"There is something you guys need to know," said Tom, acting as high and mighty as ever. "Levels aren't everything."

An arrow immediately whizzed through the air, passing through where Tom's heart was. However, the arrow didn't draw any blood or show any resistance as it moved through his body. Brittney already had her shield raised behind him and she deflected the arrow over the outside of the wall, where it wouldn't hit anyone. Coleman's jaw dropped down as he looked at where Tom stood.

"See what I mean?" said Tom's voice from beside Coleman. "Guess I've got you."

Dalton Coleman jumped to the side out of instinct, away from where the voice had been, but to his surprise, a blade flashed from the direction he moved towards and slashed his ribs. The leather vest he wore took the blade and managed to protect him but was cut through while doing it. A large gash was left in the leather.

"Be careful," growled Gregor, his skin turning red and fury building in his expression. "They're trained fighters. You can't take them lightly!"

"Calm down, big guy," said Tom, once more his voice coming from a different place than where his body had appeared after the sword slash. "Arrow and stones can't touch my bones, and my words will surely hurt them. [Turn Away]! [Illusionary Strike]!"

Coleman had been turning to face Tom, but suddenly his head whipped the other way. A flash of a blade came straight for his face. Coleman raised an arm to stop it, but the strike didn't hit him from there. Instead, a cut was made to his armor from the back, around his shoulder. He staggered forward and sideways.

"[On Your Knees]!"

The stagger became a fall as his off-balance knee bent. Through experience and will, Coleman turned the fall into a roll, dropping low on the ground before regaining his feet.

"Face me, you coward!" hissed the usually even-tempered archer, who then used a skill. "[True Sight]!"

The skill allowed him to see through the illusions. What wasn't real became faded mist as only the previously hidden Tom became visible and solid. Unfortunately, Tom was all Coleman saw as he found himself face to face with the grinning teen.

"Boo!" exclaimed Tom. Once more Coleman's instinct caused him to move back, away from the opponent in front of him, but Tom was ready. "[Long Reach]! Demoralizing Trip!"

"That last one wasn't a real skill," pointed out Randall, as Coleman's jump back snagged on Tom's skill elongated foot. The man fell backwards, impacting the hard wall with his shoulder. It didn't break, but the shoulder felt injured, and a burst of pain flooded the soldier.

"Maybe not," responded Tom, "but it's freaking hilarious. My favorite skill combo now."

Coleman tried to roll away, hampered by the pain and wrongness in his swelling shoulder, but he didn't get very far before a long sword stabbed into his chest, below the collarbone, trapping him against the floor. Blood spilled from him as he felt a rib severed and his lung pierced. Blood flowed from the injury and rose into his throat and mouth, trying to force him to cough.

Throughout the last few months, every person that had started at the Kentucky military base had received grievous injuries. They were familiar with pain and injury. Knowing healers were around gave them a determination to push through the struggles, since everything short of death or dismemberment could be healed. Out of habit, Coleman turned to look for his healer.

Seeing Zito, Coleman's muscles tightened. His eyes opened wide and the choking that he was holding at bay was released, his body spasming as it coughed. The jerking of his shoulder caused the blade to cut even more as he rubbed against the sharp edge.

Zito was in a tough spot and wasn't aware of who needed healing, as the combat wasn't just taking place around him. As soon as Coleman's arrow had been released, Alissa had used [Angel's Advance]. The wings that appeared on her back rocketed her forward and she passed all the other combatants, arriving at the Domain Master. The dome that surrounded him did slow her down and weaken her attacks, but it didn't stop her completely.

The healer didn't have stats assigned for physical capabilities, but he had started as a trained special forces soldier. The punch that Alissa sent flying at him, backed by the speed of her charge, was easy for him to see coming so he dodged to the side. Even with the domain slowing and weakening her, the strength she displayed shocked the man as he felt the wind coming from her swing.

Failing to land the punch didn't phase Alissa as she thrust out her other hand palm first. "[Death Bolt]!" she called, and a black ball of energy shot from her palm towards Zito. Once more he dodged to the side, where his momentum was already taking him. He hadn't expected the spell, since she looked like she wanted to confront him hand to hand, and the bolt managed to graze his side.

Expecting the spell to carry inertia with it, he had prepared to use its impact to aid his movement backwards and sideways, so when the bolt just dispersed without any physical force, he staggered. Then he felt the purpose of the spell as the area that was grazed by it began to whither, losing strength and its vitality.

The weakened oblique couldn't support his movements, and he stumbled backwards. The healer's focus shifted to casting a healing spell to replace the lost vitality.

