The Dragon Guardians Part four

yChapter Eight: Queen Lavender of Enthranx

Servants come knocking to Sakura’s door and Sakura opens the door by using a simple spell. Servants wearing black robes come into the room carrying a black dress. Sakura smiles wondering what Syaoran’s face will be like when he sees her in a dress. When the servants leave, Sakura sits down in a leather chair-applying make-up to her face. Five hours later when darkness starts to fall onto the city, Syaoran knocks on the door and Sakura quickly answers the door. Syaoran’s jaws drop at the sight of her unbelieving that it is her.

“You look amazing,” says Syaoran.

“You look pretty amazing yourself in that tuxedo.” says Sakura. “I never thought of you as person going to a formal event. I thought you were going to try to get a security job.”

“Trust me, I have tried but I thought to myself that I should take you to it,” jokes Syaoran. “Shall we?” He extends out his arm to her.

A smile forms around Sakura’s red lips, as she takes his arm. They walk down the corridors coming to a carriage. Syaoran helps Sakura into the carriage getting in after her. The driver flicks the reins putting the black stallions into a brisk pace. Their hooves pound lightly on the cement road passing by many citizens. They quickly arrive to the castle gates and two guards dressed in silver uniforms open up the gates. The carriage stops at the front doors of the castle and the driver opens up the door to the carriage. Syaoran helps Sakura out of the carriage walking up to the doors with her at his side. The rest of the team is waiting by the door looking just as stunning as the each of them does. Fai and Yukito push open the doors opening up to the courtyard. Many dukes and duchess stand in the courtyard and they all look at the Dragon Guardians.

“Presenting the protectors of the magical world, the Dragon Guardians.” announces a servant. The whole courtyard goes into an uproar of applause clapping for the Dragon Guardians.

The Dragon Guardians bow to the dukes and duchess walking down the marble cased stairs. Dragonmaster Seishiro hands them each a glass of champagne to celebrate the glorious victory. Horns start blaring from the balconey making everyone look up to the balconey.

“Presenting her majesty, Queen Lavender of Enthranx,” announces the servant in a booming voice.

Everyone claps loud for Queen Lavender bowing down to her, as she walks down the stairs. Queen Lavender is a girl of nineteen years, the youngest female ruler of Enthranx. She wears a silver dress with her golden crown setting on her brown hair that curls around her shoulders. Queen Lavender cares about the well-being of the people trying her best to keep a healthy lifestyle for them. A smile forms around her lips, as she spots her famous Dragon Guardians. She walks over to them stopping right in front of them.

“Rise, my Dragon Guardians. Ones as famous as you should not have to bow.” speaks Queen Lavender in a cool feminine tone of voice. The Dragon Guardians rise at her command. “It is going seeing you again.”

“It is good to see you again too,” admits Syaoran as a smile forms around his lips.

“How do you two know each other?” inquires Yukito. Sakura raises an eyebrow at Syaoran wondering if Queen Lavender could be another of Syaoran’s ex girlfriends or someone special from his dreadful past.

“I am Syaoran’s dearest and oldest friend. When his parents were still alive and he was five, he spent a lot of time at the castle while his parents taught new dragon apprentices. One day, he founded me in the garden playing alone and asked if he could join.” speaks Queen Lavender. “He said it with so much innocence, I just had to allow him to play. That day started our long lasting friendship.”

Syaoran’s eyes flicker away as the memory of that day haunts inside in his brain. Lavender tries to capture his eyes knowing what he is going through. Sakura looks to Lavender and back to Syaoran trying to learn more about her boyfriend. The celebration goes on as if nothing weird has happened. Syaoran and Dragonmaster Seishiro talk to each other about the many different strength spell. Kalin, Sakura, Yuko, Sara, and Queen Lavender talk about girl stuff. The rest of the team flirts with any single girl.

“How many merchants are coming this year?” asks Syaoran.

“Come on Syaoran, I know you don’t care about how many merchants are coming. What is really on your mind?” says Dragonmaster Seishiro in an almost demanding tone of voice.

“I say tournament up for their amusement. Citizens from the far parts of the country will head into the capital city for the entertainment.” speaks Syaoran looking out to the night sky. “It is something my father would think of.”

“That is an excellent idea. I will talk to the council about it tomorrow.” admits Dragonmaster Seishiro.

The rest of the night goes smoothly melting away any worries the people had for the evening. That night, people went home happy as they could be. Syaoran stands on the balconey of his room looking down onto the streets. How much he has missed the city is incomparable to anything. A wave of pain suddenly shoots up his back making him wince in pain. He walks over to the bed lying down to stop the pain. Another wave of pain shoots up his pain making him wince once more. A more painful wave shoots up his back making him scream in pain. Yukito happens to be walking past Syaoran’s room hearing the screams. His instincts tell that something is seriously wrong.

“Syaoran, is everything all right?” says Yukito jiggling the door handle. Unfortunately, the door is jammed.

