"What?! I don't believe this!" Johnson shouted for he was not pleased with the latest developments. "Being defeated is one thing, but Tsubasa surrendered to them?! How dare he!"
"And to make matters worse, it's starting to look like we're losing outside." Phatar said.
"It looks like you underestimated Phoenix Flame. They aren't as weak as you think." Yukina said. It sounds like the tide is still in Phoenix's Flame favor, but the battle isn't over just yet.
"I'm not too worried about the ones outside. By the time that's over, those fools will be weakened and can be dealt with." Johnson said. "It's the ones inside that might be a problem. We might have to do something about them."
"Just let me go. I'll take care of all of them in one shot." Phatar said.
"No. It is my turn." All of them looked to one other that was still willing to fight. This one was wearing a blue martial artist robe with a matching cap on his head with him having black hair sticking out on the sides. With him down on one knee, he swore to his master and showed he was a loyal member to the guild. "Allow me to be the next one to face them. I will bring you victory, Master"
"Are you sure you can stop them in their tracks, Hioshi?" Johnson questioned.
"With my power, it shall be done." Hioshi vowed.
"Very well. Phatar, you will remain here if he fails." Johnson said. Phatar didn't like it, but he went with it. Hioshi thanked his master and went on ahead as it seemed like he just disappeared. Yukina couldn't just stand by and let this keep happening. She's worried that the longer this goes on, the more her guild is going to get hurt. She certainly didn't want to stay here, or let her friends from the guild get hurt because of her, so she had to try and escape. With Phatar and Johnson not looking, she carefully got up despite her hands being tied behind her back. Once she got up, she tried being as quiet as she could and hurried to the stairs, the only exit.
'Maru and the others are just up ahead.' Yukina thought. 'If I can get to them, we can get out of here.' She was just about to make it to the stairs, but then she felt someone grab her by the head and pushed her to the ground. Phatar had her pinned down and kept her from going anywhere.
"That was not a very smart move." Phatar said. There was no way for Yukina to escape now. "A bit of advice, it wouldn't be smart to run off again. We'll just catch you again, so you might as well make yourself comfortable." As she tried to look up, she met with her father's gaze with him seemingly disappointed.
"I'm being quite patient with you, Yukina. You might be my daughter, but my patience is running thin." Johnson said. "It would seem that when this is over, I might need to discipline my own daughter." She certainly didn't like the sound of that. Maru and the others need to hurry.
...
Maru's Team
Since Tsubasa loss the will to fight, he just let them all go and they made their way further up. With Tsubasa's surrender, there are only two of this guild's best left to deal with. They're about halfway there. All of them kept making their way up until they could see their next door.
"Here we are." Gin said.
"I'm a little curious as to what this one might be like." Sandy said. "Moola and Tsubasa were so different from each other."
"As long as I'm not the one doing the fighting, I couldn't care." Mary mumbled.
"Let's go." Aster said. He grabbed the door, but he felt something off with it.
"What's wrong?" Maru asked.
"The door feels cold." Aster said as he thought that was rather strange. Why would the door feel so cold? He opened up the door and saw that their next opponent, Hioshi, was already there and was waiting for them.
"Hello. A pleasure to meet you, members of Phoenix Flame." Hioshi greeted like how a fighter would greet their opponent in a respectable way. "My name is Hioshi, and I will be your next opponent." This one seemed rather calm yet focus like Tsubasa was, but Tsubasa did warn them that he wouldn't forfeit the fight as easily. "I congratulate you for making it this far, but I'm afraid this will be as far as you go."
"And you think you can stop us?" Gin said.
"We managed to go one-on-one with your buddies. They couldn't stop us, and you won't either." Maru said.
"Perhaps, but I still won't let you pass you so easily as you can see." Hioshi said. He was referring to what's behind him. All of them were a little surprised to see the entrance to the next level was completely frozen.
"Is that ice?!" Mary said.
"Yes. Even if you defeat me, you will not pass." Hioshi said. "Now, I suppose you want to continue to fight in the method you've chosen up until now. If so, who will my opponent be?" Going the way they have been, Maru or Aster would be next. With that in mind, Aster thought of something as he looked up.
'If I'm right, the floor above us should be the top floor and Yukina should be just up ahead.' Aster thought. Knowing that, he stepped forward. "I'll do it."
"Aster, are you sure?" Maru questioned.
"I am. It would be more fitting that you go against Phatar, Maru, since you use light and he uses dark." Aster said. "I also don't mean this disrespectfully, Maru, but I think I might be better for this than you."
"Very well." Hioshi said. The two of them stood and faced off with each other. "You have done well to make it pass Tsubasa and Moola, but let us see how you do against me. Take this!" All he did was shot his arm, but Aster could see his attack. He jumped as high as he could and avoided the attack with him landing behind Hioshi. The attack did hit the spot Aster was standing on before and it was covered in ice.
"He turned the floor to ice!" Mary said.
"It is a little obvious that he uses ice magic." Gin said.
"Not bad, but let's see how long you can last!" Hioshi said. He kept shooting blasts of ice at Aster, but Aster kept avoiding every attack thrown at him with parts of the room turning to ice. Hioshi kept attacking, but Aster continued to remain one step ahead with each attack missing.
"Hey! Do you need to turn the room into a freezer?! Parts of my clothes did melt away!" Mary complained with her freezing from the cold.
"You're fast, but you'll have to do more than dodge." Hioshi said.
"You're right. I have a friend waiting." Aster said with him taking his stance to make himself a weapon. "Crystal-Make: Cobalt Rapier!" He formed a rapier out of cobalt with him ready to attack.
