*BOOM!*
The ball of fire dropped right into Elisa's position and enlarged.
It engulfed the surroundings, blowing everyone away.
It dug into the ground, destroyed the surroundings and pulled up walls of smoke.
As the ball of fire receded into oblivion, a body was revealed.
Scorched black and held beneath the soil level, all that could be seen was black.
But then...
"Ah..."
Ezra groaned, pushing himself back on his feet.
-----------
*SIUUM!*
As soon as he felt something, Ezra left the grandmasters and rushed to Elisa's side.
Even then, he reached her right as the grandmaster flew across and dropped the fireball.
His brain went into overdrive, any impact on the fireball would have it explode, so trying to move it was out of the options.
At the same time, he wasn't fast enough to avoid the impact, nor could he shield her from it in such an abysmal timeframe, so how was he to save Elisa?
The answer popped up.
He reached Elisa with an outstretched palm, willing the ancient ring to suck her in.
On cue...the fireball detonated.
-----------
Groaning, Ezra raised himself back on his feet, puking blood as he did.
Wiping his eyes of dirt, he looks around, still disoriented.
'Elisa' he thought, his vision blurred. 'Did I save her?'
If she died, chances of them getting out of here reduced tremendously.
His chance of escaping would be infinitely close to Zero.
Then...[You did] Zydrax replied. [She's in the space ring, although unconscious, she's alive]
'Whew' Ezra sighed in his mind. His eyes cleared up as his body healed. A single question burned in his mind.
'Who attacked us?'
He could hear the clash of metal and make out lightning sparks at the distance.
When suddenly... "Ahh!"
A shout came about, with a familiar tone.
Ezra hadn't forgotten that enemies were abound.
With a quick clap, he pushed away the fog of the smoke, granting a clear line of sight.
Fredrick and Deneris lay with their faces to the ground on which Alvarach now stood, repressing the two from standing.
The Emperor was shaking with his feet above ground while blood flowed down his mouth and nose like a fountain and Ezra could see why.
The tips of Alvarach' s nails protruded out the Emperor's back.
"Gah!" The Emperor puked more blood as he tried and failed to pull out Alvarach's hand.
"To die so pathetically" Alvarach expressed distaste. "Join me and save yourself such a wretched demise"
Choking on his breath, the Emperor looked Alvarach in the eye.
*Peh!*
And spat in his face.
"The Emperor bows to no one"
Alvarach's nails retracted as he wiped the blood on his face as his eyes glowed.
"I will grant your wish" he nails protracted, and he stepped on Fredrick's back harder, repressing him from standing.
As he aimed to decapitate the Emperor, he shot a glance at Ezra.
"I'll be right with you"
Ezra watched as Alvarach's nails drew an arc for the Emperor's head.
'I have to do something' he prompted himself, 'Move, move, move!' he cried out, but nothing happened.
For a person barely standing, the sort of power burst he tried to force out was beyond what he could handle.
'Zydrax, Help!'
Alvarach's claw reached Andrew's head, but then...*BAM*
Something smashed into Alvarach's figure and the rebound from the collision cleared the rest of the smoke to give clear visuals.
No, it wasn't Ezra.
'What happened?' Ezra questioned, standing after the rebound threw him off his feet.
-----------
Alvarach observed the staff in his grip.
Garbed in yellow light and covered in numerous runes, the grade was obvious.
He caught it but was still pushed back substantially.
With the smoke cleared up, he locked onto the owner a yards away the moment he raised his gaze.
Across the field of burnt and dismembered corpses, a man dripping with yellow light stood valiant.
Raven was revealed.
This time though, much of his left arm was nowhere to be seen with his clothes torn in multiple places and his hair partially burnt.
Winning his previous battle had come at great price.
Yet he faced Alvarach's gaze like he was infallible.
"Another one?!" Alvarach was pissed off, no longer able to maintain his unfazed expression.
Like pests, they just kept appearing and interrupting.
Moreover...
Fredrick and Deneris were back on their feet.
Things had gotten difficult.
"Take care of him" Alvarach spoke to the one behind him.
"Yes master" the one responsible for the massive fireball flew off, manifesting magic circles from which massive fireballs were spewed.
'???!' Ezra made out the person's identity immediately and was shocked.
'How is she still alive?' he inquired.
Indeed, how was someone cut in half and yet able to remain alive? He saw it happen, so what was this?
How was this woman here?!
It was Crea.
Regardless, she was alive and recovered to peak state, dishing out such attacks weren't as easy as she made it out to be.
In any case, without a hand and his staff, Raven ran, avoiding the massive fireballs hurled at him.
Those of master ranks and below had long since fled, putting their enmity on hold to survive.
