Joint Fanfic

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Should we bring over the joint fanfic from anet? Or should we have all of the origonal authors present before doing so? Or maybe we could start an entirely new joint fic. Note: I pulled the joint fic off of anet while it was up today.

[Radical Ed]

Let's continue it here... Hey, then Ian has no excuse! DO IT!!! It's the writers' fic now, and we have a good set of writers here... Just place credit where credit is due for each chappie, if you can.

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Way ahead of you Ed, I did that when I pulled it off of the forum. Though shen should be here, maybe android can get him a message (if not, someone else tell him please) after all, he started it. ok, so here are the chapters:


Prologue (The Real Cyan)

Honor, loyalty, and valor. These virtues where among many that were considered key to life back in the Age of Kings. Back then a person’s reputation was more important than their life. They valued more in how they would be remembered than in preserving their own existence.
But with this way of life, others sought to change the world’s order. Many people for good or evil tried to change the times they lived in. Whether it was for others, or for themselves, the world was changed in ways that boggled the minds of its occupants.
But the most influential tool for change was not in peace, but war. By way of the sword, the times were changed again and again. Kingdoms were created and destroyed, boundaries were drawn and redrawn, and lives were born then lost. These great changes were sometimes done by groups of people, entire kingdoms in fact, but the greatest of them all was not done by the masses. The greatest of all changes was started by a single man with nothing more than an idea and his sword. He challenged himself with the one ambition that drove most men in those days, to be remembered forever. And in his quest for immortality followers appeared with the intent to be recorded along with him. And the easiest way to fame was to conquer. Soon his name was spread across the hills and valleys. Kings that lay in his path were sacrificed for his purpose and their castles taken. In time he had amassed more stolen than earned land. He was known across the world for hate rather than love. But this didn’t matter so long as his name was spread.
Ten years passed since he started his quest. He had taken over the northern half of the larger continent. But a new challenge had arisen. The people of the southern half decided to join forces to stop further encroachment and thus made war against his empire. Humans against humans armed with swords, shields, arrows and spears became the stuff of legends as the battle raged on. In the end no one won. The southern half killed the north’s leader but couldn’t stop his empire. An uneasy peace descended upon the land as both sides ended hostilities but with no assurance as to how long.
Many years later the empire to the north has fallen and lays dormant waiting for its next leader. Waiting for the time when they shall rise to battle once again.
And to the south the empire has broken back into villages and small kingdoms. They too wait, not for a leader but for a hero that will protect them from the evil waiting to fall down upon them.
A leader will arise to make war, and a hero will come to challenge him. When and who are the only questions that are waiting to be answered.


1: the dragon's companion (Paranoid_Janitor <me>)


Sixteen years after the war a sense of peace had set in over the southern kingdoms. Nevertheless they were alert as to when their hero would arrive, and finally defeat the northern empire. In a village close to the heart of the southern kingdoms, dragons were troubling a town on a weekly basis. This is where the epic tale begins.
Several knights had tried to slay this dragon but none had succeeded. The village was soon left to fend for itself. A young boy, only 17, was beginning his path to manhood. This ritual consisted of the village elder giving him a task that he must complete. The choice of tasks was obvious; he was to slay the dragon.
“Why?” asked Ekla (the boy).
“Because there is nobody left who will. And besides we’re all too scared to go.” Said the elder.
“Will I be allowed to use weapons?” asked Ekla.
“Yes, you will as this is no ordinary dragon. This dragon has killed ten knights at once,” said the elder.
“It does not matter if I die, as I will be remembered for standing my ground and fighting him to the death” said Ekla.
“Better to be remembered as a hero than a coward” said the elder as he dismissed Ekla.
Ekla was greeted outside by his friend Tironi.
“How did it go?” asked Tironi.
“I have to slay the dragon tomorrow,” said Ekla.
“I guess I’ll give you my lucky shield,” said Tironi sounding rather serious.
“Won’t you need that for when you go against the dragon?” asked Ekla.
“No way! You know why?” asked Tironi.
“You’re going to run away?” asked Ekla.
“No, because you’re going to kill that dragon tomorrow” said Tironi.
“Thanks for the confidence, but this guy killed ten knights at once” said Ekla.
“Did they have a lucky shield?” asked Tironi.
“Guess they didn’t,” said Ekla while laughing.
“Let’s go find some more weapons,” said Tironi.
For the rest of the day Tironi and Ekla searched for weapons all over town. They found a crossbow, a long sword, a dagger, some plate armor, a black powder bomb (very rare and a last resort), and a stash of fifteen arrows.
“That should do it,” said Tironi.
“If this doesn’t kill that dragon, nothing will” said Ekla.
“How about a trip to the tavern?” asked Tironi.
“No, best get some sleep,” said Ekla.
Ekla went back to his house and slept, while Tironi spent the better part of the night honing the blades, sharpening the arrows, and making everything perfect.
When dawn came Ekla had left the village to find the dragon’s den in the nearby mountain. As he entered he drew his crossbow and loaded it. When he turned the first corner of the den he saw the dragon sleeping. He decided to end the battle as quickly as possible so he tossed the black powder bomb at it (it was unlit, as he did not have anything to light it with). He had better methods though; he leveled the crossbow at the bomb and pulled the trigger. The dragon’s eyes snapped open and it swatted the arrow away. As the dragon was getting up, he tried again, but the dragon deflected the arrow again. Ekla now set his sights on the dragon itself. The dragon easily deflected the onslaught of arrows and it started advancing on him. Ekla drew his sword and charged the dragon at a run. The dragon hit him out of the way as if he were nothing more than a fly. It easily disarmed him and finally pounced on him, pinning him to the ground. The dragon’s face was inches from his; he could feel the fiery warmth of its breath against his face.
“I was wondering when you would come,” said the dragon
Ekla was shocked. “You can talk?” he asked.
“It is a well kept secret, those who have known it have died” said the dragon.
“So you intend to kill me now?” asked Ekla.
“No, I intend to help you rise to your destiny” said the dragon as it got off of him.
“What do you mean?” asked Ekla.
“Dragons can see the future, and thus destiny,” said the dragon.
“What am I destined for?” asked Ekla.
“I cannot tell you that yet” said the dragon, “I’ll just say that you are destined to become a hero”
“What do I need to do now?” asked Ekla.
“There is a castle to the east of here, the sole purpose of this castle is to guard a sacred weapon,” said the dragon.
“What weapon is that?” asked Ekla.
“The sword of talama” said the dragon; “it bestows a hero’s strength on any individual capable of wielding it”
“If this part of the prophecy is true, then the dark hero has also risen” said Ekla, “and no doubt, there is a counterpart to this sword”
The dragon nodded. “But you have one thing that he does not” said the dragon
“What is that?” asked Ekla.
“The ability to command dragons” said the dragon.
“The final part of becoming a man is to be renamed, dragon will you rename me?” asked Ekla.
“So long as you rename me,” said the dragon.
This is a lucky shield thought Ekla.

© 2002



Chapter Two (Radical_Ed)

Ekla and the dragon considered what names they would give each other. They would bear their names with pride to the end of their lives. Ekla suddenly spoke up. "Firespear... Is that okay?" he asked the dragon.
"Hmm... Of course. Your name shall be... Ekla Flamesworn. I suggest we begin our journey as soon as possible." Firespear led Ekla through the cave and into the daylight. "You must leave soon."
"Wait... I'm not ready to leave yet. I have to take care of something first." Ekla ran down to the town. "Tironi! Tironi!"
Tironi stepped out of his house and ran to Ekla. "Wow! You survived!" Tironi looked at the cave and saw the dragon. "How could you?" he screamed. "You ran away like a coward! Give me back my shield!"
"I didn't run away. I was able to speak with the dragon." He saw the confused expression on Tironi's face. "I don't know how either, but we talked it out. I am to go on a journey east of here. I wanted to come back here and talk to you. I don't know what's ahead of me, but I'm to become a hero. I would ask you to join me on this journey."
"I haven't even come to manhood yet..."
"Don't you understand? These could be your rites of passage! Do you realize how you'd be honored?"
"It sounds dangerous..." Tironi looked at his house and realized how many chances like this he'd get. "I'll come. Let me get my weapons." Tironi ran inside his room, and a few minues later, he came back out with patched leather armor, a sturdy one-handed sword in a light scabbard, a dagger, and a small crossbow with a couple packs of bolts.
Ekla started to break into laughter. "That's your armor? I can't believe you'd seriously wear that."
"Then give me back my shield... It's part of my armor." Ekla reluctantly handed the shield back to Tironi. "This shield is the mainstay of my armor."
Ekla led Tironi on a path back to Firespear. "This dragon and I already gave each other names, and you're best addressing it as Firespear. I don't know how he'll react to you, so do you're best not to upset him."
"What's your name?"
"Ekla Flamesworn. We are leaving for a castle east of here, where I will find a blessed sword. I don't know what the dragon plans for me, but it knows the future, and it knows what I will become, and perhaps how."
They reached Firespear. "Who is this?" The dragon regarded Tironi. "I must know who this one is... Tell me."
"He is my friend, Tironi, of that village."
"Do you wish for him to go with you?" Fire spear leaned towards Ekla. "Think carefully."
"Yes. I believe my friend will be able to help me. Why is he so important?"
"You will have many companions, but I do not recal whether he is one of them. Perhaps I am wrong, although it is a rare event. It is possible that he will become the greatest of assets to you. I tell you this, though," Firespear said as the pair began to walk away, "I will be unable to come with you. I must stay here to guard your village. Do not worry-they will be safe. Along the way, if you have trouble, and you do not think you can survive, you may call for Firespear, slayer of knights, and I or my fellows will try to come to your rescue. I shall spread my name across the continent as best I can. See me when you find the sword."
And so the companions set upon their adventure...



Here it goes, chapter 3! (Evangelion999)

So, leaving Firespear behind in the village, Ekla and Tironi set out east. The only castle east for years of travel was Castle Goaet.
“Tironi,” Ekla asked,” how did Castle Goaet gets its name?”
“Actually, Goaet is an acronym for Goblins Ogres and Evil Things,” Tironi said. Joyous, Ekla thought to himself. It wasn’t long down the road before the pair ran into their first trouble spot. Highwaymen.
“Give us all yer’ gold,” the first man said,” just put it on the ground!”
“No way, I’ve dealt with worse than you! I’ve battled Ogres, Demons,” Tironi began a valiant speech.
“The kitten next door is hardly a demon Tironi,” Ekla said.
“Exnay on the catnay,” Tironi said in the pest pig Latin he could muster.
“You gonna give us your gold or are we gonna have to take it?” a second man said. There were only three bandits and Tironi could take them all on, if he didn’t get distracted. With Ekla’s help it would be a breeze.
“YOUR GONNA HAVE TO TAKE IT!” Tironi and Ekla pulled their swords from the sheaths and charged. In several seconds, they had the bandits tied up and laying in the middle of the road. Ekla and Tironi began down the road again when Ekla asked,” If we were using our swords then how did we tie them up?”
“Meh, beats me.”

Now for a serious encounter!

Ekla and Tironi found board that night at a roadside inn called the Paranoid Pony.
“We need a room…hello?” Tironi shouted when no one came.
“Where is everyone?” Ekla asked. A young girl came up to the counter.
“Sorry for the wait, out pony we use to haul things had a paranoid break down again. I swear it’s the hay these days,” the little girl said. Tironi and Ekla shot each other a worried look.
“Any ways, we need one room for tonight,” Ekla said. The girl got a key from a shelf behind her,” Right this way.”

It must have been past midnight when a strange glow awoke Ekla from his sleep. What is it, he had to figure it out. He walked out into the hall and inhaled heavy black smoke.
“Tironi..huh…the inn’s on fire!” Ekla snatched up his sword. He headed down stairs, avoiding falling rafters on the way. Three creatures, each about six feet tall stood in the middle of the lobby.
“He is here!” the one wearing the most armor yelled, waving his sword at Ekla. Ekla held his weapon up and was ready to fight when a bolt of fire flew from the other side of the inn and struck the other two creatures.
“Nice shot Lili!” a male voice said. It the midst of the distraction, Ekla hacked into the leader. All the wounded were taken outside.
“They were after me Tironi,” Ekla said.
“And lots more will come, and we’ll beat them all!” Tironi said. A shriek erupted from the under brush and more of the monsters jumped out to face the heroes. Ekla and Tironi were quickly in combat and suddenly a woman was fighting along side them.
“Though you might need some help, ma name’s Lili,” she said as she parried a monster’s blow and cut it down in the follow through. The fight continued on. Ekla dodged under a blade and thrusted his sword into a monsters chest. Tironi was battling two monsters at once until Ekla could relieve him of one. The battle lasted for what seemed like hours (but was actually only minutes, being that all three contenders were rather skilled swordsman.)
“So they’re after you huh kid,” Lili said,” well I’ll tell you what, you just enlisted Lili and Zanri to your side! I’m a sorceress and Zanri over there is a white mage. We were heading to Castle Goaet to search for an artifact but we’ll come with you instead!”
“That’s all right because we were headed to the same place!” Ekla said.

