Chapter 30 - Roaring Fire

"Wasn't yesterday fun?" Francis asked his opponent jokingly, "I already missed this place."

Right after Dan and Baulder made it out of the locked room, through one of the doors Howard Cowell opened for them, he opened up his separate dimension, bringing in both of them for a nice little fight. Francis wasn't exactly keen on spending any time in there, given the traumatic events of the previous night, but all he could do to escape the situation, was to beat Cowell.

"I have to agree," said the man in black, "And today will be even better."

Francis knew not to reply to meager taunts like this, so he opted for jumping straight into business. He propelled himself forward, coating most of his body with his [Aeolus]. In a split second, he was already dishing out punches and kicks towards his more or less stationary opponent. On the other hand, the Deacon was just taking all of the attacks, not lifting a single finger against the blonde masked boy. Why would he? He controlled this entire space.

After a few minutes of unleashing his fury, Francis stepped back, evaluating his situation. He knew that Cowell wouldn't do anything, as his goal is more or less to keep at least him back. With some divine providence, Francis came to the conclusion, that if he were to observe the Deacon from multiple directions, he could deduce some sort of way to break through his seemingly invincible defenses. As his eyesight was the same at full speed, as it was regularly, he decided to run in circles around Cowell.

After a few rounds, he noticed some diference in the stance of his opponent. For some reason, he seemed to be slowly hunching over, covering his mouth. At a split second, Francis realized a major weakness in this [Power]. They were inside his opponent! He was fighting an illusion all this time. He sped up, about twofold, and continued running those circles even more vehemently. At that point, he was entirely sure, that Cowell knew what he was doing. Question was, what was the Deacon going to do?

----

As all the henchmen laid dead on the ground, you could see a drop of sweat coming off of Ivan Dubinsky's forehead. Was it because of the carnage caused by the Lioness, or was it because of his own [Power] going slightly out of control? Either way, it looked like Meda was in a very much favorable situation.

"So, can I chop your head off too?" she asked with a crazed smile on her face, almost imitating the snarl of an actual lion.

"I'd like to keep it where it is, thank you," he replied, almost laughing it off as a childish joke, "Rather, are you ready to taste my [Sunburst]?"

"[Sunburst], is it? And here I thought you had an actual scary [Power], who knew you were just a show-off?" Meda taunted her opponent.

She was fairly confident in her skills. She was a lion, through and through. With a gluttal roar she jumped forth, pouncing on Dubinsky. This time, he didn't have enough time to dodge it, and was nailed to the ground. Meda, on top of him was so entranced, that her saliva was flowing onto the face of the Deacon through her grin.

This was a truly horrifying scene. Meda rarely lost control of her own transformation, but she couldn't stand those, who thought of themselves as more, or those who pretended so. She had her fair share of those stories, ever since she was just a little cub.

She once again roared at her opponent, which he wasn't taking anymore. He forced his hands to face towards Meda's torso, and unleashed a huge blast of fire, seemingly out of nothing. The repulsive force of this attack sent the Lioness back flying, eventually hitting the ceiling, and falling down next to the rubble, caused previously.

"That wasn't really lady-like, you know," Dubinsky frowned.

"Like I care," Meda reacted.

"You should, you are a Lady afterall," he said provokingly.

Meda seemed to get even more mad. It seemed to her as if someone had figured out her actual identity, which she wasn't a huge fan of. She didn't have any evidence, but this much was enough for her. She broke into a sprint, circling around Dubinsky, much like how Francis did, but in the exact opposite direction.

The Deacon managed to follow her with his eyes, thus not giving her a single chance to pounce at him. At that point, it looked like Ivan Dubinsky grew tired of the situation, raised both of his hands, and brought down a huge fiery circle, into the entire room.

"[Flame Seal]!" he shouted.

And for sure, there was no way out of it.

----

As the situation was growing tense, I had to somehow manage my own excitement. I couldn't just tell Baulder to rush in, that wouldn't bring us anywhere, but down. And even though I really wanted this to be over, I had to remain calm, and calculate. Taking everything that happened up until now into account, I was expecting something grand to happen sooner or later. There was a high possibility looming above our heads, that Claire is just sort of a puppet in someone else's hand. And I had an inkling who that hand might belong to.

"I told you already. Don't you DARE bring my FATHER into this!" Claire screamed at me once again.

"I did? I though you sent me to prison. You shouldn't blame others for yaour own mistake, sweetheart," I replied with some of my best facts.

And of course that just made things worse. Exactly as I planned. The less concentrated she is, the better our chances. If she just thinks about murdering me, than that's amazing for us. She'll slowly loose focus, and eventually make a mistake. She's prone to doing those either way. So, she sent another ball of that acid stuff at us, and without much problem, Baulder blocked it. Given it melts away stuff, it does go through the wood shield pretty fast, but as long as it's not a direct hit, we'll be okay.

It was finally time to retaliate. Each time her attack doesn't work, se gets a little bit more agitated, and we can stay better focused than her. I told Baulder to charge, and I readied my Binders. My plan was to pin her using Baulder's resistance and strength, then keep her there using my own.

Sadly, that's not exactly how it played out. Seemingly appearing from the shadows, a figure with a huge cleaver looking sword appeared, blocking our way, quite literally - using her sword. She had a mask on, but unlike the Mystery Man from the island, she had a full mask, made of some sort of metal, covering her entire face, and a hood encompassing the rest of her head. Now, if I couldn't see her face, how did I figure out she was a chick? Well, she packed some serious boobs. Like Gigantic, with a capital G. Probably on point with that letter as well. I wish a certain girl had the same qualities, but I was more of an ass-person. Well, I guess I was an ass as well.

"Hello?" I put an emphasis on the latter half of the word, "Can't you see we have something going on here?"

"Are you alright, Lady Medusa?" she asked politely, ignoring my complaint. Her voice had a nice ring to it. Claire nodded.

"Hey, hey, hey! Who the hell are you?" I got a bit more agitated. I didn't want to fight two ridiculously powerful enemies.

She looked at me, trying to size me up. After Claire stood back, she followed form, and released us from that block. I deliberately didn't ask Baulder to move, I wanted the fact that we are superior come across to her even more. She couldn't make us back off.

"I have no obligation to respond to a Sin," she responded to the Sin.

"I see," I replied, "Then let me introduce myself. My name is Tentazione, the user of [Temptation]. Now, it's your turn, love."

She looked annoyed, but eventually, she breathed out, then taking a really serious looking stance, jabbing her sword into the ground - which went in like a butterknife - and lifted her fist to her heart.

"I am Zenia Pendragon, Combat-Deacon of the Order. It's a pleasure, Sin," she added the end bit as a form of mockery, I was entirely sure.

Combat-Deacon? Is that a special rank? Is she higher than an actual Deacon, or is it just a rank between them...? Either way, the appearence of another enemy was annoying. I didn't know how to deal with this situation now, especially because weren't all that well suited for a cutting object. That sword seemed to be of really high craftsmanship, though. I wonder if she would want to part ways with it, for me.

"Nice to meet you, Zenia Pendragon," I greeted her back, "Would you lend me your sword? I kinda like it."