As the massive frame of the wolf weaved through the trees, the three men she carried on her back each had their own thoughts rushing through their minds. Cyrus was fighting the urge to ask why the elf, Silvern, had attacked him and Doran. Despite his desire to know his reasoning, he was more concerned for the villagers over the fact that someone robbed them. Silvern’s mind raced with thoughts on how there was a fire happening so close to the village and how an ally of his had left on a mission in that same direction a few days prior.

“C’mon girl, we need to move!” He told Becky to hurry, the odd colored wolf gave a small bark in response before picking up more speed. She whipped past trees and snapped fallen branches as the wind howled in the three men’s ears.

The burst of speed knocked Doran from his own inner thoughts about the situation and nearly fell off as he felt each awkward sway of the beast’s body. The swordsman wrapped his arms around Cyrus even harder in response and started praying to Velina that if he fell off, at least make him land on the grass and not against a tree or a rock.

The trio quickly saw the edge of the forest approach and the smell of smoke became even more clear, Becky burst from the tree line and skidded to a stop as the adventurers saw a tall tower of black smoke rising from one of the open fields behind the village. Cyrus saw more smoke from the adjacent forest but it was more grey and clearly showed someone’s effort to prevent a major fire and he began to understand where the blaze came from as he hoped the hills in the area would slow it down if even just a little.

Silvern commanded Becky to get them to the smoke as fast as possible, Doran didn’t get a chance to curse at this order before the giant canine took off like a bolt. This new burst of speed with no trees to dodge proved fruitful, The wolf ran fast enough that the hills looked like green blurs rushing past the group to Doran and Cyrus and the wind would have felt sharp against Silvern’s face if he wasn’t used to it already. The dark elf looked towards the smoke as Becky ran while Cyrus and Doran were having trouble keeping their eyes open with the harsh wind, Silvern saw that there was a small trail of fire coming from the other forest. The trail of fire led to a larger flame that burned high and appeared to be moving in unnatural patterns, if he squinted he could see a body running and jumping through the flames repeatedly… He swore he could hear some faint swearing.

"I should've guessed," Silvern said to himself with a slightly annoyed face before calling out. "Hang on, Abby!"

As soon as Silvern, Cyrus, and Doran were close enough for Becky to slow to a stop, the body Silvern had seen earlier came flying at them. The young woman was thrown a good thirty feet from the blaze to Silvern after what appeared to be a burning pillar was erected from the center of the flames as though it slammed into her, Becky put a hard stop on her running as the thrown woman landed on her back and cursed as she skid to a stop against the green grass.

“Are you alright, Abby?” Silvern called from his mounted position as he observed the oddly moving flames.

“Fucking pieces of shit.” Abby responded as she quickly stood up and gave a sharp look of anger at what just threw her.

“Yeah, you’re alright.”

The now standing woman ignored the dark elf and shouted angrily at the mass of flames, as though it could understand her. Her six foot frame had a youthful appearance with her face showing her to be in her late twenties and a well toned body, her defined muscles showed off her clear years of battle. Her long white hair was tied into a thick braid that reached down to the back of her waist with a large ring woven to the end. Her leather armor was revealing enough to allow freedom of movement for her muscular frame, leaving her upper arms, legs and even some of her midriff exposed with no coverings on her feet but appeared sturdy enough to take a strong blow. On Abby’s right arm was a medium sized round shield that had dozens of scratches and dents on it and appeared to be steaming. Silvern guessed it was because she used the shield to block the flaming pillar before being sent flying. Lastly, the woman had a wolf tail with scarlet red hair, the tail was long enough to almost reach the ankles of her bare feet. Cyrus recognized this as a trait of someone from a beastman race, certainly explaining how she was able to stand back up after that powerful looking throw.

"Abby, what's going on?" Silvern asked as he dismounted Becky. Abby looked down at the tamer with her hazel eyes with both exhaustion and frustration.

"What does it look like?" The tailed woman almost shouted at Silvern in response due to her anger.

The large blaze split into two separate flames as Cyrus and Doran looked at the scene from their still mounted position, the fires died down slowly until each revealed a silhouette. Within one was the silhouette of an extremely tall and skeletal-like creature standing at ten feet at the very least, flames appeared to help its face make expressions of anger. The being seemed to glare at Abby as though she was the source of its anger, the beast woman only glared back as she raised her shield.

