Only several hours remained…

Geo still struggled to fight Bleiz not knowing what he could do it was best to keep his distance for now. Moments later, the others started pouring into the arena. Cordelia"s group came in the south, while Alessia came in from the east entrance.

The battle was going strong as small explosions erupted on uncountable occasions.

The battleground damaged beyond repair… Geo backed away creating s.p.a.ce between him and the reanimated corpse of the brother of his respected opponent.

Wanting to preserve the body and to bring this back after everything might end Geo found himself in a somewhat impossible situation. Geo caught wind of the others throwing in roots to protect them from the blind rage of Bleiz.

Roots sprouted out of the ground only to be burned to ash shortly after.

"d.a.m.n it!! I can"t keep going on like this!!"

Geo quickly turned to the others.

"Are you alright? I don"t have much time to explain the situation, long story short. Gideon has gone insane reanimating one of the finalists and has been using him to hold me back ever since."

Ereth quickly moved away hiding her presence in the shadows.

The others, Cordelia, Leonardo, and Alessia thanked Geo for the quick protection.

"My energy is being drained rapidly, please… even if this might sound selfish during a tournament. I Geo Birchwood wants to ask all of you favor to bundle our strength and work together defeating this opponent."

"What if we all are drained of energy when Gideon returns? I simply can"t just agree to this… Aren"t we all in this to win it?"

Alessia struggled to acknowledge the words of a man, a handsome and prideful man at that.

Geo turned towards Alessia slapping her across the face with a flattened hand.

Making her fall to the ground.

"Are you a fool?! What is more important than our own lives?! If we fail this tournament there is always another chance. But, we can all forget that when we die, right?"

Shocked Alessia looked at Geo, the burning pain in her cheek began to throb as she held her hand gently across it, allowing tears to the south the pain as they fell on the ground.

Geo used up most of his energy to make a small dome of roots around Bleiz.

Enraged by anger Bleiz began shouting out.

"Raaaaaggghhh!! You can"t keep me in here forever, Geo!!

Don"t ever think you"re helping me, or maybe you are, just in a different way!

I Bleiz of Hidden Flame hereby swear to you that I will defeat you even if I have to completely succ.u.mb to this accursed prowess!"

Deciding to let the curse speak his mind, Geo grabbed this opportunity to talk to the others.

Allowing him to persuade others. Stretching out his arm, he offered Alessia his hand.

"Can you stand? I had to snap you out of it because this is all a matter of life or death for us.

I hope you understand…"

Alessia looked away as warmth came over her, she was too embarra.s.sed to look at Geo.

Quickly she grabbed his hand and stood up.

"So I have all of your consent, that we will work together to defeat this enemy?

Everyone nodded in unison replying with a quick and resounding;

"YES!"

"Then let me quickly lay down a battle plan, having seen all of your strengths and weaknesses I think I might have a good grasp of everyone their talents and qualities."

While telling the battleplan Geo sat down and began slowly cultivating, drawing in energy to recover as much as possible.

"Leonardo, with your suit you might be able to put out explosions of equal strength, allowing you to cancel out his. I want you to do this to defend the others and to create an opening for Cordelia to lock Bleiz in place with hardened ice. Yes… I am fully aware that this will only create a small window, but that will be good enough as it allows me to drain his energy enough for me to join the battle.

As for Alessia, I want you to prepare a circle of beast blood around the edges of the arena."

"What will we do with this?"

"I have a feeling that the hidden talent might be able to release Bleiz"s soul.

If possible I too want him to be able to pa.s.s on without cursing his existence…

This technique truly… is inhumane…"

Pained by this Geo sat down.

"This is the best we can do, so we better make the best of it! Everyone get ready!

Bleiz can break out at any moment now!"

Everyone nodded and took their positions. Alessia quickly began drawing the circles around the arena, gathering blood from the beasts in the rocky area.

Small flames began seeping out of the rooted dome creating cracks, which weakened the foundation. Geo quickly started fully cultivation, drawing in as much energy as possible.

