Marta jumped back when Isaiah woke up from his nightmare and pointed the sword at her. By his looks, whatever he was dreaming wasn't very pleasant. She could know if she used her mind read psynergy, but Isaiah being an adept he would notice and peobably he wouldn't like having his thoughs exposed. Still with surprised expression, Marta went back to her cheerful self and tried to lighten the mood

"Have you tried sleeping with a thinner blanket? Maybe you were too hot and that's why you are sweating so much."

What a pity, she was just a decimeter away from him before the sudden awaken thus missing Marta's chance. Now it was too late, or was it?

"Aha!"

With a quick step Marta closed the gap between them and touched the shoulder of Isaiah wih the charcoal, leaving a whort and thick black line. Imediately after she jumped back with the same swiftness

"Gotcha"

Cale grabbed the hilt of his sword when he saw Isaiah jump up suddenly and try to attack Marta. Thankfully he stopped, but if he hadn't then things would have gotten ugly pretty fast. This guy was a bit disturbed it seemed. However Marta seemed to be handling the situation. Instead, Cale move over to the guards on the bridge, who were eyeing the group carefully.

"Um..are you guys ok? Is he with you?" One of the guards asked. This was clearly one of the stranger things they had seen today. Cale nodded in response to his question and handed him Iodem's missive. The guard gave it a quick look over before nodding and stepping aside.

"Alright, but you should be careful. We've seen fires coming from-" The guard said before a violent tremor shook the bridge. Cale did his best to keep his footing as one of the guards fell down.

"Not again! Where is it coming from this time?!" The guard exclaimed. In the distance from the treeline some smoke started to rise. Cale could smell the fire from here, but something was...wrong about it. He couldn't put his finger on it, but being a Mars Adept he spent a lot of time around fire and whatever this was that was creating that smoke was something else. Without a second thought, Cale looked to the group.

"Come on! Let's go!" He shouted before heading out across the bridge. He expected the others to follow, even Isaiah.

Leyya wasted no time and run after Cale, actually her well-muscled body quickly caught up with him, preparing her bow and mind for a possible fight. She shouted to Cale: "I don't know much about Mars Psyenergy, but I know about people, and something tells me that even you are confused by those flames. Do you think it cloud be something unrelated to Adepts? Maybe a monster or a natural force? Well we will see soon." She took out an arrow out of her quiver and run with Cale towards the smoke ...

Isaiah was still shuddering from his nightmare, but it was time to go. he didn't want the others to potentially get hurt. He slowly unwrapped his broadsword . He decided to stay away from marta in case she triggered him and he didn't want her getting hurt, especially since she was innocent. With a running start, isaiah cast ward on the other adepts and ran towards the explosion.

Sayuri draws her sword before running after the other three, 'Thats odd I didn't sense any Psynergy before the fire started... The timing was also strangely perfect... Something more is going on here. Whatever I'll think about this later," as she was running she attached the sheath to her hip. Catching up to Leyya and Cale she looks at the two of them, "Hey, did either of you feel Psynergy activate?"

Cale shook his head to both Leyya and Sayuri's responses.
"She's right, it wasn't psynergy. It didn't feel natural however." Cale said. Soon the group would find themselves in a woodland area. It wasn't any marked forest really, it was too small. However it was situated between the bridge and Suhalla. What Cale and the others would find, however, were signs of something coming through this area. They would eventually stop when they reached a small clearing in the forest, but it was not a natural occurence.

There was a large ashen crater, like an explosion had gone off and had knocked down the trees around it. There were a few residual flames left over in the area, but they as Cale approached them, they were yet again strange to him. There was a familiarity to psynergy in this fire, but it wasn't as potent as psynergy was. This was alien to him.

From the crater there was a path of destruction, trees knocked aside and crudely chopped down, as if someone had done this on purporse. Without another word, Cale followed the path while expecting the others to follow. It wouldn't take him long to find his target.

