Hey guys,

This has been an insanely hard week on me, so bear with me if I begin writing at a snails pace. I should be on 29, but I have only written the first 100 words of 27. Band has been kicking my butt, my confidence is at an all time low thanks to the words of others and my own inability to do certain tasks. Not to mention that my relationship is basically over, my boyfriend has been ignoring me recently and now that we finally got to talk for once, he left me confused and pretty sure he told me that he is no longer interested in me. Add the constant talk of my sixteenth that all my family members want to talk about and you have my difficult life right now.

But I figured if anything, releasing a chapter of DBR and getting to read the kind reviews I get from you readers will bring a smile to my face and tears out of my eyes. So if anything, even though this chapter is somewhat late, this one comes with the love of a writer who wants nothing more than to write and please her readers. Please, do enjoy.

xKiha

Lavender giggled, folding her arms as she looked over the group. "Alright, then we have a deal." Turning to see the frozen feet of Flynn and only laughing louder. "Now, you really don't have a lot of time, so if I were you, I'd have that book open. Come on readers; don't just let your friend suffer."

Kenja drew in a breath as he turned to Aislinn, well when it came to his "fighting" ability, there wasn't much to rely on. "Since we're going to be fighting together, I hope you don't mind my asking in how many spells you have."

The girl with scars nodded. "We have five, but they're…interesting."

"Well, my partner and I have three," Kenja saying, knowing he needed to give her his number in all fairness. "However, only one of them is offensive."

"So, this isn't going to be easy."

"I don't think it will be."

Kesai turned to look at his partner, clenching his fists. "So, do you guys have a game plan yet or are we just going to talk while Flynn gets coated with ice?" The kitsune having no patience for people that weren't going to do certain things his way, this one being a major thing.

"The little fox is right, tick tock, tick tock." The ice demon taunted, making Kesai's blood boil.

Kenja drew in a breath. "If anything, we will have to come up with some kind of combination later, or at least after we've both managed to see one another's spells in action."

"Alright, I can work with that." Aislinn replied, glaring at Lavender coldly. She didn't know who this demon was, or even if she was supposed to, but whoever this little bitch was, she was going to destroy her if only so she would quit talking. Clenching her hands to her book before opening it, Kenja noticing this and doing the same.

Kesai looked to Cheshire, drawing in a breath. "I hope you have good attack spells, because I only have one that's an honest attack."

"Well," The snow leopard thinking over the five spells she had earned. "Only one of them is a real attack, but the other spells make it a lot easier to destroy an enemy without even needing an attack."

The kitsune's eyes widened in a bit of intimidation, Tsumi had graciously told him the story of his and Cheshire's first encounter, which made him all the more on edge when around her. It was obvious those two would probably never be friends, not when the poison demon feared her only as his attacker and the snow leopard held an obvious hatred for him, but did this mean that she would hate him as well? He couldn't be all that sure, but if anything, being forced to be partners in a fight like this would at least give him a clue of what their relationship would become and grow into.

"Alright, let's go." Kesai shouted, Kenja holding the orange book open, fingertips grazing the bright orange words he knew as his first spell.

"Hi-ken!"

Kesai tried to focus the speed he had on getting as close to Lavender as possible, flames shooting out of his hands similar to how a blowtorch or a flamethrower would have done it. The child focusing on her if only because he wanted this to end as soon as possible.

"How petty."

The kitsune's eyes widened in shock as Lavender dodged, using a backhand spring to send herself out of the way of the flames without even a slight singe. Her giggles loud and mocking as the kitsune continued to look at her in shock.

"H-He wasn't…fast enough?" Kenja blinking in shock, nobody was more nimble than Kesai. The kid could be everywhere and anywhere he wanted to with the kind of speed he had. And yet, she managed to dodge this spell?

"Just let us handle this." Cheshire growled, figuring if Kesai was going to suck, then he might as well be out of the way and sit on the sidelines while she took this fight.

Aislinn nodded, her own fingertips against one of the spells on her own book. "Nemasu!"

Just as it had been when the spell had been called back when Kimiko and Tsumi faced the sleep inducing duo, Cheshire's hands began to glow a gentle and soothing white. The kitsune and his partner watching the snow leopard's eyes narrow in focus as she then began sprinting forward on all fours to go after Lavender at her top speed. All she had to do was touch her forehead and then bam, all of this could be over in less than two minutes.