He had to act quickly if they wanted to increase the chances of survival…

Suddenly the flames overpowered the dome as explosions erupted from within allowing Bleiz to jump out.

"Geoooo!!!"

Blinded by rage Bleiz rushed towards Geo wanting to kill him with this accursed power, the dark violet aura began merging with his own making his flames appear purple.

Bleiz summoned flames to strike Geo as he pa.s.sed the others.

Leonardo jumped in igniting his flame-throwing them both back by the sheer power of the explosion. Quickly Leonardo rushed back not giving Bleiz the chance to attack.

Leonardo was evenly matched for now, but he shouldn"t forget that his energy was draining while the undead has somewhat of an infinite pool of energy. Making this difficult to hold on for long.

"You think I did all this unwillingly?! Heh… don"t make me laugh you b.a.s.t.a.r.d. You have no idea what is at stake within the family branch!"

Bleiz jumped back, creating some distance while he continued to be agitated.

He slammed his hands onto the ground injecting his flames all around the arena.

"I have to live! The village is counting on me, having come so far I can"t disappoint them now!"

Flames started to emerge all around the battleground. When suddenly his flames erupted in front of him.

"I won"t let you get near him!"

Leonardo screamed as the flames erupted in Bleiz"s face.

Geo awoke from cultivation having regained enough energy to join the battle.

Meanwhile, Alessia almost finished the circles and joined in to stall for some more time allowing Leonardo and her to create the opportunity Cordelia had been waiting for.

Using up all the energy she had left Cordelia instantly froze all the flames around the battleground, quickly closing in on Bleiz freezing both his arms and legs.

Blinded by rage and frustration Bleiz tried to break the magically enhanced ice

but failed… tears began falling down his face as he got struck by pain in his heart.

The pain was unbearable… losing all strength his knees gave in as he collapsed to the ground.

Bleiz screamed in agony as he tried to reach the source of the pain, but before he could it shot towards his back. The docile dark violet aura was now pulsating intensely from his back shooting out like dark pillars of light. The light slowly began to dim, allowing flames to engulf the shrunken down pillars. Giving birth to what looked like wings.

"I… Will… Never… Succ.u.mb… to… YOU!!! Raaaaaggghhh!!!"

Bleiz screamed as the flames completely engulfed him, giving birth to a scarlet void demon.

What was once Bleiz, was no more… Horns grew out of the vessel"s head as a tail slowly manifested in the back.

The sheer power the beast emitted instantly melted away the ice revealing razor-sharp claws and fangs. The beast had calmed down and so had Geo.

It was time for an all-out fight…

Geo stood his ground as the demon rushed toward him.

summoning pillar after pillar Geo hoped to slow down and weaken the beast,

but to no avail. Stronger than ever, now was the time to work together.

Alessia summoned the power of earth and fire to support Geo and Leonardo,

While Cordelia gave long-range support with shards of ice.

Only to find that the shards evaporated before even touching this insane creature.

What could they do? Where there even others?

The demon"s eyes lighted up. Putting his chest out the beast screamed.

Creating an extremely dense, yet powerful beam that hurled towards them.

Thankfully all of them dodged it barely, allowing the beam to shoot out into the open rock area. Only to see a devastating explosion that shook the earth itself.

Ereth looked down from above as the fight commenced.

As the others had offered her to help she couldn"t let them be sacrificed for the greater good. She… had to help…

Quickly jumping down she began signing and saying incantations as the drawn blood circles began to light up. The light blinded the beast, but not the others, slowing it down as it began slashing around it at random.

"Quickly now, the demon is being weakened, this is our chance!"

Geo shouted at the top of his lungs. The others all did a coordinated strike with the last energy that they had left. Creating a hot ice pillar that pierced the beast"s body.

Unable to recover Geo sprouted roots around it to trap him, making it impossible to move.

The light slowly began purifying Bleiz. The Dark Violet essence began dispersing, the aura itself slowly became calm and returned to its original blazing state, it too dispersed leaving nothing but a motionless corpse.

They had barely escaped with their lives… The had won… Survived…

But their victory was short-lived as Gideon arrived only to laugh in their face shortly after.