“Iris take care of the wounded woman and protect her— me and Bo will help deal with the monster!” Sera shouted as they approached the group of four who were engaged in intense combat with the monster.

One of their members, the woman whose arm had been cut off, wasn't participating— obviously— as she lay on the grass holding her arm in sheer pain. Much of her body was stained with blood, ultimately ruining her clothes, but that didn't matter now.

She needed to stop the bleeding and tried her best to do so but to no avail, the blood rushed out of her arm like a broken dam, staining the grass below in dark red color. Her face was turning paler by the second due to the amount of blood she had lost and from afar Iris could see her begin the wobble.

The other members had taken the monster's agro and were keeping it as far away from their wounded member as possible, giving her a chance to survive. She was in no form to battle, her mind was in shock and her body had sustained life altering damage.

Iris slid across the grass on her knees and reached the woman's side. Immediate care needed to be given or she would die right here and the first step was to stop the bleeding. Iris reached into her backpack and pulled out rope which she used to tightly wrap around the woman's bicep to stop the flow of blood.

“Drink this!” Iris commanded the woman and she wasn't going to argue against someone trying to save her. She downed one of Iris’s relaxant potions and her pained face easied ever so slightly— It was better than nothing,

There wasn't any time to clean the wound properly so Iris splashed some cleaning alcohol meant for wounds onto the women's open arm wound causing an immediate reaction.

“Ahhh!” The woman screamed in a horrible high pitched and reflexively bite down in pain causing her lip to bleed.

“Shit!” There was no time to find something she could bite into to stop her from wrecking her teeth so all Iris could do was finish getting her out of the danger zone faster.

The last step was to wrap the wound tightly with cloth, there wasn't anything more she could do especially considering she wasn't even a doctor of any kind. Hopefully this was enough for now, but she would need immediate care once they got out.

‘Her arm!’ Iris looked around and spotted her detached arm. Was there any chance for it to be stitched back together? The cut was clean but it would still take either an amazing doctor or a crosser with healing powers to put them back together without any problems.

She quickly ran over to the arm and picked it up— a little disgusted— but she had no time for such thoughts, she needed to keep this woman safe.

Over to the battle, Bo and Sera joined in with the other three members; two men and one other woman who wore furious expressions. They didn’t suddenly approach them and instead waited for the group to see they were here with good intentions, and after looking around and seeing Iris helping their wounded comrade, their fury lessened.

“Are you here to help!?” One of the group's men, a handsome looking blonde, yelled out while sidestepping a wide swing from the monster.

“Yep! Our friend will keep yours safe so we can focus on this monster!” Sera yelled out, getting a relieved expression from the other group.

“Thank you so much!” He thanked them before he turned his attention back to the battle at hand.

Sera rubbed her hands and grinned, “Lets see if training has paid off.” During the month of rest they did not sit idly but continued to train themselves. Sera had put in a ton of effort in trying to master the ability to spontaneously activate and deactivate her ember, saving her loads of energy in a drawn out battle.

Bo had trained more as well, he was less focused on his ember which was more of a utility ability and more focused on his combat capabilities. From how he was when he first started training back in Gladesdale, to how he is now after training with the Keeper and by himself, there was a major difference.

And of course one thing they had to do during their month of rest was strategize plans against swarms of enemies. It caused them so much grief, but now they had effective ways of dealing with swarms so that next time they run into one, it would be a lot easier.

Back to the battle, Sera decided to start off with a big move, to showcase to the group what she was capable of. Before doing so she made sure to warn them by yelling, “Im attacking, stand back a little!”

She burst off the ground towards the monster's face and pulled back her fist before releasing it with a powerful use of her ember.

BOOM!

The monster head whipped to the side from Sera’s punch, then its body began to tilt before it stumbled a few steps backwards but it had managed to keep itself standing.

Now it was mad.

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It roared ferociously and focused in on Sera but then it felt something cut its leg below slicing through some of its vines that wrapped around it. Looking down it saw Bo briefly underneath it before he ran through its legs behind it.

It spun around and swung its blade arms at Bo, but the monster wasn't that fast and Bo easily slipped by it. While it wasn't fast, like what happened before, all it needed was a second of pause to deal disastrous damage. They would try their best to not allow this to happen though.

Suddenly they heard the Apostle speak again, “To make things fair, Myth shall appear.”

Another pillar began to descend at the same time as the monster pillar and while they didn't see it, they could feel the vibrations of something appearing on the other side of the temple. Looks like that was the concern for the other groups here, like Zorn.

