Ray of Hope

[2ndPower]

Upon entering the city of Mellow a couple of days later, Rail wrinkled up his nose and reeled back. "Ugh, rotton fish smell." he said. The travel here was fairly uneventful. Rail didn't trust Gray, so his forces were split up fairly well. His party consisted of Gray, Cobalt, Donovan the dragon-demon, and himself, and conversation tended to be kind of slim in front of Gray. He had sent warriors to the other cities to participate in recon work, and to slow the regime down if at all possible. Gray had been cooperative so far, but Rail still did not trust him not to lead them into a trap. Rail had been to Mellow once before, had a big family vacation there. He hated it, but his wife had loved it here, so he put up with it. The whole placed smelled of fish, and everything was so... wet. Rail grumbled a little over having to come here. Rail was a little uncertain about being discovered. They would have to fight of whatever demons were here, the "best demons" the demon leader had sent, and possibly Gray, not to mention the guardian of the crystal if they ever found it. Rail was the greatest tiger demon ever, but even the greatest had to be cautious sometimes, especially with all this water in the air dampening up his sense of smell. He was a little uneasy, and wondered how Donovan was remaining so calm. Rail missed his forest already.

They got their first close call passing by a small group of regime demons. One of them noticed Cobalt was a half-demon, and started to move aggressively towards him but was quickly knocked out with a punch from Donovan. None of the other demons saw it, and Gray didn't even blink. After that, they formed a circle around Cobalt, trying to hide him from view.

Eventually, they came up on a checkpoint the demons had set up to check for clearance for entering deeper in the city. "Fool dragon had better handle this one," Rail said to Gray. Gray complied, and began speaking with the guardsmen, but one of them looked up at Rail, and recognition sparked in his eyes. "That one! He's a demon rebel!" he shouted, pointing at Rail. "Wonderful," thought Rail, as he clawed that demon up. "He must have recognized Rail from some earlier rebellion activity. Well, at least we'll see whether or not Gray actually does support us." As a large number of demons arrived, Rail realized they were going to need all the support they could get.

[Zell]

Gray looked upon demons and said"Do you intend on trying to attack us? I can kill you all in one slash so, I would run if were you." The demons dropped their weapons ran away. It had seems that the demons were scared of fighting Gray so, was a great part of the team. Cobalt turned to them and said" Well let's get going. Gray where is the way to the crystal?" Gray replied "Only way to enter is to defeat the demon my master sent. Most likely they will be gaurding the entrance." Cobalt and the others walked upon entrance and the demon at the entrance had four arms and a sword in each one. "This is the demon called Mortar watch out he is quicker then me and can take a lot punishment so, we will have combine every attack we do." Gray said.

[2ndPower]

"Combo attacks, eh?" said Rail. "Well, may as well surprise him." Rail extended his magic to the water in this city. For some reason, its denizens liked to have water everywhere. Normally a real pain, but it served Rail's purposes now. The water pooled under the four-armed demon, then burst up like a geyser, sending the demon into the air where Donovan was flying. Donovan tackled him into the ground, where the others pounced into attack. As his mind started working on tactics, he thought about the best ways to combine attacks. He and Donovan had worked together the longest, so they would have the easiest time combining their attacks, but Rail did teach Cobalt in the art of unarmed fighting when he was a child, so they could combine somewhat easily as well. "Perhaps a four man combo would work as well," thought Rail as he saw Donovan prepare for a fire-breath attack. Rail charged up his claws preparing to add his blast, and hoped the two others would join them as well.

[Zell]

Cobalt started charging up his Shadow Ball. Gray's mouth glowing which meant he was charging up as well. Mortar waited for them to attack. He thought he was going to survive this attack but, he was wrong. his ego was taking over. Cobalt and Gray launch their attacks at the same time as Rail and Donovan. The blast was massive and Mortar couldn't dodge it. Mortar was destoryed by that attack. "We should start doing combine attacks more often were stronger as one." Cobalt said to the group. Gray then said"Let's move on cause they could be close to the crystal but they will be killed by the gaurdian nonetheless."

[2ndPower]

As they moved among the corridors heading to the crystal, it became quite obvious a great battle had taken place there. There were demon corpses everywhere, most with missing body parts. There was a trail of blood that was leading the way for them. They followed this trail until they reached the end. Rail was astonished at what he saw. A large battalion of demons was fighting with an enormous water hydra, which seemed to be the crystal's guardian. Rail watched as one demon severed one of the Hydra's heads, only to have two more grow back in its place. It currently had 11 heads. Using teeth and a water breath attack, the hydra finished the demons off in short order, then one head sniffed the air, and all heads turned to face the group.

