The Burning Island

It was a sunny day as usual on Ember Island, one of the lesser well-known vacation islands on Earthland in the middle of Calm Sea. The rays of the sun glistened from the clear blue sky, decorated with wisps of white clouds as a slow but cooling breeze brought about the very meaning of relaxation. Ember Island, which was formed from an underwater volcanic explosion, was once nothing but wilderness and had been inhabited but twenty years ago, in the hands of a very enterprising businessman, Ember Island had been bought over and turned into a wondrous place.

The island was originally covered by palm trees and luscious vegetation, and within the span of two years with a huge team of workers laboring under the hot sun, the businessman had managed to clear up a portion of the land to create the site of many luxurious resorts and vacation homes for the wealthy. As more and more tourists had begun to head to the island, more and more businesses were created on the island. In fact, currently there was already a small city called Fire Town at the base of the volcano, where the main population of the island stay. Another interesting thing to note is the Ho’noo Festival that would take place on the island every year on the midsummer solstice.

Geographically, with the volcano in the middle of the island, Fire Town was located on the eastern coast of the island where normal tourists would be able to spend their days while the southern coast was mainly occupied by private homes with their own stretch of beaches. The only other significant place on Ember Island was the Reign of Fire, a casino built a quarter of the way up the volcano, where large glass walls on the casino would let their visitors enjoy the tropical scenery as they gambled. Reign of Fire was solely owned by the businessman who had opened up Ember Island, and he was no doubt the wealthiest and most influential person on the island.

However, today, the island’s peace was scheduled to be broken today. Five men, dressed in black hooded cloaks that were dyed in various shades of orange and red at the end of the sleeves and at the hem were making their way up the volcano. Each of them held a long staff, carved out of wood and each adorned with an orange gem, a spessartite garnet, carved in different shapes but all reflecting the design of a sun at their core. Behind them, dressed in plain black cloaks minus the hood, were their followers coming to a sum of twenty men. At the head of the pack of twenty followers were five men carrying a large curved package on their shoulders. The sweat pouring down their brows and the side of their faces were evidence enough of the weight they were carrying but none of them were complaining. This was a holy duty, to be entrusted with such an important part for their leaders plans.
The remaining fifteen were outfitted with weapons of all sorts, to protect the entire entourage as they headed up the volcano.

Five hours later, the entire group of twenty five were finally assembled at the top of the volcano. As though rehearsed, the five men carrying the large packages quickly put them down on the black soil and began to unpack them. The removal of the packaging material revealed each part to be a part of a circle, made out of an unknown material that hovered between black and silver. Each part could be folded out creating an even larger semi-circle and when all of the five pieces had been fully unfolded, they were finally connected together to form a circle. And the circle was just the right size to fully surround the mouth of the volcano.

The twenty followers retreated back a few steps to get out of the ways of their five leaders, as the latter stepped up onto the circular device. Each of them took up a point on the device, the space between each of them equidistant. All five of them had already directed their mana into the orange gem that topped their staffs and when the gems had glowed brightly, their staffs began to gently vibrate and hum with energy. The moment that happened, each of them gently tapped their staff on the device in sequence.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap!

Magic runes began to carve themselves into the metallic device and as the runes appeared, the magma within the volcano began to bubble and boil, slowly but surely increasing in vigor. The temperature began to increase drastically, and the five mages standing atop the circular device began to chant in unison. Their voices, in harmony with the rumbling of the mountain, slowly grew in volume. The followers joined in as well when their chant reached a certain point. With twenty five voices chanting ominously at the same time, the magma within reacted even more violently before, huge bubbles caused by the boiling erupting and causing the molten fire to spray up into the air.

There were many times where the magma that had burst out of the volcano threatened to burn the five mages but each and every time that happened, the magma hit nothing but an orange translucent barrier.

“Hio!!” all five mages intoned loudly at the end, echoed by the twenty followers and at the same time, a bright orange beam of light burst forth from the mouth of the volcano, shooting right up into the sky with a thunderous roar. Dark clouds began to form around the orange beam as it pierced into the skies, and a gloomy atmosphere began to surround the entire island. The populace of Ember Island would begin to look upwards at the sky one by one, and instead of the tropical weather that they were so accustomed to, they would see nothing but dark skies. A wave of fear would begin to eat at their hearts, an ominous feeling that would rock down to their very core.

A deafening laughter that resembled like a thousand hammers smashing down on a forge resounded throughout the entire island in response to the final call of the mages.
From his private room in his casino, a room entirely made out of glass for the floors, walls and ceiling that allowed him and personal guests to enjoy a splendid view of the island, the businessman who had started it all for Ember Island, Janus Burne was staring at the skies with his mouth wide open. He was the only one left standing in the room, albeit on very shaky legs, while the rest of his friends were either seated on the lounges or the ground as they stared at the top of the volcano with fear.

“Marris, Marris! Call the Magic Council! Inform them of what’s happening here!” Janus called out to his butler who responded with equal urgency, pouncing for the phone behind the bar and dialing in the numbers to the Magic Council fiercely. A very heated conversation ensued and when he finally put the phone down, Marris and Janus exchanged a look of pure terror when a voice as loud as thunder announced itself to the entire island.

“Bow down to Megido!!”

[1221 words]

“Cap, the last one’s in place!” the voice of Rook, Chess Team’s demolitions expert, called out over the communication devices that each member of the team had in their left ear. The large man pulled back his outstretched arm that he had used to attached the final explosive on the side of the ship. He had been laying down on his stomach and extended his arm as much as he could, while his teammate, expert marksman Knight was covering for him. The entire team was scattered around the entire ship, fighting their own battles as they fought for time and their lives while Rook had set down the explosives to take down the entire ship.

“Cap” or Captain Shane Stern of the Rune Knights had led his special team of Rune Knight operatives, the self-named Chess Team, on a covert mission to overthrow the plans of a necromancer who was trying to bring a ship to port in Fiore. His cargo? Skeleton soldiers. The Rune Knights had been notified of the situation in the nick of time, arriving just in time to stop the necromancer from unloading his army onto Hargeon. It had been an easy job, with the team split in two. One of them had been left at the docks, fighting off the skeleton warriors that had managed to get off the ship and disposing of them, while another team had boarded the ship and steered it back out to sea.

The ground team had consisted of King, the leader of the five but second-in-command to Shane should the latter join them. With him was Bishop, a man so huge he looked like a bear instead, and had the strength to go toe-to-toe with Shane. His magic granted him control of the earth element, putting him at the front in terms of firepower among the five of them. The other one was a female Rune Knight but with the ferociousness of a tiger and combat ability that wouldn’t lose out to any of her male counterpart. She was dubbed Queen, the next one in the hierarchy after King.

At the moment, against the army of skeleton warriors, they were using all of their strongest spells. Bishop was at the front of the team, his entire body covered with layers of rocks, the simplest of his swings or kicks smashing the skeletal warriors into dust. Individually, the skeleton warriors were weak, their value only showing when their overwhelming numbers came into play. King didn’t want to think how they would want to contain all of them if the entirety of the ship’s contents had been offloaded onto Hargeon. The entire port town would be completely overwhelmed. Armed with a saber and his metal element magic, the man was a walking whirlwind as he constantly kept up a flurry of slashes around him, cleanly slicing the skeleton warriors in the way of his blade while occasionally using his magic to send forth a storm of blades should the situation get out of hand.

