A/N: little bit of a longer chapter! They might all be like that in the coming parts. For those who didn't see my profile update, I have worked out the chapter outlines and that there is 10+ chapter updates to come 

Yeah, I lied in that much earlier chapter because I kind of forgot about a whole section of the anime (whoops). Anyway, please enjoy! Don't forget to comment your thoughts and give the chapters a little love along the way :) 

King floated down before us, his spirit spear at his back.

Oh thank the Gods above. Salvation in the form of a fairy. On the verge of weeping, I wiped the corners of my eyes, trying to reason with myself that it was because I had gotten some dust and ice flakes in them.

"Well, the fairy king graces us with his presence," Helbram sneered, unfazed by the turn of events.

"Isn't that?" Howzer started, wiping blood from his chin.

"The Sin of Sloth, King the Grizzly Sin," Guila finished. Both looked awed by his arrival.

"King I am beyond glad to see you." I said.

He looked over briefly at Diane and me, a fierce fire burning in eyes filled with tears. He drifted to the ground before Howzer.

"Who did this?" he asked. "Who did such terrible things to Diane? Was it you?" He pointed at Howzer accusatory, then to Guila. "Or you?" He swung his finger in Leraj's direction. "Or you?" His voice rose a pitch.

"King..." I started, reaching out to him.

"It... wasn't them." Diane's quiet voice had him clenching his fists. "Those three... were protecting me... alongside Estra. So please, don't blame them, okay?"

In a move no one saw coming, King punched Howzer right in the centre of his chest armour. "But you didn't! You didn't protect her at all! Quit messing around, say you're sorry!" Punch after punch after punch until Howzer broke free of his shock and grabbed King's wrist.

"Hey, stop!" Howzer pulled his hand away. I gasped; King's fist was bloodied, the skin split at the knuckles.

"Why? Why is it that I can't ever, ever protect the people that I care about?" he sobbed.

I chewed the inside of my lip and placed my hand on King's shoulder, a visible shudder running through the fairy's body. I had no words to convey how sorry I was that I couldn't protect Diane for him nor could I form words to console him. His fear, his anger, it all resounded though.

"It's because you're consistently late. In fact, you were always too late. Just like that time when the fairy king's forest vanished twenty years ago. Or that time seven hundred years ago. And today as well! Because the death of this giant girl will be on your head."

My head whipped up to Helbram and I growled, readying my hands. Helbram had managed to get into the air after King's grand entrance. He fell towards us, arm wound up to render us with a blow. I crouched but before I could leap to punch, King's spirit spear connected with Helbram and sent him flying.

"Shut up!" King shouted, the sobs gone, voice hard and angered. His arm was out to the side and he opened his hand.

I turned back to the sky to see the spirit spear change into the giant, green bear that had held me captive once before and bounced the knight back. It morphed into tiny daggers that drilled into Helbram, driving him straight through the roof of a watchtower. The ground rumbled and I fought to stay on my feet.

"So did he get him?" Howzer asked.

The tower was nothing more than a decrepit ruin, punched full of holes. Helbram, sumo-stanced at the bottom, was covered in a purple shield. Blood dripped down his head and even from here, I could see that he had actually sustained considerable damaged from King's attack.

Chastiefol zinged through the air and straight at Helbram's forehead, a sizeable crack in the shield before it shattered. Chastiefol changed yet again into the bear and sent a rocketing uppercut to Helbram, taking out the spire of the tower.

"Estra, please, take care of Diane for me," King said before flying off. I nodded to his back as him and Helbram faced off in the sky.

Leraj ran up to me. "You're a whole 'nother level of crazy, Fox," he said, handing me my sword and reaching for a hug. He hesitated though, pulling back. The relief in his eyes comforted me nonetheless and I patted his arm.

"Just the usual from me then." I grinned and flourished my sword before sheathing it. I puffed out a hard breath, glad to note that I didn't have the shakes. But my insides were liquid, vibrating with adrenaline and streaked with ice hot fear. If King hadn't arrived... I shook my head, no time to entertain such thoughts.

I tapped Diane's leg to get her attention, tuning out the fight happening above our heads. "Diane, can you hear me?"

"Estra?"

"I'm here." I climbed up onto her lap, studying the wound in her stomach. "I'm going to cauterise again." I cast flames onto my hands and pressed as gentle as I could at the wound. She winced, face screwed up in pain. "I'm sorry," I apologised.

"Don't be," she whispered. Her eyes opened. "Where's King?"

"He's fighting Helbram."

"Wait, a fairy?" Howzer questioned.

"So that's Sir Helbram?" Guila said.

The bulky knight had transformed into a slim, young-faced fairy dressed in shades of green with a set of wings at his back. He looked nothing like King though, more ethereal, all sharp angles and lines. Under his arm he cradled a helm, the same one Helbram had used in his character design for the fight festival host.

King has his work cut out for him. It wouldn't be easy for him, I assumed, taking down a member of his race.

The wound under my hand had stopped bleeding but there wasn't much else I could do beside pray she didn't die before we could get her properly healed. I slid off her thighs and landed before Leraj.

"You still want to fight him alone?" he asked, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the two fairies just as a giant root exploded out of the ground and whacked King.

I shielded my face from the dust that billowed over us. "King's got the true rights to this fight. I wanted to verse the knight, not the fairy."

"Yeah, you're hardly in any shape to go up against a magical creature anyway."

Truth rang clear. "That's only because of an unfortunate chain of events," I retorted, sending him a pointed look.