"[Quick Step]," announced Alissa as her feet flashed and she stepped forward with the speed of a sprinter off the blocks. Instead of punching, this time her left hand was open, reaching for Zito's right arm. His left hand was casting the heal on his side, and with renewed balance from the heal, he dodged her grasp.

"[Held Down]," he cast.

Green vines of energy rose from the ground and wrapped around Alissa's legs. She looked down at them then back at Zito, disgust on her face.

"I see. You are one of them," she said, no amusement in her voice. "Playing the healer but all the while trying to hold down the girls. Well, I don't swing that way. [Death Bolt]!"

The black bolt released from her hand hit the vines and they shriveled and dispersed. Then she was back to chasing Zito. Her speed wasn't enough to catch him while in the domain he had created. She reached with her left hand and shot [Death Bolts] with her right. He dodged and ducked, struggling to stay within the domain as she moved closer and he moved away. His direct healing spells were always prepared and cast immediately when the death bolts touched him.

Alissa was getting frustrated by the vines and her inability to catch up to the healer. Her vitality and strength were high, but her agility wasn't enough. Zito always waited until she used [Quick Step] before he rooted her with the vines. It was clear how much he could do within his domain, but just as clearly he didn't have an offensive spell he could use against her.

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Reaching her boiling point, Alissa stopped moving and glared at him. Zito was near the edge of his domain as she had controlled most of the middle while he moved around the outside to keep as much space from her as possible. When she stopped, he did too, though he stood ready to jump to the side once more. Unsure of what she had planned, he waited.

"This bubble thing sure is nifty," said Alissa.

"I have a lot of control and power while in it," responded Zito warily.

"A spell like this must have a significant cooldown on it."

Zito didn't respond but his eyes narrowed at her comment. It was true that the spell to cast the domain took a few minutes to be available again. That time was reduced if the existing domain was broken, but that had never happened. He wasn't sure what she was up to.

Since no response came, Alissa bent down, one foot in front of the other. She raised both arms. "I have a long cooldown spell too. Haven't used it before. Let's see if it'll help now."

Zito got ready to run. When Alissa said, "[Make Space]," a wave of force came out of her. He had been ready to move, and seeing even the air pushed away, he leapt backwards, but that didn't help. The wave of force caught him, and he was knocked upwards and backwards. The push was slow at first, his domain reducing its power, but since he had been at the edge of it, he was quickly pushed out of the domain. Once that happened, the force increased, throttling his air bound body.

"[Angel's Advance]," Alissa shouted when she saw him leave his feet.

Since he was in the air, there was no way for Zito to dodge her straight-line charge. Her left hand grabbed his shoulder and shoved him down, where he was slammed into the ground, even as the two skidded along due to the momentum of her knockback and charge.

The impact was jarring, and the dragging was painful as it scraped his hair and skin from the back of his head. What was the most concerning was when she said, "[Take Life]," and he felt his vital energy pulled from his shoulder into her hand.

"[Flowing Life]," he cast, channeling a renewal of energy into his shoulder. The spell was stronger than her life draining, even healing his head. Then she smiled sweetly at him as her other hand grabbed his upper arm.

"[Death Bolt]!"

Zito groaned as he felt the arm withering. His heal wasn't strong enough for both her channeled and directly cast attacks. He alternated between [Flowing Life] and [Mid Heal] to ward off the damage, watching his status until his domain cooldown was over. As soon as it was, he began casting it.

The domain hadn't even finished rebuilding around him when Alissa once more used [Angel's Advance]. The skill didn't require her to be standing since the wings were what propelled her. She kept a hold of both of Zito's arms as she scraped him once more across the ground and out of the newly formed domain.

"Now that you are back on cooldown, let's see how long you can heal for. [Take Life], [Death Bolt]!"

Zito groaned and began casting since his life depended on it. The domain would have increased the strength of his healing as well as provided a passive supplementary heal. Now he wouldn't have it for another few minutes, and even if he did, her charge skill would just once more remove him from it.

Concentrating on his heals, Zito just needed to hold up until one of his teammates could make it to him. Unfortunately, he wasn't in a position to look and see how they were doing. All his attention was focused on the sickening feeling of his life being drawn from him while trying to destroy his body, and the need to keep his own healing running to ward off the encroaching death.

***

"You think a nerd like you can stand against my flames?!" cried Fleming as Elias stepped towards him.

Elias released a disingenuous laugh. "Nerd. That's funny. People thought of me as one of the bullies. In the end it's all just perspective and says more about the other person than about me. Clearly you are judgmental about people with glasses."

