Covered in cuts and burns, Rox continued to fight a desperate battle against Fira. He landed a hit on her at every opportunity, but she was dealing far more damage to him. Fighting near the incredible heat of the fire storm was also causing his stamina to drain much faster, unlike Fira who thrived in the environment seeing as she held the domain over flame.

After defending himself from another flurry of attacks, he took the chance to glance around at the rest of the party. He quickly gathered that Sheeron had incapacitated Chiron and was moving towards Kara, who was currently healing the now-conscious Feera. Toley, collapsed in a corner of the room, still seemed to be unconscious.

“Where are you looking?!” Fira yelled over the sound of the tornado as she struck for his throat using her small blade with a quick jab. He sidestepped the attack and grabbed her wrist with his free hand, pulling her towards him while simultaneously kicking her square in the ribs and knocking her to the ground.

He tried to follow up with a vertical slash, but she commanded the fire to attack him again before he could begin, forcing him to back off several feet or risk getting horrendously burned.

She quickly recovered and returned to attacking Rox, now intertwining her attacks with fire while also commanding the tornado to attack him, moving the battle up another notch of intensity. Rox, unable to use his normal abilities, could only dodge and block her attacks as they came. There were no longer any openings for him to attack relying solely on physical prowess. All it took was one more exchange to knock him to the ground. As he fell, he felt an impact on his right leg-- as if he were punched. Looking down, though, he saw her large knife pierced through. As the realization that it had gone through the bone hit, an intense pain shot through his body. Not wanting to give her the satisfaction, he held back his scream of pain.

“How the mighty have fallen, eh, Rox? Once upon a time I could barely reach your feet, yet here you are at mine.” She twisted the blade while rocking it slowly back and forth in his thigh. “It's sad in its own way. We didn't want to have to do this to you, but you forced our hand when you killed our children and Illusia.”

“I did no such thing, I saved you all. Even with the hell I've endured, I don't regret that.” He spoke through gritted teeth, his words only angering the pseudo fire god further.

“You dare lie to my face, scum?!” She said as she tore her blade from his leg and brought it down a second time.

Before her blade could sink into his flesh again, though, she was tackled to the ground by Sheeron. The two of them rolled as he punched her in the face as many times as he could while trying to pin her down. Unfortunately for him, she was stronger and he was easily overpowered. Sheeron was easily flipped onto his back and pinned instead.

“You know, in any other situation I might enjoy this. I'm not into crazy fire mages, though. Especially ones pretending to be a god.” Sheeron smirked.

She smirked back, “Well, I'm not a crazy fire mage. So how about after I seal that traitor, I remedy the other issue and we find another situation?”

“That's quite the tempting offer, but I have a feeling it's not going to work out.” Sheeron said, a hint of disappointment in his voice. “My boss is a total kill-joy.”

Across the room, everyone could hear Kara scream, “Filthy! You're both filthy!”

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Sheeron held his breath and braced himself as Fira looked on in confusion, until the enormous torrent of water engulfed them. The two of them were swept towards the fire whirl, where the water immediately became super-heated.

Kara, realizing Sheeron's plan managed to put up a small, yet powerful, water barrier around the members of her party before the steam explosion occurred. The entire dungeon shook with the force of the explosion and much of the room was destroyed to the point where they could visibly see the dungeon beginning to repair itself. The steam that now filled the room began to disappear unnaturally as the floor, walls and ceiling began to repair all damage. The room now looks as if nothing had ever occurred.

Glancing around, she could see Toley still out cold in the corner. Feera and Sheeron had already recovered and were near Rox, who was bleeding blue blood profusely from his leg. It seemed the woman, Fira, had cut through his artery as well as his bone. Fira was nowhere to be seen. Kara ran full force towards Rox, with as much caution as she could while panicking, and began attempting to heal the wound.

As she dropped to her knees next to him, Sheeron stood up with a grim face and kept watch, presumably in case Fira reappeared. Feera was crying on Rox's chest while he pet the top of her head, trying to comfort her. Even considering the battle and his other injuries, his face looked ragged and tired. His skin even more pale than usual, almost like a ghost. Life was slowly leaving his body.

Kara's chest tightened and tears welled up in her eyes. It was too sudden, he was having an intense fight just moments ago. He summoned the very dimension of void to their plane and punched Jeerae with it at the arena. He blew up an entire slaver camp and shrugged it off as an accident. How could he die from a leg wound? It was too ridiculous.

Tears began to fall as she started trying to gather mana to heal him, but her mind was racing too much. She could not focus, she was not capable of gathering mana in her current mental state. In a panic she tore off one of her sleeves and pressed it against the wound to staunch the bleeding. It was soaked in blue blood nearly as soon as she pressed it down.

Rox laid a hand over hers and smiled up at her crying face, “Hey now, it's fine. I'll be fine.”

“How can you say that?!” She said in a choked voice, “You've lost too much blood and I can't heal you because I'm too weak minded. I'm useless. I'm weak.”

He shushed her and spoke in a gradually weakening voice, “Don't say that. I think most would find it hard to gather mana in your shoes. It's not every day the incredibly handsome adventurer you recruited dies in front of you, right? Besides, you'll get stronger. We'll meet again. Just watch out for Fira, that wouldn't kill her.”

Feera's crying on his chest only intensified as she heard his breaths becoming shallower, his words becoming more faint with each second. The lump in Kara's throat only grew as the inevitable came closer and her tears became more frequent.

“No. No no no no, Rox don't say that. You can't die, you still have to teach me how to use magic like you do. You have to watch me fulfill my promise. You have to help me.” Her words became more desperate as his eyes closed and his hand on hers went limp. She kept talking to him, trying to get him to respond, going on about how she wouldn't forgive him if he died here after all the nonsense he’d put her through.

Until Sheeron gently placed a hand on her shoulder, and with a grim tone could only say, “He's gone, Princess.”

“No. No, he can't be gone! Wake up!” She screamed at the corpse of Rox, shaking him. Sheeron could only look away.

“Yeah, he still needs to suffer more before he dies. That's not very fair to me, now, is it?” Their grief was interrupted by the woman who caused it all. Fira stood near the entrance of the dungeon room that they had originally come from, covered in wounds and missing her left arm. Grasped in her right hand was the large knife she had stabbed Rox with. Every wound on her, including the missing arm, seemed to be cauterized by her own fire. “Let's go for round three, right now is my chance to get rid of the rest of you, since you caused me all this trouble.”

“Is that offer for finding another situation still standing?” Sheeron said, grasping his axe tightly, getting one last quip in.

She smiled mischievously, “Survive, then we'll talk.”