CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Blazen let out a curse as he fell to the ground.

He quickly pulled himself to his feet before he started running again. Branches scratched his face, stinging his arms and legs, but he continued to run as fast as he possibly could. Every now and then he would look over his shoulder, wondering how close his assailant was to him. He could hear the heavy breathing behind him.

Blazen quickly turned and punched a fist forward, allowing a steam of fire to shoot out in a straight line. A straight line burned through the foliage behind him, but it missed his target. Blazen let out another curse as his assailant dodged the attack and continued to rush after him. Blazen made a face, trying to decide what to do.

Finally, he closed his eyes, allowing himself to tap into his full power. He leapt up into the air, tapping into the power of his animal spirit, and transformed into an eagle. With a quick down stroke of his wings, he took off into the air, soaring through the clouds. He didn't dare look to see if he was still being chased. He knew that he was.

Blazen quickly flew a few miles before he landed again. Once his feet touched the ground, he turned back to his human form and continued walking until he reached a field. The grass in the field was so high that it reached well over his head. But it was the perfect cover. He pushed his way through the field until he reached a clearing that had been made. His brother, Phantom, and their friends DalFang, DeathLiger, ThunderTatsu, SilverTatsu, and SpiritSaru were sitting round, waiting for him.

"Were you followed?" SpiritSaru asked, his bright blue eyes looking at Blazen curiously.

"Yep," Blazen nodded as he sat down, crossing his legs. "I think everyone's being followed now. It's only a matter of time until they find out about this place as well." He stretched his back. "Dricer and Ursa were lucky to get out of here when they did,"

"It's not that they were able to get out," Phantom corrected his brother. "It's that they were able to get away and get back to their wards."

"True," Blazen replied.

"Have you been able to contact Rhuben at all?" Phantom asked, turning to DeathLiger, who was lying on his back on the ground, looking at the sky. "She was able to awaken again, which is good for them, but I'm not sure how much longer they can defend themselves."

"Especially since they're awakening so slowly," SilverTatsu added. "Slower than we expected."

"I've been trying," DeathLiger sat up and rested his arms behind him, using his hands to keep him balanced. He flipped his black hair out of his purple eyes. "But every time I would try to sneak away, one of them would come to attack me. I just hope that Mistress Rhuben is able to keep a good control over her powers."

"I was hoping the same thing for Zack," Blazen shook his head. "But I can already tell feel that his powers are going to go out of control fast. Especially since he and Cody are the stronger ones."

"That was always a problem in itself," DalFang remarked. "Not knowing when they were going to awaken once more, not knowing that this was going to happen." He vaguely gestured around him as the other guardians nodded slowly.

"Did you all see Ursa, Tapeworm, and Max when they came in here?" Phantom asked suddenly, a serious expression crossing his face. He continued when the others shook their heads. "Max brought Tapeworm in, to the Element World in his dream. She showed him what's been going on while we've been apart from our wards and they went to see how Canis was progressing." He shook his head. "It's a good thing that Tapeworm wasn't shown everything that has been going on here or else we would have to worry about the others coming in here in their dreams."

"Why would that be a bad thing?" SpiritSaru asked. "Wouldn't it be helpful if they came in here, maybe the others could be awakened that way too?"

"Not if they get to them," ThunderTatsu muttered.

Blazen slowly nodded.

Ever since he and the other guardians had left Zack, Cody, and the rest of their wards and gone back to the Element World, things had gone downhill fast. They, like their wards, had believed that everything that they had needed to do as guardians was over and that they were going to live out their lives with their families until they grew old enough to have families of their own. Things were great at first; they went back to their normal lives; helping their different villages in the best ways that they could. Much like they would in the modern world, but without technology. Most of the lives that they lived would probably be compared to farm life, though not exactly the same. Things were fine at first; time had passed by with no incident.

Then some of the animals started to break away from the villages that they had lived in and started to turn rogue. Wolves, lions, tigers, dogs, snakes, dragons, any animal that you could think of that had been 'domesticated' and potentially used in a spirit animal ceremony, had all started to run amuck and join those that hadn't been domesticated. Different areas were starting to become attacked in some of the weirdest ways. Areas that were represented by water; where the ceremony that would represent a guardian getting the ability of controlling water as well as receiving their animal spirit was attacked by thunder and lightning. Areas that were represented with spirits were attacked by anything that could potentially gain the upper hand against it. No one could find the source of the attacks, but it was starting to happen more and more frequently.

Geneva and Gattaca had been called in to find out what had been causing the attacks, but before they could come up with a definitive answer, they had gone back to assist Bailey, practically rendering the Element World helpless. Those that inhabited the Element World were essentially now stuck to defend themselves the best way they could.

Then a dark cloud had descended upon the Element World. If someone tried to leave their home or if someone tried to travel to figure out what was going on, they would be attacked. The problem was no one could see what was attacking them. The thing would move so fast, and they would adapt quickly enough to defeat their opponent that no one stood a chance. They were making it harder for the guardians to be able to reunite with their Masters and Mistresses as well. Whenever they would try, or when their ward would awaken once more, they would be attacked. So far, from what they knew, only Ursa, Dricer, and a few other guardians were able to get out and return to their wards.

Unfortunately, none of the others were able to contact their wards and tell them exactly what was going on. They all knew that there were other Elementals in the human world that had been in the same predicament as them, but if they didn't show themselves to Zack, Cody, and the others, then they were essentially on their own. When DeathLiger tries to get to Rhuben, he had been so brutally attacked that he had been in medical care for months. (On Earth it would feel like a matter of minutes, as time in the Element World moved faster than on Earth.)