He rubbed at his neck as he craned it to watch the fight above. "Some of which I'll be apologizing for for the rest of my life. How's your Mana levels?"

I sent my awareness in, searching, eyes shut. "It's drained but not as much as I expected."

"Good, because you might need it now." Something in his voice made me open my eyes. A brown root headed for Diane but before I could draw my sword out an inch, King blocked it and was sent flying.

He raised his hand, little daggers in the air around him, but a root whipped down and crushed him into the ground.

"King!" I shouted, taking a few steps towards him as more roots sprouting up between the buildings.

They menacingly towered over us, their tips more or less pointed at Diane. King's words rang in my ears so I forced away the need to help him and stayed positioned between the roots and Diane. Leraj took his place beside me, our swords at the ready.

The root picked up King and so began a twisted game of tennis, King batted back and forth between the roots. Angry tears filled my eyes and it pained me to hold my ground when I knew I could help him. His little daggers came back to life and swirled around a root but it flicked them away. Then all the roots pointed towards Diane.

Howzer roared, swinging his lance and sending a blast of razor sharp winds to slice the head of the roots off. They flopped and wiggled like dismembered lizard tails; Howzer fell to a knee before them, coughing.

"How'd you like that, you bastard of a tree?"

"Wow, amazing. Nice Howzer!" Helbram applauded.

"How much mana do you have?" I asked quickly, sparks crackling around my head, sword drawn.

"Barely enough to do damage," Leraj replied.

"Then I'll back up Howzer."

"Go. I'll stay with Diane."

The roots sprouted new tips. Regrown, they beared down on Howzer who could barely move. I slid underneath them in a crouch, sword at the ready. With a hard shove off my right foot, I took a leap. Fire ran down the length of my sword unbidden and I swung.

"Enflame!"

An arc of fire ploughed through the roots, the afterimage a burn on the sky. The plants shrivelled, twisting in on themselves.

I hit the ground before Howzer and sent a grin. "Man, that was awesome!" he said, holding a hand up for a high five. I gave it a whack.

Something heavy collided with my back, sent me, and Howzer, hurtling straight into Diane beside Guila and Ziel. I clutched my head, the world spinning, winded and wheezing. I rolled off Howzer who groaned in pain.

Leraj stood in front of us now, fending off more roots, his blade lightning quick to deflect and slice; but, as more and more rose from the ground flicking like angry snakes, he swore under his breath.

I rose stubbornly, forcing air in. My entire back spasmed with pain and I winced as I walked. Definitely bruised, nothing broken. I took place beside him, slashing at any that evaded him.

"Firework?" I questioned in a break, back to back.

I felt him shake his head. "You won't have enough Mana to keep them at bay for long."

"Then Defuse." Weak flames began dancing upon my skin but he halted me with a hand on my wrist.

"It won't work either. You'll kill yourself in the process for a spell that won't have enough Mana force behind it."

"I can get more." I set my jaw and called up Kitsune, fingers of my free hand stretched out into thin air.

Giving up was not an option.

A root whipped my way and I slashed it down the middle, following the momentum through to twirl and take out another arcing towards Diane on my left. A root caught Leraj on the shins, knocking him over to land with a heavy thud. He groaned, trying to push himself to hands and knees when I arrived at his side, hauling him up. Another root snapped out, razor sharp tip cracking across my side and opening a gash just above the hip. I applauded myself for not screaming but I did keel to the side, no more help to Leraj than he was to me.

I briefly looked over my shoulder at the others. Battered and bruised, they were in no condition to fight; they could barely even sit upright. Diane watched me through half lidded eyes and I turned back to the slithering roots. People were counting on us.

Then the unthinkable happened. One of the roots held up King by the throat like he was Helbram's trophy. The fairy king had been defeated. The roots paused their assault. Now all that stood between Helbram and the others were Leraj and I.

I hardened. "Cold Fire," I muttered under my breath.

Howzer and Guila marvelled at the blue flames dancing harmlessly around them. Leraj was encased too, much to his chagrin. I helped Leraj to settle beside the two knights, then I moved to stand in front of them all. I sheathed my blade.

"Estra, don't get any stupid ideas," warned Leraj.

"I'm full of stupid ideas, Leraj," I said, eyes focused on the roots growing in number. "I'm keeping you all safe, just for a little longer." I stretched my hands out before us, pulling my mana from the core and into my hands. It shimmered around my fingers in a haze which I sent outwards into the form of the same multilayered shield.

It worked pretty well once before, it would work again. This time, if it got gaps, the others would be relatively safe. The mana drain from both spells was much higher than I expected now, even with Kitsune sucking the living daylights out of my surroundings for the lingering mana. Head light as a feather, I spread my stance and waited. The roots hovered, quivering with Helbram's anticipation, as he thrust King towards us.

King stared with tired, defeated eyes.

"It's okay, King!" I called out.

Helbram floated down, eyes devoid of emotion. "Let's finish this, fairy king. Burn the image of your loved ones' horrible deaths onto your eyelids, your mind's eye and your soul."

This wasn't to be my last fight. I would survive. I owed the others that much and I owed Hendrickson a whole lot more pain before I would ever kick the bucket. With a grit of my teeth and the spell on my lips, I waited.

The roots descended.

"Fire!" I screamed, the shimmering haze vibrating and changing colours. "Wo.... Work?" The spell died out on my lips, the haze fading away. There really was no need for it now; the roots couldn't reach us. I pulled my mana back in and marvelled at the sight surrounding us.