Queen was on the roof, using her wind magic to bunch up the skeleton warriors with strong gusts of wind and then annihilating them with a barrage of cutting wind projectiles. At the moment, they were doing fine, especially with Bishop having created an earthen wall around the docks to prevent any of the skeleton warriors from escaping.

Over at sea, Shane had just taken down the necromancer, having slammed his disc shield right into the man’s body with enough force to send him flying across the room and crashing into the metal walls. Obviously not build for direct combat, the necromancer was knocked out and slid down to the ground.

“Good! Both of you get on one of the lifeboats and get away before detonating the bombs!” Shane responded to Rook’s call.

“What about you?” Knight’s steady voice replied as he stood his ground against the horde of skeleton warriors converging on his location. His arms were moving non-stop, his left holding a blade made out of some black material while his right hand was repeatedly flinging projectiles of the same black material, sharp enough to sever the bones.

“I’m too far away. I’ll swim, don’t worry about it!”

“Got it!” Both Rook and Knight answered at the same time. Accumulating fire around his left palm for one last hit, Rook send out a blast of flames in an arc to the front of the duo, blocking the advances of the skeleton warriors before the two Rune Knight operatives looked at each other, nodded and flipped themselves over the railing. Equally agile enough to land on their feet, the two of them landed upright on the lifeboat attached to the side of the ship, one of many around. Knight threw his black blade to the cables securing the front of the lifeboat to the ship’s railing while his right hand tossed out a few jagged projectiles to the cables at the back with the same intention.

With two clean cuts, the two Knights held on to the side of the lifeboat as it dropped down to the sea, sinking slightly before bobbing back up. Rook picked up the rowing oars and put his muscles to great use, putting more and more distance between themselves and the ship with each row. When they were finally far enough, Knight held up a finger to his communication device.

“Cap, we are detonating the bombs now!”

“Do it!” Shane’s voice reply came through the communicator, as did from above them. The Rune Knight Captain had put on a burst of speed and ran the entire length of the ship, and without any hesitation jumped off the railings towards the lifeboat. With the bombs created out of Rook’s fire and explosion magic, all it took was for him to send a surge of mana to his creations to set them off. The explosives erupted with flames at the same time, each one of them punching a hole through the ship’s hull. It was easier to sink the entire ship with the skeleton warriors than to destroy one by one.

Shane adjusted his trajectory slightly to avoid divebombing the small lifeboat that would need to bring them back to shore, diving into the water with his arms outstretch and palms brought together in front of his head. The man speared through the waves and into the dark sea, before quickly extending his arms outwards and began swimming for the surface, guided by the bottom of the lifeboat. He broke out of the water with a splash, extending one hand to grab the side of the lifeboat while Knight hurried over to pull on his other arm. His boarding almost knocked the boat over, but Knight quickly hopped back to balance the weight again.

“That was a very stylish exit, Cap,” Rook joked as he once again resumed his powerful rowing towards shore. Shane shrugged with a casual grin on his face.

“How else would I do it?”

[1165 words]
[Total WC: 2385]

The moment the threat was neutralized, and the team was assembled again, Link made his appearance as he approached the team. Behind him were a group of Rune Knights who instantly went to clear away the bones of the destroyed skeleton warriors. Recently getting more and more involved with the operations of Shane and the Chess Team, Link had always been the team’s supporting pillar, keeping their communications clear and providing information whenever needed. Whenever they were out on missions, he would be permanently plugged in to their communications so that he was constantly abreast on the unfolding situation. Sometimes, he could also be the bearer of bad news.

From his grimace as he walked towards the team, Link conjured a thin folder out of thin air. The man was adept at using Requip magic, but instead of weapons, he used it as his document storage.

“We’ve got quite the situation on our hands, team,” he said with a wry smile. “It seems someone’s summoned a god.”

“That’s what you call ‘quite the situation’?” Rook asked incredulously, rolling his eyes as he complained.

“Continue, Link,” Shane urged, ignoring Rook as did the rest of the team. “When did that happen?”

“Half an hour ago. An emergency call was patched to us from Ember Island. Apparently, a cult has opened a portal for a fire god to enter our realm. They harnessed the energy from the volcano on Ember Island to punch a hole through dimensions, allowing the fire god access. From the report earlier, the descent of the fire god wasn’t immediate but I’m not sure about the situation now.”

Shane let out a sigh before looking at his team. “Pack up, team. We’re going for a vacation.”

“Never imagined that would be how my first time to the island would be,” Rook replied sarcastically.

“If you guys don’t get there fast, there might not be an island anymore,” Link reminded them. “I’ve prepared the airship. Entry by the usual way.”

“Situation doesn’t look good, Cap,” King announced as they dropped off the airship, assisted by nothing but Queen’s wind magic. From their high vantage point as they freefell from the airship, the team could clearly see the beam of orange light emitted by the volcano that pierced the clouds. Despite an absence of lava flowing down the volcano, there was certainly a great of dark smoke and volcanic dust being pumped into the air. The skies rumbled with thunder and crackled with lightning as the clouds began to get ionically charged from the volcanic emissions.

“We’ll land in Fire Town. Our main priority in the meantime, get all of the civilians to safety. We don’t know if the volcano will erupt but the key threat should be the dark mages and whatever god they summoned,” Shane ordered, his voice loud and clear through the communication devices. They were all protected within a cocoon of wind, keeping out any disturbances from the rushing air as they dropped. When they were approaching ground, Queen began to apply the brakes, slowing their descent to the point where they touched the ground gently without even needing to brace their knees.


“You’re getting better at this, Queen,” Shane praised with a thumbs up as the team huddled up. Queen shrugged it off as thought it was expected of her and her abilities. The Captain began to share his plan with the team. However, before he could even begin to speak out, an ear-piercing shriek caught all of their attentions. And from there, one by one, they heard more and more shouts or screams from the people around them. The next shout was from Knight.

“Cap, Bishop, behind you!” the sharpshooter shouted as he pointed to the air behind the two men he was shouting at. The two of them swiveled in spot instantly at Knight’s warning and were instantly tackled into the ground by their assaulters. Reacting in record time, Bishop had managed to toughen up his arms with a layer of dirt in the nick of time, the monster attacking him chomping and scratching down on tightly-packed dirt. With a growl, Bishop leaned back further into the ground and kicked upwards with both feet right into the monster’s gut and sent it flying away.

Shane had responded with equal speed, a testament of his Requip speed, as he held his shield up in front of his chest, the monster that tackled him trying but failing to injure him as it continued to snap down on its jaws. With a heavy left hook, Shane sent the creature flying backwards and quickly stood back up. As the team stood back to back in a circle, they saw the first of their enemies. Creatures birthed in flames, their enemies looked malnourished, being all thin and gangly with an exceptional large head and wide jaws with pointed teeth. Two horns curved back from their forehead, and three great spikes rose from their back. Their long arms touched the ground, and the end of those arms were sharp claws capable of cutting through armor.

“Rook, friends of yours?” Queen cracked a joke, despite the situation they were in.

“You bet they are. Open a bottle of Firebrand and we just kick back to relax all the time,” Rook replied with another joke, lightening up the situation.

“Cap, orders?” King asked seriously.

“The appearance of these monsters means that the summoning has probably been successful. Link, any visual up there?” Shane shot back the question at Link, who was in the airship at the moment, having doubled as their pilot and now tripling as their eye in the sky. He was still circling around the island at the moment, before the aircraft’s lacrima generator ran out of juice for the return trip.

