Back on the ground...

Simon had fully lost himself. A hundred percent of the ash-like skull covered his face, like a mask, with detailed blood tribal markings, similar to tiger whiskers. Purple & black fire ripped the ground apart, with him as the epicentre.

"This is not a good time for this, Simon. Wake up now!" Koji yelled, at the top of his lungs, as he faded in and out of consciousness, trying to keep control of his own energy.

He unsheathed his sword, just in time, using the flat part of his blade, to block a flaming strike from his lost comrade. Rocking him over dozens of kilometres into the side of a hill.

He grunted, from the pain, but quickly got back up. "He's way stronger than before and seems like his power is rising by the minute... That's going to cost him more of his life."

Simon landed in front of him, screeching with an otherworldly sound. Winds picked up from the energy he released, as he glared Koji down.

"No use talking, huh? Let's make this quick." Koji concluded as he braced himself, charging up with six drums of electricity, hovering away, yet attached to his back. He cracked three open, releasing monsters of his imagination, made out of cobalt blue electricity and charged them at Simon.

The mouth of Simon's skull mask, opened up, creating a fast-rotating sphere of purple and black fire in front of its face. Then shattered it, blasting a beam of incredibly hot fire, erasing all of Koji's beasts.

The Nova leaped to the side, evading the beam and flanked, closing in with lightning speed, while aiming to break off Simon's mask. However, Simon had quickly dissipated the beam, and blasted thrusts of fire under his feet, to quickly roundhouse kick Koji's sword out of his hands.

'He's intelligent, just like Tobi was,' Koji thought to himself.

He recoiled from the strike but quickly tried to follow up by throwing a punch with all of his might, carried by lightning, as Simon did the same, reinforcing himself with black & light violet fire.

The impact sent shockwaves, across the continent, as they continued to trade blow for blow. Bruising each other, until Koji cracked apart Simon's mask, with a flare of electricity escaping his fist and sailing past his face.

Simon jumped back, to make some distance and clutched the spot that cracked, as it crumbled away. Revealing his left eye and releasing dark energy, like smoke out of a chimney. He roared angrily, then placed his palm to his side, creating a massive purple and black sphere of fire, then condensed it, to fit hovering over his palm.

Koji sighed. "It seems like you still have your old instincts. That means you're not completely gone are you?" He raised his right hand in front of him, facing his palm to the sky. "What's it going to take, Simon?"

An incredibly massive lightning bolt struck down, stopping short only before his palm, and filled into a blue sphere. Like water being poured into a glass cup before it condensed down to violet.

"Static: Denki no Taiyō." He said as he threw forth his left hand, signalling the remaining drums hovering behind his back, to release monsters. Homing in to stop Simon's incoming charge.

Yet, Simon managed to dodge each of them, blurring from spot to spot and making his way closer to Koji. Fortunately, the Nova had just finished preparing his attack, then leaped forth to meet Simon midway.

Fabricating a beautiful explosion with shades of purple, indigo and black ripping apart the entire landscape below them, while sending them flying back from each other. As it left Koji unconscious.

When he came to, Simon was standing over him, injecting an adrenaline booster into his arm. "Listen up, I'm only gonna say this once. Thanks for stopping me." He said, turning away. The skull on Simon's head had completely broken off, returning him to his normal self, except for his hair, still glowing silver.

Koji smirked. "It was really hard not killing you, ya know."

Simon scoffed. "Yeah, sure." He looked off into the distance, towards Amaara's direction. "It's getting intense over there."

Koji threw his senses in that direction as well, realizing what Simon was talking about. "We have to hurry."

Simon nodded. "No kidding. Let's go."

Over the skies of Valtorin...

Amaara dodged blasts of fire and electricity, whipping past her, at sonic speed. Spontaneously, setting off enormous explosions in the distance.

She clasped her hands together in front of her, in a prayer formation. "Ignite: Sky Apexes."