Yukito pushes up against the door trying to budge it open. The door will not budge one bit and the screams get louder. Guards come running down the hall trying to find out what is all the noise about. One of the guards brings an axe to the door splitting the wood in two. Sara was with the guards carrying a silver vial in her hand. She pops off the cork bringing the vial to Syaoran’s lips. A clear liquid dribbles into Syaoran’s mouth slowly making the screaming go away. Syaoran returns to normal, fast asleep on the bed. Yukito looks at Sara with questioning eyes, as she puts the cork back on the silver vial. He follows her out the door.

“What is in that vial?” demands Yukito.

“It’s just medicine. Nothing special.” speaks Sara.

“Oh really, I happen to have a cold that I need some medicine. Mind if I have some?” inquires Yukito.

“Fine, this liquid in this vial gets rid of the pain in Syaoran’s back caused by a scar. The scar was given to him by a Minotaur after they killed our parents.” implies Sara. “I don’t know how to explain this but the scar has some kind of magical properties. Waves of pain will increase each time until the pain gets extremely unbearable. This “medicine” helps stop the pain before it gets too unbearable to handle which might have killed my brother.”

“Is this scar some kind of curse?” asks Yukito.

“Yes. He cannot control his powers even from the amount of training he had received in the past. However, the curse has a new power for him. It tries to make him wicked,” says Sara. “He tries to resist but his defenses to the curse weakens everyday. I don’t know how much longer he will be able to fight it.”

“How long has he been fighting it?” inquires Yukito.

“Since the day our parents died, he fights it to protect me. I am the only member of our family excluding Syaoran who is still alive. I believe he fights it to keep the family alive.” implies Sara in a tone that hints she is on the verge of crying.

Sara bolts down the hallway getting away from Yukito and his questions. She comes to the courtyard, tears streaming down her cheeks. Sara has her back up against the wall holding her hands up to her face. She tries to hold back the tears.

“It’s happening again, isn’t it?” asks Lavender coming out of the darkness of a pillar.

“Yes, soon I will be the last member of my family. I only wish there is another side effect to this curse that would keep him alive,” admits Sara. “If only our healers could know what to do.”

“There is nothing to be worry about. I studied this curse since Ana first told me about it,” speaks Dragonmaster Seishiro. “It will eventually kill him but he can slow down the process to a thousand years, the normal death rate of a magic user, if he can learn how to control it.”

“How can he do it?” asks Sara.

“This is something to learn for himself. It cannot to be taught, this is something he must learn to control for himself,” declares Dragonmaster Seishiro. “However, I have even worse news.”

“What could be worse than this?” asks Sara.

“The Shogun is not truly dead. Our investigative team did a body search on the supposed to be the Shogun but it was actually one of his shape shifters. The real Shogun is somewhere planning his next move,” whispers Dragonmaster Seishiro. “He is coming to finish what he started. I sent scouts to slow him down and others to bring back information.”

“How much more pain must he cause to my brother!” shouts Sara. “Why can’t he just die already?”

“No word of this can spread to the Dragon Guardians. Allow them to rest for the time being, they done enough for us.” whispers Dragonmaster Seishiro. “They should be able to relax after their long journey to save this world.”

Sara and Queen Lavender nod to Seishiro going their different ways. Sara walks casually running over a plan in her head. Seishiro watches her out of the corner of his eye wondering if it was right to tell her. Then he spots an assassin on the rooftop holding a crossbow in his hands. Terror comes to his eyes figuring out that Sara is the target. He tries to shout out to her but another assassin silences him with a hammer to the head. The assassin fires the arrow, which snaps into a net capturing Sara. She screams at the top of her lungs struggling to get out of the nets. Her scream wakes up Syaoran making him jump out of bed. Syaoran grabs his sword wielding it from his sheath. He bolts out of the room dismissing the growing pain in his back. Nobody else is in the hallway making him suspicious. Syaoran slams into the door leading into the courtyard but the door does not budge. On the outside, the door is hold in place by a wooden beam going through the door handles. Sara screams again angering Syaoran. His eyes blaze with his powers giving him inhuman strength. He grabs the door handles ripping the door off its hinges.

Syaoran throws the door across the courtyard smashing it to pieces. The assassins look at the entrance, curious to know who did that. A fireball shoots out from the entranceway striking an assassin in the head. The second assassin stares at his companion seeing that the assassin’s head severed from the body. His eyes fill with terror, as Syaoran walks away from the entrance and out into the open. The assassin lets out a shrill whistle calling two Nazguls down to the ground. The assassin injects a drowsy sedative into Sara, as he ties her to the saddle. The assassin looks over to Syaoran seeing him occupied with the second Nazgul. The Nazgul keeps Syaoran away swiping with its claws and tails. Syaoran’s temper rises rapidly as his patience thins with the Nazgul.