“I think they’ve completed the summoning, Cap. But the orange beam shooting up into the sky is still there. I’m going to have to leave, team. The volcanic emission’s messing with the airship. Good luck, guys,” Link reported on the current situation, and once he was done, he was forced to bring the airship back to base.

“Thanks, Link,” Shane reorganized his thoughts before issuing new orders for the team. “Keep the civilians safe. Get everyone inside and see if you can kill off Rook’s friends. I will be heading towards the volcano to stop the so-called fire god.”

All five replied with their affirmation and instantly leapt at the nearest threats to take them down. Shane, on the other hand, put on a burst of speed and ran straight into the forests surrounding the town and began his ascent.

[1103 words]
[Total WC: 3488 / 8000]

Shane charged out of the forests that skirted the base of the volcano with an explosive jump, his shield Valor to his side as he swept away the last of the branches before he had jumped out. The Rune Knight Captain had pulled out all the stops, having donned his combat suit and then charging tirelessly at full speed from the town and through the forest of palm trees with his shield in front of him. He had come across one or two of the same flaming creatures back in town, but with a resurrected god vying for his attention, he had smacked them into the ground and left them be while continuing onwards.

Another roar rocked the entire island while the volcano rumbled, threatening to spew its contents before it finally calmed down. However, it wasn’t so lucky for Shane. His eyes were wide with shock as he saw the mentioned fire god fly down the slope of the volcano at immense speed. And he was headed for the Rune Knight. Shane barely brought his shield up in time when Megido attacked with a punch, the shockwave from the impact of the punch against Shane’s shield, flattening the palm trees behind him. Shane shifted a few feet backwards against the punch.

“Mortal, you dare stand in my way?” the same thunderous voice roared at Shane, who had moved his shield away from his front, standing defiantly in the way of the fire god.

“You won’t get past me!” Shane growled back, as his strongest weapon, Mjolnir appeared in his right hand. Feeling the rush of power surging into his entire body, the Rune Knight lunged at his opponent.

“Celestial arti--?” Megido couldn’t even complete his question as he flew backwards toward a patch of flat ground. Shane had caught him off guard, instantly teleporting forward and smashing Mjolnir into him. With the opponent on his knees, Shane wasted no time in pursuing his offense. Every strike was true, pushing back the fire god with each blow, rendering him temporarily stunned. And with every strike, Shane began to saw hope that he could perhaps end this disaster before it began.

Reality, however, was cruel. Despite taking staggering steps as he took strike after strike, Megido was far from being close to defeat. It had merely been a wake-up call for him, a warm up as he slowly got to his full strength. The surge of adrenaline and fury at Shane’s strikes dragged it out of the fire god, and decisively, the latter anticipated the next strike and stopped the hammer mid-strike with his bare hand.

“I know not how you obtained this celestial artifact. But you are no more than a mere insect,” Megido snarled, and as his claws closed down on Mjolnir, Shane found himself watching the claws leaves scratches on the indestructible weapon. Not even fighting Undine or Cernunnos had left scratches on Mjolnir. There hadn’t been many times that Shane felt fear, having always taken down more powerful opponents with skill and determination, but the one this time was different. This was a real god.

Before he could even utter a response, a blindingly quick punch caught him unawares and with the force of ten sledgehammers hit him in the gut. The force of the uppercut lifted Shane completely into the air, while Megido wrenched the hammer out of his grip and used the Rune Knight’s very own weapon against, smashing him back down in the ground with a downwards strike. Shane crashed into the ground without any resistance, a human-shaped crater where he landed. But that wasn’t enough to put him down for good. If anything, Captain Shane Stern was resilient.

But it still wasn’t good enough. As soon as he clambered to his knees and his head looked upwards, Megido had roared again and slammed both fists down on his back. Shane was slammed back into the ground, Mjolnir lying on its side next to him like a piece of trash. Despite having taken it from Shane, the fire god hadn’t even thought of using it, tossing it aside and using his bare hands to beat down on the mortal. Shane had no choice but to activate Forcefield, a defensive barrier that wrapped around his entire body.

When he got back up a second time, Megido followed up with a kick. Helplessly, Shane could only defend against it with the shield on his left arm. He didn’t even have enough time to change to a stronger shield, although the shield and Forcefield managed to absorb most of the damage, allowing Shane to only skid backwards a few steps. For someone of his skill, regaining his balance was quick, and the latter lunged forward, his knee leading.

“Shirotsume Smash!!”

It was the first time Shane had gotten the opening to use one of his moves, but Megido was unfazed. The fire god met the flying knee strike with a fiery punch, his casual move negating one of Shane’s most powerful moves, before stretching out his other hand and wrapped his fingers around Shane’s upper body. Megido snatched Shane out of the air towards him and headbutted the Rune Knight, scrambling the wits of the latter. Dazed, Shane lacked the strength to even get out of Megido’s grasp while the latter decided that he had wasted enough time.

“Not bad for a mortal. But a mortal nonetheless,” Megido snorted before swinging his arm to the side and tossing Shane to god knows where.

[917 words]
[Total WC: 4405 / 9000]

“Queen, to your ten!” Knight calmly spoke through the communication devices that each of the members had. He watched as the only female of the group sidestepped the pouncing skeleton in flames and with a very decisive stroke, slashed her hands covered in a layer of cutting claws formed of wind right through the creature’s neck. The youngest member of the Chess Team was perched on one of the roofs belonging to the tallest building in Fire Town, a mere four-story department store. In his hands was the CLZ-55, dubbed Cloud Piercer by Knight, an experimental weapon from the Rune Knights Engineering Corps. The Cloud Piercer was a five-bullet sniper rifle. Each and every bullet was specially crafted with a lacrima-tip, and if the user buffed it with their magic energy, the piercing ability of the weapon was unbeatable. It was especially powerful against magical barriers, with the lacrima tip cleanly slicing through the barrier and allowing for the metal bullet to hit the intended target.

However, right now, the Cloud Piercer was proving to be very useless. As powerful as it had been described, the lacrima bullets were a disappointment right now. The entire town was swarming right now with the skeletal creatures of flames that Shane and Bishop had fought off earlier, around twenty of them. Leading them were five flame-clad hell warriors. They were differentiated by the type of weapons they were carrying, fully armored knights with flames blazing from every single opening in their armor, including the holes in the visor. When the flaming knights had arrived on the battlefield, Knight had been the first to take see them and had unhesitatingly fired at them. Each and every shot had been meant to be a headshot, but against their flames and armor, he might as well have been shooting rubber bullets.

The sniper watched clearly through the scope, how the lacrima tips had exploded upon contact with the flames, and how the bullets just struck their armor and pinged off harmlessly. The moment he had seen that happen, Knight had notified the rest of the team, with the four other members of the Chess Team instantly putting down their firearms and began using their magic. Knight thought for a moment if he should just abandon the weapon and leap into the battlefield, but decided not to. He broke the weapon down into three parts, disassembling the firearm with haste and ease before stowing it into its container. Once done, Knight returned the container to his requip dimension and then pulled out a longbow, equipped with blades at either ends of the bow.

With a foot on the ledge, Knight looked down, watching the movements of the five flame knights. He had his eye on a particular one, the fifth one of the group and also the last one of the group of five. They were advancing in a V formation, and the one Knight had his eyes on was a flame knight with a large axe. The moment he was within position, the sharpshooter leapt off the roof and twisted himself around in the air to fall headfirst. Five arrows, glowing purple with magic energy flew through the air, within the short period of his fall, catching the last knight by surprise. When he was nearing the ground, Knight pulled on the bowstring and released a particularly large arrow, using the kickback of the shot to right himself as he planted his feet squarely into the knight’s chest before kicking off with a somersault.

