“If things get too serious, we should leave this city for good,” Pinoki suggests, looking disdainfully at the rubble of the collapsed wooden doors and bricks blocking the entrance,

“We can’t just inconsiderately leave like that” Apollo argues, clearing through the rubble with his sword,

“Umm, yes, we can,

I am here for a fun adventure,

I refuse to risk my life for someone I barley know,”

……..

“Pinoki?” a feminine voice calls from behind the clutter,

“Amelia?” “Lyra recognizing the girl,

“Are you ok?”

“I should be asking you the same Lyra, after that fire, we thought you all died,”

“We’re all okay, Amelia,” Apollo assures finally clearing a path for us to enter, the girl is crouched down over a scorched body steadily healing it,

“Is that-?”

“No, it isn’t Claude,

He is downstairs fighting off, Adrik, Marisha and Ginobelucci, with Yannick and Saito,

I’m tending to everyone else’s wounds-”

-Thud!

As she speaks, we can here the loud thuds and bumps coming from below

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

The bumps get louder and louder, the—

Bash!

Three bodies bursts through the stone floor, atop what looks like geysers of purple fire,

A brown layer of seemingly dirt separates them from the raw fire, but that doesn’t block the impact of their backs slamming upwards through the hard floor,

“Claude!” Amelia exclaims seeing her brother,

“You guys are alive?” Claude tries to downplay his pain, noticing us,

“Th…en….c….an …we swi…tch…..pla….ces?’ Saito pants,

“I can’t fight anymore my mud magic wasn’t made for this,”

Yannick grunts, wincing at us

“Where is the boss?’

“On his way” Karina affirms

“Good that means we only have to hold these hunters off then—”

“—I beg to differ,” Marisha’s body springs upward from below,

“We will have gotten what we need by that time, and you all will be dea—”

Whump!

Crack!

Lyra doesn’t think twice as she unexpectedly rushes forward tacking the woman back thorough the gaping hole she sprang from,

The sound of Marisha’s back shattering against the stone below, firmly wakes us-

-no, wakes me up,

(This is for real)

…..

“Fire ant requiem!” Adrik’s angry voice rages

“I’ll help Amelia up here, you the rest of you can go help out Lyra,” Pinoki proposes semi-cowardly,

….

Apollo gives him a scornful glance before diving down into fray

……

****

“Heat times two!-

-Cross!”

Adrik sends a straight punch towards Yannick,

“Rock head defense!

Lighting magic—Charge object

Thunder stone rain!”

The blonde adventurer conjurers a layer of rock over his face tanking the blow, before then retaliating with a barrage of lighting-charged rocks that hit like bullets,

“Ha! You single attributes always think your superior,

Now watch as I bring you to your knees with both my attributes!” Yannick taunts

“I’m not impressed,” Adrik cockily shrugs,

“Fire ant requiem,

Dirt hill defense!

Marching —

“Lighting slash!”

Apollo surprise attacks, with the assistance of Karina silencing his movements, commanding Adrik’s attention from Yannick,

“Errgh!

You are a persistent lot I’ll give you that,” Adrik concedes,

“I could say the same of you,” Apollo counters,

“I have faced much more powerful foes than you,

Even that requiem you’re using,

Is still inferior to the one Darius left for me!” Apollo raises his sword overhead, in a vertical position,

“Apollo+Darius combo…

Strike!”

“Enough!

Beast’s Carnage!”

Crash!!

Ginobelucci steps in unleashing a devasting attack that rips into everyone fighting,

The wind gusts, like fangs, they chomp down into friend and foe alike,

“I am sorry you had to get hurt by me Adrik, Marisha, but it was starting to get annoying listening to you struggle to defeat these pathetic amateurs, now if you would excuse me……”

…….

(Time for Lyra and me to shine)

Hidden in a dark corner in the basement area of the institute Lyra and I waited,

Me, with my bow aimed at the action, Lyra a bit further in the dark preparing her magic for one powerful blast

Sooner or later Ginobelucci would have to poke his head out…...

Vwhip!

The bow string relaxes back into place upon me firing an arrow coated in rock magic,

(This is i—)

—Smash!

My head gets buried into the stone floor, as a strong wind pulls me towards the hunter leader

(How?-)

“How?

You must be thinking that right?”

Smash!

Smash!

He repeatedly slams me down,

….

I hear Lyra’s foot shuffling angrily

(Please stay hidden, please)

“I know you are there, girl, come out and I will kill you after my plan succeeds,

Stay hidden and I will come get you myself then make you watch as I murder your friends, via cannibalism~

~Then kill you the same way,”

“Snowstorm Blast!”

Lyra attacks,

“Ruuuughhhhhhh!”

Ginobelucci counters with a ferocious roar deflecting the attack,

Thud!

Crumble!

I can hear her body ‘fusing’ into a wall,

“Now I can wait for Giichi to arrive in peace,” Ginobelucci sighs

“I honestly didn’t expect it to be this soon you all would escape,

That fire surrounding the mayors complex was only supposed to last a little over an hour,

Then again, I did make it obvious that the lockets were what allowed us to still use magic,

……

“Hmmm, Apollo, is it?

