly." Diron nodded and allowed his Vulshock to enter first. Unfortunately, it chose to ram through the door. Shrugging, the two wizards entered the house with their creatures, unaware that a man in a nearby car was watching them intently before picking up his cell phone.

They entered in time to see Kari get attacked by her own phantom creature along with the necromancer's warriors. "How's it feel to get hit by your own creature?" the necromancer gloated, too preoccupied to notice the newer threat behind her. Diron looked at Nick, who then nodded and pointed at the woman in black. Kamahl nodded and wielded his sword. "Even if you do send that centaur again, you wouldn't last any longer."

"How about a strike from behind," Kamahl growled, shocking the necromancer a moment before his sword found its way through her body. She coughed up blood as some more poured from the hole in her gut. Kamahl, as he withdrew his sword, grabbed the hood and ripped it off her head. Jet black hair spilled out of the hood's remains as her yellow eyes widened in shock. The shadows that surrounded her face disappeared to reveal the face of a girl no older than seventeen.

She glared at the two that had arrived. "Damn," she murmured as her creatures disappeared. "As much as I wish to kill you, I don't have the time." Before Kamahl could do anything else, the girl smashed him hard in the face and escaped as if she weren't even wounded. With the immediate threat gone, both wizards moved to Kari's side and checked to make sure she was alright. She had passed out shortly after the necromancer left, yet tears still streamed down her face silently.

"Man," Nick said. "She's hurt pretty bad… and her clothes aren't much better." He looked at Diron. "She needs to rest and heal now."

"I know," Diron said in reply. "Not only is there physical exhaustion, but mental as well. We never had time to show her how to properly summon a creature or use spells, so she would have needed to concentrate a hell of a lot to accomplish what she managed to do." He looked around the room, still having that sense that someone died in that room, yet there was no evidence of anyone else in there. "We're going to her room. She'll rest there. Once she is rested enough to move, she will take what she needs and we will get out of here. Its too dangerous to remain here any longer."

Nick nodded in agreement and had Kamahl pick up the wounded girl, then followed them as they searched the remaining rooms until they found hers. Nick waited as Kamahl moved to the bed and put her down gently, while Diron ran into her bathroom to retrieve some medical supplies. It didn't take him very long to find what he was looking for and return to her room. He laid the med kit down next to the bed as he pulled out what would be needed to help her.

"Hey, Diron," Nick said, getting the older teen's attention. "I have a bad feeling about this. I'm just going to make sure nothing enters the house, Ok?"

The older teen shrugged. "Be my guest. If there is trouble, just make sure I know." Nick nodded and left the room with Kamahl following, leaving Diron to clean and bandage up the young girl's wounds. He removed what remained of her nightgown and wrapped up the wounds that it barely was able to hide. 'What the hell was she thinking?' he thought as he finished with her shoulder and side, and began to work on where a blade has sliced her chest barely. 'If it was Reika, it wouldn't have been that much for her, but Kari wasn't taught how to summon yet.' He finished bandaging those wounds as well as he started on her one leg, frowning at how deep the cut was.

"m..ther….." he heard her murmur in her unconscious state, her tears still streaming. Diron paused a moment.

'Mother…' he thought questionably. 'What?'

His eyes widened as she stirred slightly and awoke slowly, her green eyes locking with his weakly. "d-Diron.." she said weakly, failing to notice her gown was missing.

"Relax for now," he said quickly, finishing on the last wound she had. "You've been through a lot tonight." She looked sadly at him, tears still in her eyes. "I doubt those tears are for your wounds."

She looked away. "that's because they aren't," she said softly. "They're for….mother…." She started crying like she did before her battle again. Diron was about to ask when she beat him to the punch. "That w-woman….s-she killed my m-mother…had her w-waste away until she was dust…." She closed her eyes as she continued to cry, and Diron couldn't think of anything to say offhand to comfort her.

He sighed miserably at what he was told. "You aren't the only one," he said. She was still crying, but she had heard him speak and that made her try to control herself. She looked at him while her tears still streamed down, reducing her outbursts to whimpers as well as she could. "I've battled the group that woman was in before. They tried to kill me, but…" A tear left his own eye. "..my mother…s-she tried to stop them and died before my eyes." His one fist clenched while Kari gasped slightly. "At that time, I couldn't control the amount of mana channeled within me with that much anger and ended up destroying the entire house, with only my mother's body and myself surviving the flames that engulfed the house." He closed his eyes as he chose to finish. "I buried her nearby my old house before I left for good. I've now been alone for almost two years, and have been on Dark Omen's shit list for what had happened. I'm stronger now, so I'm probably a threat to them, but now you got involved as well. It's my fault you're in that condition right now."

"Diron," she said, showing some limited control of the waterworks. "There's nothing to be done now. They attacked me and killed my mother, and I can't forgive them for that…" Suddenly, they both heard yelling and shooting from downstairs, as well as a roar of a creature. Nick arrived at the door to her room a moment later.

