45- The Birdcage

The boys reacted quickly, Kaius began shooting lightning form his fingers as Skye began throwing rock spears. The Gryphons were flying into the cavern in groups, although the Gryphons were fast they were still limited to where they could fly due to the size of the cavern. Zane was launching Time arrows slowing down as many of the Gryphons as he could.

The wind was howling and the hoods on the trios cloak wouldn't stay up preventing them from cloaking, once again they were fully exposed.

As Kaius would hit a Gryphon it would squeal in pain and fall to the ground where he would smash them with a boulder. Skye was fairing just as well launching rock spears and crushing the Gryphons that fell to the ground.

The boys were doing well but there were too many Gryphons and more and more made it into the cavern and started flying at the trio from different directions. Roughly 7 Gryphons lay dead on the floor crushed by boulders, but there were another 11 flying around the cavern swooping down towards the boys. "Fall back towards the entrance" Kaius yelled. The trio rushed towards the entrance they came from keeping their backs towards it so they couldn't be attacked from behind.

As the Gryphons swooped in the boys would dodge and shoot lightning bolts, time arrows and earth spears at them. Kaius was fending off two Gryphons from the left and the right as he saw three rush towards Zane. Zane slowed them down with his Time arrows and dodged closer to the hole, a Gryphon came down and scooped Zane in his claw while he was in mid roll. Kaius saw Zane get grabbed by the Gryphon and rushed in to help.

He teleported away from the two Gryphons attacking him and appeared next to the one that grabbed Zane. The Gryphon holding Zane took off towards the hole in the ceiling, using his Wind Walkers Kaius walked on air and infusing his Aura Blade with lightning he swung it at the Gryphon slicing off the claw that was holding Zane.

The gryphon squealed in pain as he dropped Zane towards the ground, Kaius waved his hand and used wind to slow Zane's descent as Zane used time to further decrease his fall. Zane landed on his feet and rushed closer to the entrance firing Time bolts at the Gryphons.

Kaius remained standing in the air as he fired lightning bolts at the surrounding Gryphons. The Wind Walkers used the wind element to power it and allowed users to walk on air for a short time. The back of the boot had three crystals on them which could be charged with wind and then used when necessary for non-wind Elementalists.

Since Kaius was a Chaos Elementalist he could power the boots at will walking in the air as easily as if he were on the ground. Powering the boots off and on to control the height he was at was a bit difficult, but Kaius learned best on the fly.

The gryphons swarmed Kaius who continued to infuse his blade with lightning swinging it like crazy. Zane and Skye were able to focus on supporting Kaius as all the Gryphons turned their focus towards him and left them alone.

Kaius was doing well but he was still taking damage his uniform was tattered and there were claw marks on his lower back, legs and arms. Kaius dodged a Gryphon then infused his blade with fire as he swung it fast in a circle around him. Flames shot out of the blade and cascaded away from Kaius setting all the Gryphons surrounding him on fire.

As Zane and Skye continued supporting Kaius from the ground, the swarm of Gryphons around Kaius caught fire and flew around in a frenzy. Kaius ran around in the air slicing the heads off as many Gryphons as he could.

The Gryphons were dropping like flies and there was an obvious decrease in their numbers, as Kaius went to slash at another Gryphon a strong blast of wind hit him from behind and knocked him out of the sky. Kaius lost his balance and fell into the nearby river.

"KAIUS" Skye and Zane both yelled at the same time, the blast that knocked Kaius out of the sky came from a snow white Gryphon who was hovering in the air facing towards the river where Kaius fell. Two more snow white Gryphons appeared and hovered next to the one that blasted Kaius with wind. The other two Gryphons turned and stared at Zane and Skye, then they both flapped their wings forward as a strong blast of wind slammed Skye into the wall, and knocked Zane into the entrance way.

Skye was stuck against the wall and couldn't move, the wind pinning him against it was extremely strong. He attempted to put up stone walls to block some of the wind but before the walls could form the strong wind would destroy it, Skye was completely suppressed and couldn't move. "Damn it, I hate to bother you buddy, but it looks like I failed. Think you can lend me a hand, I need to help my friends" he said.

Zane was not fairing any better, as the blast knocked him into the corridor he banged into a wall and hit his head. Zane's body slumped to the ground, the blow to his head was hard and he was dizzy. He could still see the Gryphons hovering in the air flapping their wings, Zane attempted to crawl forward but he was stuck in place. "Ugh you know I hate to ask, but I think i'm gonna need your help to save my friends," he said.

Kaius hit the water hard, it was freezing cold and his body was momentarily shocked from the impact. Kaius's body was tired and the cold weighed on him, he tried to will the water around him and push himself up but his body was tired. Kaius's eyes were getting heavy as the cold water set in and he sunk more and more, "I won't help you unless you get yourself out of here" a voice said in his head.

Kaius knew who the voice belonged to, Chaos rarely ever spoke to him like this but there was no way he wouldn't recognize his other half. "If I die here then you die too" Kaius said in his head. "I'm cool with that" Chaos responded, "if you aren't strong enough to get yourself out of something like this then you don't deserve to wield this power."