It seemed almost hopeless. The snake towered above the entire battlefield. It was a good hundred metres long when it was entirely straight, not even the two giants with us were more than a hindrance to it. Our commander flew past us, crashing into the gravel hill behind us, blood dripping out from his helmet.

"Arva! [Darkness]!" I heard Altair yell.

Black smoke emerged from his body and began covering the entire battlefield slowly but surely. As the smoke covered everything I began to lose sight of everything and I could hear muffled screaming, screaming which quickly disappeared as everything turned dark. I could neither see, nor hear, not feel anything. Even the ground I stood on was gone, it felt as if I was in the middle of the air, but at the same time, it didn't feel like that. When I tried to move it felt like nothing happened, I couldn't tell whether I had just moved my leg or whether I had not moved my leg, I couldn't tell whether I had fallen down or not. I felt neither pain nor exhaustion, just... nothing, I only felt nothing. Time went on and on, for how long this lasted I couldn't tell.

But when the darkness finally disappeared I found myself on the ground, I had fallen at some point. When I didn't know. The snake was on the ground, blood drizzling down the side of its head and one of its horns missing, Altair standing beside it with the spirit he had summoned four years ago hovering in beside him, her black dress fluttering in the wind just like her yellow hair did. The fairy's green eyes scanned us.

"Heal them," I heard Altair say.

The fairy nodded and raised one hand. A green light emerged from her palm and spread across the battlefield, engulfing everyone that was our ally. When it reached me I felt all the pain and exhaustion I had felt before disappear, as if it had never been there in the first place. Altair sighed.

"And here I thought this would be exciting," he said with a bored and monotone voice, rubbing the back of his head.

The ground shook again.

"Don't think that this is over, young man."

I looked around to see who had said that, but there was no one there. That was when I saw a massive wall of smoke appear from the hole in the ground where the giant snake had come from. The smoke rushed towards us quickly. I could see a grin appear on Altair's face as he turned around, facing the smoke head-on.

"Be careful!" a slightly familiar voice yelled.

Smoke now rushed past me, it was slightly darker and thicker looking than the smoke the wall approaching us was made of. Multiple long strands of smoke rushed towards the smoke wall and formed into humanoid figures, all of them with chains in their hand, on one end a sharp-looking blade and on the other a lantern. Four of these hooded figures appeared in total, and all of them leaned against the smoke wall as if it were actually tangible, which it seemed to be for these smoke figures. Each threw the bladed end of their chain to the one to their right, creating a sort of smoke chain fence. A fence that quickly began bulging as the smoke wall tried pushing past it.

"Whatever you do, don't touch that smoke! It's poisonous!" the same voice as before.

I turned my head to see who it was. A tall bald man with grey eyes and a neat full beard, both his hands in the pockets of his black pair of trousers. The smoke the figures were made off seemed to emerge from that person's back.

I heard Altair chuckle.

"Finally making yourself useful, ey Smoke?" he said as he walked towards the man.

"Oh shut it, stag boy!" Smoke yelled back.

Altair laughed it off as he slapped the man on the shoulder and walked up the gravel hill, towards Elsa. She still stood tall, but she had a look on her face that seemed concerned, and also made her look like she felt useless. Altair said something to her I couldn't hear before he disappeared on the other side of the hill.

"Everyone! Get back!" Elsa yelled loudly, her voice enhanced by something. "And mister Sarl, please keep that up!" she added.

"Yes!" Smoke, or Sarl, shouted back as he seemed to push even more smoke into the figures, which seemed to work wonders since the wall actually seemed to stop in its tracks fully now.

I, and everyone else, began walking up the gravel hill, leaving behind a struggling and sweating Smoke. He had begun to physically push as well, smoke streaming out from all over his body.

"Will he manage?" another person asked someone.

"Of course, Smoke's one of our best mages!" another said.

"Yeah, but whoever is still down there seems to be a lot more powerful," Bera said as she helped Lera up the hill.

"Now mister Sarl, please get back a little more as well!" Elsa called out.

"Y-Yes!" Smoke shouted back as he began slowly walked up the hill backwards, his eyes never leaving the wall of smoke which had grown so much in size that I couldn't even see the massive snake anymore. But his smoke figures had grown as well. They were now a good fifty metres tall and together with the smoke wall they blocked out most of the sun.

My breathing was heavy as I watched Smoke slowly ascend the gravel hill we now all stood upon. Altair was nowhere to be seen. The camp seemed almost completely empty.

Where is he?

"Good, now everyone, please brace yourselves!" Elsa yelled, her voice not enhanced anymore.

She raised one hand, her overly long sleeve hanging down towards the gravel.

One of her spirits, a small salamander began glowing a fiery red. Shortly after flames began to stream towards her extended arm, forming into an orb consisting of flames alone.

"I... I can't h-hold this much longer!" Smoke said loudly.

"Ten more seconds," Elsa said.

The orb grew and grew in size until it was as large as Elsa herself.

"[Red Salamander: Fireball]!" Elsa yelled out as the ball began flying through the air.

I could see the ground beneath it heat up, the gravel turning redder and redder, as the ball of flames quickly approached the wall of smoke. That was when Smoke fell to the ground and his smoke figures were overwhelmed by the wall of smoke. But they didn't get far. The fireball crashed right into it. For a few seconds, nothing happened.

...

...

...

Then I saw the largest explosion I had ever seen.