So the new friends headed out on the road, and Castle Goaet was not more than a stones throw down the road (and then an extra throw…and maybe a few more) and Ekla knew he would complete his quest!
“You know…I was noticing something about our group,” Tironi said,” most groups have four stereotypes: the untrained hero, the cool reserved veteran, the timid female white mage, and the soft spoken male black mage! We on the other hand have: a well trained young hero, a loud mouthed veteran, our female is a fighter-mage type person, and our white mage is a guy. My conclusion is we are the least stereo typical questing party ever!”
“He just called himself a loud mouth right Ekla,” Zanri said.
“Yeah I think so,” Ekla replied. It was going to be a long trip…………



Chapter 4: (The Real Cyan)
As the four newly acquainted heroes set off toward the Castle Goaet, a lone figure who had hid during the battle lingered off away from the party. Racing through the forest he soon came upon an army’s campground. Ignoring the stares of other militia, he headed straight for the largest tent.
Once he arrived at his destination he quietly announced his presence and walked inside. Inside was a large table with four men seated around it. Dismissing three of them, he walked up and knelt by the one seated at the head of the group.
“The raid was a failure but I have learned of their destination.” He stated in a whisper.
Leaning towards his informant the assumed leader quietly replied.
“What went wrong?”
Nervously the informant looked up saying,”We were surprised by the attack of two others. Either they were two good Samaritans off to lend a helping hand, or…”
“Or?”
“Or they are far more dangerous then we anticipated.”
Thinking this over the leader looked questioningly at the map in front of him. Then he spoke once again.
“So where are they headed?”
“I overheard them saying that they were going to Castle Goaet.”
Surprised the leader looked up no longer whispering.
“What could they possibly be seeking there…. Unless…hum…” he looked toward the man seated to his right. “Order the mobilization of the troops. We’re moving.”
Looking confused the right hand man asked, “To where sire, and why?”
“Toward castle Goaet. We’re going to set up a welcoming committee.”
With that the man and informant exited from the tent. As soon as the two had left, one of the remaining men asked, ”Is this wise setting off after what actually may prove to be nothing. Could this boy really be as important as this.”
“Yes, how can we be sure that what the dragon Argmon said was true? Perhaps this is actually nothing.” Added the other man in the group.
Looking thoughtful the leader replied. “Regardless of the validness, we still have our master’s order to carry out. Once we can be sure that there are no more obstacles in our path, our newly awakened empire will see glory once again!”
Thinking it over and then nodding their heads in agreement the two men gave their blessing and moved out to prepare for the march. Alone the leader thought to himself… could this really be the one. The hero of the south? And what kind of fighter is he? He looked at the map where there was a large circle. And how could our master have known where this boy was headed? As he thought over such things he got ready to leave for his invasion.


At about the same time, Ekla was being chased by Lili in what is usually called a funny misunderstanding of who knows what. And not too far behind was Tironi and Zanri who were trying their best at keeping up.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?!?!” yelled an angry Lili.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it that way!” cried a desperate Ekla.
The whole mess had started when Tironi asked if Ekla had ever seen a sorceress before. Ekla had replied with “No, and certainly not one that was soo cute.” Which led to Tironi daring Ekla to say it to her face and as nervous as he was, Ekla mixed his words around spinning a whole new interpretation to his comment.
Giving up chase Tironi and Zanri slowed to a walk letting Ekla and Lili sort out their troubles. At first neither of them said anything, instead just trying to catch their breaths. Once Zanri was at normal breathing he turned to Tironi and asked, “Just what is it that you and Ekla are going to Castle Goaet to find?”
“Well, Ekla was supposed to kill this dragon to save our village from it’s despair but instead the dragon sent him on this quest to find some sword. And being such a good friend I offered to tag along.”
“Hum…. That’s odd.” Replied Zanri.
“What’s so odd about that… aside from the obvious I guess...” Tironi said trailing off.
“Well speaking dragons aside, Lili and I are apprentices to a man who skills with magic are adept to say the least. Well to cut a long story short, he sent us on a quest to find a staff.”
“What kind of a staff?”
“He didn’t say too much to me, Lili knows more about the staff than I do. But I did learn that it is an artifact from a long time ago and it is said to rest somewhere in castle Goaet.”
“Hum…” Tironi muttered before an interesting sight caught his eye.
“Ow! Ow! Ow! Please stop!” Cried Ekla in distress.
Lili had finally gotten a hold on Ekla and was in the process of putting him in a back breaker. Tironi was laughing at the whole thing while Zanri stood confused.
To try and put a stop to the problem Zanri walked up and separated the two. “Hey don’t you think you’ve got him back enough? How about we find somewhere to send the night?”
In an amazing change of mood Lili stood up, smiled and replied with, “Okay! But how about we find somewhere to eat first?”
“Yeah. Let’s find the nearest town and get some food.” Replied Tironi.
“Wait. What just happened?” asked Ekla, “I thought you were mad at me.”
“Yeah, but not any more. Now let’s go!” said Lili grabbing Ekla by the arm and pulling him with her down the road. Not too far behind was Zanri and Tironi who ignored Ekla’s plight being the only way to keep from laughing at him.




Chapter 5: Arrival (Android21)

The sun was high in the sky, as the four heroes were sitting at a rickety table with some food supplies they had just bought from a nearby marketplace. They realised that they hadn't even had any breakfast, because of the incident with the inn being set on fire.

"I wonder who those creatures were at that inn, and why they were after you?" Zanri spoke up.

"Well, I wish I could tell you but I just don't know, I have only just started out on this quest actually" Ekla responded, as he reached for the last morsel, a rare and tasty looking peach. Lili had also been reaching for that fruit, and they both grasped it at the same time.

"Hey! I got it first, let go!" Lili demanded, and attempted to tug it out of Ekla's hands. Ekla was almost willing to let it go, but since she had demanded, it angered him, and so he tugged it back. They both put their second hand onto it, and tried to prise it out of the others' hands, and then, whoosh, it flew up into the air and landed in a nearby pig trough, of all places.

"Now look what you done!" Ekla remarked. He then saw the look in Lili's eyes, and decided to make a run for it, there was just no way to defend yourself when someone is like that, he thought. Lili gave chase, and so did Zanri, attempting to calm them both down, whilst Tironi just watched on.

***

A couple of hours later (and a few bruises), everyone had settled down, and they were travelling on their last stretch of the journey. Ekla pondered what would happen if he managed to get his hands on the sword that Firespear had told him about, would he become the Southern Hero, that he had heard so many people talk about from the village. He had often dreamed of becoming this hero, but he never believed that it might actually happen.

Tironi was getting excited, he had learnt so much about weapons and shields, but he had only ever been in two battles, one from several years ago, which had sparked his interest in combat material, and the other was at the inn. Both of those, were no real challenge at all, and he was thirsty for a real battle, something that would make the villagers proud of him.

Lili and Zanri had the same thoughts as each other, and that was obtaining the staff. If they could do that, then their master would teach them some powerful magic.

Tironi looked up and saw a shape on the horizon. "Look! Over there, behind those trees!" He pointed. It was about half a mile away, but it was indeed the castle. Everyone began to prepare themselves for what lay ahead as they approached with caution. They wandered past the trees and out into a clearing.

"I don't like this," Zanri said nervously. "We are out where there is no cover, anyone can see us here, we are like sitting ducks." The others agreed, but there was no way around it, the clearing surrounded the whole castle.

An arrow flew straight towards them, seemingly out of nowhere. Ekla shrieked as he saw it glide through the air, and head straight towards his friend. Tironi, with lightning reflexes, and a lot of luck, positioned his shield just in the right position for it to do its job. The arrow hit the shield, and Tironi sighed, thanking his shield for being so lucky. Out from the incline towards the castle moat, came twenty swordsmen and an archer (the leader).

The swordsmen charged towards the four, who withdrew their weapons and stood their ground watching every little movement. Tironi glanced at the arrow, realizing that he could die at any moment, and then suddenly all his research and dreams melted away, he just wanted to get away as fast as he could, but no it was too late. Besides, he had to help Ekla on his mission, what sort of friend would walk away when times got tough.

The swordsmen looked tough, and they were outnumbering the heroes five to one. Could this be the end? Zanri thought.



Chapter 6: (The Real Cyan)

As the swordsmen charged the four heroes stood poised for the onslaught, ready to match their skills against such a one-sided battle. Then Ekla got an idea. Looking at the trees, a plan began to form within his mind.

“Hey I’ve got an idea guys…RUN!!!!!!” he shouted.

Stunned at first the other three didn’t move, but one more look at the advancing swordsmen was all the motivation they needed. They followed Ekla as fast as they could towards the forest, and although their speed was incredible, the enemy was not too far behind.

But then the enemy’s leader saw the genius behind Ekla’s plan. Ekla was going to use the forest as cover against the archers’ attacks. With all the trees his arrows were rendered useless. Angered by these change of events the leader slowly made his way towards the battle.

Once inside the forest Lili caught up with Ekla (thanks to all the practice she had earlier) and tried to figure out what he was scheming.

“So now what do we do? And why did we run into the forest?” she asked.

Ekla stopped running and the two hid behind some large rocks.

“Well, the archer can’t shoot us in here. That and I was hoping we could get one enemy at a time. If we attack them all at once we’re dead, but if we wait until they split up to look for us, then we can attack them a few at a time.” Ekla replied while keeping an eye out for Tironi and Zanri.

Amazed, Lili quietly muttered to herself, “Wow… he might just do it.”

Once Ekla found Tironi and Zanri he waved them over and explained his plan. Agreeing that it would prove the best course of action they quickly decided how they would attack each swordsmen they encountered. When they finished they split up to their respective positions.

Ekla was paired up with Lili, while Tironi was matched with Zanri. After ten minutes of nothing they were beginning to think that the enemy had given up. But then Tironi saw something. Five of the attackers were walking slowly through the trees. The four waited until they had pasted by them and then launched their attack. Taking them from the back with surprise on their side they quickly took the swordsmen down with no problem. They hid the bodies in some bushes and covered the blood that was on the ground with dirt. Quickly they took up their hiding places again and no sooner then they had gained cover had the next group appeared.

The next group was also composed of five attackers and they were quickly taken down. Cleaning up as they had before the four gained a few moments of rest. Lili was growing some respect for Ekla, though she still saw him as a bit comical. Before she was able to say anything however the next party appeared, and was taken down before they knew what hit them. But this time as they were cleaning up to prepare for what would hopefully be the last group a loud, sharp and high pitched whistle was heard. Not knowing what to make of this sound and thinking it was a signal that they were spotted, the heroes hid as quickly as possible. But no one came.

That’s when all hell broke loose. Fire rained from the sky igniting the trees. Tironi sensing now was a good time to leave, grabbed Zanri and yelled for the other two. Taking off at a run the four heroes tried to make their way out. But the fire soon lit all of the dead leaves that lay on the forest floor. Seconds was all it took for the ground to become an inferno.

Using his whistle to call his remaining swordsmen and surprised when only five came out, the leader thought that instead of fighting them in the forest he would flush them out using fire arrows. Though no one came out at first he was sure that these fighters wouldn’t go down that easily.

-/
“We’ve got to get out of here, and fast!” yelled Ekla. “Before this fire overtakes us!”

“And that’s not before this smoke does!” added Lili.

“So how do you propose we get out of here?” Tironi asked.

“Good question.” Ekla sighed.

“I know!” shouted Zanri. Then looking at Lili he said, “Lili! Wind! Can you summon a gust to clear us a path?”

Enlightened Lili replied smiling, “Sure!”
-/

The archer was getting ready to think that the four really had perished in the blaze when he saw a tunnel appear in the flames. Suddenly a young women was seen walking through the path followed by the rest. Intrigued by this the archer paused to glance at such an amazing sight. They really might be as dangerous as his master said they would. Thinking it would be better to retreat and return with reinforcements later he signaled his attackers to make haste. Vanishing over the next hill they returned to camp.

The four heroes, upon seeing the remaining attackers retreat sighed joyously. Going atop the hill they noticed that although the fire seemed pretty bad from the inside, it was starting to slacken off before dying out. Knowing that they wouldn’t be able to figure out who it was that attacked them by looking at the dead bodies now, they gave up and looked over in the direction of the castle.

“Well, at least we came out of that alive.” Roared a thankful Tironi.

“Yes, we were indeed lucky.” Replied Zanri.
Rubbing her stomach, Lili said, “Well, giving out all that wind has made me hungry. Let’s get to the castle a find some food, I’m starving!”

Unable to contain himself at what Lili had just said, and taking it the wrong way of course, Ekla added, “Yeah, I didn’t think you could blow so much, small wonder that your so hungry…”

Slowly realizing that he had made a grave mistake, Ekla once again took off at a run towards the castle.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY!!!!! EKLA, YOU GUTTERMINDED DEAD MAN!!!” Lili shouted taking up chase.

Laughing at seeing Ekla once again receiving the worst for his mistakes, Tironi and Zanri walked in the direction of the castle. Once Lili was out of earshot though, Tironi looked at Zanri and said…
“Well, I thought it was funny.”

© 2002

[Killua_Kun]

Well am here again but I kinda lost track of who will write all I remember is that Ian the Korean will be the next to write :) and I think I am supposed to write CHapter 11

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Yeah, but I get chapter 8, because I've got a cool part for the sword.

[Killua_Kun]

Okey you can write the chapter and we will make a revise list of those who will write the succeeding chapters...hope this will turn out all for the better!

