Serenity's little game is nothing more than an attempt for her to force Velevt to step down as guild master. With less than ten members left, she might succeed, but having so few might actually be the advantage. Aster went off on his own after finding the remaining members return to the guild. Now, he's up against Rocko, which is just what he wants.
"Take this!" Rocko called with him attacking Aster with his earth magic, but Aster used his own magic to create platforms for him to jump on and made it to the rooftops. "I'm glad im facing you, Aster. I'll show you what real stones can do."
"Saves me the trouble of hunting you down." Aster said woth him forming two sapphire swords. "The sooner you're dealt with, the sooner Mary and your other hostages are free!" He charged right at Rocko and attacked, but Rocko avoided him.
"Try again!" Rocko said.
"Coward! Stand and fight!" Aster called.
"Stone Gatling!" Rocko unleashed his spell and attacked Aster, but Aster used his swords to deflect each shot that came at him, but the crystal was starting to crack. "Not bad, but I've got you pinned now. You're nothing compared to Serenity."
"Is that so?!" Aster said. "Crystal-Make: Quartz Shield!" Aster changed tactics and brought his shield. His shield held up perfectly against the stones and he charged right through.
"What?!" Rocko said with shock since he didn't expect that. Once Aster was close enough, he bashed his shield against Rocko. After that, he formed a few shards and used them to pin Rocko to a small tower. "Why you..." Rocko attempted to use his magic eyes, but Aster formed a crystal piece right over them. "Hey!"
"Nice try, but you need direct eye contact with no obstructions for that spell to work. You're beat, Rocko." Aster said with Rocko greatly annoyed. "Now, its time to stop this nonsense. You're still a member of Phoenix Flame, so I will show you mercy. Turn everyone in stone back to normal at once."
"And let Serenity down. No way." Rocko said.
"What's the matter with you Rocko? How could you put Serenity over the guild?" Aster said.
"That's none of your business, but I will tell you what is." Rocko said. "If you don't want those turned to stone be turned to dust, I suggest you let me go and admit you're beaten!"
"You wouldn't?!" Aster said.
"That entirely depends on you." Rocko said. He thought he had Aster right where he wanted him. Suddenly, the crystal around Rocko's eyes disappeared, but he was suddenly terrified. Aster formed spikes of crystal and had them dangerously close to Rocko.
"Color me astonished, Rocko." Aster claimed. "I never thought you would be the type to take extremes just to get your way. Understand that if that actually happens, you will cross a line where there is no forgiveness. It won't matter if your a member of Phoenix Flame. I will take your life for the lives that you stole." Rocko was suddenly scared for his life now with him screaming at the top of his lungs, but then Aster just knocked him on the head. "Okay, you've had your fun. Now quite playing around and just turn everyone back to normal."
"Okay. You win." Rocko said as he could see he was beaten.
...
The Guild
Rocko stayed true to his word. He undid the spell and everyone who was turned to stone was turned back to normal. That included Mary. Everyone noticed it.
"Mary!" Frank called.
"You're okay!" Axel said as they were all glad to see she was.
"What just happened?" Mary questioned.
"Aster must have did it! He must have found Rocko and was able to beat him!" Sandy said. "That means everyone else has been saved as well."
"Yes! Without any hostages, Serenity can't twist our arm anymore!" Velvet said with things finally getting back on track.
...
Serenity
"Rocko!" Serenity shouted with fire fuming from her. "I can't believe how weak you are! I thought you said you would do anything for me!"
"Rocko clearly overestimated his own abilities." Jake said with her walking over to her. "Aster was clearly more than a match for him. Perhaps it would have been better if I had gone after him."
"What are you doing here?" Serenity said.
"There aren't that many left, but we have no hostages now." Jake said. "We can't force Master Velvet to stand down anymore. Perhaps it would be best to retreat for now."
"Retreat?! Are you nuts?!" Serenity shouted. "That's not going to happen! I've waited too long, and I'm done waiting for something that won't happen on it's own! Besides, I still have something up my sleeve. I had a feeling you and the boys might fail me, so I have something else ready."
"But you never told me what that might be. What are you plotting?" Jake questioned with him having a bad feeling about this.
...
The Guild
"Okay, I think I get what's going on now." Mary said with her being told everything that's going on. "So, now that Aster managed to beat that stone jerk, it's over?"
"I say it is. Serenity doesn't have hostages, so she can't force us to play her little game anymore." Yukina said.
