Chaotic Worlds: Book 1

Chapter 10: Rematch

Disclaimer: The only thing original here is the plot and my characters. Nothing else belongs to me.

Universe 1566

The Seals had just finished their classes for the day. Matt was staying back in school for practice while the girls were planning to go shopping, Cassie dragging a reluctant Jake along. Ken only wanted to go home and have a nice nap. It was one of those rare free days where they didn't have any training after class so they intended to make the most of it. As the five were about to go their separate ways, each of them suddenly experienced a sharp, piercing headache. They knew what it meant.

"It had to be today…" Ken grumbled while rushing off to a secluded area behind the school, the other four hot on his heels. Once they were sure they weren't seen, the Seals stowed their bags together in a bush. They waited as Matt crouched down, hand on the ground, and concentrated, trying to get a lock on the Legion's whereabouts.

The past two months of training had seen a marked improvement in the abilities of the Seals. They trained together, all seven of them, every day after school and were beginning to gel well with each other. Furthermore, during the course of their training, the new Seals had begun to exhibit new abilities related to their powers. Matt and Kyle were beginning to reveal hidden talents in reconnaissance. Cassie was fast turning into the team's strongest healer, in addition to being a capable summoner. Ken proved time and time again that he was the fastest of the seven, with reflexes to match. The team could count on Rachel's forcefields for protection and in terms of raw power, Jake outranked them all with only Ken being able to match up to him on a good day.

Matt grunted softly. "Got a hit," he said as he got up from his crouching position and dusted his hands. He then pointed to the construction site in the distance, a condominium project that had constantly been delayed. "He's definitely in that area, but other than that I can't get anything else." Ken's phone suddenly rang. It was Kyle.

"You guys felt that disturbance? Near the old construction site?"

"We're on our way there. Matt got the area right, but we can't pinpoint the exact location."

"Got ya covered there," Kyle said. "Top floor of the tallest building, near an elevator shaft. In terms of power, the guy seems to be Warlord-level at least."

"How close are you anyway?"

"I'm using my wind to make me invisible, but I'm still close enough for him to sense m – oh crap."

There was a sudden muted explosion over the line, followed shortly after by muffled swearing by Kyle. "Yeah, uh, I'll call you back later, alright?" he said hurriedly before cutting the call. Over in the distance, the other five saw clouds of dust mushrooming up all over the construction site.

"Let's move it," Jake said grimly, as he sped up after Ken, who had already run ahead the moment he heard the explosion over the line. Matt, Cassie and Rachel nodded in agreement before speeding up to catch up with the other two. As the five neared the battlefield, they saw Kyle burst out of a wall into the open sky and send a wind razor behind him. The Warlord that followed after him dodged easily enough before raising its arms at Kyle. To the disgust and horror of the Seals, the Warlord's black-tipped fingernails grew before he fired them at Kyle, keeping up a barrage of nails that continuously sprouted and attacked the shocked Seal. As Kyle narrowly avoided being hit by a nail, the same nail pierced a section of a wall, overgrown with moss over the years. The moss withered instantly, turning a sick blackish colour as it did so.

"Well, shit," said Ken, "it's poisonous."

"Yeah, who'da thunk?" deadpanned Jake as he flung a fireball at another volley of nails aimed at Kyle. The nails exploded in little bursts of flame leaving small little clouds of poison gas that was easily dissipated by Kyle now that he had no more distractions to deal with.

Realizing the new threat it now faced, the Warlord turned to face them, only to be greeted by a rock-covered fist, courtesy of Matt, that sent him flying through walls. Rachel followed up and fired a thin sharp needle of light from her index finger that pierced an area on the Warlock's hidden face where a left eye would be. Shrieking in pain, the Warlord fired his nails blindly all over the place. A curious crowd, alerted by the commotion, had begun to make its way to the location even though they could not see anything clearly, given that the Seals were fighting 25 storeys above. The distant wailing of police sirens could be heard. There was a low rumbling that intensified before giving way to sharp loud cracks. The building was beginning to fall apart. The crowd started screaming as boulders started to fall.