He blasts the Nazgul with a fire spell burning its wings so it may never fly again. The Nazgul screams in horrific pain and Syaoran plunges his sword into the chest of the Nazgul. The Nazgul slowly dies with a series of angst roars. It flows down to the ground, blood flowing out of its chest. Syaoran would love to watch the Nazgul die with pain. He looks over to where the assassin was standing, discovering that the assassin is long gone. Syaoran shouts to the heavens cursing whoever did this. Finally, his friends come out into the courtyard but this only makes his temper worse.

“What took you so long?” demands Syaoran. “Didn’t any of you hear the screams or all of you are deaf?”

“A spell was prisoned us in our rooms. We just managed to break the spell.” speaks Sakura.

“Liar! Why don’t you just admit that you work for the shogun!” shouts Syaoran making tears swell up in Sakura’s eyes. “Be gone from my sight! All of you!”

Syaoran walks away from his friends not knowing of the pain he has caused him. The anger is now controlling him like a puppet with no free will. He walks out of the Enthranx castle abandoning anyone who could help him. Back in the courtyard, Sakura is kneeling down in the ground being the only one left of her friends. Tears are running down the side of her face, as she cannot believe that Syaoran treated her that way. Then she hears moaning sounds behind her making her rise to her feet. Sakura spins around wielding her dragon sword. She sees Dragonmaster Seishiro on the ground next to the wall wondering how she could she miss that, dashing to his side.

“Dragonmaster Seishiro, what happened to you?” asks Sakura.

“Forget about me, we need to worry about him. His anger is starting to affect his powers, which is starting to control him. If we don’t stop him we made lose him to the dark side forever,” declares Seishiro. “Get to the others and stop him, I believe he may be on foot so it would be easy to catch up to him.”

Sakura nods to him running down the hallway to tell her friends after getting some medic help for Dragonmaster Seishiro. Her friends believe her since it is coming from Dragonmaster Seishiro. The four Dragon Guardians rush to the stables saddling up into their dragons.They fly into the air with Fire following behind them. The Dragon Guardians look down to the ground trying to spot Syaoran. They find Syaoran four kilometers away from the castle making them land on the ground. The drop down from the saddles wielding their dragon swords, as they do not know what Syaoran might do. Syaoran sighs to himself knowing he has to apologize.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you all, especially you Sakura. It is just that I have to go save my sister and I thought my friends would be there for me,” speaks Syaoran. “Could any of you forgive me?”

"Of course we can forgive you but ever do that again and I will kill you." declares Fai. "But one question, how are we going to find Sara?"

"Easy, we go to the one place where all Nazguls head to at this time of the year. To the island of Fog." speaks Syaoran.

"But that place is forbidden to everyone, most especially us." speaks Sakura.

Syaoran gives her a look that says "I know" in a diabolical kind of way.The Dragon Guardians climb up into the saddles taking off into the sky. However, the trip is short as first they need to get supplies from the castle. The Dragon Guardians sneak around the castle trying not to disturb anyone. Fai and Yukito get some food from the kitchen while Kalin and Sakura are stocking everyone’s quivers with arrows so they will have enough for the trip in case they will have to hunt for food. Syaoran is getting the most important item and the hardest item to get a hold of, a map of the island Fog. He stands outside of the map room of the Sacred Dragon Temple trying to pick the door lock with a metal pick. He struggles to unlock the door not being able to pick the lock. His elf-like ears pick footsteps coming down from the hall not too far from him. Syaoran quickly abandons trying to pick the lock trying to get caught. He starts to run out of options starting to panic.

The Enthranx mapmaker walks down the hallway carrying a wooden box of new maps of places that have changed over the years. He has to get started on making the map of how much land the Shogun had controlled since his new uprising. The mapmaker comes to the door to the room taking out his bronze keys from his back pocket. He quickly opens the door dropping off his box on the counter. Condicentally, he forgot something important back down in his room making him leave to go get the item but he forgets his keys in the door lock. Syaoran takes an advantage of the mapmaker's mistake easily walking into the map room. He quickly searches through the room finding the map of island Fog. He finds the map in a drawer putting the map into a secret pocket of his cloak. He does up the fastenings on the pouch so the map will not fall out. Syaoran makes great haste leaving the Sacred Dragon Temple in a hurry. He takes to the alleys as a way to get to the west gate. Two sentry guards stand at the gate ready to stop anything that doesn't feel right. Syaoran quickly avoids them with his speedy moves jumping up to a catwalk. He jumps down to the other side of the ground landing in the dirt.

Even if he is out of the castle, there is still danger for him especially since the mapmaker will notice that he is missing a map.Syaoran quickly moves into the wheat crops next to the castle hiding in the tall stalks. He moves in the direction of the southwestern trail making sure to stay low in the wheat crop. The sun is starting to peek over the horizon making it hard not get spotted. He meets up with his friends on the trail continuing to stay in a silent state. The Dragon Guardians run for a total of five km away from the Enthranx castle coming to a quaint village somewhere on the other side of the castle. They slow down to normal pace, as they enter into the village. The sun is now over the horizon shining some light into the village. Most of the townsfolk are beginning to wake up starting their daily lives early in the morning. Unexpectly, the village has more guards than most villages and that is really going to make it hard to make through the village without being discover by a guard. The Dragon Guardians bolt to the nearest alley climbing up to the rooftops. They watch each passing guard walk down the street trying to figure their routines. Each guard seems to have their own pace depending on which rank and years of experience. The older guards seem to walk a slower pace being more observant while the younger ones seem to take a faster pace as if they are in a rush. The Dragon Guardians jump to the next building crouching low to the floor. They do this repeatedly until they make it across the village. The Dragon Guardians ran to the nearest forest spotting their dragons high up in the sky. They made it to the forest undetected by nearby farmers.