[Paranoid_Janitor]

I could have sworn that I posted this last night... maybe I did and my modem is playing tricks on me.

ok, here you go
Chapter 7

The castle Goaet could be seen in a large (I mean you could have fit several castles there large) clearing. It was surrounded by a moat and a cloud of mist (like all castles) and an old monk stood on the drawbridge. And if you were wondering, Lili is still chasing Ekla, in fact, they were wasting no time in getting to the castle.
“OUT OF THE WAY OLD MAN!” Ekla screamed, pushing him aside as he ran past.
“GET BACK HERE!” said Lili, as she pushed the old monk into the moat.
Ekla was about to open the door to the castle when the two gargoyles on either side moved into his path, blocking his only remaining path to get away from Lili. Lili advanced on Ekla with a menacing look on her face.
“Hey Lili, it was just a misunderstanding” pleaded Ekla.
Lili paid no attention to what he said, and continued to smack him around medieval-style.
“Um, some help would be nice,” said the monk who was treading water in the moat.
“Oh!” said Lili, her expression lightening, “sorry about Ekla, he can be rude at times”
“Hey!” said Ekla.
Lili turned so quickly that it amazed everyone, and she decked him. “Quiet you!” she said angrily.
“Um, if you would all pay attention, I’d like to tell you all a few things,” said the monk.
“Sorry, we’ll listen,” said the group in unison.
“My name is Dan, and you stand before castle Goaet. This castle is the guardian of many sacred relics, and miscellaneous goblins, ogres, and assorted evil things. These gargoyles are the first test, if you can’t beat them, then you should go home. The first room reflects the mind of the first person to set foot in it, and you will need to find a way into the next room. From there, I cannot help you.” Said Dan.
“This shouldn’t be too hard,” said Ekla.
“Those gargoyles don’t look too tough” said Lili, “Explosion!” she said, and the gargoyles turned to dust in a fiery blast.
“That didn’t look hard,” said Ekla.
“It wasn’t, but I’m still hungry” said Lili, turning a rock into a sandwich and eating it.
Ekla and Lili entered the castle at the same time, which was a mistake given that the room now reflected both of their minds.
“Look at this place!” said Lili; “it’s dirty because of your mind!”
“Well, it’s… small because of your…” said Ekla, not being able to catch himself until it was too late.
“THAT WAS BY FAR THE WORST COMMENT YET!” yelled Lili, as she cornered him, and pushed him up the wall.
And to everyone’s surprise, the wall slid open.
“Does anyone want to fill me in on what just happened?” asked Zanri.
“It seems that Ekla and Lili’s minds worked together to designate an exit, one that they could only find when working together” said Tironi.
“Whatever, let’s keep moving” said Lili.
The next room had twelve ogres in it, all varying in size. They were armed to the teeth, but they proved no match for Ekla and Tironi. They were cut down in a matter of minuets.
The next room was wide open, and it had suits of armor lining the walls. About ¾ through the room, the suits of armor came alive and started advancing on our favorite non-stereotypical group. Ekla, Lili, and Tironi started hacking off arms, legs, torsos, and heads. The armor suits would just continue on without their severed body parts, still advancing on the group. Then, Zanri picked up a severed arm that was still holding a mace and he just went ballistic.
“DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!!” he said in an armorlust (they don’t have blood) and he started bashing the suits into little pieces.
After coming out of his armorlust, Zanri calmly dropped the mace and the arm that was still holding it, and he calmly walked to the door whistling “Tea for two”.
Everyone else however, stood dumbstruck at him for defeating all of the armor practically by himself. Outside the door was a hall with four doors, only one could hold the sword of Talama. And the others… who knows?
“Well I say we pick this one,” said Lili, pointing to the one on the far left.
Behind the door was a group of goblins that attacked them. Lili got a gash on her face (about seven inches) from the claws of the first goblin. The second came at her, but Tironi threw his lucky shield at it, and it (luckily) hit the goblin in the head, effectively taking it out. The other three immediately attacked Ekla. While this was happening, Zanri was casting a healing spell on Lili. Tironi relieved Ekla of one of the goblins by yelling “over here Tu moche gobline!” (Pardon his French/bad grammar).
And Lili, she just went nuts and diced one up with some of her spells. It wasn’t long until the goblins were dead. Ekla and Tironi had taken a few hits, but that wasn’t anything Zanri couldn’t fix.
“Okay, I pick this time,” said Ekla, obviously furious at Lili for her lack of luck.
Ekla picked the door that was second to the right, which was a long hall, and there was something floating over an altar at the end.
“I told you!” said Ekla, but as he drew closer, he realized that it wasn’t a sword, neither a staff, it was a…
“Hey! An enchanted brownie! Yoink!” said Tironi as he happily ate it up.
“No! You fool!” said Zanri, but it was too late, the altar was sinking into the floor.
“I smell copyright infringement,” said Ekla in a low voice.
The group turned around to see a gigantic boulder rolling towards them. They all ran of back down the long room.
“Dum de dum dum, dum dum dum, dum de dum dum, dum de dum dum dum dum…” hummed Ekla as he ran.
“Ekla! Stop humming the Indiana Jones theme song, and get serious!” said Lili as she ran alongside him.
They barely escaped the room alive, but they were finally left with two doors left.
“I say we go in this one,” said Tironi, as he entered the second door to the left.
There on an altar was a staff, which he handed to Zanri.
“I hope this is what you’ve been looking for,” said Tironi.
“It is” said Zanri, looking relieved that they had found it at last.
In the last remaining door, was an altar, with the sword of Talama resting on an altar. There was a scroll attached to the sword, which read; repeat these words to use the sword of Talama. “Heroes of the past, whose names are long forgotten, lend me your strength so that I may defeat my enemy” Ekla read aloud.
The sword, which was in one of his hands, now started to shine and blood seeped from the tip, onto his hand, up his arm, and it covered his entire body along his veins as the blood sunk in. Ekla’s muscles were enlarged to about twice their normal size, and he grew a little taller. Everyone else looked dumbstruck at what they had just seen.
“Well, try it out,” said Dan, who had entered the room.
“What do you mean?” asked Ekla.
“Try cutting the altar,” said Dan.
Ekla swung the sword through the altar, and it was cut cleanly.
“Sweet!” said Ekla.
“If you ever want to find a place to rest, come back here” said Dan, “my geometry classroom can double as an inn” *edit: this is an inside joke
“Right…” said Tironi, picking up the scroll, “we’d best leave now”
When our favorite non-stereotypical group got outside the castle, the effects of the sword of Talama wore off, and Ekla collapsed to the ground.
“I guess it takes quite a bit of energy to use that” said Lili, “our master is only two towns away, if you take us there, we’ll accompany you wherever you want”.
“Sounds like a plan,” said Tironi.
The group got to the first town by nightfall, and they stayed the night at the paranoid pony (apparently it’s a popular chain of inns)…
© 2002

[Evangelion999]

you did post it Norris...in the Infinity forum

[Paranoid_Janitor]

*smacks head on desk* how much of a baka can I be? That's just insane... kinda like me. Ok, so I edited the one in the infinity thread.

[Killua_Kun]

That chapter was very hilarious indeed. Hmmm I wonder how he know the Indiana Jone's theme song :) Who copyrighted it there? :twisted:

Now hmmm who will write next? Evangelion???? can you? and then Radical Ed follows!

[Android21]

Yayy, The joint fanfic lives on. Well I must admit, I was a little disheartened that the whole castle scenario was done in one chapter, cos I like those sort of settings :P, but hey thanks to Janitor the story is up and running again, and it was an awesome chapter too, (lol at that last bit in brackets)

[The Real Cyan]

opps didn't recognize you there Shen.... err..well carry on.

hehe




said earlier:
Yippie!!!

The Joint Fanfic is here!!!!

I wanna write again. Parinoid, who do you think should supervise in Shen's place? I think it can be more than one person.

Oh well, great chapter and can't wait to be in this again.

Yea! I'm back!

[Killua_Kun]

Well I hope this will not be too much but then let's move on. I thought the castle scene will be long as was agreed before but it turned out done in one chapter.

Chapter 8 : Evangelion999
Chapter 9 : Radical Ed
Chapter 10 : Real Cyan
Chapter 11 : Shen (Killia_Kun) - Introduction to the main villain of the story
Chapter 12 : Android_21

That's all for now, any comments just tell me or pm me :twisted:

[Paranoid_Janitor]

It might take Evangelion999 a while to get the next chapter up because he's got a virus on his computer.

[The Real Cyan]

Opps he has a virus! that's not great! Well I hope he fixes it with no problems.

[Radical Ed]

Crud... I'm still involved in this? *Rubs his eyes vigorously* Okay, but I can only post (Within the permits on my computer usage) on weekends. So don't come into chats and kick me until the weekend!

[Evangelion999]

Virus is gone so I can write it now! YAY! Eventually I'll scan the character art I've done and post it!

[Killua_Kun]

Well that is good to hear that you are back....hmmmm it is not Wyx right that affected your pc? or is it...well it ruined my pc too last time...anyway onward with our Joint Fanfic.

I think let's re-arrange the assignments so that Radical Ed will be given ample time here we go :

Chapter 8 : Evangelion999
Chapter 9 : Real Cyan
Chapter 10 : Radical_Ed
Chapter 11 : Shen (Killia_Kun) - Introduction to the main villain of the story
Chapter 12 : Android_21

[The Real Cyan]

Chapter nine...... Yeah I can do that.

Hurry up with that chapter Eva!!!!


J/K

can't wait to read it though.

[Evangelion999]

Sorry, next chapter might not be up until friday, maybe wednesday. I got my own 20gig hard drive on my computer now. YOu open it up and a folder called Magi is in front of you, then you open that to Balthasar(miscelaneous files), Casper(movies), and Melchior(audio)!

[The Real Cyan]

lol


That's pretty cool.

Take your time... Make it a good read.

[Killua_Kun]

Congratulations for having your own hard drive :) ... Well hope that the chapter turns out well, I can't wait to read it :wink:

[Evangelion999]

THe chapter might not be up until sunday, I have over 20 hours of band activities in the next three days, and my computer is being dumb. But I promise geometrey goodness.

[The Real Cyan]

Oh well. Guess I'll have to wait. Just posting so you can put chapter up when you're done.

[Radical Ed]

Awesome! My chappie will be my no. 1 priority when it gets to me... I know how easily distracted I get *looks at mounds of homework* and will get. Don't worry, I'll try to get it in quickly, no matter what it takes.

[Evangelion999]

Sorry guys I'm not going to be able to take this chapter, I'm way to busy.

[The Real Cyan]

That's okay.

Killua_Kun do you want me to take this or assign it to someone else?

[Killua_Kun]

Chapter 8 : Real Cyan
Chapter 9 : Radical_Ed
Chapter 10 : Shen (Killia_Kun) - Introduction to the main villain of the story
Chapter 11 : Android_21

Okey take it away Real Cyan. That's ok Eva we do understand :x (just joking hehehehe we do :D )

[The Real Cyan]

Sorry if this doesn't sound as good as the others. I was on a midnight watch and got board and started writing this. Can you guess where I started to fall asleep while writing this?


---------------------------------------------
Chapter 8

When they arrived at the Paranoid Pony, they immediately ate. After a quick meal the group got two rooms and went to oogle at their new toys. Lili locked herself in her room with the staff leaving the three guys to themselves. Realizing that Lili had taken the more spacious room, they crammed themselves into their ‘closet’ and tried to sleep.

Ekla decided a walk outside would be better so he took his new sword and left once everyone was asleep. With nothing to do inside of town, he wandered out to the outlying woods.

After about a minute of mindless wandering, Ekla walk was interrupted by distant voices. Startled, he took up his sword and readied himself. Although he couldn’t remember the words that went along, he was prepared to fight. But aside from voices nothing happened.

Curious, he decided to follow the sounds. Eventually he came to a large cave, and with nothing else to do he walked inside. There wasn’t much to the place, just a domed roof and a large pool of water in the center. But Ekla had learned of where the voices were originating from; the pool of water.

For unknown reasons Ekla put his hand into the water and once it was submerged, the voices disappeared. Confused he removed his hand from the water and was set aback by the booming voice of Firespear.

“Congratulations. You have found the sword. But it’s power alone is not enough to save this land. You must learn how to master it with or without it’s help. Raise your skill to that of it’s own. Now go! Your friends await your return…”

Before Ekla could reply the voice was gone and the pool dried up.

Running all the way to the town, Ekla was surprised to see the inn on fire. Thinking to himself Ekla said, “Make mental note. Never stay at Paranoid Pony ever again.”

After logging in his self advise, Ekla was jumped by six swordsmen. Even though he was able to take down two of them, the surprise was enough to bring himself down. And as the swordsmen came for the final blow fate helped out. Just in the proverbial nic-of-time, he was saved by Tironi and Zanri.

Looking up Ekla asked, ”What the heck is going on now?”

“Don’t know. We were hoping you knew after we woke up and found you missing.” replied Zanri.

As if to answer Zanri, they heard a distinctive yell. And to make matters worse they recognized it as Lili.

Running as fast as they could the trio saw a most disturbing scene. Lili lay motionless on the ground in front of a large man. Unable to get a decent look at him they couldn’t imagine who he was.

Looking at Ekla, the stranger said , “Hero of the south! One cannot fight by swords alone. It may provide you with strength but your own abilities will need to improve before you are ready.”

Then as an added thorn in the groups side, the stranger raised his hands to reveal the staff and scroll. Before they could react, the stranger disappeared in a blaze of fire.

Ekla ran over to Lili’s side to see if she was okay. Relieved that she was alive and in good condition (well unconscious is good right?) he thought to himself, ‘Now what do I do? I don’t remember the words for the sword and the staff is stolen as well.’

Just then Tironi was able to speak, “So what now? Do we head back to the village and talk to Firespear or what?”

Ekla replied with, “We will but first let’s head back to the castle and ask that monk if there’s any sort of tale behind the sword and staff. Really, I don’t know why we didn’t in the first place.”

“And that guy who just made off with the scroll and staff?” added Zanri.

“Guess we hope Firespear or the monk know the answer to that as well.”

During the conversation the three had their backs to the unconscious Lili. As she slowly woke up, she noticed no one was paying attention to her predicament. To be informed as to what was happening, Lili walked up to Ekla.

Now Ekla didn’t mean it this way but when he saw Lili walk up he said ‘Oh, she’s alive’ maybe a little to depressed sounding. Maybe he was just tired or maybe he was just upset of losing the staff and scroll but Lili took it as disappointment. So obviously she whapped him on the head and chased after him.

