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Chapter 11
"ANGUS! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Benji shouted and turned and leapt for the wolf, but he hit the ground just as the wolf went under.
"DAMN THEM ALL!" Nate shouted and drew his swords. He clashed them together just like Benji would do to his and swept them to the right side of his body. His left arm was pushed outwards and the hand was spread wide with open-palm. "ALRIGHT, WHOEVER YOU ARE, COME ON OUT AND FACE US! I'M READY FOR YOU! WELL? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" He now shouted to the open air. The place where Angus had gone under the ground rumbled and shook with fury and anger. Suddenly the earth blew open and there stood a woman of about twenty. She was wearing an Armor that none of the group had seen before. It was dark blue and the helmet was bright red. A long cape flapped in the light breeze. The woman held a sword in each hand.
"Well, well, well look what the cat dragged in! A bunch of stupid humans in tin coats and their mangy dogs! I do hope that you all know who I am?" The woman said. Her dark blue eyes matched that of the Armor's color. They shone with a glittering light that amazed them all.
"Oh, yes, I know who you are!" Sage-Light said. He had suddenly appeared beside Benji and was wearing the Armor of Light. The swords were drawn and he had already turned them into the staff-like weapon that they could be turned into. "Your name is Flamenessa. Your Armor is the Armor of Death. Your power is Death Strike. You should already know me. You and I fought for the world together, but now you are evil and, knowing you, you don't want to come back to the side of good, right?" Sage-Light said. The woman nodded and her Armor shone with a great black light.
"It is time for your final fight Sage-Light!" She said and jumped into the air and then came back down again in a flying side kick. Sage-Light did the same and his foot hit her in the mouth. She fell to the ground, her nose and were mouth bleeding. She held a hand up to her wound and said:
"Blood. My blood." She looked at Sage-Light. "You shall die for that!" She leapt at him and he kicked her in the stomach and planted a firm punch on the back of her neck. She fell to the ground. Sage-Light then looked at the rest of his friends and shouted:
"Get out of here! I'll deal with this monster!"
"We can't leave you here!" Benji shouted. "I'm staying!"
"I said leave or I shall personally fight you myself!" Sage-Light said.
"Alright we'll go, just be careful!" Benji said and turned and ran away from the fight. He, as well as the rest of the group of friends, knew that Sage-Light might end up just like Angus did: Captured by the Warlords of Evil. Suddenly they heard a loud scream that they knew was Sage-Light's voice. Then they all saw his face in the sky and he said:
"Keep going with the quest and have a pure mind and soul when the end comes. I'll always remember you. Farewell NightHawk!" Then he vanished. They also saw Angus's face in the sky and he said to them all:
"Be careful, my friends for evil is everywhere. I shall remember our fights and days that we all shared together always! Farewell WindStar!" And he too was gone.
"NOOOOOOOOO! THEY SHALL DIE FOR THIS!" Benji shouted and punched the air as hard as he could. Tears were in his eyes and pain was in his heart.
"Come on, Benji. We must get going before anyone else in taken." Brian said.
"Don't you see what's going on? They are using the divide and conquer trick. They'll kill us all and when the last of us have died and withered away to nothing, they will rule this world!" Benji said. Tears were streaming down his face.
"I know your pain. Sage-Light was apart of you as Ben and Benjamin are. He healed you and made you ready for this. Don't let that feeling slip away! Now let's get out of here!" Brian said. The group began moving toward the Palace again. It was night fall and already two of their friends were gone. Some of the group thought them to be alive while others prayed for it silently. Benji's eyes were glazed so badly that he couldn't see anything and Brian had to help him along. They soon stopped to rest and to sleep. It was nearing the early hours of the morning when the same person who had fought with Sage-Light, appeared in Quest Members' camp. It was Benjamin that first felt her presence in the camp. He awoke and drew his spear. He jumped up and attacked the intruder.
"Die you vile monster!" He shouted. The rest of the group woke and all drew their weapons. Flamenessa side-stepped and kicked Benjamin in the chest. He fell to the ground holding his chest in pain.
"Now it is your turn to join your friends!" Flamenessa said and held her right hand out to Benjamin's face. A dark black light shot out of her hand and engulfed him in its light.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Benjamin shouted. In a moment he was gone!
"Noooooo! Not him!" Benji shouted and rushed his adversary. She jumped out of the way and was also gone in a flash! "DAMN IT! I HAD HER RIGHT IN MY SIGHT! WHERE THE HELL DID SHE GO?!" It was true that she could not be found and that they would just have to await her next move. Suddenly they saw Benjamin's face in the brightly colored sky of the sunrise.
"You all were great friends of mine. I must leave you all now. Take care of yourselves and be careful. Fight for peace! Farewell Fire!" And then he was gone. They continued to make their way to the Palace. Anger was in their minds and in their hearts. They were now across the whole plain and they stood before the Gates of the Doomed. Benji looked at the gates. They were large heavy metal gates of about forty feet tall. They were made of titanium and had diamonds melted into them for extra strength. Strength didn't bother Benji and his friends. They just wanted to get inside and hopefully find their friends. Benji and Nate both walked up to the Gates together and looked at them more closely. They could see only one way of getting into the Palace: They would have to go in through the front door and they all knew that could be their doom.
"Let's get this over with." Benji said. He looked up to the top of the gates and called: "Hey! Is there anyone home?" A voice from somewhere inside of the Palace laughed and said:
"So you all want to come in, do you? Very well, we shall let you all in. Open the Gates!" The Gates swung in on themselves and they all stared at the large black hole. Death was waiting for them and they knew it.
"Benji, if we go in there we may never see the light of day again." Tricon said. Fear was written on her face.
"What choice do we have? If we don't, our friends will die or have something happen to them that none will dare to think of. If we do go in there, we will be taking our lives in our hands and practically throwing them away, but again I ask of the choice. Let our friends die or enter and fight to the last of our breath? I'm going in there with or without you all." Benji said. He made his way to the brink of the Gates and stopped. He turned around and saw that his friends would follow him. "Be careful." He said to them all. Then he plunged into the darkness.
Chapter 12
The others quickly followed and they were all bathed in darkness. "Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly." A voice said from the darkness. They had no idea whose voice it was. They didn't even care.
"Oh, shut up!" Nate said. He was standing right behind Benji when he said that. Benji jumped with fright and was ready to attack his own brother!
"Hold on here! I'll light the way for us!" Cilth said. "Daylight Strike!" She drew her spear and pointed it at the celling of the Palace. The Palace was awash in a bright light. They all had to wait for a moment to let their eyes adjust to the light and they all saw before them the Warlord of the Armor of Tiger!
"Come into my parlar said the spider to the fly. How stupid can anyone get? You of all people should have known that by coming into this Palace would spell your doom." Brayockin said. "Now you shall join your friends and die with them!" He lunged at them all and his swords clashed against those belonging to Nate. Anger flashed in his eyes and Brayockin took a step back. Then he smiled a cruel and terrifying smile and suddenly the floor beneath Nate dropped open and he went sailing through the hole!
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'LL MAKE SURE THAT YOU GO TO YOUR GRAVE!" He shouted and was gone!
"NAAAAAAAAAAATE!" Benji and Brian shouted together. They turned to Brayockin and the color of their eyes changed from a dark blue and lightish green to blood red.
"You can't save him when he is dead! Ha! Just like the rest of them. All of them fell for our traps and all have died!" Brayockin shouted at them. Benji knew that they were taunting them. He didn't want to believe them that Angus, Nate, Benjamin, and Sage-Light were really dead.
"I can't believe you that you would kill them all as soon as you had taken them. I mean what good is capturing us and then killing us as soon as you get us? You're bluffing!" Benji said back.
"I am not and I will show you!" Brayockin said back. He raised his right hand to them and a blue orb of light came forth from it. It then turned into a square of light and they could see each of their friends held to a wall by chains. They then noticed that their throats had been cut and that they were dead. Brian was the next one to fall for their tricks.
"NOOOOOO! I WILL AVENGE THEIR DEATHS! YOU SHALL BE THE FIRST TO TASTE MY WRATH!" He shouted and drew his swords and rushed the Warlord. The Warlord simply stepped to the side and gave Brian a vicious side kick. Brian sailed off into the darkness and they all heard him land a few feet from Benji. He ran to Brian's aid and helped him up. Brian took a running start and jumped into the air. "BEAR CLAW STRIKE!" He shouted and came back down facing Benji. His spear had cut into the Armor of the Warlord, but it did little to faze him. Suddenly Brian felt the blade of death pearse his side. He fell over and hit the ground hard. Then the floor of the Palace did the same thing that the ground outside had done to Angus. A great pillar of stone arose from the floor and engulfed Brian. He was gone in a moment and the others could do nothing to help him. Brayockin was gone in a bright flash of light.
Once the light had cleared, they could see Brian's and Nate's face in front of them. "Be ever brave my brother and friends. The end of the fight is far from here and you shall have to be very carefull. Trust no one! Farewell Water!" Nate said and was gone.
"See ya around bright eyes! Farewell Black Knight!" Brian said and was gone. When Benji heard the words "bright eyes," tears fill in his eyes again and he looked at the place where he had last seen his friend. The name "Bright Eyes" had been given to him from Brian while they were still living on Earth. It was meant as a joke for Benji's eyes were always bright as day even during the cold and harsh nights of terror..........
"We must move on through the Palace and try to find them before any one else is captured." Chuck said. They moved off again and soon found themselves in a large room with several long wooden tables. It was the Banquet Hall. The walls were bare and the tabels as well. There was a bright fire blazing into the darkness of the room in the center of the room. Near the fire was a throne of stone. Smoke surrounded the stone chair so that they couldn't see who was seated in it; if anyone really was. Chuck took a step forward and looked more closely at the room for they were still standing in one of the many door ways. "Noting seems to be here that could be in the form of a trap. But nevertheless be careful!" They all walked into the room and looked around. Benji noticed a rack to the far right of the room. Upon it were weapons.
"Strange place to keep weapons!" He said.
"I wonder if there is anything on that rack that might help us. Do you think we should take a look at it?" Ilonton asked.
"Yes. Even though it may be a trap, there may be something that will help us find out where our friends are." Julia said. They all walked slowly over to weapons rack and their eyes widened in fear and anger! Upon the weapons rack were the weapons of the people that had been captured!