"We've got company," he said quickly, barely acknowledging the fact that Kari was conscious.

"What kind?"

"Cops!" Both Diron and Kari's eyes widened in surprise. "Someone saw us enter this house and recognized Kamahl from the mall, not to mention the screaming the neighbors heard!" He growled in irritation. "Even worse, that bitch from before is with him and claimed that the three of us killed someone in here!"

Kari's aura flared for a moment, before the mana it created caused her wounds to burn. She gasped at the pain, then gritted her teeth. "My mother is dead, but there's nothing left of her body thanks to that bitch!"

Diron cleared his throat. "It wouldn't matter now! We need to get out of here, otherwise Dark Omen would easily get us where they want us."

Nick looked at them both. "Some of my creatures, especially Kamahl, are covering for us down below. They won't stay long, most of them can't realize the threat of a pistol!"

Diron nodded. "As much as I hate to say this, but we'll need to fly our way out. Nick, summon one of your dragons to get us out of here." He looked at Kari. 'She can't do much until her wounds heal…' "Kari, where are your clothes?"

She blinked in confusion, but then pointed behind him with her good arm. "That dresser," she said, wanting to get up and help. She gasped as she felt the pain, giving up on getting up. "My cards are in there as well." she said as an afterthought.

Diron nodded and moved to the dresser, pulling out a shirt and one of her skirts at random and tossing them to her. "Try to put those on. We're not going to have you ride that thing in your underclothes." She looked down and finally noticed her nightgown was missing, shooting Diron an I'll-get-you-later look while her cheeks turned a mild shade of red and as she managed to get her clothes on as well and quickly as possible.

"I'm ready to summon Darigaaz," Nick said. He froze as he felt mana leaving one of his creatures. "we'd better hurry, Kamahl just got beaten by the cops."

Diron nodded. "Here's a move not listed in the game," he said as he focused his mana on the table. A red glowing circle surrounded it and engulfed it within a sphere. The sphere then shrunk itself down to the size of a marble and stopped glowing. He picked up the little red marble, which had the miniaturized furniture within it, and showed it to Kari before opening a pouch to put it in safely. "A more convenient way to move stuff around," he explained. He moved over to Kari and lifted her up. Unprepared for what he was doing, she yelled and punched at him with her good arm, although he shrugged it off. "Lets go."

Nick nodded and focused on his mana and the image of Darigaaz and the mana forms required to bring him to their world. A large golden circle appeared near him, mixtures of black, red, and green flowing within the circle. Those three colors blossomed out until a hole existed where the circle was, then it appeared. Darigaaz's head popped up out of the ground and forced its way up, bringing its body out and smashing a hole in the roof simultaneously. "Oops," Nick muttered. "I forgot he's pretty big…"

Diron shook his head. "Just gives her another reason to hit me," he said, moments before Kari's good hand smashed into his head hard. He shot a look at the thrashing girl that caused her to stop. "Kari, we had no choice here. Either we did what we could to save your life, or else we could just let those cops take you. Either way, Dark Omen will be after us, but getting away will allow you to defend yourself next time you see them."

She looked away. "I know…" she said softly, clearly hating the fact that she would have to leave.

"In here! Break the door down!" Diron wasted no time upon hearing that voice. He and Nick got onto Darigaaz's back as quickly as possible. As Nick gave his dragon the order to take off, Diron made sure that Kari was on the dragon and wouldn't fall off. The dragon roared as it flapped its wings and took the trio away from the house, just as the cops busted into her room. Bullets were fired at the dragon moments later, but it either didn't get hit or easily ignored the bullets that did as it flew off into the night.

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Ari watched as the dragon flew away while the cops searched the house and tried to stop Darigaaz. She watched as the cops extracted the body of a blond haired woman and a dog from the building, smirking to herself. They were actually the transformed bodies of her Hand of Cruelty and his horse, making it look like the girl's mother was slaughtered along with their 'dog.'

'That should work,' she thought as she started leaving the scene of the homicide. 'Those bodies will disappear within a few days, but it already would've sparked a manhunt for those two.' She smirked as she held a black marble in her hand. 'Meantime, that other one will be the eyes and ears of Lord Zinek. When the lord sees the timing right, he will make sure that both of those wizards are dead.'

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That is chapter 5 of this story now. Moving day is upon me, so this will be the last chapter to get out before the computer is disconnected. I will continue this story when I can get the chance.

Reviews: 2

Arrathir- thanks for the comment, and yes she has been playing behind the times. The legendary creatures she used in chapter 3 should be sufficient proof.

Demigod- O.O' circle of protections are banned? Are you sure about that? Lu Chao and the proofreading staff seem to disagree with you there. Anyway, there might not be time for her or the others to participate in tournaments, especially with what's happening.

Special thanks to the proofreading staff for this chapter. See you guys when I return….