A Tale of Many an Adventurer- Joe's Story
Chapter 20
Joebushy- If any of you ever feel like emailing me, my new email is I know no one would ever want to email me, but in case I ever become famous... you'll know where to find me. Anyway, I figured I needed some new partners for Joe to adventure with. By the way, I might begin to rewrite the original story soon. Hopefully I can get the chapters longer from now on here. No flames anymore, please. I will accept some constructive critcism though ( If it doesn't include something ive got, a.k.a. worst story ever with the most errors possible).
John awoke, fully aware of the extreme temperature that the tent had adapted. He looked around at the people in the tent. Thirteen people, including himself. Missing were Joe, Christopher, and Brad. Maybe they were out lighting a campfire. They had to be. He grabbed his wand from the holder on his right side and walked outside the tent. What he saw could have been the most dreadful thing he had seen yet in Kealato.
Fire was everywere. The trees around him were engulfed in flames, and the grass seemed to be only charcoals. For a moment he could only stare at the savage glare. It took only a couple seconds, though, until his adrenaline kicked in and he began to act in saving the area.
" Everyone out! Fire!" John yelled into the tent. Everyone began to groan simaltaneously.
" Shut up," Jake grumbled, climbing farther under the leaves of his bed. John walked over to him and raised his wand. Jake paid no attention.
"Eat this!" John yelled, pointing his wand at the ceiling. It blew off in a powerful gust wind. Everyone shot up attentively as the flames crept toward the camping area.
A flaming tree was beginning to sway violently. It finally gave way toward the heroes.
It had nearly collapsed on Amit before he raised his hand and yelled " Creight!" A sheild immediatly encaved him, and the flaming tree split in two over his head. " What the hell! You could have yelled something! You're all fags... Holy Sh-" He dodge rolled another just as it cratered to the ground where he had previously been.
"We have to find the other three!" Zach yelled, concocting his health potions and throwing as many exploding potions as he could.
John began to think quickly. He needed a strategy. If he wasn't strategic, someone wouldn't make it out alive. He voiced the first idea that came to mind. " Jake, Zach, Amit, Kevin, and Jude, stay here with me. Joseph, go look for the rest of us."
" And if we don't find them?" Joseph questioned. John glared at him as if to say that it wouldn't happen.
Meanwhile, Joe, Brad, and Christopher had come upon an eeriely deserted town. It was all too much reminding of Mythinea. Everything seemed in place. Food was on tables and the tailor's lantern was still lit. No one said anything as they walked into the town shop, a shabby cranny tucked between an old looking house and and old-growth tree.
Brad was just about ready to put a potion in his bag when he noticed something moving from the corner of his eye. " Was that one of you?" he questioned. Joe and Christopher looked at him.
" Nope," Christopher said casually. He looked toward the counter and saw a shadowed figure sitting in the chair behind it. " um... Joe?" He asked, turning toward the healing mage. Joe looked at him as he pointed toward the empty chair behind the counter.
" We don't need antidotes, if that's what you mean, unless your brain is poisened." The shelves began to rattle madly. Joe looked around and saw the same blackened creature standing in a corner. " Guys!" he yelled. The three looked to the corner.
" And what is it we have here?" the shadow asked in a low, haunted voice. " A couple of heroes who've just finished off the first of my top minions? Well, you've finished your last enemy, my friends." The creature stepped out of the corner, revealing what features it had. No doubt he was an archfiend, but he was nothing like Naraf. He had some of the same ghastly attributes- the black wing on one side and the long, dark silver hair dangling like a ghost to his shoulders. But nothing else resembled their previous rival.
The visible part of his face was white, but on the top right and bottem left of his face he had metal plates, scratched from combat. His body was fully black, or a black that thought it was dark purple. The purple mist expelled from the waist down, whereas no features were visable. Where his feet should have been only the mist shown, making him all the more mortifing.
" Who are you?" Christopher asked.
"Efkof," the creature answered. His red eyes seemed to be staring at each one of them. " A name you shan't forget as long as you live. I've noticed your accent. Where are you from?"
Joe searched his mind for the true answer. Would earth be a legitament answer, or did existance reach into infinity? He didn't know how large Kealato was, so he answered with all he could come up with. " A land on this planet many miles away..." He looked around the shop for a name. " The country of Potiantido," he finished. His mind laughed, even considering the situation.
" I have never heard of such a place, though I will consider the answer." Efkof said. " Now, I will let you live, or, at least, not kill you personally. But this whole planet, simply put- is damned to be destroyed. So, my adversaries, I bid you farewell. Stock up on water; you'll be needing plenty for what you're about to do."
A cold feeling immediatly fell upon the three humans. The potions in the shop all began to freeze, and all the glass began to to break. Efkof turned about face and dissapeared through the wall. Joe, Brad, and Christopher stood there frozen to the spot, paralyzed by archfiend magic.
" Axel, watch it! That tree's about to colapse!" Joseph yelled. Axel threw his boomerang at the falling object, throwing the tree off target and behind the seven that were attemting to find the three soloists. Joseph was leading the search party, hoping that if they did see something he would be able to tell everyone then come up with a strategy.
Chris ran up to Joseph to talk. " What if the fire's already reached Joe, Brad, and Christopher?" he asked. Joseph stared ahead.
" It already may have," he said. " Everyone, full speed!" The seven heroes charged into the upcoming town, hoping their friends were ok amidst the burning buildings. The town had been deserted, or so it seemed, only moments before. It was Mythinea all over.