"Thank goodness. I'm glad it's over now. Now, maybe Serenity will come to her senses." Maru said. "I didn't think she would actually hurt anyone, but she does tend to be a drama queen."
"That's because she thinks she is a queen." Sandy joked with all of them having a good laugh.
"This has been an interesting first day." Frank said.
"I'll say. Is it always this lively?" Axel asked.
"It certainly seems like a wonderful place. Don't you think so, Phatar?" Tsubasa asked, but Phatar didn't bother with an answer. They all might be knew, but it seems like they're enjoying their time in Phoenix Flame already.
"What are all of you laughing at?" All of them looked and saw that Serenity came back as a thought projection. "The game isn't over just yet."
"Yes it is! You have no hostages anymore! Now come to the guild and face your punishment!" Velvet insisted.
"You come to me, old man. Did you really think I would let things end so prematurely?" Serenity questioned. "You might be interested to know that I unleashed the Caliente."
"You didn't?!" Velvet said as he seemed shocked to his core. "You did not activate the Caliente!"
"What's the Caliente?" Maru questioned. None of them knew what that was, but they knew it sounded bad.
"If you're really curious, go check the outside at the back of the guild. I'm sure the old man will explain everything." Serenity claimed. "You've got less than a few hours left." She claimed before she faded away.
"Damn you, Serenity!" Velvet shouted.
"What did she do now?" Mary questioned.
"Let's check it out. She said there was something in the back." Axel said. All of them hurried outside to try and find what Serenity was talking about. They looked around and eventually Axel found something.
"Hey! I found something that looks like it doesn't belong!" Axel called. All of them went to check it out and found what appeared to be a large orange crystal ball with fire burning in it.
"What is that thing?" Mary said.
"I don't know, but it has Serenity written all over it." Maru said.
"It's a fire charge!" Velvet called from a window and he looked a little frantic. "It's part of the Caliente!" None of them liked where this is going. "The Caliente is a fire spell! One is capable of producing these charges! Their building fire magic, and when it detonates, it will be like a geyser of fire erupting! In other words, it's like a bomb!"
"Not anymore!" Phatar claimed with him smashing the crystal ball and shattered it. "These things are pretty fragile while they're busy building power."
"That won't do any good!" Velvet said. "Serenity had to have made many more scattered throughout the city! Once they go off, Amaryllis will literally be up in flames! They could be hidden anywhere and we don't know how many of them there are! We'll never be able to find them all in time!" This wasn't good at all. They could just envision the entire city being destroyed in flames and completely destroyed. It isn't pretty. "Serenity! You've gone too far!" Their situation was about to get worse. Velvet suddenly felt a sharp pain rush right through him. It just came without warning. He clutched his chest and was having difficulty breathing.
"Master! What's wrong?!" Maru called.
"Master!" Yukina called with all of them hurrying to his aid. "What's wrong with him?!"
"Get him to the infirmary!" Maru said with all of them rushing to help him.
...
Serenity
"You unleashed the Caliente?! You didn't tell me you were going to do that!" Jake said as even he was shocked at what Serenity did. "Serenity, we don't need to take things to that extreme! We can still pull this off without resorting to that drastic actions."
"What are you still doing here?" Serenity said. "Get out there and get ready to fight."
"Serenity, I fear this is too much." Jake said.
"I told you to get out there!" Serenity shouted as she turned right to him with an intense look at him and nearly breathed fire against him. Jake could see by that look that there was nothing he could say to change her mind.
"We've passed the point of no return." Jake said and turned away. "I'll do as you say, but I hope you are willing to face the repercussions that come with it." Serenity has really kicked things up. Now the whole town is her hostage.
...
The Guild
After Velvet's mysterious attacked, they all took him straight to the infirmary, but it looks like he's really struggling and he really needs some medical help.
"What happened to him?" Frank said.
"I'm not sure. Looks like some sort of heart attack." Yukina said. "This is bad. I don't know what's really wrong with him, but this is the worse time for this to happen."
"And with that Caliente out there, we can't afford to wait for Aster anymore." Tsubasa said. "We have to do something now."
"Maybe if we defeat Serenity, the Caliente spell will disappear." Mary said.
"Mary's right, and we're going to have to worry about those enchantments along the way. We can't afford to stand here and wait. We all need to get out there and find her." Axel said.
"Maru, that includes you." Sandy said.
"I know. Serenity has really outdone herself." Maru said. "Still, I'm hoping to reason with her rather than fighting with her."
