It happened so fast for Stamatia that she froze for a moment with her eyelids growing wide. She didn’t know what occurred or how it was even possible. Her mi repying the same two seds repeatedly trying to uand. Nothing succeeded.

  Finally, the pain of her shoulder wounds and blood dripping heavily down her body woke her up. Stamatia realized how close Fumiko stood and pulled away. She jumped back a few steps to what she thought would be a safe distanbsp; Instinctively, her hand pressed against her bloodied shoulder trying to fight the stinging pain rising to the surfabsp; Her eyes g her armor. ‘She did so much damage to my armor at this range! It’s the stro fme I have! Hohy?!’

  Appearing a little disected to the reality of the situation, it painted Fumiko’s eyes a dull empty green. She lifted her fme arm up, eager to finish matters. “I should thank you, again. I’ve been able to learn quite a bit about what I’m capable of because of this fight. And I know now that you don’t have a ce of winning anymore.”

  The decration wiped away all of the shock that Stamatia held. Her eyes narrowed immediately in response. “You’ve bee rather arrogant now that you think you’ve got the upper hand.” She pulled her hand away and re-ignited her armor to cover the gap. Stamatia summoned fmes into her hands letting them engulf them fully to bze into the air with trails that reached above her.

  A short sigh came from Fumiko’s lips. She hoped the fight would have ended. The st ter should have been more than enough to establish her position. Fumiko didn’t uand why she insisted. ‘Fine, have it your way…’ She began walking forward slowly, but vanished from Stamatia’s sight a sed ter.

  Fmes exploded suddenly behind Stamatia and she quickly turned prepared to attabsp; She turned her defenses back to automatiake up for Fumiko’s strange speed. “I told you, you’re arrogant! You ’t win! Not against me! My answer is correct!” Amongst her words, nothing appeared to her. She twisted her forehead a little in fusion only to have an anslit-sed ter.

  Fmes blew in from behind Stamatia knog her to the grouroying the upper half of her armor. Only the fact that she id on the grou her bare top from exposure. Fumiko stood over her with a hand still extended, flickers of fire floating away into the air. “I didn’t speak in arrogance, but fidenbsp; I uood our differences better than you. This is no longer yht.”

  Dirt tasted disgusting. However, surprised a sed time by the same move was worse. Stamatia gritted her teeth through the burning. While her armor absorbed most of the damage, some of Fumiko’s fme reached her. It gave her redness over nearly all of her back.

  It hurt.

  Her mind ran through questions and fears. Everything repyed for her. She lost.

  Stamatia dragged herself up from the earth. She didn’t feel so beat up since her academy days. However, the level of pain she felt was nothing. Resting oubbornness, her body began to ighe pain. It gave her the strength to stand back up. “I won’t lose! I ’t lose!” Desperation fueled her words rather than resolve.

  Fumiko picked up on the ges in Stamatia. She felt for a while that something id underh her in the way she fought. It didn’t feel right to be addressing matters in the middle of a fight. Therefore, she didn’t a it, but their fight ended a while ago. A fact that Fumiko wished Stamatia uood. “I don’t know the reason for why you wish to keep fighting a battle that you’ve already lost, but I doubt that dying will help it.”

  She gritted her teeth again. Fumiko dismissed her reason. Fire burned up around Stamatia in respoo her emotions. Rage boiled up inside charging the fme to grow hotter. It pletely engulfed her body leaving only a slight glow from her eyes. Her appearance made her look as though she became fire rather than simply wearing it. “I won’t die! Nothing will stop me from ensuring the correct path is taken! For that I’ll stop you and your damned rebellion!”

  The air burned around Fumik the ging atmosphere. It drained some of the oxygen from the space making it difficult for her to breath. “You won’t stop…” Winds spun around the field rapidly ging to the iy of the fire. Fumiko drew upon her blue fme arm for a final attabsp; She saw the utting everything into it and holding nothing babsp; “…fine…I wanted both of us to walk away…”

  “You’re o believe this be settled by words!”

  “Perhaps.”

