The attack was so powerful that all the trees within a kilometer had been either uprooted or charred. It left a wide crater on the ground where Lyria and Epsilon were. Their shields saved them from a certain death, but they barely survived it.
Epsilon forced herself to get up. Her body ached from the impact, but she could still fight. She had no choice. Giving up would mean letting Lyngvi abduct them both to who-knows-where.
"Struggling is futile. Whatever you were using to enhance your abilities, it won't work on us," Lyngvi replied. He was free from his chains and walking normally towards them.
Magnus coughed and crawled out of the ashes. "You almost killed me!" he complained.
Lyngvi completely ignored him.
Lyria was still on the ground when she was carried princess style by the famous celebrity Vi. "Put me down!" she struggled, but the last attack had weakened her considerably.
"You take care of the dark mage," Lyngvi said before leaving with Lyria.
Epsilon angrily hurled a dark bolt at him, but he deflected it calmly with the back of his hand. "Put her down, Ling ling!"
"Go ahead and try."
She was about to run after him when Magnus blocked the way.
"Our fight isn't over, Razette Epsilon," Magnus said as both his gloved hands blazed with flames. He no longer used a staff.
"You dare get in my way, Maggie?" Epsilon held her scythe and chains tightly.
***
As Lyngvi carried his princess away from the area devastated by his ultimate attack, Lyria remained silent. She was worried about Epsilon. He wanted to say something, but he decided not to. She definitely was in no mood to talk.
There's no way I can just give up like this, Lyria thought.
Lyria had a secret technique she created for fun in case they all ran out of food to eat. She didn't think it was going to help, but it was her last resort. She activated the skill Pumpkin Surprise. She waited, but nothing happened. She was about to give up and resign to her fate when a giant pumpkin fell out of the sky and flattened Lyngvi. He became unconscious.
"I should've done that in the first place," she said to herself. "That one is for Amelie!"
***
"I will have my victory today!" Magnus shouted.
"Sheesh. Can you stop shouting? It's hurting my ears."
"Oh. Sorry."
Magnus and Epsilon continued to exchange long range bolts. It was the attack with the least amount of effort for two people nearly killed by a giant cross in the sky.
Knowing that it was going nowhere, Magnus switched to a different strategy and ran towards her. She readied her scythe for the close range battle. He leaped at her, but before she could do a slash, she slipped on the ash beneath her feet and fell backwards.
Magnus landed on top of Epsilon with his hand locking her wrist. The scythe landed a meter away. Although he certainly had the advantage at that moment, he looked extremely flushed as they were both in an awkward position. He tried to regain his composure.
"It's my win today, Epsilon!" he declared.
Epsilon merely smirked, which irked Magnus who eagerly wanted to see her in despair. "Humph. Think what you want, but you're forgetting one thing."
"And what is that?"
"This is a double battle."
It only took one hit on the back of his head using a pumpkin to render him unconscious. Magnus fell on Epsilon's chest, which resulted to him being angrily punched away by the dark mage.
"That's for calling me pumpkin girl!" Lyria shouted.
"KO by pumpkin." Epsilon took out her victory noodles and began slurping away. "It seems that you achieved your revenge."
Lyria was a little worried. "They're going to inform their allies about us when they wake up. We need to do something." She looked at the unconscious Lyngvi, who she dragged all the way back.
Epsilon arranged the two unconscious guys, making them hug each other. She then took out her menu tablet and snapped scandalous photos of them.
"What are you doing?" Lyria asked with a drop of sweat on her cheek.
"Blackmail," Epsilon replied while spamming photos.
"I can tie both these guys up." With one flick of a finger, Epsilon's chains restrained the two unconscious guys. "It'd be great if we could erase their memory or abilities as well."
"Lyria! Epsi!"
The two girls turned around. "Astrid!" they said in unison.
"Woah. What happened here?" Astrid was surprised to find Lyngvi and Magnus unconscious on the ground. "We saw Lyngvi earlier and tried to follow him, but he went invisible so we ended up losing his trail. Then, we heard some sort of loud explosion like a bomb just fell."
"We?" Lyria wondered.
"Are these your companions?" Wen got off the back of Kimmy. Alice followed behind him.
"Lyria! Epsilon!" Alice said in her soft voice. Unfortunately, the two girls didn't hear her. She cried inside.
"This is Wen, Garth's brother," Astrid introduced them. "Wen, these are my friends Lyria and Epsilon."
"Do you know where my brother is?" Wen asked.
Lyria shook her head. "We were separated from everyone when we entered. You're not with Tank, Luna, and Garth?"
"No. I landed in Aries alone. Then I met Wen shortly after," replied Astrid.
Wen sighed. "We have to continue searching then."
"We have to do something about these captives first."
"Are they with the enemy?"
"Yeah."
"It might not be safe to take them with us to the hidden city. We can build them a shelter at the oasis and keep them locked there."
Astrid bent down and examined the two captives who were hugging each other passionately like star-crossed lovers. She took out her menu tablet and began erasing their data using the Frisk App Ultra Scan Love Me Baby 100% Illegal 99% Effective, but not before getting a copy of the hacks they applied on themselves.
Wen couldn't help but be amazed by the app. Of course, anyone would with its over-the-top sparkle animations and photos of Frisk all over the background. "What is that application?"
"It's the Frisk App Ultra Scan Love Me Baby 100% Illegal 99% Effective. I'm using it to remove their hacks and their player data as well."
"The what?"
"You can just call it the Frisk App."
Alice tried again. "Lyria! Epsilon!" This time, she was finally noticed.
"Alice! How did you get here?" Lyria was surprised.
"Poor Alice! Caught in this mess," said Epsilon.
"Yeah. I've been looking for you girls!" Alice replied.
"Let's go back to the city and drop these guys off before it gets dark. Then we head out again to search," said Wen.