Chapter 6

“Tahu! Look out!”

The Fire Toa turned just in time to raise his sword against the onslaught. The face of his attacker was hidden behind a blackened, pitted mask, and black smoke billowed from its sword.

Tahu held the stranger off as best he could. He channeled the power of his flame through his fire sword, pointing it toward the sandy ground beneath his attacker. It instantly crystallized into glass and broke under the stranger's weight. The attacker plummeted out of sight.

But Tahu barely had time enough to smile before the stranger leaped out of the pit. “Hate to shatter your illusions,” it said in a sizzling, crackling voice, “but it will take more than that to get rid of me.”

The words only drove Tahu to greater fury. He shot white-hot flames out of the sword, but his movements were too fast, careless, striking the walls and boulders of the cavern until sparks flew in all directions, showering over the other Toa.

“Take care, Tahu,” the attacker spoke again, “lest the fire of your anger blaze out of control.”

Tahu gritted his teeth. “We’ll see how you like my fire now,” he said.

He pointed his sword at the stony cavern floor. Fire poured from the end, melting the rock into steaming, glowing lava.

“Brother Tahu!” Onua’s voice sounded distant, almost lost in the bubbling sound of the boiling lava. “Watch what you’re doing — you’ll endanger us all!”

But Tahu could only focus on his adversary, who elegantly sprung to the top of a giant slab of rock at the edge of the lava.

“Coward!” Tahu roared. “Can’t take the heat, huh? Leaving already?”

“Leave?” Laughter bubbled out of the stranger, as if more lava had burst up through the ground. “Why would I leave, Toa of Fire?”

Tahu’s mysterious opponent leaped off its rock and surfed across the bubbling lava. Its smile broadened. “Come, give in to the flame,” it whispered. “Let it consume you and all you hold dear — I know you can feel it burning deep inside.”

Tahu gasped, startled out of his own anger. What sort of enemy was this? He looked around for help and saw that five more attackers had suddenly appeared, as if out of the shadows themselves, each moving in on a different Toa…

✴        ✴        ✴

Nearby, Gali struggled against another mysterious attacker. The stranger’s form mirrored her own, but rather than the clean blue of the open sea, its body was the muted, sickly brownish-black of an oil slick.

“Who are you?” Gali gasped as she released a raging flood of water toward her attacker.

A chuckle poured out of the attacker, who seemed unaffected by the flood. “Who am I?” it said. “Is the wise, all-seeing Gali really so blind? I am — you!”

Gali gasped, her hooks dropping down by her sides as her foe’s words swept away her power. “What? What do you mean?”

But she already knew the answer. So this is Makuta’s new method of attack, making them fight themselves! What better way to size up their strength, observe their weaknesses?

“You are not me,” Gali responded in anger. “At best you could only be a shadow of what I am.”

“Exactly.” When the stranger lunged at her, Gali jumped to the side, spun around and landed fifteen meters away. She took a deep breath, coughing. What could have made the air so thick, warm and unpleasant?

She looked around and realized the spot she had landed on was surrounded by lava. Flames flickered on its surface, shining light on a nearby pair of combatants. Tahu! He’s still fighting against himself, both of them sliding across lava as easily as Gali had waded through the shallow waters of Naho Bay. Before she could take a better look at them, she heard a blunt thud to her side. She whirled around, just in time to evade the enormous double slash of her opponent's axehooks.

“You didn’t truly believe you could get away that easily, Toa of Water?” the stranger taunted her, somersaulting backwards with ease. “In your great wisdom, you’ll obviously realize what a meaningless effort this is. Like a fish squirming around trying to escape, when it has already been caught.”

“We’ll see.” Gali forced herself to focus, taking deep breaths to draw every available bit of moisture toward herself – the water of the streams flowing inside the rocks surrounding the cavern, the tiny droplets flying in the air, even the steam rising out of Tahu’s lava. They united and rushed toward Gali as a roaring, furious flood that swept away everything in its path.

Gali jumped into the first wave to reach her, her feet kicking like flippers through the powerful stream. She swam to the surface some distance away, smiling.

But her smile faded when her opponent appeared from the water next to her.

“I’m sorry, Gali,” it said with a grin. “Looks like the tides have swept over your head.”

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Pohatu jumped atop an enormous boulder just in time to avoid being swept away by Gali’s flood. “Hey!” he cried, his usual good nature overwhelmed by near panic. “Gali, take care not to fight your friends as well as your enemy!”

His opponent smirked. “So much for teamwork,” it said in its gravelly voice. “This is how your friends repay your loyalty. Makes one wonder why one should bother with friends at all, doesn’t it?”