So this chapter once again ends with Lili chasing Ekla into the sunrise.

------------------------------------------

[Evangelion999]

Good chapter...very funny.

[Radical Ed]

Time to work, I suppose...
__________________________________________________ _____________________
Ekla stepped around a tree, and Lili ran past him, blind with anger. Suddenly she readied a spell, and Ekla shuddered thinking of what might be coming. She turned around and released the spell, and he realized that she had been trying to locate him. She ran at him, but suddenly his eyes went wide.

Lili turned around, and Tironi and Zanri ran up beside them. A huge plume of smoke was coming from the direction of the temple. The group ran to see what had happened.

They reached the clearing, and Lili dropped to her knees. The castle was in ruins, with bright fires covering the outer walls. The inner walls were all but annihilated. Zanriwalked next to her, and knelt down, his hand on her shoulder. "It's gone... But what happened-"

Lili shot up from where she'd knelt. "Look closely at the fires!" The group peered at the fires, and they realized that they were a bright green. "The wizard could easily have covered his tracks... This is a warning. Someone must have sent him to stop us..." She turned to Ekla and started to sneer at him. He shuddered and started back away, but she screamed, "What did you get us into!"

Ekla pulled Tironi in front of him, but Tironi lifted him over his head and threw him at the ground before Lili. "We only came for the sword, as Firespear had told us..." Tironi said.

"Who is Firespear?" Zanri asked as he held back Lili, afraid she'd tear into Ekla like a meal after a week of starving.

"He's a dragon I... We met in our village. Right, Tironi?"

"Yes."

"You had a dragon at your village? Wow... A dragon protector. Few villages have those without master wizards..." Lili lifted her hand to her chin in thought. "Wait a second, do you have a master wizard?"

Ekla burst into laughter, and Tironi clamped his hand over his friend's mouth as he elaborated the point. "No, we have no master wizards. If we had, we would have lost very few of our young men to the cruel beast. But he has promised to aid us-"

Lili stopped for a moment, and Zanri took his hand from her. Suddenly she leapt out, and Ekla ran screaming, Tironi turned to watch the running game start again, but Lili knocked him over. "You idiot! I'd expect Ekla to do something like that, but how could you? You left a dragon to destroy your village!"

He crawled out from underneath her and held her back. "You don't understand... Ekla said that-"

"You trusted him? What kind of idiot are you?"

Ekla dropped to the ground laughing at Tironi's situation, but Zanri cast a mute spell on him. He stood up to yell at him, but he couldn't get a word in. Lili stopped attacking Tironi, walked up to Ekla, and started to have a one-sided yell at him. Suddenly she lost her voice too. The monk stepped out of the forest. "I managed to survive, and I heard your voices..." He looked at them, and said, "Oh, it's you again! You're still alive?"

Zanri walked up to him. "What do you mean?"

The monk removed the spells, since Lili and Ekla had calmed down, and he told them to follow him to the ruins. "They declared that those giving aid to you would be attacked. And that a dragon was your leader, so they would find it, as well..."

[The Real Cyan]

Very cool but a little short....jk
:lol:

Well it looks like it's your turn Shen. :)

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Enter Dan! The geometry-jujitsu master! Lol, the chapters were short, but at least they were good. Now Shen gets to introduce the main villian!

[Android21]

Something about waiting for buses seems to come to mind here, hmm weird.

Anyway, great chapters from both of you, poor.....Tironi! :o Hehe, funny, and nice bringing the castle and dragon back into play :)

[Killua_Kun]

Beyond the horizons of the Castle where Ekla and his friends went to seek the mighty sword there lies a castle that was ruined, smelly and so unattended. The plants were all torn apart and in there lived an ancient creature who was so wicked, evil and ugly.

"Hmmmm, It seems the narrator had also turned against me. Be well or I shall burn you down!"

Let's do that again. Beyond the horizons of the Caste where Ekla and his ugly friends went to seek the mighty sword there lies another castle that was the home of the ancient creatures of this land. It was a mighty fortress and on its walla were the memories of great years of endless battle and evil doings.

"That's better!"

As he was gratified with that an emissary came and knelt before him.

"My lord there is a terrible news that I must report"

"What is it?"

"It seems that the old Legend of Salvation had once again risen and is heard to be being fulfilled in the village far south of here," the emissary said.

Just as he was about to stand up in anger a creature which looks like a Shogun entered the throne room. He was Shin Yung San, the last known Rurouni of his time. He was one of the greatest swordsman ever and was thought to have died at the fall of the Second Era.

"What brings you here Shin?"

"My Lord, the sword had been found and it is in dangerous hands!"

"What sword?" the Lord asked.

"The Sword that can bring our downfall my Lord. The sword that had killed your brethren long time before I had served you and long ago when this kingdom is still standing!"

The emissarry barged into the conversation, "Lord Xius, what shall we do?"

"The Emperor should know this or else his hold over this land shall perish!"

"But you say the Emperor is in a long meditations deep in the mountains of Stromgard, how will we contact him?" the emissary asked

"We shall travel there. Begin for a journey towards Stromgard but first I want you Shin to visit this Ekla and tell him to stop this non-sense of he will suffer our wrath," Xius ordered.

"It shall be done Lord Xius," and with that Shin disappeared and using his teleportation he teleported infront of the monk that is with Ekla and his comrades. The monk was astounded bu the sudden appearance of the man.

As Shin walked towards them his eyes was glaring red, his body was shining as if an aura was deep within him. All their hearts seem to have stopped for they had never seen such a creature with evilish looks before then all of a suddent they laughed.

"Why are you lauging you fools! Is it not normal for such a creature like me to....to....drop to the ground and fall because of this damn rocks!"

They were again brought to silence and then Ekla spoked, "Did you not drink milk when you were young?"

"What the!!!"

Lili then spoke, "Well he was well fed but he has a terible sore eyes. Look at his eyes!"

Shin was angered greatly by this insult. "Let me tell you all including you monk to stop this useless quest of yours and give us back the sword or else..."

Ekla spoked, "you will give as popcorns and cheeze!"

"No!"

Lili thought of something, "marsmallows and candy cane!"

"No!"

Zanri spoked at last, "I know you will give us your shirt. You have a nice shirt after all!"

"No! Will you all shut up and listen to me after all this chapter is about the villains so I shall speak and have more airing time in here!"

All nodded and agreed to what Shin said, "Then what will happen to us if we do not adhere to what you and whoever sent you here?" the monk asked.

"You will pay dearly including all your loveones. They will suffer greatly and besides you dont want the wrath of the ancients do you?"

Ekla was confused, "Ancients, what ancients?"

Then the monk spoked, "Long before about two hundred years ago there was a war in this land where every swordsman had choosen which side to fight for. The righteous Kain or the ruthless Kanagawa. But surprisingly because of promise of great power and richness many swordsman had fighted for Kanagawa and he had taken over the land. it was only recently when he died that order seem to had been restored but way back then when Kanagawa rules this land there was great suffering, pain and outcry for justice and now they are threatening to return that time."

"Very well said monk but now I have warned you and what will be your answer?" Shin asked.

Ekla stood forward and answered Shin's question right in his face, "We shall not be hindered by the likes of you!"

Shin laughed furiously and said, "We will see. I would have liked to see all of you slain but I will pass it for now for I shall return your ungratefullness to my master.

Meanwhile Xius and the emissary had began their travel to meet the Emperor and then Shin arrived with the news of Ekla and his party not giving the sword and refusing to stop their quest.

"We will see...we will see. It is not long before we reach Stromgard and then we will know what the master will tell us!"

It took them three days to reach the mountain peak. Countless rains and snow had hindred their path and now they are thres in front of a huge man about 7 foot 5 inches tall, he have two great swords, his eyes were golden and his hair was blue, he had the body of an ox and the smile of a devil.

"What brings you here?" the Emperor asked.

"Emperor Saiga we have come to inform you that a group of adventurers seems to be heading towards what the Legend is telling and if that is true this can mean the end of our existence!" Xius said.

Saiga's eyes turned from gold to furious red and exclaimed to all of them, "Don't you know I have many spies out there! I already know that! Now what I want you all to do is kill them and kill them quick!"

The three exclaimed in unison, "It shall be done!"

------------------- END --------------------------

OFF TOPIC : The villains can now be mannipulatted and used by other authors :)

[Android21]

Gasp, the villains can see us, the narrators, and see that they are in a chapter *Trembles in fear*

Strange that a sworsman could teleport, but the lord and an emissiary had to trek on a long hard journey ^_^

Anyway, nice chapter, gives the story a new and needed direction.

Well, next chapter should be up Friday afternoon (US)

[The Real Cyan]

Great. I can't wait.

Yeah you can really see the different writing styles of everyone.

Well I guess you should decide who is to write next huh Shen. :wink:

[Android21]

Caution: A soap opera was viewed just before writing a portion of this story, which is why.....*ahem*.....I'll be quiet



Chapter 11: A Canine Encounter

Lord Xius, the emissiary and Shin began their long trek back, they knew not to take up the time of the emperor longer than was needed.

"My lord," started Shin, "I shall take care of this Ekla kid as best as I know, a sword duel to the death!"

"No no, I think that is quite unneccessary, whilst that legendary sword is a great threat to us, from what you have told me, it appears this holder of the sword is nothing but a foolish child. There is no need to send a shogun to do a....dog's job."

"A...A dog?!"

"Yes, I gave orders to one of the emperor's men, the trap has been sprung." Xius cackled at this remark, as an evil one does.

"But I thought the emperor wanted us to kill them quick?"

"Hmm, perhaps if I show you this crystal ball..."

"Ahhh, of course, a warrior has a great advantage if he observes his opponent before a battle. To send a top warrior into battle would be foolish, for if he loses, no-one will feel capable of beating this opponent, who we cannot underestimate." The shogun replied trying to impress Lord Xius.

"....Yes, yes precisely, and besides I want to watch something entertaining during this long trek back. The emissiary will keep a close eye on things, whilst we look into the ball...." An image appeared of a miniature poodle and Shin pondered at how this dog could equal the demise of the four warriors.

------

It was another fine day for the four adventurers, funny how it never seemed to rain for them. They had just finished a hearty meal kindly given to them by the monk, and had been discussing Shin and what a weirdo he was. The monk had drawn a map of the location of the ruins, and claimed it would be safer for him to meet them there, rather than travel alongside them. He had since left, leaving the four clueless as to what the significance of the ruins were.

Tironi was in a very excited mood, "Wooo, my shield makes me invincible, I am indestructable, indestructable I tell you!" The mood caught on, and soon everyone was in high spirits. To add to their delight, a dog joined in yapping and running around them, jumping up and down.

"Wow, I wonder he came from." Zanri said out loud. The dog ran in between them and stopped at Lili and started sniffing her.

"Heh, it probably can smell that new type of food we ate earlier, sausages." Lili remarked.

The dog continued to sniff. Sniff sniff, sniff sniff.

"Well it sure smells something," Ekla added ".....oops, I didn't mean that you smell or nothing..."

Lili's eyes narrowed, and Ekla knew that it was his cue to run. 'Why does this always happen to me' thought Ekla as he ran for his life with Lili in hot pursuit and a dog yapping close behind. He then planted his foot into a mole tunnel, and fell face first onto the ground. He had just turned over to see that Lili had made the same mistake, her foot had planted into the mole hill, and she went flying forward landing right on top of Ekla! There was a long pause as they looked into each others eyes........and then they noticed Tironi and Zanri catching up to them.

"And here I thought you were going to kill me" laughed Ekla. Lili turned a bright red at this and briskly jumped onto her feet, then from out of nowhere she suddenly kicked him in the mid-section. "Yow!" responed Ekla as he got off of the ground.

Tironi ran up to him all excited and elbowed him the chest, "I saw what happened, get in there Ekla!"

"Err, I don't know what you mean, nothing happened you doofus."He quickly changed the subject. "Hey, I think that dog wants us to follow him."

"Your right Ekla!" shouted Zanri, trying to draw attention to himself. He hadn't really felt a part of the group since they had formed, everyone else seemed to get all the action and excitement whilst he was cast into the shadows. "You stay here, I'll follow him!"

"Err Zanri!" Tironi called, "I thought we were going to the ruins!" but it was too late, Zanri was too far to be heard.
'Alright, my first piece of action!' thought the enthusiastic Zanri, as he chased the miniature dog across the field.

------

The sun began to glimmer in the sky as it approached the horizon, Zanri had ran through three fields now trying to keep up with the dog. The grass was long and untouched, making it difficult for him to follow, but for some reason he just couldn't give up, he was just too curious to see where the dog was leading him. The terrain started to become more rugged, some trees of peculiar shapes came into view, and the little dog ran upto them and stopped at the very edge.

"What is it boy, what have you found!" He edged slowly but surely to the trees, and then a chill went down his spine, it felt like he was being watched, and indeed he was. There in the trees were hundreds of glowing red dots. Zanri suddenly realized what they were...eyes, eyes of twisted shapes, glaring, glimmering in the last of the sunlight. "Me wants to turn back now..." he muttered to himself.

A huge growling sound came from within the trees, and then a number of other growls occured. "Oh crud, what have I gotten myself into." The eyes began to sway from side to side, they were moving. A few began to appear, and Zanri realized what they were, pirahna poodles! "Gotta think of a spell, gotta think of something, if only I had that staff, ermm erm." Time had ran out, he was too late, the savage poodles were approaching him too fast for him to be able to chant anything. He dropped to his knees in defeat and accepted his death. He felt a huge shadow loom over him, no doubt the leader of the pack. He opened his eyes one last time and saw a 5 foot beast standing over him with a ghastly face. No wait, that was no beast, it was Ekla, with his new Sword of Talamar. It did not take long for him to overpower the majority of poodles whilst Tironi was shielding Zanri. Then Lili created a tornado, flinging the remaining few up into the air where they fell towards their death.