"Those are Nate's swords, Brian's swords, Benjamin's spear, Sage-Light's swords, and that bit of fluff must be from Angus!" Cira said. While they were looking at the weapons upon the rack, they didn't see that the stone chair had spun around and was facing them. The Warlord of Destruction got up from it and walked toward them.
"Good evening my fine feathred friends. Now whose first for bird pie?" He said. At the sound of his voice the remaining group of friends took out their weapons and turned to face him. He laughed and rushed at them. His weapons collided with their Armors and each person that he was able to hit went flying off toward a door. They each landed a few feet from the doors. Benji was the only one left that wasn't near any door. The Warlord stopped and looked at Benji. He smiled. "Now." He said and suddenly each person by a door was whisked away and their weapons appeared on the rack! Benji was horror stricken.
"NOOOOOOOOO! YOU SHALL DIE FOR THAT!" Benji shouted. He clashed his swords together to form the staff-like weapon that he could to summon his power out of them. He then jumped into the air and said: "NIGHTHAWK SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!" He came back down and slashed the person in front of him with his swords. He slashed again and again. Each time he did so, the person in front of him would take a step back and he would try to reach for his swords, but Benji didn't give him the time to do so. Benji then gave the person a sharp front kick followed by a spinning back kick to the face and chest. He went flying out of an open door and was gone.
"That takes care of him. Now what shall I do about finding my friends?" Benji said to the air. The faces of each person that had disappeared now faced Benji.
"Leave the Palace and be on your way. Look high and low for us, but never forget who you are. They can't do anything to you as long as you know who you are my son." Chuck said. His face stayed where it was and Benji was surprized by that.
"Be careful and trust no one any more. I love you." Julia said. Like Chuck's face, her face stayed with his.
"Be a friend to Nature and let your heart guide you to us." Ilonton said. It was now clear to Benji that they all had something else to say to him and that they wouldn't disappear until that time.
"Be wise and seek wisdom when needed but use it where you are stuck in a problem. Be careful my friend!" Ben said.
"Look to no one for help. Most will want to kill you or at least slow you down. Be careful!" Irookon said.
"Use what I have taught you in the ways of plants and animals to help you but don't even dare to trust them." Thren said.
"Trust in your feelings and you shall win the day! Use the Armor of Light when you need its help!" Cilth said.
"If you ever have the chance to stop and read, well....just try to find out as much as you can about this place and about the rest of the quest. That information may help you." Mr. Tolkien said.
"Be careful and never stray from the path of light. In this way you shall be able to find us." Mr. Anthony said.
"Use the Night as your friend and the Light of Day as a foe to your enemies!" Gen said.
"Be well my friend!" Cira said.
"The air shall be your friend. But I wouldn't trust it if I were you." Sapphire said.
"Just promise me one thing: That you'll make it out of all of this alive!" Moncoo said.
"Trust to none and you will be safe, but take help where you need it." Tobockin said. Then before they all left him in utter darkness they all said together:
"Fight for the Light!"
"No, this cannot be! Why am I the only one left to fight this evil?" Benji said to the open air. He sat down on the hard stone floor and thought about what had just happened to the others. His friends and his family were gone and he had no idea of where to start looking for them. "I think the only thing I can do right now is to search the Palace. If I don't find them here, I will not rest until I do!" He stood up and looked around the room. He walked back to the door out of which they had come. He turned back to the stone chair in the center of the room. He looked at with intrest: There was something that wasn't right about it and he knew he should find the answer to that riddle. He walked back to the chair and put his hand on it.
His hand went right through it! "What the heck?! This thing is just an illiusion! I wonder if there is any sort of trap door under it." Benji thought. He looked more closely at it and then walked right through it. He could see no sign of a door anywhere and so he walked back through it and continued with his search. His search took him out of the room that he was in and into about half of the Palace.
"There's just one thing wrong: Where is the dungeon? This place is supposed to have at least three of them!" Benji thought. He was standing in a dimly lit hallway and was looking at the tapestries that were hanging on the stone walls. Each one showed part of a battle or something that he could hardly even see. He came to one and stopped dead in his tracks! He looked and looked again. "So my friends, where can I find you?" Benji asked the cloth. It was a picture of every person that had been on the quest until they were all captured. The only person missing from it was him. He stared at it for a long time. Each person wore their Armor. Each animal stood next to at least three of their friends. Benji sighed. He suddenly got an idea. He wasn't going to leave this section until he had managed to take any tapestry that had their portraits on them. He took out a throwing star that he had with him and said: "Find the tapestry that has all of my friends on it and cut it down!" He threw the star upward and the tapestry that he was looking at fell to the ground.
"Good work!" Benji said "Continue!" The star cut three more down and Benji took all four with him. He manged to fold them and he also made them smaller by a spell that he cast onto them. Suddenly Benji felt that the star was coming back and he caught it in his hand. He put in away and continued to walk down the hallway. When he had reached the end of the hall he came to a fork in the path he was taking. "Oh, great! Now which way should I go?!" Benji said. He took two throwing stars out of his bag and placed one in each hand. "Go down these two path ways and find any and all danger that lurks within. The first one to come back will be the one I will not take." He said to the stars and then he threw them. He waited for about two seonds when they both came back at the same time, he knew that he was in danger of being captured by his enemies. Benji had nowhere to go......nowhere except up. He kneeled down to the ground. There was a quick flash of light and Benji jumped up to the ceiling of the hallway. There he clung to it like a spider does to its web. The Light Warrior Armors, Benji found out, could cling to almost anything just by having the person who was wearing it to think about clinging to that object like a spider. Five people soon entered the hallway. Benji knew the first four as the Warlords of Evil, but the fifth human, he could not tell who it was.
"Now that we have all of the Warroirs of Light save one, what should we do with them?" Fireockin asked the fifth person. Benji could sense that there was something terribly wrong, but what it was, he could only guess. The person turned to Fireockin and laughed. Benji hardly knew the laugh but he was almost certain as to who it was.
"Nothing." The person said and Benji's worst fear came true. It was Moeton that spoke. "Nothing for the moment. I want to try to lure Benji into a trap. I'll use the ghost-like form of all of his friends and that should be able to trick him into going to the Waters of Death, where you and your friends will be lying in wait for him. Capture him like you did to each person. I have a feeling that the first three trys won't work, so be careful. Now go and DO NOT FAIL ME!" Moeton said the last four words in a bellow. The Warlords turned around and went down the left side of the paths that they had come out of. Moeton walked down the hall and turned a corner.
"Blast it, Moeton, how could you betray us like that?!" Benji thought. He dropped back down to the ground and continued to try to find his friends. Benji hurried after the Warlords of Evil. He had a feeling that they were going to go to the spot where his friends were. He had to go by the way of ceiling travel for he did want them to see him if he made any noise.
"Okay, you guys, lead me to my friends!" Benji thought. He had followed them for about five minutes and nothing had happened. Suddenly they stopped and turned around. "Oh, shoot! I think they see me!" Benji thought. They stood in the middle of the dark hall and looked back down it. Then they turned and continued on their way. Benji followed them until his head began to spin and his arms and legs ached from having to cling to the ceiling so much.
"So, Fireockin, do you think we ought to tell Benji's friends about our plans to capture him?" Oakon asked.
"No, for that will just make them have hope that they will be rescued and we don't want to upset old "Blue-face" any more than we already have." Fireockin answered.
"I know you may think that we shouldn't tell them, but I'd like to see their faces when we tell them that he's dead." Draconeis said. He laughed a cruel and mean laugh and his eyes twinkled in the dark and pale light of the torches.
"I know that they won't like that bit of news one bit! I think you're right, we should tell that to them. This way they will be so horrified that they will want to surrender their powers to us and then we can kill Moeton and make ourselves rulers of this stupid world!" Brayockin said. They all smiled a mean and horrid smile and then they walked over to the left wall of the hallway. Draconeis bent down to the stone that was touching the floor and, starting at the one his hand was on, he counted up six. When he had reached the sixth stone, he pushed it back as far as it would go and then a door opened in the stone wall!
"Yes! I can finally find my friends!" Benji thought. He moved to where they were standing so he could look into the opening before they closed it. He could see only a winding stair way that led down to the lower part of the Palace. Light was flickering on the walls and stairs of the secert passage way. He could hear the sound of chains rattleing and whips being cracked. He knew that it led down to the dungeon. The Warlords entered the passage way and then the door closed behind them with a loud clap like thunder. "All I have to do now is get in there with out being seen by anyone. Not even my friends can see me........that is if they really are down there." Benji thought. He dropped back down to the ground and walked over to the wall. He did the same thing that Draconeis had done and when the door had opened he jumped through it. It was about to close, so he turned around and gently pushed on the door while is was closing. Instead of the loud clap he had heard, the door shut with a click.
He turned around and began to walk down the stair way. He got all the way down to the ground level when he heard someone coming! Benji didn't have any room to try to cling to the ceiling and there wasn't any hope of going back up the stairs for he didn't know if the person would go up them or not. So he ran out into the open and then jumped up onto one of the many hanging poles that were mounted onto the ceiling. The person that was coming soon appeared and Benji saw that it was a guard. In front of him was........."Brian!" Benji whispered to himself. "So, he is alive. I just hope that the others are as well."
Brian stumbled and fell. The guard took out a whip and cracked it on his back. "AAAAAAH!" Brian screamed. He tryed to stand but he could not. Again the whip fell on his back and again Brian shouted in pain.
"Get up!" The guard said. Brian finally got up. "Now get moving and if you fall like that again, you'll ten cracks!"
"The knave! Coward! He should try fighting with Brian when he's at full streangth! Then he'll know what it feels like to be hit by a whip!" Benji thought. As soon as the guard and Brian had left, Benji dropped down from where he was and followed them. They led him to Brian's cell and Benji saw him rudely shoved inside and the door locked into place. The guard turned around and stayed by the door. "Blast! I won't be able to get to Brian if that knave is there! I'll have to take him out and then hide him somewhere where no one will be able to find him!" Benji said to himself. He jumped back up to the ceiling and crawled over to where he could literally drop down onto the guard and break his neck. He fell down and the guard went down like a ton of lead had hit him. His neck was broken and Benji took the keys to Brian's cell.