Cale only had to travel for about a minute before he saw what was causing the damage. Moving towards the edge of the tree line was a 15 foot tall, humanoid looking creature. It wore no clothes but it had dark red skin and its lower half was similar to a goat. Its head was also goat like, with sharp pointed horns but its mouth was full of razor sharp teeth. Each step it took created a new flame, and in its right hand was a pole axe that was longer than any of the adepts, almost the length of the monster itself. As the adepts drew near, as if by sense, the creature turned and faced them, letting out a deafening roar. The appearance of the creature stopped Cale in his tracks, but not because it was necessarily frightening. He recognized this monster.

"Smoke. Is that...who I think it is?" Cale asked, going straight to the expert on the issue. After it was called by name, a small red flash occurred on Cale's shoulder as a Mars Djinn appeared, perched quite comfortably. It spoke in an excited tone to the others could hear as well.

"It looks like Zagan! The demon king of the underworld. A pinnacle of fire and earth...but it can't actually be him. Adepts that know how to summon his strength can do so, but only temporally. He wouldn't be able to sustain this long in the physical world...but...I can feel the presence of other djinn. But it's not right. Something is wrong here but I don't know, I'm sorry." Smoke rattled off. When he was done, the djinn disappeared, preparing for battle.

Also as he finished, Zagan finally decided stop waiting. Without warning the demon took up the poleaxe in both hands and lunged at the group, bringing his axe down in front of the group. As the axe hit the ground, a wave of hot flames and rocks surged up from the point of impact and surged towards the group.

"Move!" Cale yelled as he dodged out of the way, rolling across the ground. He didn't know if this thing was really Zagan or not, but he wasn't about to just stand around and let it rampage across the country side. Cale drew his broadsword and readied for battle.

"OH YEAH!"

Would it be right to say that Marta was feeling euphoric by the upcoming fight against such ferocious enemy? No, it wasn't mere joy that has been honed in the darkness of a monotonous life, but a mechanism of fighting fear. She couldn't understand why a summoning creature (if it was one, as the mars djinn of Cale had said) was now rampaging by itself, so she decided to do the simplest thing, and as a mantra she murmured to herself what her foster father used to tell her about psynergy, trying to calm down herself

"Do not try to comprehend what happens or why does it happen. It is ultimately impossible, instead just accept the only truth."

Then moment the poleaxe felt down she gracefully made a large side jump akind to a breeze and got ready to cast psynergy

"It happens."

When Cale shouted "Move!" Marta felt an adrenaline rush over her, but she knew that jumping straight ahead would be a bad idea when the rest of the party was more suited for close quarters combat, no, she would be more useful if she supported her allies with defensive and offensive spells from the back row. But who to begin with? The one closer to her was the half proxian girl and leyya, both being perfect candidates to be invigorated

"Sayuri!"

{Marta casts Impact!}
{Sayuri's attack has risen!}

"Sis!"

{Marta casts Impact!}
{Leyya's attack has risen!}

Oh, she had actually said "sis" when she was told before not to call her that. Oh well, it wasn't the time to be thinking about little details

Still running towards the demon, isaiah decided to cast ward again just to make sure. After he finished casting it he looked up in awe at the mighty stature of the beast, mouth agape.

"Hey you adepts try to take it out, I'm gonna try to distract it!" He shouted. "Hey you lamb. come get some of this!" he ran around to the demon and started hacking at it's legs. he was in dangerous territory, not only because of its weapon, but because he had run out of psynergy trying to cast ward on the other adepts.

The demon took notice and swung at him. He rolled to the side and kept hacking at it hoping to hurt it. "Hey guys anytime now would be a big help please." The sound came out as a yell, with isaiah still rolling around avoiding the deadly blows.

