Skarlet awoke to screaming and thrashing as well as a cold wet sensation, she leaped from the bed to find that Amber was convulsing and letting out a low fearful moan, she would occasionally shout. There was the scent of urine in the air and the bed was wet along with Amber and Skarlet. Beatrice's eyes glowed from the other side of the tent as Skarlet shook the young girl awake, once Amber opened her eyes Skarlet paused with surprise. Amber's eyes were so full of life for a moment, fear, worry, desire, hate, and shame swirled in those golden eyes. It was only for a moment before the light faded and they dulled, she went limp in Skarlet's arms, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Beatrice snorted in annoyance before rolling over and going to sleep, Skarlet used wind and water magic to clean both her and Amber as well as the bed. She then pulled Amber into her chest and hugged her as she sat on the bed.

"It's ok, everything's alright now. . ." Skarlet spoke hesitantly, not really sure what to say, How do I comfort someone? I don't remember. . . Skarlet laid back down and pulled Amber down beside her, She hugged her tightly. "Everything is ok, just go back to sleep." Amber's tail wagged slowly as she drifted back to sleep.

"This is good." Beatrice suddenly spoke.

"How?"

"People who have not completely giveth up don't have dreams because dreams art born from a collection of worries, desires, and thoughts thee hadst during the day. If it be true she's having nightmares she's begun to careth enow to bethink, desire, and worry."

"That. . . that means she's getting better," Skarlet exclaimed with surprise.

"Aye, Skarlet, you're doing fine." Beatrice praised her, Skarlet smiled for a moment before she noticed the time, birds were chirping. She was reminded of the previous night though. After being detained she'd been charged with murder. They tried to detain her, but Skarlet simply forced her way out and ran straight into Cody. Apparently he'd been accompanying an official of the city at the time.

With the official's help she was released and Cody tried to figure out where she was staying. . . Some words were said. . . I may have said I would let him travel with me if he beat me in a duel. And he accepted.

"Damn, It's already morning, I can't go back to sleep." Skarlet slipped from the bed, she was about to step out when suddenly something grabbed her shirt. Skarlet turned to see Amber, her tail dragging on the ground.

"You can come." Skarlet offered her hand and the girl took it as they headed out of the tent, there was smoke rising into the air, the bones of last night's feast cast caged shadows across the clearing as the two headed into the forest. Dragons eat allot, we should move soon before she hunts everything.

Cody stood in front of the forest, waiting, she didn't just leave again, did she? He thought, but he didn't hold that thought for long as Skarlet dressed in her usual gear walked out from the forest, she was leading another girl by the hand. The second girl was young, like around ten or eleven, she was dressed in a black dress with ruffled sleeves and a ruffled hem. She looked disinterested, her eyes stared at nothing almost as if she was blind, her tail wagging slowly the only indication that there was any life in her at all.

"You ready for the duel?" Cody asked, she nodded, but turned and spoke to the girl she brought with her, the girl sat down in the grass. Skarlet then approached Cody and drew her sword.

"So, rules." Skarlet began, "Let's just do swordplay, I don't want to have to worry about stray magic." She readied her stance, "First to say they concede, or is unable to continue, loses."

"Alright." Cody agreed as he drew his own sword, they readied their stance and began. Skarlet leaped at Cody and swung her sword, he blocked and sidestepped her bringing his sword around to her back, she leaped into a flip and narrowly dodged the blade. She landed and Cody took some distance, then they began circling each other.

"You better not go back on your word if I win this," Cody said as he readied his sword, she didn't respond, leaping forward, he blocked her blade. She slid under and let his slide past, he looked surprised as he sidestepped out of the way, her blade sliced through his clothes and blood dripped from his side.

Skarlet didn't stop; she immediately twisted and swung her sword downward, he blocked it, the heavy hit brought him to his knees. He let the weight slide past as he rolled, he grabbed her arm and flipped her over his shoulder before resting his sword against her neck. She pushed to the side and slid out from under his blade.

Cody gasped as she smashed the pommel into the side of his head and yanked his feet from under him, he rolled as he landed and blocked her downward strike.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you weren't holding back at all, If I hadn't blocked that would you have stopped."

