Chapter 10: Pyrrhic Victory

As the words left Estelle's mouth, she soon found herself losing consciousness as she received a sharp punch into her stomach. For some reason however, despite her eyes being closed, she could still see the surroundings around her…

The man then looked around at the site of his entertainment. He was disappointed as they seemed to lack the power that Yuri managed to show despite his tired state back at the desert.

Of course, the main powerhouses of Yuri's party weren't here as of now and the genius herself seems to be still trying to adapt to her makeshift blastia.

The man then looked over at the calm water which once again submerged the ruins. Despite knowing that no human could possibly survived that, he was pretty sure Yuri is still alive in one way or another. After all, he didn't let the man live if he wasn't entertaining – that and he had potential to do what no one else he has faced could possibly do.

Looking over the unconscious form of the Child of the Full Moon, he slowly crouched down to the princess, until he sensed a large sound over at the forest.

Quickly turning his head to the source of the sound, he sensed that his Remnant was doing battle again. Did the old man survive the attack? Or had someone joined in the fray?

As if answering his questions, he sensed killer intent directed at him and quickly jumped away from the Child of the Full Moon… just in time to dodge a sword aimed at where his neck has been a few seconds ago.

To his surprise Yuri was standing there, glaring with him. By his side was his trusty dog Repede.

"I'm surprised that you managed to get out that quickly from the depths of the ocean Yuri Lowell." The man said in a tone which indicated he was clearly amused. Yes Yuri Lowell... show me the power of the one that can be possibly achieve my dream!

Yuri said nothing. Instead, he unsheathed his weapon and whispered a quiet command to Repede. Without hesitating, Repede brought the injured members and Estelle to a clearing away from Yuri's current location.

"You're not getting away this time." Yuri silently muttered at the opponent. The voice was so silent it seemed as if Yuri was talking to himself, but the man smirked as if he understood what he said.

Somewhere at the other side of the Island: (5:20PM)

"Argh!"

Flynn was sent flying back as he was impacted by the Remnants tail. Flynn was fighting alone against the Remnant while Judith tended to Raven's wounds. By the looks of it, Raven seemed to have been directly hit by a fireball as his whole body was scorched.

Flynn righted himself at midair and sent a Demon Fang towards the remnant as soon as he made contact to the ground. The Demon Fan pierced the aura of the Remnant, but apparently reacted quickly enough so it didn't actually hit the body.

Flynn took this opportunity and leaped at the Remnant. He expected the Remnant to go up, after all they did at the desert at taking one Remnant down, he must of course got several ideas of taking one down.

Flynn immediately leaped into the air as the Remnant was distracted of the Demon Fang, he immediately delivered a vertical slash towards the head of the Remnant.

The Remnant apparently noticed this but reacted a second too late and received a slash that cleaved part of its neck and cut off the left wing. Not only that, the blade was searing hot as if it was imbued with fire, leaving the wound of the Remnant burnt.

After landing at the ground, Flynn wasted no time and imbued his weapon once again with Fire, "Dragon Swarm!"

A flurry of slashes impacted the Remnant, and as the last hit made contact, the Remnant slowly faded away from existence.

Taking a moment to collect himself and confirm that the Remnant is indeed gone, he turned and headed to Judith and Raven.

Crouching down, to the lying form of Raven, Flynn observed that Raven had several burn wounds but none that seemed life threatening.

"I'll tend to his wounds Flynn." Judith said bringing Flynn out of his observations. "I'm guessing that Yuri is currently in a fight himself."

Flynn stood up and nodded. "Understood."

With those words, Flynn went straight to the location where the sound of a sword fight came from.

Near Baul: (5:25PM)

Yuri's made a vertical slash using his left hand; the sword however was blocked by the man's long sword. Thinking quickly, Yuri grabbed his scabbard and tried to make a vertical slash towards the man's rib. The man however used his right hand to grab the scabbard stop it at its place.

Yuri gritted his teeth, and tried to kick the man, but the man jumped backwards gracefully, lading a few feet away from him.