  “y is a weakness!” The Field bsted up around Stamatia forcefully throwing ks of earth to all sides. Fmes roared in the full Field released to sh out at all things. “I’ll show what it looks like to devote one fully to your answer! I will crush that weakness of yours and your rebellion!”

  Fmes surrounded and licked Fumiko, but she remained calm. It surprised her a little, noting how at ease she was iuation. ‘A day ago this would have scared me… A day ago, I feared my fme… Now…’ She looked down at her arm. Dense magic ribbons spun around it fiercely. It glowed brightly, building magic together quickly. ‘It’s a little weird being this fortable, but I know what I must do.’

  A rge blue fme burst from her palm and expanded quickly to fill her hand. Filled with the volume of magic, the small size couldn’t tain it. It spilled out to surround her hand. Long tendrils whipped around almost enpassing her arm. Winds blew up around her and cshed with Stamatia. The currents fought between them before the women even made a move.

  Fumiko stretched out her arm to her side. The movemeinguished the neighb fmes of Stamatia, preventing them from approag. Even ihe caldron, none of them could reach Fumiko. Her eyes stared down with Stamatia almost ag like a measure of readiness. “Still hung up on the rebellion part…rebellion or not, I have someoo save. You ot stop me!”

  Stamatia raised her hand above her. Fire from all around her Field flowed towards it eling into a pressed orb. It sucked away all of the fmes until nothing remained but the mass above her. She pulled her hand down, almost struggling with the amount that she restrained from her field. It ripped at the seams in rage wanting a release. A headache sprung up the back of her head spreading to the sides. It pounded her skull in. She didn’t care about any of it. Any punishment her body wished upon her, she took.

  The massive bze in front of Stamatia threateo e apart. However, it didn’t o remain together for long. She directed and focused every bit of it. Crag like thuhe fmes charged free with a sigh of relief that shot out a shockwave.

  In the moment before Fumiko released her fire, all of the tightly spun threads and ribbons of magic exploded outward. They expanded quickly to eclipse her body. A magic circle carved through the air and passed through her body. Blue fmes roared free from her arm and pletely engulfed her, matg the amassed energy Stamatia gathered.

  Red and blue cshed in the middle turning everything to purple light. The collisiohrough the earth, digging out an eveer crater tha aually swallowing it whole. Their light filled nearly the entire camp. It pulled gazes from everywhere. Winds fled from the epiter riding new shockwaves and breaking dows.

  Fmes cwed and tore at each ging into the core. They expanded outward feeding off their masters. Purple tinted fmes approached them. her of them faltered with the ining inferno. Both stood their ground even after it surrouhem as if it became a life of its own. Fumiko and Stamatia disappeared from anyone’s sight.

  Fires raged on.

  Chapter 147 – Knog Down

  “Damn…” remarked Seiji, l his arms a little. Smoke rose from his forearms, but quickly faded away. The light from Fumiko’s battle made it outside the camp to him. He suddenly felt his tunic kick up in the wind. Seiji grinned a little, imagining the awesome fight. “Looks like she’s really getting crazy over there… To feel it all the way out here... Must say I’m impress—” A fist cut him off and knocked him over to the ground, spinning a little before nding in a cloud of dirt.

  Quickly, he stood up and rubbed his slightly red fabsp; “The hell’s the matter with you?! I was talking!”

  The tall woma a ft expression and held her metal cd fists up, always ready. “This is a fight. There are no breaks.”

  “I already told you that I’m not fighting you! So just run off somewhere else.” He waved his hand at her, dismissing her from the battlefield. “If you want, find me a guy and I’ll fight them instead.”

  It annoyed her that he refused to take her seriously. She pulled back her arm for arike. “I don’t need your chauvinistic chivalry.” Not waiting for any sort of reply, she unleashed her fist at him. However, a shocked expression came across her fabsp; Seiji’s hand stopped her punch with nothing more than his palm. She looked across her arm at him puzzled and found his features turned oddly serious. “Finally ready to—“

  “Get down!” Seiji slid around behind her and pushed her to the ground. She protested him, but his strength beat her.

