Rubble, help me!

A weak yet urgent voice called out in Rubble's mind, piercing through the pain that had been washing over him for several moments. He opened his eyes, and as the haze of the pain began to fade away, he gasped in horror at what he saw.

A Hunter, powered by Night CHI, held Cole's wrist in a tight grip and was not letting go! Cole was struggling against the hold as hard as he could, but his efforts were getting weaker by the second. His arm and upper body were rapidly turning black—clearly an effect of the Night CHI—and it looked like he would give in to the Night CHI's power and pass out at any moment.

And if he passed out, he would lose.

Rubble! the voice cried out again. Please help me! Don't let me fall asleep! It took Rubble only two seconds to realize that the voice he was hearing in his mind was Cole, crying out to him through their connection. The Earth Ninja's eyes were blinking rapidly as he struggled to stay awake. But then, to Rubble's dismay, his eyes closed, and he went limp in the Hunter's grasp.

"No!" Rubble cried out. This couldn't be happening! It just couldn't! "I have to do something!" he said to himself. "I've just got to do something!"

And then it happened. Suddenly, in the moment of greatest darkness, something deep inside Rubble awakened. Like a flame deep within him, it grew and grew until he could hold it in no more. Yellow light shot out from the pup's chest and surrounded him, transforming him into a creature of rock and stone.

He had become a golem—a type of rock monster form that could only be unlocked by an Earth Elemental. And he was ready to take on this Hunter.

"No one touches my connectee!" he shouted in a slightly deeper voice than usual before rushing at the Hunter headlong and ramming him dead center in the chest. The Hunter, who was not at all prepared for the attack, let go of Cole immediately and doubled over, wheezing and giving Rubble the perfect opportunity to kick him into the side of a tree. He hit the tree with a sickening thud and was dead to the world.

Rubble's golem form suddenly deactivated, and he transformed back into a normal English bulldog. He raced over to Cole and shook him violently, trying to get him to respond.

"Cole, wake up!" he begged. "It's me, Rubble! The Hunter's not touching you anymore!" But Cole did not respond. It was like he…like he…couldn't wake up.

Tears filled Rubble's hazel eyes. "No!' he whispered. "No, please." His vocal pitch rose as he began to panic. "Cole! Wake up! Do you hear me?! Wake up! Wake up!

Kito groaned as he sat up. His head throbbed from the crash, and he hoped that he hadn't gotten a concussion from the fall. Then he suddenly remembered.

"Arin!" he cried out in panic. He dashed over to where Arin lay motionless on the ground. The boy was still breathing, but his eyes were closed. Kito sat down and lifted Arin's head with his paws. When he let go, Arin's head dropped back onto the ground. The memory of what had happened in those past few moments came back to Kito—Arin tumbling off the wall, them both falling, Arin grabbing his paw and throwing him back up and to the side to break his fall.

A quick glance told Kito that Arin had suffered a rather nasty-looking head abrasion. He would definitely need some medical attention when the battle was over.

Then Kito wondered to himself, Will this battle ever be over? The Hunters were rapidly advancing towards the gate. The CHImaera, including Laval and Lagravis, were fighting their hardest, but they were being rapidly pushed back towards the city. In all the chaos, Kito couldn't even figure out where the other pups were. And the backup that he and Arin were supposed to get wasn't even here yet.

And with Arin's present condition, there was no way Kito could get him into the city before the Hunters got to them.

Oh, this whole thing is going all too wrong! he thought to himself, as his head began to spin. What do I do? What do I do?!

A sudden rustle in the bushes startled him. "Who's there?" he called out timidly. The dizziness grew worse and he feared he would pass out. Just then, a strange creature approached him and Arin. It looked like a fox, but to Kito's surprise, it had not one, but three tails. As he just stared at it, wondering what to do, it came closer and closer until it could have bumped Kito's forehead with its snout. It fixed its mysterious fire-red eyes on him, and Kito wondered if he should run.

