To Rody’s horror, Azura giggled, testing out Luna’s body with eerie delight. Some of her Saurids approached her reverently, and she scratched them under the chin. Stefan and the Gladius were stunned by the sight. “Rody, what the hell is going on?!” Stefan asked over the Comm Channel.

  “I-I think Azura took over Luna’s body… W-what do we do?” Rody’s eyes widened as Azura, now in control of Luna’s body, began to approach him.

  “Rody! Defend yourself! That’s Azura right now! Rody!? Damnit, Cassius! Get down there!” Stefan ordered.

  “Fortune has smiled on me this day! I will redeem my loss!” Cassius rapidly rappelled down the rope from the gunship.

  Azura smiled cutely at Rody. “You love me… Don’t you?” Rody was still as she whistered in his ear. “You’d die for me, wouldn’t you, Rody?” Azura bat her eyelashes at him as she raised her katana. “Mmm, let’s write love letters to each other in your blood! Hahaha!”

  Before Azura could strike Rody, Cassius swung his hammer and slammed it into her, the force of the blow sending her crashing into a nearby building. “Snap out of it!”

  Rody shook himself back to reality. “S-she still in there! We can’t kill her!”

  “There’s no t-” Cassius’s words were cut short as Rody leveled a cold stare at him, his sword pressed against Cassius’s neck. “Then we’ll just restrain her. Either way, we need to fight her! If you can’t do that, keep her creatures off of me. Can you do that?!”

  “Y-yes… I can!”

  Neither realized that Azura was sitting on some rubble near them with her legs crossed. “Oh, whatever shall I do with SO many gentlemen callers?! Hahaha!” She wrapped herself in Teal fire and attacked.

  While Azura clashed with Cassius, Stefan received a call from his mother, Bella. “Stefan Von Otto! Recall your Gladius and come back to Boltus! I had to learn everything that was going on from Raine!”

  “Mom! There wasn’t enough time! The whole city is at risk!”

  “We know. Your uncle Adian has already approved a special strike to eliminate the threat. You need to get out of the blast radius!”

  “What?! You can’t! That’s gonna destroy the city! And I don’t know how, but the creature we’re fighting has taken over Luna’s body! We’d be killing her!”

  Bella combed her hair back in frustration. “This is why you need to call me Stefan! It’s gonna take time to get a hold of Adian again. Do you have a plan?”

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  “Yes! We’re fighting the creature that took over Luna. W-we’ll restrain her or get the creature out of her, we just need some time!”

  “You understand what’s going to happen if you don’t succeed, don’t you? Could you live with yourself?” Bella asked.

  “I love all my friends, I can’t fail them! You entrusted Corvalla to me. Let me show you I can protect the peace you fought to bring! I’m the same age you were when you fought the Empire. I can do this! We can do this!”

  “There’s a big difference between you all and us.”

  “What’s that?”

  “We didn’t have parents who were around to guide and help us… I’ll get a hold of Adian and send some reinforcements.”

  “Thank you, Mom.”

  “Stefan. Don’t make me have to tell my favorite Minion that his only daughter is gone. You must win this, Son, I love you.”

  “I understand, I love you! I gotta go!” Stefan ended the call and shifted his focus to taking out the new wave of flying Saurids that had just appeared.

  On the ground, Rody kept the Saurids at bay, but Cassius struggled to keep up with Azura’s incredible speed and agility. Cassius shouted and conjured another bolt of lightning, which hit him, charging his Tealon suit. His speed increased tremendously to be on par with Azura’s.

  A brutal slugfest ensued as they traded high-speed blows. Cassius landed several solid hits with his hammer, striking Azura in the face and side. Each time, she was knocked several feet by the force of the impact, but she always landed on her feet and recovered instantly.

  Azura caught sight of the shredded bodies of her Saurids scattered across the battlefield. Even while trading blows with Cassius, she began to levitate the torn carcass pieces high into the air, shaping them into crude Phalanx spears. Rody spotted the formation above and quickly shouted a warning to Cassius. “Take cover!”

  Azura raised two fingers in the air and quickly flicked her wrist downward, and hundreds of spears showered the battlefield. “Let it rain! HAHAHAHA!”

  “Where there’s rain, there’s lightning!” Cassius raised his hammer, and lightning began striking all around them and destroyed many of the Phalanx spears. The two resumed their fight with Phalanx spears and lightning striking all around the combatants.

  Finally, Cassius caught Azura with a powerful upward swing of his hammer, launching her into the air. He raised her high and summoned multiple bolts of lightning to strike her midair. Letting out a fierce shout, Cassius poured every ounce of energy he had into the attack. Azura growled in pain, her body writhing with the force of the lightning.

  When his power was spent, Cassius brought her crashing down, slamming her into the ground with devastating force.

  “Did we get her?!” Stefan asked, observing from the sky.

  Cassius stood tall, breathing heavily. Azura emerged from the dust laughing, ablaze in Teal fire. She slashed through the neck of his hammer, rendering it useless. Cassius couldn’t react in time—Azura drove her blade into him before he could block or dodge.

  Cassius punched through Azura’s flames and struck her in the face. He stumbled back, collapsing to the ground, narrowly avoiding being cut in half.

  “Damn…” he muttered, trying to summon a bolt of lightning—but his energy was gone.

  Rody sprinted toward them, desperate to stop Azura before she could finish Cassius off.

  Azura laughed, standing over Cassius, poised for the killing blow. Suddenly, skimming just above the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, a Teal fire arrow streaked through the air and knocked Azura’s katana out of her hand. The hooded archer ran along the rooftops, firing more arrows. Azura was forced to retrieve her blade quickly to deflect the incoming arrows. With her distracted, Rody pulled Cassius to his feet and helped him toward Stefan’s gunship.

  “I thought I took care of that tomboy archer!” Azura growled, glaring at her assailant above.

  The archer’s bow was made entirely of Teal fire, as were her arrows. A strong wind swept through, pushing back her hood to reveal her face. As she drew the bowstring, the flames shifted—burning as red as her hair. A black eye patch covered her left eye, while her remaining blue eye locked onto the object of her scorn.

  “Misaki!?” The others exclaimed when they realized it was her on the rooftops.

  “Who do you think taught her?” Misaki shouted in fury as her flaming arrow flew so swiftly that Azura couldn’t react in time. The arrow struck with a massive explosion, engulfing the area in fire. Misaki looked down at her target with a deep frown and knocked another arrow, ready to fire again.

  “I have an important question to ask my friend Luna… So either you get out of her…” Misaki said through gritted teeth. “Or I’ll rip you out!”