Everyone on the team was shaken to the core. Their bodies refused to move after seeing Jumbo's body. Jumbo was with them for nearly a decade. Over the past years, they became more like a family than a team. They couldn't believe they had lost a family member. On the other hand, Jonathan learned the hard way why the UFH considered the Supremes to retrieve the eternal flames. Jumbo was one of the powerhouses of the team, yet he died in a few moments.
Mini, who shrunk himself, returned to his normal size. He shouted in shock.
"NO!" Mini screamed. He ran through the puddle of blood near Jumbo. Mini collapsed beside Jumbo's face. He looked tiny compared to Jumbo's head. Once again, Sarman disappeared from their sight.
"Get us out of here!" Jonathan shouted at Ian. The old mage didn't need another push from Jonathan. He already raised his staff, closing his eyes.
"Cover him!" Jonathan barked another order at his team. He dashed toward Mini as he wanted Mini to stop mourning and start fighting. With a flap of his golden wings, Jonathan reached Mini.
"Get up!" Jonathan tried to lift Mini up by his shoulder, but the latter refused to move. For others, Jumbo was like a family, but to Mini, Jumbo was family. He was his twin brother. Thus, Jumbo's sudden death affected Mini more than it affected anyone else on the team. Tears gushed out of Mini's eyes. The usual playful Mini was nowhere to be found on his face.
"If we don't fight, we will lose the others too," said Jonathan. He looked around frantically to see if Sarman was showing himself.
"Snap out of it. We have to fight!" Jonathan raised his voice. Finally, his shout brought Mini out of his grieving state. Soon, the sorrow in his eyes turned into rage. He stood up to fight Sarman, who was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, golden chakras appeared above Ian. The dust on the ground floated above, swirling around Ian. The team stayed vigilant, waiting for Sarman to show up any second. They stood around Ian to protect him until he finished his spell.
"You are in my domain," suddenly, Sarman's demonic voice echoed through the mountain.
"Show yourself!" Mini shouted. He wanted to rip Sarman to pieces. The hero code went outside the door the moment he suffered a personal loss. Mini was one of the many who judged the angel of lotus as a murderer when he started to kill the supervillains.
Sarman appeared in their sight as though he was granting Mini his wish. Mini tried to leap at Sarman, but he just blasted the entire team with a single fireball. Surprisingly, Ian didn't move an inch from his position. The golden shield around him protected him from the fireball. However, several cracks appeared in the shield. Smoke and fumes filled the hall. Cyclops quickly leaped into the air, waving her hand. She created a mini cyclone. But the area was too constricted and small to unleash her full power. Sarman breathed fire like a dragon upon the cyclone she created.
He continued to shoot a stream of fire out of his mouth. The team ducked down to avoid the stream. When Sarman stopped breathing fire to take a breath, Jonathan flapped his wings. He quickly closed the gap between them. Jonathan's speed slightly caught Sarman off guard. Jonathan swung his golden mace.
"ARGH!" Sarman growled as the golden mace hit him right in the face. Instead of blood, hot lava splattered out from his face. Sarman immediately retaliated by grabbing Jonathan by his neck. Jonatha struggled in his grab. Cyclops moved her hands, sending a blast of wind at Sarman to help Jonathan. However, Sarman was too strong. He didn't even flinch when the blade of wind hit him.
Sarman started to squeeze Jonathan's neck. Mini didn't stand still. He dashed at Sarman. Mini leaped into the air and shrunk himself in mid-air. He landed right on Sarman's shoulder. Since he was too small, Sarman failed to locate him. Mini ran toward Sarman's ear. He planned to squeeze into Sarman's ear and unshrunk himself to obliterate Sarman from within. After seeing Jumbo dead, Mini didn't give a damn about killing Sarman.
Sarman jerked his head to the side, searching for Mini on his shoulder.
"Puny ant," Sarman snickered. From afar, Cyclops noticed Sarman's body radiating a bright glow. She felt the temperature around him rise by several degrees. Both Jonathan and Cyclops guessed Sarman's next move.
"MINI MOVE!" Cyclones screamed as she fired a blast of wind using every bit of her energy. The powerful gust of wind hit Sarman as the same time Sarman's body lit up with flames. Fortunately, Jonathan's armor saved him from getting burnt to death. Still, his golden armor slowly started to melt down due to the intense heat.
Following the flame outburst on Sarman's body, something hit the ground with a thud. Cyclops's heart skipped a beat. The one who hit the ground was none other than Mini himself. His entire body was charcoaled. Luckily, he coughed up smoke. The flame completely burned his armor. If it wasn't for Cyclops's wind blast, Mini would have turned into an overcooked turkey. The smell of burnt skin and hair filled the air.
