Chapter Twelve: Guardian Rescue: Water and Fire
Part 2
On Easter Island...............
"What do you mean?!", Phobos questioned as he landed in next to the others. "What's bad for Meridian?!"
"The second you two were freed from the Shadow Specters that possessed you, a signal was sent to Lord Shadon!", Shade explained. "Soon, an army of Shadow Minions will be sent to Meridian to take it over."
"NO!", Phobos yelled fearing for his sister. "Elyon!"
"Oh don't worry about your sister.", Shade grinned. "Once Meridian falls to us, she'll be possessed by a Shadow Specter, and shall serve at Master Shadon's side as we take over the rest of Metamoor!"
"I'll never let that happen!", Phobos said as he fired an energy blast at Shade, who jumped out of the way of the blast.
The blast hit the crystal shell instead. The blast was so powerful that it began to crack.
"Nice shot!", Cassidy cheered. "Two more hits and Irma'll be out of there!"
"Curse you, Phobos!", Shade hissed as she landed on the ground. "You'll pay for that!"
"We just have to get pass her.", Eric said. "Star Shield Wind Cutter!"
Eric then threw his Star Shield at Shade, as a thing of wind surrounded it. Shade jumped out of the way of the attack.
"Missed me!", Shade laughed as she landed on top of one of the nearby stone heads.
"Did I?", Eric questioned with a grinned.
Suddenly, screams was heard. Shade turned to see a few of hear copies being taking out. As each one was hit, they just vanished on a dark cloud of smoke.
"No!", Shade yelled watching her copies go down.
"Now I get it!", Cassidy said figuring things out. "Shade only put so much energy in each clone she made!"
"Making them easier to defeat!", Phobos said as he fired some energy balls at some of the clones.
"Then let's take them out!", Nerissa said as she whipped her Whip-Blade striking multiple clones.
Mr. Huggles. in his Regent form, took out his share of Shade clones, with his powerful blow, along side Cassidy. Within moments, our heroes took out all the Shade clones.
"That wasn't so bad.", Cassidy said as she and Mr. Huggles rejoined the group.
"Do you think that's all I can muster?!", Shade snapped. "I can make as many clones of myself as I need!"
Suddenly, more clones for Shade appeared. Each one ready to do battle with our heroes.
"This isn't good.", Eric said worriedly.
"If you think that's bad, you'll hate this!", Shade said as she along with her copies aimed their arrows into the air. "Dark Arrow Storm!"
The arrows then began to glow as all the Shades shot them into the air. For a moment nothing happened.
"Heads up!", Eric yelled as he saw the glowing arrows coming them down towards them.
"Goodbye, fools!", Shade laughed as the arrows neared them. "What?! No!"
From out of nowhere, Phobos formed a dome shield over the five of them as the arrow came raining down on them.
"Nice move, man!", Eric complimented Phobos.
"No problem.", Phobos grunted as he struggled to keep the shield up.
"Are you okay?!", Cassidy asked worried for Phobos.
"I used a bit to much energy earlier.", Phobos said holing the shield up. "But, I'll be fine."
As the arrows stopped falling, Phobos lowered his shield.
"See, no probl......."
Phobos fell to the ground as an arrow hit him in his shoulder.
"Phobos!", Cassidy yelled as she went to his side. "Don't move!"
"Wasn't planning to.", he said with a half grin as Nerissa and Eric stood their ground ready to block anymore arrows.
"That's one down.", Shade laughed.
"Laugh at this!", Nerissa yelled as she whipped her weapon at the crystal shell Irma was in.
"No!", Shade yelled as she shot an arrow at Nerissa.
"Don't think so, lady!", Eric said as he blocked it with his Star Shield.
"Not bad.", Shade said with a smirk. "See of you can stop this!"
Suddenly all the Shade started firing arrows at our heroes.
"Star Shield Wind Barrier!", Eric said as he held up his Star Shield creating a wind barrier, blocking the assult of arrows.
"We have to take out those clone of her's!", Nerissa said as the barrage of arrows ended.
"Try all you want, but you'll all go down just like Phobos did!", Shade snapped. "It's only a matter of time!"
Looking down at Phobos, in his weakened state, Cassidy rose to her feet, and walked in front of the others.
"Cassidy?", Nerissa called to her friend.
Cassidy raised her, now glowing, Star Trident as a large ball of water slowly formed above her.
"What the..........?!", Shade questioned looking at the large ball of water floated above the Dragon Knight of water.
"Star Trident Hydro Freeze!", Cassidy yelled as she slashed her Star Trident forward.