For now they needed to focus on one fight at a time.

Sera jumped back at the last second, a little distracted by the sudden announcement which gave the monster a chance to deal some damage but she was thankfully fast enough to dodge.

“How should we deal with this thing? We need to do it fast or we might not have enough time to get to the bell!” Bo bellowed the question to everyone here and waited for an answer.

“Let's try to knock it down again!” The blonde man answered them again, he seemed to be the leader of the party. “We three will try to lock it in place and If she can do what she did before to knock it down while you keep the monster distracted, i think we can defeat it!”

“Sounds good!” Bo and Sera both answered.

They could see the monster pillar in the distance slowly getting smaller. The rate was slower than the magic pillar but they'd rather defeat the monster and get more time to themselves than wait for the next adversity, in case it was worse than the ones now.

With a smirk and a deep breath, Bo once again challenged the monster by running under its legs and slashing as many times as he could before running out. The strategy seemed to work wonders as every time he did that, the monster would focus on him trying its hardest to cut his beautiful metallic body.

Sera was laying low, waiting for the opportune time that the other group should be giving her, ready to put her all in one punch.

The group members waited until the monster was focused away from them before they dashed towards the monster ready to lock it down. The leader summoned a special whip which he used to wrap around one of the monster's legs while the other man seemed to duplicate as another one of him appeared and they stood nearby, seemingly waiting. Lastly the other women of the group, a lean muscular redhead, summoned forth a giant frog companion creature that looked to be the size of a car back on Arcon. The frog used its tongue to grab hold of the monster's other leg.

“Now!” The leader yelled at Sera.

She rocketed towards the monster who had just begun to realize that its legs were tied up, but it was too late for it.

“Take this!” She used the max amount of power she could use out of her ember and smashed her fist straight into the monster's dome.

BOOOM!

A shockwave radiated off where the collision happened, but the monster was strong, its body started to lean like before and might have been able to catch itself by taking a few steps back, but now its feet were locked down.

With the momentum of the punch and the monster's inability to walk, it needed just a little push to make it fall over and that's where the clone of the man came into account. It jumped onto the chest of the monster and kicked it, while it might not have looked like it did anything, just the slightest amount of extra force was needed. The monster slowly tumbled onto the ground and when it hit the floor a cloud of dust and debris shot out from underneath it.

“ROOOAR!” The monster's anger had peaked and it began to try and stand up while in endless rage.

“We need to pin it down!” The leader yelled.

“I got this!” Sera yelled as she was soaring over the monster's body. She somersaulted and then stomped down with as much power she could into its chest causing the monster's body to sink another few feet into the dirt.

She jumped back taking a deep breath out, it still tired her to use her max power in quick succession but she hoped it was enough to pin down the monster.

The leader used his whip to wrap around the creature's head before tying its extraordinary length to a thick tree trunk nearby. The frog used its town to wrap around both its legs and then it did its best to prevent the monster from breaking out.

“We gotta run fast! This won't hold the monster long but if we can make it to the temple before it gets up we might have a chance to finish the challenge before it gets up. And in case it breaks free, you might be able to knock it off the temple if it climbs after us.” The last part he said while looking at Sera who nodded in response.

“I can carry your wounded comrade, while Bo you carry Iris. Let's go quickly!” Sera said and everyone took off. The leader surprisingly ran alongside Sera, he couldn't let these strangers do everything for them.

“What are you doing? We got this, you run ahead, away from the danger!” Sera questioned the blonde man.

“I'm back up in case anything goes wrong! Can't let you take all the glory either can I?” He smirked, getting a chuckle out of Sera.

Sera scooped up the wounded woman who was already looking a little better after Iris patched her up while Bo piggy backed an embarrassed Iris.

She didn't hate being piggybacked, just the fact she was considered the slow one among the group. Sera and Bo were both extra fast compared to most which made it worse as well. It was also a little embarrassing to be piggybacked as an adult, but she knew it was the most optimal strategy.

With a red faced Iris on his back, Bo made it to the temple stairs alongside Sera and the leader. His two other comrades were already a third of the way up the temple and looked back down at them, waving at them to hurry up.

The temple was a roughly a good hundred meters tall, so the stairs were quite long and tiring, especially after having to fight a monster and having to run away from magic fireballs.

It didn't help that the second they took a few steps up the stairs, they heard the monster begin to free itself. Not wanting her creature companion to get injured, the woman unsummoned her frog which gave the monster an easier time to get the whip off its neck and stand up.

It quickly spotted them climbing the temple and charged at them as fast as it could go.