He placed a key into the rusty lock and tryed it. It was no good; the key didn't fit. Benji tryed three more and on the forth one he heard the sound of the lock opening. He pushed open the door and he saw Brian had his back to him. He was looking at the walls of the cell. A light green light was enmitting from his head. Benji knew the magic. It was a spell used to see past memories of friends or events in ones' life. It was commonly used to cure amnesia. Benji stayed in the door for a moment, not knowing whether he should let Brian know he was here or not. He looked at the green colored circle of light and saw that Brian was looking into his past. He saw when they had met and became good friends, their first quest together, and he also saw their quest that they were on up to the moment that he had been captured. He then saw Draconeis coming to his cell and telling him that he had died.
"I have some........" He heard Draconeis say. He also heard him laugh. "Some news that might intrest you, Brian of the Armor of the Bear, your friend, the one with the hawk upon his chest, has died! I killed him myself!"
"Yeah right! Benji could defeat you any day of the year! You want to know why? Because you're a terrible fighter and you weren't any good at being a Guard of Peace!" Brian shouted back to Draconeis.
"Then let me show you!" Draconeis said. He held up a medallion and Benji's head!
"Oh my God! You......you.....you murderer! How could you?! You and Benji were once good friends! How could you betray him and kill him?!" Brian shouted. Draconeis laughed and then turned and was gone. Benji heard Brian gentally sobbing. He walked over to him and heard him saying:
"Benji, if you can hear me, which I doubt you can for you are dead, I will avenge your death and see to it that Draconeis and his friends pay for what they have done to you!" Benji layed a hand upon his friends' left shoulder.
"Brian, I am here to help you get out of here." Benji said to his friend.
"You can't do anything while old tin-head is out there watching us, Nate. Your brother is dead and he is the only one who can get into this place and set us free. The evil has won." Brian said.
"The evil has not won and I'll tell you why: That door is wide open and the guard is dead. I broke his neck and I am alive!" Benji said back.
"Benji? It can't be. I can hear your voice but I can't see you." Brian said.
"Then turn around, you fool!" Benji said. Brian did so and his eyes filled with tears.
"Is........is it really you? I'm not dreaming am I?"
"Yes it is me."
"I don't believe it! You're just another illusion! Take this!" Brian said and punched Benji!
"Why did you do that?" Benji asked. Brian stood perplexed by what had happened. His fist didn't go through Benji like he had thought.
"So it is you! Any other person, other than you or the rest of our friends, would have attacked me! Benji?" Brian said.
"Yeah?" Benji said.
"Can we get out of here?!" Brian asked and cast a longing look at the door. Benji smiled and looked back at his friend.
"After you!" He said. Brian ran out into the openness of the dungeon. He was glad to be out of the dingy cell.
"Now to find the others!" He said and looked at Benji. Benji had dragged the guard with them and then he jumped up to the ceiling where he tied the guard to a rope that was hanging from the ceiling. He then dropped back down to the ground. He closed the door and locked it, but not before casting a spell that would make it look as if Brian had never left.
"Brian, since you have been down here longer than I have, did you see where the others were taken?" Benji asked. Brian shook his head no. "Shoot. I guess it'll be blind luck for us. Well we better get going and try to find them."
"There's just one problem: I'm weak from all of the whippings I got. My Armor does help protect me, but against a sonic whip, I don't think so." Briand said. Benji had heard of sonic whips. They had magical powers in them and they could go through anything that was metal. They turned and walked on in the shadows. Soon they came to another cell and they both jumped up to the ceiling. Benji crawled along it until he was above the door. He then let himself drop down onto the head of the guard that was standing next to the door. The guard fell and was immeadately hit in the face by Brian. The guard was out cold.
"Now to open this door!" Benji said. He placed a key into the lock and turned it. The lock opened and inside was Nate. He looked at them both and a smile creased his face.
"It's about time you guys showed up for the party!" He said.
"What party?" Brian asked.
"The party? When we trash this dump and get our friends outta here!" He answered and came out of his cell. "ARMOR OF WINDSTAR!" He said and his Armor came upon him.
"I thought you would be wearing your Armor when we came to get you." Benji said. "Why did you take it off?"
"Well if they wanted my Armor, I felt that the best way to make them think it was hidden somewhere was by not wearing it. So the moment I showed up in that blasted cell, I took it off." Nate said.
"I was just wondering if you had seen the others being taken somewhere?" Brian said.
"No, but I think I might know where Ben is." Nate answered. "He's about three flights down from here. He was the only person I saw, besides the guards."
"Good. Now we can narrow the search a bit." Brain said.
"You guys I'd jump up to the ceiling if I were you." Benji said.
"Why?" Brian and Nate asked together.
"Do I have to spell it out for you?! The guards are coming!" Benji said. He jumped up to the ceeiing and clung to it like a spider. The others did the same. Soon ten guards marched past them. Nate let a sigh of relief out.
"Good thinking!" He said when they got back to the ground. They continued on their way. They had checked about nine other cells and found no one in them. When they came to the tenth one they saw that it had not one, not two, not even three guards standing by it. It had twenty five!
"Oh, man! How many guards do they need for one person?!" Nate whispered.
"Don't look at me!" Brian said. "You know I don't think a direct approach would be good for this."
"Nor just falling down on top of them." Nate said. They were standing behind a wall looking at the guards. "The only way to get to the person inside is to become a guard, but we can't do that because none of the armor that the guards wear will fits us."
"I say we just use something that I have been saving for just such an emergency." Benji said. He held in his right hand a set of circular objects that looked like the batteries from a watch.
"Batteries? How are those going to help us?" Brian asked. Benji rolled his eyes up the ceiling of the prison.
"These aren't batteries. They're very powerfull sleeping explosives. Just one of them can knock out forty humans for three days!" Benji said.
"Great! All we have to do now is stuff them down their throats!" Nate said sarcastically. Benji shook his head.
"You guys are hopeless! What you do with them is you throw them at the person or group of people you want to have knocked out. But there's a slight catch....." Benji said.
"What?" Nate and Brian said together.
"They take ten seconds to activate and the sleeping dust inside of them takes a full minute to make anyone fall down in their tracks!" Benji said.
"Who cares?! Let's take these cheese balls out!" Brian said. Benji gave him a sleeping bomb and then said:
"We should toss these at the same time so that way they will go off at the same time and knock the guards out quickly."
"Good idea! Ready? One............two............three! TOSS 'EM!" Brian shouted. They tossed them at the guards and the bombs hit the ground, rolled toward the feet of one guard and stayed there. The guard didn't look down nor did he see the bomb.
"So far so good. Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two and ONE! They should go off now!" Benji said. Just as he had said the bombs went off and a dark blue and light green cloud of smoke arose from them. It engulfed the guards and they started to choke and wheeze. The guards tryed to fined their way out of the blinding smoke, but could not. Suddenly one broke free and ran down the way that Benji, Nate, and Brian had come.
"Stop him!" Brian said. Nate ran after the guard and jumped and tackled him. The guard was the only person that the bomb didn't fully knock out, but he was rather drousie and thus easy to fight. Nate hit him squarely in the jaw and he went down like a ton of lead. Benji was at the door of the cell when he came back. He placed a rusted key into the lock and tryed to turn it. Nothing. The key didn't fit, so Benji tryed another key. The lock clicked and the door was pushed open. Inside was Gen.
"Wow! No wonder they needed to put that many guards here!" Benji said. Gen stood up and laughed.
"Well what can you expect from a Gelphling? I gave them one devil of fight and I also beat up twelve of them!" Gen said. Benji made a motion with his head the Gelphling left the room. Like Benji had done to Brian's cell and to Nate's, he made it look like Gen had never left. They then moved off and began to search the rest of the cells on the first floor. They soon found their way to the second floor and began a search of that floor. They soon came to a double celled room and Nate peered into the room. Cira and Ben were sleeping inside. Nate opened the door and woke them. They quickly followed them outside.
"Guys, we have to stop looking for the others." Cira said.
"Why?" Benji said.
"They aren't here. They are at some place where they are being used as bate to trap you, Benji." Cira answered.
"That's right. We saw them all being taken past our cell. We would have been taken, had we not put up a fight and kicked their butts from here to Jupiter!" Ben said. Benji looked at the walls and then at the ceiling. He was trying to find a quick way out the dungeon.
"If you're looking for a way out other than the one you used to come in here, there's one two cells down. The only problem is that it's heavly guarded. They have posted there about fifty guards!" Cira said.
"Well looks like we get to have some fun!" Benji said. He turned and ran on ahead of them. He stopped a few feet out of the guards' sight. The others caught up to him and they saw his shocked face.
"I wasn't joking about the number of guards." Cira said.
"Great. Just great. So do you happen to have any more of the sleeping bombs?" Brain asked.
"Just one. But with that many people there, I don't think we'll be able to keep this quiet." Benji said. The others gave him looks of encouragement. "Alright, I'll try it." He got ready to throw the bomb. Benji threw it right at the center of the barricade. It went off and the whole party of guards was enveloped in a thick smoke. The small army of friends immeadately attacked and they were able to knock out all of the guards.........save one. One guard was able to get away from the smoke before it took effect and was at full strength; ready to fight. Benji was the first to attack the guard and he was thrown back into his friends. Benji got up and then a light flared from his eyes. He got into a crouching position and then jumped and did a flying side kick to the guard. His foot hit the guard in the jaw which sent him flying into the wall behind him. The guard slumped down to the floor, out cold.
"That's one way of taking out the trash in this place!" Brian said. "So how do we get out of here?"
"Hit the brick that's the third one from the second cracked one to the right. That should open the door that will lead to a tunnel and the tunnel will lead to whereever it goes." Cira said. Benji did as she had said and the door opened like the one that he had seen used by the Warlords of Evil. They all quickly walked inside and the door closed behind them. They then walked down the tunnel and they soon saw that it turned out into an open glade of dead grass and bushes. They saw that in the center of the glade was a black water fall. Benji knew it was the Waters of Death.
"We are standing in the Hidden Glade of Death." Benji quietly.
"What?" Cira asked.
