As Team A, led by Mako, Erin, and Iris, and Team B, with Nathan and Leon, approached the center of the maze, they could feel the tension in the air. Both teams faced numerous challenges and were eager to prove themselves in this final confrontation.
Both teams rushed through the last set of obstacles and traps and appeared in the central zone at the exact same time.
As they reached the center, they locked eyes with one another, both surprised by the other reaching the center at exactly the same time as them.
However, the surprises didn't end there as when both teams turned to look towards the center where the blue crystal surrounded by a pool of water was supposed to be, they were left surprised once again to find the crystal they were meant to retrieve was not the usual vibrant blue, but instead, it shimmered with a fiery orange glow surrounded around a pit of fire,
Before they could react, the ground beneath the crystal trembled, and a surge of intense heat enveloped the area as the fire from the pit flew outwards and split into two balls of fire that quickly began to expand and grow as they took form.
Two Fire Sentinels materialized before them, their massive form towering over both teams. They were made entirely of blazing fire, their eyes glowing with intense heat, and their movements were fierce and aggressive.
This was a huge shocker for both teams as none of them expected the element to be changed much less there spawning two of them.
One of the sentinel turned toward Leon and Nathan while the other turned toward Mako and his team.
Both teams now had to defeat the Fire Sentinel and the one to do it first and claim the crystal would become the winner.
The Fire Sentinels showed no hesitation as they rushed toward their target.
On the left side, Mako had just finished reading the description of the Fire Sentinel by using Analyze on him but found nothing different than the Water Sentinel other than their elements.
The Analyze skill couldn't identify the method to defeat the sentinel and last time it worked by disintegrating the whole thing while cutting off its regeneration, but would it still be the same with Fire Sentinel considering it wasn't made out of matter but rather energy?
They were running out of time to think as the Fire Sentinel was upon them, ready to launch a powerful fire blast.
Before Mako could say anything, Erin jumped in and activated her Ice ability, and began shooting a stream of ice to counter the fire blast and to hold the sentinel in its place.
"Mako, I'll buy you some time to think, and figure out a way to stop this thing," Erin shouted as she intensified her ice stream and started pushing the Fire Sentinel back.n0VeLusb.c0m
However, the Fire Sentinel wasn't going to back as it also increased the intensity of the flames by several times, overpowering Erin and starting to push her back.
"No! Stop!" Mako shouted as he stomped on the ground and a wall of earth appeared in between the sentinel and Erin, blocking both of their attacks.
"Erin was confused as to why Mako would waste such an opportunity and ruin things, but before she could even ask, Mako grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away while the Sentinel pounded on the wall, breaking it bit by bit.
"What the hell?!" Erin asked in annoyance as Mako dragged her back toward their original position with Iris.
"You can't just go in blind like that! Remember what Commander Sable told you. You need to conserve your energy and not waste it in one go and become a liability for us." Mako explained.
Erin didn't have any words as she realized she was doing exactly what she was doing during the first training match and was ashamed that she hadn't learned her lesson.
"Your Ice ability will be the key to defeating that guy. It is a direct counter to flames. You can't waste it like last time." Mako explained.
"Alright, then what's the plan?" Erin asked.
"We need to trap it somehow like last time and then have you freeze the entrapment, freezing it into an icicle," Mako stated while starting to sweat bullets.
The central area was like a furnace with a fiery pit in the center and the two fire giants, increasing the room's temperature quite rapidly.
It was becoming harder and harder to breathe as the temperature rose. Leon and Mako were both less affected by the heat, but they only had resistance to direct elemental attacks of the same nature, not resistance to heat itself which was their own skill so even they were sweating.
Both teams knew that they had to deal with the problem as soon as possible or else it would be completely hopeless for them as they exhaust more and more energy with every move and their stamina plummeted.
The Fire Sentinel had broken through the earth wall within seconds and Iris rushed to intercept it with a massive water blast, using up 90% of the water she was carrying from all the little puddles that they had crossed over while reaching the center.