The second Silhouette was much more monstrous in appearance with a long, serpentine-like body lined with several flaming arms that acted like legs of a centipede and rows of burning spikes along its back, with the whole form being low to the ground and lit patches of grass on fire where the flaming hands touched. The creature's head was large and oblong with horns that curved forward, a large mouth that seemed to expel flames and a distinct lack of eyes was all that the being had for a face.

"Flame Elementals," Silvern replied in a worried tone. "We need to keep them away from Roven!" As if on cue, the horned elemental quickly charged forward before winding past the group and continued on to the village, a trail of fire followed close behind the creature. Abby shouted in anger before the taller elemental swiped at her and Silvern, the pair dodged as the flaming hand passed them. The elf debated splitting up with Abby before Cyrus called out, both him and Doran still on Becky's back.

"We'll take out the one heading for Roven, you two deal with this one!"

Silvern weighed his options, he wasn’t sure if he could leave Abby alone with this elemental but at the same time he didn’t know the full intentions of either Cyrus or Doran. Deciding to take the risk, Silvern nodded and ordered Becky to take the two adventurers to the other Elemental. The wolf quickly spun around and charged after the burning threat. As Becky chased the flaming creature, Doran asked if Cyrus remembered how to defeat a target like an elemental.

"Expose the core and destroy it, ain't that hard." Doran felt the urge to remind him that they also had to survive, but he digressed.

"Who the hell are those two? And why are they riding Beck?" Abby asked as the tall elemental looked at her and Silvern, seeming to decide what to do. "These are high level Flame Elementals, they could die!" She yelled, realizing that her comrade just sent two random people to certain death.

"You know, I never got their names." Silvern said as he readied his short bow and notched an arrow, not wanting to get close to the monster. "But trust me, they're strong enough to handle themselves." The towering elemental opened its maw and launched a ball of flame at Silvern and Abby, the elf leaped to the side while the strong looking woman planted her feet and raised her shield to block the attack.

Abby's shield jolted at the odd sense of mass the attack had, the weight of the blast was strong enough to push the woman back a few inches as her toes dug into the ground. The braided warrior gave a confident smirk as she felt the Elemental’s attack strike far weaker now that there was only one.

The woman’s strong legs launched herself at the monster after quickly recovering her posture and swung a powerful kick to the elemental's flame covered leg. Before Abby's strike got close to the bruning limb, a strange, semi-transparent glow enveloped her leg which seemed to protect her body part from the flames as it crashed into the beast. The elemental's leg quickly shattered in a burst of extreme force, like a brittle stone being struck with a blunt object. The flames of the monster's separated leg died as soon as it left the body, showing that the elemental's body was made of something resembling coal.

The sudden loss of a lower leg caused the flaming monster to lose it's balance and fall onto its stub. I looked down at its missing leg with obvious confusion but it showed no signs of pain, annoyance than anything else showed on its fiery face.

"Your aura's looking weak today, Abby!" Silvern called out in a playful tone as he fired an arrow with a small pouch attached to the tip at the Elemental's head. "Not tired are you?"

"You try fighting two city level threats for two days," Abby snapped in response. "Then we can see how much energy you have left!" The warrior back stepped from the Flame Elemental as Silvern's arrow entered its target's flames and exploded with a loud bang. The resulting blast blew a large piece of the elemental's head off it's slender body and the skeletal structure almost fell back from the force.

The fire elemental roared out in anger, as its damaged body parts quickly either regenerated or repaired themselves. The severed leg began to slowly regrow piece by piece and the now gaping hole that took up half of its head began to close, this is what Abby found most irritating about elementals. The Flame Elemental sent a fist crashing down at blinding speeds towards Abby as it began to stand back up on its newly forming leg, still missing a foot but it didn’t seem to care.

The warrior quickly raised her shield up high to block the strike, more of the light that had protected her leg before began to spread over her legs and arms before the blow made contact with the guard. The large fist crashed into the round piece of metal and Abby felt her knees bend a little at the strike and her muscles strain, but the blow was the least of her issues. After the fist struck the shield, a strong wave of flames spread over the area around Abby. The intense heat around her feet made it difficult for the woman to stay still as she fought to keep the fist from crushing her. Silvern quickly pulled out a ruby from one of his pouches and brought it to his mouth.