"But how did you know where I was?" asked a puzzled Zanri.

"Simple, you left a trail in the long grass." Tironi replied

As Zanri turned around to look at the trail of trodden grass he noticed the original poodle escaping off into the distance. He had a feeling that the dog was heading back home to his master, that it would lead them to the cause of all their troubles, but he wasn't about to find out if he was right. He watched the dog disappear, and a smile crept onto his face.

[Evangelion999]

AAAAAAAAAHHH! POODLES!!!!

[The Real Cyan]

huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........

<Cyan shakes head in defeat>

I made them lose the scroll so Ekla couldn't use the full power just yet.
I did it so he wouldn't be invincable for most of the story.
Was kind of hoping that he would get it back near the final battle or whatever...

Oh well if you guys want to change it that's fine...

If you do I just have to change a few things in my previous chapter.
Just let me know if you do....


Well anywho....

Great chapter, liked the negected Zanri looking for action, and finding poodles! hehehehehe.....

Well who's next then?

[Android21]

Oops, the scroll :oops: I forgot all about it, seemed so long ago since it was mentioned being 3 chapters back, though it was only 2 days ago. 8O

Anyhow, I edited out Eklas transformation (a mere change of 6 words), not like the poodles were a formidable opponent ^_^

[Killua_Kun]

Well first of all that was another good chapter Android. Now as for those who will write I wanted to know who else is writing this fic so that we can assign the chapters properly?

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Shen, Android great chapters! I guess this whole thing has turned into a medieval comedy or something. Who started the comedy? Wasn't it Eva? Darn it! We almost had a "serious" fic going. Though I'd like to point something out:

shouted Zanri, trying to draw attention to himself. He hadn't really felt a part of the group since they had formed, everyone else seemed to get all the action and excitement whilst he was cast into the shadows
Zanri got action in my chapter (see the armor hall scene)

[Killua_Kun]

Well I just blend it with the light weight of the story I do not want to make it all so serious but then again I think the comedy is being so much part of it...hmmmmm we should put more life and character into it...so who's next let me see... Ok

Chapter 12 : Paranoid_Janitor
Chapter 13 : Radical_Ed (Are you still writing?)
Chapter 14 : Evangelion999 (hope all is fine now)
Chapter 15 : The_Real_Cyan
Chapter 16: Killua_Kun
Chapter 17 : Android_21

and the process is repeated ....except for unexpected circumstances and requests :)

[The Real Cyan]

I don't remember who started the comic part of the story, think it was Eva then I guess I lead it even further.

Well anywhoo.... Can't wait to see the next chapter PJ.

[Android21]

Heh, putting PJ on the spot like that, evil :P

I didn't even realise the comedy coming into a fic, it was a subtle change across the chapters, though yeah, blame Eva for starting it hehehe. Comedy sounds good to me, I wonder if it can ever revert back though :?

[Radical Ed]

Don't worry, I refuse to abandon this thing. It makes for great bragging rights. ^_^ Anyway, I can only post on weekends, like I said, so don't expect me to be frequent, just to be here. But you can count on me.

[The Real Cyan]

Of course it can revert back.
All great comic stories go through a cycle. Serious opening, comic filled center, serious ending, comic/serious closing.

Wait, "comic filled center" sounds yummy like jelly filled donuts. :D

Well, anyway, we can always revert back when we want to. We just need to all agree when.

[Killua_Kun]

Well can't wait for the next chapter.....I wonder what twists and turns will happen next....hmmmmm is there no other who wanted to review our joint fan fic....

[Paranoid_Janitor]

It's rather short, but its getting late so I couldn't find much else to write. I'll edit it if anyone disagrees with it.
Here it is: chapter 12!


The ruins of the castle weren’t much help. Dan got his supplies from the ruins of his geometry classroom but that was about it.
“Since we don’t have the staff, we can’t return to our master until we get it back.” Lili said.
“Then off to find Firespear!” Tironi said while pointing in the general direction of the village.
But they had gone no more than two clicks when they were ambushed by a group of bandits (I’m talking a group of 5 bandits).
“Give us your gold if you value your life,” said the leader of the group.
Before anyone could react though, a metal triangle (a 45-45-90 triangle to be precise) had flown into his chest and cut him deep. Ekla looked back to see who had thrown it, and there was Dan, standing with eight more at the ready inside a side of his robes. The bandit leader fell to the ground, dead. The rest of the bandits charged at Dan, who seemed to be confident.
“Should we let him handle this one?” Lili asked Ekla.
“Let’s see what he’s got,” said Tironi.
Dan pulled out a metal parabola and flung it at the closest bandit. The parabola had been sharpened and it sliced his head off easily and sailed out of sight. The other three bandits spread out to avoid being hit, but that didn’t slow Dan down, Dan rushed at the bandit to his left and smited the poor soul with a thick geometry book. His next victim was no luckier; Dan rushed up to him with incredible speed and had his hands on the bandit’s head before he knew it.
“Perpendicular neck snap!” Dan yelled as he turned the man’s head viciously to the side. The last bandit was upon him, but to everyone’s surprise (except Dan’s) the parabola returned and killed the last bandit.
“That was easy,” said Dan as everyone else just stared at him as he collected his geometric weaponry, “extra credit to whoever can prove that these four bandits form an isosceles trapezoid”
The five arrived at a town that night, the only inn was the paranoid pony, so they had to stay there.
“Didn’t we make a vow not to stay at this place again?” asked Zanri as the five walked through the door.
The little girl that had been in the first paranoid pony was at the desk. There were no other inns, as the paranoid pony had a monopoly on the inn business.
“Hello again” said the girl, “how many nights will you be staying?”
“Just one, we’ve never really had the chance to stay longer anyway” said Lili.
“Okay, follow me,” said the girl pulling a key off of the rack behind her.
They were given two rooms; Lili had the misfortune to be paired with Ekla, as the others were in the room next door.
“Don’t try anything funny Ekla,” said Lili pointing a finger at him.
“Why would I WANT to try anything with you?” Ekla responded looking her over.
Lili kicked him into the wall. “Don’t even suggest that!” she yelled.
“What did I do?” Ekla asked.
“That was for any dirty, nasty, unclean thoughts that you may have had.” Lili said.
The night passed with almost no hazards, except a fight over who got the covers, who got what side of the bed, who got the lumpy pillow, what am I saying? There was way too much fighting, they should have just gotten a third room.
The next day they arrived at Ekla’s hometown at around noon, but something was different about the village, the people seemed to be worried about something. But they soon saw the army of dragons on the mountain to the east of the village and at the front of them was Firespear. Firespear flew down to Ekla and said “they are eagerly awaiting to serve the hero of the south, they are your army now. But I sense that the north castle has yet to be taken, and the other legendary sword, the one of the north hero, has not returned to him. And I also see that you may find some assistance if you travel east. There is a tale of another continent where man is not present. The inhabitants are of another race. There you may find some more followers.”
“Thank you Firespear” Ekla said as he motioned for a dragon to come down to him, “will you give us a ride east?” he asked the other dragon.
“Of course my lord, I will take you to the edge of the earth if you wish it so” said the dragon

© 2002

[Android21]

I'm surprised they had geometry books in those days, possible I guess ^^

Anyway, neat chapter, somehow I knew the Paranoid Pony would make an appearance :P At least that one didn't burn down.

Guess its over to Radical Ed for a weekend chapter :)

[Evangelion999]

OF course they had geometrey!

[The Real Cyan]

Great chapter PJ.
At least that inn didn't burn down.... didn't want too much of a running gag...then again we could always change it.

Well anyhoo, fine by me if they have geometry... just so long as I don't have to study it. :D

[Killua_Kun]

Another great chapter...well the group seem very peaceful don't they :) Congrats!!!

[Radical Ed]

Sorry, I can't get one up today (Friday), but I will tomorrow. I haven't read a chappie since the last one I posted, I have to study physics and Precalc, and the list goes ever on... But I'll find time to procrastinate long enough to write this weekend. Thanks.

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Ok Ed! Chapter tomorrow! And unless you've been updating sword of vengence without me knowing, I win our little bet (the one about you updating daily, but then again you could be updating without me knowing) or you could be finished and I may not know it! Anyway it's nice to see you on here again after what seems like such a long time.

[Radical Ed]

Reading about a miniature poodle, listening to "Ask DNA". That's gotta be something to remember... Great chappies, folks. Looks like I actually have to make a choice instead of directing the place of the next person's chappie. Darn. Also, PJ, I'll get to finishing reading SE soon, it's a cool fic. Time to bring you back to my sobre little style...
__________________________________________________ _____________________
Chapter 13: A chappie with a title! From me! (Wait, does that count? ^_^)

A group of dragons landed along the edge of the town, ready to carry the warriors to their destination. Ekla tried to figure out why the hero of the north hadn't grabbed his sword yet, and why it might be a bad thing. Suddenly he got a migraine, and collapsed to the ground.

Tironi walked up to him. "Did you try to figure out if there'll be enough food in the world to supply you till the end of your days again?"

Ekla looked up at him. "Why does it matter if the hero of the north has his sword yet? Wouldn't we want to have some sort of advantage?"

Tironi raised his hand to his chin and tried to figure this out. He lowered his hand, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Who knows?"

The group of travelers walked to the dragons, and asked Firespear how this was a problem. "The northern hero is your opposite. If he has not gotten his sword, the power of the world is unbalanced. And something or someone may be trying to cause this, not desiring for the prophecy to come true."

"We may find that person if we go east."

"Yes."

"Then east it is!" The group got on a dragon each, Ekla on Firespear. They rode the dragons for miles, each trying to figure out what may be happening. Suddenly Firespear swept back. "What happened?"

"I sense a powerfuol magical force here. I doubt that the magician behind this would truly desire that we pass."

"You're a dragon! You have nothing to fear!"

Firepsear laughed. "I'm a dragon, so I have little to fear. Powerful mages are at the top of my run away list. I think that we should take another path."

Ekla thought to himself, then announced, "You find another path around. We must find something about the powerful sources here. If the one trying to ruin our quest resides in this area, and we can discover some weakness, maybe we'll have an advantage later."

The dragons brought them to earth, and left them to their own ground-based path. Looking at the rest of his group, Ekla realized that they weren't happy with his idea. Lili walked up to him. "What made you tell them to bring us here?"

Ekla realized that he was still the only one who spoke with the dragons. "A powerful source of magic hindered their travels. I decided we should find out about it."

"And if the mage is too powerful?"

"I really didn't think of that..."

And so, another chapter ends with Lili chasing Ekla into the horizon.
-----End of Chappie 13-----
I'm still writing, so don't cut me out. Thanks.

[Android21]

Nice chapter Ed, somehow I don't think they should have landed there, I mean the dragons wouldn't stay! :o

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Cool chapter Ed, and once again it's nice to see you active on the forums again. The chapter was a little short, but that's ok. Next up is Evangelion999!

[The Real Cyan]

Cool chappie Ed though going around would make more sense.
Ah oh well, action awaits I guess.
Can't wait to see what happens next Eva!

[Killua_Kun]

Great chapter Ed...hehehehe Ekla was really a chaser..hehehehe...can't wait to read the next chap... :twisted:

[The Real Cyan]

Well seems like Eva's been busy.

If you can Eva drop a post saying if you'd rather have someone else pick up this chapter or reassure us you still have it.

[Evangelion999]

Soory for the long wait but due to time consratints I can no longer write this chapter.

[Android21]

Time restraints my foot! You spent a huge chunk of the past few days posting, no wait, more like spamming all over the boards.....and if I'm mistaken about it being spam, then I wish you and your soul mate Shinji all the best.

[Evangelion999]

Whoah 21, I post at school and write fics at home but all my home time has been taken up by band or driver's ed the last few weeks so lay off and don't flame like that.

[Killua_Kun]

PEACE PEOPLE

Well who's gonna be writing then....To tell you the truth people after what I have found out in the chat room this morning about all the bad mouth against me and my org I am kinda disappointed to be here....it seems like the old anet..despite the fact of me not talking about anything else and me being here for the sake of this fanfic only...people cant seem to bury the hatchet...

Anyway to them have fun and suit yourself!

------ Anyway who's the next writer? ------------

[The Real Cyan]

Well seeing since I was the next one who was supposed to go after Eva, I'll go ahead and write this chapter. I'll try to have it done around Saturday or so, maybe tommarrow if I'm lucky.

Well check in soon the next chappie approaches! :D

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Ok Cyan, write away. Whilst I find some way for eva to write, even if he has to >insert gasp of pure horror mixed with disgust here< write by hand!

[Sheikah_]

Hum---~~! It's been around for awhile now, hasn't it? Well, I might have to go and read it, and then, if I'd want to, ask if I could submit an upcoming chapter.

[Killua_Kun]

Chapter 14 : The_Real_Cyan
Chapter 15 : Killua_Kun
Chapter 16: Android_21
Chapter 17 : Sheikah_ (welcome to the Joint Fanfic :) )
Chapter 18 : Paranoid_Janitor
Chapter 19 : Radical_Ed
Chapter 20 : Evangelion999

a :) and the process is repeated ....except for unexpected circumstances and requests

Hoping that the new writer arrangement is okey to all concerned...Can't wait for the next chapter and my turn to write :)

[Android21]

Another writer, cool, and sorry eva, I was in a real bad mood back then cos of other reasons, and took it out on you...