The instant his feet touched the ground, Knight was already running around the group of five knights, kiting them with arrow after arrow. Every arrow carried different effects as the Rune Knight operative tested out his options, searching for the most effective way to take them down. On the other hand, the flame knights weren’t easy targets. A particular knight wielding a sword and shield had raised up his kite shield and proceeded to charge at Knight, the arrows bouncing off his shield harmlessly. But a team was a team. Three feet from crashing into the quick-footed archer, the Flame Paladin was suddenly T-boned from the right, himself charged down by an opponent of an equally hulking stature.

It was Bishop. The large soldier had stood atop a gigantic boulder the same height as he was and surfed on it, bulldozing through the Flame Paladin and sending him flying to the side. The boulder shattered upon impact and Bishop leapt into the air, before dropping down on the Flame Paladin with both feet, clad in the remnants of the shattered boulder now reformed into huge earthen boots. The Flame Paladin wasn’t completely defenseless, having skillfully holding the shield up in time as Bishop crushed into him and with an inhuman strength pushed the large soldier off the shield before rolling up to fight.

The other team members had each snagged up their own targets as well. Rook had charged in guns blazing despite Knight’s warning, but he was firing bullets containing the powers of his Flame Demon Slayer magic and they were wildly effective. The demolitions expert had picked the Flame Berserker as his target, who wielded the pair of axes in hand with dexterity as the Berserker deflected at least half of the bullets. Despite that, the bullets were definitely working as Rook’s shooting pushed the Flame Berserker away from his team, breaking their formation. A blast of white flames from his mouth definitely completed the deed.

King and Queen had entered the scene swinging as well. The leader of the team was up against a Flame Assassin who was armed with a pair of daggers while Queen had been paired up with a Swordsman, who was cutting swath of flames through the air with his blade. The two members of the Chess Team were fighting back to back, occasionally swapping opponents, displaying teamwork and coordination forged through trust. And in the middle of the now empty street stood Knight’s opponent, a Flame Warlock, five balls of flames circling in his palms. The moment they looked at each other, the two opponents released whatever they had. The five balls originally the size of oranges expanded triple their size as they flew towards Knight, while the latter kept his ground and fired off an equal number of ice arrows. Every arrow found a fireball, the combination of ice and fire leading to shattering of the frozen fireballs.

Both of them instantly leapt back, putting some distance before them as they began putting the pressure on each other. However, despite being able to take on the Flame Knights one-on-one, the Chess Team still found themselves constantly interrupted by the lesser fire creatures that prowled the surroundings and would find opportunities to pounce on them should there be an opening.

[1136 words]
[Total WC: 5541 / 9000]

While Megido bulldozed through everything on his way to Fire Town, where the Chess Team were multitasking fighting for their lives while keeping the civilians safe, the Rune Knight Captain flew through the air and crashed into the glass ceiling of Janus’s private room. It was lucky the floor was made out of reinforced glass, halting Shane’s fall but due to the concentrated momentum finding no way to be dispersed, the Rune Knight Captain could only groan as he arched his back in pain. Slowly, he rolled to his side, still shaking away the after effects of his fall. Resting on his left arm, his right hand extended to his front and groped blindly on the ground among the jagged glass pieces.

If left to his own devices, Shane would have taken far long to get reorient himself after the godly beating up he had just taken, but Janus and Marris had never left the room. They had seen the fight between Shane and Megido and when they saw the Rune Knight being throw in their direction, they had quickly found protection behind the bar counter. With the coast clear, both of them scrambled up to him and hurriedly help the Rune Knight up. Shane was carried over to the sofa, shaking his head to bring the world back into focus and when he finally did so, he saw that the two men who had helped him up look at him expectantly.

“We saw your fight against Megido,” the one on the right spoke up first, a man in his forties judging from his appearance but still in possession of a well sculpted physique. His silver hair was parted down the middle and the bangs hung over his forehead loosely and carelessly. Shane looked around carefully before turning back to the man. Shane could still hear a light ringing in his ears from the terrible fall he had taken. Janus turned to look at Marris with a nod, to which the latter took with tacit understanding and walked over to the bar counter.

“You know his name,” Shane replied with a flat tone as he looked at the owner of the Reign of Fire Casino and Resorts.

“The fire god proclaimed his arrival with his name when he touched down on our mortal plane, sir,” Marris replied in a very formal voice when he returned from the bar counter. He walked with his left hand tucked behind his waist and his right hand holding a tray. Atop the tray was a glass filled to half-full with an amber liquid. “This will do you well, sir.”

With half a grin, Shane muttered his thanks and took the glass. The Rune Knight downed the entire glass in one mouthful, and the moment it went down his throat, Shane bared his teeth and hissed slightly. Marris barely smiled while Janus watched with amusement.

“That’s our casino’s specialty. The Burning Island. Gives quite a kick, huh?” Janus half chuckled, half remarked. Shane ignored the embarrassment but he couldn’t deny what Janus had just said. The Burning Island had definitely set his entire body aflame, shocking every sense and kicking his nerves into overdrive after the period of blurriness from the fall. But the sudden clarity had also brought to his attention all the pain that had gone unnoticed while his senses were numb. Instantly Shane cast his Emergency Heal spell, using his magic to repair the injuries he had sustained from the earlier bout with the fire god.

Janus watched wordlessly, letting the Rune Knight do his thing before he would speak up again. And when he saw that Shane had finally settled back into himself, the owner of the casino folded his arms across his chest and began to speak.

“While the fire god did announce his name when he arrived, I… know him personally,” Janus started, choosing his words carefully. The last three words pulled Shane back to the situation and he watched Janus with a stern gaze.

“Explain yourself, Mr…” Shane started strong but faltered slightly when he realized he had no idea what their names were. Marris, ever so helpful, offered his assistance.

“My employer’s name is Mr Janus Burne, pioneer and developer of Ember Island, owner of the Reign of Fire Casino and Resort. I’m Marris, his butler.”

“Fine. I’m Captain Shane Stern of the Rune Knights. We were sent here to contain the threat. Okay, explain yourself, Mr Burne.”

“You may call me Janus, Captain. Now, where was I. Yes, this isn’t the first time I have seen Megido and our history goes a long way back. I won’t bore you the history of this island as you may know it, but you should know that it wasn’t the whole story. A hundred years ago, on this very island itself, I fought Megido. I may not seem like it, but I was a rather powerful mage. Megido, in his heyday, was distrustful of the humans and especially mages. It is precisely why at that time, Megido had found out that there was something called the Heart of Flames, a large orange and red gemstone of celestial origins that would allow whoever that could control it to have the power over all volcanoes, on land and in sea. At that time, he wanted total control over the entire planet and to do that, he would cause all the volcanoes on Earthland to erupt at the same time and cover it entirely in flames and toxic fumes. He was going to terraform the planet, mold it according to his vision, to create his very own Hell on Earthland. At that time, I had inadvertently found out about his plan for the Heart of Flames and we fought on this very island. For three days and nights, we battled until I found the opening to weaken him by sealing his powers and ultimately sending him back to whichever celestial plane he came from at the expense of all my magic powers, present and future. What I have left is just enough to extend my life far beyond mortal limits.”