Leyya didn't have time to be surprised or to wonder what and why did one of the summons stand in front of her, upon seeing the enemy she shot out her arrow aiming for the beast's eye, trough she doubted that she would hit it there, but at least it would hopefully distract the thing. Then she quickly and as gently as she cloud she tossed her bow away from herself and as far as possible from the thing, the bow cloud withstand a human stepping on it easily but if that thing stepped on it Leyya doubted that the bow would remain intact. As the bow landed on the edge of the clearing, almost in the woods that surrounded it Leyya took out her longsword, deciding that this thing was not to be underestimated, and run towards it, drawing herself into the enemy, actually soon she was much closer then three feet to the enemy, using her natural agility as a Jupiter Adept as well as the agility and experience form years of wandering trough not-rarely dangerous areas of eastern Weyard. The beast cloud all it wanted but except for once, with a help of a stone which made Leyya slip he got a serious chance to hit her, but Leyya used Bora to hit the incoming hand with such a powerful force that numerous cuts appeared on it, forcing the beast to pull it back long enough for Leyya to regain her own footing and continue dancing around the beast's legs while her longsword sung a song of blade meeting flesh over and over again. The beast was enraged but he cloud only hopelessly try to catch or hit the shift Leyya ...

With the other two adepts knicking at Zagan's heels, it became difficult for Cale to try and approach the creature. Three was a crowd, if he jumped in right now then it would mess up the other two's rhythm. Zagan, on the other hand, was having quite enough from these two speedsters.

Rather than try to catch them, Zagan stomped the ground where he stood and shot up rocks and flames, an attack that would be just about impossible for Leyya and Isaiah to avoid at this close range and disrupt their attack. He then followed up the attack by quickly seizing Isaiah, grabbing the boy by his mid section and giving a hard squeeze and then throwing him at Leyya.

"Backdraft, go!" Cale commanded his djinn. The power of the creature was unleashed as a magical barrier would form around Cale and the others. It would help numb the pain that Isaiah and Leyya were about to feel from their collision.

Cale immediately took it upon himself to continue his attack.
{Fireball}

Cale held his hands above his head as several balls of flame formed from it and gathered above him. The fireballs would hang for a moment before Cale directed them forward, the psynergy attack surging at an alarming speed and collding head one with Zagan. The demon held up his arms to try and block most of the attack, but it seemed to at least piss him off. Once the onslaught was done, Zagan growled and charged forward, swinging his axe around at Cale, who attempted to block with his own weapon.

The strike was too powerful for a creature this size, as Cale was easily knocked aside and into a nearby tree. He could feel the pain from the collision, but he knew it would have been much worse if not for Backdraft. He took a moment to put the djinn back on standby as he rose back to his feet. He didn't know how this summon spirit was here. If he tried to summon his own, who knows what would happen? He was better off not risking it.

Meanwhile, Zagan took notice of Marta, the girl who was supporting her allies. Rather than charge her, Zagan grabbed a down tree that was on fire and tossed it at the girl.

Seeing Zagan throw the tree at Marta she turned and leaps in front of her and raises her hand.
{Fume}

A snake of flame launches from her hand and burns the tree in half. She nods to Marta before turning back to Zagan, 'Not enough room at his feet so time to stand back,' she smiles, "Hey try this!"
{Beam}

Isaiah quickly felt his side. Yep, he definitely had at least a broken rib. That was going to hurt later. But at the moment he probably shouldn't worry. He got up and picked up leyya, trying to help her retreat and recover so she could get back in. He sat her down, gave her an herb, and tried to run as fast as he could back into the fight.

"Hey you big sheep," he shouted, " let's go for round two!" He zapped Zagan with ray, hoping to grab it's attention and get it to focus on him again. "Are you afraid or what? lets go toe to toe!" Isaiah's broadsword was on the ground near zagan and he knew it would be a bad idea to retrieve it.

Although Sayuri definitely had saved Marta from a certain death hadn't she attacked the flaming tree, the fume spell did also increase the flames that were already engulfing the trunk and the result was an explosion upon it hitting the ground that sent flaming chunks of wood flying and hit Marta, damaging her. She would have to treat the burns later, but at the moment the adrenaline rush was still in effect and she endured the pain with a defiant smile.

"Brilliant idea the one of burning a burning tree, Sayuri, thanks a lot."

