213 Holy fire

Even with the full power of their fire spells, these things seemed to be just as durable as the blessed metal Marcus was able to produce.

"Keep shooting!! Don't hesitate!!" she ordered.

Her group kept unleashing a barrage of fireballs over their red enemies but they all seemed like were barely reacting.

She wondered about what she should try to do to change their situation. A strike from her body boosted by her shared fire cloak could probably work to take these things down, but if she did so, her allies would be forced to stand still and would become easy targets.

She then decided to go for the other option.

"Summon the flaming beasts!!" Leona yelled.

Her team obeyed her command and they all began to gather fire magic in the shape of huge ferocious animals.

A tiger, a dragon, a rhino, an eagle, and from Leona, her usual giant gorilla, every single one of them bigger than a car and completely made of fire.

"Eart mages! Wind mages!! Give us support!!" she commanded.

A group of mages obeyed and came to aid them in their struggle to push back Mia's golems.

The fire beasts kept jumping on the walking diamonds and trying to trash them while wind mages used their power to make the animals even bigger by supporting them with wind and the earth mages tried to hold down their movements by sticking their foot on the ground.

It was a lot of work from their combined effort but they were slowly succeeding in creating cracks on the golems and eventually shattering them completely.

"It's working!! It's working!!" one of her allies commented.

Mia just smiled from her throne and whispered, "yeah, but for how long?"

She snapped her fingers and all her golems began to gather in one spot and combine themselves together into one massive creature.

It had a humanoid torso on top of a spider-like body with massive legs. Its arms looked like the claws of a lobster full of spikes and the head showed a massive horn on top of it that could pierce a tree with great ease. It was taller than the temple of the East followers and was casting a gigantic shadow over everyone.

"Impossible..." Leona whispered.

The diamond giant raised its claw and dropped it on the ground with full force, creating a huge impact that made all the mages fly away.

Mia could feel their fear. The sight of that powerful new enemy was slowly feeding them with the mindset that they could not win.

A couple of mages began to focus their attacks on the diamond beast, attacking it with lightning bolts, giant icicles, huge fireballs, and small hurricanes, but nothing seemed to even faze it.

"It's not working... We need more power!!" Leona ordered.

Her allies assembled and began to finally use the fire cloak ability. All of the fire animals also gathered around the ape and fused themselves with it, making the beast increase greatly in size until it became as big as the diamond giant itself.

The gorilla raised its fist and punched the giant, successfully managing to push it back.

The people close by began to cheer at that scene as they started to gain some hope once again.

"Ooooh... They look so cute when they think they can still win..." Mia laughed.

The ape tried to punch the giant again but this time, his fist was blocked by its claws, proceeded by using its huge horn to stab the gorilla made of fire and almost breaking the spell completely.

"Ugh!!! It's too powerful!!!" Leona shifted her gaze and spotted a young man with silver hair slashing demons left and right with great ease, "Marcus!! We need you!!!"

The living weapon heard his name being called and right after cutting one last monster in half, he rushed to Leona's side to assist her.

"Whoa!!!" he gasped as he finally noticed what they were dealing with, "that's even bigger than the last one!!"

"And even harder to damage too!! Lend a hand?" Leona added.

"On it!!"

Marcus then assumed his weapon form and fused with Leona's staff to boost her power.

The woman began to feel her magic energy burning inside, the same way they did when they joined forces to defend Evlin's school from the dragons.

The fire ape stood up once again and began to brawl with the diamond monster. Fragments of red diamonds and chunks of ember started to spread themselves across the field as neither of the two titans showed any signs of giving up.

Leona started to feel like she was fighting Evlin again.

Mia was just enjoying the show from her seat and wondering how long they were going to last.

Marcus saw the girl smirking and became fueled with a desire to win. He already lost Claire in this battle as her body became too exhausted to continue fighting, he could not afford to lose Leona as well.

[Leona!! Do you trust me!!!???] the weapon asked.

