Demi and I chased after Fire King. He was heading towards the beach, ready to enter the battle. We had to warn everyone! It wasn't just us that he was after, he was going to kill off his own team too. We ran towards the row of buildings, intending to follow him since he took the most direct route. If we went around, like the way I had come to get here, we probably wouldn't make it in time.

I hadn't realized how far from the town we were until we were rushing to get back. When I had arrived at the camp, I had been too stunned by the destruction of the campsite to notice anything else. I was lucky that no one had snuck up on me. The trip from the row of buildings to the burnt camp felt like only a few steps from where I had emerged but in reality, we were probably a half-mile away from the row of buildings, maybe more. The run back felt longer too. I was afraid for my allies and wanted to reach them in time, but the doubting voice in the back of my mind told me that we'd be too late. Shaking my head, I ignored that voice and pressed onward.

When we arrived in town, we realized how difficult navigating was going to be. We had to travel through the rubble of the town after Ruffus had blown up some of the buildings. Most of the road had been wide enough to not be completely covered by the debris, but some sections had been blocked off with brick, wood and other bits of ruined building. We had to climb the rubble and try to avoid falling on broken glass or potholes; that or find a way around in order to progress to the beach and I wondered if taking the direct route was a mistake. Taking a roundabout way back would have been easier, but there was no telling if it would've been faster. How did Fire King do this? The area around us was scorched, same as the campground we had come from, but there was no pathway through. It's almost like he floated over the ruins.

Suddenly, an axe came flying into view from my right and I dodged just in time to see the owner of the weapon. Just inside a small pawn shop was a thin, muscular man. His long, brown hair covered his face for a moment and he pushed it aside, then resummoned his thrown weapon. He was smiling with pearly white teeth and walked out of the store, gently tapping the blade of his axe on his hand.

"Thought I might find someone trying to run," He said with a strange accent that I couldn't place.

"We're running towards the fight, not away from it," I corrected.

"The fire user is going to kill both sides-his allies too," Demi said.

Maybe he would help us. If his leader was going to kill off his team, then it would make sense that his team would try to get rid of him, right? They wouldn't die willingly, they would take the opportunity to pull out a win. I just hope this man would believe us.

"So?" The man said. I spluttered but didn't know what to say. "The point isn't for us to win. It's for him to win so he can leave and we'll never have to worry about him again. Do you know what he's capable of?" He paused. "If someone turned on him and he found out, we'd be in for a fate worse than death. So, no, I ain't gonna help y'all. I'm gonna help him by killing ya. You wanna make it easy and hold still?" His axe was held high and he brought it down just as I summoned my weapons and met his attack with my shield. He frowned, "Hmm, guess not."

Demi split into two, one copy coming by me and the other circling around, giving him nowhere to run to. She aimed her spear in his direction, "Three on one. Feel lucky?"

The stranger smiled and threw his axe at her. Demi wasn't fast enough to dodge the blow completely and the axe blade connected, grazing her side, just under her ribs. I couldn't tell if it was the real Demi or the copy. Despite being worried about her, I knew this wasn't the time to try to help her so I put it out of my mind and focused on the fight. I swung my sword at the unarmed man, but my blade went right through. It was like his body was made of smoke. Then he moved around us, unconcerned about Demi's spear thrust as it also passed by the man without harming him. Then he resummoned his axe and threw it at me.

I blocked the throw easily and moved up, trying to strike but the attack failed like last time. How were we going to win this fight if we couldn't touch him? I growled in frustration and the stranger laughed.

"Do you think he's going to be any easier than me?" He asked, puffing out a breath of air, "As if."

He went to strike again and my shield was ready to block, but the blow never came. Instead, I saw Demi make another attack, cutting the man slightly at his right shoulder. A small bit of blood leaked from the wound and he went ghostlike before his blow reached my shield. Our weapons could connect! This probably meant that the man couldn't attack while he was incorporeal. But when he goes to strike, he has to solidify and that's when we need to attack.

I suddenly wished Saris was here. Counterattacks were his specialty. I was more used to blocking, then attacking when I wasn't in danger of getting hit. Demi was good at dodging, but she often did it to distance herself from her opponent. That way she could use her spear's range to its full extent. Not that we were incapable of counterattacking, we had a lot of practice at it during the last cycle, it just wasn't our preferred method of fighting. Luckily, there were two of us and we weren't strangers to fighting as a team.

Since we now knew his weakness, we were waiting for him to attack one of us. That person would block while the other attacked. It's not something we had to discuss, we just knew what needed to be done. But our opponent also knew that his weakness was known and his movements and attacks became less obvious. He appeared next to me, striking horizontally. Demi swiped at him with her spear but the attack went through. Then he swung the other way, intending to cut into my shoulder, but I moved my shield to block the attack and swung my sword, hoping to catch him. No luck, I only struck air.