No, there wasn't sarcasm in her voice or intention, she was just being silly again. What to do now? So far the underworld demon hadn't made any psynergy spell, so she could skip casting bind on it and try to buff her other two allies, although Isaiah was already at a dangerous range from the foe and Cale had been launched in the opposite direction. In any case, it seemed that the spirit had taken a liking of Marta's beauty, as he was now aware of her presence and ready to launch another tree, so taking advantage of her lighter equipment and agility, she started to run counterclockwise to zagan, trying to get off its attention so she could focus on other party members

{Isaiah casts Ray!}

Luckily for her, the psynergy of the kid was enough to distract it so Marta could get to the other side of the clearing and get closer to Cale, who had crashed into a tree.

"You okay there chief?"

Marta picked an herb from one of her pouches, but before giving it to the proxian she saw that he wasn't quite bad and maybe he didn't need it yet, so she put the plant inside her mouth and chewed it like a cow while she raised her hand towards Cale

{Marta casts Impact!}
{Cale's attack has risen!}

"Would you pretty please with sugar on the top ask your djinn if that Zagan monster is weak to Jupiter or Mercury psynergy? Mines never talk to me."

Leyya managed to barely cushion herself and regained her footing while thinking: "Well it was not that unexpected. It is Zagan after all." With a few jumps towards it she retook her bow, her longsword ended up striking into one of the still standing trees when Zagan blew them away, and quickly readied an arrow. She took an aim at the beast which occupied the clearing and shot out the arrow which was, almost the second when it left, hit with a precise Jet Psyenergy, speeding up the arrow towards its target Zagan's right eye, but the demon was still quick enough to evade it, trough it was going so fast from the Jet strike for Zagan to completely evade it, it would hit his face in any way it would try to dodge. Leyya readied another Jet, having an idea to how to inflict serious damage to Zagan ...

Cale could feel the energy that Marta had given him which would give him a bit of an attack boost, but it didn't change the fact that he was going against his element here. Zagan was made up of the Mars and Venus elements, so he would probably be resistant to both. That also meant that Marta's question was answered though.

"Thank you. And probably, yes. Let us draw its attention and you strike, ok?" Cale said as he moved out of cover.

Leyya and Marta's Jupiter attacks from earlier seemed to be having effect, the combined might of the two in addition to Sayuri's beam managed to stagger the beast and knock him back. Zagan would rise to his feet and give another deafening roar before rising to his feet. They had taken out quite a few trees down, so the group was practically standing in a burning clearing at this point. Zagan apparently noticed this as well, as he stretched his back and suddenly a pair of white, bird like wings appeared on his back and stretched outward. Zagan flew up high into the air and immediately pounded into the ground below, sending out a wave of heat and stone that would knock everyone back and fling fiery stone and whatever other debris was in this area at them.

Cale stumbled and rolled a bit from the attack, but kept his head down to avoid the debris. At the very least, this whole "same element" debacle meant that he was a bit more resistant to these attacks as well, though it still hurt. Cale groaned and looked over to Marta, giving her a nod and getting to his feet.

"Get ready, here it comes!" He said as he charged towards Zagan. Zagan took notice of Isaiah shouting at him now, the boy unarmed and yet so full of bravado. While he might have thought of him as easy pickings, a strike against his leg from an advancing Cale's sword quickly made him change his focus.

"You don't want him, fight a real warrior!" Cale shouted.

Cale's shouting surprised isaiah. It at least gave isaiah a breather. Once the adrenaline was fading, all the pain from him being squeezed came flooding in. His whole chest was aflame with pain and he had trouble breathing. He staggered and nearly fell down, but he got back up and readied to fight again. He rushed for his broadsword and scooped it up, and resumed his attack on zagan. "Hey don't let me intimidate you! Turn around you big pansy!" He knew it was suicide to focus zagan's attention again, but he couldn't help it. He had to keep it on him so the rest of the adepts could beat it.