“How did you seal his powers? And why is he heading towards Fire Town?” Shane pressed for answers.

“I did it with five arrows forged from the scales of a water dragon. And I suspect that the reason he’s heading for Fire Town is because the Heart of Flames lies in the very foundation of the town. I never did manage to uncover where it was. It’s also why I have chosen to make my home here, to ensure that Megido never return and make a bid for the Heart of Flames again. Yet, I have failed.”

“The arrows. Where are they now?” Shane said as he rose from his seat, his body completely healed and fully rested now.

“Over by the north coast. You will find the arrows of Agwe in a temple by the coast. Make haste, Captain. You are the only one who can save us now,” Janus answered, as Shane began to move away from the couch and stood below where he had smashed through.

“No kidding,” Shane said with a derisive snort as he squatted slightly and leapt upwards through the hole in the ceiling. Wings made out of magical energy unfurled from his back, and Shane took off, leaving Janus and Marris in their hideout.

“That was rude,” Marris commented, while Janus looked at Shane’s figure growing smaller and smaller with a wry smile on his face.

As he flew through the air, going towards the northern coast, Shane tapped a few times on his communication device. He hadn’t heard from his team since he had left them.

“Chess Team. Anyone hear me? King? Queen? Anyone?” the Rune Knight Captain called for them with the wind rushing in his ears. For a while there was no reply, and Shane thought that his communication device had probably been destroyed during the vicious beating Megido had laid on him. But all of a sudden, amidst the whoosh of rushing wind, the communication device came to life with static.

“Guys? Chess Team?” Shane tried again.

“Cap!! Cap!!” a voice began to shout from the communications device. The voice was too unclear for Shane to identify who it was.

“I’m here! Who’s this? I need a sitrep!”

“Cap, this is Knight! It’s hella bad over here! Where are you? The fire god made his way into town and we are getting our asses kicked!” Knight called out desperately.

“Tell the team to hold on, Knight! I’ve got something that can weaken Megido. Something to level the playing field! I’m flying towards the north coast now as we speak!” Shane replied in quick-fire mode.

[1453 words]
[Total WC: 6994 / 9000]

Rook parried the simultaneous strike of the Flame Berserker’s axes with his bare hands wreathed in gauntlets of white flame taken on physical form. He had been keeping up with his opponent and traded an equal number of blows, neither gaining an upper hand against each other but the damned creatures of flame that he had named Flame Wraiths were constantly interrupting them. Whenever Rook find himself in a dead lock against the Flame Berserker, the Wraiths would swarm towards him to attack with their claws. And this time was the same. The moment he had blocked against the axes with his lower arms held in front of his chest, one of the Wraiths had leapt on him and tear into his armored back.

Thankfully they had entered the battle with state-of-the-art battle gear as requested by Shane for their team, but even so, the armors were succumbing to the damage they were taking. This time, Rook could feel the sharp claws tear into his back, the pain sharp and blazing, as he roared in pain. Enraged, the blonde operative swung his arms open and knocked the Flame Berserker off balance, giving him enough time to send a kick to the Berserker’s chest and a blast of flames to push him before reaching behind him and forcefully pulled the Wraith off his back.

He roared in pain again when the Wraith’s claws were pulled clear of his exposed flesh and swung the creature over his head and into the ground. Freed from any distraction while the Flame Berserker climbed to his feet after being knocked down, Rook stood atop the struggling Wraith with his right foot on the creature’s chest and pointed both fists at it. He fired from point blank range, totally annihilating a creature cast of flames with white flames of his own, leaving nothing but ashes. And then he was back to dealing with the Berserker, blocking just in time.

Elsewhere, Bishop was entirely covered in blood stains over his limbs, but his injuries were closing at a commendable rate. He was blessed with a very rare lineage, one that granted him Herculean strength and an immense regeneration rate that even Shane found hard to compete against, allowing him to fight as fiercely and ferociously with complete disregard for his own safety. But there was always a catch. As he bleeds more and his body raced to regenerated itself, his mind would slowly be clouded with fury, reason slipping away with every wound to the point he would go feral. When it came to that point, he would have to be knocked unconscious. A reboot for his mind, so to speak.

Normally, Bishop would try his best to not reach that stage but this battle was taking a lot out of him. The heavily armored Flame Paladin was a very tough adversary, considering that the two of them were the tankiest of their respective teams. In the same way that Bishop was gasping hard and bleeding all over, the Flame Paladin’s damage was reflected in the pathetic state of its armor. Its shield alone bore many marks of Bishop’s punches, which he had increased the firepower by enveloping his arms in gigantic gauntlets triple his fists’ size. One of its legs were severely damaged, forcing the Flame Paladin to limp as the two circled around each.

It was almost time to end the battle, and Bishop let out one last growl before rushing forward. Two gigantic fists smashed into the Flame Paladin, who had futilely raised its shield to defend. The resulting bang was deafeningly loud, with the Flame Paladin completely overpowered and completely thrown backwards. It was easy to see why. Right before the impact, Bishop had remodeled his rock gauntlets, creating spikes from the knuckles before hammering it into the Flame Paladin. The large soldier walked over to the fallen knight, the first one to fall to the Chess Team and continuously pummeled the Flame Paladin. When he finally stopped, what was left was a twisted metal.

Huffing from the aftermath of the battle, the rock gauntlets around his arms cracked and shattered, dropping to the ground. The others had just about finished with their own battles at the same time. King and Queen were sitting on the ground against each other’s back. Lying in front of King was the Flame Assassin with the flaming blade of the Flame Swordsman pierced into his chest and exiting from the back of its head. Queen’s opponent, the Flame Swordsman was missing its head and arms with very questionably sharp gashes in its armor. Knight sat on a pile of rubble, head down with both hands clutching bow. His opponent was pinned to the walls of the building directly opposite him, spread eagled with a multitude of glowing green arrows protruding from its body.

Rook had been the last to finish his fight, and the entire team watched the Flame Demon Slayer hold the Flame Berserker in a chokehold, both of them entirely covered in flames and with a sudden twist of his hands, severed the Berserker’s neck. The flames around Rook’s body slowly dispersed as he released his grip on the dead Berserker, letting the body slide down to the ground while he kept standing in stance of defiant victory. The entire Chess Team were exhausted, this being their second major battle of the day. The Flame Wraiths that had troubled them since the beginning littered the grounds, their broken bodies unmoving.

But it wasn’t over yet. The biggest problem arrived with a roar that shook the heavens and caused the volcano to quake along with it, and before they could even catch their breath and prepare themselves, he had struck. Megido arrived with a powerful entrance and Bishop was the unlucky one to be his first target. With a bone jarring heavy punch, the biggest member of the Chess Team was swept up from where he stood and thrown straight into the building directly behind Knight. The sharpshooter’s eyes went wide from shock as his teammate whooshed past him.

“Bishop!” all of them shouted at the same time. Megido roared again at the remaining Rune Knights and surprisingly, was replied with an equally inhuman roar. Pushing the rubble away from him, Bishop stood up from the debris. Broken arms corrected themselves with sickening cracks, split skin rapidly stitching up and bloody wounds dried up as a new monster came to the fore. His team members could see that Bishop had passed his breaking point, that he was now a senseless monster whose only aim was to destroy. And what better opponent than Megido. Bishop launched himself at the fire god without hesitation, successfully landing his first punch on the fire god and even pushing him back a few steps.