Please stay down, I don’t want to have to accidentally kill you, yet

Especially since you are the child of my old guild mates after all,

Which speaking of,

You want to know something funny?

I actually know nothing about your parents, I only said that when we first met to gauge your strength,”

“…..” Apollo says nothing, only quietly griping his sword lying flat on his stomach, as the blood from the wind-ripped scars on his body, slowly seeps out below him in a puddle,

“Is this the part where you monologue your backstory to us?” Karina boisterously gets up, leaning her back against a wall, lazily,

“Mm not exactly, although,

I do have nothing to do while waiting on Giichi,

See I need him to witness what is about to happen,

Instead of my ‘backstory’ as you call it,

I will share a little about my time in this guild,

Contrary to what you might believe, I enjoyed it here, being and adventurer was fun,

For a while at least, but the biggest problem this guild lacked was a sense of…

A sense of family, living in the guild felt akin to being in a school, you would see your fellow students faces every day, maybe make a couple of acquaintances here and there, but that was it, there was no real ‘togetherness’,

I ‘know of’ your parents Apollo, but I do not actually know them besides the fact that they were in love, Emma was adept at magic and Raguel was an unselfish-self-righteous asshole if that makes any sense,

Adrik and Marisha joined the guild at a later point, I can’t really say we became friends either, it was more like they became my admirers,”

Ginobelucci lets out another sigh,

“A shame they had to be beaten like this, I promised them they would be my first ‘family members’

…….

Well!

Enough with the chatting, I wa—”

“—Impact strike!”

BANG!

“Impact strike!”

BANG!

“It’s over for you Belucci.”

Without signal nor waring Ozymandias warps into to the room grabbing Ginobelucci’s hands behind his back, he then warps Giichi in who lands two powerful blows, shattering almost all the hunter leader’s ribs…...

“Chh” Ginobelucci spits out blood,

“Ha, ha~ I was wondering what took you so long boss,

I already opened the requiem room, I was waiting for you to get here before I got started,”

“Game is over Belucci, nothing is getting started, I have you beat, and as we speak Dexter is rounding up your hunters,

And as for you—"

“Kill him” Lyra interjects crawling out from the rubble of stone she got sent into, she stares at the hunter murderously

“You, girl,” Ginobelucci looks at her properly for the first time

“I’ve seen a face like yours before, those exact eyes ,”

“Enough with the mind games, you’re already beat.”

“Oh, I beg to differ boss

Carnage release!”

Vwoom!

Slice!

A ripping breeze pushes both Ozymandias and Giichi away from Ginobelucci,

“You out of everyone should know how the wind fang requiem works boss,

as long as you are in my airspace I control the tides of battle,

And I was not playing ‘mind games’ when I said that girl looked familiar,

About ten years ago, I saw a man with eyes just like hers, even the same hair color,

A man that you~ Mr. mayor, regret not seeing~”

(Could he be talking about Lyra’s brother?)

“Do you know who I am talking about girl?”

“Heeyahhh!

Lyra ignores him instead charging forward, with a dagger,

Impact strike!

Giichi leaps ahead of the girl pouncing at Belucci,

Lucci notices this and swiftly ducks past them, a gust of breeze stirs up from below his feet as he makes a beeline for the artifact room

“Yess! this is why I waited for you to come Giichi!

I want this to be close, I want you to witness me winning!”

Thud!

Ozymandias warps under the hunter, sweeping his feet, but Ginobelucci anticipates it leaping up only to double stomp the mayor into the floor,

“Wheee!” Ozymandias wheezes as his chest collapses in,

“Nice try, Ozy, but for someone with an ‘exotic’ magic attribute you are awfully predictable—

—Urk!” Two daggers penetrate through Ginobelucci’s chest cutting his gloating off….

……

“Even though this isn’t fun, I felt like someone needed to take a trip to Pinoki- pummel town,” a little man grins emerging from the shadows,

“Karina can get a little credit for masking my presence, by the way,”

“I didn’t know you had it in you Pinoki,” Apollo compliments gingerly getting up,

“Urugh!

Ginobelucci coughs up a set of bloody fangs, his body mass decreases along with his muscle and the intense aura that I felt surrounding him fades,

(Is that the wind fang requiem he was talking about?)

“You got me, I’ll give you that” he concedes,

“But

I still win,

Hurahhhhhhhhhh!”

Ginobelucci starts spinning his arms generating a strong gale of wind that acts like engines propelling him back-first across the room,

Crash!

He smashes through the artifact room’s wall, landing right in front of the now open doorway to the smaller requiem room,

“Ozymandias warp me now!” Giichi barks anxiously,

…!!.

Its already too late, Ginobelucci drags himself onto the ‘throne’

BANG!

Giichi warps in front of the throne smashing Ginobelucci firmly onto the spikes,

“Ehhchh!”

The sharp spikes impale every point of the hunters body,

Thorns begin to fold over his head like crown they protrude from his eyelids, his mouth ,his legs, nose, throat, stomach….

(I feel like vomiting)

Ginobelucci has now finally achieved his goal of sitting atop the dragons’ throne,

Though tatted by thorns he smiles all the while, as his lifeless corpse? outpours a, what feels like, endless,

Bloody stream.