"Oh, what's this?" Lavender giggled, watching Cheshire race forward. "Is this a spell to cause some kind of status infliction?" Just by the look on her face, it was clear that the ice demon had no intention of taking any of this seriously, just continuing to giggle as the snow leopard got closer and closer to her.

Kenja drew in a breath, studying Lavender closely. 'I don't understand it, she's so unafraid of everything. An enemy is rushing at her with hate in her eyes and yet here she is, making jokes and taunting us. It's as if she thinks she's untouchable. Or maybe she's not thinking this, but she's aware of it. But if she's truly untouchable, then we are going to have more than one problem on our hands. And if she's only trying to stall, then I don't know if I can be so sure of our victory.'

It didn't take all that long for Cheshire to get to where Lavender was, the leopard swatting at the ice demon only for her to dodge. And for the next few blows that Cheshire tried to land, she only came to the same result of the girl only taunting her and dodging. If anything the speed of this enemy was astounding, leaving the sleep inducing demon in complete awe and frustration.

"Well, I think it's a little obvious that something so psychical isn't going to work on me." The ice demon taunted as she continued to evade the glowing paws of her enemy. "Lulu, you know what to do."

"Tsurara."

Before having a chance to dodge herself, Cheshire was struck by a barrage to purple icicles, growling as she was stabbed by all of the little spears. It was rather painful, the snow leopard being sent back into the freshly fallen snow only because of the pain she was now put in.

"H'm, so looks like I was right again." Lavender smiled, but now instead of teasing it was rather clear that something had clicked in her brain. Now this evil, or rather, sadistic look began to own her eyes. "Now then, we might as well try to make this a little more interesting, now shouldn't we?"

"Yuki." Lulu's smooth and emotionless voice fleeing her lips as if psychic, knowing what this demon wanted even if she was unable to really communicate anything to anybody around her. But even so, she spoke the spell, if only because this would be the wish of Lavender and most likely, the command of Xenolith.

Kesai's ears went flat against his skull, the kitsune just watching Lavender for a moment. Nothing changed. Her hands weren't glowing or anything, the ground didn't seem to be concealing anything and well, nothing seemed to be wrong. "W-What did you do?"

Brace yourself.

Kenja began looking around to understand what had just happened, rubbing his hands against his biceps in an attempt to warm himself up. Suddenly he felt so cold, releasing a breath and watching as what he exhaled took on a smoke like texture. He wasn't crazy, was he? No, it got a lot colder, it had to have been.

And right as he realized this, something cold and wet landed on his nose. The blond blinking in shock as he tilted his head upwards to find just what he feared. Lavender had used this spell to drop the temperature to something a lot lower and along with this drop in climate, she brought a heavy snow.

"Like it?" The ice demon giggled, spinning around with her arms up as the two demons watching her growled with hatred. "But this isn't the extent of what I can do, either. This is only the beginning."

"This isn't good." Kenja muttered, biting at his lower lip only with frustration.

"Oh really, you think so?" Aislinn replied, her voice a bit snappy, which only made the sickly blond cringe thanks to the tone.

The girl with scars then turned her attention to Flynn, swallowing she found that his legs were now completely coated in ice. The doctor in training's breathing heavy as he tried to keep himself from going crazy or letting the hypothermia get to him. The idea of losing a limb thanks to what was happening to him now, well it was mortifying. He didn't want to look at either of the bookreaders, knowing that if they knew how frightened he was right then, it could only make them more nervous and therefore a little less focused on their enemy.

"Time's running out," Aislinn mumbled, the blond looking to their friend and nodding with growing fear. With almost half of his body now cloaked, they needed to do something and do it fast.

'We need to think of something.' Kenja's eyes squeezing shut with frustration before he nodded to himself, knowing he needed more time to think about what they were going to do next. "Nisemono!"

Kesai was rather stunned when this happened, but he placed his hands out in front of him even so. Why would Kenja pick this spell, was he really that desperate for time? The kitsune looking away as flames left his hands, but instead of flying forward like in his first spell, they began to form and create something.

In a mere matter of moments a Kyuubi made of orange and red flames was created, this sleek nine tailed fox only remaining still for a few moments before rushing forward. Just like the sleekness of the creature created would suggest, this mythological creature was amazingly fast, the part of the creature meant to be the eyes focused on Lavender.

"A fox literally on fire? Juvenile." The ice demon muttered, rushing to dodge the fox only to watch it spring in the opposite direction. Well this wasn't normal and there was no such thing as a defective spell, Lavender rushing towards the Kyuubi who was only seeming to rush in nonsensical directions.

