Tave looked up just as the massive bzing fire, shaped like a great phoenix descended from the sky, lighting up the Volcanic Orc in a storm of golden-red fme. Even from where he was, he could feel the searing heat licking at his skin.

  It happened fast. Too fast.

  But Tave forced himself to act, pushing his instincts, his training, and every ounce of raw desperation to move within those fleeting seconds.

  Because Orion couldn’t hurt the orc, not alone!

  Not without help.

  He moved in a blur, thrusting his right hand upward. In a fsh, several small, reddish orbs flew from his storage ring, strange, petal-covered spheres that shot into the sky like sparks.

  Crimson Sepiths.

  Tave had been collecting them, harvesting the votile flowers earlier and storing them just in case. Waiting for the right moment.

  That moment was now.

  “NOW!!”

  Tave shouted, voice breaking across the clearing. He didn’t have time to expin. But he hoped Oriana and Lily would understand what he needed, when he needed it.

  Because the Crimson Sepiths, when ignited by fire, didn’t just explode. They released a thick mist. And not just ordinary mist.

  A reaction of water essence and votile heat, creating a dense vapor rich in water-elemental particles.

  As the phoenix-shaped inferno descended and touched the Sepiths, BOOM!

  They erupted in fshes of red and white, and suddenly everything slowed, just for a moment.

  The mist bloomed out like smoke underwater, wrapping around the orc’s form, coating the battlefield in a swirling, glowing fog.

  And in that instant, the tide began to shift.

  In that blink of a moment, Tave saw it all unfold, clear as day in the chaos.

  Lily and Oriana moved.

  Without hesitation, they unched into complex hand seals, their forms flowing with practiced precision. They understood. They didn’t need an expnation. They knew exactly what had to be done.

  They had to stop the orc. Right now.

  Tave’s sharp eyes caught the split-second decision in Lily’s expression. She faltered, just for a breath, hesitating on her final seal.

  She was torn.

  Should she use her skill to attack the orc… or protect Tave?

  But she corrected herself instantly.

  She chose right.

  A radiant blue glow surged beneath her left eye. Her Raindrop Sigil bursting to life.

  The mist reacted immediately. In a heartbeat, the swirling fog condensed, forming into a massive, rippling cluster of water above the orc, thick and heavy.

  It was happening.

  Oriana!

  Tave's gaze snapped toward her as she completed her final sequence of hand seals. Hands trembling, eyes fierce.

  A sudden bst of light erupted around her, radiant and cold, illuminating the clearing like a divine storm.

  Her sword returned, glowing, brighter than ever before. The bde shimmered with a blinding, crystalline brilliance.

  And then, behind her, something stirred.

  A figure emerged from the light, graceful, regal, ethereal.

  A woman dressed in a gown spun from ice itself, a delicate crown of frost adorning her head. Her presence was silent, yet commanding.

  Eirnalis. The ancient frost spirit dwelling within Oriana’s Relic.

  Oriana was pushing everything. Forcing power through her core in a reckless gamble that could break her. Destroy her.

  Her eyes bzed white, glowing with overwhelming energy, her voice cutting through the roar of the fire and chaos.

  “You die now!”

  In that instant, the water in the air, already thick, already dense. Got frozen!

  All of it.

  Dozens of massive ice shards formed in a blink, sharp as bdes, glinting in the mist.

  And then, they unched.

  A storm of frozen death streaked toward the orc, crashing down like jagged meteors.

  Each one aimed to pierce, to tear, to bring down the beast that had pushed them all to the edge of death.

  Lily and Oriana poured everything, everything, into that final attack.

  Their cores burned hot, the energy within nearly spent. Oriana pushed even farther, digging into the very limits of her strength, into the edge of what her body could endure. This wasn’t just a powerful strike. It was a sacrifice.

  And Orion too. His phoenix-shaped bze tore through the sky, a living inferno that bent mid-air, veering sharply before it smmed into the orc’s side, erupting in a shockwave of heat and force. It was just enough, just enough, to force the monster’s attention away, buying a narrow window for Tave to escape.

