244 Elemental Battle

Ellie, Claire, Joseph, Dia, and Detra all looked with their mouths wide open as the storm of fire continued to approach.

"Young miss!!!" Detra yelled, "Can you absorb that??"

"I- I can't!" Ellie confessed, "I still can barely move!!"

"Oh, great..." Detra whispered while raising another wall of ice.

She tried to stop the fire but her spell simply vanished in a matter of seconds due to the extreme heat.

"Joseph!!!" Claire shouted, "do the thing!!!"

The boy looked at her confused for a couple of seconds and then snapped his fingers, "the thing!! Of course!!"

"The thing...?" Ellie, Dia, and Detra repeated.

The boy then moved in front of them and raised his broken shield aimed at the incoming flames.

"Joey!! Are you crazy!!?? Get out of there!!" Ellie screamed.

"Trust me!! I know what I'm doing!" he replied.

All the women watched thinking the kid was going to be burned to a crisp, but to their surprise, the fire just began to shrink once it came in contact with the lad's wooden weapon until it vanished completely.

"What the hell...?" Gluttony gasped, "Where did my fire go??"

Ellie looked just as confused as the demon dragon. She then noticed that there was steam coming out of Joseph's body.

"What just happened??" Detra asked.

"This is the spell that he learned from miss Leona..." Claire explained.

"Joey can absorb energy too?" Ellie wondered.

"Nope... Heat!" Claire corrected, "He can absorb any heat in the area onto himself!"

The boy then did a little spin and made an anime pose, "It's my special fire ability that was born from my lessons with miss Leona and my affinity! I call it 'Zero Vortex!!'"

Dia just tilted her head, "why...?"

"Because it absorbs things like a vortex, and can reduce the temperature down to zero!"

Claire then came closer to Dia and began to whisper in her ear, "that name was my idea, he was going to call it Hot Vacuum..."

"Oh... I see... I would have gone with thermo assimilation..." Dia commented.

"I now declare that this power shall be called Thermo Assimilation!!!" Joseph proudly declared while shouting to the heavens as if receiving a name from Dia was the greatest honor he could ever ask for.

The boy turned around to face the dragon feeling like he now had the upper hand, "Now! You vile villain of evil villainess!!"

Gluttony just stared at the boy confused, "... what...?"

"Prepare to face the power of the greatest hero who ever lived!!"

"... Ok..." Gluttony replied while bending over and rushing towards the boy.

"Eh...? You're not using fire anymore??" Joseph gasped.

The dragon then raised his fist and prepared to bury the boy on the soil.

"Ah! Ah! Help!!"

"Ugh!!"

"Oh, thank you Jesus!!" the boy whispered in relief while falling on his knees.

"Focus!!" Detra yelled while approaching him, "the enemy is in front of you!! You have to keep your mind concentrated!!"

"Ah, sorry, yes!! Focus!"

Gluttony then stood up and glared at the two, "Ah... This is taking longer than I was expecting..."

He released another breath of fire but Detra just grabbed the boy that was on her side and began to hold him like a meat-shield.

"... Wha- What are you doing...?" Joseph asked.

"Absorb his power so I won't get hit!" Detra ordered.

"... I feel like I'm not being respected a lot right now..."

"DO IT!!!"

"Yes ma'am!!" Joseph replied while raising his shield again and repeating the process from earlier.

The fire vanished as the young mage absorbed it with his magic.

"Ouch!!!" Detra cried as she was forced to release the kid due to its body getting extremely heated all of sudden.

"Ugh!!" Joseph cried as he landed face-first in the ground.

"Grrr... This kid is so annoying..." Gluttony complained.

The dragon then grabbed the tree he was smacked against with one hand and launched it at the two with all the strength of his arm.

Detra noticed the incoming object and used her magic to halt its movement with a couple of frozen shards.

"What happened to your body??" she asked while wondering why there was steam coming out of him.

"Well, I absorbed the heat... Don't worry, it will go back to normal in a... couple of... Seconds..."

"Kid...? Kid!!" Detra yelled as she gazed at the boy falling unconscious on the ground due to over-heating.

Gluttony began to laugh, "hehe... now that's taken care of..."

He began to rush at Detra with flames coming out of his mouth, and the more he moved the more the flames continued to grow until his whole body was covered in fire.

"Oh, wonderful..." Detra cried as she tried to raise several platforms of ice to stop him, but the demon dragon just bashed straight through them all like a truck.

