Flames of destruction

Everything had turned into absolute chaos...

I did my best to keep Lance safe... To protect him, to guide him, to try and get him to remember about our past, and teach him how to fight...

But in the end... It was all for nothing...

I couldn't keep him safe from the dragons... I couldn't find a way to ease his pain... I couldn't even keep his own family from trying to attack us!

All I wanted was to see him again... To see the first friend I ever had...

But now...

"KILL THEM ALL... I'M GONNA KILL THEM ALL!!!"

My friend was nowhere to be seen.

In front of me stood nothing but a beast being blindly guided by its own fury being bathed in the flames of the most destructive force in existence.

Terminal fire... The strongest energy of all... Able to kill anything in the universe...

Right now, Lance was using said power and keeping it under his total control, as if it was part of him... As if they were one.

Even Ellie and her friends were left with their mouths wide open upon witnessing such a sight. Although, for them, he probably looks like a dragon burning with a fire that should be killing it.

"How... How is this possible??" Ellie's blond friend, Joseph, asked.

"So it really was true... A dragon using terminal fire..." her other friend with curly hair, Claire, said next.

They both seemed to be caught in the middle of a clash of fear and surprise right now. This is what happens when you see the most dangerous creature in existence controlling the strongest force in existence.

But of course, only I knew the truth, that wasn't a creature at all... That was just a boy... A boy that I loved like my own brother, and was now crying in pain... But even that they couldn't hear.

All they saw was a threat that needed to be dealt with.

Ellie made the first move and raised her arm that was missing her right hand, and soon, pieces of blue diamond began to gather making an improvised fist for her.

She wasted no time and simply rushed at Lance, and upon reaching his position, landed a powerful blow directly to his face.

But to my surprise, and probably everyone here as well, he didn't even flinch.

Lance just glared at Ellie, still surrounded by those flames that changed color from green to red, to silver, and grabbed her diamond fist.

"Move..." he ordered before slamming Ellie's body against the ground.

A massive explosion took place from the impact, raising a giant pile of smoke and sending pieces of debris flying everywhere.

"Ellie!!!" both Joseph and Claire screamed.

But once the smoke cleared up, it revealed that Ellie didn't have a single scratch on her. That was because right now her entire skin was covered in metal.

Every part of her body was toned with a reflective silver surface.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that..." she claimed before grabbing the hand that was grabbing her and then doing the same thing Lance did, slamming him on the terrain.

"Kuaahhh!!" he cried as another pile of smoke was raised and even more destruction was spread.

Ellie then tried to imprison Lance in a cocoon made of diamonds that were appearing from the ground, but Lance just punched all of them away into pieces with his bare hands.

He stood up and tried to punch her as well, but Ellie began to emit some kind of glow in her eyes and started to easily dodge his fists as if she could predict his every move.

I was afraid of this.

These mages, all four of them were very powerful people... But aunt Ellie? Aunt Ellie is a completely different level.

Lance probably doesn't remember, but back when we were young, she was famous for having gone up against some of the toughest, baddest, hardest-to-kill types of creatures ever known to man.

Many tried to kill her over the years, and all failed when faced with her superior power.

That's all because of her special ability... Mirror magic. A skill that belonged to water mages that allows them to copy certain abilities from the people they touched.

Among all of them, aunt Ellie was the strongest mirror mage in the world, and she mastered the way to hold in plenty of different dangerous skills over the years.

Controlling diamonds, gazing into the future, turning her body into weapons... And many, many more...

If I don't stop this fight soon... She might really kill Lance.

"Wraaaggghhh!!!" he howls in frustration as Ellie continues to avoid his attacks.

The mirror mage then uses this chance to get behind him using her superior speed and attempts to slice him from behind by turning her entire left hand into a metal blade.

Lance raises his wooden blade, which right now was also covered in terminal fire, much like himself, and blocks the attack.

The impact sends a shockwave through the air that makes even my hair dance for a moment.

"Ellie!" Claire starts to shout, "Do you want us to-"

"No!! Stay back!!! This thing is too dangerous!!! I'll handle him!"

Lance swings his blade one more time and pushes Ellie away a little bit.

