Meera realized that her armor's Chameleon effect wasn't much use anymore, but she still kept her head and neck covered. She pulled off four level 2 chakrams using Mirror Wing and launched them at all the coming Wardens. Dirik was still hiding in his shadows, but she couldn't be worried about him. I'll deal with his sneak attacks as they come.

Tekton deflected her chakram with his sword. Pallas blocked it with a shield. For the first time, Melas dodged it instead of punching it away. Zona shot an arrow at it, but her chakrams were much stronger thanks to her increased Dexterity, and her Mirror Wing skill was stronger, too. In the end, Zona had to dodge as well.

But Meera wasn't in the mood to let her get off so easily. She flicked a finger, and her chakram went after Zona. Thanks to the upgraded Mirror Wing, the speed of her chakram had more than doubled. Her spinning disc of death went blazing after the archer.

Zona's eyes widened, and she ducked the chakram, but thanks to the Searing effect of her chakram, it left a nice, deep cut on Zona's right arm. The arm that she pulled the bowstring with. Meera couldn't help but grin. How's that for a little payback?

She would've loved to continue to assault the Archer Warden, but the others had reached her. Without wasting a moment, Meera blasted off into the air. Out of their reach, for now. The chakrams that she had launched at them came flying back.

Her troubles were only beginning. The stoic Zona, who had hardly shown any emotion, glared at Meera. She pulled back on her bowstring. If anyone from afar looked at her, it would seem she had no problem doing it, but her eyes spoke the truth. They flickered and trembled with pain, even if she didn't show the pain outwardly.

Meera took out three regular chakrams and had them spin around her as a protective barrier. Her idea was to have them cut off Zona's arrow midflight, but another trouble came her way in the form of the Colossus Warden.

Melas jumped directly in front of her, ready to ram his fist through her head. Another idea popped into her head. Meera flew down to the others as if shot from a bow. Zona launched her arrow as soon as Meera landed. Tekton also swung his sword at her at the same time. Meera activated Druvis Power and somehow caught the blade, prevented it from slicing her hands in two, and moved him in front of her.

Tekton only had time to frown as Zona's arrow ripped through him. The Gladiator gasped as his eyes widened, and blood poured out of the hole in his armor. Armor, which she had weakened thanks to her lightning storm.

"Sorry," Meera said before lifting him over her head and tossing him towards the archer.

Pallas laughed and shook his head. "You're a menace today, Meera."

Melas fell with a fist, ready to punch her into the ground, but she used Mirror Blast and blasted him out of the sky. Pallas, of course, was fine. His shields saved him. Her idea panned out as Tekton engaged Zona in deadly combat. It was a sight to watch them move, but she didn't have time to focus on them much as she saw the ground ripple.

The only weakness of Dirik's shadowy ground skill was that it rippled slightly whenever he attacked. She had fought him to the death enough times to know how to catch the rippling effect. Meera jumped back as a great shadowy sword jutted out of the ground.

The ground rippled again beneath her feet. She blasted off into the air as another sword tried to come for her. The sword tip would've impaled her foot if not for her recently upgraded armor and defensive skills.

The ground rippled again, and throwing knives the size of long swords flew at Meera. She activated a Tower Shield below her, and the shield stopped the swords, but it did get a few cracks.

She had her hands full with Dirik, but the mad Warden Captain roared and came for her. She flew out of the way of his fist and activated Vampiric Chains. The chains wrapped themselves around his body and suspended him in mid-air. She reached around her back, pulled off a level 2 chakram, and activated Shadow Coating, covering her chakram with shadows and giving it a twinkly look.

She hurled the chakram at the frozen Colossus, who unfortunately broke her chains at that very instant. But her chakram was fast. It sliced off Melas's arm just below the shoulder.

"Ouch." Pallas winced for his brother.

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Melas bit his lower lips and groaned as he fell. Blood leaked in droves from his stump. Meera was sure that was enough to put him down, but she was mistaken. It only made him angrier. As soon as he landed, his head snapped at her and glared like a wild beast.

Pallas chuckled. "You have to admit, she got you good."

Melas ignored him as he glared at her, sizing her as his next prey.

"Are you going to do anything or just trash talk?" Meera yelled at the Guardian.

"I could, or I could just wait for someone else to finish him off."

A sword of darkness and shadows erupted out of the ground. Melas jumped aside, but the sword still impaled his foot. Again, Melas did not cry out. Dirik finally revealed himself.