“I knew you would be taking this path to the portside city, everyone takes this route and I also knew you would trail off the main road and go into the village.” speaks Yuko sneaking up on them. “Can’t you stay for a little longer, maybe a week?”

“Why?” asks Syaoran.

“Prior to your training, exams are unfortunately this week and I know your sister had been kidnap, but if you wish to be respected as a skilled combat master in the battlefields of this country and other countries, you need to pass this exam,” declares Yuko. “If you decide not to take the exam this week, you have to wait a whole another year to take the exam and that gets boring. Take the exam now and not only will you have the name combat master over your head but you will also be able to go on missions in the island of Fog without any problems from the government.”

“Fine, only because if we become combat masters we will be able to travel to the island of Fog.” speaks Syaoran.

The Dragon Guardians follow Yuko out of the forest walking onto the main road. Everyone on the road is too busy to notice the Dragon Guardians expect few kids fooling around. Yuko had instructed them to act like body guards and not alot of people pay attention to body guards. Yuko leads them off the main road taking them down a pretty worn out path near a river. After deciding that nobody is trailing behind them, the Dragon Guardians pulls back their hoods taking off their dragon masks.

"Yuko, I hope you don't mind if I ask you, but what is a combat master?" asks Fai.

"A combat master is a person who has trained in the three different styles of combat, which are spell combat, weapon combat, and hand to hand combat." speaks Yuko. "In the exam, you will be tested in each combat in order to survive and you will have to use some other stuff to stay alive if you want to go on these kind of missions."

The Dragon Guardians look to each other wondering how dangerous the exams are going to be. They continue to walk down the path acting like nothing is wrong. Soon, the Dragon Guardians begin to fool around making Yuko shake her head. She still cannot believe that the order of the world is in the hands of them. Sakura grabs Syaoran's hand resting her head on his shoulder. Syaoran tries not to notice staring right ahead of him. After what seems to be miles, they are finally at the city hosting the exams. The city is huge, sitting on top of a steep hill, with a rocky wall circling around it along with a watery moat that smells. Lines of thousands of people are heading into the city making the Dragon Guardians gawk at them.

"Man, the hotels are going to be busy with all these people coming into the city," whines Kuro. "We are probably going to be sleeping on the streets tonight."

"Actually, I know a place where we can sleep for free." speaks Syaoran. "If they will let me back there."

Everyone looks at him wondering what he has done in his past. Syaoran just walks forwards bringing his hood over his head. His friends and his mentor follow behind him into the city still confused about him. The moment they enter past the gate, Syaoran leads them uphill instead of to the right where all the taverns and inns are. Soon, they come to a grand place, which is outstanding compared to the other inns they can see at the bottom of the hill. Syaoran walks across the marble pavement looking down to his feet. They follow behind him wondering what he is thinking in his head. THey enter past huge oak doors coming into an outstanding waiting area. Five rows of schoolgirls pass them by gawking at the Dragon Guardians, well just the male ones. One of them walks out of the neat row standing before them.

"Hello, my name is Soma and welcome to Girl Dormitory 4A. Your female friends can stay here as long as they want but the rest of you have to leave immediately." speaks Soma.

"Look what the cat dragged in, I thought you weren't coming back here?" says an older woman on the stairway.

"Yeah well tell that to Mother Time Selin, now tell me what happened to this place being an exclusive hotel?" demands Syaoran.

"That would be the problem, not many people wanted to pay for the entire glamorous rooms so I lost money fast and I just donated it into an all girl dormitory for the nearby school to pay taxes," declares Selin. "Soma, the hall that is off limits to all of you is where they will be sleeping for how many nights they will be here. Please show them to their rooms."

"That will not be necessary; I still remember my way around this place. You can go join your friends." speaks Syaoran waving his Soma away. Soma bows to him walking away. "What's her problem?"

"You don't remember her? That is little Soma all grown up into an teenage girl." speaks Selin. "She still thinks you abandoned her that day you left this place seven years ago."