Joseph looked past the town; into the mountaineous valley that followed. There he saw two groups of people, one ahead of the other. The first he didn't recognize, though they looked just as full of poverty and poorness as the second. The second were no doubt the people of Mythinea, trailing only a mile behind. This sight almost completely proved one thing. The three that were searching for Marshmallow the Lynx were closer. Even more, they were likely still in this town. Joseph could just sense it. Along with that, he sensed a great sorce of darkness coming from the shop on his right.
The team gathered around the outpost's wooden walls. If anything, Joe was in there, and he was in trouble. " On three," the cavalier said, " We storm the door."
Chet clutched his axe even tighter as Ben knocked his arrow in his bow.
"One."
The glass bottles inside the building began to shake.
"Two."
A ghostly wind blew from the cracks in the walls.
Joseph swolled. " Three!"
The team burst through the door. Joe, Brad, and Christopher stood paralyzed to their spots. " Someone get a potion!" Rauel yelled. Taylor rushed to find three uncracked healing concoctions and brought them back.
" What's happened?" he questioned. Everyone stared as Rauel poored potions into each comrad's mouth.
He sighed and looked up when he was finished. " An Archfiend's curse." he answered. Axel stared into Rauel's eyes. Rauel stared back, his eyes begginning to water. " I knew this would happen." Chris saw him grab his sword tightly.
Axel stepped in, knowing his partner could say no more. " There are many more than Naraf who have chosen the path of Darkness. I do not know if you have been informed, but Kealato is so large that less one forth of it has been discovered, and all that has is yet to be accuratly mapped. This planet is so large that not even in a million years will all of it's secrets be discovered.
" But back to archfiends. From what little is known of them, they all have one or two dragon wings and use the power of Darkness. They travel and live only to torture and cause panic. So, as you can plainly see, Naraf couldn't have been the only one."
Chet looked at him unbelievingly. " So we're not finished? We're not rid of the Darkness?" Axel nodded, his blue hair crawling up and down his back. Finally the three paralyzed teammates began to awaken. When they did, they explained all that had just happened.
At that same time, flames were overcoming the six flame fighters. Kevin and Zach were running out of potions, and the four projectile magic users were running low on energy. All the same, they had to protect their equipment. "No more!" John said, lowering his Water attack to a trickle. " We have to run. Amit, use your object levitating attack to carry the stuff. I'll help. Jake, Make a platform for us to travel on. Move out!"
John used Levise just as Amit used Lifilin. The two raised all of the objects in the campground into a gigantic ball of translusant white, then carried it together onto Jake's Unertia platform. The other four were standing up on the magic base, all trying to find the best position for going high speeds. Finally, Jude had to put up an Othith shield to keep everyone from grabbing his pants for comfort.
They all sat back as the hazel platform gripped Jakes leather shoes, so finally when he leaned forward they weren't thrown backward. The ride became extreme the farther they went. The heat intensified, forcing Jake to maneuver more and more carefully. Finally the worst happened.
Jake had just dodged a plummeting tree when a dark figure appeared in front of him. He slowed to get a closer look. John stood up from behind him and stared at the black creature. " Go. Jake, get us as far away as you can!" Jake turned as if to ask why, but John shoved him forward, making the Unertia jolt into action. Jake once again began to maneuver, then asked John his question.
" What was that?" John looked at him. It didn't seem possible, but yet he had just seen it. It was appearing everwhere in his mind. Either that, or the archfiend that was following them was real. " Jake, you might want to move faster."
Jake turned around and looked at him. The magic platform stopped immedately, making the creature fly right into and through Jude's shield. It went about a yard away from them, then turned around. Efkof had revealed himself again.
"Spicy," Zach mocked after Efkof had explained who he was. The archfiend pretended not to notice.
" Now," he said darkly, " you're time is up. There won't be anyone here to save you as there was with your friends."
John looked at him with fake sarcasm. " Our friend's didn't have magic, did they?" Jake had withdrew the platform, so the six heroes were now standing on the charcoaled ground.
Efkof raised his eybrows then laughed for about a second, before he stared at the six with pity. " Maybe so, but you are still no match, even if you were to engage me." Jude stepped forward to talk, but the archfiend cut him off. " You will not be facing me. I have other... meetings to attend to. Although, I'm sure you will still feel the same as you would have confronting me as you will them." He swiped his hand backward, signaling for the shadow clones to arrise. He turned to them. " Have fun, my children. As for the human counterparts; enjoy your final breaths." The dark figure that stood before them seemed to melt into the ground, all the more revealing their shadow clones.
But it was not just the 6 clones. All of them were there. 16 figures stood in front of them, although some seemed to be transluscent. "What... What's wrong with them?" John asked. Everyone in the group stood blankly for a second. John shruged.
"We need to get around them, dodge the fire, and save everyone else from the fire," Zach stated, " And we can't split up agian. Time for a fire-fight..." The team split into a line to cover more ground. Amit and Jude used their shield techniques (Creight and Othith) as Jake used Levise to create a moving shied around the team. The only reason they wanted it to move was so they could attack and be protected at the same time.
Here's the strategy John had thought up. Zach and Kevin could keep rolling exploding potions down the middle as Jake and John attacked. Amit and Jude would maneuver the sheild to block the shadow attacks. It seemed inpenatrable. Believe me, it wasn't.
Chuban- I'm really sorry if anyone liked this. I had REALLY bad writers block for like... a year. It started when I went on a vacation last summer and had no computers. I was in a car about the whole time, so... I couldn't get many new ideas. Then I got caught up in a whole crapload of other things ( Sprite comics, Animation, and drawing). I was about to write some more when I found that my notebook was lost. After finding it (scribbled in and all), I began to write again. Sorry for anything that may confuse you!