Alya lifted the sphere between her fingers. "Transformation!" Fush! A flash of green light and the girl saw herself clad in emerald green armor. She and Molten huddled together, one with his back to the other. They were surrounded by Kalina and the other demons of the crew.
"Do you think that by transforming you will get out of this?" The captain pointed at them with her sword.
"Of course," Igneous smiled. "Transformed we are invincible."
"AAAAAH!" Kalina yelled, launching herself at the kids. The other demons of the crew followed her.
Igneous fired a flying kick, shooting out a flame that pushed the attackers back.
"First elemental skill," the boy uttered. "Fire Fists!" He slammed into the group of demons and several of them went flying and crashed into the sea.
Alya also joined the counterattack. "First elemental skill," she exclaimed. "Wind discs!"
Hoops of compressed air went flying at several sailors on the crew. Upon impact, everyone was thrown into the air. Some fell into the sea, others fell on the deck of the Legion ship.
Alya and Igneous looked at each other's faces and smiled at each other. They were fighting together and they were doing well.
Kalina gritted her teeth and froze, not knowing quite what to do. Fighting two Marked Ones might not be such a good idea.
BOOM! The legion ship fired again and the bullets hit the Black Gull. The ship lurched. Alya looked at the attacking ship and then she looked at Igneous and they both communicated with silent glances, as if they didn't need words. The boy nodded. The girl too.
The two kids jumped onto the deck of the attacking ship. Legion soldiers were waiting for them there, about a dozen of them. All with silver armor and some with swords and others with long spears.
"Attack!" A Legion soldier yelled.
Alya and Igneous blocked and counterattacked. Punches and kicks, swords against the girl's sword. Fire and wind among silver metals.
"How is that?" Igneous asked as he dodged an enemy soldier's sword slash.
"That sounds pretty awesome!" Igneous slammed a fist into a soldier's face. The man fell unconscious. Then another soldier brandished a spear. The boy had to jump back to keep his distance.
"Alya!" Igneous yelled, as he dodged his attacker's sharp spear. "Let's do one of those elemental combinations."
"And how do we do that?" The girl blocked an attack with her sword.
Igneous agreed. Then he released a flare. Alya then released a gust of wind that met the flames of her mate.
"Combination!" They both shouted.
What happened next was quite a sight. The fire spun like a whirlwind, rising in a swirling column of candle and air. The enemy soldiers were swept up and spun in the air, in flames, over and over again, until they were thrown out to sea.
Alya looked up and her mouth dropped open. "That was…"
"Unbelievable," the boy completed.
The girl looked around, there was no enemy left.
"Looks like that was all," she said. However, she celebrated very soon, because the other soldiers from the other Legion ships jumped the deck where Alya and Igneous were.
'I celebrated too soon,' she thought.
She and the boy got into a fighting stance. Suddenly, she heard as if someone was cutting the seawater. A sound of constant aquatic movement. "What was that?" It was heard nearby.
Igneous leaned over the side. "motor boats? Do you have any of those in this world?"
"What are motor boats?" Alya asked.
The girl also leaned overboard and she couldn't believe her eyes. Three human figures propelled themselves on the surface of the sea as if they could run on water. "What the hell is that?"
One of them, the one in the vanguard, was wearing ocher armor. Another wore purple armor and a girl wore blue armor.
"They're not motorboats," Igneous pointed out, "they're people."
"They're not just people," the girl clarified, "they're Marked Ones, like us."
'One of earth, one of lightning, and one of water,' she thought.
The boy in the ocher armor jumped into the air and landed on the deck of the ship. Then he jumped the one in the purple armor and lastly the girl in the blue armor.
When Alya got a better look at the one in the blue armor, she was speechless. She was a girl with sky-blue hair.
'Is she from the ancient royal family of Yish?' She wondered.
The boy in the ocher armor turned around and greeted Alya and Igneous. "Hi. need some help?"
***
After Nahuel greeted the two strangers, he turned and looked at the huge group of soldiers in front of him. "You know what the plan is," he told Elian and Yaima. "I will be the tank, Elian will be the flank, and Yaima our support."
His two friends nodded.
"I am at a disadvantage," added Nahuel, "because there is not much land around. However, I can still be of great help," he paused, then uttered, "First Elemental Skill: Solidify."
A round, diaphanous sphere, like a crystal shield, surrounded Nahuel, Elian, and Yaima.
"This skill will protect you," the boy explained, "and also increase your attack power relative to hits received by the enemy."