Syaoran looks in the direction that Kartina disappeared off to wondering if she was the same little girl who used to follow him around. He leads his friends and Yuko down the left hallway dodging the many rows of older schoolgirls. Yukito tries to use a wind spell to see under their skirts but Kalin knocks some sense into him by smashing his head into the wall. Yuko only shakes her head at the two of them. Syaoran leads them down a giant hallway coming to two wooden doors. Fai jingles the door handle finding the door to be lock. Syaoran pulls a small throwing spike from his back pocket putting it into the keyhole. He turns the spike three times clockwise hearing a clicking sound. He turns the door handle opening up the doors to an old stairway. Everyone expect Syaoran drops their mouths at how many stairs they have to climb. Syaoran shakes his head grinning starting to walk up the stairs. His friends and mentor follow behind them climbing each step. After three flights of stairs, everyone is beginning to groan as each step is hurting their leg muscles.

"Man, how many more flights do we have to climb?" groans Kalin. "My legs are killing me."

"Six or seven more flights to climb depending how much more we can take of this." speaks Syaoran. "Come on, no pain no gain."

After what seems to be hours of climbing the stairs, they finally reach the last flight almost out of breath. Syaoran opens the door showing his friends and mentor to their six room suite. They all, expect Syaoran, rush into the suite amazed by the elegance of the rooms. Everyone went out staking out their room trying to get the rom that suits them. Syaoran found his old room just the way he left, a complete mess with lots of spellbooks everywhere and daggers on the table. However, he got the strange feeling that meant something was moved from its original spot. Syaoran begins tearing up the room looking for the object. Sakura happens to be standing at the foot of the door giggling at the sight of her boyfriend acting so weird. Syaoran ignores her searching through the closet for whatever he is looking for. However, Sakura has other plans sneaking behind him. Syaoran finds what he is looking for pulling an elegant dagger from the closet. He puts the dagger into his pouch putting the room back to normal, well almost normal.

"What do you want?" asks Syaoran.

"I just want to inform you that I will be sharing a room with you," speaks Sakura putting her bag on the bed. "This should be a fun week."

"Yeah, this week will be very fun for the both of us." admits Syaoran putting his arms around Sakura's hips.

"There is going to be a training session in the courtyard in five minutes." interrupts Yuko. "We are going to give all these nice people a show for their entertainment."

Syaoran and Sakura glare at Yuko wishing that she could have left them alone. The moment Yuko leaves, Sakura pushes pushes Syaoran down to the bed kissing him on the lips. Syaoran kisses her on the lips in return holding her close. The Dragon Guardians bolt down the stairs not wanting to get anymore of a punishment from Yuko. They come to the courtyard seeing that all the residents seated around the area. Syaoran spots Selin and Soma sitting among them making him grin. Yuko stands in the middle of the courtyard holding a long sword in her hand. The blade shines in the available light giving it a dignified look. The Dragon Guardians circle around her wielding their dragon swords.

"These are my students the honorable and humble Dragon Guardians." speaks Yuko. "They are my prized students who are competing in the combat master exams this week."

The residents whisper amongst themselves, the older schoolgirls fondlingly looking at Syaoran whispering stuff like how hot he is. Yuko raises her hand making the residents hush to silence. The Dragon Guardians watch her hand waiting for it to come down so they can attack.

Chapter Ten: The combat master exam

The hand comes down and Syaoran is the first one to attack Yuko. He comes in swinging from the left reaching for a dagger from his pouch. Yuko smiles knowing what he is going to do. Syaoran also smiles grinning as Yuko has taken the bait. He slides to the ground knocking Yuko off her feet. Vines begin coming out of the ground holding Yuko to the ground. They wrap themselves around her body tightening their grip on her. Yuko looks over to Kalin seeing her focusing the energy of her powers through her staff. More vines start popping out of the ground wrapping themselves around nearby columns. They tightened their grip on Yuko lifting her off the ground. Yuko looks for her sword seeing it laying uselessly on the ground. It starts to get very cold in the courtyard, as the residents start huddling together for warmth. Yuko can barely look over to Kuro seeing him mutter the words for the freezing spell. The vines start to become solid ice trapping her in a box of ice. Yuko can only look back and forth to her students wondering who will be next to attack. That is when she sees Syaoran's dagger in the middle of the a circle of fire runes.

You have to be shitting me, Yuko thinks to herself, there is no way he can use that spell without killing himself.

Selin and Soma see the same thing both looking over to Syaoran. Syaoran takes out his bow selecting special metal arrow. He nocks the metal arrow to his bow pulling back the bowstring. His eyes flash over to Sakura who looks back to him. Sakura's eyes flicker over to the dagger seeing that he had chose the dagger he found in the closet earlier that day. The dagger is completely red, the same color of flames, but there is something to it. She looks back to Syaoran seeing him deep in concentration. He aims at the dagger knowing that he only one shot or everything else is hopeless. Syaoran lets go of the arrow sending it straight at the dagger. He closes his eyes hearing the sound of the arrow striking the dagger. The fire runes begin to glow shaking Yuko to the core of her body. She has only five minutes to come up with a spell or the spell will fry her to ashes.