"The Hidden Glade of Death is a place where Death himself is supposed to have once lived before he became the Grim Reaper. The waters were originally the Waters of Life. They are now the Waters of Death for his wife, Deathounis, had been killed will standing near the Waters." Benji said. "After that they were called the Waters of Death. They will actually do what the name says: They will literally kill anyone who drinks the water."
"Good thing you told us not to drink the water." Brian said.
"Yes. Right now we need to find our friends." Benji said. They slowly walked toward the waterfall. Soon they saw them. All of them. Their friends were all tied to a lare statue of Death. The great statue was made of granite and had forty heads. Each head had two red stones for eyes and they seemed to be watching everything around them with cold, bitter, deadly hate for life. The statue was about fifty to sixty feet tall. Each head was in the shape of a human skull. Each skull semed to have about three teeth, set in a triangle formation. It had chains coming out of its forty heads, but only fifteen were being used. Each person wore his or her Armor. Brian continued to walk forward and Benji pulled him back.
"Why are you doing that? We need to get to them before they are hurt!" He said. Anger flashed in his eyes.
"Don't even think about going out there to try to help them. It just happens to be a trap." Benji said back. Brian's eyes cooled down and he sank down beside the others.
"So what are to do? Just let them hang there and die?" Cira asked.
"No. We must save them. Let me think." Benji said. He closed his eyes and entered medatation. He cleared his mind of all thoughts of the present and let it wander back to the time he found out Moeton had betrayed them.....
"I'll use the ghost-like form of all of his friends and that should be able to trick him into going to the Waters of Death, where you and your friends will be lying in wait for him. Capture him like you did to each person. I have a feeling that the first three trys won't work, so be careful." He heard Moeton's voice in his mind say.
"We have fallen into a trap. Those aren't our friends. They're the ghost-like forms of them. The Warlords will be here any second. Now unless you want to be their main course in the way of food, I say we get out of here!" Benji said. They retraced their steps to the tunnel and were about to enter it, when they were struck by a shout.
Chapter 13
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Brayockin shouted as he jumped and landed practically on top of the group.
"What the hell?" Nate said. He lashed out at the person and struck him in the face. He lashed out again and again hit Brayockin in the face. Brayockin then lashed out at Nate with a jab to the face and a punch to the groin. Both were blocked. Nate then kicked his attacker in the face and once in the back.
"Hyaaaaaaa!" Benji shouted as he made contact with the solar plexes of Fireockin. His attacker fell to the ground and then punched Benji in the knee. Benji hollared in pain. He kicked out so quickly that Fireockin's body flew back ten feet!
"DIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!" Draconeis shouted and jumped into the air and did a flying sword kick at Cira. She blocked and struck him in the face with her swords. He fell to the ground, his nose bleeding.
"YOU SHALL BE THE ONE TO DIE, FEIND!" She shouted and jabed at his neck with her swords. She missed and Draconeis was upon his feet in a moment. He kicked her in the face and she fell back and hit the wall of the tunnel. Stuned, she didn't know where she should plant her next attack. A qick jab to her face told her that Draconeis was in front of her and she kicked him to the stomach and then elbowed him on his spine. Draconeis fell to the earth. She was then grabbed by Oakon, who had come out of nowhere. He had put her into a full nelson. She dropped her head forward and then sharply brought it back and hit him squarely on the nose. Then she threw him over her back and on top of Draconeis who was now kneeling on the ground trying to figure out what had happened.
"Get off me!" He shouted and threw Oakon to the side. He stood up and punched Gen in the face. Gen then kicked back and his foot hit Draconeis in the groin!
"I've had it with this! NIGHTHAWK SCREEEEEEEECH!" Benji shouted and he jumped up into the air and then came back down again. Lightning flashed and Fireockin was struck by a bolt of black lightning.
"WINDS OF CHAOS!" Nate shouted and a blue lightning bolt hit the Warlords. They each went flying out of the tunnle from the force of the blast. "Well that takes care of them. Let's get out of here!" Nate said. Benji sheathed his swords and they turned down the tunnel and ran to the seceret door. They opened it and they walked out into the dungeon again. They quickly ran to the right and they soon saw a stair way leading down. They took this and the first cell they came to, they saw had about one hundred and thirty guards by it!
"Hey, you group of pigs! Time to play!" Benji shouted at the guards and he and his friends all ran from them. The guards chased them and they suddenly had to stop in their tracks: Benji and his friends were nowhere to be seen! Suddenly they fell down on top of them!
"Well that takes care of them!" Nate said as he slugged a guard in the face. Benji looked at his brother and shook his head.
"No it does not." He said. "We're not out of the woods until we find our friends." He looked back at the cell and walked up to it. He peered into the cell and saw the rest of their friends in the same state that he had seen them at the Waters of Death. Benji took a step back and got into a front stance. He brought his right leg up to the hip and lunged forward in a front kick. His foot hit the door of the cell which went flying into the room.
"Benji! I don't believe it!" Benjamin said. Benji drew his swords and clashed them against each persons' chains. They were all free in a moment and outside of the cell. Once outside, Benjamin said: "Benji what are we going to do now?"
"First we need to get outta here. I'm sure that by now we've outdone our welcome!" He answered. Benji and his friends all turned from the cell and ran as fast as they could toward the exit. They took the stairs that they had come down from and had met no living thing. They reached the next stair and that was when they met someone.
"Your fate is sealed NightHawk." A voice said. They could not see the person yet for they were still near the bottom of the stair and the other person was at the top; hidding.
"What are you talking about?" Benji asked. His voice was deep and cold and harsh.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! You have not yet realized the full power of your Armors, have you? Join me and I will make them all you have ever wanted! Join me and you shall have absoulte power. Come with me and you shall know what real magic is. You will not have to use your foolish parlor tricks ever again. No one will think ill of you if you will only join me. It is your destiny." The voice said in a gravely booming voice that echoed through the halls and the stone walls of the Palace and dungeon.
"Why should we even think about it?" Benji asked. He didn't trust the voice for he knew who it was.
"Why should you even think about it? I'll tell you why: If you don't you won't have the power I have just promised to you. You won't have the riches of the Dark Side of Magic. You won't be able to rule this world and all others with an iron fist of cruelty!" The voice said. Benji's features changed into one of death and anger toward the voice. His eyes hardened and became a look a death. His muscels stiffened; ready to pounce upon his prey.
"Never." Was all Benji said.
"Alright then have it your way, NightHawk! You have sealed your own fate of death! You have commited your friends to their deaths! Farewell and may you burn in the depths of time and in Hell!" The voice said and was gone.
"What the heck was all that about?" Nate said. He didn't know who the voice was for only Benji could hear the real voice. The others could hear only the sound of the wind outside. They made their way up the stairs and were soon outside of the Palace. They turned and began at a slight run toward the western mountains. Benji had known that the first of the evils that they would face would either be at the Palace of Red Death, or somewhere under the earth of the western mountains.
"Benji, what the hell happened to you in the Palace?" He heard a voice say. Benji stopped in his tracks and looked back at Brian, whom had spoken. Nothing shone in his eyes or his face. They were blank; ghost-like. Death. Death was upon him in the form of revenge.
"Nothing has happened." He finally said. He turned around again and began to walk toward the mountains. Brian shook his head. He was the only one that saw the anger in the eyes of his best friend. No matter how hard Benji would try to hide his deepest feelings about someone or something, Brian was always able to see right through his barrier and see that which Benji was trying to hide. He knew Benji had had a great trust in Moeton and when he finally found out that he had been betrayed by the one person that he would give his life up for, it nearly drove him over the edge of his mind and he knew Benji wanted to kill Moeton for what he had done. They had put about fifty miles behind them when the darkness came. They stopped at an old and weather-worn tree and slept peacefully that night.
When the first rays of the morning sun came it, found them all walking toward the mountains. They were nearing them rapidly. It would be another day before they reached them, but Benji and his friends wanted to get to them that night. Again, like the night before, they had put fifty miles behind them and they had reached the base of the mountains. "Now that we're here, what do we do?" Nate said. Benji stood by his brother and Brian was right behind him. He looked up at the mountains and shook his head. He turned toward his friends.
"I can't ask you to go with me on this last leg of the quest. Here is where we need to decide who will stay and who will return to Ioaktiekon....or at least what's left of it." Benji said in a grave voice.
"You can count on me to go with you even to my death." Brian said.
"Me too, brother." Nate said.
"In fact you can count on all of us." Sage-Light said. Benji turned toward the mountains again. His eyes burned with a pale colored fire.
"Then let us go and fight this evil to the ends of time!" He said. They began to walk into the forest of the mountains.
"One can easily get lost in this place!" Nate said. Though the night was dark and their path was hidden, they could see each other clearly as if it were daylight. Perhaps it was their magical Armor. Perhaps it was a spell that one of them had silently cast to let each other be able to see each person. Whatever the reason, they were glad for it. They continued to walk along the dark path. It was nearing midnight when they stopped to sleep. In the morning they continued on their way. The trees of the forest were as large as the giant Sequoia trees of California. Their leaves were as large as semi-trucks wheels. The bark was not of normal bark. It was black and gold and red and white. Its feeling was one of strangeness: It didn't feel like real bark, but as cold iron. These were the rare trees of the Ironicks. They were a small group of people that had turned iron into a living, breathing plant!
Birds sung in the many colored branches of the trees; unseen by human eyes. Their meldoies were ones of a time long ago. A time of war. A time of peace. A time of death. Suddenly an arrow flew and hit a tree right behind Benji! "What the hell?! Get down!" He yelled. Three more arrows flew and three more hit three trees.
"What the hell is going on?!" Nate asked. Benji made a face that showed he had no idea.
"You there in the bushes and shrubs! You have invaded my forest! Leave or die!" A voice said.
"Those blasted wood elves! They never seem to remember anything." Benji said to himself. Suddenly he was grabbed from the rear. A rope was quickly strung around his neck and the preasure was put on. He was being choked. He grabbed his swords and clashed the ends together. "NIGHTHAWK SCREECH!" He shouted and the person who had been choking him, flew into the air and landed in the bushes not too far from him. Benji then held a sword in each hand and slamed the ends of them on the ground. The ground suddenly began to shake and it opened into a deep pit. "Into the pit! Hurry!" He shouted. Once everyone had gone into the pit, Benji jumped inside and the crack in the earth was gone. Ten wood elves were at the place that Benji and his friends had been standing at a moment before.
