The orc lord charges at Ray and Ken, slamming his giant sword down hard into the ground with such force the ground cracks. If they hadn’t jumped out of the way, that attack would have been fatal. After killing those piglings and orcs, Ray had levelled up to level 75 and Ken level 65, but even with their combined level, it still didn't add up to his. However, there were 2 of them and only one of him, they could win this if they worked together. Ray jumps towards the orc lord and slashes at his head, ripping a chunk out of his helmet, Ken follows suit with an overhead slash, but is blocked by the orc lord's sword, he then swings the massive slab of metal at Ray who blocks it with his blade but is sent flying backwards, however stops himself by digging his heels into the ground, Ken and the orc lord are fighting, the orc lord on the offensive, relentlessly swinging his sword, which Ken is forced to dodge and parry.

When fighting the orcs Ray had been turning off his flame aura whenever he used flame manipulation, but he knew he had to go all out if they were going to beat this guy, using both flame manipulation and aura would only allow him to be at his best for 2 minutes, but it was needed. He had never actively used this before, in fact, it was only a theorized move, but now he was going to put it to the test. This would be difficult as flame manipulation required creativity whereas flame aura needed you to stay focused, to balance both was hard, he needed to get into the zone, Ray closed his eyes and imagined the burning sun, a mass of flames that always in control yet the flames danced in strange and unique patterns. A ring of fire, symbolizing the sun appeared behind Ray, when the ring ran out, he would be unable to fight, it was like his own timer.

With newfound speed Ray rockets over to Ken and the orc lord, the orc lord had just disarmed Ken and was about to finish him off when Ray raised his sword and slashed, letting out a huge wave of flames blocking the orc lord from Ken. Ray was temporarily shocked; he was surprised that flame aura and manipulation together could be this powerful, but there was no time to waste, 10 seconds had already gone. Ray sticks out his hand and flames rush to the epicenter of his palm, forming a ball. He shoots a blast of fire at the orc lord who blocks it with his sword, Ken takes the opportunity to jump up, axe in hand and lands a devastating blow to the orc lords head, shattering the helmet on impact, however, it blunted the attack, the orc lord spins around, and diagonally slashes Ken right across the chest sending him flying into the wall.

“KENNN!”, Ray shouts.

“Now it's just you and me little wolf cub.”.

Ray snarls at the orc lord and darts towards him, the orc lord raises his blade into the air and slams it down, but Ray dodges in and slashes at his stomach, cutting a thin line right through the metal to his flesh, burning him at the same time.

“NOT BAD!”, the orc lord shouts as kicks Ray in the stomach, sending him rolling along the floor, however, like a wolf, he stops himself and rushes towards him, it had been about 30 seconds meaning he only had 90 left. He throws his blade into the air and creates and Exploding pitch in each hand and throws them at the orc lord, he goes to block the balls but, SNAP, Ray snaps his fingers causing Bothe of the balls to explode. The explosions destroyed the majority of the orc lords armour leaving burns all over his body and burning the orc lords face, resulting in him losing an eye and exposing his skull. The orc lord shrieks in pain, Ray catches his sword and take this opportunity to rush in and end it, attempting to pierce his heart, but the orc lord wasn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet as he slashed at Ray. It was a devastating attack, Ray had gotten cocky, thinking that attack had put the orc lord on his last legs, however, although gravely injured, he still had energy. The orc lord had slashed almost completely through Ray, cutting through, shoulder down to his chest, Ray vomited out blood as he was went flying backwards and crashed onto the floor, blood leaking out of him like a waterfall. He was in immense pain, pain he had never experienced before... he was dying, he was bleeding out too much, there was no one who could help him now, even if Ken was able to try, his healing magic wouldn’t have been enough to help. Is this really it? Was his journey already over?

The place where head had been cut was burning, it was getting hotter and hotter, however it no longer hurt, it was warm and cozy... Ray opened his eyes and looked at his wound. His flame aura had obviously disappeared, however, there were still flames on his body, exactly where the wound was, the pain was slowly going away. Ray slowly got up, he was confused, what had just happened? He was exhausted, but alive and the pain was severely less now, and what was more concerning... his wound.... was on fire, was this another power of the Pheonix? And then he remembered, the Pheonix healing flames. These powers... are incredible. Ray looks over to Ken to see him slowly getting to his feet too, so he was alive, that was great, it must have taken him a while to heal himself. Ray swayed in his feet, he felt extremely tired, like the Phoenix healing flames had taken all the energy he had out of his body. He looked over to the orc lord who had fallen to his knees and was holding his now deformed face.