The sentinel replied with a massive fireball that collided with the water and produced a lot of steam.
Although Iris' attack was blocked easily, she had a smirk on her face as her plan had worked out exactly how she had envisioned.
The Sentinel didn't care much and continued to run through the cloud of steam, but as soon as it reached the middle of it, it started to slow down and eventually fell onto its knees.
Mako realized what Iris had done and was quite impressed by her quick thinking.
Steam was the gaseous form of water. Fire no matter if natural or elemental requires oxygen to burn. If there is no oxygen, the fire will go out. This is the Fire user's kryptonite and why fire users are so rare outside of Earth as there are only small amounts of places that have an oxygen-rich environment like Earth's.
The steam was taking its place around the sentinel and surrounding it such that not enough oxygen is reaching the sentinel, therefore sapping its strength.
"Erin, Mako, do it now!" Iris shouted as she used her remaining water in small bursts to keep replenishing the steam that sentinel was trying to blow away.
[Sprint has been activated]
Mako rushed through the cloud of hot steam which burned his bare a bit, but he fought through the pain and circled around to the other side.
He used his Earth ability to create a circular wall around the sentinel and Erin, entrapping them both, similar to how Erin entrapped him and the Water Sentinel last time.
"You're up, Erin" Mako shouted.
Erin's had a huge smile on her face even though her skin was starting to get burned too from the hot steam, but she quickly countered it by activating her Ice ability and cooling off the steam around her.
She then directed her ability toward's the weakened sentinel that was trying everything in its power to escape but its legs were weak and the Earth walls prevented it to escape.
It tried blasting apart the wall like before too but Mako managed to repair it every single time.
Before the Fire sentinel could try anything else it could feel its legs stuck in place. The Sentinel looked visibly confused, but when it looked down its confusion turned into horror.
The Sentinel's legs had become solid ice and the ice was growing upwards.
The Sentinel tried to move in order to break the layer of ice forming, but since it was made of energy and didn't really have a physical body it was no use.
It let out a mighty scream as the ice completely began to overpower the fire and completely envelope the sentinel.
The sentinel had one last trick up its sleeve before it could be completely frozen and that was to self-destruct by releasing all of its remaining fire energy in one blast.
The Fire Sentinel began condensing his power, just as the ice had reached its shoulders. Its fire began to pulse as it built up power while the ice continued to build.
Once the sentinel was done charging, it let out a final screech to announce its sacrifice for its crystal, but the ice was faster as the sentinel was completely frozen solid.
"Phew!" Erin said as she finally stopped using her ice ability. It was definitely a struggle to completely freeze the sentinel but she had succeeded in the end and still had energy to spare.
"It's done!" Erin screamed from the inside queuing Mako to drop down the walls which he did a second later.
The sight was quite unique in front of them as the last of the steam was removed by Iris and Erin.
The ice had taken the form of the sentinel and it looked like they were facing an Ice Sentinel instead, but this was just an empty husk.
Both Erin and Mako had burn marks on their skin from being so close to the steam and Iris rushed towards them so that she could quickly heal them up before they retrieved the crystal.
Looking over to the other side, Mako couldn't see much as there were several earth walls rising in different directions, blocking the view completely but the sound of the Fire Sentinel fighting could still be heard.
'Ha! We finally won!' Mako said in his thoughts as he turned back and started running toward Erin who Iris was healing.
However, as Mako ran past the frozen sentinel's body to reach Erin who was just a couple of feet ahead, Mako's perception kicked in as he could sense danger, but couldn't identify it from where.
He looked towards Erin and Iris who had faces of horror and shock and were staring right at him.
He was a bit confused but quickly realized that it wasn't him they were staring at but something behind.
Mako turned around just in time to see the center of the frozen sentinel glow bright orange, his face also showing signs of horror and distress.
"RUN!" Mako shouted but it was too late.
*BOOM!*