She decides on the telekinesis punch to break free from her prison chanting the words in her mind. She knows that saying the words in her mind will cost her more than saying it loud so the spell better work. As if an invisible fist was smashing the ice, cracks started to appear in the box of ice allowing Yuko to escape. Yuko leaps away from the fire runes just when the spell goes off. Yuko slides across the floor reaching for her long sword. She raises her sword in time to deflect a throwing star from Syaoran. Syaoran gives out the signal to Fai and Kuro instructing them to attack. The two Dragon Guardians leap at Yuko blasting spells from their dragon swords.

With a cat-like agility, Yuko dodges the spells sliding on her feet. Syaorans gives out another signal to Yukito and Kalin instructing them to help out. Yukito and Kalin strike at their teacher barely missing her. Yuko smashes the hilt of her sword into Yukito's face giving him a bleeding nose. She trips Kalin thorwing her next to Yukito. Two older schoolgirls pull Yukito to the sidelines tending to his bleeding nose with loving care. Andre glares over to Syaoran bearing a grin on her face. She taunts him trying to get him to join the battle. Syaoran locks gazes with her trying to the teacher to make the first move.

Yuko fails the stare down charging right at him. Sakura sneaks behind her hitting Yuko on the head with her hammer. Yuko slams into the ground hard giving herself a bleeding nose.Yuko raises herself to her feet, face all bloody. The Dragon Guardians, including Yukito who decided to fight with a bleeding nose, stand in front of her holding their swords tightly in their master hand. Yuko stands her ground not being one to back down from a fight. Yukito, Kuro, Fai, and Kalin fall to the ground unable to continue the fight as they have exhaust too much energy of their powers. Yuko smirks as it is down to Sakura and Syaoran. However, Syaoran might be out sooner than most people would think as his fire rune spell didn't touch Yuko.

"Syaoran, lets call this match a draw. We both know that we can fight for much longer period of time but the both of us are pretty exhausted." speaks Yuko. "I doubt you can go on any longer because of your misfired rune spell."

"I think all that blood rushing to your brain has made you a little bit too slow to notice much things." declares Syaoran. " You have completely missed the elemental rune spells all around you where you happen to be standing." Yuko's eyes widened at the sight of the elmental rune spells trapping her in one spot.

"Now Yuko, yoiu can either be attacked by six different spells or you can drop your sword and surrender to us." shouts Sakura. "You have five seconds to decide your fate."

"Well, that is an easy answer. I surrender to you two to be spared from my demise." declares Yuko dropping her sword.

Syaoran sheathes his dragon sword walking over to Yuko. He picks up her long sword tossing it away from Yuko. He brushes away one of the elemental rune spells with his sleeve helping Yuko out. Syaoran grabs her sleeve pulling her out of the circle. Sakura and Syaoran, with the help from other residents, help their friends onto their feet carrying them up to their rooms. After taking care of their comrades, Sakura and Syaoran head over to the balconey. Sakura rests her head on her boyfriend's shoulder smiling up to the stars. Syaoran rests his head on her head holding her close to him.

"Come on, we have work to do." speaks Syaoran. "And not the kind you're thinking about in your dirty mind."

Sakura shakes her head at him following him to the dining room. They begin coming up with plans for the exams trying to make sure they are ready for it. After cleaning off the blood on her face, Yuko walks into the room checking over their plans. She gives out helpful hints to them making notes on the side. They work through the night still hard at work, as the moon reaches the peak of the night sky. Well, Sakura had gone off to bed unable to continuee in her tired state of mind. She kisses Syaoran good night on the cheek.

"Come on Syaoran, time for bed. It's almost midnight." speaks Yuko in a tired tone. "You still have to attend the combat master convention and register for the exams."

Syaoran can only nod to her, too tired to talk. He rolls up the plans taking them to his room. Syaoran locks them in the trunk at the end of the bed undressing out of his uniform. He gets under the covers burrowing his head into the pillow. Sakura moves up beside him wrapping her arms around him. Syaoran turns over to her holding her very close. The two of them sleep fondlingly in each others' arms loving each other.

Unfortunately, the sun shines early that morning waking the two lovers from their slumber. Sakura nudges her boyfriend awake making him the first person of the team to wake up. Syaoran gets out of bed dressing into a silk tunic and silk pants. He heads into the kitchen making some coffee to wake him up throughly. The coffee does its job giving him a jolt of energy. The rest of the team begins to wake up walking into the kitchen. They pour themselves a cup of coffee getting the same jolt of energy as Syaoran. Yuko is the last person to wake up pouring herself a bigger cup of coffee then the Dragon Guardians. The Dragon Guardians return to their rooms strapping on their weapons. They leave the building with Yuko following behind them. They skip the early morning traffic of people climbing up to the rooftops. They jump rooftop to rooftop creating their own shortcut to city hall. The Dragon Guardians arrive at city hall just when other fighters begin to arrive. Some of them took the same route as the Dragon Guardiasn; others teleported themselves to the area.