"Alright, now we will have time to actually talk things over and come up with a plan."

Kenja turned to Aislinn and Cheshire with a more serious look in his eyes, not even needing to glance on the spell that he and Kesai had just put into play.

"What makes you say that?" Cheshire asked, watching the Kyuubi's random movements with fascination.

"Well, the fire fox we just created, is nothing more than a distraction spell." Kesai replied, smirking as he tried to keep himself from shivering. "The Nisemono spell isn't dangerous, it's just there to confuse your enemy and maybe waste some of their heart energy. That's why the Kyuubi's just running around, because that's really all it does."

Although this honestly was nothing exciting or even very interesting, neither of the girls could really say that this wasn't very useful. Not when it kept Lavender focused solely on the Kyuubi instead of them. Aislinn growling under her breath. "Well, this demon's fast, which is a problem because that means we can't put her to sleep."

"And we only have one spell left." Kenja replied with a sigh, looking to Kesai who nodded. Oh joy, the second spell.

"And what does it do?" Cheshire asked, knowing that any spell could be crucial.

The kitsune laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "The second spell, it creates a fire ring around any demons I want and that includes me. I can make the ring as big as I want, but it basically seals you off from your bookreader and leaves you to fight on your own in a sort of hand to hand style."

"If only she wasn't so damn fast." Cheshire muttered. "I'm sure I could take her hand to hand with just my claws if she was just a bit slower."

"Don't count me out." Kesai replied, smirking. "I'm very good when an enemy and I are fighting with our fists. I never loose when spells aren't involved trust me."

"Then all we need to do is take down her legs."

The two demons along with Aislinn turned to look at Kenja, the boy having a look in his eyes that told everybody he was thinking very hard about what he was about to say. "All we need is a decoy and an attacker. Aislinn, you said you had one offensive move, right?"

"Yes, I have one attack spell."

"Good, and Cheshire, how accurate would you say you are when you use this spell?"

The snow leopard only had to think for a moment. "As long as whoever I'm fighting isn't freaky fast like there, I almost never miss."

The blond nodded, his azure eyes looking over Kesai who swallowed when he began to put everything together along with the girls. "Well good, because Kesai and I are going to be decoys and while she's distracted you and Aislinn are going to strike her legs. Once she no longer has her speed, I'm sure we can rely on you two to take her down in a hand to hand fight."

Cheshire smirked, they could just put Lavender to sleep, but since she had been so annoying, destroying her with her own two hands would be so much more fun. "Sounds like a plan."

"That was a decoy, wasn't it?"

The four turned to find Lavender now standing before them again, her eyes seeming to be bloodshot as she clenched her fists. "That spell was nothing but a decoy so you could all talk, wasn't it!"

"Yeah, that's all it was." Kesai nodded, sticking out his tongue. If he was going to be a decoy, he was going to be a decoy.

Right away he had all of Lavender's attention on him, the kitsune winking to the sleep inducing duo who knew they had to slip away now.

"Lulu! The fourth spell, it's time to show them that I can do more than just make it cold!" Lavender shouted, paying no mind to Cheshire and Aislinn, instead solely focusing on Kesai who continued to childishly taunt her, which was doing nothing but succeed.

"Ooyuki."

The fire duo braced themselves for anything, watching the ice demon raise both of the arms and close her eyes with concentration. In a matter of moments, the cold winds began to get harsher and snow began to swirl everywhere in a harsh screen. Kenja covering his eyes in an attempt to keep the snow out of them, Kesai shivering as the snow began to cling to his hair along with the fur on his ears and tail.

"Do you like my snowstorm?" Lavender giggled sadistically. "Let's see you focus now that snow's all over the place. You'll soon find yourself both unable to see and shivering so bad from the cold winds and snow that you won't even be able to read your book or dodge an attack."

Kesai bit into his lip. "This won't break us, it's just snow."

"Don't you get it!" The ice demon shouted. "This is it! We're going to take you down because you're nothing. You guys were nothing but pawns in our game, weaklings we let stay in this fight because of what we knew we could gain from you being around. You can't handle yourselves, we've been throwing curveballs at you this entire time to test you because we know that you couldn't take on the real fight on your own. Without us, you never would have been able to get as far as you have. "

Kenja glanced at Flynn, the ice was now up to his ribcage, the blond swallowing. Come on, they could do this! "You're wrong Lavender."

"Oh and how is that?"