"Carlyle, hurry and get here!" Carlyle had started following Becky when Cyrus had noticed the smell of smoke, but couldn't keep up with her speed and fell behind. Silvern's command was more to tell Carlyle to hurry to the location as fast as his wings could carry him.

The Flame Elemental raised its fist and swatted at Abby with its opposite hand, causing another wave of fire to come surging at Silvern. The quickly covered his face as the flames flew past his body, feeling the heat of the fires touch his light armor and smelling singed hair. Abby ducked under the swing and saw that the fist of the elemental was about to swing back down for a second strike, the woman shuffled to the side to dodge the burning hand and caused it to slam into the burnt ground.

Abby leapt into the air as her foe recovered from its second blow, with the haze on her legs seeming to make her jump higher, she was aiming to deal another heavy blow and hopefully finding the Elemental’s core. The flaming creature moved its face in front of Abby with its mouth opened wide, attempting to tear off a piece of the young warrior in response to this maneuver as roaring fires were revealed in the gaping maw.

"Don't think so, jumbo!" Abby shouted in response with an almost sinister grin before sending her fist crashing into the monster's newly reformed head, making the elemental halt its attempted bite. The woman’s fist broke through the large skull with a satisfying crack and a pained roar from the beast, the blistering heat burned her skin but Abby refused to back down. Using the new hole as a grip, Abby pulled herself onto the creature’s head while ignoring the pain of the fire around her.

"You're a hundred years too early to beat me like that!" The strong woman began to strike the Elemental’s head with the edge of her shield repeatedly, causing more and more cracks and holes to form while the elemental tried to shake her off.

After the wave of fire passed Silvern and the flames died down, he looked up to see his comrade hammering away at the elemental’s head. Deciding to work on the rest of the body, he quickly resumed firing his exploding arrows to damage the creature’s frame. He wasn’t worried about the shockwaves bothering the beastwoman, she’s dealt with worse. As he launched four arrows, he saw more holes from on the elemental and even succeeded in blowing off a hand that attempted to reach up and grab Abby. It was when his fourth and last explosive shot struck the Elemental’s chest that he finally noticed what appeared to be a black stone in the Flame Elemental’s cavity before the hole quickly closed itself, repairing itself much faster than any of the limbs or head.

"Abby, it's in the chest!" Silvern called out to his friend as Carlyle finally made it to his master, the three eyed bird looked down from its flight and saw the small fire that was slowly growing as the battle went on. Abby cursed as she realized that of course it would be in an obvious spot like that, the last two days seemed even more like a chore than before.

The elemental had enough of the warrior bashing its skull in and reached its newly reformed hand up to its forehead, grabbing the back of Abby's leg with a burning grip before throwing her down to the ground. The woman felt her back crash onto the burnt grass below her and was stunned from the sudden shock, her tired vision was slightly blurred but she could feel another burst of intense heat building before the elemental opened its mouth and shot another fireball to the shield bearing beast woman.

Carlyle instantly reacted to Abby’s situation and dove down, the bird flew in front of the elemental's attack and let out a loud screech in defiance as the flaming sphere flew from the towering elemental. Instead of the flaming sphere exploding when making contact with the bird, Carlyle's feathers seemed to glow and absorb the flames before even touching the avian and nullifying the attack.

"Carlyle, attack the chest and get rid of some of those flames!" Silvern ordered, to which Carlyle responded by repeatedly crashing his body into the monster's torso. The fires around the elemental were slowly absorbed by the feathers as the fragile torso was chipped and cracked by the bird’s strikes. "Abby-" The elf tried to speak, but was cut off by his friend.

"I know, I know!" Abby responded as she recovered from the throw and launched herself up from the ground. She quickly made her way to the monster's chest with a combination of a strong jump and her hand grabbing pieces of the elemental's cracked body. The Flame Elemental was trying to swat away the red bird and didn't notice that the wolf-tailed woman was just now arriving at it's chest.