The Dragon Guardians raise their hoods over their heads blending in with the crowd. The city hall building is built right in the middle of the city with small vendors all around the area. Most of the vendors are for the combat exams while others are for the profit of small time business owners. The Dragon Guardians paid no attention to the vendors walking up to the city hall building. Unusually, they are the first ones to sign up for the exams giving them enough time to look around. They split up exploring the market. Syaoran heads off to the throwing weapon section of the market with Sakura trailing behind him. Kalin had disappear off to buy to buy some healing herbs she was running low on and had taken the rest of the team with her. Syaoran stops at a booth selling older models of throwing weapons. He looks at the daggers trying to decide if he should buy some. Sakura stands close to him looking at some throwing spikes.

"See anything you like?" asks a young female shopkeeper appearing out of nowhere. "My name is Julin. And yours would be?"

"Come on Julin, I use to be your father's regular customers." says Syaoran facing her.

Julin shrieks out his name hugging him very tight. She takes him to the back of the booth pulling out a large wooden box. Sakura stands watch at the front of the booth making sure no thievery happens. Julin opens the wooden box taking some new throwing stars. She gives him the throwing stars and Syaoran spins them in his hand testing them out.

"I see you have honed down your weapon making skills. These throwing stars are very top quality, lightweight but not loss of its sharpness at the points." declares Syaoran.

"Good, I want you to have them. I even made them especially for you." admits Julin looking at him fondlingly.

Syaoran smiles at her mockinly putting the throwing stars into his pouch around his arm. He hugs her good bye fondling with her butt to make her laugh. Syaoran leaves the booth taking Sakura's hand as he goes to find the rest of the team. They quickly find each other heading to the city hall steps. They sit on the steps waiting for the exams to begin. After three hours of waiting, the bell on the city hall tower strikes noon alerting all examines that the first meeting is going to begin. Everybody rushes into city hall making a large shoving crowd. They all meet in the main hall seeing their instructors up on a stage. The Dragon Guardians are crowded in with other examines standing at attention. Everything is quiet as the legendary combat master, named Combat, takes to the stage standing in the middle of the mentors. His frayed silver robes hid much of his features yet barely concealing his legendary weapon, the silver whip.

"Good morning recruits, you have all chosed by your own free will to take part in these exams in order to become rookie combat masters." declares Combat. "Some of you may be given the easy written exams while others will be pitted up against each other until there is one team left. Then the team from the written exams with the highest mark will face off against the last team standing from the gladiator battles."

The Dragon Guardians look at all the examines wondering who will be in the written exams and who will be in the gladiator battles. They look to Yuko discovering Yuko to be glaring at another instructor. After Combat was done talking, everybody went to the back of the room seeing what exams they will be taking. Tge Dragon Guardians find out that they will be in the gladiator exams quickly leaving city hall. Yuko ran after her students following after them. Yukito puts his arm around Yuko's shoulder thanking her for telling them about the combat master exams. The Dragon Guardians return to the hotel noticing that they have the hotel to themselves. Instead of partying around, the Dragon Guardians went to training trying to get acquainted with the new battle plans. After hours of hours of training, the Dragon Guardians lay on the ground almost out of breath.

"Man, I didn't expect the battle plans to be that hard." pants Syaoran. "However, if that is what it takes to pass these exams then it is worth it."

"Though, I would trade all of it away just to get rid of the pain in my legs." admits Yukito.

"Anyone here?" Soma shout from the hallway.

"We are in the courtyard." declares Syaoran struggling to his feet.

"Guess what? I was able to get tickets so now I can see your first match at midnight." shrieks Soma hugging Syaoran.

Syaoran grunts softly to the pain hugging her back. After she leaves, the Dragon Guardians moan about having to compete that late in the day. They head up to their room relaxing for the match by drinking some herbal tea and doing tai chi. Before they know it, the time was midnight and the Dragon Guardians left for the coliseum across town. They took their shortcut not wanting to waste time to get there. They arrive at the coliseum remarkably fast jumping down from the rooftops. The Dragon Guardians head to the middle of the stadium discovering that people are just arriving to their seats. Halfway, the arena is full of people who are anxious to see the match. The Dragon Guardians notice that their opponents are at the far end of the stadium not what they are up against. Combat stands at the side of the field raising his right hand above his head. Each fighter stares at the hand waiting for the signal. The moment the hand comes down, the Dragon Guardians are the first one to attack bolting down the field. Syaoran leads his firends down the field holding no weapon in his hands. None of them hold a weapon in their hands thinking they should go hand to hand. The Dragon Guardians jump in front of their opponents faking an attack as they reach for their dragon swords. Their opponents cast elemental spells blasting them at the Dragon Guardians. However, they direct their spells at Syaoran hitting him right in the chest. Syaoran lands on his feet panting hard, as he couldn't believe he didn't see that one coming. He looks to his chestplate seeing that his dragon chestplate was the only thing that protected him from a major injury. He wields his dragon sword bolting towards his opponents.

"Don't you get it, kid! Nobody survives the spells of the Element Warlocks!" shouts their leader, named Rick. "Now taste the true power of the a warlock!"