"In a hurry to end this battle so quickly Yuri?" The man casually asked.

Yuri didn't respond but rather, sent a glare at the man… then Yuri disappeared from his position.

The man immediately narrowed his eyes, and swung his sword to his left. The sword made impact with Yuri's sword, but Yuri himself wasn't there.

In the next instant, Yuri appeared directly behind him, "Lone Wolf!"

A beast like aura blasted the man towards the forest clearing, hitting a tree, causing it to fall due to the sheer impact.

Once the smoke cleared, the man was standing with only dust and splinters covering his clothing. Aside from that, the man was relatively unharmed.

"Nice attack Yuri… but it seems I have to go now." The man said. "My minion seems to have faded away and it's about time I search for the last piece… for I know you would keep the one you have right now until it's 'ripe for the taking'."

"Tiger Blade!"

The voice ringed out as the man moved forward, avoiding the rising strike of the blade and sidestepped to avoid the descending strike. The man then lashed out by imbuing his fist with a Fire Ball and blasting it towards the attacker.

Flynn, acting quickly, pivoted and used his shield to take the incoming blow. An explosion took place and Flynn was sent sliding backwards a few feet. As the smoke cleared the man was nowhere to be found.

"Damn…" Yuri picked up his sword and sheathed it. Taking a look at the current state of his friends, his hand unconsciously clenched and immediately went to their aid. Flynn followed suit.

Island Beach Area: (6:30PM)

Judith was extremely worried with Baul's current state. Baul was unconscious and was seemingly close to death. Using everything she knew about her partner, she set out to heal her partner.

Aside from the party that went to obtain the fragment, everyone was knocked unconscious in some form. Karol seemed to be having a hard time to breathe, which Flynn suspected to be damage to the rib cage. Luckily though, the lungs weren't pierced. Rita on the other hand had a head concussion as it seemed she hit the walls of the 'ship' (what Baul uses to carry them) hard. Raven was heavily singed with several first degree and second degree burns, he was somehow able to avoid the full brunt of the attack, but it was clear he didn't avoid it enough to prevent himself from losing consciousness. Estelle surprisingly, only received one form of physical pain which was through the punch that sent her unconscious, what was strange however, was that there were weird markings at the area which Judith deduced to be a seal.

If Estelle was indeed affected by a seal, they wouldn't know what kind of affect it would have until Estelle awakened, if ever she did (after all they had no idea what the seal did).

Seeing as they were probably going to be spending some time on the island due to their unconscious friends and their unconscious ride, Judith and Flynn took turns attending to the wounded while Yuri and Repede took care of food and water. Yuri was feeling extremely guilty for his inability to protect his friends, so he remained stoic and hunted for food without uttering a word ever since he gave out orders of who will do what.

Despite that a madman was out there looking for the next fragment, Yuri, Flynn, and Judith did not think much about it as they were currently powerless to do anything but tend to their injured friends.

The Following Day… (5:00AM)

Estelle was the first to wake up out of all the others. She found herself covered with a blanket next to a burnt out firewood.

As she looked around, she found that Flynn was leaning on a tree sleeping, Judith was leaning on Baul, Rita, Raven and Karol were asleep on blankets. Yuri on the other hand, was sitting on his own looking towards the rising sun. It seemed like he was the one that kept watch.

Slowly walking over to his side, Yuri turned to face her with a somewhat sleepy face.

"Hey."

"What happened?" Estelle asked, though it sounded more like a whisper as she realized that her throat was parched.

"Ah, right…" Yuri then grabbed a water jug at his belt and tossed it to Estelle. "That's some of the water I picked up from a lake near the center of this island. I just brought some of it along since I guessed that you'd all be pretty thirst once you all wake up… Anyway as to what happened, it'd be best if we wait for everyone to wake up. I don't want to explain everything once again."

Estelle could merely nod as she drank the content of the water jug.

"What did that person do to you Estelle?" Yuri asked firmly. "As I understand it, he did something to how you handle aer."

It's like the aer itself is avoiding her...

