The giant brute stumbled as the children's onslaught slowly got more debilitating.

One of the boys in Flames group, had gotten the work the minute he was picked up. Long forked tail swinging, and a look of excitement present on his face. Thin eyebrows. He broke into a roll that collected rock as well as momentum. He spun through the compound and hardened the dirt into a terrible boulder that after about five seconds was about double the size of his body.

The boulder abruptly spun on a dime, turning toward the giant brute, before making a rather comical leap without any kickoff at all. The large construct of Earth casting its shadow over the entire Cradle, blotting out the lights of the field.

Suddenly, the entire boulder shifted from the boy's body, to hanging only by his tail, spinning like an oversized thrown morning star.

The silent observer of the blows being traded in and out, the shadow imp, preemptively winced in sympathy for the breserker.

This was gonna hurt.

The brute brought up his arms in a cross, and got slammed by the boy's massive rocky tail. It exploded into small shards and embedded itself into the Man's skin. The tail imp leaped next to his two allies in a victor's landing, putting his hands on his hips as his smile reflected a lot more light than it should’ve.

Flame and the lesser looked… less than impressed.

And the shadow boy shared a similar expression.

In retaliation, the brute flexed and almost all of the shards were pushed out of his body. Only a dribble of blood was proof that the rock man had done anything at all.

“HAHAHA! Impressive child! You are all so flashy!” Shadow chuckled evilly as he watched the brute buff up. His muscles became even larger. His club glowing a soft red. And the sound of steam. His brown fur and red skin had become a bright shade of pink.

The sound of his heart beat so loudly.

Brrrrrrrrr

An almost angry vibration.

With blinding speed, one of the brutes' tattoos glowed as he hit Flame square in the chest. In a crack, the imp coughed up blood and spit as he was sent flying. The brute laughed loudly. “You children are too young to take me down!” The blue lesser one charged into battle, a grim look on his face as he charged.

Personally.

The shadow boy thought they were crazy.

What would they even get out of fighting a losing battle?

He was better off just sitting here and watching.

He looked over and saw one of the lesser imps start bringing up other imps, as he had done with the tail one. His eyes and veins along his arm glowed bright green as he pulled them up one by one.

Each time he did so, slight tears moved down his face as he ripped the power out of himself. The green aura of his seemed to be a similar color as the…

Wait.

He looked up, remembering a week ago.

Seeing that boy who had brought the tree. In a roar of fire that seemed to rival or even beat those of the brute battling the other Imps…

Hmm.

He walked over to him as his face beat with sweat. Magical exhaustion seemed to come over his body more and more as he plugged the others with his own unique magic. The shadow boy seemed puzzled.

Crying and exhaustion?

“Does that hurt?” he asked. The boy jumped as the shadow kid brought attention to himself. It was funny how animated the boy was. “Jeez, don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Kinda…Impossible.” It wasn’t intentional usually. Leaving the concealed state was almost harder than staying in it. And why do things that would cause effort? It was better to make demons, like this one, believe he couldn't actually make the effort to be visible. That way he didn't get more work.

He repeated his question, and the boy with green eyes stroked his chin. “In a way, but my powers seem to work way easier here.”

Here? What did that mean? Had the boy found some way to leave the cradle that the shadow boy was not privy to? Explosions of rock, fire, and blue light came beside them as the imp the pink one raised joined the battle.

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“Why… Why help?” He asked the imp. “You have the power to just deal with the threat instantly. You could probably just erase that guy with one blast, so why heal these people when you could just battle.”

…The imp thought for a moment. The shadow looked at the boy's big eyes just swimming with light. He was kind of beautiful.

“I like healing more than hurting,” Said the green kid. “Whenever I use my powers in a way that makes my strength bigger…I usually find it hard to stop, besides,” He looked over to the ensuing battle. “It seems like support is what they need more than firepower.”

Support huh… The shadow imp thought on this statement. Perhaps he could use his power in a similar vein.

He felt the darkness swirl around his hands and wondered. He hasn’t really put Intention into it before…

He wondered…

—

Navy’s stick snapped in half as he got greedy with his defense. His stick snapped in half and his arm took an insane amount of damage. Navy caught the brute's almost horrified face as the man's fist broke through Navy's mana like glass.

Nav guessed that he did not mean to do it so hard. The damage was already done though. Navy was certain that all the bones in his arm were shattered.