"ANGUS! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Benji shouted and turned and leapt for the wolf, but he hit the ground just as the wolf went under.
"DAMN THEM ALL!" Nate shouted and drew his swords. He clashed them together just like Benji would do to his and swept them to the right side of his body. His left arm was pushed outwards and the hand was spread wide with open-palm. "ALRIGHT, WHOEVER YOU ARE, COME ON OUT AND FACE US! I'M READY FOR YOU! WELL? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" He now shouted to the open air. The place where Angus had gone under the ground rumbled and shook with fury and anger. Suddenly the earth blew open and there stood a woman of about twenty. She was wearing an Armor that none of the group had seen before. It was dark blue and the helmet was bright red. A long cape flapped in the light breeze. The woman held a sword in each hand.
"Well, well, well look what the cat dragged in! A bunch of stupid humans in tin coats and their mangy dogs! I do hope that you all know who I am?" The woman said. Her dark blue eyes matched that of the Armor's color. They shone with a glittering light that amazed them all.
"Oh, yes, I know who you are!" Sage-Light said. He had suddenly appeared beside Benji and was wearing the Armor of Light. The swords were drawn and he had already turned them into the staff-like weapon that they could be turned into. "Your name is Flamenessa. Your Armor is the Armor of Death. Your power is Death Strike. You should already know me. You and I fought for the world together, but now you are evil and, knowing you, you don't want to come back to the side of good, right?" Sage-Light said. The woman nodded and her Armor shone with a great black light.
"It is time for your final fight Sage-Light!" She said and jumped into the air and then came back down again in a flying side kick. Sage-Light did the same and his foot hit her in the mouth. She fell to the ground, her nose and were mouth bleeding. She held a hand up to her wound and said:
"Blood. My blood." She looked at Sage-Light. "You shall die for that!" She leapt at him and he kicked her in the stomach and planted a firm punch on the back of her neck. She fell to the ground. Sage-Light then looked at the rest of his friends and shouted:
"Get out of here! I'll deal with this monster!"
"We can't leave you here!" Benji shouted. "I'm staying!"
"I said leave or I shall personally fight you myself!" Sage-Light said.
"Alright we'll go, just be careful!" Benji said and turned and ran away from the fight. He, as well as the rest of the group of friends, knew that Sage-Light might end up just like Angus did: Captured by the Warlords of Evil. Suddenly they heard a loud scream that they knew was Sage-Light's voice. Then they all saw his face in the sky and he said:
"Keep going with the quest and have a pure mind and soul when the end comes. I'll always remember you. Farewell NightHawk!" Then he vanished. They also saw Angus's face in the sky and he said to them all:
"Be careful, my friends for evil is everywhere. I shall remember our fights and days that we all shared together always! Farewell WindStar!" And he too was gone.
"NOOOOOOOOO! THEY SHALL DIE FOR THIS!" Benji shouted and punched the air as hard as he could. Tears were in his eyes and pain was in his heart.
"Come on, Benji. We must get going before anyone else in taken." Brian said.
"Don't you see what's going on? They are using the divide and conquer trick. They'll kill us all and when the last of us have died and withered away to nothing, they will rule this world!" Benji said. Tears were streaming down his face.
"I know your pain. Sage-Light was apart of you as Ben and Benjamin are. He healed you and made you ready for this. Don't let that feeling slip away! Now let's get out of here!" Brian said. The group began moving toward the Palace again. It was night fall and already two of their friends were gone. Some of the group thought them to be alive while others prayed for it silently. Benji's eyes were glazed so badly that he couldn't see anything and Brian had to help him along. They soon stopped to rest and to sleep. It was nearing the early hours of the morning when the same person who had fought with Sage-Light, appeared in Quest Members' camp. It was Benjamin that first felt her presence in the camp. He awoke and drew his spear. He jumped up and attacked the intruder.
"Die you vile monster!" He shouted. The rest of the group woke and all drew their weapons. Flamenessa side-stepped and kicked Benjamin in the chest. He fell to the ground holding his chest in pain.
"Now it is your turn to join your friends!" Flamenessa said and held her right hand out to Benjamin's face. A dark black light shot out of her hand and engulfed him in its light.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Benjamin shouted. In a moment he was gone!
"Noooooo! Not him!" Benji shouted and rushed his adversary. She jumped out of the way and was also gone in a flash! "DAMN IT! I HAD HER RIGHT IN MY SIGHT! WHERE THE HELL DID SHE GO?!" It was true that she could not be found and that they would just have to await her next move. Suddenly they saw Benjamin's face in the brightly colored sky of the sunrise.
"You all were great friends of mine. I must leave you all now. Take care of yourselves and be careful. Fight for peace! Farewell Fire!" And then he was gone. They continued to make their way to the Palace. Anger was in their minds and in their hearts. They were now across the whole plain and they stood before the Gates of the Doomed. Benji looked at the gates. They were large heavy metal gates of about forty feet tall. They were made of titanium and had diamonds melted into them for extra strength. Strength didn't bother Benji and his friends. They just wanted to get inside and hopefully find their friends. Benji and Nate both walked up to the Gates together and looked at them more closely. They could see only one way of getting into the Palace: They would have to go in through the front door and they all knew that could be their doom.
"Let's get this over with." Benji said. He looked up to the top of the gates and called: "Hey! Is there anyone home?" A voice from somewhere inside of the Palace laughed and said:
"So you all want to come in, do you? Very well, we shall let you all in. Open the Gates!" The Gates swung in on themselves and they all stared at the large black hole. Death was waiting for them and they knew it.
"Benji, if we go in there we may never see the light of day again." Tricon said. Fear was written on her face.
"What choice do we have? If we don't, our friends will die or have something happen to them that none will dare to think of. If we do go in there, we will be taking our lives in our hands and practically throwing them away, but again I ask of the choice. Let our friends die or enter and fight to the last of our breath? I'm going in there with or without you all." Benji said. He made his way to the brink of the Gates and stopped. He turned around and saw that his friends would follow him. "Be careful." He said to them all. Then he plunged into the darkness.
Chapter 12
The others quickly followed and they were all bathed in darkness. "Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly." A voice said from the darkness. They had no idea whose voice it was. They didn't even care.
"Oh, shut up!" Nate said. He was standing right behind Benji when he said that. Benji jumped with fright and was ready to attack his own brother!
"Hold on here! I'll light the way for us!" Cilth said. "Daylight Strike!" She drew her spear and pointed it at the celling of the Palace. The Palace was awash in a bright light. They all had to wait for a moment to let their eyes adjust to the light and they all saw before them the Warlord of the Armor of Tiger!
"Come into my parlar said the spider to the fly. How stupid can anyone get? You of all people should have known that by coming into this Palace would spell your doom." Brayockin said. "Now you shall join your friends and die with them!" He lunged at them all and his swords clashed against those belonging to Nate. Anger flashed in his eyes and Brayockin took a step back. Then he smiled a cruel and terrifying smile and suddenly the floor beneath Nate dropped open and he went sailing through the hole!
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'LL MAKE SURE THAT YOU GO TO YOUR GRAVE!" He shouted and was gone!
"NAAAAAAAAAAATE!" Benji and Brian shouted together. They turned to Brayockin and the color of their eyes changed from a dark blue and lightish green to blood red.
"You can't save him when he is dead! Ha! Just like the rest of them. All of them fell for our traps and all have died!" Brayockin shouted at them. Benji knew that they were taunting them. He didn't want to believe them that Angus, Nate, Benjamin, and Sage-Light were really dead.
"I can't believe you that you would kill them all as soon as you had taken them. I mean what good is capturing us and then killing us as soon as you get us? You're bluffing!" Benji said back.
"I am not and I will show you!" Brayockin said back. He raised his right hand to them and a blue orb of light came forth from it. It then turned into a square of light and they could see each of their friends held to a wall by chains. They then noticed that their throats had been cut and that they were dead. Brian was the next one to fall for their tricks.
"NOOOOOO! I WILL AVENGE THEIR DEATHS! YOU SHALL BE THE FIRST TO TASTE MY WRATH!" He shouted and drew his swords and rushed the Warlord. The Warlord simply stepped to the side and gave Brian a vicious side kick. Brian sailed off into the darkness and they all heard him land a few feet from Benji. He ran to Brian's aid and helped him up. Brian took a running start and jumped into the air. "BEAR CLAW STRIKE!" He shouted and came back down facing Benji. His spear had cut into the Armor of the Warlord, but it did little to faze him. Suddenly Brian felt the blade of death pearse his side. He fell over and hit the ground hard. Then the floor of the Palace did the same thing that the ground outside had done to Angus. A great pillar of stone arose from the floor and engulfed Brian. He was gone in a moment and the others could do nothing to help him. Brayockin was gone in a bright flash of light.
Once the light had cleared, they could see Brian's and Nate's face in front of them. "Be ever brave my brother and friends. The end of the fight is far from here and you shall have to be very carefull. Trust no one! Farewell Water!" Nate said and was gone.
"See ya around bright eyes! Farewell Black Knight!" Brian said and was gone. When Benji heard the words "bright eyes," tears fill in his eyes again and he looked at the place where he had last seen his friend. The name "Bright Eyes" had been given to him from Brian while they were still living on Earth. It was meant as a joke for Benji's eyes were always bright as day even during the cold and harsh nights of terror..........
"We must move on through the Palace and try to find them before any one else is captured." Chuck said. They moved off again and soon found themselves in a large room with several long wooden tables. It was the Banquet Hall. The walls were bare and the tabels as well. There was a bright fire blazing into the darkness of the room in the center of the room. Near the fire was a throne of stone. Smoke surrounded the stone chair so that they couldn't see who was seated in it; if anyone really was. Chuck took a step forward and looked more closely at the room for they were still standing in one of the many door ways. "Noting seems to be here that could be in the form of a trap. But nevertheless be careful!" They all walked into the room and looked around. Benji noticed a rack to the far right of the room. Upon it were weapons.
"Strange place to keep weapons!" He said.
"I wonder if there is anything on that rack that might help us. Do you think we should take a look at it?" Ilonton asked.
"Yes. Even though it may be a trap, there may be something that will help us find out where our friends are." Julia said. They all walked slowly over to weapons rack and their eyes widened in fear and anger! Upon the weapons rack were the weapons of the people that had been captured!