  Making use of her elbows, she tried to knock him off her. “What do you think you’re doing?!” A percussive bst rang through her ears. Popping from ging pressures made her nearly deaf. Then the impact came, tossing up the loose yer of dirt forced to ride the wave out.

  Seiji stood up, releasing the woman from his hold. The shockassed. He walked away looking back at the camp. Moments before, he noticed that the fire reached a climax. It started a rea explosion that would be strohan the ower ing from them before. His instinct told him he o do something. “Damn…they’re getting reckless… Who knows how many that actually hurt…”

  The woman didn’t know immediately what happened. It all occurred so fast for her that she pyed catch up. Her eyes sed the surface around her and the horizon ahead, for as far as she could in the night. She slowly rose back to her feet and turned around. The sight of Seiji’s back caught her a bit by surprise. A small k of wood lodged itself in the small of his back with blood soaking into the fabric of his tunibsp; “Why did you do that?”

  “Eh?” croaked Seiji, with a slight tilt to his head. He didn’t quite turn to face her, just enough to meet gazes.

  She narrowed her eyes in annoyanbsp; “You protected me. And injured yourself for me, your enemy.”

  A sigh dropped from his mouth. She forced him to turn around, having to keep expining himself. “Because I wao.”

  “That’s not a reason,” she snapped back, the tone in her voice starting to ge. She always tried to keep herself in ched calm. It was her only guard to stop the others from thinking less of her.

  Seiji gave her a shrug, not having any more of a better answer for her. “I wasn’t thinking about it. You’ll just have to accept it.”

  “But I’m your enemy. You don’t protect your enemy.”

  “Enough of that!” snapped Seiji. He leaned a little with his words. It took her a little off guard. “Stop with the ehis and that. You aren’t my enemy!”

  She tightened her fists. “Because I’m a girl, right?”

  Slightly bewildered, Seiji looked over at her. He shook his head at her. “What? No, that’s got nothing to do with it. If you were a guy you still wouldn’t be my enemy.”

  “But I want to stop you from your objective. How I not be your enemy?”

  Seiji waved his hand to dismiss her shitty reason. He walked up to her and pointed a fi her to make his point. “You’re just a soldier. You’re following orders. I’ve got no problem with you.”

  The Atntean backed off a little perplexed by the answer she got. She didn’t expect him to actually think in such a way. It was oddly rational even though he didn’t seem to appear to be ohat thought with his head. The picture she got of him only made things more fusing. “Then who is your enemy?”

  “The ohat’s giving the orders to kill my best friend.”

  “Huh? Who's that?”

  “What my friend?” He looked over at her for an answer. She simply shook her head at him. “Oh, the one wanting my friend dead?” Seiji shrugged at her again. “No idea!”

  She felt like she wao fall over that he seemed to answer holy without for how stupid it sounded. It did at least make her sweat a little. He only became more fusing with each word. “How you be here with no idea who your enemy is? You don’t even know that they’re here.”

  The thought hadn’t really fully crossed his mind. He rubbed his head, scratg his hair a little. “I guess that’s possible, but we’re pretty certain that they’re here somewhere.”

  “Why?”

  “Because every assassin wore the same military uniform that you do. They were all Atnteans with the same powers as you special types.”

  Seiji’s words made her step back a little. She didn’t expect su answer. Even though it didn’t make any seo her, she saw in his eyes that he believed what he said. It muddled their situation further. She didn’t know what was happening any longer. “How that be? No one leaves the barrier. We remain here proteg our privabsp; What you’re saying doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason we would want to attayone oside.”

  “I’m not too uanding of the whole situation, but my friend is the son of your te King. As it was expio me, certain people don’t want him to i the throne. That is the reason for the attack.”

  “That ’t be…” The lies became worse. She k was impossible, no matter how much he spoke them as truths. Taking a firm step forward, she leaoward Seiji. “The King has no son. It is publiowledge that the Queen died befiving him an heir. So you’re lying. Whoever has been telling you this has been lying to you.”