The moment they reached the hallway Rahz sat down against a wall, the two wounds look black and the pain was assailing him none stop. Along the wounds you could see little lightning serpents that lit up from time to time burning the tissue around it and preventing Rahz's body from recovering Itself. Elune came over to take a look and cast her healing spell but it didn't work. Everytime the cells try to start reconstructing themselves the lightning burned them once more, even the healing potions didn't have an effect.
Elune thought about it for a minute and said, "Try using your Chaos Energy to dissipate or absorb the lightning on the wound, otherwise you won't be able to heal. It seems that the lightning element of that forbidden spell is a lot higher than the Nature Energy on my spells".
Rahz had no other choice but to follow Elune's advised and used Strengthen Defense only on the wounded area. Chaos Energy rushed to the wound and very quickly thunder and Fire were in a battle of attrition. After 10 minutes of struggle, Rahz stopped the ability and sweat ran down his face.
"I did it, I was able to destroy one little Serpent of lightning but the element seems to be of a higher quality than even my chaos energy so is going to take some time for me to get rid of all of it. We should consider heading back out in the meantime, there is only a day left until the soldiers come back up".
Elune was casting a healing spell on Midori while listening to Rahz suggestions and nodded.
Thanks to the Healing spell and the Potion, the muscles on Midori's tail started to squirm ever so slightly signifying the start of a new rebirth.
Once all the First Aid was done and they were about to move back to the Magic Screen, they were stopped by the old Guard that had finally been let off by the curse and very faintly said," wait..wait, there is no need to go back out"
Rahz heard the specter speak and turned to face him "I can't fight old man, and there is only a day left for the soldiers to return and attacked us again, we won't be able to defeat them"
"They only attack when the alarm sounds and it already did when you guys came in so it won't sound again, now that you made it this far all you have to do is defeat the couple of patrols and it should be alright, but if you cross the screen then you will activate the alarm once more when you pop back in and that would sent the whole floor after you"
The team looked at the Old Guard with a face that said, if you weren't already dead I would kill you myself. They had been fighting the soldiers for six months and in many occasions they stepped out of the Gate and waited for the soldiers to reanimate to be on safe side, as it turnout they could had just finished them off and wait in the tunnels. The information could have saved them a couple of months at the very least.
Sigh…
"Better late, than never" said the witch doctor to Elune with an air of resignation. The most important thing now was to protect Rahz and allow him plenty of time to eliminate the lightning in his body to start the actual healing process.
It was a very lengthy process to get rid of the Blue Lightning, Rahz had to take breaks every 10 minutes to recuperate his energy which was quickly depleted every time he destroyed one. The only good news was that the alarm didn't go off the next day and the team could relax and focus in developing an strategy to defeat the General.
A week passed by and Rahz started to notice that the rate at which he was destroying the lightning had increased but this was not surprising. There was nothing supplying the lightning with energy so eventually they would have dissipated by themselves and without Rahz knowing it, the process of fighting this higher quality element strengthen his own energy and started to move it towards the higher level, Rahz energy took on a darker red and was moving towards the purple color.
The moment Rahz killed the last remnant of the lightning, it was as if some shackles had been remove from his body. The wound started to show signs of recovery as some black parts were started to be replaced with healthy tissue.
Elune cast her healing spell and also cover the wounds with healing potions. Rahz took this opportunity to finally relax and rest mentally.
The following days the team strategist and didn't ignore the fact that the columns were still fine after the massive spell , this could provide them with an opportunity in case they failed to stop the chant in time. Acharya's clones teamwork was incredible and after careful consideration it was clear to the team that attacking the one casting the forbidden spell was a no go. The defenses came on time and were very tricky, but the main deterrent was the casting speed of that forbidden spell, it was ridiculous. If anybody got caught close to that spell they would die without a doubt.
The strategy the team settle on was to attack the last clone in the defensive chain. This meant that if they call the one casting the forbidden spell as A, the first to defend it from attacks would be label as B and the one that defended B would be the target of the team label as C. If everything failed, they would hide behind the pillars and exit the hall.
With a plan carefully crafted and everyone healthy once more, the team marched towards the room and got ready to fight. General Acharya didn't give anybody a chance, once she divided the fight was on and there was no way to hit her before the split.
The lotus flower appeared once again on her hand and triplication took place. This time the clones were completely different from before, Darkness, Light and Earth presented themselves and immediately the gravity in the room was double while the darkness move backwards to chant and the light clone shot Light bolts left and right. Wherever the bolts hit, burn marks appear and deter Rahz and the other from approaching.
The team didn't get fluster and also put in motion their own strategy, Riddick cast Rain of Chaos on the Darkness clone and this force the Earth clone to immediately encase him in a very thick earth dome. Rahz then move to attack Earth Element clone to force the third clone to defend as in the previous fight, but his speed was considerably slower thanks to the increase in gravity. Before Rahz was able to swing his axe the Light Element clone took action and cast Mirage Screen which made 6 illusions of each and everyone of the clones. 18 Acharyas appeared in the room and even if 15 were just illusions it was the perfect defense to buy time.
"Do it Midori!!"
The team hid behind the pillar as gray energy move upwards along Midori's body and she invoke her strongest move, Petrifying Gaze.
Anything that was looking at Midori disappear or was turn to stone, it was the perfect counter to Acharyas clones. Rahz and Riddick pop out of the pillar to attack the one chanting, but was it that easy… The Chaos Rain hit the General but the Elementium Lotus Flower shone and created a magic ward that stop the fire from hitting Acharya and interrupting the chant. Rahz also sent some chaos blades but while the shield was in play nothing could stop her.
It was a failed attempt, Acharya finished the cast and instead of a ball full of energy floating in the air, a magic circle appear on the floor and four shadows rush towards each member of the team and merged with each of their shadows.
Shadow Possession!!
One second later their shadows started to distort and a figure started to rise from the floor and take shape. It was the shadow image of each of the members of the team. Even Rahz Axe was copied to the tee before the shadows started attacking.
To make matters worse, Acharya triplicated once more and new clones came out and threw spells one after another. The team planned to step out of the room from the moment the Forbidden spell went off and move together towards the exit. Riddick landed his chains of chaos on the shadows to give his team the opportunity to escape and was successful in doing so. Midori and Elune where the first out the door, followed by Rahz and Riddick brought up the rear.
Riddick took a couple of wind blades to his back before getting into the hallway and was lucky to made it out before shadow chains from his own shadow copy encase him and he couldn't move one bit. Two seconds earlier and he would have been trap inside the hall and mauled to death.
The shadows inside the room disappear and General Acharya once again became a statue in the middle of the room.