Panthora Warriors

Chapter 5: Sticks and Stones

While walking in the woods I was so deep in thought that I didn't see the snare trap which caught me by the ankle. I was flipped upside down and left dangling from a tree. A boy who looked the same age as me appeared from the bushes and to be honest he looked a bit pissed off. "Who are you!" "whoa dude, I'm an ally not a foe, just let me down!" he cut the rope with a small dagger and I dropped like a stone. "Thank you; I'm Danny. I'm part of a team of warriors, and by part I mean leader." "I'm Leo, truth be told, I'm one of you guys, I'm part jaguar and I control plants, now more to the question what are you doing here in the woods?" "I lost one of my teammates in a battle, me and my friends gave him a sacred burial ceremony, this means we're now one short to continue our battle against Scorpius." "Wait! Your enemies with Scorpius!" "Yeah why?" "Scorpius is the creature that has been hunting me for the past few days." "Then join me and my team, it'll be harder for Scorpius to take out five targets at the same time." With a couple of words Leo agreed to join the team.

When we got back to the den the guys were retrieving their weapons. They looked at Leo as if he had two heads. I explained that even though we had just gotten over Austin's death we needed a new recruitment. There was no time to argue as Reece told me the alarm went off and we needed to get going. Since this was our fourth attack we were used to seeing paths of destruction, a creature made of rock appeared and was covered in thorns and moss. An identification scan recognised him as Genesis. But something didn't seem right. The crystal that represented his element was split in two, one side had half a mountain symbol which represented the earth element and the other side had half a leaf symbol which represented the life (plants) element. This meant that he could control earth and plants which was a bad thing for us since none of us knew how to fuse elements. But we attacked anyway and that led to a few injuries including some broken bones.

Back at the den we sat around the computer allowing our bodies to heal. While we were resting I was trying to think of a way to tackle Genesis. And when the plan popped into my head I cursed myself for my stupidity. Leo can control plants, which gives us an advantage with one element and one of us will have to use the earth crystal to fight the other element. Once everyone was healed I explained the plan on how to defeat Genesis. Leo would deflect the plant attacks and Reece would be with him using the earth crystal to deflect the earth attacks, the rest of us would strike between attacks. The alarm went off which could only mean one thing; Forock was back.

When we reached the warzone there was enough damage to see how powerful Genesis was. Little did he know, we were ready this time. Just as we were about to attack an army of Coldbloods appeared. I told Reece and Leo to take care of Forock while we took care of the Coldbloods. Our weapons made quick work of the ruthless reptiles. Once that was done we joined Reece and Leo in their fight with Genesis. The plan was working perfectly while Reece and Leo countered Forock's attacks, Shaun, Blake and me each took it in turn to take a hit. With one final blow Genesis was history. We used our crystals and the earth and life elements to clean up the mess and the destruction left behind.

Back at the den we had a party to celebrate our victory and our new arrival. I had a feeling that there were more people out there just like us and maybe, just maybe, needed help finding themselves.