While my body was in the moment and focused on my opponent, my mind was at the beach. Fire King would be there soon, if he wasn't already. Would we be able to save anyone? Or was this fight going to delay us until it was all over? We didn't have time to fight this man. We had to end this!

The axeman changed his target and went after one of the Demi's. I wasn't sure if the first attack would be real or not, but I tried something. I used my ability to extend my sword's length and, hoping he wouldn't notice, placed the blade in the area where his body would be and left it there, waiting for him to materialize. His first attack was fake, but the second was real and I felt my sword lurch as if stuck inside something. I pulled up with all my might and heard the man scream in pain, then he vanished.

"Nice thinking!" Demi said, then waved a hand for me to follow her, "Time to go!"

We started running again, hoping that we weren't too late. Saris would need our help for this fight. Fire King was too strong and we still didn't know how to approach him as an enemy without getting flame-broiled. I wasn't even sure if we would be able to get close to him. Were the flames that made up his body just as dangerous? And how long would it take for him to burn himself out?

"Come on, he's already at the beach!" Demi urged me to move faster as we hurried up an incline of rubble.

I tripped on a large broken board and tumbled down from the top of a brick hill. The fall caused more than one bruise and scratch, but I quickly scrambled up to regain the ground I had lost, assuring a concerned-looking Demi that I was fine. Finally, we made it over and peered out to the beach, which had been turned into a lifeguards' nightmare. My heart sank when I saw it. My archer team was gone. All that was left was the ground team, fighting to stay alive. There were so few of them, especially compared to the enemy. Fire King was blasting people with his flames and I was shocked to see him attack his own team. I thought he'd try to wipe us out first, but it apparently didn't matter to him; they were just pigs for slaughter.

Demi caught me as I was about to rush into the fight. She gripped my arm tightly and looked into my eyes, not pleading, but commanding, "No."

"Demi, I have to go. I have to help them."

"And what are you going to do?" Her grip tightened even more, her nails digging into my skin.

"Well, I...uhh. I don't know," I answered, suddenly realizing that I had no plan. There seemed to be only one thing left to do, fight. But was there a better way? "What are you thinking?"

Demi let go of my arm, "Honestly? I want to leave." I was about to protest but she held a finger up to silence me. "I know you won't do that and I'm not going to leave you here, but all you have to do is look ahead to see that rushing in is suicide."

I looked at the battle and saw Fire King alone on the sand, watching and attacking from a distance. "What if we snuck up on him?" I suggested.

Demi shook her head, "There's something weird about him that makes attacks go straight through, kind of like the guy we just took out, but...different somehow. I don't think it's a matter of attacking when he attacks."

I knew she was right. I had seen it with my own eyes on the day he attacked the graveyard. My eyes darted around, looking for a different option. We were running out of time. The number of allies and even enemies were dwindling. If we were going to do something, we had to act fast. I noticed a few people dive into the ocean when the flames were targeting them. After the attack, some of them would emerge from the water unharmed and that gave me an idea.

"The water," I said, almost mumbling.

"What?" Demi asked.

"We should get him into the water!"

"Okay, but how? He's not getting any closer to the shore, how are we supposed to get him in?"

"The cliff."

"Not a bad plan, princess," a voice came from underneath us. Recognizing the owner of that voice, Demi and I summoned our weapons, readying ourselves for an attack. The fit man rested his arms on the hilt of a giant sword that he had thrust into a patch of dirt on the ground. It was Zack. "Relax. I'm here to help."

"Oh, sure. Like we'd believe that," Demi spat.

"Aren't you on his side? Shouldn't you be down there?" I asked, nodding towards the battle.

"I've been under suspicion ever since the graveyard. Then when Kain came by, asking questions, I knew I couldn't stay; especially if someone overheard me. So, I ran off. Had to take care of a few people who followed me but here I am. What do you need?"

I shook my head, "I don't trust you." As if on cue, a warning blared in my mind, but I soon recognized it as the game's participant counter winding down; we were near the end of the round.

Zack smiled, moving closer to the beach, "Doesn't matter." He pointed to the battle with his thumb, "You're going to need all the help you can get."

I looked back at the battle. Zack was right. There was almost no one left, friend or foe. If we were going to take out Fire King, we had to use everyone we could. This was not the time to hold grudges, it was life or death and Zack might be the key to winning the fight. Holding back my pride, I said, "Demi and I need to get to the top of that cliff without being attacked."

Zack took his sword out of the ground and rested the flat of the blade on his shoulder, "I'll buy you time."

"Good, but," I stopped him, "I need it done a certain way."