"Those are Nate's swords, Brian's swords, Benjamin's spear, Sage-Light's swords, and that bit of fluff must be from Angus!" Cira said. While they were looking at the weapons upon the rack, they didn't see that the stone chair had spun around and was facing them. The Warlord of Destruction got up from it and walked toward them.
"Good evening my fine feathred friends. Now whose first for bird pie?" He said. At the sound of his voice the remaining group of friends took out their weapons and turned to face him. He laughed and rushed at them. His weapons collided with their Armors and each person that he was able to hit went flying off toward a door. They each landed a few feet from the doors. Benji was the only one left that wasn't near any door. The Warlord stopped and looked at Benji. He smiled. "Now." He said and suddenly each person by a door was whisked away and their weapons appeared on the rack! Benji was horror stricken.
"NOOOOOOOOO! YOU SHALL DIE FOR THAT!" Benji shouted. He clashed his swords together to form the staff-like weapon that he could to summon his power out of them. He then jumped into the air and said: "NIGHTHAWK SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!" He came back down and slashed the person in front of him with his swords. He slashed again and again. Each time he did so, the person in front of him would take a step back and he would try to reach for his swords, but Benji didn't give him the time to do so. Benji then gave the person a sharp front kick followed by a spinning back kick to the face and chest. He went flying out of an open door and was gone.
"That takes care of him. Now what shall I do about finding my friends?" Benji said to the air. The faces of each person that had disappeared now faced Benji.
"Leave the Palace and be on your way. Look high and low for us, but never forget who you are. They can't do anything to you as long as you know who you are my son." Chuck said. His face stayed where it was and Benji was surprized by that.
"Be careful and trust no one any more. I love you." Julia said. Like Chuck's face, her face stayed with his.
"Be a friend to Nature and let your heart guide you to us." Ilonton said. It was now clear to Benji that they all had something else to say to him and that they wouldn't disappear until that time.
"Be wise and seek wisdom when needed but use it where you are stuck in a problem. Be careful my friend!" Ben said.
"Look to no one for help. Most will want to kill you or at least slow you down. Be careful!" Irookon said.
"Use what I have taught you in the ways of plants and animals to help you but don't even dare to trust them." Thren said.
"Trust in your feelings and you shall win the day! Use the Armor of Light when you need its help!" Cilth said.
"If you ever have the chance to stop and read, well....just try to find out as much as you can about this place and about the rest of the quest. That information may help you." Mr. Tolkien said.
"Be careful and never stray from the path of light. In this way you shall be able to find us." Mr. Anthony said.
"Use the Night as your friend and the Light of Day as a foe to your enemies!" Gen said.
"Be well my friend!" Cira said.
"The air shall be your friend. But I wouldn't trust it if I were you." Sapphire said.
"Just promise me one thing: That you'll make it out of all of this alive!" Moncoo said.
"Trust to none and you will be safe, but take help where you need it." Tobockin said. Then before they all left him in utter darkness they all said together:
"Fight for the Light!"
"No, this cannot be! Why am I the only one left to fight this evil?" Benji said to the open air. He sat down on the hard stone floor and thought about what had just happened to the others. His friends and his family were gone and he had no idea of where to start looking for them. "I think the only thing I can do right now is to search the Palace. If I don't find them here, I will not rest until I do!" He stood up and looked around the room. He walked back to the door out of which they had come. He turned back to the stone chair in the center of the room. He looked at with intrest: There was something that wasn't right about it and he knew he should find the answer to that riddle. He walked back to the chair and put his hand on it.
His hand went right through it! "What the heck?! This thing is just an illiusion! I wonder if there is any sort of trap door under it." Benji thought. He looked more closely at it and then walked right through it. He could see no sign of a door anywhere and so he walked back through it and continued with his search. His search took him out of the room that he was in and into about half of the Palace.
"There's just one thing wrong: Where is the dungeon? This place is supposed to have at least three of them!" Benji thought. He was standing in a dimly lit hallway and was looking at the tapestries that were hanging on the stone walls. Each one showed part of a battle or something that he could hardly even see. He came to one and stopped dead in his tracks! He looked and looked again. "So my friends, where can I find you?" Benji asked the cloth. It was a picture of every person that had been on the quest until they were all captured. The only person missing from it was him. He stared at it for a long time. Each person wore their Armor. Each animal stood next to at least three of their friends. Benji sighed. He suddenly got an idea. He wasn't going to leave this section until he had managed to take any tapestry that had their portraits on them. He took out a throwing star that he had with him and said: "Find the tapestry that has all of my friends on it and cut it down!" He threw the star upward and the tapestry that he was looking at fell to the ground.
"Good work!" Benji said "Continue!" The star cut three more down and Benji took all four with him. He manged to fold them and he also made them smaller by a spell that he cast onto them. Suddenly Benji felt that the star was coming back and he caught it in his hand. He put in away and continued to walk down the hallway. When he had reached the end of the hall he came to a fork in the path he was taking. "Oh, great! Now which way should I go?!" Benji said. He took two throwing stars out of his bag and placed one in each hand. "Go down these two path ways and find any and all danger that lurks within. The first one to come back will be the one I will not take." He said to the stars and then he threw them. He waited for about two seonds when they both came back at the same time, he knew that he was in danger of being captured by his enemies. Benji had nowhere to go......nowhere except up. He kneeled down to the ground. There was a quick flash of light and Benji jumped up to the ceiling of the hallway. There he clung to it like a spider does to its web. The Light Warrior Armors, Benji found out, could cling to almost anything just by having the person who was wearing it to think about clinging to that object like a spider. Five people soon entered the hallway. Benji knew the first four as the Warlords of Evil, but the fifth human, he could not tell who it was.
"Now that we have all of the Warroirs of Light save one, what should we do with them?" Fireockin asked the fifth person. Benji could sense that there was something terribly wrong, but what it was, he could only guess. The person turned to Fireockin and laughed. Benji hardly knew the laugh but he was almost certain as to who it was.
"Nothing." The person said and Benji's worst fear came true. It was Moeton that spoke. "Nothing for the moment. I want to try to lure Benji into a trap. I'll use the ghost-like form of all of his friends and that should be able to trick him into going to the Waters of Death, where you and your friends will be lying in wait for him. Capture him like you did to each person. I have a feeling that the first three trys won't work, so be careful. Now go and DO NOT FAIL ME!" Moeton said the last four words in a bellow. The Warlords turned around and went down the left side of the paths that they had come out of. Moeton walked down the hall and turned a corner.
"Blast it, Moeton, how could you betray us like that?!" Benji thought. He dropped back down to the ground and continued to try to find his friends. Benji hurried after the Warlords of Evil. He had a feeling that they were going to go to the spot where his friends were. He had to go by the way of ceiling travel for he did want them to see him if he made any noise.
"Okay, you guys, lead me to my friends!" Benji thought. He had followed them for about five minutes and nothing had happened. Suddenly they stopped and turned around. "Oh, shoot! I think they see me!" Benji thought. They stood in the middle of the dark hall and looked back down it. Then they turned and continued on their way. Benji followed them until his head began to spin and his arms and legs ached from having to cling to the ceiling so much.
"So, Fireockin, do you think we ought to tell Benji's friends about our plans to capture him?" Oakon asked.
"No, for that will just make them have hope that they will be rescued and we don't want to upset old "Blue-face" any more than we already have." Fireockin answered.
"I know you may think that we shouldn't tell them, but I'd like to see their faces when we tell them that he's dead." Draconeis said. He laughed a cruel and mean laugh and his eyes twinkled in the dark and pale light of the torches.
"I know that they won't like that bit of news one bit! I think you're right, we should tell that to them. This way they will be so horrified that they will want to surrender their powers to us and then we can kill Moeton and make ourselves rulers of this stupid world!" Brayockin said. They all smiled a mean and horrid smile and then they walked over to the left wall of the hallway. Draconeis bent down to the stone that was touching the floor and, starting at the one his hand was on, he counted up six. When he had reached the sixth stone, he pushed it back as far as it would go and then a door opened in the stone wall!
"Yes! I can finally find my friends!" Benji thought. He moved to where they were standing so he could look into the opening before they closed it. He could see only a winding stair way that led down to the lower part of the Palace. Light was flickering on the walls and stairs of the secert passage way. He could hear the sound of chains rattleing and whips being cracked. He knew that it led down to the dungeon. The Warlords entered the passage way and then the door closed behind them with a loud clap like thunder. "All I have to do now is get in there with out being seen by anyone. Not even my friends can see me........that is if they really are down there." Benji thought. He dropped back down to the ground and walked over to the wall. He did the same thing that Draconeis had done and when the door had opened he jumped through it. It was about to close, so he turned around and gently pushed on the door while is was closing. Instead of the loud clap he had heard, the door shut with a click.
He turned around and began to walk down the stair way. He got all the way down to the ground level when he heard someone coming! Benji didn't have any room to try to cling to the ceiling and there wasn't any hope of going back up the stairs for he didn't know if the person would go up them or not. So he ran out into the open and then jumped up onto one of the many hanging poles that were mounted onto the ceiling. The person that was coming soon appeared and Benji saw that it was a guard. In front of him was........."Brian!" Benji whispered to himself. "So, he is alive. I just hope that the others are as well."
Brian stumbled and fell. The guard took out a whip and cracked it on his back. "AAAAAAH!" Brian screamed. He tryed to stand but he could not. Again the whip fell on his back and again Brian shouted in pain.
"Get up!" The guard said. Brian finally got up. "Now get moving and if you fall like that again, you'll ten cracks!"
"The knave! Coward! He should try fighting with Brian when he's at full streangth! Then he'll know what it feels like to be hit by a whip!" Benji thought. As soon as the guard and Brian had left, Benji dropped down from where he was and followed them. They led him to Brian's cell and Benji saw him rudely shoved inside and the door locked into place. The guard turned around and stayed by the door. "Blast! I won't be able to get to Brian if that knave is there! I'll have to take him out and then hide him somewhere where no one will be able to find him!" Benji said to himself. He jumped back up to the ceiling and crawled over to where he could literally drop down onto the guard and break his neck. He fell down and the guard went down like a ton of lead had hit him. His neck was broken and Benji took the keys to Brian's cell.
