Here be dragons! This is gonna be fun. R&R, continue reading, the usual.
"This is going to be fun." Travis' voice echoed throughout the sewers, as he opened his smoky gray book. The light was blinding, the remaining Mamodo on Alan's side overwhelmed by the amount of heart energy he was giving off.
"Fuofumo!" He yelled, as his dragon partner opened its mouth and released a fireball.
"Soriano" A voice erupted from behind, as Shu and Alex jumped in front. A rainbow-colored shield appeared to take the weaker attack, but the shield was weakened by the amount of heart energy already used. It was just enough to ward it off. Alex dropped the book from his face, revealing a tired, sweating visage. Shu however, was nearly untouched, but very determined. The group remaining looked on with a happy face. Jay looked back to Curio for a moment.
"Do you think you could use another one of that spell again?" Jay asked, his heart energy depleting as well. Curio shook his head.
"I'm used to using a lot less heart energy for our spells. With our stronger bond, the amount of heart energy is dramatically increased, and I'm not used to it. However, once I gain back the heart energy, I will be able to use our spells to the fullest extent." Curio replied, getting up to his knees, as his Mamodo, Sosa, rubbed against him. Jay nodded, then looked to Jyan and Josh, who had used all their heart energy.
"Everybody who can't use their spells, fall back! The rest of us will take it from here." Jay called back. A few fled back to where Multos was, and some moved up. He looked around to see that the remaining Mamodo to help in the battle were Shu, Alan, Correre and Chrys. Is this it? He thought to himself. This would be a difficult battle.
"Four Mamodo who have used almost all their heart energy against two who, for the most part, have used weak spells up till now? This should be easy." Travis smiled, putting the book out in front of him, the glow steadily getting brighter.
"Ganzu Fuofumo!" He cast, as multiple fireballs were fired from Kisu's mouth. The group took precautions to dodge, but there were too many. One struck Correre head on, another hit Alan, while the final one hit Chrys' feet, knocking her down.
"Chrys!" Anthony cried out, running to her side. She stood up slowly with his help.
"I'll be fine." She said with a tinge of anger. Despite her feet being burned, she stood by herself with little difficulty. Travis smiled.
"Wow. One attack nearly wiped you out. I guess that this will only take a minute." He raised his eyes, seeing the destruction, the displaced bricks, the burned Mamodo lying around. Anna opened the bright yellow book to attack, and so did the other Mamodo.
"Gigano Braidon!" Jay shouted out first. The wet whips of hair launched out at the opposing teams. Pong slithered forward and raised his head.
"Fighting water with water, eh? Igor! Cast a spell!" Pong called, getting ready for a spell to be cast. None came, at least not from his own bookkeeper.
"Gigano Fuofumo!" Travis cast instead, a large ball of fire, spewed out from Kisu's mouth, burning the spell to the ground. All that remained of it was ashes. Jay looked on. No way… it burned it to the roots…Jay thought to himself, the light from his brown book fading a little.
"Let us handle it, Pong." Travis said, stepping up. The huge dragon Kisu stomped over to him. The steps created shockwaves in the small area.
"Sucario!" A voice shouted, as Shu, holding a large sword made of ice and fire, launched himself at Travis and Kisu.
"We have more tricks up our sleeves then you think. Curufumo!" Travis cast nonchalantly. Kisu opened his mouth as a thick, green gas was released from his mouth. Fits of coughing and hacking could be heard from within the fog-like gas, as the group could barely see his silhouette. Shu waved his sword around in the gas, using his sword to disperse it. That was a bad idea.
As soon as the fiery part of the sword used its power on the gas, it erupted in a huge explosion, causing both sides to fall back. A thick smoke replaced the gas. "So, that gas is flammable?" Anna asked, getting her leg out from under Correre, who had protected her from the explosion.
"Shu!" Alex yelled into the smoke, running ahead. They couldn't even see the outline of his body.
"Gigano Fuofumo." A voice erupted from behind the smokescreen. A huge ball of fire appeared, visible even past the smoke.
"Guys, fall back! Fall back!" Jay yelled, to which there was no answer. Anna hung her head.
"What if that gas is still lingering?" Anna asked ominously.
Meanwhile…
Sometime ago, when Jay separated the battle-ready from the battle-worn, the ones who fell back followed Curio to his lab to acquire some more of his special medicine. They left Jyan and Josh with Chikushou and Jhouru, even though Jhouru had woken up and was ready, Chikushou still wanted to regain some heart energy. So Multos and Curio went over to the lab, only to find another team already there.