"Bring it on, fool!" taunts Syaoran charging Rick.

Rick smiles firing a Thunder spell. Sakura jumps in front of her boyfriend spinning her dragon sword in a circular motion. She absorbs the spell storing the spell's power into the stone on her gauntlet. Syaoran raises his hand just in time to catch a fireball in which the thunder spell was a diversion. He leaps to his feet pulling out three daggers from the pouch. He throws the daggers straight at the the rest of the team striking something unseen in front of them. A huge demonic creature appears out of nowhere roaring loudly to the night sky.

The demonic creature is about eighty feet tall and twenty feet long. Huge fifteen foot tall spikes are all over the creature's body being its first defense mechanism by beign able to fire them like missiles and regenerate more spikes. Six heads glare over to Syaoran baring their razor sharp teeth to him. Syaoran plunges his sword into the ground having a quitting expression on his face.

"Syaoran, what is the plan to go up against this thing?" asks Sakura.

"There is no plan to stop a demon bred Hydra." admits Syaoran. "We have finally been beaten."

"Syaoran, how can you be saying this? It is not like you to give up." speaks Sakura.

Sakura takes off her gauntlet not wanting to hurt him when she slaps him. She slaps him hard across the face trying to knock some sense into him. Syaoran's eyes blur for a moment then focusing on the demon hydra. His eyes become pitch black much like to those of the ancient elves of Enthranx. His eyes target on the demonic Hydra searching for the weak points.This sight is called elf sight, the sixth eye or the eye of the mind. It can show the weak points on any object, which explains why elves are one of the great fighters. This sight takes years to master for a pure bred elf and should have taken centuries for Syaoran to master but he has done it in lesser time than that. He finds the weak points on the belly of the Hydra making his eyes go back to normal.

"Fai, execute battle 52A, attack formation delta alpha." commands Syaoran. "Kalin, execute battle 12A. Sakura and Yukito, we are going to cast the triangular shield spell to protect them."

His friends nod to him understanding their orders. Kalin and Fai wield their secondary weapons placing them on the ground. Kalin's staff of earth glows a greenish light lifting the stands twenty feet upwards. Fai's trident glows a blue light pulling out water from an underground basin. The stadium slowly begins to fill up with water but the Elemental Warlocks were a step ahead of them. They transformed the feet of the demonic Hydra into flippers allowing the creature to swim in the water. They also give it gills making it more better. The Dragon Guardians whistle for their dragons, as the water becomes waist deep. Their Guardian dragons come soaring down from the sky gliding a few inches from their riders. The Dragon Guardians jump into the saddles strapping their legs into the leg straps. The Guardians dragons soar high into the sky away from the rising water and from the demonic Hydra. Syaoran rubs the side of Fire's neck instructing his dragon to dive down. Fire tilts to the right diving close to the water. The demonic Hydra dove beneath the water with the Element Warlocks on its back.

"How will they be able to breathe?" asks Syaoran.

"The bond between them and their creature is strong allowing them to breathe under water by sharing gills with their creature." admits Fire. "I sense powerful magic from them."

"This is going to be one great match." speaks Syaoran.

Fire nods in agreement scanning the waters for any sign of the demonic Hydra. However, the demonic creature has hidden its massive body in the murky shadows of the water. They hear a splash behind them finding Fai and his dragon had dove into the murky water. Syaoran connects to him with thought speech, his eyes going all white.

"What are you up to?" demands Syaoran.

"I'm trying to get the demonic Hydra to show itself so you and the others can engage it into battle." advises Fai. "Moreover, I need to retrieve my trident."

"Okay, but if anything feels wrong get out of there. Good luck, Fai." speaks Syaoran.

Fai's Sea Dragon, Drench, dives deeper into the risen basin trying to get an element connection with the trident. Since Drench and the trident use the water element for the source of thier power, they have a mental connection with each other. When apart from each other, the mental connection weakens until they are back together. Drench expands the boundaries of his mind searching for the trident. Fai also tries to help wondering if he has a connection with the trident too. He tries this out stretching his arm to the side.

"Trident of the Sea, come to my hand." Fai speaks telepathetically.

He hope it had work as he thought he had seen the demonic Hydra somewhere close. Fai starts to feel the familiar touch of his trident looking over to his hand. There, in his hand, is the sweet relief of his trident. However, he also sees the demonic Hydra coming right at them. Fortunately, Drench sees the same thing too making a swim for the surface. He swims swiftly towards the surface, as the demonic creature swims behind them. Fai begins conjuring whirlpools spinning his trident around in the water. However, the demonic Hydra is too massive for the whirlpools to have any effect on him. Drench makes it to the surface diving out of the water. He opens ups his wings flapping his wings to gain altitude. The demonic Hydra dive out of the water, each of the six heads snapping at them.

"Kuro, do it now." commands Syaoran. "Cast the spell now!"

Ben wields out his white sabre focusing all its power to the spell. He fires a freezing spell at the demonic Hydra hitting the creature in the back.