Ancient Neopia: Part Two

     Black Bearogs, Ghost Kacheeks, Rogue Zafaras and Plains Lupes and even Temple Sentinels.

     The city was dark. The perfect chance to attack.

     In the Two Rings castle, Jahbal stood, looking out of the window over the grounds of the Two Rings. Those foolish wizards thought they had banished him forever, but his magic reached the far ends of Neopia.

     He had power and he would use that power. Nobody could overthrow him. He only had to stop that one Lupe…

     "Sire…" an old Moehog, dressed in only a ripped, brown robe said. "An unknown force has arrived here in Neopia. We do not know what it is, but I am sure it is dangerous!"

     "Thank you for the information," Jahbal said, while turning around. "You have been a great help, Morguss. I will investigate this and get rid of anyone opposing me!"

     Morguss nodded.

     "I have hope in your victory, sire." Morguss bowed. Then, with that, she disappeared through the door.

     ***

     The wooden gate protecting Neopia City was just a few seconds away… The monsters then attacked. The gate was smashed out and it crashed down to the ground. This woke some of the people and pets up and as they looked through the window, they saw the parade of monsters destroying everything in their way.

     Others ran outside and had pulled out their sword in an attempt to save the city, but they were greatly outnumbered.

     "Hero!" Jarod shouted as he heard the sound of wood being smashed into little bits. Then a Giant Wadjet appeared. His black and green skin slithered over the ground. Jarod smashed the Wadjet with his new sword and made a big wound, but it was not enough to stop the Wadjet.

     Then, Hero smacked the Wadjet. The Wadjet then shot forward and bit Hero and with the end of its tail it smacked Jarod right in his face.

     "Argh!" Jarod hit the Wadjet and then again and it disappeared on them, this time only leaving a few coins. No bottle with whatever was in it.

     "Come on! We have to fight the monsters off!" Hero shouted as he ran, no, sprinted towards the exit of the Inn.

     Jarod stared at him but then thought. Was he going to stay here? Forever? But he decided to stop the stream of thoughts and he ran outside to help fight the monsters. It was tiring and even though the monsters outnumbered the people in the city, they had won.

     The remaining monsters had fled on the sight of the sun that was rising. Hero seemed troubled by the sudden attack.

     "Is there something… wrong?" Jarod asked worriedly.

     Hero stared at the Cybunny in front of him, sighed and then sat down.

     "I will tell you the tale of Jahbal's time."

     ***

     It all dates back to the glorious times of the Neopian Empire, once great and proud. They were huge cities, led by great and wise leaders. They were magicians and in total there were 12. The magicians were called the Circle of Twelve. Everything was well, yet power makes hungry for more. There were two magicians that were set to wreak havoc in Neopia.

     Xantan and Jahbal.

     Jahbal happened to be the leader of the Circle of Twelve, but he became mad for power. The other magicians discussed about the situation and they decided to expel Xantan from the Circle of Twelve. He found his home near a cave close to Neopia City.

     Still, Jahbal grew even more powerful. He was so powerful and mad that he then started a war against the others. Some of the empire's cities fell. Others kept standing and one of them was Kal Panning and their leader Faelinn, the Aisha.

     He could not yet beat the defenders of the city. He then started creating monsters, vicious monsters that the people and pets of Neopia had never seen before. Destruction was brought upon Neopia.

     With the monsters, he attacked Kal Panning one more time and this time he got past the defenders of the glorious city. He turned the once great city into a place for the zombies and the ghosts of the Neopets that previously had lived there.

     The members of the Circle of Twelve, which was in truth the Circle of Ten, saw their errors and decided to get rid of Jahbal. Yet, Jahbal had spied on them and had fled to the great castle of Two Rings.

     They decided not to follow Jahbal anymore, as they did not know what kind of items and power Jahbal could have found in the castle. Instead, they created a barrier around the Two Rings area, so that nothing could go in the Two Rings or out. At least, that was supposed to happen.

     Nobody knew how, but Jahbal had found a way to send his magic through the barrier. He created more monsters and ordered them to hunt down the leaders of the great empires.

     A lot of them fell, yet a lot more suffered under the destruction. Still… the Empire collapsed stood no more after all the destruction. Only the most well-defended cities were standing.

     The people hoped that someday a hero would come along and to stop all the destruction in Neopia.

     ***

     Jarod had listened attentively to the story and now he understood.

     "But why did they attack now?" Jarod had first asked. His Cybunny paw was ruffling his red fur. "They could have attacked earlier, you know?"

     "I don't know… I don't know…" Hero said sadly. "But we have to leave to the Jungle Ruins. We have to stop the destruction of this land!"