And then he suddenly felt strange—like he had been trapped in a dark dream and was only now waking up. He stared deeply into the kitsune's eyes and saw something there that no one else could see. If he had looked down, he would have seen that his paws were glowing a brilliant orangish-yellow. The tip of his tail was glowing as well, and though he couldn't see it, so were his eyes.

"I…understand." he said at last. And truly, he did understand. Then he wondered if he should dare to ask—

"Help us, please." he softly pleaded. The kitsune's answer was to bend down his head and touch his snout to Arin's forehead. As Kito silently watched, golden energy flowed from the kitsune's snout into the unconscious boy, radiating through his entire body before its glow faded away. Then the kitsune did the same with Kito. A tingling warmth flooded Kito's body and he felt the effects of the crash fade away. He also felt strangely…calmer than he had before.

Then the kitsune turned and left them. But before Kito could wonder where it was going, Arin suddenly moaned and opened his eyes. Gasping great breaths of air, he sat up and asked, "What…what happened? What did I miss?"

But Kito was too full of joy to say or do anything except yell "Arin!" before giving him the biggest hug in the history of the Merged Realms. Then his face fell as he remembered—there was still a battle going on. And the others needed their help.

"Come on, Arin!" he cried out, getting to his feet with a determined look on his face. "We've got to tell the others what has happened!" With that, he took off so suddenly that if Arin had blinked, he would have missed it.

"Wait up, Kito!" he yelled, running after his friend. "What do we have to tell them? And what in all the Merged Realms has happened?"

Laval struggled to keep his sword arm up as he fought desperately against the Hunters. His CHI orb was all but gone, and every time he knocked back one Hunter, it seemed two more took their place. The Night CHI power was starting to overcome even his best sword-fighting techniques. And even if he'd had an extra orb, he didn't have time to plug another one.

Just when he thought he and his father were goners, a strange sound greeted his ears. The Hunters facing him all let out screams of terror and ran away as fast as their legs could carry them. At first, Laval thought that Mallik had shown up somehow in the nick of time to help them. But that hunch was quickly debunked when his father looked behind him and exclaimed, "Is that my battle tank?"

When Laval turned around, he saw that indeed, it was his father's tank—wingtips and all. (Try as they might, the Lion Guards had never really been able to pull the wings the Beavers had welded onto the tank off in one piece.)

But if that was his father's tank, then who was driving it? The answer came when the tank made a sharp turn and skidded to a stop in front of the two Lions. The hatch opened, and Laval gasped when he saw who was inside.

"Liam? Scorpio? You're supposed to be back at the Lion City!"

"Laval, don't send us back, please?" Liam pleaded. "We wanna help!"

"Yeah, Laval." Scorpio followed. "Can we please help you? Please?"

Then the two gave Laval cute eyes and asked as one, "Pleeeaaassse?"

Laval sighed, realizing that he would never be able to convince them to head back now. "All right." he finally relented. "But I think I should drive the tank."

"Leave the driving to me!" a voice then shouted from behind. Laval turned to see that the other troops had just arrived, led by—

"Li'Ella!"

Up above the battlefield, Eagle Jets, Raven Rovers, and the Black Cloud of Walla Bats were flying overhead, ready for a good fight. "All right, Air Forth!" Ewald commanded. "Let'th thow theeth Hunterth a thing or two!" The Jets fired several shots to scare the Hunters away from the city. The Bats let out an ear-piercing screech and dove downward to swarm the Hunters like gnats. The Hunters, who had seemed fearless before, cried out in fright at the attacks from the air.

"Li'Ella," Laval called. "Give General Scorm the signal!"

"I'm on it!" Li'Ella affirmed before letting out her first-ever signal roar. Laval knew that the Crawler troops would feel the vibrations in the caverns below and take that as the signal to charge. Li'Ella then turned towards the tank, and Liam moved out of the way so that Li'Ella could hop in.

"I thought I told you to stay in the City!" she scolded gently before turning her attention to the dashboard. Laval leaped onto the back of the tank, just before Lagravis approached him.