There it went Cale, and just as he said he was drawing it's attention alongside Isaiah, who didn't seem like he could withstand another hit any longer. She could try to buff him as well, but she could also try to hit zagan in the head with her witch staff and knock it in one blow and it would be easier for her. If only she could cast some healing psynergy, but two water djins weren't enough for her to know such spells, so the only thing they could bet on was beating the monster before it could end anyone. With that said, and seeing that Zagan had been attacked with mars, which seemed to be noneffective, and jupiter psynergy, Marta was probably the only one with mercury attacks, so it was time for her to shine, so she adopted the pose of raising her left hand in the air towards Zagan.

{Marta casts Prism!}

The above the girl a ball ice materialized and was sent flying towards the goat demon, crashing on him with freezing damage, which caused it to growl in pain and turn in confusion, but Marta was hiding behind the tree were Cale had crashed, so the creature missed her position. Not missing the oportunity she decided to strike again

{Marta casts Plasma!}

This time a single ray felt from the sky and crushed at the feet of the foe, creating a explosion of sparks in the process that hit the demon heavily. Because this attack came from above, Zagan couldn't tell where it came from, and it already had enough problem with Isaiah and Cale to be wasting time searching for the girl, who was still behind a tree

"Hide to live another day, huh?"

Quite cowardly, but efficient

Leyya shouted a little "Yes!" inside of her when the arrow hit Zagan and suck just above it's eye and to her surprises the beast flew up but it didn't change what she planed to do so she screamed: "Ray!" Then a number of lightnings rays quickly traveled from the sky above the clearing towards the ground, but before reaching it they changed their direction and all struck Zagan traveling trough the arrow that Leyya plunged into his forehead and electrifying the beast and the fact that Zagan was flying made the whole thing even worse as the electricity from the lightning had nowhere to exit and bounced all trough his body until it would send all of it's energy. Not waiting for that to happen Leyya shouted: "Here is another one! Ray!" Another series of lightning rays struck Zagan and the arrow. "That old scholar was telling the trough about metals, especially copper, silver and gold, attracting lightning! It was the first time I tried this and it works amazingly! Good I took an arrow with and iron head an a copper body with me," she thought as she regathered her concentration if another attack was needed to take down Zagan, even after all the attacks they kept throwing at him ...

Isaiah looked over at leyya and saw the idea she had. he decided to follow up her ray with one of his own. He raised his hand and was ready to cast ray when zagan saw him doing so. Zagan had enough of isaiah's shenanigans and decided to be rid of him. Zagan delivered a short quick kick to isaiah's legs, flinging him back. Isaiah could hear his legs cracking and cried out in pain. He rolled until he hit a tree and tried to get up. He stood up using his broadsword as a crutch. And tried to hobble back to zagan, each step hurting him badly.

Zagan took a significant number of hits from all angles due to the constant usage of psynergy. Marta's prism and plasma attacks managed to throw the creature off balance and Leyya's rays conducted by her arrow mananged to give the creature significant pain. Zagan took a knee and balanced itself with its weapon, looking up at the adepts that were striking it. He gave one last roar before Cale lept up and brought his sword hard into Zagan's skull. The demon was knocked down into the dirt and groaned before it gave a twitch and stopped moving for good.

There was a moment of silence as Zagan went limp, but not before the creature glowed brightly and dissipated into two smaller balls of light, each one landing a short distance away from where Zagan had originally landed. The balls of light soon formed into the shapes of djinn, a Venus and Mars djinn, that lay motionless at first before the Mars djinn twitched slightly and spat out a single word.

"J-Jonas..." After that, the djinn disappeared in a single plume of flame as the Venus djinn crumbled like a stone. The entire action confused Cale. What had just happened here? Why was Zagan summoned?

He had to put those thoughts on hold, however. The area around them was still on fire and everyone was injured to some degree. Isaiah looked like he was more hurt than the others.

"Is everyone alright? Does anyone have healing spells?" Cale asked. He then decided to redirect some of their attention.
"Marta, Leyya, could one of you try and put out those flames?"