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They were all exhausted and highly weakened, Ray picked up his sword, this battle wasn’t over, as he slowly walked over to the orc lord, he could see Ken doing the same thing. The orc lord, only noticing Ken, there was no way Ray had survived that it must have thought, got to his feet and slugged his way over to Ken. Ray reconned he only had enough energy to use his flame aura for either 11 more seconds or one more flame manipulation before he completely passed out. It had to be a powerful attack, something that was sure to end this, Ray closes his eyes and put his hand in the air and summoned a ball of fire. Ken, looking at Ray, knew he was the distraction, he had to hold off the orc lord and make sure he didn’t notice Ray. Whilst Ken was dodging the orc lords' sluggish swings with his broken sword, Ray focused he needed an attack, that could slice through that tough, thick body, he doubted another explosion would finish him, especially at the energy Ray had. The ball of flame began to spin and flatter, stretching out further and further, he needed to fire to be as thin as a razor and so he kept on spinning the flame faster and faster, thinner and thinner, sharper and sharper, enough to slash right through him.

Ken was holding on for dear life dodging and blocking the orc lords' attacks, the orc lord was significantly weaker and more sluggish now, to the point where Ken could dodge and block without sustaining much damage, however he couldn't hold up for ages. Ray needed to hurry up.

The flame ball was now as flat as a disk and spinning rapidly, it was moving so fast in fact that the epicenter of the flame had begun to turn white and blue in colour. Ray was ready to let this disk fly. He moved his arm to his side palm down, so the flaming disk was facing the floor, as Ray through the disk of flame, it hummed and whizzed through the air. Ken who had been watching Ray, jumped far out of the way, the orc lord confused, finally looked behind him to see the disk of flames meters away from him, he quickly dodged to the left as to evade the disk of flame, but Ray wasn’t going to allow that, he pointed in the direction at which the orc lord had tried to invade and the disk whizzed towards him. The orc lord had just enough time to yell as the disk whizzed straight through his chubby neck, beheading him. The disk of flame flew and whizzed into the wall of the cave where it eventually died out. Ray's legs were shaking, his conscious fading, he was about to pass out, he raised his arm up in celebration, the familiar voice in his head informing him that he had levelled up to level 83, before he faded into unconsciousness.

Ken falls backwards and lies on the floor of the cave, his muscles had given out, he was going to take a short nap and as he dozes off, he smiles. That battle had raised his level to 69, he was surprised that although Ray finished off the orc lord, he had still levelled up? And with that, Ken fell asleep... completely forgetting the hobgoblin who had been watching them in admiration and were now slightly confused... weren’t they being saved?

Ray slowly opened his eyes, it was strange... he felt a severe feeling of DeJa'Vu, but why? He had passed out again, he had awoken in a cave again and his head was on something oddly soft to be a rock. As he looked up, he saw Lilly looking down at him... face slightly red.

“What are you doing here?” Ray asked... deciding to bypass any awkward questions.

“Well, you guys had been gone for ages and we had begun to get worried, after all, you were going up against as seriously strong opponent and there was no guarantee that you were going to come back.”.

“I see...”.

At that moment Leo wondered over and smiled a mischievous smile at Ray.

“What...”, Ray asked monotone

“Nothing big bro, it's just... well you looked mighty comfortable sleeping on big sis’s lap, you were smiling and everything like a baby.”.

Rays face began to go red as he looked up at Lilly who was avoiding Eye contact. He sat up, stood up and began to chase Leo around the place who was laughing and screaming at the same time, the other children laughing. Sara, sky and molly all walked up to Lilly and put their thumbs up and smirked, which caused her to go so red that steam was coming off of her. Ray suddenly became lightheaded and stumbled, about to fall when Ken catches him.

“Take it easy, you almost died earlier and then you passed out. You shouldn’t be ramping about.”, Ken said. He was being supported by Hob-Lee who was blushing slightly.

“how’s your wound.”, Ray asked noticing a scar across his chest.

“It's ok, my healing magic wasn’t enough to fully heal it, so it left a scar. But other than being a bit tired I'm alright.”.

Ray looked over in the distance and saw a group of 10 Hobgoblins all sat together around the burning bonfire.

“So, what do we do about them.”, Ray asked.

They looked at the group of hobgoblins who were all staring at Ray and Ken.

“About that... I think we need to have a group talk.”.

Ray had a feeling he knew what it was going to be about, when Hob-Lee appeared and asked them to do this job... part of Ray knew how things would turn out.

Ray, Ken, Lilly, the Children and Hob-Lee all sat together in a circle, to discuss a very, very important topic.