"…yeah. I know that the spirits are still in me but… I can't sense them." Estelle then looked away from Yuri feeling useless at her current state.

"Don't worry." Was all Yuri said as he started to trek into the forest presumably to get more water. "We'll find a way to remove that seal. Just don't feel bad about not being able to help. If it bothers you that much, then do what you can do even if it's minimal compared to what you can do before."

Yuri continued to walk into the forest to hopefully get some water into his now empty water jug. He was still furious about his failure to protect his friends a few days ago, but at least they managed to obtain one of the pieces. Yuri was still hoping that somehow the last piece of the Star Crystal was safe, but as the day wore on, this was becoming a dim notion. They had to get out of the island quickly. They had very limited gels left and even if they can last weeks or even months here due to the numerous places to obtain food and water, they couldn't afford another attack by that man.

Shaking his head to focus at the task at hand, he also had to explain what happened and what he did. There's no doubt that Flynn and Judith doesn't know that there's something about him than what meets the eye, and he was also thinking that Rita had a small idea but she was probably trying to find more proof. Things were really getting stressful, with a sigh he just wished that they would hopefully forget. He didn't want to explain his current predicament that would cause a whole amount of worry upon his friends. This was the main reason why he wanted to do this alone. Another problem that he has to face is that if the said monster of legend was to be unleashed there would be nothing he could do about it. And his only chance of winning or even hurting the monster had long shattered due to the over use of said weapon – there was another way, but the chances of actually killing the said legendary monster with his strength alone was plain impossible.

The current state of his friends was something that he really wanted to avoid, hence the reason why he started his one man crusade towards the leader of the Remnants. For some reason however, he somehow felt that his friends involvement in this current threat was unavoidable. This of course was making him hesitate whether he should just finish of the leader of the Remnants or interrogate him (which he knows is impossible) as to his reasoning of his actions. Yuri's gut feeling was just telling him that there was something off with the man that he seems to know a lot more than anyone. He somehow gave off the same feeling as a certain white haired man – albeit, more pronounced.

Yuri submerged his water jug at the lake and filled it to the brim with water. Shaking the water jug to make sure it was completely filled, Yuri then capped it and decided to walk back to where Flynn and Judith were.

Whether he liked it or not, he needed to pay a certain white haired man a visit.

Author's Notes:

Thank you for all those that have reviewed since the last update!

As for the title of the chapter... sure they won, but in the end, it prevented them from doing anything for the time being and the rest of the party (minus the ones that were awake or who awakened) are unconscious and can't exactly be healed by Estelle. Not to mention that they all got stranded in an island with no evident help.

I'm sorry I couldn't update sooner, a lot of things was just stuffed at the last few weeks before final exams and caused me so much stress… That aside, my laptop broke limiting my ability to update or even write my fan fiction even when I'm not at home. This is probably my last update for the year of 2010, but I might update again if I feel motivated (otherwise the next update would be at the year of 2011).

Ok as far as things that are happening this chapter, this chapter and the chapter after it (unless I change my mind) would pretty much serve as the recovery chapter and an explanation chapter for the characters (there's a high chance that there's going to be another Interlude soon… who that person is you'd have to wait for). I'm going to try and slow down the pace and eventually build it up for the final battle. Though I'm saying this now, this doesn't mean I'm nowhere near ending this fan fiction. There's a lot of things that needs to be explained and …done (I can't say much otherwise it'd be spoiling the plot).

As to why the enemy that Yuri fought would not go back and fight Yuri's Party until he found the last fragment, it's mainly because he knows that Yuri has it. Unlike the other fragment, the fragment that Yuri has can easily be located and all they need to do is fight for it, the last fragment would probably have some protection over it and not to mention that it hasn't exactly been located yet. Keep in mind what you've seen in this chapter regarding the man that Yuri has fought. As for the name of the man, it would be revealed later – there's a reason why I'm holding it back.

So thank you for those that have reviewed and read this fan fiction. Reviews and Constructive Criticism is highly appreciated!