"All of you go. I'll stay behind and take care of Master." Yukina said.
"Well, at least now we get some action." Phatar claimed.
"We'll cover more ground if we split-up again. We've got to find her." Frank claimed.
"Skrull and Jake are still out there, so be careful." Yukina said. Time is of the essence now. Serenity has to be stopped or else Master Velvet and the city will be in real danger.
...
Frank and Axel
"This is crazy, Frank. This is so not what I had in mind when we joined this guild." Axel said. "I was hoping to spend more time with our sister, but we now find ourselves trying to save this huge town in less than a day after joining."
"I know what you mean, but we learned magic so that we can fight and help people." Frank said. "Think of it as doing what we sought out to do with magic."
"I just hope what we do know is enough. You saw what Maru did to Bronz, and he's not considered the guild's strongest. This Serenity might be." Axel claimed. "Oh man. What are even going to do? We don't know our way around this place, so how are we going to find her?" The two of them searching around and wanted to do what they could for the guild. They might get their chance sooner than they think. Suddenly, they heard the sound of a guitar going off. "What's that noise?! It's so loud!"
"It's louder than Mary back when she was little." Frank said. Both of them readied themselves as they saw someone coming and saw it was Skrull making all the noise.
"Oh yeah! Can you hear me now?!" Skrull said.
"Who can hear you over all that noise?" Axel said.
"Oh, you did not just diss on my shredding." Skrull said.
"I believe you're the one named Skrull, right?" Frank said.
"That's me. I'm the rocking member of the Tri Flame." Skrull claimed. "I played a melody that shreds, but don't let the exterior fool you. I'm more than willing to play me a love song, specially for my babe, Serenity. I take it you two must be the newbies I heard about. I heard we've had a few new members join recently. No offense, but there's no way I'm going to get beat my some fresh meat."
"What is it about this Serenity that's so special that you would actually turn against the guild you allied yourself with?" Frank said.
"Have you seen her?!" Skrull said with him sounding excited to talk about her. "She's got a body that just won't quit with fire magic to go with it. Not to mention she's really powerful and has the brains to pull something like this off. She's beauty, brains, and brawn. She's a perfect ten in my eyes. Do you know how hard it is to find a girl like that?"
"We lived trapped on an island, so we have an idea or two." Axel said with him gathering sand. "But that time helped us learn to do this!" He attacked by throwing shots of sand at him, but Skrull kept moving back and avoiding them. "Sand Slash!" He unleashed a blade of sand, but Skrull jumped right over that as well.
"Not bad, but not good either." Skrull said. Frank gave it a try with him using his wind magic and jumped high in the air.
"Try this! Cyclone!" Frank unleashed a cyclone attack, but Skrull started playing with his guitar.
"Sound Wall!" Skrull used the sound generated from his guitar and used it to cancel out Frank's attack.
"No way!" Frank said with him landing down. "Did he just use sound to block my wind magic?"
"I told you that I was the most rocking member of the Tri Flame." Skrull claimed.
"Does this guy really think he's a rockstar?" Axel questioned.
"I don't know, but that guitar seems to be the source of his magic. We've got to get it away from him." Frank claimed.
"No one comes between me and my axe. Time to play a melody that will have your ears ringing. Sonic Boom!" Skrull played a powerful chord on his guitar and generated a sonic blast that managed to hit both of them. The blast was so powerful that it knocked the two of them back. "Face it. A couple newbies like you just don't have a chance against me."
"Oh man. This is so not how we imagined joining a guild would do." Axel complained. The two of them might be in trouble with this one.
"I too may not have been a member for very long, but I already learned a lot from Phoenix Flame. One of those things is that they can overcome anything by working together." Both of them looked and saw Tsubasa was joining in. "So, allow me to help the both of you."
"Another one of the newbies?" Skrull said.
"Your name is Tsubasa, is that right?" Frank asked.
"Yes. I'm a fellow new member of the guild like the two of you. I was looking for Serenity when I heard all the noise over here." Tsubasa claimed. "Since we're fellow newbies to the guild, I figure we might as well help each other."
"So, you want a piece of me, too?" Skrull said. "I don't mind taking on all three of you on. It's not like you're really going to beat me."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you." Tsubasa said with him unsheathing his sword. "Just because I wasn't a member of this guild for very long doesn't mean I can't hold my own in a fight." They might not have been members for long, but Tsubasa does have a point. Time to prove that he earned his place in Phoenix Flame.