"Multos? Dun? Who are the other two?" Hawke asked, raising his eyes. Curio stepped back a little.
"Oh! You're quite a unique Mamodo, aren't you?" Curio asked, inspecting him head-to-toe.
"Yeah, well you aren't exactly Mr. Pretty Boy either." Hawke retorted. Curio shot a surprised glance back.
"Oh, I seem to have hit a nerve." He blinked. Hawke growled, closing his eyes. After a few moments of awkward silence, Curio stepped forward.
"I take it that your allies of Alan. He's in trouble. There are two strong Mamodo up ahead, and the eight of us have used all our heart energy. I have a special medicine that restores the power from within. If I could just get another batch to them, then we could have a chance." Curio stated, taking a breath after he was done. Hawke raised an eyebrow.
"I guess I could use some too. Go on ahead." He smiled, leaning against the walls of the catacombs. Prima looked around and then walked up to Multos, his large hairdo making him taller than her.
"I've never seen you fight before, Multos, at least, not unless we were attacking as a group. You must've fought hard." Prima tried to look down at his face, but instead got a mouthful of hair. She stepped back, coughing up a hairball.
"Quite the opposite. My partner is saving heart energy for a more appropriate time, right Dun?" Multos looked up at his partner, who shrugged. He nodded afterward. Prima looked at them with suspicion, and then walked back over to Curio, who was hurriedly brewing another batch of his medicine, quickly mixing different liquids, of different consistencies and colors. They could barely follow the event with their eyes. Curio shot a quick glance back at them from the corner of his eye.
"Do you mind?" He asked with a tinge of annoyance. Hawke stepped back, rolling his eyes. I hope this guy's telling the truth. He thought.
Meanwhile…
The fireball stopped dead. A long pause, littered with grunting and groaning, was broken when the group saw the fireball being pushed back. Alex's eyes seemed to glow as he stepped back out of the smoke. "All right!" He mumbled happily, the smoke dispersing a little. It was blown away just enough to see Shu, with his 'Sucario' spell still active, aiming to freeze the fireball with the icy part of his sword. It seemed that it only pushed it back a little.
"You're giving it your all just to stop this spell? Tch. This isn't even one of our strong spells!" Travis gloated, watching as Shu struggled with it with joy.
"Shut up." A serious voice rang through the sewers. Travis stopped smiling to look through the flaming ball, seeing Shu with a determined face.
"You hurt my friends, you bastard, your dead." He retorted, the icy blast being administered to the fireball growing in power. Travis gasped.
"Get back!" He shouted, the icy blast growing even larger, encasing the front of the fireball in ice, only to be melted with little effort. As Alex looked on, he began to look down with guilt, the light fading from amber spell book. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up.
It was Anna. She pointed at Shu and started to speak. "You can't give up on him now. Do you see what he's putting himself through to help us? You can't forget that." She told him.
"But…" Alex began.
"No. We will win. You can't give up on him when he's trusted us the whole way." Anna said forcefully, dragging him up to his feet. He looked up at Shu, and his 'Sucario' spell which was starting to fade.
"Giga Azurio!" He shouted in reply, as Shu released a blue beam of ice to freeze the fireball. It did so immediately.
"No way." He said with a tinge of surprise, taking a step back. Then he scoffed.
"Still, he used all his energy to stop it. He can't do anything now!" Travis said, mostly to assure himself.
"You don't know anything about us, then." Alex said, stepping forward, his face bathed in the amber light emitting from the book.
"Fire it at them." Alex commanded.
"What?"
"Fire it." Alex repeated. Shu looked forward, and narrowed his hands to focus the beam. It sent the ball of ice flying, as well as making it grow in size.
"What?" Travis gasped, dashing backward, even the huge Kisu taking a step back, almost crushing Pong.
"Hey, watch where you step!" He yelled up at him, but Kisu was too focused on the ball of ice. Suddenly, a wicked smile spread across his face, and a laugh escaped his mouth.
"What are you laughing about?" Travis asked with a scowl, getting ready to cast a spell. Kisu kept smiling.
"Just watch." He replied. Sure enough, Kisu was right. They didn't have to do anything, because the ball of ice became so big that it got lodged in between them. After a moment of surprised and relieved silence, Travis laughed giddily and tauntingly. The smoky gray book began to glow more vigorously then ever.
"Fuofumo!" He yelled, as Kisu released a ball of fire into the ice, sending shards at Alex and Shu. They were unable to react quickly enough, so the shards tore them up, especially Alex.