“Not at all.” Pohatu leaped to the ground and immediately gave swung his weapon at the boulder a tremendous kick with his reinforcing feet additions. It shattered into hundreds of flying shards, ricocheting off the walls toward the mysterious attacker.

The stranger effortlessly dodged them, its movements as fast and smooth as Pohatu’s. The Toa of Stone frowned – he was impressed. “So,” he said, “it looks like we have to fight. Well then, let the dance begin.”

With that, he grabbed a hold of another immense boulder, tearing it free from the ground with a grunt. He lifted it above his head and hurled it at his foe.

The stranger laughed as he dodged the rocks. “Too bad, Pohatu,” it taunted. “Good thing you expect nothing in return for your loyalty to your friends. Because now that the chips are down, it seems they’ve left you to fight me all alone.”

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It was getting hard for Lewa to concentrate on his own battle. First he’d nearly backflipped into the pool of lava that had suddenly appeared to cover half the cave. Then a flood of water had washed through forcing him to float near the ceiling to avoid drowning. And now, a gigantic boulder was heading for him as his opponent had him pinned against the cave wall.

“AI-AI-AI-AI-AI!” he yodeled, flipping himself up and over his attacker’s weapons and out of the boulder’s path.

CRRRRAAAAAACK!

The cavern shuddered as the boulder struck the wall. Lewa glanced hopefully back toward it, wondering if his opponent might be trapped behind it.

“Looking for me, Toa of Air?”

What is this creature, this quickdodging dark-stranger? Lewa wondered as he leaped into the air to escape another blow. It looks like me — but not like me.

He took in the stranger’s pitted mask, blackened as if by a creeping forest mold. Its skin beneath was green — the washed-out green of a diseased leaf.

Tumbling out of range and lifting his arms, Lewa focused his energies on the air all around him. Soon a whirlwind roared through the cavern. It swept up Lewa’s enemy, and the Toa of Air laughed with delight.

But his opponent merely laughed in return as it glided easily through the currents and soon landed back beside the startled Toa.

✴        ✴        ✴

It hadn’t taken Kopaka long to realize what was happening — Makuta had created these shadowy versions of the Toa to challenge them where the Manas and all his other creatures had failed.

And so far, the plan seemed to be working.

Kopaka fought on grimly. Neither he nor his enemy was wasting any energy on words. Kopaka found his frustration rising as each of his carefully executed moves was met and returned with equal precision.

This isn’t working, he thought. There has to be a better way…

Then he saw Lewa somersaulting above his head. This momentary inattention was all his foe had needed. It thrust forward, the dirty white gleam of its sword heading straight for Kopaka’s midsection.

The Toa of Ice managed to swing his shield in front of him just in time. The sword slid across it with devastating force, throwing Kopaka off balance.

Okay, he thought coldly. Time to try something else.

“This should cool you off,” he muttered.

He touched his ice sword to the ground and focused his energy. Instantaneously, the cavern floor froze into a solid sheet of ice.

Even as he did it, Kopaka realized he’d miscalculated. His enemy smiled as it glided across the ice, its moves more graceful and controlled than ever.

“I see you’ve just recognized the cold, hard truth,” it whispered in a voice as sharp as an icicle.

✴        ✴        ✴

Onua barely had time to think as he fought his unwavering opponent. This stranger, Onua’s shadow version, was just as strong as him. It was a creature of Makuta’s, but unlike any other.

As he ducked to avoid his foe’s blow, Onua briefly looked around the cave. Not far away, Kopaka was skating on an icy area, entwined in a perilous dance with his pale and lanky lookalike. A bit farther, Gali and Pohatu were deep in battle with their enemies. Lewa’s voice could be heard from somewhere above, and the flames of Tahu’s sword illuminated the walls.

Onua shook his head, willing himself to focus, to think through this problem. He had already tried overpowering his enemy with raw strength, but its might matched his own. He had attempted to trap it by tunneling through the cavern wall and then collapsing the tunnel atop it, but the creature had burrowed out easily.

We can’t go on this way, he thought desperately.

Right now the Toa were at an impasse, evenly matched with their enemy. But if even one of them went down, it could mean the end of all of them.

Feeling uncharacteristically desperate, the Earth Toa struck the ground before him with all his might. The earth rumbled at the blow, shaking the entire cavern and sending a hailstorm of rocks and earth raining down on all the fighters.

Onua felt despair grip him as he saw that while the other Toa had been knocked off their feet, his own opponent merely leaped over the torn earth and moved in to press the attack.