Luminado charges and swings his claymore at Sara as she dodges the swing by doing a backflip.

“Riley! Give me a hand why don’t you?!” Luminado yells at the knightess across the field. Reviling her name.

“I thought you’d never asked brother!!” Riley yells back and attacks Sara as well.

Sara bonce off of Riley’s head as she shoots arrows at both Riley and Luminado. But Luminado twirls his blade around as he knocks away most of the arrows away. Frey attacks Luminado with his blades but was blocked by Riley as she used her shield for a last-minute save then bash Frey’s face in with her shield. She attempts to stab Frey in the face as well but then he kicked her back then sweeps kicks her and attempts to finish but he was interrupted by Luminado.

“Now I’m starting to see why the kiddo had trouble fighting you. You’re tougher than you look.” Frey said as he Blade locks with Luminado.

“Recruiting kids now? Never believed that you people will go that low do something like that.” Luminado said as he breaks the blade lock and kicks Frey back and attempts to impale his claymore through Frey.

However, Frey stepped aside to his left and raised his leg, and stomps on Luminado’s blade as it hits the ground. Stunned but angered, he pulls his sword back and swings his sword again and again until Frey switches with Xin as she jumps on Luminado’s blade and jumps over and attempts to strike him from behind until Riley attacks Xin and drew her attention away from Luminado. Riley jumps back as she raises her sword as the fire burning from the forest drew towards her sword and engulfs it. She then swipes her as it sends another fire slash towards Xin. However, Xin didn’t attempt to dodge it as she instead catches the fire slash with her bare hands and crushes it as it explodes. Stunned by her level of power, Riley took a step back in fear but gasp as Xin rush through the last deliveries several punching blows through her chest armor.

Luminado notices it as he rushes over to aid Riley and attempts to thrust his sword through Xin. But Xin in response turned around and stomp on Luminado’s thrust attack as it penetrates through the grounds. Luminado pulls the sword back and attempts to kicks Xin but then a chain wraps around Luminado neck as he was being pulled back. Sara made a chain out of her ice magic as she was choking Luminado. Luminado attempts to pull back but Sara was far stronger than he was. She then summons more ice chains hands them out to the others as they grab the chain and wrap it around Luminado and squeeze the life out of him as they continue to pull the chain. Not only that, the chain was freezing cold as it begins to freeze his body,

“Let him go!” Riley Shouted across from the field. The others paused as they see the Riley was holding Saul hostage by holding a sword close to his neck.

“Either you let my brother go or watch your follow comrade gut like a pig! Just like you did to our men on the final battlefield of the war! Now let my brother go! Or else!” She said.

Sara and the others noticed that Saul was badly damaged as he was covered in burns and blood. He was still gasping for air to breathe. What didn’t help was the knightess was holding his neck tight and her sword was already through the surface of his neck. Begrudgingly, the groups let go of the chains as Luminado collapse on the floor he gasping for air. The frostbite around his body begins to fade as the heat from the burning forest was warming him up again.

“There, happy now?! Now release the boy!” Sara shouted. However, Riley begins to chuckle as she grinned under her helm.

“No. You took our brothers in arms from us. NOW YOU’LL KNOW THE PAIN WE FELT!!” She yells as she slashes Saul’s neck as blood begins to spirt out.

She was then about to stab him as well but the blade was stopped by a hand. Stunned, she sees that hand was from Saul as he was grasping her sword despite his state.

“Never….. again…..” he said in a raspy voice.

“What?”

Saul’s left hand began to glow as he was still holding the sword in place. His wounds and burns began to regenerate slowly as the contract mark counted down from 11 all the way down to 4. What was the last thing to heal was the cut from his neck. Not only that, his strength began to return as well.

“I said… I won’t be a coward hostage…..AGAIN!!” He yells as he knocks Riley’s sword out from her hand and turns around to deliver a suck punch at her face.

The others were in shocked as that he still has some fight in him. Saul then reaches out his hand his sword comes flying toward him and lands back into his grip. Saul then quickly removed his helmet as it was badly damaged and could barely hold itself together anymore. He then tosses it aside into the burning forest.

“Never again… I won’t let you get the better! Never again, will I coward behind my own fears. NEVER AGAIN!!” Saul shouted as he charges at Riley.

Riley blocks his strike by picking up a shield from her dead comrade. She then pushes him back as she gets back and continues to striker him with her shield. She uppercuts him in the jaw with her left and then grabs him and pins him down and stomps on his neck. Sara then rushes over and drops Riley off of him and sends her flying across the field. Riley then grabbed at a halberd near and takes chargeback of Sara and takes a swing at her.

“Obice!” Saul shouted as a barrier quickly formed around Sara and repelled the halberd strike.

Saul then grabbed a kite shield and a flintlock revolver from a dead desperado grunt and attacks Riley again. Sara joins in the fray as she supported by striking arrows Riley at her blind spot. However, Riley anticipated the arrow shots and quickly blocks them with her shield. Saul too attempts to take shot Riley in her blind spots with the flintlock revolver but again they were blocked by her shield. Frey came from above and joins the fight as well.

