We stood in the courtyard once more, Charr standing besides me while Homura was standing opposed to us. People were gathering around us or looking down from windows above, attracted by news of their leader fighting against the devil.

“Are you really sure you want to go through with this?” His voice was filled with doubt.

“I thought she would back off if I proposed a challenge, never expected her to actually accept it.” I spoke in exasperation.

“Even more of a reason why you shouldn’t fight.”

“You think that if I back off now, she would let me get in the arena with you?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to fight against her for real.”

“I already fought against things bigger than her while in a far worser state.”

“She’s different than that mindless worm! There’s no one here that could beat her!”

“Done chatting?” Her voice rang out, still filled with a mixture of anger and annoyance.

“There was no one.” I patted the leonid at the back and stepped forward. “You ready?”

“I was waiting for you.” She grinned, showing of her pointy fangs, before she looked past me. “Hey, Charr, you got us into this. The least you can do is announce the start.”

With a sigh he stepped past me, stopping when he was between the two of us. “The fight will stop when one of you gives up or passes out. If our leader wins the devil will stay here. If he wins, he will step with us into the arena.”

A series of murmur rang out when the people around us heard the conditions for the fight, as most didn’t knew yet who had to step into the arena, but a loud outburst from Charr quieted them down.

“Silence! We will now begin with the duel, the loser better won’t complain afterwards.” He took a few steps back to make some place between us, lifting his hand as he stopped. Then he brought it down, screaming, “Begin!”

Quickly the kitsune shot forward, her claw coming down at me in the blink of an eye. I created a barrier, one of the few things I remembered how to, blocking it from tearing through my chest.

“Is that all you’ve got? I was right in turning you down.” She grinned at me as she pressured the barrier, tiny cracks forming at the point where her nails dog into it.

Lifting my arm towards her I released a burst of fire, engulfing her in it. But opposed to my expectation she showed no signs of dodging, making me weaken the power in order not to hurt her.

“This is not the time to try to be nice!” Exploiting my indecisiveness, she pushed through the flames, the barrier cracking down completely. I stepped back, just in time as the claw went through my earlier position, but before I could release another attack, I felt something wrap around my feet.

“Got you!” Looking down I saw one of her tails wrapped around my ankle, before my vision shot upwards when she pulled my foot from underneath me. Shortly afterwards she spun around, hitting me with a back kick and throwing me all over the courtyard until I hit the wall.

Dust blocked my vision as the wall crumbled down. I had trouble breathing as her kick landed spot on my chest, probably breaking a few ribs when it landed. But my head hurt far more as it was the first part to hit the wall. And with the headache came something else. A sinister, angry voice.

Damn, I broke part of the wall again. We already don’t have enough money without such extra costs. I have to be more careful about that. “Hey,” I called out towards the cloud of dust, “just give up. You’re still wounded, there’s no way you’ll beat me like that.” Just give up, Flora will kill me if I hurt you more than this!

But no answer came at my words. The people around us already started to mutter towards another once more, unsure if this was the end of the fight. Don’t tell me I knocked him out with that kick? Damn, his body’s must be far weaker than I thought.

I stepped forward, ready to help him if I really struck him to hard. But as the cloud of dust settled, I saw a hand moving to grab hold of the crumbling wall, steadying the body it belonged to.

“Fuck,” the devil’s voice rang out in anger. “I already had trouble breathing before.” His monologue was disrupted by a serious of coughs. “You just had to make it worse.”

Then the dust lifted, replaced by a strong heat coming from his body. Getting a feeling of danger, I jumped back, seeing the place I was at burst into fire before it disappeared just as quickly. Focusing I noticed small orbs of fire barely visible even to my bestial sight separating from his body and flying towards me. Given the blast of fire that nearly engulfed me however they were fairly more powerful than they seemed.

Feeling another rise in temperature besides me I jumped sideways, only for another orb to be waiting in that direction. Slamming my feet into the ground I pushed myself upwards as the ground beneath me combusted.

Through my forced movement I was thrown towards the wall opposite of him. I dug my claw into the façade to get another hold, stopping above a group of spectators. “Get inside! Now!” I shouted at them as I fixed my sight at the one still crawling out of the hole I sent him into. What was once an elemental, covered completely in golden flames with the exception of a white arm, now had streaks of black running through the golden ones. This isn’t good.

He didn’t even look at me, instead holding one arm above his eye as he pushed himself through the rubble with the other. But the small orbs continued to stream out from him, releasing a few outbursts of fire here and there. The most of them however streamed towards me.

“Stop! You win, okay! Just stop!” I had to stop him from hurting anyone else with a stray bullet. Better let him win this fight before the others get hurt. But he didn’t seem to care, as the flames just continued to fly towards me.

“Damn, are you crazy?” I pushed myself of the wall, another burst of flames melting it slightly. Looking around I saw the flames nearing in on the others around us, who tried their best to get away. No time to play nice anymore!

I landed on all four limbs, pushing myself forward while barely dodging the fire. I felt the heat burning at my skin, setting my fur aflame but I couldn’t stop, else he would hurt those around us. Even now that I rushed at him he disregarded me, still grabbing hold of his head with one arm. With a last push I took the remaining distance between us. “Get back to sleep for now.”

I punched towards him, trying to make him lose consciousness, but opposed to his earlier slow speed he tilted his head just in time to dodge, my fist passing through between his arm and head. Now that his head wasn’t covered anymore I could see black flames leaking out from his left eye, but the sudden change made me stop for a moment. Before I realized it, he grabbed hold of my arm, speaking out in anger, though his words seemed more as if he spoke towards himself.

“Kill those who stand in our way.”