"We can't let those people get hurt because of us!" yelled Jake urgently as he tried to draw the wounded Warlord's attention. "Ken! Keep that guy busy! Cassie, Rachel, Matt! Prevent any debris from landing on the civilians! Kyle! Spirit shield, NOW!"

He leapt up and punched the Warlord hard, sending it flying straight up. A fierce jet of flame shot out of his right hand, engulfing the Warlord. "All yours Ken!"

"I'm on it!" Ken shouted back in reply. "Matt! Gimme a boost! 12 o'clock high!"

Ken ran towards Matt, already crouched in position. Cassie and Rachel had already gotten to work, Cassie transforming Bagheera into a whip that she used to catch falling boulders and fling them at the Warlord, giving it a taste of its own medicine. Rachel in the meantime caught any remaining ones with her forcefields. But even Cassie couldn't catch them all at once and Rachel was straining under the weight of all the boulders that she'd caught.

Just in time, however, Kyle's spirit barrier was set up. The civilians blinked out of view and there was a quiet hum of power as the wind inside the shield began to blow stronger. With a yell of effort, Matt threw Ken straight up into the air before jumping down to Rachel's aid, picking up the boulders that she'd caught and joining Cassie in using the Warlord as target practice. Ken in the meantime, further boosted by a wind that Kyle had sent his way, had reached the first wave of boulders that Cassie had threw at the Warlord. Using them as platforms, he darted in and out of the boulders, simultaneously forming lightning around the whole of his right arm such that it was now a makeshift lance as he jumped up towards the Warlord. Landing on the topmost boulder of the pile, he crouched before springing up straight for the Warlord, thrusting out hard with his lance-arm as he flew towards it.

As strong as it was, there was no way the Warlord could dodge Ken's attack. Ken drove in the lance-arm into the Warlord then cut his power before falling back, moving away instantaneously as the wave of boulders that the other Seals had thrown at the Warlord began to pummel it unceasingly. Ken's strike had done a lot of damage, but it was not out of the game yet. The Seals knew this.

With the exception of Matt who was slowly collecting a ball of energy in his right palm, the others began to summon power, their arms glowing in their own respective colours as the five prepared to blast it into oblivion. The second and final wave of boulders hit the Warlord.

Right on cue, Matt flicked the green ball of energy into the air and punched it in with both fists, smashing it into pieces. At the same time, the boulders that had hit the Warlord crumbled into tiny spikes. A flick of the fingers was all it took for Matt to send the rock shards flying straight into the Warlord, tearing it apart. The others let fly with their energy blasts.

However, while Jake and Cassie vaporized whatever was left of the Warlord, Ken, Kyle and Rachel shot off their energy blasts in three completely different directions. Just before the blasts hit, 3 black figures dropped the veils behind which they had been hiding and dodged before they could be hit and regrouped on the ground, looking up at the Seals who had now landed on the still-standing building.

"It's Razorpoint, Ken. Back for round two, from the looks of it," commented Matt.

Ken hissed angrily. "For them to have remained hidden all this time without us even noticing until just now…"

"The question is, who's gonna make the first move?" asked Cassie.

"Them, I guess…" Kyle began, jerking his head downwards at the Warlords.

Rachel squinted down at them. "You sure?" she asked. "They're not moving. How do you – oh."

"Yeah. Oh.," Ken said grimly as the seven Seals watched the thin black tendril that had suddenly sprouted from Razorpoint snake its way up the damaged skyscraper.

"Man, I've only seen that once and already I hate it when he does that," said Matt.

"Shields up. Get ready," said Jake.

The black tendril suddenly accelerated towards the group, targeting Matt who retaliated by throwing a few earth spikes at it. The line evaded the spikes easily, however, and went straight for a piece of rubble, piercing it. From the main tendril, smaller ones sprouted, wrapping themselves to the rubble, securing it to the main tendril.

There was a slight but ominous gathering of power from below and Razorpoint now used the rubble as a makeshift hammer and also as a mace, attacking the Seals non-stop. Cassie was unable to dodge an attack and was thrown back by a painful hit. Razorpoint immediately followed with another head-on attack but was foiled this time by Rachel and Ken who had leapt in front of their friend, both setting up their forcefields in an instant. This didn't seem to faze Razorpoint in the least as he kept up the pounding, slowly but surely pushing the three toward the edge of the roof.

