All Vs The Flame

The phoenix promptly took to the skies, flapping its wings and spreading even more fire as it attempted to fly up out of their range.

“Oh no you don’t!” Natalia exclaimed as she activated her sky boots and flew up to the phoenix, and beside her Jordan began humming and flying up alongside her.

The phoenix screeched as it saw her fly up, and attempted to slash at her with it’s talons, but Natalia blocked the slashes with her blades, and this gave Jordan an opening to slash it’s midsection with another icy sword swing. The phoenix attempted to deal with this by biting at Jordan, but Jordan blocked it with his shield. Before it could do anything to deal with the shield, it was struck in the side by lightning and air blasts, drawing its attention to Mina and Iro below.

“Take that you flaming chicken!” Mina shouted at it.

The phoenix glared at them, and took a deep breath before roaring a burst of flame at them. Iro grabbed Mina and prepared to dodge the blast with her, only for Natalia to come in the way the blast.

“Fylaxte Olous!” Natalia chanted, and a teal wall of force appeared in front of her, taking the blast head on. She winced as the blast hit her barrier, but it held firm long enough for Jorand to come up and bash its beak closed with his shield. The moment the blast let up, Natalia turned down to look at Mina and Iro.

“You two ok?” She asked, and they both nodded.

“Yeah, we’re fine, but you didn’t have to do that.” Iro told her, and Mina nodded in agreement. “We can dodge blasts like that, especially from that range, so don’t worry about defending us.”

“But-” Natalia began, only for Iro to cut her off.

“Seriously, just keep attacking and distracting it. You’ll keep us a lot safer by keeping it distracted and killing it faster, rather than worrying so much about keeping it from hitting us.” Iro continued. “Now go, Jordan needs you!”

Turning back to the phoenix, Natalia saw Jordan floating around the bird blocking strikes from it’s talons and beak with his sword and shield while trying to find an opening. She then turned back to Mina and Iro, only to see Mina on Iro’s shoulders shooting her bow while Iro glided across the ground, strafing around to get a better angle. Natalia made one more noise of dissatisfaction, but quickly turned back to the phoenix and charged it.

“AHHHHHH!”

“CAWWWWWW!”

The phoenix screeched in pain and surprise as Natalia plunged both her swords into it’s back, then beat it’s wings and ignited it’s back on fire, trying to get Natalia to back off. But Natalia stayed on it, digging her swords deeper and dragging them down it’s back even as the flames coated her body.

“Grigora Anastaino.” Natalia muttered, and the burns on her body began to heal just as fast as the fire formed them, giving her the freedom to dig her swords into it’s back as much as she wanted. At the same time Mina was blasting arrow after arrow into the bird’s face, and the bird attempted to stop her by sending flaming slashes with it’s talons, but Iro managed to skate them out of the way of each blast, allowing Mina to keep firing without interruption. With the phoenix now distracted, Joran backed off from it and took his sword in both hands.

“Deigh Ruaig!” Jordan chanted, and his sword became covered in a layer of sharp ice. Then with a roar, he slashed the ice sword downward, attempting to cut off one of the phoenix’s wings!

“CAWWWWWW!”

The phoenix screeched in pain, and while the slash wasn’t able to cut off the wing, it did force it to fall to the ground. One last blast to it’s face from Mina caused it to fall on it’s back, forcing Natalia off finally, and she quickly made her way over to the rest of the group.

“Alright! We got it!” Mina exclaimed excitedly, but Jordan shook his head.

“Not quite, but we’ve certainly made good progress.” He told her, making her calm down and focus.

Jordan then charged the phoenix once again, Natalia following close behind and Mina and Iro resuming their ranged assault, while the phoenix awkwardly flipped itself back upright. It then curled in on itself oddly, and it began drawing fire into itself from the rest of the shrine. Seeing this made Jordan’s eyes go wide.

“Crap! Iro, Mina, get behind me!” Jordan exclaimed as he abruptly changed direction back to the younger girls. Natalia didn’t even need a word said as she followed Jordan, bracing herself alongside him as he raised his shield in front of the other two.

“Fylaxte Olous!” Jordan and Natalia chanted together, Jordan’s shield expanding and being coated in magic as they braced themselves.

“CAWWWWWWW!”

The phoenix screeched and a powerful flaming explosion burst out from it. Jordan’s knees buckled slightly as the wave of fire hit, but thanks to the magic he held firm, and his shield created a channel in the flames that the others were able to remain safe in.

“Charge up your attacks and hit it as hard as you can when this is over!” Jordan grunted out, and both Mina and Iro nodded and did as ordered.

The wave of fire lasted longer than any of them expected, but Jordan’s shield held firm. The moment the blast of fire was over, Jordan dropped down to allow Mina and Iro to see over him, revealing the phoenix was now twice as big as before, and the area around them was now nearly devoid of fire. This didn’t stop them though, as Mina and Iro didn’t hesitate to fire off their blasts. The blasts hit the bird dead on, and while they didn’t deal as much damage as either girl hoped, it did cause the phoenix to stumble back slightly, and both Jordan and Natalia charged in to capitalize on this.

“I did not expect thing to have a phase 2.” Mina remarked as she went back to peppering the beast with quick lightning arrows.

“Me neither, but at least the fire’s gone so it’s not nearly as warm.” Iro replied as she also shot out her own rapid blasts. She then shivered slightly. “Actually, on that note, you mind cutting off the snow?”

As the two were talking, Jordan and Natalia engaged the phoenix directly. Seeing them charge in, the bird attempted to smash Natalia with one of its flaming feet, only for Jordan to come in and block the stop with his shield. This gave Natalia an opening to slash at its foot and leg with both of her swords, cutting through the flaming feathers. The phoenix reared back in pain, and Jordan attempted to capitalize on this by attacking its other foot, only to have to lift his shield up to block a stab from its beak.

“UGH, nice try, but not nice enough. Deigh Ruaig!” Jordan chanted, making his shield glow with ice and freezing the bird’s beak to the shield. The phoenix quickly tried to pull away, but Jordan also used the spell to freeze his own feet to the ground, and the ice from both was too strong for the phoenix to break, meaning it was effectively stuck in place.

“HAAAAAAA!” Natalia screamed as she took advantage of the opening Jordan was giving her to slash at the pheonix’s eyes and neck, digging into the beast, while Mina and Iro were able to focus their aim on the head as well.

After a moment of this, the phoenix once again gathered up its fire, forcing Jordan and Natalia to jump back to avoid a wave of flames, but this one was no where near as powerful as the previous one. Seeing this, the group couldn’t help but smile. They were doing it, they were really going to beat this beast.

“STOP THIS! NOW!”

Then, suddenly, a familiar voice echoed across the shrine. As one, everyone, including the phoenix, turned towards the way the group had originally arrived from. There, just on the edge of the shrine, stood Athan, Lefteris, Agapi, Nik, and Dory, all facing them and looking ready to fight.

“I won’t let you throw away the greatest chance my kingdom has to cleanse it’s corruption. In the name of Anaktités, we will not let you send Mina, our future goddess, away from her destiny.” Athan declared.