?***Barik POV***


    Upon evading another of my attacks, Lilia grinned with spine-chilling malice. "It makes no difference he got away, you know! He''ll die to my brother anyway!"


    She lunged toward me, cackling and training the tips of her small but sturdy, natural ws toward my body.


    In response, I mmed my fist into the ground with all my might. The gravel around the impactunched into the air and pelted my face. After a quick charge, I caused a seismic shift in the stone below.


    Arge granite wall heeded my call, shooting upward through crackling soil to bar the path between Lilia and me.


    Assuming my blockade would buy a few moments of respite, I turned to Mizuno to form a n of action; we still had to draw this girl away from the carriage.


    "Captain! We nee-" I was interrupted by a distinct orange-hot glow forming like searing paint in the center of the brown-gray stone canvas.


    The heated area exploded inward in a cascade of molten fragments, leaving a massive hole from which Lilia could burst through.


    ''Not another one,'' I sighed when I noticed her method of breaking through. Once a perfect illusion depicting a girl enshrouded by a calm me, her red clothing was now literally cloaked in a roaring fire. ''Another me user...''


    "You didn''t think you''d keep me out with that, did you?!" she excitedly giggled in mid-air, her passion matching her inmed appearance.


    "No, but a smith can hope," I chuckled, then gathered stone around my arm, forming a thick te of stone to wield, a tower shield made from Gaia''s crust.


    My reaction was timely. When I finished my creation, Lilia lunged at me, assaulting my protective guard with inmed ws.


    Liliaughed with a passionate battle frenzy, striking against my guard over and over and leaving long streaks of ck against my shield. Plumes of smoke rose after every collision.


    The smell of charred dirt filled my nostrils, forcing my eyes to tear up from the smoke. However, that was my slightest concern. Lilia''s repeated attacks were heating the stone around my arm from cold to hot to searing hot.


    ''Ah, fuck!'' I winced while my arm was lightly cooked.


    Still, I kept my guard through the pain. "This... This is nothing. This is nothing," I repeated through gritted teeth, pretending my arm wasn''t being seared inside a block of heated stone.


    Lilia pushed me backward with her power, steadily forcing me to lose ground as my heels scraped bit by bit against the gravel below. Still, I remained unbroken.


    "You''ll have to try harder than that!" I chuckled, despite my precarious situation.


    Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Mizuno''s approach. She was moving with the speed and grace of a predator, her swords crackling with electric power. Trailing quickly behind her were several floating orbs of crystal water.


    ''This is it! Time to earn your keep, old man!''


    I dropped my il and ducked beneath my shield. Then, to aid Mizuno, I nted my free hand firmly into the ground below and started gathering a stockpile of brown energy for a synergized attack.


    Meanwhile, I diverted some to my shield, causing spikes to eject outward and distract Lilia from my true motives.


    "That won''t work, you know!" she giggled from the other side of my barrier.


    Though I couldn''t see her from behind the shield, I could FEEL Mizuno''s presence. Her every step closer made my skin, flesh, and very bones tingle to their core. The smallest follicle of hair on my body stood on end, almost in anticipation of her arrival.


    I was experiencing the static before the strike, and Mizuno was the lightning.


    After a second dy, a massive, curved stone cage sprung up from the ground, falling rock apanying its arrival. The tips at the top mmed together at a midpoint, capturing Lilia like a rabbit in a snare and cloaking her in its shadow.


    "What''s this?" Lilia''s grin vanished as she stared at her imprisonment. She turned upon hearing the light thuds of hastened footsteps behind her.


    "Your end," Mizuno coolly asserted with a killer''s re. At that moment, her water orbsunched into the cage. The liquid projectiles exploded and sshed against the cage''s interior. Everything, including Lilia, was doused until it waspletely soaked.


    Lilia''s clothing hung low and heavy from the absorbed water, and her mes were extinguished to smokey remnants. She looked on in intrigue and fear while witnessing Mizuno leap in to deliver the final blow.