Ken gritted his teeth as he strained against the force of Razorpoint's attacks. "Rachel," he said, "when I give the command, drop your shield and get Cassie outta the way."

"But…"

"NOW!"

Rachel dropped her shield and dove straight for Cassie, grabbing her out of the way. Ken in the meantime, boosted his shield and, just before the tendril hammer hit, tilted his shield at an angle so that the hammer, slamming into the tilted shield, was thrown into the air, the tendril controlling it flailing wildly as Razorpoint temporarily lost control of it. Jake wasted no time in throwing a thin metal rod that he picked up from the debris at the hammer. Sharpened by a small vortex of wind that Kyle had placed around it, the rod pierced straight into and out of the rubble, weakening it from the inside. With a loud yell, Matt ran up to it and jumped. His right leg encased in rock and covered in flame courtesy of Jake, Matt destroyed the rubble with a strong upward kick.

Down below, Razorpoint smiled from behind his hood. "Impressive, but we're just getting started here."

The tendril, free from the rubble, now snaked up into the air, grabbing a surprised Matt by the leg. A small grunt of effort, and the tendril was whipping its captive against everything, from the floor to the walls to even his own friends. The tendril now held a dangling Matt by his ankle. Smaller ones popped out from it, sharpening to become long thin points with which Razorpoint intended to stab him. But Matt had his own ace up the sleeve. Gritting his teeth, the young Seal concentrated, blocking out everything around him. The building began to rumble ominously.

Cracks appeared everywhere in the boulders that were strewn all over the floor on which the Seals were standing as the boulders began to break down. The little bits & pieces of rubble hovered serenely in the air before aiming straight for the young Seal, engulfing him in rock and dirt. Razorpoint, realizing the potential problem, made the smaller tendrils went straight for Matt but the areas which they hit turned abruptly to mud, trapping them there as more rocks began to cover them. The speed with which Matt was taking on a rock form was too fast for Razorpoint to dislodge his tendril from Matt. Matt, now too heavy for the tendril to support, dropped to the roof. The emerald glow that he had begun to emit while armouring himself flared brightly. His eyes, now green specks of light from within the rock form twinkled brightly, almost cheekily, as he glanced at the other five.

Rachel groaned. "I know that look. He's gonna do something crazy."

Matt gave a rocky grin and mimed follow-me actions. Jake turned to Rachel. "Do we go along with it?"

A confident smile was her reply. "I've lived next door to this idiot all my life. All he's got is gut instincts but they're nearly always right. I've learnt to guess when to trust those instincts, and this is definitely one of those times."

"Well,' remarked Ken drily, "he seems to have gone on ahead first, so it's not like we've got tons of options." True enough an impatient Matt had went on ahead, running straight for the edge of the roof.

Jake nodded before barking out orders. "Follow his lead. Once he lands split up in pairs and take the Warlords. Rachel, follow Matt. Ken, you & Kyle take another Warlord. Cassie, you're with me."

"Got it!" yelled the others as the five sprinted after Matt who'd just jumped off the edge of the roof, Razorpoint's tendril still embedded in his armoured form. As the other five Seals followed suit, they noticed that even more rock was enveloping their friend at a noticeably faster rate, making him fall faster because of the added weight. As Razorpoint frantically tried to dislodge his tendril from the human bomb that was Matt, his cronies did all they could to pierce the rock armour, firing energy blasts non-stop.

It was all in vain as Matt, limbs outstretched, crash-landed on top of them. There was a crack down the back of the rock armour and Matt leaped out of his armour and out of the way as Jake unleashed a furious burst of flame that reduced the rock to a blanket of magma over the War-General & his henchmen. A strong gust of wind from Kyle cooled the magma rapidly, and as it hardened to rock again the magma trapped the 3 Legion members within it. The 6 Seals, standing a distance away, wasted no time in blasting the rock to bits, leaving…

"…nothing?" asked Kyle confusedly. "What the hell?"