Well I like the order, looks like good timing for when #16 comes around, and as Shen said, can't wait til the next chapter :)

[The Real Cyan]

After a wait that has lasted for far too long now…….
THE JOINT FANFIC CONTINUES!!!!!!!!!!!!
-------------------------------------------
Chapter…… (What number were we on again……oh yeah)
Chapter 14:

After chasing Ekla around the forest for about an hour, (with Tironi and Zanri right behind her no less), Lili decided to stop running and not say anything to Ekla. So once Tironi and Zanri caught up with her they noticed that Ekla was nowhere to be seen.

“Lili?” gasped Zanri who was trying to catch his breath, “Where is Ekla?”

Looking up she replied, “Dunno. I stopped but he kept going in that direction.”

Lili was pointing at a path that lead deeper into the forest.

“Ummm…. That doesn’t look to welcoming…” commented Zanri who was looking at some very creepy decorations adoring the path’s entrance.

“What do you mean?” asked Tironi who decided to speak once he got his breathing back to normal.

A very fearful Zanri replied with, “I mean those bones and torches over there.”

Sure enough, the path was lit only by torches and the bones of ancient travelers. The light from the torches only showed about the first five meters of the path then dimmed to a pitch black.

“And you think Ekla went in there Lili?” Zanri asked.

“Well you have to consider who was chasing him. He probably took the less frightening of the two…crap” Tironi said just before he took of in the direction of the path.

-------------------------------------------------
A little slow at first, when Ekla finally realized that Lili had stopped chasing him he was already deep within the woods. Taking a look around he was met face to face with the evil grin of a skeleton.

“AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”

Jumping back, Ekla landed right into a holly bush but was too startled to feel the points of the leaves stick into his skin. Once he realized the skeleton wasn’t moving he leaped out of the bush.

“Heh, it’s only the marking the spot of some poor traveler’s grisly death. Nothing to worry about.”

The skeleton was impaled upon a tree by a sword. Ekla noted that he must have been killed by this sword many years previous. Deciding to remove the needles from his skin he turned his back to the bones and started plucking.

What he couldn’t see was the mysterious shadow form around the skeleton. Nor could he see a bony hand circle the sword and free itself from the tree.

-------------------------------------------
Tironi was indeed lucky. Noticing the path weaved as it went down a steep hill he sat on his shield and used it as a sled to quickly escape Lili. Keeping with the path, he soon spotted Ekla.

“WOO HOO!!!!!!!” Tironi yelled as he came sledding down.

Turning around to see what was making so much noise, Ekla was very much surprised to see the skeleton advancing toward him with Tironi speeding toward it. At first Ekla just kind of made a groan sound followed by a very inhuman scream as he ran down the path.

---------------------------------------------------
Realizing she couldn’t catch up with Tironi now, Lili waited for Zanri to catch up. But before he reached her a horrible screech filled the air.

“What the heck was that?” Lili exclaimed to Zanri as he finally reached her.

“I don’t know but it came from further down trail. Think we should check it out, it may have been Ekla?”

“Yeah….let’s go.”

------------------------------------------------------
Before Ekla got too far he noticed strange noises coming from the area in front of him. Then bright red eyes followed by the forms of more undead creatures filled the forest.

Skidding to a halt, Tironi sat on his shield dumbstruck as he and Ekla were surrounded by hundreds of these creatures. Thinking to himself, Tironi decided that maybe since his shield lead him to this it wasn’t as lucky as he thought.
________________________________________________

Well thar she blows, and if it really does blow just let me know. Any criticism would be appreciated.

[Paranoid_Janitor]

That was a little short, but at least it got the fic moving again. Now will the next writer please post the next chapter (that means you Shen).

[Android21]

Heh, nice chapter, guess the shield cursed him when he used it as a sled ^^

[Radical Ed]

Kewl chappie, Cyan. And anyone reading and not posting, I hope I speak for everyone when I say feel free to comment and ask to join, I'd definitely like to see how other writers further the storyline. ^_^ Also, on a more sobre note, Killua, K-i-l-l-u-a, whatever happened on the last forum I believe all of us pilgrims decided to forgive and forget. I would prefer to preserve happier memories there, and I hope others will. And thanks for coming and continuing to moderate our fic.

[Killua_Kun]

Chapter 15

The undead creatures become more apparent as they come closer to Tironi and Ekla, then a Knight in a skeleton like horse rode in front of them and began talking.

"I am Arthas!", then the paladin paused and thought on his mind, "Why am I on this fanfic....last time I remember I was in..."

Then the paladin recovered and continued, "I am a Death Knight summoned by the Emperor to go after you. As I was told Shin and his followers are after you and you seem to have evade them quite good!"

Tironi stood up with his weapon on his hand and that shield guarding him and Ekla against those miniond as he bagan to spoke, "What do you need of us?"

"Is that a question to be answered. I have answered that already I want to kill you for the Emperor!"

"But why?" Ekla added.

"The Emperor had great fears of you Ekla, of you ruining his plans. But I should not go further into that. You must all die now!"

The Death Knight raising his sword and a coil came out of that sword. It was about to hit Ekla but Tironi was immediate in taking the coil. Tironi immediately fall to the ground. The shocked Ekla caught Tironi in his arms.

"Why did you do that you damn ass?"

"For a friend I guess?" Tironi answered with tears flowing in his eyes.

"But that was unnecessary!"

"It was for a good friend such as you!"

As they were conversing the minions began to tremble and began to shed a tear. (Do minions shed tears...perhaps this is a new discovery...a new species...hahahahahaha!).

"Shut up and continue the story!"

Yes! Where was I ohhh yes....Tironi's eyes began to grow heavy and as it grow heavy he had fainter. Ekla stood up there all alone ready to take all the minions by his hands but it was too late cause a minion's sleep arrow caught him in the arm and he went to sleep.

---------------------

As Zanri and Lili went further down trail they saw a disturbed arrangement of leaves from the forest floor and not far from them they have heard noises of creatures walking away from them.

"What had happened here it seemed that they had been here and had encountered some sort of resistance" Lili said.

"Ofcourse they have, that was my idea too" Zanri agreed and then continued, "We must follow those footsteps!"

The two followed the foortsteps and sounds of the creatures moving away from them.

*cough* Sorry about that now continue with the story.

The minions have halted and had camped for awhile. Lili and Zanri had finally reached them and they hid in the thick trees to onlook the army of undead creatures. And in there they saw Ekla and Tironi encaged separately.

"Now what should we do?" Lili asked Zanri.

"Let us wait for them to sleep and then let us snatch the two back!"

"That was a good idea!" Lili agreed.

So the two waited and waited but the minions cant seem to sleep. Instead of the minions sleeping, the two fell into a deep sleep. The next day when they woke up they was startled to see that the creatures encamped there was gone.

Lili woke up Zanri, "Darn! wake up Zanri we had lost them!"

"Lost them! What the...."

Then they were so discontented about what happened each other blamed for being so irresponsible and falling asleep but at the middle of that conversation, a creature which looks like a Shogun was in front of them.

"Finally we had catch up with you. Let me introduce myself, I am Shin Yung San and this is Lord Xius!" he pointed out to a man with a long sword at his back.

"Greetings foolish mortals..we are here to destroy you!"

=====================
Hope this chapter blends in :)
=====================

[The Real Cyan]

Other than the tenses of a few words and some other errors it was a pretty good chapter.

[Android21]

Ahh, the plot thickens, easy to follow on from to write Chapter 16, I'll post it in a few days, though its complete already 8)

Good work Shen!

[Killua_Kun]

That chapter was made impromptu so sorry for any erros on grammar and such :)

[Android21]

Chapter 16

"Lili, we can talk about this!" Ekla pleaded, pinned against a tree. "Lets not do anything rash now.....what the...what's that in your hand..........you wouldn't! I'm.......I'm soARIIEEEEE!"

With that, Ekla sprung up off the floor from where he had been sleeping and looked around nervously, "Oh, I'm safe, Lili's not here, woohoo!"

Tironi snickered, "Your right about that bud."

Ekla turned around and saw Tironi, and his eyes widened, for he saw a huge gash had been cut into Tironi's chest. "Oh my God, are you Okay?"

"Yeah, I'll survive, I think it missed the vital stuff." He winced in pain, as a look of seriousness came onto his face. "But thats not what we should worry about, when I awokened, I found that our cages were moving, being pulled by a horse. Then we came to a stop, and two figures came up to us and said something about a dungeon and a powerful mage (Ch 13), after that it was all a blur, but as you can see, we must be in a dungeon, well, at least we are not tied up or anything."

Ekla wiped the sleep from his eyes and examined his surroundings. They were both inside an underground lair, that went on for more than the eye could see, for the room was very gloomy indeed. A few torches attached to the walls were the only source of light. Slime had become encrusted on the walls, but other than that, the room appeared empty. More to the point, the sword and the shield had disappeared too, as had their armor. Ekla pondered why he was even still alive, perhaps it was to be tortured, or perhaps plans had been made to convert the two of them into their own army. What ever the case, things looked very bleak indeed.

------

Meanwhile, a few miles away, Shin chuckled, as success was in their grasp. "Hey, would you mind if we didn't kill the girl Xius, she can do no harm without the others, and plus I could use a new wife, after that little accident."

"Well Ok, just remember that it is not unusual for a wife to live in the same hut you live in."

"I thought she was an intruder....Oh wait, you said yes...Thank you sir, you won't regret it!"

Lord Xius blushed and then suddenly was blown into a boggy swamp. He looked up to see Lili had used some kind of magic and was chasing after Shin.

"Help sir!"

"Like I am in a position to help you out!!!" Xius fumed, as he attempted to trudge his way out of the swamp. He looked up to see Zanri staring down at him. "You know, we may look like bumbling fools, but I am in fact a Lord."

Zanri fell on the floor laughing, as the Lord removed some moss from his hair. As he recovered he looked to see that Xius had gone and an eerie silence fell around him. Things didn't seem all that funny any more, in fact he began to tremble.

"Like I said, I am a Lord!" With that, Lili gave up the chase and both she and Shin whirled their heads round to see Xius standing behind Zanri. A look of shock appeared on their faces as a huge sword was unsheathed, and was swung straightly and smoothly towards Zanri's neck. Suddenly time seemed to be going in slow motion for Lili as she saw the sword inch slowly towards him, she gave a scream, as the sword cut into Zanri's neck, but then it stopped, and Xius and Shin disappeared. Zanri fell to the floor clasping his neck.

Xius shook his head in disbelief as he disappeared through the forest with a puzzled Shin. He saw that he had almost made a fatal error, he had almost killed the son of the powerful mage, Skinto, and on Skinto's home territory as well.

Lili ran up to Zanri and cast a healing spell upon him, a spell that was taught to her by Zanri herself. She was not that good at it yet, but luckliy the wound was not deep, and so Zanri managed to recover back to full health. He thanked Lili, and a while later, they noticed a trail that had been left by a wagon, and they decided to follow it.

[Sheikah_]

I'm supposed to the next one, eh? Can I have a raincheck on that? Like...'til sometime in December? You see, I have the writing of my own fic and beside that taking up my time, I do have other things as well. Life gets in the way.
So I'll see you then?

[The Real Cyan]

That's alright Sheikah.... Hopefully you'll decide to join when you're ready...

Anyway, awsome chapter A21!!
And it seems each adeventure fiction can't be without it's share of close calls.

[Killua_Kun]

Nice chapter Android....well the Villains are fools hehehe but we should develop a more strong plot I think hehehe....It's ok Sheikah..can't wait to see you write a chapter..

[Android21]

Nice chapter Android....well the Villains are fools hehehe but we should develop a more strong plot

That chapter is not developing a strong plot???

[Killua_Kun]

Can I kindly rephrase that I mean the villain needs to be stronger and not that stupid hehehehe....we need a more vicious and fearful villain..:) The chapter was really great bro...sorry if my first comment offends you, it was misunderstood.

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Since Sheikah put his chapter off, is it my turn?

[Killua_Kun]

As a basic rule of our Join Fanfic when the current writer turns down the current chapter the next writer will do the said chapter.. :) let's implement that from now on..

[Paranoid_Janitor]

I can't make this chapter, I've got one of my own to do, plus I'm starting another one. Will the next writer please stand up.

[The Real Cyan]

Well that means you Ed.

We're all really anxious to see what you come up with.

[Radical Ed]

Hai, si, yeah, I'll do it... *ugh* Sorry not to have come by recently... I'm procrastinating everything. But I'd hate to postpone other people's stuff... Wow, I'm tired, and I just read the last two chappies. Skinto? A new charrie, and more fun... We'll see. And I should have the end of the Village of A4 up today, in case you read that... Okay, here goes: (And I hope you all enjoy ^^)
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Chapter 17

Ekla leaned back against the tree and pushed himself against it, trying to stand up. A man, with pale skin that appeared to glow with its own ghostly light, turned to look at him. His clothes hung as rags about him and a rusted sword hung at his side. He waved a few warriors around him to look at Ekla, and they started to laugh. Ekla got himself on his feet, but leaned heavily against the tree. He looked down and noticed that his hands and feet were bound.

He blushed with anger and the warriors broke into laughter. Tironi held back a pained chuckle and said, "They're lucky I don't have my shield..."

"Maybe that's why they're lucky." Tironi leaned over and bit him on the leg. "Ouch! What kind of idiot are you?" He yelled. The warriors only laughed harder.

"You're right! I forgot that I don't know where that thing's been!" The warriors fell down and buckled over laughing at the pair. Suddenly Ekla realized he had a plan. He pulled himself from the tree and fell down onto Tironi's leg. The captain of their guards looked up and saw his prizes might become damaged, and feared for his reward. He composed himself and walked over to them, demanding that they stop. Suddenly Ekla slipped his feet underneath him and jumped out, knocking the captain over.