He placed a key into the rusty lock and tryed it. It was no good; the key didn't fit. Benji tryed three more and on the forth one he heard the sound of the lock opening. He pushed open the door and he saw Brian had his back to him. He was looking at the walls of the cell. A light green light was enmitting from his head. Benji knew the magic. It was a spell used to see past memories of friends or events in ones' life. It was commonly used to cure amnesia. Benji stayed in the door for a moment, not knowing whether he should let Brian know he was here or not. He looked at the green colored circle of light and saw that Brian was looking into his past. He saw when they had met and became good friends, their first quest together, and he also saw their quest that they were on up to the moment that he had been captured. He then saw Draconeis coming to his cell and telling him that he had died.
"I have some........" He heard Draconeis say. He also heard him laugh. "Some news that might intrest you, Brian of the Armor of the Bear, your friend, the one with the hawk upon his chest, has died! I killed him myself!"
"Yeah right! Benji could defeat you any day of the year! You want to know why? Because you're a terrible fighter and you weren't any good at being a Guard of Peace!" Brian shouted back to Draconeis.
"Then let me show you!" Draconeis said. He held up a medallion and Benji's head!
"Oh my God! You......you.....you murderer! How could you?! You and Benji were once good friends! How could you betray him and kill him?!" Brian shouted. Draconeis laughed and then turned and was gone. Benji heard Brian gentally sobbing. He walked over to him and heard him saying:
"Benji, if you can hear me, which I doubt you can for you are dead, I will avenge your death and see to it that Draconeis and his friends pay for what they have done to you!" Benji layed a hand upon his friends' left shoulder.
"Brian, I am here to help you get out of here." Benji said to his friend.
"You can't do anything while old tin-head is out there watching us, Nate. Your brother is dead and he is the only one who can get into this place and set us free. The evil has won." Brian said.
"The evil has not won and I'll tell you why: That door is wide open and the guard is dead. I broke his neck and I am alive!" Benji said back.
"Benji? It can't be. I can hear your voice but I can't see you." Brian said.
"Then turn around, you fool!" Benji said. Brian did so and his eyes filled with tears.
"Is........is it really you? I'm not dreaming am I?"
"Yes it is me."
"I don't believe it! You're just another illusion! Take this!" Brian said and punched Benji!
"Why did you do that?" Benji asked. Brian stood perplexed by what had happened. His fist didn't go through Benji like he had thought.
"So it is you! Any other person, other than you or the rest of our friends, would have attacked me! Benji?" Brian said.
"Yeah?" Benji said.
"Can we get out of here?!" Brian asked and cast a longing look at the door. Benji smiled and looked back at his friend.
"After you!" He said. Brian ran out into the openness of the dungeon. He was glad to be out of the dingy cell.
"Now to find the others!" He said and looked at Benji. Benji had dragged the guard with them and then he jumped up to the ceiling where he tied the guard to a rope that was hanging from the ceiling. He then dropped back down to the ground. He closed the door and locked it, but not before casting a spell that would make it look as if Brian had never left.
"Brian, since you have been down here longer than I have, did you see where the others were taken?" Benji asked. Brian shook his head no. "Shoot. I guess it'll be blind luck for us. Well we better get going and try to find them."
"There's just one problem: I'm weak from all of the whippings I got. My Armor does help protect me, but against a sonic whip, I don't think so." Briand said. Benji had heard of sonic whips. They had magical powers in them and they could go through anything that was metal. They turned and walked on in the shadows. Soon they came to another cell and they both jumped up to the ceiling. Benji crawled along it until he was above the door. He then let himself drop down onto the head of the guard that was standing next to the door. The guard fell and was immeadately hit in the face by Brian. The guard was out cold.
"Now to open this door!" Benji said. He placed a key into the lock and turned it. The lock opened and inside was Nate. He looked at them both and a smile creased his face.
"It's about time you guys showed up for the party!" He said.
"What party?" Brian asked.
"The party? When we trash this dump and get our friends outta here!" He answered and came out of his cell. "ARMOR OF WINDSTAR!" He said and his Armor came upon him.
"I thought you would be wearing your Armor when we came to get you." Benji said. "Why did you take it off?"
"Well if they wanted my Armor, I felt that the best way to make them think it was hidden somewhere was by not wearing it. So the moment I showed up in that blasted cell, I took it off." Nate said.
"I was just wondering if you had seen the others being taken somewhere?" Brian said.
"No, but I think I might know where Ben is." Nate answered. "He's about three flights down from here. He was the only person I saw, besides the guards."
"Good. Now we can narrow the search a bit." Brain said.
"You guys I'd jump up to the ceiling if I were you." Benji said.
"Why?" Brian and Nate asked together.
"Do I have to spell it out for you?! The guards are coming!" Benji said. He jumped up to the ceeiing and clung to it like a spider. The others did the same. Soon ten guards marched past them. Nate let a sigh of relief out.
"Good thinking!" He said when they got back to the ground. They continued on their way. They had checked about nine other cells and found no one in them. When they came to the tenth one they saw that it had not one, not two, not even three guards standing by it. It had twenty five!
"Oh, man! How many guards do they need for one person?!" Nate whispered.
"Don't look at me!" Brian said. "You know I don't think a direct approach would be good for this."
"Nor just falling down on top of them." Nate said. They were standing behind a wall looking at the guards. "The only way to get to the person inside is to become a guard, but we can't do that because none of the armor that the guards wear will fits us."
"I say we just use something that I have been saving for just such an emergency." Benji said. He held in his right hand a set of circular objects that looked like the batteries from a watch.
"Batteries? How are those going to help us?" Brian asked. Benji rolled his eyes up the ceiling of the prison.
"These aren't batteries. They're very powerfull sleeping explosives. Just one of them can knock out forty humans for three days!" Benji said.
"Great! All we have to do now is stuff them down their throats!" Nate said sarcastically. Benji shook his head.
"You guys are hopeless! What you do with them is you throw them at the person or group of people you want to have knocked out. But there's a slight catch....." Benji said.
"What?" Nate and Brian said together.
"They take ten seconds to activate and the sleeping dust inside of them takes a full minute to make anyone fall down in their tracks!" Benji said.
"Who cares?! Let's take these cheese balls out!" Brian said. Benji gave him a sleeping bomb and then said:
"We should toss these at the same time so that way they will go off at the same time and knock the guards out quickly."
"Good idea! Ready? One............two............three! TOSS 'EM!" Brian shouted. They tossed them at the guards and the bombs hit the ground, rolled toward the feet of one guard and stayed there. The guard didn't look down nor did he see the bomb.
"So far so good. Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two and ONE! They should go off now!" Benji said. Just as he had said the bombs went off and a dark blue and light green cloud of smoke arose from them. It engulfed the guards and they started to choke and wheeze. The guards tryed to fined their way out of the blinding smoke, but could not. Suddenly one broke free and ran down the way that Benji, Nate, and Brian had come.
"Stop him!" Brian said. Nate ran after the guard and jumped and tackled him. The guard was the only person that the bomb didn't fully knock out, but he was rather drousie and thus easy to fight. Nate hit him squarely in the jaw and he went down like a ton of lead. Benji was at the door of the cell when he came back. He placed a rusted key into the lock and tryed to turn it. Nothing. The key didn't fit, so Benji tryed another key. The lock clicked and the door was pushed open. Inside was Gen.
"Wow! No wonder they needed to put that many guards here!" Benji said. Gen stood up and laughed.
"Well what can you expect from a Gelphling? I gave them one devil of fight and I also beat up twelve of them!" Gen said. Benji made a motion with his head the Gelphling left the room. Like Benji had done to Brian's cell and to Nate's, he made it look like Gen had never left. They then moved off and began to search the rest of the cells on the first floor. They soon found their way to the second floor and began a search of that floor. They soon came to a double celled room and Nate peered into the room. Cira and Ben were sleeping inside. Nate opened the door and woke them. They quickly followed them outside.
"Guys, we have to stop looking for the others." Cira said.
"Why?" Benji said.
"They aren't here. They are at some place where they are being used as bate to trap you, Benji." Cira answered.
"That's right. We saw them all being taken past our cell. We would have been taken, had we not put up a fight and kicked their butts from here to Jupiter!" Ben said. Benji looked at the walls and then at the ceiling. He was trying to find a quick way out the dungeon.
"If you're looking for a way out other than the one you used to come in here, there's one two cells down. The only problem is that it's heavly guarded. They have posted there about fifty guards!" Cira said.
"Well looks like we get to have some fun!" Benji said. He turned and ran on ahead of them. He stopped a few feet out of the guards' sight. The others caught up to him and they saw his shocked face.
"I wasn't joking about the number of guards." Cira said.
"Great. Just great. So do you happen to have any more of the sleeping bombs?" Brain asked.
"Just one. But with that many people there, I don't think we'll be able to keep this quiet." Benji said. The others gave him looks of encouragement. "Alright, I'll try it." He got ready to throw the bomb. Benji threw it right at the center of the barricade. It went off and the whole party of guards was enveloped in a thick smoke. The small army of friends immeadately attacked and they were able to knock out all of the guards.........save one. One guard was able to get away from the smoke before it took effect and was at full strength; ready to fight. Benji was the first to attack the guard and he was thrown back into his friends. Benji got up and then a light flared from his eyes. He got into a crouching position and then jumped and did a flying side kick to the guard. His foot hit the guard in the jaw which sent him flying into the wall behind him. The guard slumped down to the floor, out cold.
"That's one way of taking out the trash in this place!" Brian said. "So how do we get out of here?"
"Hit the brick that's the third one from the second cracked one to the right. That should open the door that will lead to a tunnel and the tunnel will lead to whereever it goes." Cira said. Benji did as she had said and the door opened like the one that he had seen used by the Warlords of Evil. They all quickly walked inside and the door closed behind them. They then walked down the tunnel and they soon saw that it turned out into an open glade of dead grass and bushes. They saw that in the center of the glade was a black water fall. Benji knew it was the Waters of Death.
"We are standing in the Hidden Glade of Death." Benji quietly.
"What?" Cira asked.
"The Hidden Glade of Death is a place where Death himself is supposed to have once lived before he became the Grim Reaper. The waters were originally the Waters of Life. They are now the Waters of Death for his wife, Deathounis, had been killed will standing near the Waters." Benji said. "After that they were called the Waters of Death. They will actually do what the name says: They will literally kill anyone who drinks the water."