Carnivorous birds and lizards of all types manifested in purple & black flames, then flocked towards Drakarna, crashing into her and initiating drive-by strikes.

The princess struggled to shoot down the animals until she was completely overrun and opted to smack them away in a panic, as she got annoyed, by the constant tiny stings of lifespans leaving her.

Amaara didn't wait for her to recover. She threw her hand back, creating a violet flaming javelin with a flaming black tip. Then, raised the javelin to her eye level, up above her shoulder, as she began her run.

Trails of fire left her feet, as she stepped hard in midair, releasing the javelin at her maximum momentum. "Ignite: Javelin Throw!" The javelin whizzed through the air and dipped down towards Drakarna, through the constant flock of flaming birds.

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She looked up at the last moment, deciding to freeze all of the animals at once. However, melting through the makeshift ice dome she had created, the javelin continued to make its way through like a hot knife and lodged right through one of her eyes.

Drakarna's scream echoed throughout the land, but Amaara didn't let up. She continued to launch another javelin without hesitation.

Her ice dome exploded in all directions, slowing down and throwing off the javelin's trajectory, as it missed her by inches. "I'm sick of you. I need to get rid of you as soon as possible." Drakarna spat, as she raised her right hand, gathering energy, and then cupped it with the other. "You can't escape this!"

Amaara looked around her, as a massive cage of ice manifested and enclosed her. She smiled and burned her flames hotter, aiming to melt it apart. However, it maintained its shape, as more layers were added on top of it.

"Oceanic Pressure!" Drakarna yelled as pressure began to press Amaara's body from all over, crushing her, while several twisters sprung up, keeping her immobilized and putting out her flames.

She started to panic, as she looked for a way out, making her way toward the edge of the cage and in front of Drakarna. She pounded her fists on the walls until it bled from the cold. Spurting her last flames on her last strike and finally breaking a hole through.

Amaara burst out, gasping for air, and shaking off the pain of several broken bones as she looked back up at the princess with a smile. Drakarna was seething with rage. She raised her hand forth, manifesting thousands of fire, ice, and electric volleys, then launched them at her without hesitation.

The Nova flew out, quickly and zig-zagged away, preparing a fast-rotating, condensed sphere of blue fire, turning purple, while hovering above her right palm. The volleys soared past, crashing down below, as she flew lower to the ground.

Her hair fluttered in front of her face blocking, her view for just a moment, as she looked back, seeing the remaining volleys lining up behind her. Then turned around fully, placing her right hand forth. "Ignite: Violet Blaze!"

The sphere hovering in front of her palm razed down the volleys in one swift motion. As the horizon cleared, she started to let up, not noticing Drakarna, sneak up behind her, with lightning speed and Machia's sword drawn, raised high above her head, while charged with fire and electricity.

"Why are you still alive!" She screamed as Amaara blocked her strike and drew her sword just in time. However, the force was too much for her to handle and sent her crashing down to the ground.

Yet the Nova remained standing, as she was dragged back by the force and tried to use her sword to stop her momentum.

She raised her sword up, blocking another strike, from Drakarna, beaming down on her with her full might. Followed by another dozen heavy sword strikes, the princess unleashed on her. "You filthy creatures, are always ruining my fun. Give up! You can't defeat me!" She yelled, as she swung even harder against Amaara and broke the stalemate, pushing her back a dozen meters, as her sword crumbled apart.

She sheathed her hilt, wishing not to lose it. "You're wrong."

Drakarna looked confused by her response, with her eye socket, finally restored. "Huh?"

Amaara started to gather energy, grimacing from burns, appearing on her skin. Time was running out. "See... You just don't know how to have fun. Me, personally, all I can think about is which city, Osei and I are gonna tour next." She crossed her arms and pondered. "We just checked out Rome after visiting Paris. Hmm, maybe Venice or Dubai?"

Amaara stopped to hop out of the way, as the princess swung a slice of ice, cutting through the ground and half of the hills past her. The Nova clicked her tongue, mocking her. "See, I told you, you don't know how to have fun."