    Mizuno''s eyes, as cold as a winter storm, remained fixed on Lilia as she plunged her longswords into the ground. With a swift movement, Mizuno unleashed the full power of a localized storm through the embedded des of her swords, causing the air to crackle with energy.


    Blue strands of power chaotically danced and buzzed as they bounced and shot across several water trails. The energy followed the liquid pathid out for it until it filled the cage with dozens of crackling arcs.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "AGHHHHHHH," Lilia''s shrill scream echoed across the homestead as fractal burns assailed her body. Each of her muscles twitched and jerked, and her once wless but pale skin became singed ck.


    "I''LL KILL YOU!" Lilia shrieked as she became an unwilling electrical conduit.


    I quickly regrouped with Mizuno on the other side of the cage, breathing heavily but relieved our victory might''ve been in sight.


    Standing next to Mizuno, we both cast forlorn stares at Lilia while witnessing her suffering.


    Though our attack worked, it was a harrowing sight to see it in action. To behold a woman burning alive from the inside out wasn''t something that inspired a feeling of pride.


    "It''s horrible, isn''t it?" I turned to Mizuno and spoke, my voice nearly drowned out by the screams. "The things war forces us to do, it''s...horrible."


    Mizuno, without turning her head, exchanged brief eye contact with me. "It is..." she replied. Her words, though few, were filled with boundless regret.


    However, something unexpected happened, pulling the both of us from our woes.


    Lilia''s screams of agony soon subsided. Recing them was a furious, malicious fit ofughter. Apanying herugh, her body appeared to be rapidly regenerating as quickly as it burned. The skin that bubbled off and stripped from the searing was rapidly revitalizing and repairing.


    "She''s...healing?!" I eximed with shock. Mizuno and I, both, took several wary steps backward.


    In all my years fighting war after war, never had I witnessed regenerative powers so potent, barring the Sun Elves of the Aureus ins. Hers were even greater than the health tonic in my possession.


    Lilia''s rage boiling over, she locked her gaze on Mizuno and me. Her fangs bared as she spat out a deadly threat. ''...kill you... I''ll kill you... I''LL KILL YOU BOTH!''


    In a furious burst of power, the cage exploded into a mix of steam and fire. Both spewed out with the force of an overheated forge, scorching everything in every direction.


    "GET BEHIND ME!" I shouted to Mizuno and raised my shield.


    She followed mymand just as a torrent of fire surged forth, pluming around us with the force of a tidal wave.


    "Agh, SHIT!" I growled and winced, feeling my arm move from first-degree to second-degree burns.


    Thanks to the omnidirectional assault of Lilia''s mes, the homestead''s porch ignited.


    "OH GODDDDD!" an unknown voice cried out.


    I averted my gaze to the homestead to see the porch had be a burning cage that entrapped several soldiers, not including dozens of workers, who, at this point, were rushing out to confront us or flee.


    The crier was amongst the first on the stairs, this was obvious by the gnawing me consuming his body. "HELP ME! SOMEBODY, PLEASE HELP ME!"


    But none of his allies did, they left him alone to deal with the inferno as it reduced his life to ashes. His fate was all but certain. Or it was, before a gout of water sshed around him, extinguishing the mes to smoke.


    I turned to see a focused Mizuno. Her eyes were narrowed at the once ignited man.


    "Saving an enemy in battle?! I didn''t know you were a softie, Captain!'' I chuckled, shouting through the roar of passing mes.


    "It''s not important. Eyes front!" shemanded.


    "Aye, Ma''am!" I promptly returned my attention forward, holding back the tide of fire and winces, trying to ignore the searing pain centered in my shield-bearing arm.


    A few moments passed, and the rush of inferno around Mizuno and me dissipated.


    We both looked beyond the shield to see Lilia standing amongst the carnage. Her eyes glowed as hot as the embers below but soon fell to their original hue as the cage crumbled and exposed her to sunlight.


    Once charred ck and seemingly damaged beyond repair, Lilia''s skin was again wlessly pale. However, that miraculous healing did little to calm her anger.


    "I hope you''re both ready; I''m going to tear you both to shreds now..." She red with a furious grin as devouring mes encased her body like a suit of writhing armor.