The captain slid his sword out and swung it violently, and Ekla put his bindings up to catch it. His blow struck through all the cords, but lacked the strength to follow through. Ekla pushed himself away and stood up, ready to fight. The other warriors noticed what was going on, and stood up to defend their captain.

------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Zanri and Lili were making little headway in their hunt for their missing companions. They had continued on the path of the wagon, and had found it overturned in the middle of the roadway not a mile away. Afterwards they hadn't had any idea where to go, so they decided to trudge forward. As they continued, they noticed more and more weeds on the path and soon found themselves utterly lost. Zanri started mubmling to himself.

Lili turned to him and put her hands around his throat. "What do you think you're doing?" She started screaming. "What the hell are you mumbling about?!?"

Zanri started gasping for breath and Lili noticed what she was doing, at least enough to release him. "I forgot just how nice it was to have Ekla around." After getting a cold glare from Lili, he continued, "I was thinking about why I'd left my life to learn magic... I'd had a lot of fortune. Nice as it is to go on adventures, this isn't a pleasant thing right here." He shook his head.

Lili eased her stare, and said, "I know how you feel. I guess I think like that sometimes." Suddenly a smile leapt onto her face. "But you have to admit, there's nothing like killing someone to brighten your day!" She stopped and started looking around, and whispered to Zanri, "Did you hear that?"

"What?" He replied in a quiet tone.

A sound echoed by in the silence, and they turned to their left as a small snap of twigs was made. Suddenly a series of short, harsh wihspers went out, and stopped again. They stared into the growth of trees, half expecting Shin to leap back out at them. They smiled and thought about their short encounter, then drew their weapons and confidently marched into the undergrowth.

Zanri Swept his sword through the trees, and they found a large group standing on the other side of the trees in a clearing. Many of them were carrying supplies, and they realized that this group must have been on the wagon. Zanri called to them, "Where is your leader?" One of them pointed towards the left, and recieved a quick slap, and then they all shrugged their shoulders in synchronization. Zanri and Lili turned to where the captain would be and Zanri's jaw dropped. "Father!"
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I hope that gives the next writer something interesting... Nice places to end for either story, in my opinion. I forgot how fun this is.[/b]

[Android21]

Skinto, Zanri's father, isn't really a new character. Remember the dragons wouldn't land because they felt a mage's power, I just gave the mage a name, if anyone didn't realize that.

Not indicating anything wrong with the chapter, nice job Ed, and I agree, a nice place to end it....now get back to those other fics!....please ^_^

[The Real Cyan]

Nice chapter though it was a bit short. Anyone know who's next?

*leaves to see who's next*

[Killua_Kun]

The next writer will be Evangelion999..great chapter Ed :) nice one to make a new plot....

[Evangelion999]

Ok I'll get caught up on the plot and start writing...i missed the last 2 chapters.

[The Real Cyan]

Boy I miss this fic. Wonder what its fate will be. You need to pass again Eva?

[Evangelion999]

Would it be possible to pass up just two or three chapters...I just got a major English project and all my fic writing is going on hold.

[Killua_Kun]

oki then...I will write the next chapter...so stay tuned I will just review the previous chapters :wink:

[Evangelion999]

I'm really sorry about that...all my fic writing is on hold right now.

[The Real Cyan]

That's okay Eva... I know how it feels to be caught up in a bunch of other assignments. Still doing finals as we speak.

Well we'll be waiting for that chapter Killua_Kun. :D

[Killua_Kun]

Sorry for the delay my pc caught a virus...It will be in by Saturday I pormise :wink:

[Killua_Kun]

I fail to notice that tha transition from Chapter 16 to 17 was rather confusing. Android left the fic as Ekla and his companions in a dungeon and then on the next chapter Radical Ed put them in a forest scene so there is a confusion there, correct me if I am wrong... Now on to my chapter.

CHAPTER 18

Skinto, Zanri's father looked at his father with amusement, he was surprised, happy yet he felt anger springing from deep within him. "Welcome my son, as I can see you have made many friends now!" his father smiled. Zanri did not show his happiness to his father as he replied to his father's sarcastic welcome, "Yes, I indeed made many friends not like you!"

"So my son, came now to throw that in my face?" his father asked. "No I did not father," as he said that Zanri waved to his companions to come over here. Skinto examined all his companions and then his eyes turned red, "There is a traitor among you, someone is not as you know he is!" Lili gaped in awe at what Skinto said, then he can't help but ask, "And who can that be my lord?". "It is not yet time to tell that." Skinto replied and then he continued, "I know you are looking for your friends, and you would be happy that they are with us."

Zanri and Lili both smiled. They never knew that they will find Tironi and Ekla there. They were escorted by Skinto's men to a hat where the two are kept. They jump in enjoyment as they see Tironi and Ekla again. "It was damn good to see you Ekla!" Lili said, then Ekla pinched Lili and said, "I never knew you will miss me." Ekla pause and pointed at a scar on Zanri's neck, "And what was that?" "Oh this is the scar of my supposed death." Zanri replied and they all burst into laughter.

"So how did you escape from captivity" Lili asked. Then Tironi told them the whole story.

"As we are in the forest a group of zombies appeared and it was headed by a Death Knight we could have fight them. He called himself Arthas and was about to kill Ekla but I had rescued him and was hit but now I am healed I guess Skinto did cure me. Anyway I fainted after that and we were brought in a dungeon. We don't know how many days had passed but I think it was not days but hours," his story telling was interrupted as he felt Ekla's hand hit him.

"Let me tell the story..you are not good at telling things!" then Ekla continued, "Few hours after that we heard a pale man talking to Arthas and he said that we should be brought to a man they call Emperor and from there we will be examined. But luckily when we were handed over to the plae man we had passed the same way as before so we knew where to go so we have devised a plan. But anyway that escape plan eventually fled and we have no choice but to fight the 200 men army of that man. And at the middle of the fight, your father as he introduced himself to us rescued us. He was indeed a powerful magician." Ekla finally ended.

"So that's what happened, anyway I now have a hint that we are all to be brought to the one they called Emperor!" Zanri said. "And why did you made such a hint?" Lili asked. "Because me and Lili were also captured by Shin and they too work for that Emperor." "Really?" the puzzled Tironi asked. "Yes indeed!" Zanri said.

Just as they were arguing about Zanri's hint they were all trembled by a sudden shoutinga and commotion outside. As they open the door of the hat they saw fire burning the camp and Skinto's men fighting something they cannot see. Then from behind the hat came Skinto. "Let us hurry we must get out of here!"

"Why father" Zanri asked. "The White Cloaks had appeared!" Skinto replied.

----------------------------------------------------

Again please excuse and forgive any grammatical or typographical error that you may see in this..I hope that the rest will like it. Also I had explained the gap between Chapter 16 and 17. So hope it blends again.

[Evangelion999]

White CLoaks....WTF is this? Wheel of Time....no wait....thats a good thing. Anyways someone drop me a PM after January about a chapter. My english assignment gets turned inn day after break getst out.

[Android21]

Great chapter Shen, nice that you had the gang tell their stories from the last 4 chapters or so, quite a long time has passed by since then!

Funny how the plot goes off in a different direction, than where you (general) think it will go when you write a chapter ^_^

Anyways, I assume it is my turn, well I have already wrote #19 so :p I'll post it on Monday.

[Killua_Kun]

Well I am thinking of formidable enemis and I have thought of the White Cloaks cause I love Wheel of Time..hehehe...can't wait to read your chapter Android :)

[Android21]

Can't say I have heard of Wheel of Time, guess the White Cloaks will be slightly different ^_^

Chapter 19

In a small tower a few miles away, the theme from Queen Beryl's lair in Sailor Moon was being played on some instruments by some Christmas carolers, as Lord Xius sat in a chair looking through a crystal ball.

"Those brats won't escape this time! I'll make certain of it.....Shin! Eliminate those annoying musicians, the noise that they play makes it feel like we're in some kind of fictitious story." As the music was replaced by sounds of deafening screams, Shin's eyes narrowed. "Time to be serious" He said to no one in particular. With that the crystal ball came to life, and showed a swarm of White Cloaked figures in battle.

*Flashback*
Lord Xius is standing up against a wooden tree stump, which is being used as a podium, and he is about to give a speech to an audience, the White Cloaks. It is a large enclosure, undetected deep within the forest. The Lord begins to speak....

"The reason I have gathered you here is of great importance! Here on this island are four people that must be eliminated. No, make that six. A number of these individuals hold great power, power that could destroy us all! It is our duty to help protect our people of the north, and the best way to do that is to eliminate these people whilst they are here on this island. I present to you, the six we seek."

The White Cloaks listened as if hypnotized to his every word, as a crystal ball appeared (again). On the ball, the pictures appeared, Ekla, Tironi, Lili, Zanri, Skinto, and Arthas.

"Yes, Arthas failed to achieve what we will do, and I do not tolerate failure, you hear me! On a small note, I will not be joining you in this mission, and nobody can know that I'm behind this, so ermm yeah dismissed."

The White Cloaks left silently without hesitation.
*End Flashback*

Xius saw five people trying to escape the White Coats in his crystal ball and beamed. "Your outnumbered, outskilled.....and you can't run forever!"

======
======

Zanri and Skinto were running side by side with Tironi and Ekla close behind, with their weapons returned by Skinto. Lili was actually in front, chasing Ekla around had really paid off.

"Tell me, where is the contraption that bought you here?" Skinto asked Zanri.
"Contraption? Well, we travelled on some dragons."
"Dragons!!! I'll slay the beasts with my magical sword if we escape this!"
"But they are actually rather friendly, father"
"......"
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Just keep running!"

Behind them were half of the White Cloaks, the others were fighting it out against Skinto's army. Each of the five glanced back at some point and saw a gruesome sight, Skinto's army was being slaughtered in an array of blood and severed heads. There was no turning back, but where could they go?

"Don't you have some kind of magic we could use to get us off this island, Skinto?" Ekla asked catching up with the two.
"Unfortunately not, I trained so that my powers are used for attacks, not for running away. I never considered an outnumbering by this amount though!" He looked behind, and saw what must have been a thousand Cloaks, that made the area look as white as snow. "Zanri, surely you are a trained mage by now?!"
"Ermmm, I can heal"
"Well that's no use! What about this Milly girl?"
"Its Lili!!" She growled. "And, I can't think of anything either."

The trees around them began to thin, they were approaching a beach, with no place left to run. A scream was heard somewhere behind them and to the right, it was Arthas being struck down.

"It looks like we're going to have to fight!" Ekla stated.
"But we don't stand a chance against that many, if that Death Knight couldn't survive....." Skinto responded.
"My Lucky shield will prevail." Tironi added trying to sound optimistic.
"Hmmm, maybe you have a point!" Skinto stuttered throwing his arms in the air. "Expand that Shield, A raft we'll build!" Tironi suddenly fell over face first, as the shield grew to twenty times its normal size. "I can expand weapons to attack, so this spell wasn't a problem."
"Yeah, great" Tironi muttered. He got up and they pushed the shield into the water.

Everyone climbed onto the shield, and Ekla placed his sword face down into the center of the shield as a mast. Zanri took off his shirt and tied it on to make a sail. Skinto expanded them both, to produce a nice looking sailboat. They all commended themselves on a combined effort, as Lili used her famous blow spell, sailing them off into the sunset.

[Killua_Kun]

Great chapter bro...hehehehe...shield turning to be a ship. And for the first time our heroes run from battle....can't wait to see the next one :lol:

[Killua_Kun]

Paging all the writers of the Join Fanfic is anyone up to write CHAPTER 19...just tell us....this fic is going great!

[Paranoid_Janitor]

I'll take it, give me a day or so and it'll be done.

[Killua_Kun]

Ok..thanks bro..we await the next chapter

[Killua_Kun]

Well paranoid it's been almost a month now since your last reply..well anyone still wanna continue the story..well if you like it will be better for us to write the closing chapters..any opinion?

[Radical Ed]

... I think that this story may still be continued, now that we're reminded of it, but I think that if we don't see any new chapters by March, we may consider closing the thread and considering it a dead story.

[Evangelion999]

I reminded PJ of his chapter...he should be working on it now...but dont let this project fail this far into the writing.

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Yeah, thanks for reminding me Eva. Sorry for the long wait everyone, here's chapter 19!

Chapter 19: the evil wizard WHO?