Drakarna lost it, as her body resumed twitching and moving unnaturally. She was beginning to reach her limit. "Shut up!"

Her strikes became more erratic, as she continued to send slices of each element in her possession at Amaara, alternating randomly, and trying to catch her off guard, but to no avail. "Stay still!"

Amaara kept laughing, while dodging away, trying to make some distance and run the princess' timer out. Drakarna abruptly stopped, shuddering with anger. "They killed them. My siblings. Fine then."

A creepy feeling washed over the Nova, as she felt enormous pressure pour out of the princess. There were no good intentions.

Drakarna started to rise to the sky while creating a massive, violet-flaming sphere. Charged with electricity, then pressurized and condensed, within a light sphere of ice, rotating at faster than sound speed.

"Terra Decimation! She yelled angrily, as she threw her hand down, towards Amaara,

Amaara gritted her teeth. "This isn't good. Where are they?"

She placed her hands together at her side, manifesting a violet sphere of her own. It started cutting burns into her palms, as she tried to speed it up. "Ignite: Kalu Konda.'

With swift motion, she thrust her hands forth and cracked open the sphere. Unleashing a powerful beam, pushing back the incoming sphere of destruction, without success.

Drakarna's laugh, reverberated through Amaara's ears, as their attacks produced large clouds of mist. Amaara cursed as her beam failed to break through.

"Even after sacrificing years of my life, it's still not enough. What else do I need to do!" As if they were answering her prayers, Simon and Koji dropped down beside her, with spheres of their own elements already prepared.

"Ignite: Ignis Ultimus!"

"Static: Raiō no Ikari!"

Amaara looked to her sides and smiled at the sight of her comrades. "Y'all are late!"

Simon grunted, trying to shift into a comfortable position while struggling to hold a portion of the weight of the incoming attack. "Sorry, there were some complications."

Koji was shocked, that she had been pushing back, such a monstrous attack all on her own. "Looks like we came at the worst time."

Amaara shook her head. "She's at her limit. One more push should do it."

She exhaled deeply then stopped her beam completely. "Hold this for a second, will you?"

They looked at her shocked and confused. "Wait what?" They said in unison, as the pressure increased, causing them both excruciating pain without her aid.

Above her right palm, a dark violet sphere, began to swirl, condensing every second it got bigger. The pain from her side effects, was almost unbearable at this point, with her body, visibly trembling.

She bared it, telling herself, not to give up. Then looked at the boys, who already had enough on their plates. "Help me with this, won't you?"

They rolled their eyes, wondering if she was seeing the position they were in. Each of them slowly took one hand off of their beams and pointed their palms towards her rotating sphere.

The sphere, suddenly enlarged itself, this time, crackling with electricity and brighter flames, as Amaara condensed it once more and kept it in place.

"Thanks." She said, before rocketing off into the sky, around the colliding attacks.

The Nova raced at the fastest speed she could muster, reaching behind Drakarna in a blur. The princess spun around, incredibly quick, as she was surprised to see Amaara moving freely. "How?!"

Amaara shot the sphere at the cockpit holding Kari's motionless body, faster than the eye could see, with Koji's assistance. "Your party is over. Time to send you back to where you belong!"

Pouring in the remaining energy she had left, she yelled out loud. "Combo Series: Lightning Inferno!"

The sphere shattered the cockpit open, sending the princess flying near the prisoner's camp and landing with a devastating explosion. Leveling the entire camp, in a blaze of destruction.

Koji and Simon let up, sighing with relief, as Drakarna's attack dissipated. Amaara rushed over to the explosion site, regretting the direction she sent her in. As she witnessed down below, bodies and rubble, littering the camp.

A massive hollow building, looking like a miniature supermax, crumbled apart, revealing a large opening. Amaara could only feel one life signal, emanating from the building.

'A survivor.' She thought as she descended down, through the gaping hole.