"UP UP UP! NOW!" yelled Ken, Matt and Rachel urgently, having went through this once before.

The Seals leaped high into the air, narrowly avoiding Razorpoint's attack that came from beneath without warning. All 6 retaliated by instinct, firing energy blasts down at the source of the attack. Razorpoint and his two Warlords in turn, dodged these attacks easily enough as they attacked the Seals in mid-air.

Kyle gritted his teeth. Summoning wind, he trapped all nine combatants in three massive vortexes, with the Seals split up according to Jake's prior instructions. The wind funnels suddenly dissipated into thin air. Over at Mithril HQ, Commander Karl Fanell watched with narrowed eyes at Kyle's move. "Begin tracking," he spoke into his headset. .

"Yes sir."

Universe 1566

The vortex carrying Matt and Rachel, along with one of Razorpoint's Warlords, reformed itself in the air, in the middle of a cross-junction road about 3 storeys up. The Warlord had clearly some of Razorpoint's tricks as it reshaped its arm into a pointed tendril and pulled it back to attack the two. Luckily Rachel was too fast for it, firing 4 rapiers of light that pierced it by the shoulders and thighs. The force of her attack was so strong that the Warlord was slammed to the road, trapped there by her light constructs. As the two Seals dived headfirst for the downed Warlord, it hissed loudly. "An eye for an eye".

Four tendrils burst out of the Warlord's stomach, aimed at the same spots that Rachel had attacked. Rachel barely managed to set up her forcefield when the tendrils hit it head on. The Warlord hissed angrily and pulled back for a second strike. She smiled grimly. "Too late, buddy."

Matt, his right arm already encased in rock, flew straight down with a loud battle cry. His punch went straight into the Warlord's chest and into the ground itself. He gritted his teeth as he concentrated, forcing his elemental powers into the Warlord, turning it into rock itself from the inside, rendering virtually defenseless against a follow-up punch. Slowly but surely, the Warlord was turning into a stone statue.

"What the hell?"

Matt could not disguise his shock at the sight before his eyes. Even in its weakened state, with a fist embedded in its chest and Matt's earth powers flooding into it, the being was not out of the game yet. Both hands grasping Matt's arm, it was actually forcing Matt's powers back into him and sending its own dark energies along, intending to infect Matt's powers. Rachel landed behind Matt and ran up to him. "Matt, is his heart still solid rock?"

Matt struggled to get the words out. "Not for long, if he keeps this up. Rachel…"

"I got it."

A rapier of light each burst from her two hands. Grabbing both by the hilts, she drove the blades straight into the Warlord's heart. Had the Warlord still been in control, an attack like that would have been useless. For a stone heart, it was more than enough. The Warlord let out an unearthly shriek and writhed violently, trying to twist its body out of the rapiers that pinned it to the ground to no avail. The shriek abruptly died out and the Warlord's body suddenly collapsed into a blob of black goo.

Rachel shuddered as she helped Matt, trying to catch his breath, to his feet. "You alright, Matt?"

"Just give me a minute. That last attack…it took quite a bit out of me."

"Idea was there. You were trying to make it solid enough to get in a clean shot, right?"

"Yeah. Took too damn long though."

Rachel squeezed his hand. "Let's just called it a work in progress. Come on, we gotta get to the others."

Universe 1566

A hard punch by Ken and Kyle each sent the War-General Razorpoint crashing through a window, ten storeys up. Both sprinted to two adjacent broken windows and dove out, sending Razorpoint to the ground with flying kicks. Five storeys down however, the plummeting Legion member extended his tendrils, driving the points straight into the wall before catapulting himself upward back at the two Seals. Plowing into them, Razorpoint punched the cousins repeatedly, kicking Kyle back into the building before grabbing Ken by the ankle. Ken struggled vainly as Razorpoint swung him in a circle, then flung him back into Kyle who was struggling to get up. He flew up to a suitable vantage point, away from the building. Black tendrils sprouted from every available inch of his body. Razorpoint glowed a disgusting blackish light before the multiple tendrils erupted from his body, punching into and through the crumbling building mercilessly.