"I see. You must be the one called the Phoenix Gem. I wasn't aware you were that same person." Hioshi said. "Your magic might be rare, but that doesn't mean it's powerful. You refuse to attack, and you can't continue to dodge my attacks. You'll be frozen in ice soon enough." Hioshi attacked once more as he shot another blast of his magic, but Aster jumped right through it and went right at him. "What's this?!" Hioshi wasn't expecting Aster to jump right at him while also avoiding the attack. Faster than the eye could see, Aster managed to land an attack and brought Hioshi down with Aster's weapon disappearing. Hioshi dropped to the ground and it was over just like that.
"No way! What just happened?!" Mary said.
"Aster took him down in just one shot!" Gin said. Even though Aster is a strong wizard himself, they didn't think it would be that easy to take down one of the enemies.
"Aster, are you okay? Everything happened so fast." Maru said.
"I'm fine. I was aiming to end this as quickly as I could." Aster said. "If I'm right, the top floor should be just above us. That means Yukina is right above us. That also means Phatar and Johnson should be right over us. We're going to need as much strength as we got to take on both of them."
"If you were able to take this guy down in just one attack, can't you just do the same to those guys and we can just be done with all of this?" Mary said.
"Don't assume all your enemies are equal in strength." Aster said. "In any case, we need to clear away the ice and get Yukina. Phatar should be the last one of Fiendish Gargoyle's best to get through. After that, we're only going to have Johnson to deal with. We're almost there." All of them agreed to that and got going. The end is just insight.
...
Top Floor
"I don't believe this! How could three of my best wizards have been bested?!" Johnson said as he was angry now. He became aware that all three of his wizards were defeated and they couldn't even beat one of them.
"I think it's time you admit that you underestimated them." Yukina said. She was a little worried about how this was going earlier, but hearing her friends are winning seem to be reassuring to her. "You can't win this fight. Just let me go and maybe we can all just walk out of here."
"Are you out of your mind?!" Johnson said. "How will it look if I back down to a guild like this?! Besides, I'm not letting my own daughter go like this! You belong here!"
"Will you cool your jets? You still got me." Phatar said.
"Phatar, you might be my strongest wizard, but do you honestly think you can defeat these wizards on your own?" Johnson said. "That last one defeated Hioshi like it was nothing."
"There's really only one I'm interested in fighting at the moment, but there is one way to take them all out." Phatar said as he walked over to the staircase. "The best way to take an enemy down is to strike when they least expect it." Phatar held out his hand and was building some magic for one big attack to take down all of his enemies in a surprise.
...
Maru's Team
Maru and the others worked on clearing away enough of the ice so they could gain access to the stairs and reach the top floor. As Aster chipped away the last bit of ice, he was able to clear away an opening big enough for them.
"There! That should do it!" Aster said.
"Great! Let's go!" Maru said as he went through first followed by Sandy and Mary. The others soon followed, but Maru could sense something up ahead. At the last second, he saw a series of dark magic attacks heading straight for them. "Get down!" Maru tackled Mary and Sandy down when he saw the attacks coming at them. All of the dark blasts were smashing against everything with all of them trying to avoid taking a hit. As they were trying to endure the onslaught of attacks, the passageway was starting to collapse.
"Get back!" Aster called with him and Gin moving back. Maru grabbed a hold of Sandy and Mary with them going the other way. Eventually the attacks did stop, but the passage was completely blocked off with the team separated.
"You two okay?" Maru questioned.
"I think so, but that came out of nowhere." Mary said.
"If you two want to get cozy together, you don't need me for that." Sandy teased.
"Where the hell did that come from?!" Mary said.
"Gin! Aster!" Maru called through all the ruble. "Are you both okay?!"
"Yeah! We're fine!" Aster called.
"But we're completely blocked off! I don't see a way around this!" Gin called.
"Maybe we can clear away the ruble." Maru said.
"No! Yukina needs your help more than we do at the moment!" Aster called. "Go on ahead and help her! Gin and I will just find another way around! Be careful! That attack had to have been Phatar or Johnson's doing to try and take us out!"
"Right! Let's go!" Maru said. They're separated now, but it looks like they'll have to work with what they've got.
...
Phatar
"There we go." Phatar said as he stopped his attack. "That should have done some damage, but I'm sure I got them rather good with that."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that if I were you." Yukina said. "Maru and the others are a lot stronger than you give them credit for. A Phoenix Flame wizard never backs down from a challenge, and they will still come for me."
"Is that so? Are they really that strong?" Phatar said as he came over to her. "If that's true, let me ask you this." He said and got right in her face. "Why was it so easy to catch you?" That question seemed to have got to her. "If your guild is as tough as you say, why was it so easy to catch you? All Tsubasa did was knock you on the head and that was it. You didn't even try to put up a fight." Yukina didn't really think about it until now. They did get her rather easily. She was now feeling ashamed of herself.
"Don't worry too much about it, Phatar." Johnson said. "What matters is that she's back where she belongs. Let's be sure those wizards won't keep bugging us."
"Stop worrying about it." Phatar said. "Those losers have nothing on me at least." That was when a ray of light shot near him as a warning shot. All of them looked to see Maru and the others made it.
"I wouldn't count is out just yet." Maru said.
"I think your aim was off, Phatar. Looks like they made it here after all." Johnson mocked, but Phatar was actually glad Maru showed up. They didn't get the chance to finish things the last time they crossed paths, but it looks like they got a chance to do just that now.
"I've been waiting for you." Phatar claimed as he was looking forward to this.