"I had this on me in case I found myself in danger." he said, pulling out an orb of Fire CHI. "I know it's been a long time since we've had to use Fire CHI, and this is the only orb left." He then handed it to Laval, who took it gratefully. "But somehow I felt that today was the day we would need it most."

"Thanks, Dad." Laval replied, tucking the orb under his cape for safekeeping.

"Use it well…" Lagravis started before he and Laval finished as one, "use it wisely." Then Laval turned to Li'Ella and exclaimed, "Li'Ella, get this tank moving!"

"I thought you'd never ask!" she answered, before hitting the gas. As they zoomed towards the Hunters, who all screamed and jumped away from the huge tank, Laval began counting the seconds so that he would know when the Crawlers would appear from underneath the plain. He and Scorm had discussed when the underground assault should happen so that he could alert the army beforehand. They worked it down to a timing of ten seconds after the signal roar was sounded.

"1…2…" he began counting.

Down below, Scorm was counting as well. "3…4…"

Laval could hear Li'Ella counting too. "5…6…"

"7…8…"

"9…10… Get ready!" Laval shouted the last part so that all of the army could hear.

"NOW!" Scorm shouted to his men before they swarmed out of a cavern entrance cleared exactly for the purpose. The Hunters were unprepared for attacks from land, air, and underground, just as Laval had predicted. But there was one thing that the CHImaera hadn't accounted for. The eclipse still had not cleared up.

And that meant the Night CHI was still active.

A Hunter suddenly jumped on the back of the tank. "I'll take care of it!" Laval shouted, before vaulting over onto the roof of the tank. Sparks flew as Laval crossed swords with the Hunter, who thankfully had run out of Night CHI, thereby giving Laval the advantage. The Hunter flew off of the back of the tank just seconds after he had leapt onto it. But then another one clambered onto the tank to take his place. And this one did have Night CHI!

Laval hopped first onto one foot, then the other, dodging the Hunter's attempts to knock him off the tank. The Hunter came in swinging his sword closer and closer to Laval, until it swung so close that Laval nearly had his Lion's whiskers sliced in half.

(And yes, he did have whiskers—they just weren't all that noticeable.)

Just as he thought he might fall clean off the tank, Li'Ella suddenly yelled, "I got this!" before leaping onto the roof as well. She thrust her own sword at the Hunter, who dodged it before lunging forward himself. Li'Ella teetered on one foot, trying to maintain her balance, before she launched out and dealt the Hunter a spinning crescent right to the stomach with a loud "Hi-YAH!". He toppled off the tank, and Laval commented, "Nice kick!"

"Thanks, Laval!" she managed to shout before two more Hunters clambered on and she had to fight them. Laval tried to help her, but the luck Laval had had with the first Hunter was not on their side now. Both of the Hunters they faced were empowered with Night CHI, and the two Lions had to move quickly to avoid being grabbed.

"I don't think we can do this all day!" Laval exclaimed. "If there's any day even left!"

Then, to his surprise—and Li'Ella's—Liam leaped onto the back of the tank as well and had knocked off the Hunters in a flash.

"Perfect timing, Liam!" Li'Ella praised.

Then Laval realized something. "Wait a second…if you're up here…WHO'S DRIVING THE TANK?!"

"I am!" Scorpio's voice piped up. "Don't worry! I totally got this!"

His statement, though, did not reassure them in the slightest—especially when all three realized that Scorpio had no driving skills whatsoever.
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Laval, Li'Ella, and Liam cried out at the exact same time.

"Faster! Faster!" Scorpio yelled, completely oblivious to the discomfort and panic of the passengers hanging on for their lives atop the tank. On a good note, he was sending the Hunters packing—sort of. Meaning that the Hunters were hurriedly tripping over each other trying to get out of the way before they got flattened.

"Whatever happened to no killing, Laval?" Li'Ella asked.

"I didn't think something like this would happen!" Laval answered, gritting his teeth to keep from screaming. He just hoped that his father was having a better time than he was.