"At this point I think we should focus on the fact that one; what we originally believed was the prophecy hasn't come true," DalFang spoke up, his red eyes slowly moving around the circle. "And two; no matter if we get through to our wards we're going to be momentarily taken over by something and can't control our actions."

"What do you propose we do?" SpiritSaru asked.

"I don't know," DalFang admitted. "I just think that at this point, we should focus on that and figure out what's really going on before any of the rest of us decide to try and get to our Masters and Mistresses again. Ursa and Dricer can handle what they need to handle while they're there."

"Do you think that's wise?" Phantom looked unconvinced. "Even though we can't actually see them, and we haven't been able to get into their dreams lately, it's probably not going to take long for them to get caught."

"Something's already gone down," DeathLiger said slowly, closing his eyes. "I can feel it, something really bad is happening down there."

Blazen shook his head, putting his face in his hands. He had never felt so helpless before. How were they supposed to help their friends if it would just hurt them even more if they tried to get back to them? How were they going to figure out what was going on with who was behind them being attacked without potentially getting themselves killed? Then that would hurt their wards even further. He never knew that things would get that complicated with them. But it was like his father had said when the Element World started to collapse onto Earth; nothing was going to be as simple as it had been before.

"So what are we going to do?" SpiritSaru asked.

Before anyone could reply, the weeds around them rustled and Rudin, Julius's guardian, came blasting into the clearing. His side was ripped open and bleeding, his hand was pressed over the wound, trying to stop the bleeding the best that he could. His left eye was swollen shut, but he had a powerful glint in his eye. He took a couple of deep breaths before addressing the barrage of questions that were thrown his way.

"Our home is under attack," he said quickly. "I don't know what they are, but it's something that's really strong, I need your help."

"Let's go," Blazen leapt to his feet and followed Rudin through the field, the others behind him. The eight guardians raced back to their home village, staring in shock at the carnage that greeted them.

They could see some people that they had grown up with lying on the ground, bleeding. Blazen could see his mother viciously fighting off what looked like a human, but had a darker pallor to it. Every time she would strike her opponent, he would quickly heal himself. DalFang, DeathLiger, ThunderTatsu, SilverTatsu, SpiritSaru, and Rudin quickly rushed by him, joining in on the fight. Blazen hardly noticed; he wasn't even sure if Phantom was by his side at that point. He could only focus on his mother.

Blazen let out a strangled cry when he watched her get hit hard in the chest, causing her to fall to the ground. Phantom surged ahead and Blazen was a few steps behind him, each of them running as fast as they could.

"Mom!" Phantom called, getting her attention.

Blazen allowed his fist to burs t into flames, and he shoved it forward, into the other human's stomach. Blazen watched in confusion as a hole appeared where the stomach should have been. But the human didn't even flinch as the hole slowly closed in on itself, using something that looked like vines to pull its body back together.

"What are you?" Blazen whispered, his eyes lifting to the human's.

"Arbori," the human smiled widely, sharp teeth that resembled rocks sticking out of his lips. "That's what she calls us anyway."

"Who's she?" Phantom demanded. He was kneeling by his mother's side, gently holding onto her shoulders, helping her off of the ground. "Who do you work for?" His grip tightened on his mother's shoulders when the Arboris merely continued to smile. "Answer me, dammit!"

Blazen and Phantom reacted at the same time. As Blazen cupped his hands and shot a stream of fire towards the Arboris, Phantom raised his hands in the air towards the sky. A cloud appeared above his head and when he brought his hands back down, a rush of hard water came shooting out of the cloud in a downpour and shot wards the Arboris. The Arboris simply allowed the attacks to hit him before delivering a blow to the two of them so fast that they barely had a chance to blink before they were on the ground.

Blazen rolled onto his side, coughing as he wrapped his arms around his stomach. He could hear the cries of his friends as they were locked in a heated battle with other Arbori. Blazen briefly squeezed his eyes shut before rolling onto his stomach and pushing himself up. He watched as Phantom managed to hit the Arboris in the leg before he himself was hit across the face and sent back to the ground. All of a sudden, the Arbori turned and fled the scene.

"What the hell was that?" Blazen muttered to himself, still holding onto his stomach. Each breath in felt like a knife stabbed him. "What the hell are they?"

"Mom," Blazen turned at the sound of Phantom's voice and crawled over to his mother and brother. Phantom had helped her to sit up. "Mom, are you ok?" He asked, his blue eyes searching his mother's face in concern.

"I'm fine," Shiva replied with a nod. She pushed her brown hair out of her blue eyes, giving another nod. "You don't have to worry about me, boys." Blazen and Phantom helped her to her feet.

"Where's Dad?" Blazen asked.

"He went to send the message that we were attacked again," Shiva replied. Her face took on a serious tone. "There's not going to be much of our village left if we can't figure out who they're working for and what they want." Her face then softened as she reached out towards her sons. "Promise me you'll be careful."

"Of course, Mom," Blazen replied with a nod.

"At least now we know what we're trying to stay safe from," Phantom said.

He crossed his arms over h his chest. But that didn't mean that they knew how to defeat what it was. If they were their big opponent this time, they had a big battle on their hands. And this time he wasn't sure if they were going to win.

A/N: Next chapter will go back to Bailey and Tapeworm. I hope you guys enjoyed a look with the guardians.

Cheers,

-Riles