Scene 11

Ice and flame

Sun was about to set down to replace with dark cloud, but sun was still up shining down on the Earth ground. In the middle of the street, there were people everywhere swarming. They were minding their business with their work. There was no single person walking, they were all running or fast paced walking to where ever they were heading to. Some might be catching trains or buses, some might be going to the theater to watch movies, or some might be heading to certain stores. The eleventh story took place in a middle of the street in the Human world. In the opened portal, Kaori stretched her arms wide open.

"Weeeise!"

It didn't matter how loud she was, people just passed by without knowing she was standing there. They just passed by her as though she wasn't here at all. For those who were about to bump into each other, they just passed through. She put her index finger tip on her cheek pushing in repetition.

"Hmmm, If I were a Hellbeast, where would I go?"

Then came Yuri and Sonya out of the portal. Yuri ran up to Kaori abruptly.

"Hey wait up, what's up with you?"

Right when Kaori was about to answer, the air got thick and atmosphere got eerie. Whole area in the street was filled with aura along with the Hellbeast's aura.

"This feeling, what is this pressured aura?"

Gradually the strong aura made the air heavier pressuring three Mages. The air was so heavy, This made Yuri and Kaori knelt down from where they were standing. It made them knelt down, but it wasn't something they couldn't handle. They could still move. On the contrary, Sonya was standing still.

"Sonya, you go on head, we will catch up. Thanks to this humongous aura, it would be easy to track down where the Hellbeast is."

Kaori said putting hand on one of her knees. Anyone could tell she was struggling. Yuri tried to stand up, but it was no good, The aura around her gave the heavy pressure making her kneel again.

"This fella is different from whom we met before. I will head on like what you said."

When Sonya spread her arms, two small red magic circles were drawn in front of her both hands making two flames in her hands. When she dashed toward the destination, the flames in her hands started to bursting repetitively making her dash faster. And when she jumped through the sky, the repetition of bursting flames made her float in the sky. She looked right and left to track down the location. Under her, there were tall buildings. It was wonderful view seeing from above high in the sky, but there was no time for that. Also there were people swarming with oblivious to what was going on, just minding their own business as if the world was peaceful. This pressure wasn't affecting people because they couldn't sense the eerie aura or see it.

":I hope I am not too late."

With that said, she headed hurriedly. Time passed by few minutes or so, Sonya finally arrived at her destination. She floated above the school looking down. She spotted three Hellbeasts' auras. She also found out that there were small portion of Human auras.

On the Junpei's point of view, Druel was approaching slowly as he turned his ice dragon claw into normal hand. He knew it was no need to use his spell to win this fight. Foe was already lying on the field bleeding and part frozen by the ice. Junpei was helpless and had no chance of winning with this injuries.

"Don't worry, as you can see, I don't like slow paced fight. I will get to the result right away. I will be sure to kill you nice and clean with no trace."

Druel raised his right arm and tried to slice down Junpei. When his arm was in half way, huge flare blitz came from above to intercept the attack. Inside those burning flame, there was Sonya. Sonya stood before Junpei with surrounding whirl of flame that weren't disappeared yet.

"Yare, yare, If it isn't Fugikawa Sonya, one of the legends?"

This time even Druel himself went few steps back. Sonya observed the situation. She saw Randame lying down attached with ice unable to move, Shikihime with blank eyes still with no conscious, and finally frozen Rian. She sighed and shook her head left and right with pitiful look on her face.

"Are you mad because I did all this? Fight me if you will. It would be my honor to fight with one of the legends."

Junpei was confused even though he was in severely injured. He wasn't able to ask directly, but could murmur.

"Wha, what is going on? Why are you here?"

Sonya gave no words. She looked back at Druel who was carefree all this time. She scanned him top to bottom to check what kind of Hellbeast is.

"Aura, so strong enough to expand all the way to the street where we were at before, which was 3km distance gap."

When Sonya was estimating how strong Druel was, Druel disappeared right in front of her appearing behind her kicking Junpei. He kicked so hard, he was sent to where Randame was. Then he changed back his hand into frozen dragon claw and tried to land an attack. Right that time, she unsheathed her long flat katana, which was beside her waist line. This katana's name was Kyuureisaijo (Red Feather), it was 1.2m long and had plain shape inside out. It was said that within the plain katana, blacksmith embedded Red fire lion's fur so that it would dye the katana when it was touched and burn everything that encounters the katana. When the ice claw clashed her katana, his claw started to rot turning into black.

"Heh? As expected from the legend, but this will do no good."

"Ecexrcilion (Cruciated Ice)"

Suddenly ice appeared out of nowhere thickening his arm. When came all the way to cover the black part of his claw, each fangs in his claw shot out the ice. The ice was as thin as a string., but as strong metal. It aimed for Sonya's face, but with quick reflex, she dodged them all. The strings of ice didn't stop there, They bent down after passing her attaching penetrating the ground. Several more penetrated the ground to surround Sonya. As Druel drew back from her, the strings of ice came together to make a cage trapping her. This wasn't all. The ice cage started to get smaller so it could touch her skin. Then finally under her, ice popped out in the ground freezing her. The ice rose all the way up. It was as tall as school. And in between, ice spread right and left to make cross shaped ice sculpture.

"Whew, is that all you got? What a shame, I was looking forward to fighting with you, but it semmes like you are done for."

It took a few seconds, but ice started to dye in color of black. The black part of the ice spread out turning all the ice black. Then, a small portion of the fire appeared gradually covering Sonya's body within the ice. When the fire wrapped her body, it made a huge explosion. And in the explosion, strong flame burst up in the sky melting all the ice. Finally, up in the sky, Sonya made an appearance at the end of the streaming fire. She was panting, but gave a smile back at Druel and she sheathed her katana. As she was coming down from the sky, she murmured silently.

"Zein Myuou: Fianies Le Venderiel." (Harmonious Weapon: Phoenix Rider)