Abby took the edge of her shield and resumed bashing away at the charcoal like body, cracking away the creature's brittle shell before finding a large, cracked stone that expelled blue flames. Just as the woman was about to strike the stone, the elemental let out another fierce roar which caused a strong burst of fire to radiate from its body and knocked her off while causing Carlyle to fly back a few feet. She cursed as she fell, knowing that she and Silvern had very little time before the body repaired itself.

"Shoot it, Shorty!" Abby yelled at her friend as she fell to the ground.

"Don't call me that!" Silvern replied as he readied another arrow, the new arrow’s head was oddly shaped. It was rather thick that ended in a fine point, as if it was meant to pierce strong materials. Silver’s eyes narrowed for the fraction of an instant before releasing his bow string and took his shot.

The arrow flew straight to the elemental's core and pierced the stone just as the cracked shell repaired itself. The Elemental cried out as the stone quickly cracked and exploded in a burst of blue flames, leaving yet another large crater in its thin body. Abby lay on the ground as the intense fires around the elemental's body quickly died out, leaving the black charcoal like body kneeling on the ground. The slender creature was frozen in place as it slowly began crumbling away piece by piece until all that was left was a pile of ash with Silvern’s arrow buried within it.

Abby slowly stood up and began cursing at the defeated creature in triumph, aside from some burns she was unharmed. It was more the lack of sleep that was her hindrance these last few days.

"We can celebrate, later. We need to get to Roven and give the other two some back up." Silvern said as he looked around at the remaining fires that were spreading through the field and near the forest before turning to his bird. "Carlyle, stay here and deal with the fires. Meet up with us when you're done!" After issuing his order, Carlyle dove low to the ground and began absorbing more of the fires.

The two looked back to the village and grew frightened, they began rushing towards Roven which had just begun showing signs of a starting fire with clouds of smoke filling the air.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While Silvern and the woman named Abby were fighting off their burning giant, Cyrus and Doran were chasing down their target on the back of Becky. The flaming beast left small trails of fire every time one of its human-like arms touched the green grass below it, the winding body moving like a blazing centipede. The elemental turned its head to see that Becky was quickly closing the distance between them, the creature raised one of its multiple arms and quickly launched a stream of fire at the charging wolf. Becky was unprepared for the attack and was barely able to dodge the surge of flames, though the attack struck her side and one of her back legs and caused her to fall in pain near some large stones. As Cyrus, Doran, and the wolf fell to the ground, the elemental continued its path to Roven.

"Becky, you alright?!" Cyrus asked after he recovered from the fall and scrambled to the hurt wolf, kneeling beside the downed animal.

Becky was trying to stand back up while whimpering, Cyrus saw that her back left leg and side were pretty badly burnt enough to where he doubted her ability to walk. He turned his head to the side to see that Doran was having his own difficulties getting back up, his own leg was burnt and the spearman assumed he was caught in that fire stream. Doran never was very good when dealing with both fire and the sun, Cyrus knew the swordsman would be able to move again and decided to act sooner than later.

"Doran, stay here and give Becky a hand. I'll chase down the elemental and you meet back up with me when you can." Doran nodded his head in agreement, Cyrus patted Becky on the head while telling her to rest and that his friend would help. Becky's eyes showed that she understood the man's words and stopped trying to pick herself up, though he could tell she still wanted to follow her master’s orders.

Cyrus stood and took off after the monstrous Elemental as he left the great wolf in the swordsman’s care, hoping to reach the town before anyone got injured. He ran as fast as his legs would let him and even though he couldn't compare to Becky's speed, he was still quite fleet footed and reached the edge of the village just a few moments after the flaming threat. Just as he caught sight of the Elemental, he saw that it had stopped its charge and was staring down at a terrified villager.

The spearman recognized the villager as the nun from earlier that day, she was sitting on the ground and looking up at the elemental with fear on her face as she looked at the eyeless creature and her basket lying on the ground next to her. The Flame Elemental raised one of its blazing hands as the nun raised her arms in defense and Cyrus knew he had to act immediately, he began to focus on his legs as the creature began to drop its palm down to the helpless sister.