“That bloodline!!” was all the fire god growled when he took a few steps back before pushing forward. Initially it seemed that Bishop could take on the fire god at first but the situation proved to be untrue as they fought on. While Bishop could still land a few punches near the start of the fight, he was gradually overpowered as Megido’s punches and kicks rained on him. His regeneration powers were even unable to keep up. The rest of the team had jumped into the mix as well by that time, attacking to no avail and soaking up hits that left them staggering. Knight was no exception. Kiting from outside Megido’s melee range, he finally gained the ire of the fire god as the latter ignored the rest and moved to capture Knight within his bone-crushing grasp and unceremoniously flung the little guy into the air.

The only one who could get the guy safely out of the air was Queen, but at the moment, she was very much occupied. Her makeshift barrier of wind was crushed before the might of Megido’s kick, throwing her back into a building. She was reeling from the blow as she slumped against the wall, barely able to even bring up any of her magical energy at the moment. King and Rook only lasted a few seconds longer than her, the two of them helpless against their adversary.

[1368 words]
[Total WC: 8362 / 9000]

But the time they had bought was more than enough. Without any warning, Knight was snatched out of the air by a pair of gloved hands and was dropped off at the fringe of the war zone. Shane stood beside him with a grave expression. His energy wings had withdrawn back into the small energy pack strapped to his back, barely even noticeable. A flash of blue around his left hand brought forth five arrows. The energy coming from the arrows were ominous, and Knight watched them with apprehension.

“I know you guys are spent, but I’m gonna need to count on you for this, Knight. These are the arrows of Agwe, and possible the only thing that will save us now. I will distract Megido and you take whatever openings you can find to nail him with these,” Shane instructed apologetically and dropped them into Knight’s outstretched hands. He took up Knight’s bow and passed it back to him.

“You’re the only one who can pull it off, buddy,” Shane said with a grim smile and then he was gone. The next second the Rune Knight Captain appeared directly above Megido, lightning crackling around his entire body while white steam rolled off him. With the Patriot shield strapped around his left arm, Shane held Mjolnir with both hands high above his head and slammed it down on the fire god’s head. A massive explosion of lightning and flames ensued, blowing Shane out of the air but the energy wings unfurled again from behind him, stabilizing his fall. He hovered in the air while the smoke and dust from the explosion dispersed, waiting.

“You dare return, mortal?” an angry howl could be heard as a silhouette dashed out of the smoke. The punch arrived as quick as lightning, but thankfully, Shane was blessed by the lightning itself and his own magic. He defended against the punch with Patriot, absorbing the impact and returned the strike to Megido with a horizontal swing of Mjolnir, hammering the latter in the side of his chest and once more sending him into the ground. Skulking around the battlefield, Knight watched with wide eyes at the unfolding battle. The other members of the Chess Team had already moved away from the battle, knowing they wouldn’t be able to help much. Even Bishop had been out for the count.

“I’m here to return the debt!” Shane shouted back in return as he dived towards the fallen god and raised his hammer. Once more he swung it downwards and Megido sneered as he raised his left hand to stop the blow, but Shane pulled on the brakes at the last moment, missing his hit but unleashing a torrent of lightning bolts on the fire god from the skies above with a crack of thunder. Megido roared in fury at the attack, and Knight took the first shot. The arrow of Agwe with its abyss black shaft, dark blue feathers and a wickedly sharp arrow head with barbs around it flew through the air with a sharp whistle and pierced through Megido’s skin effortlessly. For the first time, the fire god had bleed.

“Good one, Knight. Four more to go!” Shane’s voice called out through the communications device as he hovered around in the air.

“The arrows of Agwe!” the fire god remarked in surprise and immediately turned his attention towards Knight just as he was about to get away to a different spot. Dropping on all fours, Megido pushed himself off the ground with all four limbs and hurtled through the air towards Knight with his arms outstretched. Knight was never going to be able to avoid it. But Shane could. With his increased speed from All Might, the Captain dropped to the ground and instantly moved himself between the two and swung the hammer with all his might. Roaring with frustration, Megido pulled back his right fist and countered the hammer strike as he landed. He attacked with a left hook but the Captain was ahead of him, defending against it with his shield.

With all of his buffing spells activated along with the enhancement from his weapons, Shane stood his ground. For a moment, he dared to entertain the thought that he might be able to equal Megido’s strength. But that notion was abolished quickly, as flames began to build up around the fire god. Shane had forgotten about that part. Having fought Megido in hand to hand combat twice, he had completely forgotten about his power. He was painfully reminded of this when a blazing surge of flames erupted from the ground beneath him, throwing him up into the air amidst flames. The sheer heat from the flames caused the energy wings to malfunction, leaving Shane wingless and he came crashing down with a groan of pain.

Fully encased in flames, Megido marched over towards Shane’s fallen figure and held out his right hand. Flames gathered around his right hand and extended as it took shape as a greatsword. A large, flaming greatsword that he swung downwards in Shane’s direction. The latter didn’t even have the time to catch his breath and haphazardly brought up his hammer to defend. Again, lightning and flames collided, the ensuing eruption tossing Shane bodily away again. The distance was what he needed as Shane stood back up, but not without using a healing spell. As he cast Revitalization, a wave of magic energy washed through his entire body, temporarily numbing the pain, healing whatever injuries he had gotten so far. A second spell, Untouchable, increased his body’s defenses, rendering him more durable than before.

Two arrows flew through the air and struck Megido in his back as his sudden power-up made him complacent. The flames around Megido fluctuated slightly as he staggered forward from the two arrows, but it still wasn’t enough. The God of Fire might have been weakened by the three arrows of Agwe, but it still wasn’t enough to even the playing field. Knight escaped the moment he had shot the two arrows, once more getting out of his captain and the god’s way. That moment of vulnerability was capitalized by Shane as he jumped into the air and brought down his fists on the God of Fire’s head.

“Onibus Smash! Hargeon Smash! Oshibana Smash! Hosenka Smash! Balsam Smash! White LIGHTNING!” Shane shouted the names of his moves one after another, for the pure adrenaline thrill of it as he chained his moves. His moves flowed fluidly to follow up the double-fisted downwards slam earlier into an uppercut to an elbow strike to the side of Megido’s ribs to a palm thrust into his chest and closing the melee combo with a powerful roundhouse kick and sending the fire god flying with a blast of lightning from Mjolnir.

Shane gasped for breath from the sudden exertion of physical and magical strength. It was rare for him to have to chain so many of his moves at one go, normally using them individually as a finisher move but what was he to expect? He was up against a god. A god who didn’t seem like he was going to back down any time soon and had shot forth a stream of flames in his direction. The shield abilities from Untouchable wavered and burned itself out against the flames, but at least it had left Shane in one piece.

“Cap, are the arrows even working?” Knight asked with concern. He had already shot three with two more to go but Megido didn’t seem like he was weakening at all.

“Keep going, don’t stop,” Shane croaked as he dug himself out from the debris around him. Megido was already upon him, grabbing the Rune Knight roughly and proceeding to throw him into the ground again. Shane coughed up blood as he hit the ground, dazed from the sudden attack.

[1311 words]
[Total WC: 9673 / 12000]

When Megido tried to attack him again, a flaming boulder sailed through the air and struck the former in the back. Furious, the God of Fire turned around to see a silver-haired man barely able to stand, with his arms extended in front of him. Beside him was a larger blonde man, the last of white flames blown away from his hands. King and Rook had made a desperate move to buy Shane some time, while Knight appeared out of nowhere again, sending another arrow on its way to Megido. But the fire god had already been caught off guard twice. How could he allow himself to be shot again? So what if Knight was the best sharpshooter?