Sarman took out two members of Jonathan's team with ease. Jonathan looked over his shoulder at Ian. Sarman noticed the mage casting a spell.
"Humph," Sarman snickered. He raised his hand as a ball of fire shot out of his hand toward Ian. Cyclops leaped at Ian, blocking the fireball with her body.
"CYCLOPS!" Jonathan shouted. Although Cyclops's armor prevented the fireball from penetrating her chest, it knocked her out cold. Judging by the black spot on her chest, she would have a burnt wound on her chest for the rest of her life. She tried to stand up, but her body refused to. Blood trickled down from the corners of her mouth. Jonathan swung his mace left and right. His eyes burned with rage. No matter how hard he swung the mace, he couldn't hurt Sarman. He was simply too strong.
Sarman slowly floated toward Ian and hovered right beneath the hole in the ceiling that he came through first. At last, a golden light shot out of Ian's staff and formed a portal nearby. Unfortunately, his team was down. Only Jonathan remained conscious. He was on the verge of losing his consciousness because of Sarman's grab around his neck.
Ian quickly raised his staff to cast a quick attack spell. But before he could cast the spell, Sarman flicked his wrist as a wave of hot air blasted Ian to the other side. The old man hit the wall with a thud and fell down. Jonathan used his last bit of strength to kick and hit Sarman with the mace. He even frantically flapped his wings to hit Sarman. Yet all his attempts became futile. Sarman slowly squeezed Jonathan's neck. The light of life slowly started to fade away from Jonathan's eyes.
His hands finally gave up as the mace slipped out from Jonathan's grip. The entire team was down. Jumbo was lying in his own pool of blood. Mini was almost burnt to death, and it would be difficult to heal him to his full health, even for the UFH. Cyclops and Ian received lighter punishment from Sarman. But deep down, Jonathan had a strange feeling that Sarman had some kind of plans for Ian and Cyclops. For some reason, when his consciousness was slipping away, he saw a pair of glimmers above him. It was as though someone was watching him from the hole Sarman came through. Someone jumped down from the ceiling when the darkness was about to occupy Jonathan's vision.
"ARGH!" Sarman shouted as hot lava spurted out of his neck. Jonathan felt a sharp pain in his neck as a blob of lava melted through his armor and burnt his skin. The pain sent a jolt to Jonathan's mind. As a result, Jonathan woke up. To his shock, he saw someone hanging on Sarman's neck and stabbing him with a dagger repeatedly. Sarman roared in pain. The dagger pierced deep into Sarman's neck. He frantically flew around the hall. He desperately tried to shake off the man hanging on his neck.
Blops of hot lava spurted out of Sarman's neck. His roar echoed through the mountain. He sounded like a wounded beast. Finally, Sarman hit the ground. Still, the black-haired youngster did not stop stabbing Sarman with his sword. He cut Sarman's neck and stabbed him furiously. Jonathan even saw the youngster stab Sarman's eyeballs.
Jonathan was completely speechless.
"Save your team," Jonathan heard the young man's grave voice. Jonathan snapped out of his shock and ran toward Cyclops because she was closer to him. He shook her by the shoulder while keeping an eye on Sarman and the youngster. Although the youngster did not seem as powerful as Sarman, something about the young man's eyes rubbed Jonathan in the wrong way.
Jonathan did not stop the young man from stabbing Sarman because he didn't think Sarman would die by stab wounds. He combined his soul with the eternal flames. Only UFH could find a way to extract the flames from Sarman and imprison Sarman.
Hot lava oozed out of Sarman's neck. He got stabbed in the neck at least fifty or sixty times. Thanks to the young man, Jonathan was able to reach Ian and wake the mage up. Jonathan heaved a sigh of relief when Sarman's body hit the ground. The temperature slightly cooled off. Jonathan could feel the drop in the temperature.
"Ian wake up," Before dealing with Sarman and the newcomer, Jonathan wanted to wake Ian up and tend to his team.
"Is he down?" Jonathan asked the young man while waking Ian.
"Yes,"
"Did UFH send you?" asked Jonathan.
"You could say that," said the young man.
"You have a plan to get him out of here? We need to get them to a healer right this instant," Jonathan said as Ian slowly opened his eyes.
Jonathan did not receive any response from the young man. He looked over his shoulder to see the young man lifting up Sarman for some reason.
"What's his status?" asked Jonathan.
"Alive…but won't be for long…"