A soldier threw himself against Nahuel, the boy did not even move, he let the enemy sword fall on him. Crash! The sharp blade snapped in two as soon as it made contact with the earth user's protective barrier.
"Did you see?" Nahuel smiled. "We have protection. But don't be fooled, the shield gets weaker the more time passes or the more attacks it receives."
"It's my turn," Elian announced. Fush! He was gone in a blink. A purple spark pierced one soldier, then another and another and another. Several of those men fell limp. Their bodies trembled, surrounded by sparks of purple electricity.
"That was amazing!" The red-haired boy exclaimed. Apparently, he was a fire Marked One.
BOOM! The sound of an explosion, followed by an impact on the deck. Shrapnel and smoke flew everywhere. BOOM! Another shot and Nahuel and Elian were thrown to the ground. The solidification barrier that protected them vanished.
"What was that?" Nahuel wondered. "It felt like a cannonball."
When he looked up, he saw that the pirate ship was indeed shooting at them. There was a woman on that ship. With a big hat and tight leather clothes. With her sword, the woman pointed at Nahuel. "Fire!" She exclaimed.
BOOM! BOOM! Nahuel reacted quickly and dodged the bullet. However, he felt a stabbing pain in his back. "AAAH!" He screamed.
"You're hurt," Yaima leaned closer. "You and Elian." Thereupon, she held out her open palm, pointing to hers with two of her friends, and exclaimed, "First Elemental Skill: Water Prison."
A dome of water covered Nahuel and Elian.
"This… this will… cure you," the girl stated.
"Fire!" The woman from the pirate ship exclaimed.
BOOM! BOOM! The emerald green armored girl reacted quickly and released a gust of wind so strong that she deflected the bullets.
"Alya," the red-haired boy yelled, glancing at his partner, "let's use another elemental combination to sink the Black Seagull."
The girl nodded. The boy then blew out a flame in the direction of the deck of the pirate ship, then the girl blew out a gust of wind, and they both yelled, "Combination!"
The woman in the big hat threw herself to the ground and covered her head.
Nahuel's jaw dropped at what he saw next: a tornado of flames rose higher than the pirate ship's sails. He turned and turned until he swallowed the masts, and much of the wood on the deck. Much was reduced to ashes.
'Incredible…'
The pirate ship was slowly burning. The wood creaked and the smell of burning intensified.
Poof! The water prisons broke and Nahuel felt much better. His wounds had been healed.
"Thank you very much, Yaima!" The boy gave a thumbs up. The girl smiled pleased.
Everything was silent, except for the creaking of the burning wood of the pirate ship and the screams of the woman. "NOO! MY SHIP! DAMN YOU! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"
"Well, it looks like we won," the red-haired boy said, flashing a grim smile that had a creepy look to it.
"This isn't over," Warned the green-armored girl, looking off into the distance.
Nahuel turned around and saw how the other Legion ships were turning towards them.
"Uh-oh," said the boy, "enemy reinforcements are coming."
"We can beat them," Elian affirmed, "if we fight together, we shall win."
"Nice to meet you," Nahuel extended his hand to the red-haired boy, "my name is Nahuel and I'm a Marked One, like you."
"Nice to meet you, Nahuel," the other boy shook hands. "My name is Igneous, I am a fire user and this is Alya, a wind user."
The girl just raised her head in greeting, she didn't seem very happy to see them there. In fact, Nahuel could swear to see Alya give Yaima an angry look.
"This is Elian, lightning user," Nahuel pointed out. "And this is Yaima, a water user."
"Ni… Nice to… nice to meet you," the girl avoided the gaze as if she was nervous.
"It seems we are allies," Said Igneous.
"So it seems," Nahuel agreed.
Alya gave Igneous a reproachful look as if saying wordlessly 'why did we ally ourselves with these people?'
Nahuel didn't like that girl's attitude at all. Elian must have noticed it too. "Do you have a problem?" He asked Alya, challengingly.
"She," the girl pointed her sword at Yaima, "Who is she?"
"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Nahuel stepped between Alya and Yaima. "We already told you, her name is Yaima and she is my friend."
"That blue hair," Alya muttered, frowning. "She looks like she's from the old royal family of Yish."
"Look, I don't know what you're talking about," Nahuel waved his hands, "but Yaima isn't from any royal family. She comes from another world. Like me."
Alya cocked her head as if she wasn't sure if she believed that or not.
"Hey! I am also from another world!" Igneous exclaimed, excited. "How nice to find someone like me!"
"We have no time for nonsense," Elian protested, gesturing to the approaching ships. "The enemy is approaching."