23: Battle

Mr. Dark walked up and down the narrow black carpet in the throne room of his castle. He was contemplating the war, and how he had underestimated the Elemental Guardians. “Even though they are just children, they have always been one step ahead of me,” he thought. He had to do something, something to slow them down. He also had to make a heavy strike.

Rokai entered the room, limping slightly. After telling Mr. Dark of his encounter and failure with his mission, he prepared himself to take his punishment.

“The punishment for failure is death Rokai, but you are too valuable to be just killed. Maybe you can still help me. I need to make a heavy strike on the Elemental Guardians; perhaps you can tell me what to do?”

Rokai thought hard, and then walked over to the window. Leaning over, he observed the fields, and then lifted his head.

“Something is wrong. Today is the day of the Rainbow. The Elemental Guardians are strongest on that day. There is no use to strike today,” Rokai stated.

Then, the ground shook and Knaaren erupted from the ground in the fields. Manoha, Rayman, Globox, Murfy, and the Elemental Guardians then came through other holes, popping up from the ground.

“CHAAAAAAAAARGE!”

The Knaaren rushed to the castle entrance, smashing it with their strength. The Elemental Guardians then rushed in, through the holes that the Knaaren made. It all happened so fast. Mr. Dark stood there, stunned. He clenched his fists and growled.

“That’s how they want to play, eh?” he asked himself.

Mr. Dark then opened a small box near him, took out a small device and placed it under his hat.

“Everyone, we are under attack. Destroy the invaders, and show no mercy,” he stated.

His message boomed through the device, and soon through every room. Soon, all of Mr. Dark’s army was in position to defend.

While the Knaaren continued to smash everything that stood in their way, the Elemental Guardians made more strategic moves. Raywill created heavy, large vines from the ground, and wrapped them around the pillars that supported the walls, squeezing them. Some sections of the second floor tumbled down, but then Antitoons swarmed the pillars, stabilizing them with their bodies. Rows and rows of hunters slammed through the piles of wreckage, aiming their rifles and shooting down many Knaaren. Edman took care of them, as he sent torrents of water at the hunters, slamming them to the stone walls. More and more hunters appeared, along with many other men that Mr. Dark had in his army. Lien and Rayax battled them, but soon more men came from below the castle, swarming the Knaaren, forcing them out. Manoha ordered the Knaaren to remain outside, fighting as many men as they can, securing the area. Although Mr. Dark’s castle was average-sized, it held a surprisingly large amount of soldiers. Maria and Nocturn noticed that, and decided to go downstairs to the sub-levels to try and ambush any soldiers there.

With Maria in the lead, she ran down the stairs into the basement of the castle. The irony was it was as large as Manoha’s basement.

“What’s with basements these days!?” Nocturn sighed.

The basement was in fact, filled with soldiers, all swarming out of the room like bugs. Maria dashed in and shot several fireballs at the soldiers, diverting their attention to her. As all the soldiers charged her way, Nocturn stepped in front of Maria, Expanding his body so that it covered the entrance. His black hole sucked every soldier in, transporting them outside of the castle, to the delight of the Knaaren.

Lien extended her shadow to cover all of the Antitoons’, taking control of them. Having them swarm over some nearby soldiers, and leaving Rayax to compress all of them into tiny grains of sand.

Everything happened too fast, too easy, and too plain. Rayrina felt that something was wrong. She felt that there was some strong force coming from the third floor, and she was going to check it out. Clary and Lien both realized this too, and chose to come with Rayrina to the third floor.

The stairs were infested with Antitoons, which Rayrina easily cleared away with a few miniature tornados. Once they reached the second floor, they were ambushed by an entire fleet of quirky little men throwing toxic water balloons everywhere.

“Whoa, it’s Edman with a monocle!” Clary joked, before zapping them with electricity.

More and more men came out, each time double the amount. With a clang of swords, guns and bullets, they fired and threw their weapons at the Elemental Guardians. Lien’s wings burst out of her back, shielding herself with them. Rayrina formed many clouds in front of her as a shield, but Clary had nothing to protect herself. She was pinned down to the ground, and shot many times.

“Clary!” Rayrina screamed.

Out of fury, she swung a huge gust of wind to destroy all of soldiers in front of her. She then rushed over to Clary. Clary was knocked out, but alive.

“Raywill, take Clary to Manoha! She’s badly injured, and knocked out,” she shouted.

Raywill lifted one vine and wrapped it around Clary’s body. He dragged the vine outside, but the area was littered with Knaaren and soldiers.

“I can’t get through!” he shouted back.

Rayrina began to run towards Raywill, but Rayax held her back.

“I’ll take care of Clary. You and Lien go ahead to the third floor,” he shouted.

Rayrina nodded and turned around. With Lien’s help, she ran up the stone stairs, and cleared the passages of Antitoons. Once they went up the spiral staircase, they saw a great door blocking their path to the third floor. They both took deep breaths and slammed the door open. Inside was a small room, with a pair of great, big, wooden doors. The doors were massive, with huge inscriptions. Rayrina and Lien shot each other looks, and then entered through.

Inside, Mr. Dark and Amatser were too busy quarreling about something to notice Rayrina and Lien.

“I’ve lived up to my end of the bargain, now you have to!”  Mr. Dark shouted.

“There was never a bargain; you’re just a tool to me,” Amatser sighed.

“WHAT!? You… you… how dare you! You wouldn’t be able to get one plan straight without my help!”

“That’s what you think. I’m tired of you’re complaints. I have what I need, and what I need is energy. Thanks to that Cosmic Crystal that was recently stolen from you, I have gained enough energy to release myself from this idiot!”

A vigorous glow covered the room as Amatser collapsed to the ground. A tunnel of energy erupted from his body, and an ominous shape formed. The creature looked like a spirit wearing armor. A round, glowing, blue, spirit-like head with bright, turquoise eyes formed out of a bronze, armor chest piece. Two blue arms formed out of the sides of the chest piece, looking very much like they were made of the same ghost-like material that the head was made out, with glowing balls of dark blue energy forming out in the place of the hands. Out the bottom of the chest piece, massive wisps of smoke bubbled like foam in a tornado-like fashion, keeping the creature floating.

“Onrir?” Mr. Dark asked dreadfully.

Cold laughter filled the air.