“So, I was right then. Toley is your little pet project?” Rox asked, his stance battle-ready. “Have you been inside of him this whole time?”

“I have no obligation to answer you, traitor.” She spat at him, his words clearly prodding a sore spot for her.

Rox smirked, “You're right, you don't.” He aimed his blade towards the Aetherous, Fira, “Try to keep up, you were never good at close combat.”

Silence swallowed the room and a heavy atmosphere descended upon everyone. Seconds felt like minutes as both sides prodded the other for weak points while Chiron and Kara both began to gather mana for a large spell. Rox and Fira glared into each other's eyes as time passed until, finally, someone made a move.

Fira dashed towards Rox at break-neck speeds, the floor of the dungeon being torn up underneath her feet as she went. As she approached Rox, she swung the larger blade that she previously had sheathed behind her waist at him from overhead. He blocked the attack with his lightning sword and noticed that she held the smaller blade in her other hand, using it as a support for the large blade as they clashed. After their blades met briefly, Rox felt the impact of the attack in his arms go down his body and into the ground, which ruptured beneath them.

Toley, still unconscious, was blown to the edges of the room by the shock-waves of the clash. Feera, Sheeron and Kara's eyes met and in an uncharacteristic show of teamwork, decided in that moment to split up. Sheeron charged past Rox and Fira, who were now exchanging blows too fast for his eyes to register as more than blurs, and went straight for Chiron. Kara continued to charge up a powerful spell, now plain to see it would be a water-type defense spell of some kind, while Feera joined Rox in his struggle against Fira.

Feera and Rox took turns striking against the fire-haired beauty, being careful to change their rhythm so that the enemy could not get used to the timing of their attacks or any patterns they might slip into. To an outsider, it looked like an elegant blade dance. Rox striking Fira's defense with the ferocity of a dragon as Feera would slide in after the attack to shatter what was left of it, Rox then kicked forward and shoulder tackled their enemy hard to the ground. Feera attempted to strike at her prone foe's throat with her mythril dagger, however, she had already rolled off to the side and gave Feera a hard kick in the ribs sending her flying instantly into the dungeon wall. A crater formed where she impacted and she began to cough up blood after landing on the ground once the inertia left her body enough to fall from the crater.

Rox was angered at her abrupt removal from the fight and attempted to do the same to Fira, giving a sideways kick to her as hard as he could. However, the kick was blocked by the pommel of her heavy short-blade. The instant that his foot made contact on the pommel he jumped with his grounded foot, twisted, and made another hard mid-air kick towards her head. Fira was unable to block this one and took a powerful blow to her left temple, blue blood shot out of her eye-socket as she grabbed his legs and threw him to the ground.

He rolled along the ground a few feet before getting back up in a fighting stance, facing off against Fira once again around the same distance as the fight had begun.

“I forgot how agile you were and it cost me my eye so early into the fight.” She spat blue blood that had gathered in her mouth onto the ground. Then decided to keep the conversation going so that she could catch her breath. “Aero would have been proud of that kick. You haven't lost your touch, loathe as I am to admit it, I can't beat you like this.”

“So release my seal, return the dragonoid, then get out of the dungeon. I'll still let you go, little sister.” Rox said with some melancholy to his voice, not nearly as tired as she was.

She chuckled at his response, “You think I'll let you go that easily? You still don't have access to your abilities.” She said as flames circled the ground around her and began to grow in size, “Which means you're nothing but a physically strong human right now. Get ready for round two, my traitorous brother.”

- - - -

“Monsters.” Sheeron said as he glanced at the fight again after nearly reaching Chiron. He drew his axe as he approached striking distance and he could see Chiron was nearly done readying his fire magic. “Chiron, please stop. We don't want to fight you, you're being manipulated by that crazy woman, not that I entirely believe Rox is without any guilt.”

“I have no wish to fight you either, Sheeron, however, Rox needs to be killed. He is a threat to the mediator gods. Now stand aside or you shall fall to my magic.” Chiron said with determination in his voice.

Sheeron shook his head in response and attacked Chiron with a grim look on his face. “Sorry Chiron, I'm going to choose to have some faith. He hasn't given me a reason to doubt him yet, aside from being an insufferable piece of human garbage.” As his axe came down towards Chiron's head, though, a fire barrier blocked it.

“At least we can agree on that.” Chiron replied one last time before blasting Sheeron with a torrent of flames akin to that of a dragon. The entire room heated up with the intensity of the flames. A moment later Sheeron struck again at the old elf before the smoke could clear with a lump of earth magic.

“Yup, you're serious, that definitely would have killed me.” Sheeron said, standing in an untouched circle of dungeon floor in a pool of molten stone, a film-like water barrier could be seen around the protected area. “Thanks, Kara.” He said under his breath and jumped high into the air to strike down at Chiron, who caught the blade between both of his hands.

Sheeron let go of his axe and forward-kicked Chiron in the stomach as hard as he could, sending the elf reeling in pain. The old man collapsed to his knees as the bodyguard followed up quickly with a roundhouse kick to his head which sent it slamming into the ground hard. The old mage was out cold and Sheeron quickly bound him.

Standing over him, the veteran mercenary could not help but feel pity. “This is what happens when you try to fight active combatants when you've been out of the game for a few centuries and past your prime for a few decades. Even then, I'm surprised at how easily you fell, given how powerful you are. This is why full mages stay at the back, I suppose.” He said before picking up his axe and leaving to assist Rox in his battle against the woman who claimed to be a mediator god.

As he turned to face where the two were battling earlier, what he saw caused him to drop his axe once again. A giant tornado of fire was raging in the center of the room, reaching from the ground to the high ceiling.

Sheeron could see Rox appearing, then disappearing before reappearing while exchanging blows with the mystery woman around the outskirts of the hellfire tornado. Every few attacks the woman would flick her finger or her arm and a section of the tornado would attack Rox as if it were alive, which would force him to dodge the attack and take the woman's other attack with her blades. However, even when this happened, Rox would get a hit back on her with his own blade.

“Ahh haha. How am I supposed to help with whatever that is?” Sheeron said to himself. He then looked at Kara, who had expended her spell on Sheeron earlier, and was now readying up a new one. Then started towards her.