Do you have my back?

The words that came out of his mouth next surprised me.

"I agree with you".

I blinked in surpise. "You do?"

Aaron nodded. "You're right, this is war and not some fancy tournament or ego driven duel, this is war and we need to have each other's backs no matter the context. Just like you had mine earlier".

He paused. "Thanks for helping me out".

I was too stunned to speak, I just stared at him in surpise.

"Come on Zoe". Liam said. "Don't ruin the vibe".

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Fine, we can break as many codes as we want, not like I care anyway".

"Whoopie". Liam exclaimed. "That's the spirit".

"So we've agreed, we're not going to follow that rule from now till we get to the palace?" Emily asked.

"From now till the end of the war". I replied and the others nodded.

"Well, now that we've settled that, I think it's my turn to fight". Liam said and stepped forward.

His weapon was a gauntlet, I had seen gauntlets in numerous movies, comics and video games in my previous life but I had never seen them before.

"What's his power?" I asked Emily but she only smiled.

"Watch". She replied and pointed.

"Okay Zoe, you can make a gap in the wall now". Liam said and I could see her mama coat the gauntlets.

Zoe nodded and a slight gap appeared in the air wall. It seemed like no snake was going to notice the tiny gap and I was tempted to ask Zoe to increase its size but I remembered what happened the previous time and kept quiet instead.

After a few moments, a snake finally noticed the gap, it peered inside for a while like a baby kangaroo peers in its mother's pouch. It seemed as if it was unwilling to believe the gap was real.

"Come on, enter". Liam muttered under his breath, he was getting impatient because the longer he waited for the serpent, the greater the fear in him grew.

He had stepped up to the place fairly confident in his abilities and believed he stood a chance of wining.

But the longer he stood there, the higher the wave of fear in his gut rose, at the moment it had risen up to his neck and Liam didn't want it pass that level, after all what good would he be if he drowned in fear?

The snake finally decided the gap was real and not an illusion, it pushed its head into the hole and the rest of its body soon slithered in.

"Finally". Emily sighed.

I watched with curious eyes as Liam raised his hands covered by the gauntlets, I was interested in watching how he would control his element with the gauntlets.

Zoe strained her forehead and the gap closed behind the snake, trapping it with us. I looked at her, she had kept the air wall up all these while even though it seemed like a very difficult technique, I had to talk to her after the battle and beg her to teach me more air skills.

Liam didn't waste any time, as soon as the gap closed behind the snake, he attacked.

"Earth spikes!" He shouted and four spiky projections rose from the ground and aimed for the snake.

So that was his power, he could control earth, no wonder he used a weapon that would keep his fingers free and highly mobile.

The snake hissed and moved quickly, dodging the spikes of earth but Liam wasn't ready to let it rest, he sent another set of spikes at the serpent.

The snake tried to avoid them all but some ended up piercing it, although none pierced it well enough to kill or cause major damage.

Hisssss!!

The snake hissed in pain as several cuts appeared on its body, the cuts were soon leaking blood.

I watched in awe, I'd never watched an earth mage fight before so I wasn't really sure what to expect in terms of effectiveness and destructive capability, but watching Liam made me realize just how powerful earth was.

To think he was just a one star mage, I wondered what a four or five star earth mage would be capable of, they would probably be able to move mountain and shift hills.

Hissssss!

The snake hissed at Liam with venom and slithered swift towards him.

Liam slammed his gauntlet on the ground and a crack appeared where it met the ground, the crack traveled in a straight line towards the slithering snake.

When the crack reached the snake, the ground caved in, swallowing the snake with it.

"Wow". I whispered, I stared at Liam in awe, he was only a one star mage and two higher level mages had fought before him but he seemed much stronger and more powerful than them at the moment.

Were earth mages that strong?

Liam had a smug smile on his face as turned to face us. "And that's, ladies and gentlemen, is how you handle business".

He looked at Aaron. "Swift, convincing and efficient, and I didn't even have to get saved".

Aaron scowled and Liam's smile widened, he turned to Zoe. "See, I'm much stronger and better, I'm even bigger down there you know" He raised his eye brows in a knowing fashion.

His moment of gloating was soon cut short though, with a loud hiss, the snake suddenly jumped out of the pit and launched itself at Liam.

Liam heard the attack and turned around quciky but it was too late for him to do anything.

Whoooosh.

Flames suddenly shot at the serpent, causing it to stop mid air.

I turned to look at Aaron in surprise, the rest of us also looked at him.

"What?" Aaron said when he saw us staring. "Didn't we agree to have each other's backs?"

He smiled when we didn't respond and shot our more flames at the serpent till it was burnt to a crip.

Just then Zoe dropped to her feet. "I can't hold it up anymore, the wall is going to break anytime now".