"Good thing you told us not to drink the water." Brian said.
"Yes. Right now we need to find our friends." Benji said. They slowly walked toward the waterfall. Soon they saw them. All of them. Their friends were all tied to a lare statue of Death. The great statue was made of granite and had forty heads. Each head had two red stones for eyes and they seemed to be watching everything around them with cold, bitter, deadly hate for life. The statue was about fifty to sixty feet tall. Each head was in the shape of a human skull. Each skull semed to have about three teeth, set in a triangle formation. It had chains coming out of its forty heads, but only fifteen were being used. Each person wore his or her Armor. Brian continued to walk forward and Benji pulled him back.
"Why are you doing that? We need to get to them before they are hurt!" He said. Anger flashed in his eyes.
"Don't even think about going out there to try to help them. It just happens to be a trap." Benji said back. Brian's eyes cooled down and he sank down beside the others.
"So what are to do? Just let them hang there and die?" Cira asked.
"No. We must save them. Let me think." Benji said. He closed his eyes and entered medatation. He cleared his mind of all thoughts of the present and let it wander back to the time he found out Moeton had betrayed them.....
"I'll use the ghost-like form of all of his friends and that should be able to trick him into going to the Waters of Death, where you and your friends will be lying in wait for him. Capture him like you did to each person. I have a feeling that the first three trys won't work, so be careful." He heard Moeton's voice in his mind say.
"We have fallen into a trap. Those aren't our friends. They're the ghost-like forms of them. The Warlords will be here any second. Now unless you want to be their main course in the way of food, I say we get out of here!" Benji said. They retraced their steps to the tunnel and were about to enter it, when they were struck by a shout.
Chapter 13
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Brayockin shouted as he jumped and landed practically on top of the group.
"What the hell?" Nate said. He lashed out at the person and struck him in the face. He lashed out again and again hit Brayockin in the face. Brayockin then lashed out at Nate with a jab to the face and a punch to the groin. Both were blocked. Nate then kicked his attacker in the face and once in the back.
"Hyaaaaaaa!" Benji shouted as he made contact with the solar plexes of Fireockin. His attacker fell to the ground and then punched Benji in the knee. Benji hollared in pain. He kicked out so quickly that Fireockin's body flew back ten feet!
"DIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!" Draconeis shouted and jumped into the air and did a flying sword kick at Cira. She blocked and struck him in the face with her swords. He fell to the ground, his nose bleeding.
"YOU SHALL BE THE ONE TO DIE, FEIND!" She shouted and jabed at his neck with her swords. She missed and Draconeis was upon his feet in a moment. He kicked her in the face and she fell back and hit the wall of the tunnel. Stuned, she didn't know where she should plant her next attack. A qick jab to her face told her that Draconeis was in front of her and she kicked him to the stomach and then elbowed him on his spine. Draconeis fell to the earth. She was then grabbed by Oakon, who had come out of nowhere. He had put her into a full nelson. She dropped her head forward and then sharply brought it back and hit him squarely on the nose. Then she threw him over her back and on top of Draconeis who was now kneeling on the ground trying to figure out what had happened.
"Get off me!" He shouted and threw Oakon to the side. He stood up and punched Gen in the face. Gen then kicked back and his foot hit Draconeis in the groin!
"I've had it with this! NIGHTHAWK SCREEEEEEEECH!" Benji shouted and he jumped up into the air and then came back down again. Lightning flashed and Fireockin was struck by a bolt of black lightning.
"WINDS OF CHAOS!" Nate shouted and a blue lightning bolt hit the Warlords. They each went flying out of the tunnle from the force of the blast. "Well that takes care of them. Let's get out of here!" Nate said. Benji sheathed his swords and they turned down the tunnel and ran to the seceret door. They opened it and they walked out into the dungeon again. They quickly ran to the right and they soon saw a stair way leading down. They took this and the first cell they came to, they saw had about one hundred and thirty guards by it!
"Hey, you group of pigs! Time to play!" Benji shouted at the guards and he and his friends all ran from them. The guards chased them and they suddenly had to stop in their tracks: Benji and his friends were nowhere to be seen! Suddenly they fell down on top of them!
"Well that takes care of them!" Nate said as he slugged a guard in the face. Benji looked at his brother and shook his head.
"No it does not." He said. "We're not out of the woods until we find our friends." He looked back at the cell and walked up to it. He peered into the cell and saw the rest of their friends in the same state that he had seen them at the Waters of Death. Benji took a step back and got into a front stance. He brought his right leg up to the hip and lunged forward in a front kick. His foot hit the door of the cell which went flying into the room.
"Benji! I don't believe it!" Benjamin said. Benji drew his swords and clashed them against each persons' chains. They were all free in a moment and outside of the cell. Once outside, Benjamin said: "Benji what are we going to do now?"
"First we need to get outta here. I'm sure that by now we've outdone our welcome!" He answered. Benji and his friends all turned from the cell and ran as fast as they could toward the exit. They took the stairs that they had come down from and had met no living thing. They reached the next stair and that was when they met someone.
"Your fate is sealed NightHawk." A voice said. They could not see the person yet for they were still near the bottom of the stair and the other person was at the top; hidding.
"What are you talking about?" Benji asked. His voice was deep and cold and harsh.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! You have not yet realized the full power of your Armors, have you? Join me and I will make them all you have ever wanted! Join me and you shall have absoulte power. Come with me and you shall know what real magic is. You will not have to use your foolish parlor tricks ever again. No one will think ill of you if you will only join me. It is your destiny." The voice said in a gravely booming voice that echoed through the halls and the stone walls of the Palace and dungeon.
"Why should we even think about it?" Benji asked. He didn't trust the voice for he knew who it was.
"Why should you even think about it? I'll tell you why: If you don't you won't have the power I have just promised to you. You won't have the riches of the Dark Side of Magic. You won't be able to rule this world and all others with an iron fist of cruelty!" The voice said. Benji's features changed into one of death and anger toward the voice. His eyes hardened and became a look a death. His muscels stiffened; ready to pounce upon his prey.
"Never." Was all Benji said.
"Alright then have it your way, NightHawk! You have sealed your own fate of death! You have commited your friends to their deaths! Farewell and may you burn in the depths of time and in Hell!" The voice said and was gone.
"What the heck was all that about?" Nate said. He didn't know who the voice was for only Benji could hear the real voice. The others could hear only the sound of the wind outside. They made their way up the stairs and were soon outside of the Palace. They turned and began at a slight run toward the western mountains. Benji had known that the first of the evils that they would face would either be at the Palace of Red Death, or somewhere under the earth of the western mountains.
"Benji, what the hell happened to you in the Palace?" He heard a voice say. Benji stopped in his tracks and looked back at Brian, whom had spoken. Nothing shone in his eyes or his face. They were blank; ghost-like. Death. Death was upon him in the form of revenge.
"Nothing has happened." He finally said. He turned around again and began to walk toward the mountains. Brian shook his head. He was the only one that saw the anger in the eyes of his best friend. No matter how hard Benji would try to hide his deepest feelings about someone or something, Brian was always able to see right through his barrier and see that which Benji was trying to hide. He knew Benji had had a great trust in Moeton and when he finally found out that he had been betrayed by the one person that he would give his life up for, it nearly drove him over the edge of his mind and he knew Benji wanted to kill Moeton for what he had done. They had put about fifty miles behind them when the darkness came. They stopped at an old and weather-worn tree and slept peacefully that night.
When the first rays of the morning sun came it, found them all walking toward the mountains. They were nearing them rapidly. It would be another day before they reached them, but Benji and his friends wanted to get to them that night. Again, like the night before, they had put fifty miles behind them and they had reached the base of the mountains. "Now that we're here, what do we do?" Nate said. Benji stood by his brother and Brian was right behind him. He looked up at the mountains and shook his head. He turned toward his friends.
"I can't ask you to go with me on this last leg of the quest. Here is where we need to decide who will stay and who will return to Ioaktiekon....or at least what's left of it." Benji said in a grave voice.
"You can count on me to go with you even to my death." Brian said.
"Me too, brother." Nate said.
"In fact you can count on all of us." Sage-Light said. Benji turned toward the mountains again. His eyes burned with a pale colored fire.
"Then let us go and fight this evil to the ends of time!" He said. They began to walk into the forest of the mountains.
"One can easily get lost in this place!" Nate said. Though the night was dark and their path was hidden, they could see each other clearly as if it were daylight. Perhaps it was their magical Armor. Perhaps it was a spell that one of them had silently cast to let each other be able to see each person. Whatever the reason, they were glad for it. They continued to walk along the dark path. It was nearing midnight when they stopped to sleep. In the morning they continued on their way. The trees of the forest were as large as the giant Sequoia trees of California. Their leaves were as large as semi-trucks wheels. The bark was not of normal bark. It was black and gold and red and white. Its feeling was one of strangeness: It didn't feel like real bark, but as cold iron. These were the rare trees of the Ironicks. They were a small group of people that had turned iron into a living, breathing plant!
Birds sung in the many colored branches of the trees; unseen by human eyes. Their meldoies were ones of a time long ago. A time of war. A time of peace. A time of death. Suddenly an arrow flew and hit a tree right behind Benji! "What the hell?! Get down!" He yelled. Three more arrows flew and three more hit three trees.
"What the hell is going on?!" Nate asked. Benji made a face that showed he had no idea.
"You there in the bushes and shrubs! You have invaded my forest! Leave or die!" A voice said.
"Those blasted wood elves! They never seem to remember anything." Benji said to himself. Suddenly he was grabbed from the rear. A rope was quickly strung around his neck and the preasure was put on. He was being choked. He grabbed his swords and clashed the ends together. "NIGHTHAWK SCREECH!" He shouted and the person who had been choking him, flew into the air and landed in the bushes not too far from him. Benji then held a sword in each hand and slamed the ends of them on the ground. The ground suddenly began to shake and it opened into a deep pit. "Into the pit! Hurry!" He shouted. Once everyone had gone into the pit, Benji jumped inside and the crack in the earth was gone. Ten wood elves were at the place that Benji and his friends had been standing at a moment before.