The hole that Ken and Kyle had been flung back into crumbled in a heavy cloud of dust. The tendrils punctured everything, from windows, to ceilings, to pipes. The building was assaulted repeatedly by the tendrils; Razorpoint's hooded smile had changed from a cruel one to a near manic one. There arose an ominous rumbling from below. The building in which the two cousins were in was beginning to collapse and there was still no sign of them. There was a shrill yell of glee from the War-General as he abruptly cut off his attacks and reformed his tendrils into a single axe. He sighed happily.

"DIE."

The black tendril axe was brought down onto the building with unbelievable force, cleaving the building straight in two. That blade, now resting on the ground, was suddenly transformed into a black mass of quivering energy, now cut off from its master. Razorpoint only stood smiling from his vantage point as what was left of the building exploded and the building finally collapsed, unable to remain standing anymore.

Looking down from above, Razorpoint allowed himself one last triumphant smile before he turned his back from the rubble and walked away. Abruptly he stopped as he felt the stirrings of a rumbling in the ground. The old War-General looked back on the rubble impassively as the faint rumbling eventually died down again. Slowly and deliberately, he formed another tendril, aimed at the perceived source of the rumbling. He shot it with blinding speed at the rubble. Just as the tendril hit the ground, the boys suddenly burst out from either side, a short lightning blade already formed on Ken's right wrist. Ken just barely dodged the tendril before slicing off its point. Snapping the blade from his wrist, the Seal then fashioned it into a dagger which he threw straight at the War-General's face.

Razorpoint swatted away the weapon disdainfully, looking up to suddenly see Kyle flying straight down at him. The young man plowed headfirst into him before kicking him away. It was all Razorpoint could do just to regain his balance, so much so that he was unaware of Ken suddenly materializing in mid-air behind him, his hand glowing bright blue.

With a loud yell Ken thrust his charged hand straight into Razorpoint's left shoulder from behind, aiming for the nerves. Pulling out, he dodged Razorpoint's haphazard swipe, leaving the War-General open for another frontal attack by Kyle. Kyle responded in kind, firing off his strongest wind razor yet, one that took off Razorpoint's arm just above the elbow. Summoning their powers one more time, the cousins then fired two balls of energy at Razorpoint from in front and behind

The ground was shaken yet again as Razorpoint crashed to the ground. Ken and Kyle landed somewhat clumsily shortly, both still weakened by the earlier beating they had taken. Their bodies glowed blue & white respectively as both powered up their shields, preparing for a counter-attack by Razorpoint.

They didn't have to wait long. Razorpoint blasted away the rubble with more force than the two thought possible, given the fact that they'd already handed him a sound beating. "What IS this bugger made out of?" Kyle asked his cousin incredulously.

"Defying me time and again…do you really wish to make your eventual death a long and protracted one, Fanell?"

As he spoke, Razorpoint suddenly regenerated his right arm from a tendril that had popped out from his stump. The two boys almost missed the tiny flicker of pain that flashed across his hooded face. He clenched and unclenched the fist, smiling evilly as he did so. His body tensed, Ken remained silent, his right hand clutching firmly the Blade that he had summoned.

"I shall take your silence as consent then."

Once more the tendrils shot out of the old War-General's body straight at the two Seals.

Universe 1566

Both Jake and the Warlord were engaged in a fierce swordfight, the sound of blade against blade ringing loudly through the air. Cassie in the meantime had her hands full with the Cursed Zombies that the Warlord had summoned just before it attacked Jake. She broke away from the advancing group, and crouched down, a palm resting on the floor. As Bagheera protected his mistress from the Zombies, power rushed from Cassie through her arm into the ground, drawing a circle around her.

But that wasn't all to come. More and more pink circles, each of different sizes, traced themselves on the ground, a total of five, excluding the one around Cassie. There was a sudden rush of air as bright pink light suddenly shot out of the circles with a loud bang. The clearing dust revealed Cassie, again with Bagheera in its Blade form, flanked by 5 different creatures. A collective growl arose from the five familiars, and all at once they fired energy blasts from their mouths that obliterated the Cursed Zombies in front of her. She raised her hand. "Get 'em, guys."