The ball of water went out as a wave hitting all the Shades, covering them in water from head to toe. After it was finished, Shade began to laugh at the attack.
"That was it?!", she questioned. "You hit me with a thing of water?!"
"Weren't you listening?!", Cassidy asked the laughing Shadow General.
Suddenly, the Shades began to freeze, becoming frozen in place. Some tried to run, but they froze in their tracks.
"You forgot about the 'Freeze' part.", Cassidy said as the last of them froze.
Cassidy the snapped her finger, making all the clones shatter into a puff of dark smoke. After they all were gone only one Shade remained. Who was standing by Irma's crystal shell, with her armour cracked from Cassidy's attack.
"I'm not done yet!", she panted.
"Then let's finish you off,", Eric began to say as he threw his Star Shield at Shade. "before you get the chance to get back on your feet!"
Still weak from Cassidy's attack, Shade was only able to jump so far as she dodge Eric's attack. Suddenly, once she landed, Khor jumped at Shade striking her with powerful blows denting and scratching her armour. Then, to finish his assault, Khor balled his fist together and knocked Shade into the air.
'This can't be happening!', Shade thought to herself. 'I had it all planned out! What went wrong!'
Suddenly, Nerissa jumped up in the air and did a double kick, sending Shade crashing against one of the stone heads of the island. Seeing her chance, Cassidy ran towards Irma's crystal shell ready to break her free.
At Mount Etna..............
"You thought you beat me?!", Shada snapped as he was dripping with lava, from getting out of the lava pool. "It'll take more that what you did to beat me!"
"Matt! Aim for the crack in his chestplate, full blast!", Angelo said.
"On it!", Matt said as he shot a full powered eye beam at the crack in Shada's chest plate, making the beam go right through him as his armour began to fall apart.
"This isn't possible!", Shada yelled as he dropped to one knee. "You've actually beaten me!"
"Like I told you earlier, we did it by using our heads!", Angelo said putting his Star Blade away. "And waited for our chance to strike hard!"
"Indeed.", Shada said with a smirk as he blasted some boulders away, revealing a tunnel. "This tunnel will take you to the outside. GO!"
"Why are you helping us?!", Nigel asked.
"I am defeated.", Shada said panting. "Soon I shall be apart of Master Shadon again. And if you manage to defeat the other Shadow Generals, you shall face Master Shadon. And when you do, you will be facung all of us!"
"We'll see.", Angelo said as headed out through the tunnel.
Soon they were out of the tunnel just as Shada exploded. The tunnel then caved in blocking any lava that might of came down the tunnel. The victorious warriors looked up at a clear blue sky.
"Now that's a beautiful site.", Angelo said. "A blue sky with white clouds."
"Were all the Shadow Generals, you guy took on so far, like that?", Caleb asked.
"That size, no.", Nigel replied. "Power wise, yes."
"And they're two more left.", Angelo said. "Who knows what kind of powers they have."
"We can worry about that later.", Nigel said. "I just want to get Taranee back home."
"You got it man.", Matt said as he focused his power and teleported them all back to Heatherfield.
At Easter Island, moments earlier.................
"Star Trident Aqua Strike!", she yelled as she thrusted at the crystal shell with her weaopon.
And like the last two crystal shells, Irma's began to crack and fall aprt, until it finally shattered, freeing Irma.
"Go get Irma, Khor!", Nerissa said as she put her Whip-Blade away.
Khor then jumped towards Irma, picked her upm and jumped back to the others. Shade slowly got to her feet as more of her armour was cracked and falling off. Suddenly, her armour began to glow.
"I can't believe I lost to you!", Shade said as the glow got brighter.
"What's happening to her?!", Nerissa asked Eric.
"She's about to go boom!", Eric answered.
"What?!", Nerissa and Cassidy yelled in shock.
"It always happens when we beat a Shadow General!", Eric began to explain as he helped Phobos to his feet, hoisting his right arm over his shoulder. "We found out, from Angelo's uncle, that they're made of powerful shadow energy! We have to find some cover!"
Cassidy went to Phobos' left side and hoisted his left arm over her shoulder, as they all ran behind one of the stone heads. Shade nearing her end came to a conclusion of her own.
"I see what makes them so strong.", she said as she dropped to her knees. "It's their........... unity."
Once her power reached it's peak, Shade exploded sending a shock wave of energy through the area. The others looked up to see the dark clouds vanish, leave the skies clear.
"Now that we've beating the latest General, and got Irma back, I say we head home.", Eric said. "Nerissa, if you'd please."
