Sarah stepped carefully down the burning street. Fires raged all around her. The heat was oppressive and the air was starting to fill with smoke. If they didn't finish the job soon, they'd have to abandon it purely for their own safety. She strained to hear through the shouts and screams, the orders yelled out by Spot to his teammates as they evacuated nearby townsfolk, the clangs of metal and flashes of magic as the rest of the Hallowed Gladiator Organization, Sarah's own family, fought against the lesser-ranked Soul Guardians. She had her eyes set on a bigger prize.

Her fingers tightened around the handle of her moonblade. It was a custom-forged weapon, with sharp, pointed steel curving out from her clenched fist at both sides in a "C" shape. Should she need to go inside, it would serve her well in tight quarters, but Sarah suspected it wouldn't come to that. Flare was too fond of theatrics.

The wood splintered in the wall of the house next to her. Magic flared, making her hair stand on end. Sarah threw herself reflexively forward into a roll.

The fireball crashed through the wall and streaked over her back, just missing. When Sarah righted herself, she saw Flare standing in the jagged hole he'd made. Shadows cast by the blazing inferno flickered across his broad features. Sarah always found his hair obnoxious, with its haphazard yellow-to-red gradient, but now he almost seemed part of the fire itself.

She didn't bother with banter. Instead, she readied her moonblade and charged, ducking preemptively as Flare hurled another fireball from his hands. She came up raising her blade in a sweeping vertical arc. Flare sidestepped and shot flames down at her feet, forcing her to open the distance back up. She couldn't go too far inside anyway; the smoke was suffocating. How fire mages dealt with it, she never knew.

"Sure is nice of you guys to keep sending your toughest to deal with me," Flare said. And then he winked, which made Sarah feel like hurling on the spot. Rather than encourage him, she held up her free arm, feeling the warmth of her magic flow from her chest out into her fingertips. Flare tensed, ready to dodge, but at the last moment Sarah raised her aim towards the ceiling. A bolt of lightning flew from her fingers, arcing through the air and piercing the wood beams. The roof exploded. Flare cursed and leaped forward just before the supports collapsed down onto him. Though the house was lost, at least now Flare was out of his element.

Again, Sarah charged. Despite Flare's efforts to keep her away, the open street gave her plenty of room to jump, sidestep, and spin from his flurry of flames. She closed the distance in a spiral, and then began the counterattack. Despite Flare's powerful magic, his hand-to-hand was weak and he carried no weapon. Sarah's moonblade sliced the air in rapid swings. She couldn't yet land any fatal strikes with all the bursts of fire keeping her on her toes, but she caught Flare across his chest and his arms many times, blood blooming on his clothes. Slowly, she backed him further and further across the street, until Flare's back was up against another house, where his fire had not yet fully taken hold.

Sarah plunged her blade forward. Flare tried to back away, but had nowhere to go. The tips of the steel sunk into the wooden wall behind him, sitting on either side of his neck. He was trapped.

For a few moments, the two stared at each other, catching their breath.

"Give me one reason not to cut your head off right now," Sarah growled.

"Pretty sure that Alex guy has a strict 'no murder' policy," Flare said, still wearing that stupid grin.

"Except in emergencies."

"Well, you'd hate to see me go, right?"

"I'd love to." Sarah steeled her arm, ready to swing her moonblade through Flare's neck.

"Come on, we're having so much fun, aren't we?"

"No."

"Well, I am. Wanna get coffee after this?"

"That's it, you're dead."

She loosened her blade from the wood just enough to swing it. But right as she was about to, she dropped. The ground opened up beneath her, and she plummeted downwards with a shout.

Above her, an axe blade crashed down into the ground, exactly where she'd been standing.

Sarah landed with a crouch elsewhere on the street. Disoriented, she swiveled around and saw Vurto standing there panting. Above them, the portal Sarah had dropped through closed with a faint whoosh.

"Jeez," Sarah said with a huff as she put together what had happened. "Thanks for saving my life, I guess." Vurto was a Space mage, capable of opening portals between locations, but it was taxing magic that took time to prepare.

"Don't mention it," Vurto said. "Really, don't. I don't need Robert or Zack knowing I let him get away."

"Eh. Better to walk out alive." Sarah looked back to where she had just been standing, several houses away; naturally, Flare and the Soul Guardian that had snuck up on her were both long gone. From the sound of things, many of the smaller battles were winding down as their opponents fled the scene, leaving only the Brigade and local firefighters to work to control the flames.

Too many of their battles had ended like this -- one side forced to retreat, neither landing any solid blows on the other. They'd fought too often, knew each other too well. Maybe Flare and others like him saw it as a game, but Sarah only felt hopeless in the wake of such senseless destruction.

They'd keep trying, though. Sooner or later, they'd have their decisive victory.