The five roared in acquiescence, heading off in different directions at the other Zombies, some of which now merged into Cursed Demons to counter this new challenge. Cassie's summoned familiars were no pushovers though. The first was a small pink monster that immediately rolled into a ball like an armadillo and charged straight into the Demons, throwing them up like bowling pins. It suddenly leapt up and spun in the air above them, letting out a strong wave of pink cherry blossom petals that hit the Zombies hard.

The second was a yellow eyeball with a mouth and an upright tail acting as its leg. The Chaos Legion forces attacking it were indeed fast, but this familiar easily teleported away from each attack directed at it, only to reappear a short distance away, attacking them with its tail-leg.

The third, a huge hulking rock golem was simply standing on the road, giving off no reaction whatsoever as Cursed Zombies and Demons pummeled it non-stop. It abruptly moved, walking towards a rosebush that had been planted as part of the roadside scenery, the only bush that hadn't been destroyed within Kyle's spirit shield during the fight. As it bent down to examine the budding flowers on it, a Cursed Demon suddenly slashed it to bits right in front of the golem's eyes. It was the Demon's biggest mistake as the golem, now enraged, charged, arms swinging, straight into the mass of Legion forces that had been attacking it.

The fourth was beside Bagheera as both ran straight towards the fray. A blue wolf-like creature with horns on its head, this familiar was a good deal bigger than the panther cub running beside it. Both roared loudly and tore into the Chaos Legion with blinding speed. While Bagheera leapt up into the air, reforming itself into a grenade launcher and firing its rounds in mid-air, Cassie's fourth familiar used its speed well, taking down its enemies one by one. The familiar let out a blood-curdling howl, and fired off a destructive ice beam, freezing its enemies in their places before lightning arced out of its horns, shattering the Cursed Demons.

Jake, having dispatched the Warlock while it was distracted from the appearance of Cassie's summons, was now fighting alongside his girlfriend's fifth summoned familiar, a humanoid brown hare that rained down a steady stream of punches and kicks at the Zombies. As the last two Demons in the group they were facing advanced, both human and hare dodged the incoming attacks and threw a flaming uppercut each at the Demons, blasting them into the air where Jake made short work of them with a torrent of flame. The Seals and familiars now regrouped around Jake, taking stock of the situation.

"New summons?" he asked Cassie.

"Kinda. Remind me to thank Ken for lending me his all his anime discs."

"Ah. Your power works by visualization of a character?"

Cassie nodded. "And also just by plain imagination. It's easier to visualize existing designs though. Summoning familiars that I thought up of by myself is a lot harder during battle, unless I've already had the detailed idea beforehand."

"So where did these guys come from them?"

"Some anime called Monster Rancher. They're pretty cool huh?"

Jake chuckled. "You can say that again." He then nodded at the Warlord that had just teleported in front of them. "Think they can handle that guy?"

Bagheera leapt down from its usual perch onto the ground in front of its fellow familiars, and bared its teeth at the newcomer, snarling. At a nod from Cassie, it led the other five straight at the Warlord. Cassie glanced at Jake. "Well, let's find out shall we?" she said as she ran after her summoned familiars.

Universe 1566

Rooftops flashed by as Isaac leapt from one to the other, landing lightly on each one and leaping off again in the blink of an eye. The sun blazed hotly from above, but even the oppressive heat wasn't enough to distract the Seal as he raced towards a white spirit shield, discernible only to his eyes. There was a sharp flash of light from the shield, and Isaac squinted as he headed ever closer to it. What he saw only made him go faster. The shield was scored with cracks, signs that the shield and its creator had been compromised. The spirit shield was still holding though, but a major injury to Kyle would cause a major leak, allowing the Chaos Legion forces sealed inside to escape and wreak havoc on the real world.

Isaac reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a small stack of his spirit cards. With a quick flick of the cards, he sent them to the more damaged areas of Kyle's shield hoping to bolster it. He glowed purple as he raced onwards to the shield.

