Kenji scuttled as close as he could as a rat, but the heat was so extreme his whiskers burned and his little rat lungs crispened. Dying in the next moment, Kenji fell back into his Arthur's form and leapt forward.

"You, die!" Dr Pyro roared as he send a stream of flame at Kenji. Dodging aside, Kenji only had half his body charred before the Far King's spell finally activated.

A shimmering filled the air, the fires died and even Dr Pyro's fire beard shortened into a little electric blue goatee.

Shifting to become the Corrupt Spirit Tree, Kenji sent vines and roots to ensnare Dr Pyro and hold him tight. Whistling arrows filled the air, blocked by a sudden shield of fire. In a flash of red light flame consumed Kenji's tendrils, Dr Pryo cackling as he reappeared.

"Pathetic wretches, you think you can fight me here? Amidst this inferno? I am a god of purification!" Producing a flaming sword to match his shield, Dr Pyro soon left Kenji's tree form as clumps of burning timber.

Arrows continued to be loosed, some few landing between plates of armour and immediately weakening the intensity of Dr Pyro's power. Each enchanted arrow was one step closer to victory, but Kenji was almost out of forms already.

Luckily he wasn't alone.

The crystal knight charged, silver light increasing its movement speed. As it passed Kenji became the necromancer and set the knight's lance on holy fire.

The knight thrust his lance crashing through Dr Pyro's flame shield to pierce the plate at his chest. Despite having fire for a beard, Dr Pyro screamed as if the holy fire was really burning him.

"Now!"Kenji coughed, smoke choking his lungs while another two enchanted arrows hit their mark. Violet atop Tenko dodged the balls of flame Dr Pyro threw as he roared with rage. Atop Tenko's back, Violet cast great walls of crystal to encase Dr Pryo.

Shw entombed him with crystal in moments, blocking his fires from consuming oxygen and snuffing out his fire weaponry. Violet fainted from the intense magical cost of the spell, Tenko soon whisking her away.

"His contained! Without oxygen his powers shouldn't work!" Kenji just hoped 'magic' couldn't make fire work without any oxygen at all, his party unready to deal with such an eventuality.

At this point a huge mountain Troll wearing a custom made crusaders Cape charged onto the scene.

"Dana?" the Troll roared confused, "quickly, capture them!"

Picking up a baulder the troll threw with impressive speed, Tenko yelping as she was hit right in the shoulder. Limping away, she could now only pull Violet's limp body to safety.

"Stop...Trog? Retreat, get out of here!" Kenji yelled, not having the time to properly dive into Dana's memories.

"You need too-AH!" flaming crystal exploded across the land, the resulting shockwave sweeping Kenji off his feet. From the debris arose a chuckling figure, Dr Pyro snapping off the enchanted arrows from his armour. Each snap enlarged his beard, and brought greater heat to the surrounding air.

"Sha, kill the archers," Dr Pryo whispered. "Cleanse the unclean from the path of my inferno."

His firesnake unwrapped from his body to sliver through the air like a fish through water. Like an arrow it fired into the treeline, soon followed by a Faun's scream.

Even then enchanted arrows were fired, Dr Pyro weakened again.

"Comrade, that is one of the 18 evil souls! We must destroy him while we have the chance," Kenji yelled at the troll, and wiggling his fingers as if he were preparing a spell.

"Our warriors are close behind, if we wait we could-"

"No time! Wolf, enhance his speed too!"

As Tenko tried to figure out if that were a good idea, another faun screamed and Dr Pyro unleashed a torrent of flame that reduced the crystal knight to a molten purple puddle.

Gritting her teeth, Tenko buffed the agility of the troll that had only just wounded her, then added an anti-magic silver bubble for added protection.

"Go Trog! Show this enemy of our Captain what it means to face the Thunberad crusade!"

Howling, the troll seemed to have made his decision as he charged right at the Pyromancer. Dr Pyro was hit by another pair of enchanted arrows as he sent a ball of flame at the troll, the ball bouncing off the shield to explode above.

Yet even the slightest fire made the troll howl. The ground shook from the trolls heavy feet as it ran to crash into the Pyromancer and sent him flying. Getting up only slowly, Dr Pyro formed a sword of fire and thrust as the Troll smashed it's huge fists into Dr Pyro's armour. Shattering, Dr Pyro became exposed to one last arrow as his fire sword was thrust into the Troll's heart.

"Be cleansed!" Dr Pyro cackled as the fire sword exploded and tongues of flame were pulled from the smouldering forest to bath the Troll in flame.

Roaring the troll burned like a candle as it rampaged. Smashing aside trees, slamming the earth and dragging the Pyromancer along all the while the troll was incoherent. Running back into the forest the Troll slamned Dr Pyro into the earth again and again, managed to crush the last faun beneath its feet, and only then did it collapse to the ground atop Dr Pyro's mangled corpse.

Hurriedly Kenji ran to the charred corpse and began to reclaim it. The thing was huge, and would take days to properly be repaired. But such a powerful body...and not even to mention the Pyromancer that he would only be able to reclaim once he had gotten the troll off first.

Unfortunately by the time Kenji had finally pulled the Troll within him, horns were blaring and Kenji could hear the sounds of marching feet and clacking steel.

"Kenji we have to go!" Tenko whimpered, Kenji giving the Pyromancers corpse one last longing look before he nodded and followed.

The Fauns had died to the last however, and that meant the party had no guide left to steer them. Thinking quick, Kenji pulled up one of the faun corpses onto Tenko's back.

No sooner had they began to slink away did the warriors and priests of Warden Company charge from behind. Met by the walls of fire and with the air a choking mixture of ash, Kenji hoped they didn't see Tenko's white fur as they raced away.

"Just get far enough that we won't be caught by them for the moment. I have a plan to get us to the Far King, so just focus on escape," because for Kenji, this faun being dead wasn't a good reason to not get the information he wanted from it.