[Zell]

"Oh this doesn't look good at all. It's an easy monster to beat but, it keeps growing back it's head. I have a plan it can't grow back a heart so, if I let it eat I can destroy the heart." Cobalt said to the group. The Hydra sent a gaint blast of water toward the group knocking everyone back. Cobalt got up and ran toward the Hydra and used the Shadow ball. When the Hydra opened it's the cry out in pain Cobalt jumped in it's mouth. The digestive acids were burning Cobalt badly but, he had to find the heart. He saw it jumped up tpward and started slashing it rapidly.

[2ndPower]

"Oooh." Rail thought. "That cannot be fun at all." It was, however, probably the fastest way. Rail was a little worried about his son, but it wasn't like any of them would have fit down the hydra's throat in one piece. Cobalt was the only one small enough. The hydra thrashed around as Cobalt started to kill it from the inside. Rail figured he might as well start killing it from the outside, too. He ran up and started hacking at the hydra with his claws. Eventually, the hydra fell over, dead, but Rail kept hacking, until he reached his son and pulled him out. Rail would rather have him come out that way than have him come out through.... umm... the other end. Rail handed Cobalt a salve to be used on the burns he sustained from the stomach acid, then checked to make sure Cobalt was not seriously wounded.

They walked into the next room, and Rail stopped abruptly in awe. The crystal was there on a dias, a beautiful shade of azure blue. Aye, his wife would have loved something like that. As he stepped toward the dias, Rail felt the weight of destiny settle upon his shoulders. They had kidnapped one of the Regime's top combatants, and had now upset the Regime's plans. His rebellion had been a major nuisance to the Regime before, but now there was no possible way they could be ignored or looked over as sometimes happened in the past. As he stepped toward the dias, Rail wondered what taking this crystal would do, and what he should be doing with these crystals. Hiding them in other locations would be the logical choice, but where could they hide them where no one else would find them? Perhaps something else would be done with the crystals. Rail decided he personally did not have enough information to make these decisions, so he would do what he could until he did have enough knowledge to make the proper decision, or found someone who did. One thing was certain, though. The crystal could not stay here.

[Zell]

Cobalt walked up to the pedestal and grabbed the crystal. "No don't grab it yet."Gray yelled to Cobalt but it was to late he already grabbed it. "We had to destroy the spell first. We have to get out of here now. The place is about to flood.Get on my back." Gray said. Cobalt replied " You us this now." Everybody got his back and Gray flew to the entrance. The water was right on his tail. Gray barely made it out of the cave."Well that was fun. Next town is Twister. We will have to cross the Windy Mountain." Cobalt said.

[2ndPower]

After a day's rest, they set off for the Windy Mountain. Rail had been there before, and rather liked the experience. The mountain had had some good herbs for picking, and his nature magic allowed him to influence the wind in that area. Wind makes strong magic, and Rail had fun utilizing it. Last time he passed through the mountain he had used his nature magic to create a sort wind barrier around him, allowing him to pass through relatively easily. He didn't think he could form such a barrier around all of them, especially since it was getting late in the day, and they would have to stop and rest. Luckily, the mountain was covered with caves that would suit their needs.

They climbed the mountain. Rail was having a relatively easy time scaling it, being quite large and thus being weighted down, but the wind kept blowing dust into his eyes, nose, and most annoying of all, his ears. He found some herbs that he could have made some good healing supplies from, but they needed to keep going. They wanted to get to Twister as soon as possible, to keep the pressure on the Regime. The more pressure they kept on them, the worse the Regime would perform. Currently, something was bothering Rail. Rail moved next to Gray and yelled over the roar of the wind, "Why did fool dragon save us?" Gray replied "I already told you. I wanted to see if you had the strength to beat my master." "But fool dragon could just have considered it proof that we didn't because we fell into the water trap." Gray just shrugged, and Rail ended the conversation, knowing he couldn't get another answer out of him. He still didn't trust Gray, but, well, the fool dragon had saved his life. Maybe he was not such a fool dragon after all. Rail would have to think about this.

An hour later, they were about halfway up the mountain. The eternal wind made it slow going. From behind a rock leaped four other demons. "You!!!!" one of them screeched "Give us the crystal and your heads, so we can collect the demon leader's bounty on you!!!!" Rail smirked. Bounty hunters, and from the looks of them, not very strong ones. Well, it was good to know that their was a bounty on their heads, they would have to be looking out for the stronger bounty hunters.

