Grieve raised up his thin sword and waved it in the air. His movement was slow, almost too slow for it to do any real damage. Yet, a few moments after he finished his swing, the entire platoon suddenly felt themselves struck with the blade directly in their chests, with necrotic energy suddenly disintegrating their proud Flarecorp chest plates into rust.
"An undead monster?! How are they controlling it?!"
The more and more Arsonny fought with this strange group, the more he realized that their confidence was not just empty bravado. They were the real thing.
The rest of his army charged forward after seeing each platoon get decimated by these single individuals. Even without Arsonny's instructions, they knew that they had to put all of their efforts together if they had any chance of defeating them.
However, their large numbers meant nothing to these people.
Zion's punches broke through space, creating a shockwave of disturbance that destroyed all of their formations.
Jaku's lightning fast sword was untouchable, defeating tens of soldiers just before the thunder cracked in his wake.
Fudge kept himself hidden in the shadows, abducting any soldier he touched into an insurmountable illusion that kept them standing in place, completely vulnerable to any attacks.
And the most dangerous of them all was Grieve, whose 9-star power completely destroyed any coordinated magic spell that these soldiers could think of. His swings looked normal, yet it would decimate almost 10% of the soldiers each time, decaying their armor and weapons into rust particles that flew into the wind.
Arsonny knew at this moment that his army was about to lose. This unknown group of individuals had somehow bested Flarecorp's best of the best.
"You guys have no idea who you have angered. This world has powers that you do not even comprehend," he said, summoning all the strength he could muster.
He raised his halberd in the air, its blade suddenly glowing an orange light as he started to unleash the power hidden in his chest.
A flame emerged on his entire body before a shimmering figure appeared above his head.
The roaring head of a lion appeared above Arsonny, with its mane filled with that of blazing flames that only seemed to grow hotter as the lion slowly awakened.
This was Arsonny's Diva. A Flaming Lion.
However, this Diva's body was still clearly incomplete. The only thing that was manifested was its head, with the rest of the body still yet to appear. But that was enough to bring back the dwindling morale of the Flarecorp soldiers.
They suddenly gained a new sense of confidence as they saw the appearance of this Flaming Lion. They knew that their commander would finally unleash one of his greatest strengths that surely none of these people had ever even seen before.
The fire on this Diva lit up their spirits once again, giving them a second wind to rally up their power and defend against these powerful individuals.
With the formation of his Diva, Arsonny burst into action. He jumped up from his horse and charged towards Zion and the rest of them.
Seeing this, Zion's smile seemed to only grow wider. He took this as a challenge.
With his gauntlets glowing with a violet power, he stepped back before unleashing one of his strongest attacks. He punched the air multiple times, creating more and more shattered fabric of space that eventually traveled down towards the speeding Arsonny.
Zion's barrage of punches traveled through multiple soldiers, each one launching far away the moment the shattered space propagated towards them.
However, as it reached Arsonny, he raised up his halberd with both his hands and reared it up behind him. And just as Zion's space-breaking barrage of punches reached him, he swung his halberd wide, meeting the punch head-on.
The two powers clashed, creating a shockwave that sent the weaker soldiers flying. Even the ground began to crumble, creating a crater at the point of impact.
Zion's attack was an unrelenting force, continuing to add more power even after the collision.
And for a moment, it even seemed as if Zion was going to win this battle.
But it was at that moment that Arsonny's Diva shouted a silent roar, with its flaming mane bursting forth with life.
Suddenly, Arsonny's halberd erupted in a pure red flame, a power that did not contain a single ounce of mana, yet its power was enough to fight against Zion's power.
The red fire spread towards the shattered space of Zion's punches, engulfing it in a red flame.
"Submit," Arsonny commanded.
And suddenly, the shattered space engulfed in red flames suddenly lost all of its power. Zion felt its connection with the spell break, as if he no longer had control of it at all!
"Return for me," Arsonny added.
And suddenly, the shattered punches began to turn back, creating a shattered space that reached towards Zion at speeds far faster than his original spell.
Zion felt his own shattering punch come towards him at full speed.
This was the first time that the young Dragonborn felt his own spell backfire on him.
With his physical speed, Zion could have dodged away at the very last second. But his stubbornness got the better of him and he ended up powering his gauntlets a second time to try and beat his own power!
He punched the air, his arms almost blurring as he released a flurry of blows even faster than when he used it the first time.
A new shattered space appeared in front of Zion. As soon as his final punch landed, the cracks propagated forward, coming face to face with flaming red shattered space.
The two collided, creating sparks of lightning as the two cracks crashed into one another.
Wind picked up from the impact, turning the green field into a bald crater, turning deeper and deeper as the two forces fought against each other.
"Empower!" Arsonny shouted, and soon, the red flames enveloping the cracks suddenly grew even bigger and hotter.
The cracks seemed to have gained a new strength as it started to overpower Zion's attack.
Seeing this, Zion didn't hesitate to jump forward and create more space-breaking punches to defeat Arsonny's counter-attack.
But it was at that moment that the red flames grew larger, soon enveloping Zion's attacks.
Zion felt his own power get cut off once again!
The two cracks, once fighting, had ceased all conflicts and merged together to become a giant crack in space.
Soon, this giant zombified amalgamation of Zion's punches combined, and then started to shoot towards its sender.
"There is nothing that my flames cannot conquer," Arsonny said. "You were a formidable fighter. But you too shall perish in the face of Flarecorp's greatness."
The giant flaming red cracks would soon envelop Zion and there was nothing that would stop it.
Arsonny knew it was over. He turned around, scanning the battlefield for his next target.
But it was in that moment that silence reigned. A couple of seconds had passed, yet the crash that was supposed to have resulted in a large explosion never happened.
He turned around, only to see the red flaming cracks frozen in the air, just a few meters away from Zion.
"Whew," the young Dragonborn said. "Thanks for the save, Bro Mike!"