The burning greatsword appeared once again his right hand and he swatted away the arrow mid-flight. Megido walked slowly but confidently towards the two Rune Knight members, fully intent on killing them this time. The color drained from Knight’s face as he realized what had happened, quickly reporting the situation to Shane. The Rune Knight Captain got back up, determination blazing in his eyes as he tightened his grip around Mjolnir. With one of the five arrows broken, there was now no way to seal Megido’s powers. Even with three in him, the God of Fire still had more than enough power to flatten him and his entire team.

“Shoot the last one,” Shane commanded. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

Shane looked at the mystical hammer in his right hand. He had always been able to tap into its powers, drawing upon a minuscule portion of its lightning to empower himself. The idea growing in his mind now was what would happen if he were to transfer everything into himself? A very likely answer was that his mortal body would not be able to contain the vast powers of the godly artifact. Shane reasoned with himself that Megido would still kill all of them anyway if he stayed as he is. The question now was how would he do it.

As if in response to that very thought, the hammer in his right hand began to hum and vibrate. Eyes wide, Shane knew not what to make of it. But before he could even respond, a white light suddenly flashed before his very eyes, making Shane reflexively hold up his left hand to shield his eyes from the blinding light. When the light finally dimmed enough, Shane slowly ceased his squinting and removed his hand from his brows. And he realized he was no longer on Ember Island.

The Rune Knight looked around himself and discovered that he was actually floating in space. Asteroids of all shapes and sizes surrounded him, floating gently while an orb of bright light lit up the darkness of the cosmos from afar. A dark silhouette flashed past Shane’s position, too fast to be an asteroid and as the silhouette came into focus, it was revealed to be a person. Or it resembled a person. Shane couldn’t discern any features from the person’s face, only seeing that the person now moving forward at an incredible pace by jumping from asteroid to asteroid was fully armored, and his armors bore a distinctive design that he couldn’t place his hand on.
And then he saw the weapon in the person’s right hand. Shane instinctively looked down to his own hand and saw that it was empty. As the person rapidly approached the orb of white light, the Rune Knight found himself moving forward. He glanced down at his own body, and realized that his form was ethereal. Despite still being in his combat suit, he could see that he was partially transparent.

“What is happening?” the Rune Knight mumbled to himself. What he didn’t expect was an answer, and how the answer was conveyed.

Watch, Shane Stern of the Rune Knights, and you’ll understand.

It was a voice in his head, one which he had never heard before. Yet, at the same time, it was familiar. As the voice in his mind had bid, Shane watched the events unfolded before himself. He had already accepted the fact that he was no longer in control of himself and someone or something was currently in charge of this entire dimension or space or wherever he was. His mind wandered for a little, to his last thought before he had arrived here. Was it Mjolnir’s doing? How?

Questions whirled around in his mind but he pushed them back temporarily, to only do one thing now. To watch. Shane’s point of view began to shift as his ethereal body began moving upwards, giving him a bird’s eye view of the scene unfolding below. The warrior with the hammer was now directly floating in front of the orb of white light, which to Shane’s dismay when he got close enough to look past the glaring brightness was actually a massive cosmic lightning storm. The warrior raised his hammer and seemed to be shouting something, but whatever it was, Shane could only see but not hear.

With a mighty swing, the warrior tossed the hammer right into the heart of the massive lightning storm. What might have seemed like a futile attempt ended extremely cataclysmic as the lightning within the storm began to surge outwards like the lashing tentacles of an octopus. The warrior was hit by a few bolts of lightning, the blazing heat of the lightning searing through his armor but he stood unmoving, waiting for what Shane knew not. It felt like an eternity, watching the silent scene play out. And when it finally happened, all of the pieces clicked into place for Shane.

Despite having raged with the entirety of its powers, the cosmic lightning storm had failed to triumph over the small hammer that had been tossed into it. And as it thrashed, lightning bolts flashing everywhere, the size of the storm gradually grew smaller and smaller. In the end, the very last of it disappeared and the only thing left where it once was, was Mjolnir, the hammer of the gods. And then everything came to a pause, suspended in time.

“The origin…” Shane whispered under his breath, as he understood the importance of the moment. The voice spoke up once again.

What you just witnessed was the concentration of my wrath condensed and confined within the hammer forged from the heart of a dying star. And it wasn’t until this clash that the hammer finally gained its name, Mjolnir. A name that resounds through the gods of old and new.

I am attuned to your thoughts, Shane Stern of the Rune Knights. And I heard your very last wish, and a desperation that I have never felt from you for as long as I allowed you to wield me.

A mere human from Earthland could never hope to contain my powers within their mortal flesh. So I ask you again, do you still ask for the same thing?

“Yes, even if it costs my life,” Shane replied without a hint of hesitation within his voice, or rather his thoughts.

Very well, it was precisely this willingness to sacrifice that made you worthy of becoming my wielder.

With a flash, Shane returned to the battlefield in Fire Town. The battle was still exactly as how he had left it, with Megido still approaching Rook and King. Whatever that had happened hadn’t been bound to the time and space of the mortal plane. But Shane knew what he must do this time. The dark clouds above the island began to reverberate with thunder as bolts of lightning began to light up the sky every once in a while. Lightning began to gather around Shane’s body, much more than had ever been attempted, and the Rune Knight let Mjolnir fly forward with a swing of his arms.

[1307 words]
[Total WC: 10980 / 12000]

[The 1,000-word sample for Shane to obtain the Flame GS starts here] Faster than ever, Mjolnir smashed directly into Megido’s back and propelled him forward, dropping him to his knees. The hammer made a turn in the air and immediately returned to Shane’s outstretched right hand. When the God of Fire turned around with a scowl, Shane had already appeared right behind him and with another powerful swing, smashed the hammer right into his lower jaw and sent him flying up into the air. Rook and King were slack jawed at the power that Shane wielded out of nowhere but when they looked at their leader again, they were horrified.

As Mjolnir had warned Shane, the degree of power that he had been allowed to use was capped, to keep himself from self-harm. However, now that the limiter was partially removed and more of the cosmic lightning storm’s power flowed through him, Shane’s body was slowly destroying itself from within. All of his veins were bulging from the strain on his body, and while the blow to Megido had seemed heroic, the very action itself had caused his skin and flesh to tear. The Revitalization spell he had used earlier was working furiously to keep up with the injuries that kept coming along but it was always a beat too slow.

“Cap…” King wanted to speak but couldn’t find what to say. Shane didn’t even acknowledge them as he immediately launched into battle again with a powerful leap into the air. Lightning-empowered soldier fought against the God of Fire in an all-out, no holds barred round as they exchanged furious blows. Megido was constantly hammered by Mjolnir while Shane took grievous wounds from the greatsword that Megido wielded. One depended on his godly physique while the other was continuously healed by his own magic. However, it was obvious that Shane was losing. Apart from the wounds Megido inflicted, his own body was being torn apart with each swing of his arms, so much that his team weren’t even sure what was happening.

A final arrow of Agwe sliced through the air with utmost precision as the battle neared its end, piercing itself into Megido’s right shoulder as he attempted to slash Shane in half after managing to pin the soldier down. It had also saved Shane, with Megido’s strike diverted by the sneak attack, leaving the former with a lighter but still terrible slash. While he had only been hit by four of the five arrows of Agwe, the fourth one finally showed that the arrows were truly as advertised, that it would be able to seal Megido’s powers if all five had hit their target.