"You can't beat us." Travis taunted, his smile almost as wide as Kisu's. Alan and Correre dashed in front of the two, as Jay and Anna helped to drag them away.
"What are you doing, running?" Travis asked, squinting in curiosity. Then he stood up straight, unfazed.
"Oh, well. I guess I'll just destroy you then. Gigano Fuofumo." He replied nonchalantly. Kisu spit a large fireball at them. They both took it head on, but managed to escape with little damage.
"Wha? How?" Travis asked himself, seeing as the attack left the situation virtually unchanged. Then he saw. Alan and Correre were engulfed in auras, Alan in a brown aura and Correre in a bright yellow aura. Jay and Anna hurried back to their sides, just in time.
"You little brats!" Travis yelled in anger, despite his fantastic advantage.
"Ganzu Fuofumo! Gigano Fuofumo! Dioga Fuofumo!" Travis yelled in anger, sending a barrage of fireballs everywhere. Alan and Correre expertly dodged most, with the use of only an assist here or a shield there. The 'Dioga' spell, however, shot Correre back into a wall, which caused the bricks to collapse on him, but it also caused water to burst in. The three remaining heroes looked on in horror.
"We have to get Correre out!" Anna yelled, running directly into the water's blast, despite the pressure. She started to dig out the rocks, turning away only to breathe. Then, the pressure increased, blasting her back. Jay, thinking quickly, started to cast spells.
"Immobi Braidon!" He cast, as Alan sent one braid of hair toward Kisu, and another into the water's blast and into the bricks that had fallen.
"You really think that's gonna work? Fuofumo!" Travis said with a scoff. Kisu briefly spit a wisp of fire and burned the one braid. However, while he focused on that braid, the other acquired Correre and brought him out of the water. Anna, realizing he was close to death because of how long he was submerged, carried him on her back to where they had left the others.
"And then there was one." Travis taunted ominously, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. Jay sighed in defeat. Even with Alan strengthened by his anger, they couldn't beat him with the amount of heart energy they had left. It was hopeless.
"Ganzu Fuofumo!" Travis cast, smiling, as many balls of fire were shot at the opponent.
"Acishield." A voice rang out from behind, as a green, sticky shield appeared and obliterated the fireballs. Travis gasped, but Jay and Alan were clueless. They looked at each other, and then looked back.
Sosa, Chrys, Jhouru, Hawke, Multos and Jyan were all there. And they were all smiling.
"Dammit! We can't win now…" Travis mumbled. He looked around, and then turned to Kisu.
"Fly us out of here!" He commanded, jumping on his back. Pong and Igor eagerly jumped on, with Pong barely hanging on to Kisu's tail. They flew a little down the corridor, when Sosa and Curio retaliated.
"Gigano Bruacidos!" He cast, as Sosa fired a huge ball of acid. Kisu, however, seemed to be touching the ceiling.
"Burnshield." Travis shouted with a tinge of annoyance, as a wall of fire blocked the acidic attack. Suddenly, a flash of light appeared, and a hole appeared in the ceiling.
"He's using one of the runes!" Multos shouted. They would've attacked, but the shield was still in use. By the time it had disappeared, the hole Kisu had escaped through had long since resealed itself.
"I guess we keep moving." Jay said. He had a point, because the sewers would soon flood and then drain into the catacombs. So, they got Correre, Anna, Shu and Alex, and kept moving. Curio revealed that he had made a huge batch of his heart-energy-restoring concoction. They each took some, and, coming to the end of the sewers. There were two paths to choose from.
"We should split up into two groups and take each of the passages. There can be no survivors, or they'll all be against us." Multos told them, as they proceeded to argue on who would be in whose group. Eventually, the groups were decided, turning out like this:
Group 1:
Alan and Jay Leon
Correre and Anna
Hawke and Prima Aero
Multos and Dun
Group 2:
Sosa and Dr. Curio
Chrysanthemum and Anthony
Shu and Alex
Jhouru and Chikushou
Jyan and Josh
Meanwhile…
In Group 1's corridor, a battle rages upstairs with Lorelei and Mortisimor, while in Group 2's, a vampiric Mamodo awaits to exact bloodthirsty vengeance…
(End of Chapter 19: 84 Mamodo left)
I'm sorry for not updating as quickly as promised, I'm getting a lot of visitors this summer. Review, and keep reading to see how the 2 groups hold up! And thanks, everyone, for the reviews!