The spearfighter’s legs became shrouded in the same semi-transparent haze that Abby was using in her fight and his limbs moved faster as well as pushing him forward with even greater force, he refused to let anyone get hurt if he could help it. Once the Elemental’s swipe was about to make contact, Cyrus lunged forward with his enhanced legs to place himself between the civilian and the flaming beast before raising his spear up with both of his hands. The burnt palm slammed down on the polearm and trembled as it tried to push the fighter away, Cyrus on the other hand winced as the heat from the Elemental quickly traveled through his metal weapon and left a burning sensation on both of his hands. He called out to the sister behind him as he began to push back against the attack in a war of attrition.

"Get into town and tell everyone to run!" Cyrus channeled the haze to envelope his arms as he gave his spear a mighty spin, breaking off the creature’s hand before giving the remaining arm a mighty blow and sending charcoal like chunks to the charred grass.

The haze he and Abby had been using was a powerful force known as "aura" and was one of two parts that made up a living creature's life force. Aura was an extension of the user's will brought forth through the user themselves and could strengthen the body's strikes, enhance its defenses, and even make them faster. Most people had to give total concentration just to use a small amount of aura, only those who have trained for years could bring it out on instinct alone. These individuals could even use a unique form of combat known as "battle arts". One had to be careful though, excessive use of one's aura could leave them exhausted and weak.

"Get going!" Cyrus called out as he was attacked by three more of the Elemental’s arms, the tanned man infused his aura into his spear and struck them all with a single swing. The limbs all shattered from the main body and fell to the ground before turning into grey ash.

"W-what about you?" The Sister asked as she stood up with shaking legs, a look of genuine concern was on her freckled face as she looked at her rescuer.

"This is nothing," he replied, turning his face enough for the young woman to see his confident smile. "Go ahead and find a safe place for everyone!" The nun stood for a moment, still worried for the traveler. The holy woman decided to give what little help she could for him and clasped her hands in front of her chest.

"Velina be with you." She said aloud before turning around and running into Roven, her little prayer all the aid she knew she could give the brave man.

Cyrus and the Elemental stood still for a moment, both gauging each other as the fiery beast’s arms and hands regenerated slowly. The spearfighter hoped he could keep the blazing creature at bay long enough for Doran to catch up, he doubted he could keep the Elemental from doing damage to Roven on his own. The thoughts of Silvern trusting him to protect the town and the villagers relying on him to defend their homes drove off any doubts Cyrus' had, he needed to be the wall that defended the village.

"If you wanna burn something so bad," Cyrus said as he readied the covered head of his spear in the direction of the flaming beast. "Then you better put up a good fight!" The elemental roared, as if responding to the man’s taunting. As the Elemental's hands were regenerating, several of its other arms elongated and were launched forth with open palms, some burned hotter than the rest while others let out steady streams of fire looking to burn the man alive.

Cyrus quickly ducked under the flames and maneuvered his body in odd motions as he dodged the flaming palms, he twisted, turned, and gave small hops in his attempts to move while he used his still hot polearm to strike and arms he could. It was as if the tanned man was moving more by instinct and improvisation than any formal mode of training. As Cyrus fought off the current barrage of flames and strikes, he looked for an opening to begin chipping away at the Elemental’s body to begin finding the core. He wasn’t given much time to think, as soon as the first barrage ended a new one began with fists covered in white hot fires.

Cyrus swung the head of his spear in a wide arc and shattered the arms with a series of resounding crack, the man wasn’t even breaking a sweat despite the intense flames that began to surround him. As he dodged and fought back each new arm that was thrown at him, Cyrus moved his spear as oddly he did his body. His body showed that his fighting style seemed to lack any training in actual martial arts, his finer motions did show some signs that he had formal training, but you wouldn't be able to tell by watching him.

Once he found an opening, Cyrus quickly pointed the head of his spear at the head of the elemental and channeled his aura throughout the weapon before giving a powerful thrust. The covered head of the polearm broke clear through the elemental's skull and knocked from its elongated body, Cyrus saw the edge of a cracked, black stone with blue flames expelling from it. Just as he recognized the stone as the Elemental’s core, he pulled the spear back and readied a second strike. But before he could launch his second strike, the body of the elemental crumbled away before bursting into a harsh blaze before forming a circle around the spear fighter and connected to the falling head.