"No." She gave a simple answer before leaping over him in a flip and kicking him in the back of the head, he skidded forward. Cody slammed his elbow down and kicked his foot out as he flipped onto his feet. She was inches away, he barely managed to catch her sword arm and drop his own sword, he caught it in the hand below, then once again placed it against her neck.

She kicked him in the gut and sent him flying backward, her sword tumbled to the ground in between them.

Cody sighed as he dashed forward, he spun, slinging his sword. Skarlet skidded to a stop and back stepped as his sword buried in the ground in front of her, he was there before she could react and kicked her shin, then elbowed the back of her head. She hit the ground with a thud and he pressed his knee into the back of her neck.

"You lose Skarlet, there is no way you can beat me." Cody announced as he held her down, "Besides, there were several times I would have killed you had it been a real fight."

Skarlet sighed and he let her up, she looked pissed though, "I can't believe I still lost, damn." Skarlet muttered as she retrieved her sword, she turned to Cody and was about to say something to him when a loud thud resounded and Skarlet spun around. She could see something approaching Otalos, something massive.

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"Aries, It's back," Cody said in an alarmed tone.

"Yes, it is." Skarlet said matter of factly, "Finally, I've been waiting." Cody was surprised as her words seemed to say that she'd known, but then she looked towards Amber.

"Cody, can you do something for me?" She asked, there was no timidness in her voice as she tightened her grip on her sword, her eyes were locked on Aries.

"Of course."

"Take Amber into the forest, you will find a camp deeper in, and you should run into a weredragon named Beatrice. Give Amber to Beatrice, and. . . do whatever you want after that, I'm going to kill Aries." After she said that she took off in a run towards Aries, she suddenly leaped into the air, magical energy radiated from her, She's gotten a lot stronger. Cody turned to Amber and picked her up, the girl was like a doll as he carried her at a running pace into the forest.

Just as Skarlet had said, a camp was set up in the forest, he approached cautiously. He carried Amber into a tent, there was a woman inside, she had horns and a dragon tail. Cody deposited Amber on the bed and nodded to the dragon girl before stepping back out, I need to go help her, Cody decided as he raced back out into the forest, he made a beeline for the large beast. It's headed for Otalos, I might as well try and redirect it at least.

When he got closer he realized that the beast had stopped, Skarlet had caught up to it and it was focused on her. She was pelting it with powerful spells, though it blocked most of them with a spatial shield.

Cody burst from the trees and leaped into the air, a silent chant moved the mana in the air and blasted him upwards. Using the natural currents to lessen his mana usage he glided towards the massive creature standing in the clearing in front of him.

A massive bipedal goat like creature, a monster with hooves and claws. It had three eyes and curled horns, It's white fur patchy and curly. Those red eyes were piercing with the vertical pupil reminiscent of a devil. Aries the God Beast reminded Cody of a monsterified version of the zodiac of the same name.

"Grawwooorr" the creature suddenly threw its hands back and let out a howl, a massive blast of fire exploded on its shoulder and the resulting plume of smoke encased its head. A dark spot flitted around it, more fire magic was being cast from that dot.

As Cody got closer he managed to catch up with Skarlet who was pelting the creature with magic. As she did though Aries let out another roar and put up its hand. A shimmer rippled out from its hand and the magic attack disappeared into the shield.

"Fuck, that's spatial magic!" Skarlet exclaimed as Cody rose up beside her.

"How can I help?" Cody asked, she turned to him with a glare but soon sighed and nodded.

"I need to be able to hit it to damage it, so distracting it would help. It'll struggle to deal with you and me from different angles." Skarlet exclaimed before a blast of magic sent her barreling towards Aries once more with her sword drawn.

Cody frowned, but for some reason that frown struggled to stay. Soon he was smiling as he also dashed forward. Changing the form of his wind magic into aerial footholds, he soon arrived within striking distance.

Cody dropped his magic and let himself fall back like a skydiver just as a hand, about the size of his body, passed over his head. He tried slicing that hand as he fell but there was no resistance to his sword passing through that shimmering surface.