     "Then… can I go with you?" the voice of a familiar blacksmith asked. His giant hammer was still with him. "I have fought the monsters and I too want to stop the destruction. I cannot wait and see the destruction coming over us."

     "Rioeiro?" Hero turned around to face the Korbat. "Are you sure you want to do it?"

     "Yes." Rioeiro replied simply. "I just have nothing to do here anymore… my Blacksmith is completely destroyed because of the attack."

     "So, you have nothing here?" Jarod asked carefully, not wanting to hurt the Korbat's feelings.

     "Nope, nothing!" Rioeiro sighed heavily, but he quickly cheered up. "If I go with you, I can fix your weapons!" he said excitedly.

     "Alright," Hero said to the excited Korbat. "We are going to leave; do you have something left you wish to take with you?"

     The Korbat nodded, ran towards the broken house that was next to the almost gone blacksmith, came back out and he had a bag in the shape of a hammer.

     "Okay, I am ready."

     Hero and Jarod walked away but Rioeiro turned around and looked at his once nice and warm blacksmith, now almost a pile of rubble. "Goodbye, Neopia City." And he then quickly followed Hero and Jarod.

     "Alright, we are going to train here first," Hero said to the two that were following him."The monsters were tough, so we need to get stronger."

     They nodded and they started fighting different monsters. They did not fight with each other, but alone. They did stay close to each other though, in case something would happen.

     They slashed and hammered the monsters and they were getting stronger. Here's a Snow Imp, there's a Fire Imp, fuzzy Imp, funny Imp…

     A roar was heard behind Jarod. As he whizzed around, a Black Bearog jumped at him and clawed him, but Jarod quickly restored from the hit and smacked the Black Bearog. It soon disappeared.

     Rioeiro was swinging his hammer at two Plains Lupes. He hit one of them hard and sent that one flying into the other one. The little Korbat then hit them both and they disappeared, leaving a little pile of gold coins behind.

     "Oo! Money!" he said happily, as he ducked to pick the coins up. A Grey Lupe flew over him and crashed on the ground. It then got smacked by Hero's sword.

     Hero chuckled at the fact that the Grey Lupe had missed Rio, who had only ducked to pick up some money, and then turned serious again. "How is everyone? I have a few healing potions."

     "Uh, can I get one?" Rioeiro asked. "My wing has quite the nasty scratch on it."

     Hero handed one of the potions to Rioeiro, which drank it and the wound disappeared.

     "Hey, Hero, can I ask you a question?" Jarod looked at Hero, who grinned.

     "You are free to ask any questions."

     "Why do the monsters disappear when they are beaten?" Jarod asked him. He really did wonder why.

     "It is because they are made of magic. If they get beaten, the magic stops working and that monster disappear." Hero explained it very clearly in Jarod's opinion.

     "Well, we rest here," Hero motioned towards a lonely tree. "No tent and all, so we just have to be careful."

     "Right!" Jarod said enthusiastically, as he walked over towards the tree.

     Later that night…

     The pack of Dire Lupes spotted the travelers they were ordered to hunt down. They howled and then ran towards their target.

     "Huh, wha?" Rioeiro awoke and he heard a Lupe's howl from somewhere on the plains.

     "Guys! Wake up!" The Korbat nudged his friends and they woke up. They then saw the shadows of the Dire Lupes.

     "BATTLE!" Hero said, while grabbing his sword from the ground and he got in fighting position.

     "Come and get us! Beef steak!" Jarod said and he ran towards Hero.

     "Uh, right… I'll just say nothing…" Rioeiro followed Jarod and they started fighting. It was harder then the training, but they could still win. They beat around five of the pack and then they stood still in front of the remaining three.

     They could feel the Lupe's breath, but then they cowered and ran away.

     "Well…" Rioeiro, "that was ni-"

     Heavy footsteps were heard and when they looked to where the sound was coming from they saw a hill. Then, a giant shadow came over the hills.

     "We should run!" Jarod suggested.

     "Right!" Hero shouted and he ran away, with his friends following him. The shadow followed them and he was getting closer each step.

     "We can't lead it to the city!" Hero shouted. "We have to hide in the hills!"

     Jarod had no idea where that was, so he followed the other two. The grass disappeared and now there was dirt and in front of them was the hills of Jub. Then the monster, or what else it was, jumped, took his weapon and smashed it into the ground.

     The ground cracked and the crack became larger. The ground was splitting.

     Jarod looked behind him and he saw the crack.

     "Guys! The ground has cracked!"

To be continued...