"With pleasure.", she said as she pulled out the locator gem. "Take us back please."
And in a flash of light, they were gone.
At the Vander's home, Hay Lin was pacing back and forth, wondering when the others were getting back.
"Would you sit down, Hay Lin.", Cornelia pleaded with her friend. "You're going to make a groove in the floor."
"I can't help it!", Hay Lin said as she stopped pacing. "I'm worried about Eric! I'm worried about Irma and Taranee! I'm worried about all of them!"
"I'm worried about them too, Hay Lin.", Cornelia said calmly. "But from what your grandmother and Angelo's uncle and grandfather told us about the whole Dragon Knight 'thing', Taranee and Irma will be just fine."
"You think so?", Hay Lin asked with a small smile.
"Totally.", Cornelia said as she hugged her friend. "And once they find out where Will is, they'll save her too. We just have to have faith and wait."
"You're right.", Hay Lin said agreeing with Cornelia. "I just wish they'd get back soon."
Suddenly, in a flash of light, both rescue teams appeared in front of them.
"Now that's wishful thinking!", Hay Lin said happy to see everyone back, including Irma and Taranee.
"You're telling me.", Cornelia said thinking back to when she wished that Angelo, Nigel, and Eric were back with Hay Lin.
"We're back at the same time?!", Angelo said as he saw that the other team was back with Irma. "Cool!"
"Yeah, but we got a problem.", Eric said as he and Cassidy helped Phobos to the couch.
"Phobos got hit with an arrow but the Shadow General there!", Cassidy said as she and Eric sat Phobos on the couch. "Where's Joe?"
"He, along with Kadma and my grandmother left for Kandrakar.", Hay Lin answered.
"Why?!", Angelo asked.
"It was my idea.", Uncle John said as he came walikng into the living room. "I figured that it would be safer for them there until all this was over with. What happened to Phobos?!"
"Hit by an arrow.", Eric replied.
"You know what to do, Angelo.", Uncle John said to his nephew as he opened a safe that was behind on of the pictures in the living room.
"Yeah, I do.", Angelo said as he knelt down on the couch. "Caleb, sit him up for me."
Caleb then propped Phobos in a sitting position on the couch. Angelo then ripped the back of Phobos' shirt to see that part of the arrows tip was sticking out the back of his shoulder. He placed his right hand on Phobos' shoulder, and gripped the end of the arrow with his left hand.
"Phobos, listen.", Angelo said looking at Phobos. "What I'm about to do is going to hurt big time."
Phobos looked at Angelo and nodded, bracing himself waiting for the pain. Cassidy then held Phobos' right hand, causing him to look at her and smile a little. Which made her smile a bit too.
"Those of you with weak stomachs, you had better turn away.", John said as he walked over with a fancy shaped bottle of water.
"Okay here we go.", Angelo said. "One,......... two,....... three!"
Angelo then pushed the arrow the rest of the way through, in which Phobos yelled out in pain. Hay Lin turned and hid her face in Eric's shoulder as he held her close. The others tuned away from it all. Cassidy felt the tight squeeze in her hand, from Phobos as the pain hit him.
"Now for the other part.", Angelo said as he broke off the end of the arrow. "Now I have to pull it through."
And upon saying that, Angelo pulled the arrow out from the back of Phobos' shoulder. It didn't hurt as much, but Phobos did wince a little.
"It's okay now, Phobos.", Cassidy said as Angelo and Caleb laid him on the couch. "We need to bandage him up!"
"No need.", Uncle John said as he opened the bottle he got from the safe. "This will do the trick."
"Is that what I think it is?", Nerissa asked. "Is that, healing water?"
"Yep.", John said. "Right from the healing springs of the Dragon's Guild."
Uncle John then poured some of the water on Phobos' wound. Everybody watched as the wound fully healed. Glad that everything was okay, and after laying Irma and Taranee on the two air mattresses, that were set up for them, the Dragon Knights, Caleb, Matt, and Mr. Huggles transformed back to normal. Nigel was sitting next to Taranee, while Hay Lin was sitting next to Irma, waiting for them to wake up. Cassidy sat next to Phobos, while he rested. After Eric told the others about what Shade told them about what was going to happen in Meridian, Angelo went to his room to rest, while the other went to the other guest rooms to do the same.
For each knew that they had one more Guardian, and a kingdom save.
A/N: Poor Phobos. Hit by an arrow, during his first battle. Not to mention that soon his home world will soon be attacked by Shadon's forces. Let's hope that things turn out okay.
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