Each of the party took on one bounty hunter. Rail's opponent was a large imp, well, large for an imp. She came up to Rail's chest, and was probably about the size of a normal human. She swung at Rail with a sword, which Rail deftly stepped back from. She swung again, he ducked. She made a vertical slash this time, which he caught using the claws of his left hand. Reaching behind his back, he pulled out his Reaver, and slashed it across her. He saw the familiar look of shock in her eyes as her soul was severed from existance, then she fell over. She was still breathing, but she no longer moved, her eyes no longer focused. She was just a shell now, nothing inside of her. Rail kicked her into the wind, and she flew off the mountain. Glancing to his right, he saw that Donovan had finished with his adversary, a spider demon, although one could not tell that now. All that was left of that demon was a pile of smoldering ash. He then checked to Cobalt on his left. Rail knew Cobalt would have no problems, but he was worried that Cobalt's wounds from the Hydra would be slowing him down, at that the strong winds would be affecting him, with him being by far the smallest member of the party.

[Zell]

The winds blew on Cobalt hard. The Hydra was starting to take a larger affect on him now. "Climb on my back little one I will carry you. We need to find a cave for the child." Gray yelled to Rail. As they walked on they found and went in. Gray put Cobalt on the ground. Gray had noticed what was wrong with Cobalt and said to Rail "Cobalt has been poisoned by the Hydra's blood. A Hydra's blood is poison to demons and sometimes kill them at one touch. Humans can't be affected. The little one knew this so, he decided he would so, you wouldn't be hurt. We must find a wind flower on this mountion to heal the little one. We can't take him outside like this our he could die. I will stay with him. You and Donovan go find the flower. It's on the highest peak of the mountion. GO NOW!"

[2ndPower]

Rail was a little leery about leaving his son in the hands of Gray, but he understood it must be done. As he and Donovan left, Rail said, "If you hurt Cobalt while we're gone, Hell itself will not be able to save you from Rail's wrath.

Rail had heard stories about wind flowers, but had never seen one himself. The only grew near a mountain's peak, so he and Donovan had some climbing to do. As they went up the mountain, the wind grew stronger and stronger. Still, they went as fast as they could, claws gripping everything they could, fighting the wind headlong. Rail had tried to divert the wind around them, but it was simply too strong. So they climbed, as fast as they could, cursing every gust. Eventually, they came close to the top. Rail started looking around, and found what was unmistakably a wind flower in a crack in the mountainside. Rail grabbed it by the stem and used his claw to cut it off just above the base. Immediately, a very strong gust of wind burst from where Rail had cut it, blowing Rail off the mountainside. As Rail fell, his eyes randomly caught a tower in the distance, and he saw a green light emit from it. Then, Rail felt a pair of claws grasp him at his armpits. It was Donovan, who had taken to a perilous flight to catch Rail. Rail yelled, "Rail owes you his life once more, dragon-brother." Donovan yelled back, "I can't change direction very well in this weather. Don't say I saved your life just yet." Donovan tried to aim for the cave where they left Cobalt and Gray, but the wind was too strong.

Donovan had managed to make an uncontrolled landing on the path. Rail had rolled with impact, and ended up smacking his head against a rock. It hurt, but he was the greatest tiger demon ever, and he would survive. It had taken them fifteen minutes to get back up to the cave. Rail stepped into the cave entrance, hoping he wasn't too late.

[Zell]

Cobalt was near death when Rail made it. ray grabbed the flower and put it in Cobalt's mouth. Cobalt healed quickly and opened his eyes to see his father back. He jumped up in the air, hugged his dad and said" I thought I would never see you again but we must get going." It didn't take long to reach Twister. When they arrived something was wrong. The Regime had taken over the town. " We have to make-up a plan to enter. We could sneak in or Fight our way in. I will let you decid Dad." Cobalt said to the group.

[2ndPower]

"We'll sneak in. Even if we could fight off everyone here, we need to save our energy to fight with the crystal's guardian." This was easier said then done, however. Rail was predominantly white-colored, so he could not hide in all but the darkest shadows. "Rail had sent other demons here for recon work, maybe they'll be able to help us." But first, they would have to get into the city without being noticed. So they jumped from rooftop to rooftop when Regime soldiers weren't looking, landing as quietly as they could. After a while, they stopped short as a familiar looking demon flew from above and landed in front of them. "Greetings, all." She said. It Yuri, a wind demon of the demon rebellion. "We've been waiting for you. The demons seem to be concentrating around there." she said, pointing to the tower that Rail saw when he was falling off the Windy Mountain. "We think that is where the crystal is. However, it is very heavily guarded. You will need a distraction if you are to sneak in. We shall provide one in one hour. You have that long to get into position." And with that, she left.

They were in position, and the distraction was to start soon. Rail's tail started to move in anticipation as he crouched in preparation of what was to come.