The creature’s charcoal body quickly reformed from the blaze and surrounded the man in a towering coil as the hole in the Elemental’s head quickly repaired itself. The Flame Elemental twisted its coiled body so that the spines on its back were pointed at Cyrus and quickly blazed to life before the body began to coil closer to the spear fighter in an attempt to burn and pierce his body. Cyrus held his spear horizontally in front of him with both hands as he channeled a greater amount of aura into his weapon and concentrated.

Battle Art: Rounded Spear. Cyrus thought to himself before Stepping forward and giving a powerful horizontal swing of his spear, pivoting on the step so that the swing went in a large, three hundred sixty degree circle.

A ring of aura was created from the large motion and once the spearhead made a full pass, the ring quickly extended from Cyrus’ position. The ring struck the body of the elemental, breaking through the flaming spikes and shattering the body to pieces. The tanned man stood still for a brief moment expecting another counter attack, but was surprised to see that nothing was coming.

Cyrus saw that the rest of the elemental had returned to charging into the village and began to panic, he heard someone call his name and turned his head to see that Doran was quickly running to meet with him. He waved Doran over as he ran into town, calling out that the core was in the elemental's head and that they had to act fast.

Once the two men caught up with the flaming threat, they saw that it had begun to expel flames from its mouth and hands as it aimed to burn down the villager’s homes while they fled. Doran quickly drew his sword and shot forward with aura enhanced legs and gave a powerful, horizontal swing of his short blade, breaking through three of the monster's arms. The beast stopped its attack to turn its eyeless head in response to the swordsman’s attack..

"It can never be a water elemental, can it?" Doran asked himself as he entered his combat stance while sweat continuously rolled down his face. He gave a series of rapid swings with his sword which were all aimed at the elemental's head, the creature quickly backed up to avoid all the swings it could and launched several burning hands at the skilled fighter. Doran Stood his ground and moved his sword and body in a highly skilled manner to either deflect the attacks or to cut down the hands before they could touch him. It was clear that unlike Cyrus, Doran was well trained and was capable of proper weapon combat, his moves were precise and without hesitation. It was as if he had fought this burning monstrosity countless times before.

As the flames on the ground spread and the fire from a few of the buildings grew stronger, Doran knew that he and Cyrus had to end this battle fast before Roven suffered too much damage.

As if on cue, Cyrus managed to get behind the elemental and sent the butt of his spear into the back of the beast's head and cracked it wide open once again, revealing the burning core nestled in the left side of its skull. The Elemental turned its head quickly and crashed into the polearm user, knocking him back against a burning house and giving him a few scorch marks on the chest of his armor. He heard off to the side the voice of a woman urging someone to run a little faster and that it wasn't safe as he reeled from his attack, the spear fighter turned to see that it was the sister once again and she was holding the hand of a scared child. The woman had a few burns on her and the child was covered in soot, she must have pulled the boy from one of the houses that were on fire. The two were stunned at the sight of the being responsible for attacking their home.

The man heard the Flame Elemental let out a low growl and turned back to his adversary to see its mouth glowing brighter than before. The elemental opened its mouth and launched a powerful ball of fire, at first Cyrus thought it was aimed at him but quickly realized that the monster was attacking the running sister and child. The nun turned her back to the attack while kneeling to shield the boy as he shouted in fear, at the same Cyrus ran as fast as he could to the pair and turned his own back to the fire ball before using aura to strengthen his upper body. There was a loud boom as a wave of heat battered the three of them after the sphere of flames made contact with the spearman’s strong back.

Cyrus felt an intense wave of pain as he staggered a minute and winced in pain as he caught the unmistakable scent of burnt skin. He was glad he used aura when he did, there was no way he would've survived that attack otherwise.

The sister looked up and behind her after she didn’t feel any pain to see Cyrus standing over her with a pained smile, her eyes grew wide in both shock and worry to see the traveler save her once again at the expense of his own safety.

"We really gotta stop meeting like this," Cyrus grunted out. "Get moving, Doran and I have this covered."

The nun seemed stunned for a moment before snapping herself from her pause, she picked up the boy and continued running after giving her hero another concerned look. Cyrus turned back around to see Doran had regained the Elemental’s attention and was skillfully dodging or blocking any attacks thrown at him.