Lagravis, however, was having almost as much trouble as Laval was. The eclipse was dragging on, and the Hunters seemed to grow stronger by the minute. Worse yet, the Hunters had managed to grab hold of several of the troops, and Lagravis could hear more screams and cries of panic every second. They didn't even need to wound the CHImaera. All they had to do was grab hold of their wrists and immediately the Night CHI would start to take effect. Not even the ordinary blue CHI was helping. As he stood there fighting off incoming Hunters, the elderly Lion King was starting to wonder if this was it—if this is how their world would end.

Suddenly, he heard a small cry coming from the distance, calling his name over and over again. Within a few seconds he realized that the voice was Kito. He and Arin were charging through the Hunters' ranks towards him. The two then skidded to a stop, and Lagravis asked, "What are you two doing here? I thought Laval sent you to find the other troops!"

"Yeah, that's a long story." Arin answered sheepishly.

"We…we found out something that…could bring us to victory." Kito replied, panting.

Lagravis was instantly intrigued. "What kind of something?"

"Long story short," Kito continued, "there's only one…CHImaera…who can turn the tide."

"Who do you refer to? Speak!"

"'The one who glows with light so strong, it drives all darkness far away.'" Kito quoted.

"But what does that mean, Kito?"

"I don't know!" Kito exclaimed. "It could be anyone, unless…"

"Unless?" Arin asked, still clueless about what was going on.

"Could it be…" Kito thought out loud. "Liam?"

The Clouded Leopard in question was currently atop the tank, hanging on by an inch of his life, when he suddenly looked up and saw a familiar black figure through the treetops. She'd been caged prior to the battle and had the most annoyed look on her face. Liam recognized her right away.

"Lyla!"

Without thinking about anything else, he leaped off of the tank and immediately began racing towards Lyla. The confused cries of his friends faded away amidst the noise of the battle. When he skidded to a stop just a few feet from where Lyla was being held, he immediately noticed that there was only one guard on duty.

How foolish of them, he thought to himself. Only one person was needed to take down one guard. The raging fire coursed through his veins, and the guard had barely enough time to blink before Liam was on top of him, a dagger in his right paw, ready to strike at any moment.

"Liam?" Lyla asked in confusion. "What are you doing?!"

But Liam paid no attention. He simply tore the Hunter guard's mask off his face—and was shocked at what he saw.

"Tristan?!" he blurted in utter confusion. Tristan had been the adopted son of the blacksmith back in Liam's village. He was a human, but he had lost his parents after the Merge and been taken in by the Leopard tribe shortly after. Liam regarded Tristan to be one of his closest friends (besides Lyla). But seeing him now, working for the Hunters, all of Liam's memories of being friends were shattered to pieces. Anger stirred in his heart as he held the dagger poised there.

"HOW COULD YOU?" he blurted. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US?"

"I had no choice." Tristan pleaded with the furious Leopard cub.

"Had no choice?" Liam repeated, spitting each word out as if it were a sour lemon.

"Liam, what are you doing?" Lyla said again. "Tristan's telling you the truth!"

"He took everything from us!" Liam exploded. "Our homes, our families, they're all gone—because of HIM! And now, it's time he paid for the grief he's caused."

"Don't do this, Liam!" Lyla pleaded. "Or you'll become just like them!"

But Liam did not care. He would finish this! This ended now!

For a few moments after Liam suddenly took off, Laval just stared off into the distance, wondering what was happening. Suddenly, his thoughts were abruptly interrupted when Li'Ella cried, "Look out!" Scorpio tried to make a sharp turn—too late! The tank sideswiped a thick oak tree, and Laval lost his grip and went flying into the air!

He landed on the ground with a thud. Don't think there's anything broken. he thought to himself. Except maybe my pride. But before he could access what to do next, a cold hand clamped his wrist—hard. He looked up just long enough to see that he was being held in the grip of a Night-CHI-powered Hunter!