Claire continued to watch with worry as Detra started to be pushed against the wall.

"Ellie!!! You gotta help them!!"

"M- Me!!??"

"Yes, you!! You are the hero that defeated Mia!! You can take this guy!!"

"Are you crazy?? I needed three different people to eat my breakfast this morning and spent the whole day being carried around like a backpack!! What makes you think I'm in any condition to fight anyone??"

"But they need help!! Can't you use your magic??"

"Yes, but I can't move!! Ah!!" Ellie then came up with an idea while looking at the ongoing fight, "but maybe I don't need to..."

She then used her blessed power and took the shape of a metal crossbow.

"What the...??" Claire and Dia gasped as they saw the girl vanishing and turning into a metallic object.

Claire picked the crossbow and began to analyze it.

[Shoot me!!] a voice screamed inside Claire's head.

"Agh!!" the girl gasped, "Ellie...? Blue, is that you??"

[It's me!! Hurry!! Shoot me at the fire guy!!]

"U- Understood!!" Claire stated as she followed Ellie's command and took aim of Gluttony who was still fighting against Detra.

The ice mage was trying her best to keep her opponent from burning her, but since Joseph was laying around right behind her, she was having trouble trying to not let Gluttiny kill him by accident.

The demon engulfed in fire kept trying to punch her with his fists or release a cloud of flames at her face, but she continued to repel them with fast movements using her ice magic to defend herself.

The problem was, Detra was a warrior used to long-ranged combat, striking the opponent before he could even come to harm her with long shots of magic icicles.

She was in a difficult situation when dealing with someone that was so close to her.

"Stay back!!" she screamed while trying to blast Gluttony with her ice magic, but the demon barely reacted and just continued chasing after her.

[Claire!! What are you waiting for?? Shoot me!!]

"I can't!! He's too close!! I might hit miss Detra as well!!"

[Don't worry!! I know what I'm doing!! Just hurry! I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this form!!]

"O-Ok!!" Claire replied.

She took a deep breath and finally released a silver arrow at Gluttony.

The demon noticed the incoming projectile and began to unleash another wave of fire to stop the object, but this arrow wasn't just a part of Ellie, it was Ellie herself in the shape of an arrow.

The girl began to activate her spell-breaker on the tip of the arrowhead and absorbed the flames.

"What the!?" Gluttony gasped.

The arrow was about to pierce his head but he was a little faster and moved out of the way at the last moment.

Ellie then released her weapon form and turned back into a girl.

"Detra!! Hold me!!!" she screamed while still flying from the momentum.

Detra realized what the child was planning and grabbed her by the hand once she came closer to her, which Ellie responded by turning into a metal staff, Detra's metal staff that she inherited from her mother.

"Young miss, you never disappoint!"

[Glad to hear!!]

Detra aimed Ellie at Gluttony and feeling the blessed power boosting her body, unleashed the biggest icicle she could form.

Gluttony tried to intercept it with his flames, but for the first time, the ice managed to survive against the flames and pierced the demon right in its torso.

"Guaaahhhhh!!!" he shrieked.

"Don't think I'm already done!!" Detra declared.

She began to spin Ellie with both hands above her head and a storm of frozen shards started to appear floating around next to her.

"Grant me the power to freeze these lands...

Grant me the strength to overcome my foe...

Allow him to witness the power that it's in my hands...

And let him quiver upon tasting the ultimate cold!!"

Detra finished her chant and unleashed her barrage of icicles at the demon, piercing him from all possible sides.

"Gaaaahhhhh!!!!"

"Now..." Detra stated while glaring at the demon who had just got most of its body eviscerated, "tell me who Knucker is and what does he want with the demon leaders!!"

At that moment, Ellie lost the little bit of power she still had and returned to her human form, fell on the ground, and began to snore very loudly in front of Detra.

"..." the demon glared back at her.

"Uuhh... Wanna call it a draw?" Detra suggested, realizing she also had no more power left.

Gluttony just stood up and began to cover his body in flames one more time. He was about to charge at them but before he could give even one step forward, a massive lightning bolt dropped on top of him from the sky and buried his body in a crater.

"What in the world...?" Detra whispered while carefully approaching the hole and looking at the scorched demon.

She raised her head and realized that Claire was aiming her shield at the sky with small sparks of electricity coming out of it.

Claire assumed Detra was going to thank her for saving them from Gluttony but the lady just glared at her instead.

"You could have done that this whole time!!!??"

Claire just rolled her eyes, "... You're welcome..."