Fleming hissed and lashed out with one of the whips of fire that moved around him. Elias raised a hand and the ground underneath his slid him sideways. The obsidian that made up the wall was still just a kind of rock, thus moveable by his skills though the density of it required more power and concentration from him.

"You'll quickly run out of space if that is how you move," taunted the Firemancer.

Elias shrugged. "[Protection of the Earth]."

At the use of his skill, the obsidian around him rose up and covered his body to become chunky black armor. The orange flames that Fleming controlled lashed against it, but the obsidian was made with greater heat. Elias indifferently nodded after looking at the impact.

"I figured. Your flames are a bad match against me. Especially up here."

Fleming snapped his mouth shut and concentrated. "You think this is as hot as I can go? [Raging Aura]!"

Fire burst out from Fleming, surrounding ten feet in each direction. People who had been nearby but were uninvolved in their fight backed away and shielded themselves. Brittney looked around to make sure no one needed her to intervene.

Elias watched, bringing his rock covered hand in front of his exposed eyes. The rest of his face and head were covered by the stone, making him look like one of the Labesatis. The flames were cooking the air around them and Elias became concerned his glasses would melt. This was the first time he wondered if they could recreate them out of sturdier materials.

Yet he just watched as Fleming worked himself into a froth.

"[Unyielding Heat]! [Tongues of Flame]!" cried Fleming. The flames released by him grew hotter and the tentacles that had been orange began turning yellow as they gained intensity. "Let's see if your dirt can survive my hottest spell! [Hellfire Fist]!"

Fleming stepped forward as his hands began to burn blue. Elias could feel the heat from his distance and could even see scorching on the wall from it. As Fleming began to run, Elias calmly said, "[Landslide]."

The floor beneath where Fleming's foot was coming down moved out of the way while the ground under his back foot shifted away. The burning man did a split as his legs increased in distance from each other. The front foot fell into a hole that opened in the wall's floor.

Pre-[System] there was no way for Fleming to experience his foot getting stuck in a hole like that without breaking his leg or tearing his hamstring. Fortunately, his vitality was enough that his body held together, even as the unexpected fall and split caused him intense pain. With his concentration broken, Fleming lost control of his fire, the intensity of it dropping and winking out from all around him.

Fleming's fist, still glowing with blue flames tried to steady himself. As Elias expected, the heat from it was enough to melt the obsidian, causing Fleming's hand to sink into the floor. Fleming shrieked as the pain from the split grew worse and his hand failed to catch him. The spell was cancelled to prevent him from falling further.

Elias seized that moment. "[Earth's Embrace]."

The dense black rock around Fleming's feet and hand rose up and grabbed his extremities. The control spell locked him in place. Fleming shrieked; his eyes opened wide in fear as the mask on Elias's helmet opened. Elias gave him a thin smile.

"I'm sure Tom would be pleased with this fight. Now, should I finish it Alissa's way or Adam's?" he idly asked the panicking man. Fleming was too incoherent to beg, but the pain and terror spread across his face, as well as the profuse sweating.

"As a guy, Alissa's way feels a little too horrible to me," nodded Elias at the inarticulately begging man. "Then no [Ground Spike] to the groin. Instead, we'll use Adam's method. Overwhelming power."

Fleming began shaking his head desperately, whining "no, no, no" over and over. For the first time in this fight Elias showed emotion. His smile stretched out and became vicious, an executioner delighting in the downfall of his enemies.

"[Boulder Drop]!" Elias called. A big mass of stone formed over his head as he pointed to Fleming. Right when the boulder started moving, Fleming choked, gasped, and then his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Seeing that his opponent had passed out, Elias canceled the spell, dispersing the mass that had been formed.

"I never get to have the fun," he complained as Fleming's body slumped as much as was possible with three limbs locked in place. In a show of mercy, he used [Landslide] to move the limbs into a less painful position. Then he drew up the obsidian to surround and hold the unconscious man, preventing him from escaping even if he woke.

Seeing that his own fight was finished, Elias looked to where Andrea was still fighting Cody Sloan. The stone armor fell from Elias and reshaped, becoming a bench for him to sit on. The air rippled as Elias used the Rift Menu, causing a box of Cracker Jack to appear above his hand. As Elias tore open the box, he decided which of his companions he would blame for taking Adam's snacks so he wouldn't encounter his leader's wrath. Sometimes it was convenient hanging out with morally questionable people like Randall and Joseph.

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