Immediately the territory came to life. The creatures focused any light they could into sticks, wands, and some even lit up their shoes for the fight. The Shadow Men swarmed in, and the battle began.
From where Elliot stood, he could see everything. The Brownies and Dwarves were doing their best with water. Their arms were too short to fight the Shadow Men alone, but the Brownies poofed in bucket after bucket of water for the Dwarves to throw on the Shadow Men, who quickly fell like drops of gray mud to the ground.
The Fairies and Pixies were working together to operate a giant fan that seemed to have the exact opposite effect of normal fans. Instead of blowing out cool air, it sucked in hot air. The Shadow Men who had ignored the fan at first were now too close and tried to fly away. But the fan continued pulling them in, and when it did, only ashes came out the other side.
Each Shadow Man destroyed took out another piece of Kovol's curse. Everything was going exactly the way Elliot had hoped it would.
The rest of Elliot's army fought one to one. They held off the remaining Shadow Men with their light sticks. None of the Shadow Men wanted to touch those sticks, which was fine with Elliot's creatures who really didn't want to get any closer than they had to.
In the distance, the Goblins continued to blow things up as new waves of Shadow Men approached. Every time Elliot heard an explosion, he knew that some had been slowed down and some had gotten through.
Yet so far, Elliot's side was holding its own.
"We're winning!" Elliot said excitedly to Fudd and Mr. Willimaker. "I think we're going to win this!"
Elliot may have spoken too soon. He heard a popping sound beside him and turned. In his human form, Harold was sitting beside Elliot, out of breath and with a very worried look on his face.
"I tried," Harold panted. "I tried, Elliot."
"Why are you here?" Elliot asked. "Where's Kovol?"
"I'm sorry. I made a mistake."
Elliot shook his head. "Harold, you were supposed to keep him far away from here!"
"I know." Harold took a deep breath. "I let him chase me everywhere. At one point he got bored and went up to the surface to look for you, but I got him back. But I got confused." Then his eyebrows pressed together. "I had to run so fast, and I forgot where I was. I led him back here."
Elliot gestured around them. "Here? You brought Kovol here?"
A deafening screech roared from the edge of Demon Territory. Hearing it, all the Shadow Men left Kovol's cave and flew away.
"That's Kovol calling his army back now," Harold said, burying his face in his hands. "We're in a lot of trouble, and it's all my fault."
Down on the dark ground, the Underworld creatures looked around at one another, confused and alarmed. They had heard the screech too.
"What's happening?" a Centaur said. "Something's wrong."
"Everyone poof away from here!" Elliot cried. "Back to Burrowsville. Hurry!"
A few of the creatures obeyed, but most of them stared toward the border of Demon Territory, where smoke was gathering into the shape of a cone. It quickly twisted into a circle, slowly moving at the top, where it was widest, and spinning faster and tighter at the bottom.
"What is that?" Mr. Willimaker asked. "I've never seen anything like that before."
"We have those on the surface," Elliot said. "If that's what I think it is."
Elliot knew no one could stop what was coming. They weren't protected beside Kovol's cave. They were trapped there!
"That's a tornado!" he said. But unlike the tornadoes on the surface world, this one was made of smoke and fire. "Everyone hurry!" he yelled. "Poof out of here now!"
"We have to leave now!" Fudd called to Elliot. Already, the wind created by the Shadow Men was so loud it sounded as if a train was running through Demon Territory.
Mr. Willimaker held tightly to his hat with one hand and to his glasses with the other. "It's too late," he said. "With wind this powerful, nobody could hold themselves together to safely poof away."
"Everyone go inside the cave!" Elliot ordered. "There's less wind. You can poof away there!"
Nobody needed to be told. Creatures were already rushing into the cave. Above the noise of the wind, Elliot yelled to both Fudd and Mr. Willimaker to leave. They couldn't poof themselves, but Elliot helped them shimmy down the roof, then he used his broomstick to lower them into the arms of some nearby Trolls.
"You must come too," Fudd said.