Yet not many lived after witnessing a Grandmaster's attack.
The ground was littered with burnt and dismembered corpses, their armours turned to scrap.
With Crea on Raven's case, Alvarach's skin darkened and lit up with fire, melting the staff.
On cue, Fredrick and Deneris engaged him.
Clicking his tongue, Alvarach tossed the limp Emperor away, not that he had the leisure to not do so.
Besides, Andrew's blood was mostly stained with poison that would finish him off.
He tossed the staff aside as well, leaving both arms vacant as the fire from his arms receded, he wouldn't go so far to use it on such insects.
Besides, with the portal closed and their space mage dead, he could now hunt them at his leisure.
Raven called his staff back to his hand, lamenting the melted edge but not so much he stopped running.
Instead, he took to the skies as well, with his staff lighting up with yellow fire, and subsequently his body lit up with a yellow aura.
Joining the others would have to wait, he needed to take care of Crea.
With his extraordinary flame resistance, Raven cut through the large fireballs, absorbing the little damage that got through and closed the distance.
Meanwhile...
*Kang*Kang*Kang*
"Why don't you stop this meaningless struggle?" Alvarach asked, with his heated nails cutting through the pieces of metal flying at him, while making sure to deny them any chance of creating distance.
Both men shined best attacking from long range, but Alvarach wasn't allowing that.
Instead, he was leisurely cutting through the metal pieces coming at him while parrying Fredrick's massive hammer.
The two men lost an inch every strike.
The Emperor had been the main anchor in holding Alvarach down, with him down, the difference in abilities was too apparent.
Less than a minute in close combat and they were on the verge of defeat.
"We can't hold him" Fredrick cried out.
And then...
Bam!
Something smashed into Crea from behind, and Raven doubled down on that opportunity, delivering a sweet kick.
It drove her into the ground like a nail.
Another entrant had joined the battle.
It didn't take long to know who.
Mervida was here.
Now, she had a large dark green patch on the left side of her face and smaller green patches on her neck and exposed palm, fair to say it matched her hair colour.
Her armour had become ragged, as was her breath.
Raven nodded to her. "Thank you"
"Don't" she shook her head. Looking at the carnage taking place.
The Emperor lay limp while a demon whose presence made her skin crawl thrashed Fredrick and Deneris. "It's far from over, help them. I'll take care of her"
Raven gave a small nod and shot in Alvarach's direction.
Looking further, she makes out Ezra watching from a distance.
At this time, Crea blew away the object thrown on her, which was a grandmaster's carcass by the way.
"Who dares?!" she was enraged.
Unfortunately, Mervida was already beside her.
"I do"
Bam!
A punch landed on her square face and sent her flying.
Mervida follows up with another.
------------
The moment Alvarach registered Raven's approach, he stepped aside, dodging a flame attack aimed at him.
Right after, he took to the sky, appearing before Raven in record time, he drew an arc with his nails.
Sha!
He avoided death, not his staff though.
It split apart cleanly after blocking that attack.
On cue, Alvarach vanished.
With Raven looking to find him, a large rock smashed into him.
"Ah"
It held considerable momentum behind it.
Right after, Alvarach's figure appeared, this time behind.
Being a little quicker this time, Raven got four slashes imprinted into his back.
It was certainly beat having his intestines separated.
A piece of metal interrupted Alvarach's next attack.
Fredrick and Deneris were relentless, tailing Alvarach with a flurry of attacks that swerved his strikes; they couldn't let Raven die.
Alvarach paused, looking at his nails. "After years of peace, my battle skills have degraded"
He smiled. "Good, I will use you to sharpen my skills before I begin my main conquest"
The fire in his nails receded, he reasoned that it wasn't needed, he'd been thinking about things wrongly.
Fredrick and the others seemed to be holding on well, but they were all poisoned.
Moreover, none of them could outrun him, and with their portal destabilized, they had nowhere to run.
If so, rather hastening his feast, he'd use them as a learning experience until they were drained of energy-which shouldn't be far away-and then kill them.
Honestly, they'd surpassed his expectations by a lot by thwarting him for this long, especially the Emperor.
If other places had people of similar power, it would be wise to take things slowly.
With Ezra unmoving, he was convinced the boy was out of strength, so there was no need to rush.
The Grandmaster's knew this as well.
It was a hopeless standoff with no victory in sight.
But then...
"Don't give up!" Ezra's voice boomed. Calling their attention.
"Do you have a plan?" Fredrick replied.
Ezra simply nodded.
Fredrick fist tightened around his massive hammer.
"Ezra has a plan. We need to buy him time" he said to the other two.
"How much time?" Raven asked.
"As much as possible"
"So..." Deneris's dry voice resounded. "...Three minutes?"