Meanwhile, the fight continues with Luminado fighting the rest of the members by himself. Despite being outnumbered, Luminado was holding his ground as he too picked up a shield from his dead comrade and shield bash Kam in the face to give himself some space. But Kam stopped it with his bare hand and pushes him back as Jax stabs him from behind with his halberd and Xin performs a roundhouse kick at Luminado’s head. Luminado retaliated by shielding Xin to give himself more space. He sees that Riley was being overwhelmed by Saul and the others, so he rushes over to assist her. Saul noticed Luminado was closing and switched his attention towards him. Both of them clash their blades as they both heat up from clash.

“Good! God damn, you still got fight in you yet!” Luminado yells as his claymore is engulfed in flames.

“And like I said, I WON’T RUN AWAY AGAIN!! Saul yells back.

Saul’s sword then begins to glow brighter as it too engulfs itself in flames. With both fire blades in their hands, their blade sends out a shockwave of fire every time they clash their blade. Riley attempt to stab Saul from behind but he blocks it with his shield but was brought down to his knee from the force of her strike. Sara and Frey sweep kicked Riley from below as they both grabbed her legs and tossed her back to let Saul fight Luminado. Luminado then attempts to shield bash Saul but then Saul did a leg sweep from below and attempts to pierce him while he’s down but was kicked back high into the air.

Xin whips out her chain and tosses one end of it towards Saul. Saul sees the chains and grabs hold of them while Xin yanks him back which he used the speed to his advantage and headbutts slam into Luminado, dragging him across the burn woodlands. Luminado then grabs Saul by the neck and overhead swing him into the ground and proceeds to stomp on his neck. Luminado was about to stomp on his neck again until Saul pulled out the flintlock and shots him but misses as it only grazed his forehead. But it did cause him to stumble back. Jax then comes in and kicks Luminado in the back as Saul got back up and slash Luminado’s face it left a burnt cut on his cheek. Luminado then grabs Saul again and tosses him into the burning forest. But Kam jumps into the air and catches Saul in the air and tosses him back towards Luminado as Saul maneuvered himself into a striking pose as Luminado blocks the strike with his shield and repels back. But Saul gets back up and charges back at Luminado as he takes out his pistol and strikes on Luminado’s chest then fires as it caused the pistol to explode and cause both Saul and Luminado to be blown back.

Luminado gets back up and sees that the explosion blew a chunk of his chest armor. Instead of being frustrated, he grinned and chuckled and switched to laughter as he grabs Saul again and tosses him back towards Sara and Frey as they were still fighting with Riley. Riley sees Saul pinned down and attempt to stab him while he was on the ground. But Saul kicks her back and jumps back up and fights her now as Sara and Frey tag team with him as they switch back and forth to fighting Riley as she could barely keep up with the tag team as she was then kicked back towards Luminado. The others then jumped back towards Sara and Frey as they also help Saul to hold his ground.

His body was getting weaker, his breath was heavy, the flames surrounding his sword became weaker, and his armor was falling apart. Sara and the others wanted him to tap out as he could barely stand. But regardless, he still holds his ground as he continues to grips his sword. Luminado helps Riley back up as they were thinking they should end this battle now.

“Brother, why don’t we end this now?” Riley asked.

“Hehe, I was having some fun. But I couldn’t agree more. Let’s end this now.” He agreed.

Luminado and Riley held their sword up high as the fire in the forest swirled as they gather around their sword and empowering their sword. With enough power stored in their swords, they unleashed a powerful sword strike towards The Dark Children of the Night.

“OBICE!!”

Saul quickly responded by casting a barrier spell to block the strike but he was overwhelmed as he was being pushed back several feet away. Despite not touching their strike, he could feel the overpowering heat burning his hands intensely as cracks begin to form from his hands all the way to his arms. A Powerful wind kicked up and would blow over him as it kept pushing him back even further. The eminence of power was erupting the surface itself as giant fissures would form below him. Riley sees him struggling to repel the attack and sends a few more swords to strike to empower the slash by tenfold. Saul was sent further back as he was still trying to stop the slash. He looks behind and could see the south city over the horizon. Sara and Frey place their hands on his back and pushed him back for support.

“Keep going kid!” Sara yells.

“Like you said! Don’t run away from this!” Frey shouts.

Kam, Jax, and Xin assist as well by surrounding Sara and Frey as well. Saul couldn’t believe his own that the rest of the team supported him in his struggle. But it was exactly what he needed to pushing forward. He keeps the barrier spell going until he remembers another spell he read from his magic tome and recites it loudly. 

“Iam meditatio obice!”

After reciting the spell's name, a shockwave burst out as his hands exploded in the process and send the slash back at Luminado and Riley as they attempt to take cover with their shield but were caught in the explosion. While Saul and the others were sent flying several feet away and cushioned Saul from the explosion. When the smoke cleared, Sara look down on Saul and was in shock when she saw that his hands were blown off and were left as burnt stubs, and his burnt bones were poking out.

“Saul! Wake up!” She yells.

“Kid! Hey, kid wake up! Don’t you go out like this!!” Kam yells.

Saul barely could keep his conscious together and most of their yelling was a blur to him. Slowly he lifted his left arm up towards Sara and quietly responded.

“Is everyone…..okay?” he painfully asked. Sara slowly touched his burnt arms and responded.

“Yes…. We’re okay. Thanks to you kiddo.” She said.

“That’s …good.”

Exhaustion finally caught up to him and passes out from the heat of battle.