  But it was too fast.

  Too much.

  How could he survive an onsught like this. Bsts of elemental fury exploding in every direction, crashing down exactly where he stood?

  He was trapped.

  Any second, any one of those strikes could kill him. Instantly.

  This was annihition.

  Tave’s hands fshed into hand seals, his mind screaming for motion, his instincts in overdrive. He forced his body to respond. Lightness filled his limbs, and he pushed off the ground. The earth dropping away beneath his feet as he tried to run.

  Move. Move!

  But it wasn’t enough.

  Not nearly enough.

  He was still too slow.

  There was no way out.

  Then, impact. Something dark and hard smmed into him from the left, fast, brutal, and unstoppable.

  It hit like a truck, knocking the breath from his lungs. He felt ribs snap, pain fre through his chest like fire. He was flying, unched across the clearing, his vision a blur of smoke and shattered light.

  What the hell just hit me?!

  He didn’t even know.

  All he knew was, he moved.

  Just in time.

  Because where he had been standing only a breath earlier, the massive body of the orc came crashing down, smming into the earth with a quake that shook the world. Right on the very spot he’d just been.

  Tave crashed into the trees, the impact knocking the breath from his lungs as his body smmed into bark and splintered wood. Pain exploded through his chest, but somehow, somehow, he remained conscious.

  And then, his eyes snapped open.

  He saw Orion, mid-air, struck by the orc’s massive left hand. The blow sent him flying, smming violently into the forest just as Tave had. There was no fme in his sword now. No strength in his limbs.

  Orion had burned everything. All of his energy. All of his stamina.

  His core… probably unusable for days.

  On the other side, Oriana had colpsed as well. She hit the ground hard, her body unmoving. She had given everything, and there was nothing left in her to give.

  Only Lily remained standing.

  Alone.

  Her face pale, her breath shallow, her silhouette barely visible through the dying fmes that still clung to the orc’s massive body.

  And the monster, still standing.

  The attack hadn’t been for nothing. The thick stone armor that had encased its body was fractured. Chunks of it bsted off, revealing vulnerable, exposed patches of skin beneath.

  But the orc?

  It didn’t look tired.

  Not yet.

  Now, it was just Lily and Tave, who could barely lift himself off the ground.

  His body screamed. Every muscle felt hollow. His vision swam.

  But the fight wasn’t over.

  Not yet.

  The Orc rose again, looming like a mountain of fury, and reached for its massive stone club. Still smoldering, still slick with the heat of battle.

  It let out a guttural roar, deep and deafening, shaking the clearing with its rage. And then, it smmed the club into the earth with enough force to send tremors through the ground.

  Lily stood frozen. Paralyzed by terror.

  “Lily!” Tave cried out, voice cracking. “Move! Go, NOW!”

  He forced his battered body to move, pain screaming through every nerve. His muscles trembled, and his lungs burned. But he had to move. He had to get to her.

  “Lily! Run!” he shouted again, louder.

  She didn’t move.

  The orc did.

  It charged forward with terrifying speed, raising the club once more. Then hurled it straight toward her, the massive weapon spinning with monstrous force.

  There was no way she’d survive a hit like that.

  “LILY!!” Tave’s voice tore through the air.

  But there was no time.

  The club was coming.

  The club was an inch away, moments from crushing Lily where she stood.

  Then, impact! A shield appeared between her and the death hurtling toward her, wielded by a figure that emerged in a fsh, just in time.

  The sound of the collision roared through the clearing. A thunderous boom that seemed to shake the very air. But the club didn’t break through. It shoved the figure back, grinding against the shield with overwhelming force. But the defense held.

  Just barely.

  The figure stood their ground, braced like a wall against the blow.

  And then, movement. More figures emerged from the edges of the clearing, stepping out of the mist and fme.

  Elias. And behind him, two others, forming a protective ring around Lily and the fallen.