"Because, just like the purple gem and his bookreader, we have the determination to survive and keep going forward. Maybe it's nothing but a fluke, but we're too stubborn to let ourselves fall so early in this fight. Sometimes I don't think we're worth it, but if we're willing to cling to whatever hope we have of surviving in this demon battle, I think that at least says something about our character and the strength we really have. And if you and Xenolith are willing to see us as nothing but pawns, then that is solely your fault because we are much more. My partner and I have been fighting to keep him in this game so he could become a king of protection since day one, since before I ever met Kimiko or Tsumi and before I became involved with Xenolith. I think this at least gives you an idea of who we are and what you really are facing here."

Lavender only giggled, finding this speech nothing but a riot. "Seriously? You're going to go on about partnership and character at a time like this! None of that stuff is real, it's all about survival of the fittest in a fight like this!"

Kesai clenched his fists, he needed her to stay still, which meant he wasn't allowed to send his fist so hard into her solar plexus that she's vomit out her spleen. "Well, then you're just wrong."

Lavender giggled, looking over the kitsune with a mocking glower. She opened her mouth to speak, but by the time her mouth was open, she was on the ground.

From where she had stood, Aislinn held the white book in her hands, her voice a soft whisper. "Yumburisu."

Almost automatically all twenty of Cheshire's digits were enveloped in their own tiny orb of white, the snow leopard focusing on the legs of the ice demon. She had no doubts that she would hit her mark, two of the orbs being thrown and in a mere instant; they struck the back of Lavender's thighs.

"Nice one!" Kesai's voice a loud laugh while the ice demon hit the snow, causing Kenja to sigh with relief. At least for now, everything was going according to plans. Now for stage two as he liked to think about it.

"How dare you!"

Kesai turned, his celebration halting when he saw Lavender forcing herself to sit up in the snow, her aquamarine eyes bloodshot. The ice demon was shaking with anger, earning all eyes on her as she spoke in a cold as ice tone. "Another dirty trick from you rats! That's it! The weather is going to really hurt you now!"

The sickly blond swallowed, turning to see the pale Flynn. The ice was almost up to his shoulders, the doctor in training shaking violently with what Kenja could only guess was hypothermia. They really were running out of time.

"Fubuki."

All four cringed at the sounds of Lulu's voice leaving her lips, Lavender bursting into giggles while the freezing winds began to pick up. The clouds began dropping snow and freezing rain and the violent winds were causing all of it to swirl around and envelope them.

"Welcome to my blizzard," Kenja feeling himself stumble back, his own heart beginning to pound madly. The doctor warned him about being out in the cold too long, but now was the time to fight. "I might not be fast now, but I doubt you'll be able to see me when you have snow blanketing and blinding you."

Kesai turned to look at his bookreader, biting into his lip at the sight of a pale face and reddening cheeks. "Kenja-"

"I'm fine, Kesai."

The kitsune's ears lowered. "I was going to ask you to read the second spell."

The sickly blond blinked, feeling the fool as he tried to shield his eyes from the below zero temperatures and the freezing rain and snow. "O-Oh, of course." Turning to Aislinn and Cheshire and getting a nod of approval from the both of them. "Here we go, the second spell, Furemingu!"

Kesai drew in a deep breath, motioning for Cheshire to stand beside him which she promptly did. The fire demon had to focus all of his energy as the earth from under them began to shudder, Lavender gasping as she began to look around with surprise. In a matter of seconds, a powerful ring of flames around fifteen feet tall was created, trapping the three demons inside while the bookreaders along with Flynn were all left on the outside.

The kitsune cracked his knuckles. "There we go, now your bookreader can't help you at all."

Although she was rather mortified, the ice demon laughed nervously, never losing her cold tone. "I don't need her for now; I doubt you'll be able to see me in this weather. Look, you can barely keep your eyes open as we speak."

"Maybe not," Kesai closing his green eyes tightly. "But, I can smell you from here."

Cheshire smirked, never before had she felt so grateful to have a partner in a fight like this. Maybe not everybody would be so useless to her. "And being a snow leopard, I won't have any problems with this weather; my body was built to face these kinds of conditions."

Lavender forced herself onto her feet, shaking her head and trying to step back only to hiss in pain thanks to the injuries on her legs. "Wait! You're not seriously going to fight this dirty, are you?!"

Kesai snickered, taking a step closer to her with his eyes still tightly shut, her scent allowing him to pinpoint her location. Ugh, rotting wood and peppermint. "Of course we are, there's nothing in the rule book that says hand to hand fighting is wrong." The kitsune cracking his knuckles once again, but this time just to make her cringe. "And now, we're fighting my way."