"Wh- What!!??" Leona replied.

[If we work together we can beat this thing... But I need to know if you trust me!! And you need to be honest with me!!]

"What in blazes are you talking about??"

[I have a special ability that allows me to become even stronger when fighting with someone by my side... But it only works when the two sides completely trust each other!!]

The fire ape was starting to lose as the monster was beginning to land more blows on it.

[I trust you!!! I need to know if you trust me!!!]

"Trust me??? We barely know each other!! How could you trust me!!??"

[Because I know people like you!! You're the type to never give on going after what your heart desires! You're the type to never abandon those close to you! You're the type that every time someone tells you no, you keep insisting until they say yes!!]

"How- How can you say that??" Leona replied while starting to feel a little nervous. Her heart started to beat very fast.

[I know you! I respect you! And I trust you!! But I need you to trust me as well!! Please trust me!!]

The diamond creature was about to launch another punch on the fire ape who was about to vanish completely.

[Leona!!!] Marcus shouted desperately.

"OK!! Ok!! I trust you!!" she finally said back.

Marcus activated his fusion ability and Leona's hair changed from blond to silver. The fire magic in her body began to grow even stronger and right before getting attacked, her fire ape responded with his own powerful fist and smashed right through the creature's claw, and shattering it into pieces.

"We- We did it!!!" Leona gasped in amazement.

[Don't stop yet!! Keep attacking!!]

"R- Right!!"

Leona sent another command to her fire ape, who was now burning even more intensely while being surrounded by some kind of silver aura and started to throw a series of consecutive punches at the diamond monster.

Some of the followers of the East were starting to fall as they couldn't keep sending any more power to Leona. The woman was just unleashing all of her energy without stopping. Didn't matter if it was the power of her allies, Marcus, or even herself, she just continued to throw everything she had at her opponent as if her life depended on it.

She noticed her partners falling one after another and began to gather all her remaining energy left to finish off the creature with one final attack.

"Let's finish this, Marcus!!"

[You got it!!]

She began to increase the power output and released more energy through her staff that connected to the ape. Her eyes became wider once she realized her staff was starting to crack as well, probably a result of trying to send too much energy at once.

The ape finally released his most powerful attack as its whole body began to take the shape of a massive fireball with the face of a gorilla being revealed in the center and launched itself towards the giant.

An explosion of fire was unleashed which created a blinding light to appear from the impact for a duration of a few seconds.

Once the army was finally able to look again, they spotted the giant made of diamond completely destroyed and slowly crumbling into the ground, piece by piece.

Marcus and Leona dropped on the ground completely exhausted from their fight.

"Not bad... Living weapon..." Leona whispered.

"Not bad yourself, fire mage..." Marcus replied.

The two were feeling proud of their small victory but a sense of worry began to fill the lad as he was wondering if he might have used too much energy in this one battle and if he had enough for the rest of the war. They already had to bench Claire, he couldn't get benched as well.

"Marcus, watch out!!!" Leona shouted.

The lad raised his head and noticed a wave of spells coming right at him. A large icicle, a huge boulder, and a beam of water.

Marcus shifted his skin to metal by reflex and took the blast of the spells head-on which launched him all the way back to the portal.

"Guahhh!!"

"Marcus!!" Leona cried. She looked again and noticed that an army of mages in red robes was slowly approaching.

Marcus tried to stand up but it seemed like his body was reaching its limit already.

He glared at what appeared to be the next challenge to overcome, "possessed mages..."

Another barrage of spells came flying right at him, only this time he didn't have any energy left to defend himself.

He closed his eyes to brace for impact, but a massive wall of ice appeared and protected him from harm.

"What the...?" he whispered.

He gazed to his side and realized that a blond woman surrounded by ice magic was crossing the portal and entering the battlefield.

"Mom!!?" Marcus yelled in surprise.

"Save your strength for the final battle... I- We will handle the rest..." Detra whispered.