Flying through the air he felt groggy.

Tired.

The mana exhaustion was starting to come.

They may have been in a mana rich environment, but that didn’t mean they could just go on expelling mana like faucets.

The body could only shoot out so much mana intentionally. Doing so for too long would cause dangerous effects especially in a battle.

Dizziness.

Fatigue.

Blood through the eyes and mouth.

Random exposition of their affinities.

And then finally, death.

And unfortunately he could already see it starting.

He landed on the ground in a nasty roll. Sucking air through his teeth as he felt the lightning of pain move through his arm. Okay, that hurt. But he’d been through worse.

He watched as Rhodney ran over to Flame's body that had been laying on the ground. One of his ram horns broken in two halves. And blood dribbling out of his mouth.

Flame mumbled protest as Rhodney stood over him. Lacking the strength, but pushing the fledgling white mage out of the way. Rhodney’s green mana went over Flame and slowly got him back into commission.

The dark red imp looked at Rod, not appreciating the save. “Just go.” Rhodney said, pointing at the threat. “Save your pride for later,”

Flame kept eye contact for a little too long, but then just took off into the battle. His walk was shaky as he walked towards the battle with a lot less previous vigor as he did before, a stumbling affliction taking him.

His friend ran up to him.

Smokey was suddenly in the battle now, spraying the giant with a giant cloud of black smog that left the giant coughing and rubbing his eyes.

Rhodney was wobbling up to him. His already terrible walk being enhanced by his lack of mana. The boy fell three times before making it up to him.

Dizziness. Fatigue.

He wordlessly moved his hands over to Navy. His arm burned as the mana started setting his arm back into place.

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop!

And sealed the wound.

Immediately he grabbed Rhodney by his shoulders.

“Stop.”

Rhodney looked shocked as Navy grabbed him tight. “You are going to fall, you can’t do more.” The boy's magic was incredible. The battle would’ve ended much sooner if he wasn’t here. And bringing up Flame was like bringing up five of these little fire demons.

He’d done enough.

Rhodney shook his head slightly with his eyes dead in a lull. He was barely still standing. If Navy didn’t see the boy's chest slowly start rising and falling he would’ve thought the boy was dead. “Rest, Rhodney.” He said in an order, “Sit down and cross your legs.”

With a bit of hesitation, the imp obeyed. “Feel the mana in the air and suck it into your body. Like you’re drinking water. Soak it into your organs, your groin, your brain. From your toes to your hair. Don’t forget anything.

Let it refill your body and you will be all better.” Navy repeated the mantra. He put his hands onto Rhodney’s back, and quickly, he started feeling his own magic start to be suckled.

“Yes! Like that,” He said, thanking his stars that the imp was decent at this, “Now, I have to continue to fight. I’ll come back soon, ok?”

The imp nodded slightly, his eyes slightly closed.

Navy took off.

—

The shadow imp made the cloud of smoke darker. He squeezed it in the air and made the billowing smoke screen bigger and enhanced the already present cloud. Smirking in support as he watched the brute swear up a storm.

COUGGH! COUGHHHH!

“WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, YOU BRATS ARE GOING TO–”

A rain of fire balls and hardened dirt rained down from the sky. Hitting in the general vicinity. Almost all of the Imps had changed to range the minute the smoke lesser and the shadow boy had gotten in the mix.

Flame laughed loudly and like a mad god threw yellow balls of fire left and right. Swaying like a tree buffeted by wind. Green mana was swirling around him as he drank from it with delight.

The brute’s giant club would come out of the smoke and at a dangerous random. If they hadn’t backed up from the swings it would've been horrible.

Thank god the brute wasn’t able to see.

“Keep firing on him! Keep him in the cloud!” The glowing blue one yelled as he grabbed a piece of debris and threw it with enhanced force.

Almost the entire camp was fighting at this point.

The smokey one seemed to have a slight domain over the cloud too. Keeping the area firmly under his control, as he moved it slightly back and forth as the titan tried to move out of it.

“Enough… Enough…” The monster spoke slightly more softly now. But the adrenaline was pumping so hard in the space that the young imps barely noticed.

“I… Said… ENOUGH!!!”

The smoke dissipated as the world shook from the brutes club. An explosion of fire and a glowing red aura that made everyone stop in their tracks.