He jumped out of the shadowy ground, his Shadowsteel blade ready to cut off Melas' head. But the Captain of the Wardens would not go down so easily. He caught Dirik's blade in his hand and tossed him aside. Dirik went rolling on the ground, raising dust, which Meera found odd as the dust was under the layer of shadows that Dirik had formed on the ground.

She wished she could have taken advantage of this opportunity, but three arrows zipped through the air towards Meera. She dropped to the ground, and the arrows sailed harmlessly overhead. In trying to fight off Melas, she didn't have the time to focus on Tekton and Zona's fight.

The Gladiator Warden was no longer in the arena. He sat beside the Stormweaver Warden, looking about as miffed as Lexa. But Zona had not won the fight unscathed. She had taken several bad cuts to her abdomen and legs, and she was missing the tip of her nose.

Meera had nary a breath to raise a small shield in front of her face before Melas' fist came crashing through it and sent her flying. She nearly blacked out. Her eyes watered involuntarily. The effect of her nose being smashed flat almost. She sailed through the air and landed at Zona's feet, who had an arrow pointed at her head.

Zona let the arrow fly. Meera used Mirror Step and teleported to safety, but her arrow didn't hit the ground but thrummed against a big bronze shield.

"Oh," Pallas said, noticing Meera lying some distance away, close to one of her chakrams. "I didn't need to save you, but still, I think that's enough of picking on her, don't you think."

Zona raised an eyebrow.

Pallas sighed. "Yes, I'm playing favorites, but seriously, don't you think we're being a little harsh on her."

"Fine," Zona replied. "Then let's go. You and I."

The manic look returned to Pallas' eyes. "I was wondering you would never ask."

The two lovebirds attacked each other, giving Meera a moment of respite, but that was it. Melas roared and lunged for her. She waited at the last moment to teleport out of the way. His fist landed on the ground and created a crater.

She used Mirror Wing, raised all her chakrams off the ground, and sent them his way. He jumped out of the way in the nick of time. She teleported to one of her chakrams and used Petrifying Surge to cover the raging Warden, but it did little to stop him.

Thankfully, Dirik took that moment to strike. He jumped out of the dark ground and ripped open Melas' back. He cried out and turned fist swinging, but Meera used that moment to coat all her chakrams with Shadow Coating and launched them all into his back, one after the other.

Melas cried out. His feet faltered for but a moment. Dirik drove his sword into the Colossus Warden's heart.

Melas coughed out blood. "That was good, kids. Have fun…"

He fell, and his body disappeared in the wind. Of course, Dirik didn't waste any time and shot her with a beam of shadows. She raised a shield, which took the brunt of the blow but was still pushed back some distance before the shield broke. But by then, the beam had practically disintegrated into nothing.

She blasted off towards the side, and Dirik was sinking into the ground. She couldn't let him escape, but he did. But this was where her Eyes of the Phoenix skill came into effect.

A reddish outline of where Dirik was hiding came into view. Meera dropped to the ground, landed beside his outline, and made a show of looking about. She brought her chakrams to her and gripped two of them tightly.

"Show yourself, Dirik," Meera called out again to drive home the illusion that she didn't know where he was.

Dirik's outline moved, and Meera punched down with her level 2 chakram. He tried to move, but she was too fast and ended up driving her chakram deep into his shoulder. He cried out, and with her chakram embedded in his shoulder, she pulled him out of the shadowy ground.

"That was good…" Dirik managed.

Meera ripped his throat open with one of her flying chakrams. The ground turned to normal sand. Seeing the sand beneath her feet rather than the ominous black surface was such a relief. She decided to take a breather as the last two remaining Wardens were still going at it.

She started when she realized that one of the two remaining Wardens was Zona. The last person she wanted to face one-on-one.

Pallas was holding his own, but he had two arrows sticking out of him—one in his shoulder and the other in his left hand.

I must help him. No matter what, he must survive that fight because there is no way I have a chance in hell of defeating Zona.

She had just thought that when Zona launched an arrow into the sky. It had a short trajectory before it returned, split into a hundred arrows that rained on Pallas. The Guardian Warden put up his shields, but the arrows were relentless.

Meera chucked a level 2 chakram at Zona, but the Warden must've seen it coming as she jumped clear. Even the searing effect of the chakram didn't do much, but it distracted Pallas for a moment.

"There's no need, lass," Pallas said. "I'll take care of this—" He loudly gasped midsentence. An arrow had struck him in the side of the neck. He turned to Zona with a bloody smile. "That was…good."

She winked. "Thanks, love." She killed him with an arrow through the eye, then turned towards Meera.

Oh no…