But a pity it wasn’t. Instead, Shane gathered his resolve and made one final request to Mjolnir and swung the weapon upwards into the God of Fire. As the hammer struck his bare chest, the weapon shattered, and in that instant, release all of the wrath of the cosmic storm upon Megido. A sky-shattering explosion occurred, rocking the entire island as it engulfed the centre of Fire Town, leaving nothing but a smoldering crater.

Shane would have died had King not used his magic at the last moment, jumping through portals in space and collected Shane right before the explosion had gone off. The magnitude of the explosion had been off the charts, the shockwave following King and Shane into the portals and expelled them out with such force when they exited from another portal at the edge of the crater. Shane rolled on the ground and slammed against a crumbling wall. With a grunt, the Captain of the Rune Knights crawled and dragged himself to the edge of the crater.

Even at the expense of Mjolnir and the sealing abilities of Agwe minus one arrow, Megido was still standing in the very center of the crater. But something was different. His form was no longer that of an eight-foot tall, bipedal lion with red fur and black mane. Instead, the God of Fire now standing in the middle of the crater looked very much like a human, clad in armor on his upper and lower body, albeit with flames for hair. Megido turned his head instinctively to look at Shane, their eyes locking and as he was about to say something, the God of Fire was suddenly hit by a blast of magic energy from above.

Every one from the Chess Team looked upwards immediately, and Shane gasped in shock as Janus Burne floated above them all with a very malicious smile on his face.

“It seems like you finally remember who you are, old friend,” Janus spoke, his voice magically magnified so that everyone on the island could hear him.

“Janus!!” Megido spat out in anger, but he was unable to retaliate in any manner. The explosion caused by the destruction of Mjolnir had completely overpowered him, and just being able to stand after taking it at point blank range was already a feat in itself. Hence paving the way for Janus to shoot him down with utter ease. The God of Fire, in his original form if they were to go by Janus’ words, struggled to stand but was shot down again with another blast and this time he stayed down on his knees.

“For a century I have waited for your return, one that I had painstakingly arrange beneath so many layers of disguise. All that effort, just for the Heart of Flames!”

“That was my wife’s heart, you evil mage! You killed her and banished me from this realm, but I swear that you will never ever find her heart!”

“Really? What’s this then?” Janus said as he conjured a gigantic gem out of thin air, holding the large ruby with both hands, before laughing maniacally. “You failed, Megido! And you even led me to it!”

“Unhand that, cursed mage!” Megido roared but could do nothing else otherwise.

“And I shall even take your powers, friend!” Janus remarked as he held up the large ruby above his head and started the intonation for his spells. From the ruby, a beam of red light struck Megido’s heart and the God of Fire bellowed to the heavens. His powers, forcefully removed from his body and manifesting as orange flames, was pulled up along the beam of light, inching ever closer towards Janus. And that moment, Megido opened his eyes to look at Shane again and without his permission, used every bit of the strength left within him to divert his powers as a God of Fire into the Rune Knight.

Blazing flames rushed towards the Rune Knight and completely enveloped his body as he yelled in pain. To the Chess Team, totally unable to react towards how things were unfolding, they watched with fascination as the wounds on Shane’s body began to heal at a remarkable rate while flames continued rushing towards him. Up in the air, Janus was also absorbing the powers of the God of Fire, but it was slower due to the nature of the forced extraction whereas the transfer of powers from Megido to Shane was willing on his part.

As power filled Shane’s entire body, he was stunned when an influx of memories began to seep into his mind. For the first time, he witnessed the actual events that had transpired. Janus’ story had been a lie from the very beginning. Instead of the wise and powerful mage he had made himself out to be, the man was a dark mage and he lusted for the powers of the Fire God. By way of an unholy artifact, Janus had hunted down Megido and his wife, chasing them until the couple were unable to run any further when they reached Ember Island. On the island itself, they had had their battle of titanic proportions for three days and three nights. The battle was ended when Megido had been fully hit by the five arrows of Agwe, weakening him considerably and to turn the tides of battle in their favor, his wife had sacrificed herself to strip Janus of all his magic powers.

But it wasn’t so easy as long as Janus still had his demonic artifact. Defeated, the dark mage had escaped with a pitiful shadow of what his magic powers once were while Megido was left to weep the death of his wife. The arrows of Agwe had not only sealed his powers but was slowly cutting off his connection to Earthland, causing him to slowly disappear. And the last thing he did before fully returning to whatever plane of existence he had originated from, was to bury the Heart of Flames, his wife’s heart and the core of her powers, the only thing left behind by her noble sacrifice, deep in the foundation of Ember Island in hopes that no one would ever discover and abuse the powers granted by it.

When the very last of his powers had been fully transferred over to Shane, Megido simply keeled over with his last breath. Janus screamed with rage as he only managed to absorb a minor portion of the Fire God’s powers, and targeted Shane and the Chess Team as the outlet of his rage. A gigantic fire ball was tossed in their direction, threatening to obliterate the Chess Team and the island with it, but he wasn’t the only one with who had received Megido’s powers. Fully healed by the influx of divine magic, Shane intuitively raised both hands and released an equally sizeable stream of flames towards the fire ball. It was clear who had the upper hand as the stream of black flames fully engulfed the fireball and even Janus himself.

Shot out of the sky, the Heart of Flames fell out of his grip. Janus righted himself almost immediately in the air and was racing towards the ground to catch the Heart of Flames when a portal appeared out of thin air in the Heart of Flame’s path and fell through the portal. The portal closed off just as Janus approached, his hands seizing nothing but thin air. On the ground, the Heart of Flames appeared behind King with a gentle thud while the mage himself dropped on his butt in exhaustion.

Shane fired off a few more blasts of black flames at the dark mage in the air, unable to hit the latter as he moved around nimbly in the air. But Janus could recognize a loss when he saw one.

“Captain Shane Stern of the Rune Knights, pray that our paths would never meet again. But know that, I would always be ready to strike from the shadows,” the dark mage devilishly announced, before a portal opened beside him. From the portal walked out Marris, his butler but this time in a different garb. With a sneer, Janus Burne walked through the portal, followed by Marris after he had given Shane a long hard look. [The 1,000-word sample for Shane to obtain the Flame GS ends here]

Like King, Shane fell back on his hindquarters and stared dumbly at what had become of Fire Town. They had stopped the Fire God but at what cost? They had completely played into the hands of a hidden enemy and were it not for the foiled attempt to seal the Fire God, the outcome would have been very different. As Shane wondered what he would put down on the report to the General and Field Marshall, a voice from behind him shook him out of his stupor.

“Guess you are a Flame God Slayer now, Cap,” Rook, the other Flame Slayer on the team, a Flame Demon Slayer to be more specific, announced and patted the man heavily on his shoulder as he crouched, smirking. “We should really work on our combinations skills now eh?
In spite of the grim outcome, Shane still managed to let out a laugh at Rook’s joke.

“If you guys would be so kind, please bring that Heart of Flames and toss it somewhere no one will ever find. I think that the Nomarean Death Swirl in Whirlpool Sea would be a very good location.”

“Consider it done, Cap,” King replied.

[2009 words]
[Total WC: 12989 / 12000]

WC Breakdown: 12,989 in total

1,921 words --> utilized as Shane's 1,000-word sample to obtain the Flame GS
11,068 words --> utilized for the 11,000 solo WC of a free form 10-year job