“Just exactly where are we heading?” Ekla asked to the group of adventurers, “and where’s Dan?” he asked noticing for the first time that the geometry master was gone.
“He said something about finding a ‘golden rectangle’ and then he split from our group” said Lili.
“WHEN WAS THIS?” asked Ekla.
“Oh, sometime in the middle of the night, he said he had a ‘calling’ from one of the triangle gods or some mathematical nonsense” said Tironi, “you weren’t awake”.
“Hey, there’s an island up ahead, should we stop there?” Zanri asked.
“I don’t know, that island looks kinda spooky, and it’s mostly walls,” said Lili.
“Yeah, but there’s a tower in the middle, and the lights are on” said Ekla, “maybe they have some loot… er food”
“Looks kind of like a recluse’s getaway to me” said Skinto, “maybe Bill Gates lives there or something”.
“Who?” the rest of the adventurers asked.
“Nevermind, inside joke” Skinto said.
“It looks like a giant maze,” said Zanri.
“I don’t like it, let’s turn back” said Lili.
“Are you kidding? There’s no telling what we could find in there, they might have even hidden the scroll and staff in there!” said Ekla.
“He’s right, we can’t factor that out,” said Tironi.
“I guess we’ll have a look,” said Lili, “but how do you propose we find our way through that elaborate maze?”
“Can’t you just bust out a destructive spell and blow it up?” said Ekla.
“Can’t,” said Lili.
“Why not?” asked Ekla.
“Stone number five” she said pointing to a small recycle symbol on one of the bricks, “it’s non-recyclable, and we can’t go about trashing stones all over the environment. Even if we wanted too, it’s still indestructible”.
“Oh of all the…” Ekla began, “wait! I think I remember the spell!!!”
“Oh really?” Tironi said raising an eyebrow.
“Great warriors lend me your strength!” Ekla chanted, but instead of blood peanut butter dripped out of the end of his sword and landed pathetically at his feet, “well, that was a bust”.
“Stop your clowning and help me find a way in” said Lili.
“Nyah!” Ekla said sticking his tongue out at Lili.
“You’re going to regret that one” Lili said as she started muttering a hex.
At that moment, Ekla started running along the outside of the wall right past an old man, pushing him into the wall.
“Hey wait!” Dan said, “it’s me!”
“Outta the way!” Lili yelled running past and pushing Dan into the wall again.
Tironi walked up calmly to Dan and helped him up.
“What’re you doing here?” Tironi asked.
“The great geometric gods sent me to find the sacred golden rectangle, it’s located in the center of this maze in the evil wizard Binky’s tower” said Dan.
“Evil wizard BINKY? That doesn’t exactly strike terror in my heart” said Tironi, “what did he do to become evil?”
“Not much” said Dan sarcastically, “except kill half the king’s army single handedly”
“I have heard much of this Binky” Zanri said walking closer, “he is truly a monster”
“This wizard, I know him,” said Skinto.
“WHAT?” said Zanri and Dan.
“He used to be a noble man, he owned his own circus, but one day as he was traveling to another town, he came across an enchanted amulet. He tried it on, and a spirit inside the amulet immediately possessed him, he became extremely powerful and evil at the same time. He raided hundreds of villages and castles, and four years ago disappeared somewhere. He must have picked up the golden rectangle from a geometric shrine somewhere. And I’ve heard that he’s buddy buddy with Xius”
“Yes, the geometric gods warned me not to come here on a Friday night, because every Friday night at the hour of six until six the next morning, lord Xius comes to play bingo,” said Dan.
“And your gods sent you here alone?” said Tironi.
“They said that they’d send help, and here you are,” said Dan, “or maybe they meant their near invincible minions… nah they don’t have that kind of free time”.
At that moment, Ekla and Lili rounded a corner of the maze and rejoined the group of heroes.
“Hey Dan, where’ve you been?” said Ekla.
“I’ll tell you later my boy, right now, we’ve got to get into that maze, it’s already Thursday night!” said Dan, “and if lord Xius finds us here, we’re toast”.
“Let’s go then!” Skinto said.
“Uh, guys? Where’s the entrance?” Ekla asked.
The sun is setting and the clock is ticking as the heroes run around like crazy trying to find a way into the maze to get to the tower where the evil wizard Binky resides…
© 2002-2003

[The Real Cyan]

WOO HOO!

It finally returns... I'll read it all soon. What's the new order gonna be though?

[Android21]

Cool! Each of the 6 has written in this thread in under 24 hours 8O, nice to see everyone is still interested.....and alive ^_^

Neato chapter PJ, I wonder if this is a new beginning, or the beginning of the end :?

[The Real Cyan]

Well don't know what's up...

I guess I'll do chapter 21.... and PJ... Android21 did 19... yours is 20....

I'll try to get chapter 21 up soon... unless any one else has already started...

Also if we could come up with a new order and if Eva still wants to write this fic. We'll just get a list of who's still here going.

[Evangelion999]

I will read it but I dont know if I have enough ficcing left in me for a while to do a chapter....I am ficced out.

[The Real Cyan]

No problem Eva.

I'll take this one then let Ian have a shot at this fic... the slot after Ian seems free so whoever wants it speak up.

[The Real Cyan]

Well sorry for the double post but I have the next chapter ready. Sorry for the wait, I got hung up on school for a bit and got a bit lazy. Anyway here is the chapter...

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Chapter 21

Several hours later and far too many bad jokes behind them the group was beginning to grow tired of wandering lost. Eventually they decided to follow the blind man in a maze trick. They put one hand on a wall and followed that until they would reach the end. Unfortunately they only succeeded in reaching the other end of the maze rather than the center. This particularly angered Lili who characteristically took it out on Ekla.

After following Ekla’s crazed path as he ran from Lili the group found themselves a little closer to their goal. Deciding to take a quick break they found a large enough spot to rest.

“Why do I always have to be the one to be attacked?” Ekla asked.

“Because it’s easy.” smiled Lili who was in a much more cheerful mood. (mood swings? Reminds me of someone on A4… ack! Forget that!)

“Well at least we’re all closer this time.” Zanri stated, “Now how do we get the rest of the way there?”

“I guess we could keep going the way we are now.” Dan added, “What do you think Tironi?”

“Growl!!!”

“You’re always hungry Tironi…” Ekla whined.

“That wasn’t me…” Tironi said a little afraid.

“Huh?” Ekla looked over toward Tironi. He soon saw something everyone else was staring at. A huge minotaur stood ready to attack.

“GROWL!!!”

In a move more out of individual desperation than actual thought everyone scattered. Zanri ran off by himself nearly wetting his pants yelling something about not wanting to be a hero. Dan and Tironi bolted down the passage where they were headed in the beginning, and finally Ekla and Lili took off down the passage they all came from. To finalize Ekla’s luck the minotaur followed Lili and him down the passage. After a bit of running Ekla and Lili were beginning to lose energy while the rest of their group wandered lost and separated.

“Ekla! I’m going to use a fireball!” Lili yelled.

“Okay, I’ll back you up!” Ekla responded.

Suddenly Ekla stopped and spun around brandishing his sword. As the creature approached Lili began mumbling to muster up her spell. Ekla took the minotaur’s blows using his sword as defense. Finally Lili was ready.

“Ekla! Move!”

Upon hearing this, Ekla rolled to the side to give Lili a straight shot. Letting out a yell Lili sent out a considerable blast of flame toward the creature. Under normal circumstances this would have been plenty of firepower to take down a beast of that size, unfortunately the blast seemed to have no effect on the creature. Unable to react in time, Ekla could only watch as Lili was hit by the beast and into a wall.

Ekla looked on with horror as he grew aware that she wasn’t getting up. Slowly fear was replaced with a numbed expression and then anger. Picking up his sword Ekla gave out a yell and charged the beast. He swung down and onto the creature’s back but was unable to damage it. Regardless he slashed and smacked until the beast gave him a vicious backhand into the opposite wall. But instead of moaning in pain Ekla stood up with complete anger in his face. Again he pointed his sword at the creature but instead he just stared at it. His eyes reflected hate and were oblivious to everything but that monster. Slowly he built up his voice and yelled at the minotaur…

“Heroes of the past, whose names are long forgotten, lend me your strength so that I may defeat my ENEMY!!!!!!” Ekla screamed holding out the last word.

Suddenly a white light appeared within the sword accompanied by blood pouring over the blade until it became soaked in the blood of long since dead warriors. Ekla, who was still shouting, lunged toward the enemy with no regard of defending himself. His sword flew towards the creature as if guiding Ekla to his goal. With great vengeance in his eyes Ekla’s sword made contact into the creatures hide. With an eerie death cry the minotaur gave a deafening roar as it began to burn away. Large flows of energy clashed and ripped the beast apart into confetti. Once the beast was destroyed the walls of the maze sank into the ground leaving the entire area open and access to the tower granted. Not only could they get to the tower now but they could all reunite as well. The rest of the group saw Ekla with the sword now losing its glow and Lili laying on the ground. They all ran towards where Ekla and Lili were.

As the power finally faded from Ekla and he regained his composure Lili slowly regain consciousness. Ekla shuffled over to her and began to speak.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine…” she answered weakly.

“Good…” Ekla sighed as he began to fall over from the exhaustion. Just before he collided with the ground Tironi was there and caught him. Not taking much notice to the whole scene Tironi shouted out with joy and relief.

“You did it! How did you remember the words to the sword?” he shouted.

“I dunno… I forgot them already…” Ekla replied soft spokenly.

“Well we didn’t hear them clearly enough to make out the words. You mean you forgot them again?” informed Zanri. “That means we have to find the scroll still!”

“I… guess so…” Ekla replied right before passing out.

They stayed right there until Ekla regained his lost energy and Lili was comfortable enough to continue. Once the group was set they began walking toward the tower again… it was now Friday morning.

“You know…” Tironi said, “We just had a pretty cool battle with an almost invincible minotaur, and now we’re off to fight some reject clown? Where the hell is this story going anyway?”

(Hey, I ended a chapter without having Lili chase Ekla into the horizon… wow.)

“Ekla!!!!!! Why you little!!!” Lili cried out.

“Damnit!!!” Ekla shouted.

(oh well)


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Hope this chappie was okay... next up is Ian.... who wants to go after him though?

[Evangelion999]

I wanna get back in to this! Good chapter Cyan!

[Android21]

Hehe, cool chapter Cyan

.......Errmm, can't think of anything else to say....... :D

[Paranoid_Janitor]

Nice chapter Cyan, I'm glad to see that nobody has forgotten about this fic, I guess I'll tell Ian about his chapter.

[Killua_Kun]

Well after Ian I will be doing the Chapter...nice to see this fic alive again :) THANKS PEEPS!!! :P :lol: :) :D

[Ian the Korean]

Sorry for the huge wait, was working on my fic, Coin, which I finally got a chapter for. ^^;; Anywho, heres a stab at this!

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Chapter 22

As the group reunited, they were unaware that their actions had been watched since they had landed on the island.

"No! Those fools have slayed my minotaur... now who am I need to find a new partner for bridge!" Binky moaned. "No matter, they may have defeated my minotaur and gotten through the labarynth, but they'll never make it through my tower! Its walls are inpenetrable!" he laughed wickedly.

"Wow," Ekla said, as he pushed open the door to the tower, "this place was a lot easier to get into than I thought it would be!"

"WHAT?!?!??!!!" Binky shouted. "HOW COULD THEY HAVE GOTTEN IN SO EASILY?!"

Just then, Binky's ranting was interupted by a delivery boy. "Sir, I brought you that haggis on a stick you ordered, that'll be $9.99 plus tip. Oh yeah, you might want to do something about that door, it was a major pain to find and open."

Binky sweatdropped like no one had ever sweatdropped before. This was indeed the mightiest of all sweatdrops.

"YOU IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Binky shouted, shaking the very foundations of the tower and causing the delivery boy to jump out a nearby portculis in fear.

"I'll just put it on your tab..." the delivery boy shouted, while falling to his demise.

"Sigh... just can't find good help these days... back to those worms, though..." Binky returned to his glass ball and watched the group of heroes continue to make their way through the traps he'd so carefully setup, which had been sprung by the incompetent delivery boy.

"I guess I'll just have to face them myself, doesn't seem to be any other choice... BUT WHAT TO WEAR?!" Binky shouted, realizing it'd be so unfashionable to look like every other evil wizard wearing a black robe.

He quickly ran to his wardrobe and began flinging his hudreds of identical black robes to the ground, in a vain attempt to find something unique. "Hmm... this will do." he cackled evilly, as he began to change his clothes.

"BINKY! WHAT IN LORD XIUS's NAME AERE YOU DOING?! WHY ARE YOU DRESSED LIKE A MIME!" Shin shouted at Binky through Xius's Crystal Ball.

"...umm." Binky stuttered, "Everyone fears mimes...?" he answered, with a weak smile on his face.

Shin merely slapped his forehead out of disgust for the minion's incompetence. "Very well. Just do not fail us, or you shall share the fate of the Death Knight." He finished coldly. Binky's glass ball returned to an image of Ekla and his companions making their way to the door of Binky's great hall.

"Oh no! I've got to hurry so I can make a great entrance!" he rushed as he finished applying the black and white face paint and put on his white gloves. He looked very much a mime, though more demented than one you might usually find, which was quite terrifying to consider.

"Well, looks like we finally made it," Zanri said. "It was a lot easier to get here than I thought it would be, though, almost looked like someone had already been through recently..."

"Hope Binky didn't get scared and run away from us!" Tironi laughed, as the massive doors leading to the great hall opened by themselves.
__________________________________________________ _______________

Well, this leaves the next writer the opportunity to write a really cool battle scene! It better be a cool battle scene, or I'll regret not doing it myself...

[The Real Cyan]

Great chappie....

*begins to wonder when exactly the fic became a comedy....*

Oh well if it works then its all good.

YES! I'll be waiting for that cool battle scene then..... who's next? Is it going to be Eva or Killa?

[Radical Ed]

It's been a comedy since almost the beginning... When Lili and Zanri entered, I believe. (I know it's reminded me of Slayers since then...) BTW, where's chapter 20?!? And I'll take a chapter on soon... (I didn't really get a chance to read yet, so I'll take care of it some other time.)

[Android21]

Great chapter Ian. It was very funny ^_^

Nice that you took the time to read this fic :)

I wonder what Binky's special moves are going to be hehehe

[Evangelion999]

Killa-kun has the next chapter right? If not I will take it!

[Ian the Korean]

w00t! Glad my first try didn't suck... wasn't sure what you all would think of it. Anywho, can't wait for the next chapter, hope either Eva999 or Kilua-kun can get it up soon. Also, I am interested in continuing to write chapters for this fic, so give me a holler next time I'm up. ^^

[The Real Cyan]

Well it looks like K-K isn't jumping for the chappie so I guess Eva can take it...

We'll wait for it.

^^