Cyrus charged forward and took aim at the Flame Elemental's head, waiting for the right moment to strike. The Elemental sent a flaming hand at Doran once Cyrus was close enough to launch an attack, and the swordsman raised his blade with the edge facing the palm of the monster in order to block. The creature’s hand crashed into the blade and pushed Doran back despite the sword cutting into the burning palm.

"Doran, get ready!" Cyrus shouted as he sent the leather bound head of his spear into the head of the blazing creature. The spear stopped once it broke into the skull, causing the Elemental to shout out in frustration and intense heat traveling through the shaft once again. Cyrus sent a wave of aura through his arms and spear before giving a powerful push, sending the Elemental’s core to shoot out the other end of the beast’s head and into the air, causing the body to quickly begin extinguishing and crumbling away.

Doran whipped his sword away from the crumbling hand and ran towards the burning stone, aiming to shatter the core before the body of their target began to reform around it. Doran charged his blade with aura and gave a swift, diagonal swing to the core as the head was half formed. The stone shattered in a burst of blue flames, causing Doran to reflexively hide his face from the blast. Though he was proud of the work he and Cyrus managed to do.

The two men stood still for a brief moment, trying to regain some stamina after the difficult fight. Abby came running into the village and at the travelers. She shouted that they needed to put out the fires while many of the villagers began running back into town, several carrying buckets filled with water while one young man was carrying several glass bottles in his arms. The beast woman called out that there was a lake past a western hill and for one of the men to follow her and for the other to evacuate any other villagers.

Doran stayed behind while Abby and Cyrus ran as fast as they could to the nearby lake for some water, the man making sure to save anyone having trouble escaping the fires as well as trying to keep the fires from spreading through the grass. He began to wonder what else he could do, until Doran saw the young man with the bottles. He noticed that this individual was throwing the small bottles at the burning buildings.

The small receptacles either smashed onto the ground or cracked in the flames, when they did so, dark blue liquid spilled out before quickly turning into light blue foam and spread over the flames before snuffing them out. The foam seemed to be attracted to the flames and moved and grew in response. After a moment of surprise, Doran asked the man for some of his bottles and quickly began throwing them into flames without waiting for a response. The two men were able to extinguish many of the flames but they didn’t have enough bottles to stop the entire blaze.

After a several villagers as well as Abby and Cyrus made a few return trips, Doran grew worried that they wouldn't be able to quell the fires before the damage grew too severe for repairs. The fear didn't stay in his mind for long due to dark clouds suddenly forming above the entire village before sending an intense rain falling to the ground, quickly extinguishing the remaining fires. The two outsiders looked up in the air with surprise, the skys were a clear blue all day and wondered where this downpour came from. The villagers and Abby were overjoyed however, many people hugging as the heavy rain soaked everyone through to the bone.

As soon as the last ember was extinguished, the rain stopped and the clouds dissipated as quickly as they appeared. Doran, Cyrus, and Abby stood still, drenched from the sudden downpour with Cyrus still holding full buckets of water. The trio turned their heads when they heard the voice of a woman call out to them.

"Is everyone alright?" The woman asked in a sweet voice. "I saw the smoke and hurried over as fast as I could."

The woman was dry, unaffected by the rain and was dressed in an off the shoulder blue dress with a slim, silver sword strapped to her waist. Her hair was blonde and shoulder length with a small blue clip holding her bangs to the side. In her right hand she held a small wand that seemed to be made of white wood and decorated with intricate carvings and a cloth wrapped handle. Her facial features were elf like and her expression was gentle and loving. Lastly, on her left forearm was a tattoo in the shape of a blue, seven pointed star.

Abby pushed her wet, loose bangs from her face and said everything was better now that the woman was there. Doran turned and saw that on Abby's right bicep, she had the same tattoo of the woman in the blue dress. The woman turned to Cyrus and Doran after giving Abby a warm smile and expressed her gratitude.

"On behalf of the Blue Star Guild, thank you for helping the people of Roven. My name is Lydia, I understand that you have some business with us but could that wait until we help the villagers?" Doran and Cyrus agreed with woman Lydia, both happy that they had finally found the guild they've been looking for. Cyrus in particular grew wide eyed, it took five years but he finally found them.

He could keep his promise.