Universe 1566

The last Cursed Demon fell to the ground clutching its slit throat, gurgling when screams wouldn't come out. Cassie looked on, impassively, as black ectoplasm dribbled out between the fingers covering the wound. The Demon finally gave out one last gurgle before dying, its body collapsing into black goo that evaporated away. Cassie turned away, momentarily nauseated, before collecting herself. She gave her Blade a flick to get rid of the blood staining it before throwing it up in the air as it transformed back into Bagheera, landing on her right shoulder, one of its favourite perches. Cassie let out a brief chuckle as it scrabbled for a while on her shoulder before finally righting itself.

All around the two lay the bodies of defeated Cursed Zombies and Demons, all taking turns to revert back to black ectoplasm and evaporate away. Her other familiars alternated between prancing amongst the bodies of the fallen such as the pink monster and the rabbit, or in making sure their enemies stayed dead, like the blue wolf which went around sniffing the bodies. To her right, Cassie saw Jake walking towards her, sheathing his Blade in a scabbard that he had created out of his flame.

The smile that he wore suddenly disappeared as he walked by the body of a Cursed Zombie, one which her blue wolf familiar was just making its way towards. He stopped, observing the wolf sniff the body, noticing that it was taking a longer time than with the others. His hand moved to rest on his Blade's hilt. Cassie moved to his side. "What's wrong?"

"Something's off with that Zombie," replied Jake, never taking his eyes of it. "You see it too, right?"

"White suit. A dirty white suit, but still white. Usually the Zombies always come in black suits."

Jake nodded. "Yeah. It's the Demons that have a bit more individuality. Plus this one looks clean. No signs of battle, no wounds."

A thought from Cassie sent the rest of her familiars back to her side. They fanned out around this new Zombie, while their blue comrade continued sniffing the body. "Call him back, Cass," said Jake quietly as he drew out his Blade. "And get ready."

It was too late. The white Zombie suddenly moved, taking off its glasses to reveal empty eye sockets from which maggots suddenly crawled out of. Its mouth opened and even more maggots streamed out, all headed towards the shocked familiar. The two teens could do nothing but watch in horror as the maggots swarmed into the familiar's mouth, consuming it from the inside. As the familiar was broken back into its original energy form, the maggots seemed to stand up, their ugly mouths glowing the same dirty white. They sucked all the energy dry before massing back towards the Zombie. He laughed quietly as he got to his feet, a disconcerting sight indeed with maggots still marching out of his eye sockets.

"I suppose that's good enough for a starter salad," he said, more to himself than anything. He looked around, noticing the other familiars. "Oh good. More appetizers." A hand raised in command, and the maggots moved with shocking speed towards Cassie's other four familiars, each still frozen in shock at the sight they had all witnessed. Their end came quickly, leaving the two Seals and Bagheera left against this new threat. Jake spoke first, his voice hoarse with barely-checked fury.

"What are you?"

There was no answer from the Zombie who stood with his back turned to them; he simply stood there absorbing the life force that had been consumed by his maggots. There was a sudden flare of light, and Jake was suddenly standing behind him, the fireball in his hand pressed hard against the Zombie's back. Jake growled, something he rarely did. "I'm gonna ask you again. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?"

In reply, the Zombie lashed backwards, his energy boosted by the energy that he had just consumed. Jake was already gone in a burst of flame, moving to Cassie's side. Maggot noted, not without some satisfaction, the small trickle of blood that had appeared on Jake's cheek. "Ooh that's gonna leave a scar now, eh prettyboy?"

Jake's eyes narrowed; his Blade was suddenly alight with bright red flame. As Maggot lashed out again, sending a crescent-shaped energy blast at the two, Jake slashed back. His flame attack cut easily through Maggot's attack, incinerating the protective wall of maggots that their namesake called up. The wall of maggots crumbled, half-burnt to cinders. The two Seals watched as the white Zombie struggled with his rage at having his minions vaporized, before suppressing it. He gave a disturbing smile before abruptly turning into a humanoid shape comprised wholly of alien white larvae. A black hooded cloak flowed out of his body to cover the whole of his body, leaving only his head uncovered. "You want to know who I am?" he hissed. "Fine. I am the War-General Maggot, and you are my food."

(To be continued)