I stood there in a daze as my team went up against two warriors infused with dark power, one who helped with the assassination of Guardian Gual and the other a powered-up clone or perhaps as she had said something more.

Her words had me puzzle. ‘How many times I’ve been taken out by your clan.’ What had she meant by that, was there something even more to my clan than I thought?

Both parties attacked. I could only watch as my body refused to move, perhaps Kiba was right and I had been inflicted with a far deadlier than poison, one imbued with very essence of darkness, was this how it felt like to be immobilised by it.

“Raziel,” I called for him, but could feel the poison preventing my power from connecting to theirs. “Damn.”

Ibiki was holding his own against the female Animalia, backed up by Lin who threw exploding daggers to keep her at bay when trying to create an opening, but no matter how big the explosion it didn’t seem to harm her.

It was the same for edge as he unleashed flaming swing after swing, burning the oxygen in the air, but that was all he was doing, he tried to release more power, the flames around his sword becoming more intense.

“I can’t hit her,” moaned Edge. He needed to be faster, unfortunately I had yet to have a chance to train them to a similar standard of skill to myself and being incapacitated as I was, unable to help.

“Together Edge,” called Lin, her whole body glowing with lightning, creating more daggers, she was about to try the weak seal she had tried on me; it would fail.

“Together sis.” Edge stood in front of Lin as she threw her daggers around him, as they passed, he ignited them with his fire.

The flaming and lightning daggers landed around the female Animalia, imbued with both fire and lightning, boosting Lin’s technique. Their opponent got a heck of a shock, sealed within the little circle; it was working.

Ibiki used this opportunity to jump in, summoning thick ice around her, doubling up on the seal Edge and Lin had placed. Ibiki glanced back at me, just to check if I was okay, then checked up on the others.

Kiba, Rex and Finn, were not having any luck against Sniper, he slithered his way through every attack, even tried attacking back a few times.

Kiba went in quickly, striking as fast as he could, but he was not nearly fast enough. Kiba only just avoided being bitten, saved by a thrust from Rex forcing Sniper to back off for a second.

Finn held up his hands summoning Nana’s power, giving them both a speed boost but even then, they were not fast enough to touch Sniper. I had struggled against him, so they stood no chance against them either.

Ibiki lowered the temperature even more hoping to give them more of an advantage, but the cold didn’t seem to even bother him anymore, his body moving faster. Watching him I sensed that the darkness had strongly grown in strength, what was going on?

Rex kept Sniper away from Kiba and Finn, preventing him from doing what he had done to me, Kiba being my kin might have been okay, but Finn was a different story. Finn from what I had seen was not much of a fighter which was one thing I would have to do something about if we survived this encounter.

“Focus all you’ve got on Rex,” said Kiba moving away from the action towards Finn. “I’m just slowing him down.”

“Alright,” nodded Finn. “Nana.” In response to her name, she appeared lifting her hands in the air as her whole body glowed green, so did Finn’s. With great focus he redirected his power over to Rex; he smirked as he felt their power came into contact.

I saw a glint in Rex’s eye as Junko appeared beside him, howling as the earth shook. Rex thrusted forward, then twisted his polearm in the direction Sniper moved his body.

I thought this would up the same way as before Sniper avoiding all his attacks, but Rex’s movements were hastened from the boost Finn and Nana had given him.

Rex’s blade chased after the movements of Sniper with such accuracy. I instantly spotted the grimaced expression of Sniper as Rex inched closer, then nicked his scales, then a second time; the focus on Rex’s face intensified as he pushed even more to do more damage.

Sniper retreated, hissing aggressively, but then smirked.

“They are playing with them.” I heard a voice whisper from behind me. I slowly moved my head to see a black figure with wings. “Most disappointing.”

My instincts were going absolutely crazy, telling me to run and hide, whoever this was, he was bad news.

The female Animalia broke free from the seal Lin, Edge and Ibiki had tried so hard to seal her within. “Master.” She called as she laid eyes upon him.

“Fang!” Ibiki cried.

“Fang, is it?” His eyes became slits. “But you seem to be missing something, a Fang usually carries talismans with him.” What the heck was he talking about, I had talismans. “Oh, perhaps you are a fan of his bedtime stories.”

“He has talismans,” hissed Sniper. “He has four.”

“Where are they then,” responded his master. “I do not see nor sense any.” He glared at Sniper, causing him to shrink back.

“Do you want us to finish them off?” asked the female Animalia.

“No, it would be a shame to snuff out too much hope at once.” I noticed his nose twitch and a gleam of his scales; they were black and red. I gulped; this was the Draco who had wiped out Brendan’s family. “After all, only one will perish, inflicted with Sniper’s poison, you won’t last much longer.”

I glanced at my team who seemed to be frozen with fear at the sight of the Draco. I was now not the only one incapable of doing anything.

“What then?” questioned Sniper.

“We’re done here, so no need to stay, otherwise they’ll be unwanted attention,” replied the Draco.

“But they’ve seen us,” snapped Sniper.

“There time will come when I say so,” snarled the Draco.

“Of course,” bowed Sniper.

“Shame you’ll never know the fear and destruction I will bring to this world.” He spread his wings and flew off.

Sniper sighed. “He ruins all the fun.”

“And I was about to let loose,” huffed the female Animalia.

“You’ll get your chance,” responded Sniper.

We all watched them go, the camp emptied in a matter of minutes. I was left wondering why they spared us when he could have easily wiped us out.

My whole body pulsed as I felt the poison burning my entire body, I could no longer hang on as I collapsed forward, hitting the ground, I lost consciousness, hearing the voices of my team calling out to me.

“Fang!”