The ice demon drew in a suddenly scared breath, not all that sure why she was suddenly so afraid of these two as Cheshire smirked, she had eighteen more of her dream spheres. That would be more than enough.

"Let's do this quick, we don't have a lot of time." Kesai said, voice rushed with the thoughts of Flynn and Kenja. Both of the animal demons nodding before rushing at Lavender, who barricaded in by walls of flames, had to force herself to rush at them as well.

The snow leopard was quick to throw another Yumburisu sphere at the ice demon who was able to dodge this time only to receive a foot in the stomach courtesy of Kesai. She was sent into the freshly fallen snow, sitting up in disorientation only to be struck with a dream sphere in the back, the ice demon coughing up blood and struggling to her feet.

"It's funny, time should be up very soon. This might be all for nothing." Blood dribbling down Lavender's chin, voice still holding the taunt she had before. "Wouldn't it be a shame if you lost even though we're here now?

"Or then again, the blond from before looked like he was losing energy pretty quickly. Maybe the cold's about to take him and rip him inside out. Maybe we'll get to find out what happens to a demon when their bookreader dies in battle and leaves them all on their ow-"

"SHUT UP!"

Kesai had never screamed like this before, but with his entire body shaking with rage it was the only way he could let all of this hate out. His fist had ended up in her chin without him even knowing it, the ferocity and hate in this one punch sending her back and into the wall of flames. It wasn't until the screams of Lavender reverberated through the area that he was snapped out of his senses, gasping as the flames began to die down.

"Kesai?" Cheshire looking at her partner who only now opened his green eyes, the kitsune breathing heavily. "Are you alright?"

"I think so." He whispered, then watching all the flames die down and turning to look for their enemy.

"Did they do it?" Aislinn suddenly asked, noting that the arena was now completely gone.

Kenja tried to look around to find anybody, hoping that he could get a good look at his partner. "I'm not sure, but judging by Lavender's scream, the odds are probably in our favor."

The sleep inducing demon and the fire kitsune both walked in the direction of the ice demon's scent, finding Lavender now covered in blood and burns lying in the snow. The blizzard around them beginning to die down thanks to the weakness of the demon who had caused this weather change. "Just do it now." Her voice weak and growling.

Kesai turned to see Flynn, seeing that the ice was up to the doctor's chin and that he seemed to be passed out. Hopefully it wasn't anything too major, because if they lost Flynn now, then he'd really be after the blood of the Puppet Master. "Cheshire, how about you do the honors."

"Gladly," The snow leopard nodded, throwing another of the dream spheres at the spellbook in the motionless Lulu's hands, the woman dropping the book only after it was struck and began burning. Lavender laying on her back and giggling through her pain. "At least, it was a good fight. If I had been taken out in any way that could be considered pathetic, I may have had to kill myself."

"Well, then be grateful for what we did." Kesai growled before realizing it was all over and beginning to smirk instead. "Because, even when we meet again in demon world, I'll always be able to kick your butt."

"The both of us will." Cheshire added, causing the kitsune to begin to laugh at her inclusion.

"Course the both of us."

Lavender rolled her eyes, by now most of her body had faded into those small sparkles. "I guess we'll have to see about that, but with Lord Xenolith still after you, I doubt you'll outlast me by too long." The ice demon fading before either of the demons got to say anything in retort. Well, luckily all of this was now over with.

Hold on a second.

Flynn!

It was then that all the snow and winds vanished and the temperature returned to normal, the four rushing to their friend who was once incased in ice. He was out like a light, but his heart was still beating, just a bit slower than normal. Kenja drawing in a breath, coughing harshly before finding his words with a small voice. "Well, it seems that he'll be okay, but we're still going to have to get him to the hospital to make sure that he makes a full recovery."

"Thank god." Aislinn replied, sitting down in the snow. "I was worried he'd die."

"I don't think we're going to have to worry about that anymore." The sickly blond replied, the look on his face telling her that he was just as relieved as she was.

"Kenja! Aislinn!"

Both of the exhausted teenagers turned to see Yukio Kincad fleeing the school and rushing towards them, his eyes wide as he ran through the snow. "I heard the screaming and I came running, dear god, are you all okay!?"

The man stopped as he got a look at the two teams and Flynn, drawing in a sharp breath as he realized what they must have all been through without his knowledge.

"I better get you all to the hospital and quickly."