"An opening!!" Joseph yells as he tries to hit Lance with four electric whips that were coming out of his arm.

"Joseph!! Wait!!" Ellie tried to warn him, but she wasn't fast enough.

Lance saw the whips coming and stomped the ground to elevate a large piece of rock and then punched the boulder towards Joseph while repelling the whips.

"Oh, shi-"

Joseph was forced to leap out of the way before getting squashed and landed on the ground with all color missing from his face.

"I think we pissed him off..." he commented.

"Let me try..." Claire murmured.

She raised her arm and suddenly, several small balls of fire began to appear around Lance as if trying to lock him in a ring.

But the moment they started to grow in size to explode, Lance dived into his own shadow and avoided the bombs by using the shadow realm as a safe spot.

"What?? Where did he go??" Claire gasped in confusion.

Lance then instantly appeared from below Claire's shadow and grabbed her arm that was wearing a red metal bracelet.

"Claire!!" Joseph and Ellie screamed in panic.

He immediately ripped the metal bracelet and the wooden bracelet from her arm and just threw them into the shadow realm, and with that, taking away her means of using magic. It also looked like it hurt a lot since Claire started to scream in pain.

"Stay away from her!!!" Joseph rushed at him with his fist charged with lightning magic.

Lance glared at him and just responded by throwing Claire's body at the blond man.

"Whoooaaaaa!!"

"Oh, no!!"

Joseph turned off his magic in order to not hurt Claire by accident, and just as he tried to catch her as she was falling, Lance rushed at the two and smacked both of them in the stomach, making the two pass out unconscious.

"Joseph!!! Claire!!!"

Aunt Ellie was now looking even more determined to bring Lance down after seeing how he harmed her friends.

"I tried to go easy on you because I wanted to get some answers... But it seems I'm gonna have to end you all here and now!!"

I could not believe what I was seeing...

Not only was Lance using terminal fire, he had it completely under his control.

He took down two mages with barely any effort, even though he didn't even know what magic was twenty-four hours ago.

Just what was going on with him?? Was he hiding his true power from me this whole time??

You need to combine three types of energy to use terminal fire, how was he using that power if he only knew magic???

At this second, he raised his wooden sword one more time and Ellie responded by turning her arm into a metal blade again.

They rushed at each other and began to exchange blows with one another.

The two of them looked like blurred images as they moved through the area and trading swings from their weapons.

Lance was clearly faster and stronger but Ellie was much more experienced, so his attacks could barely touch her as her future sight ability allowed her to predict his moves, and even if they did touch her, her metal skin gave her an absurd defensive power.

I should do something as well... But I had no idea what.

I could try to protect Lance from some of her attacks, but the two were moving so fast that by the time I created a construct, they would already be somewhere else. Not only that, I highly doubt my underdeveloped constructs could stop a blow from Ellie.

I better keep watching and wait for the right moment to act!

My pouch still has some energy crystals in case I needed them. I needed to be patient.

"Damn it... You're way harder to take down than I expected..." Ellie began to comment.

"I will not stop until every dragon is dead..." Lane replied, but for some reason, his tone sounded different. It was colder, heavier, more serious.

Not that it really mattered anyway, nobody could understand him thanks to the dragon curse.

Lance rushed at Ellie again and waved his sword unleashing a massive storm of terminal fire at her.

I... Wasn't aware he could do that...

Ellie looked like she was about to panic. Doesn't matter how powerful she was, terminal fire could kill any living being. If that managed to reach her she was doomed.

I wasn't expecting that. Lance was actually trying to kill her!!

"Fine... Have it your way then!!" Ellie replied.

The flames were about to reach her, but before they could, an explosion of light appeared from her body, and Lance's fire ended up being repelled by a new wave of fire.

And just like Lance's, that fire burned in three different looping colors.

I almost forgot... She was a mage that could copy any power, so of course she had copied not only magical abilities, but also cursed and blessed ones as well... And when you control all three types of energy, a new energy is born.

Ellie had blocked Lance's terminal fire with her own terminal fire.

Right now, both of them were glaring at each other as their bodies burned inside the flames with the ability to kill anything.

"It's time to end this... Dragon!!" she announced.

"Come..." Lance replied.