"Interesting." He couldn't help but mutter as he blasted himself forward once more. Aries roared in frustration as its target avoided its attack.

Getting past its outstretched hand allowed him to get close to its face, Cody pulled upwards. Leaping step by step. He brought his sword around and slashed the air. "Blinding slash!" He exclaimed as a white light exploded from his sword like a flashbang causing Aries to recoil and let out a gurgled cry.

While Cody was distracting it, Skarlet spun around the back and began channeling her magic into a spell. Her target was the back of its leg.

The air vibrated and seemed to creak as her mana condensed in front of her, forming the shape of a spear. She was attempting to create a fire arrow, but that wouldn't be big enough so she was trying to layer them. Make it bigger, make it bigger! She focused on the mana circulating and a large spear of smoldering flame soon took shape in front of her.

With sweat coating her brow she raised her hand and released the magic, and just like that everything went silent. The drop of a pen, a single crack in a window, a single breeze turned to a roar as the sound exploded back into her ears accompanied by the roar of a beast falling to its knees with a thundering crash. Her spear of fire seemed to tear through space, shattering the air itself as it forced its way through.

Skarlet soared forward, an explosion of magic sending her tumbling ungracefully through the air towards Aries.

"Ha, ha, ha" she breathed heavily, not from exhaustion or mana depletion, but more from the mass amount of mana that was just suddenly gone. "damn, how the fuck is your leg still attached!?" She exclaimed as she reached it, though her question was soon answered as she saw the shimmering shield, it reminded her a bit of a soap bubble. The way it was clear but reflected an unseen rainbow.

"It seems those don't only appear on the hands." Cody's voice surprised her, she lost her balance and nearly fell. He reached out and steadied her. "Woah, flight can be difficult for beginners. Gotta keep some focus on maintaining the magic." She frowned as she felt his air footholds appear beneath her feet. She released her own magic and relaxed a bit.

"I can see that, fuck, we're gonna have to brute force it then. Smash through the shields!" Skarlet was fired up, the fight feeding her serotonin and exhilaration.

"Hmm, seriously. . . That's not a very good idea. We'll both run out of mana before that." Cody's words dropped a bucket of cold water on her enthusiasm though.

"The fuck you expect us to do then. You can run away if you want. I have to kill this thing." Skarlet lashed her tail angrily as she spat at him.

"Hold on, I didn't say that! Hmm, I just think there's a better way. I saw something on its-" suddenly he was gone, he completely vanished with nothing but a thud like sound.

Skarlet spun around to try and see where he went when her danger sense exploded.

Suddenly a tree sailed past her, out of the corner of her eye she saw Cody's light sword shatter as he threw himself out of the way of a tree. It's throwing fucking trees at us!? Skarlet used a wind blast to yank herself back as another tree flew at her.

With both hands back Aries turned its full attention on Skarlet and threw about six trees at her in quick succession. She dodged the first two before realizing she couldn't dodge the next one, she used an air blast to spin herself, she gripped her sword and swung it. She gasped as pain traveled up her arm, and splinters attacked her whole body. She managed to rip the tree in half but it still hurt as it was flung past her. Her mind reeled as she tried to keep up. She was moving instinctually, they were coming at her like bullets after all. The next three trees also couldn't really be avoided; she managed to slip through the branches of the first, the second one was cut in half smashing past her with so much force she felt like it tore her arm off. The final one was barely avoided by dropping, she caught herself as it soared over her.

Skarlet panted as she glanced at her body, her shoulder was dislocated and her body was covered in cuts, she gripped her shoulder and shoved it back in place with an excruciating pop, she felt tears in her eyes and wiped them away as she gripped her sword once more. She rushed forward, Aries was now focused on Cody who was pelting its back with golden arrows.

"Damnit, we let our guards down." She realized as she went towards its head. "Fine!! Fuck strategy, I'll pierce right through that damn shield!"

Skarlet flew higher, that's when she saw it, A large clear crystal was embedded in its head between its two horns. A magical circle was carved around it. Is this thing artificial? She wondered as she landed on its head, she raised her sword and stabbed it into the crystal. Aries roared violently and shook Skarlet off, she caught herself just barely as her danger-sense went ballistic.