The altar clearing trembled with battle.
Lila pressed deeper into the roots of a massive tree, braiding vines and wet soil with her water Muti until their hideout looked like forest, not people.
Aria lay beside her, unconscious but breathing steadily, faint sparks still skimming her arms.
Minerva slumped against the trunk, dead weight.
Lila gripped her water-forged staff.
"Please... don't wake up now. Not yet."
Through the leaves, the fight played out.
One squad was already breaking.
Their axe-wielding leader ricocheted into a trunk, ribs cracking loudly enough to echo.
His teammates followed — one pinned under stone, one sprawled and groaning.
The victors stood tall.
Four of them, bloodied and grinning.
At their head, a girl with obsidian braids and iron gauntlets cracked her knuckles, aura pulsing like heatwaves.
"That's it," she spat, stalking toward the altar.
"No more weaklings in our way."
Her squad whooped —
until she reached the pedestal.
She froze.
The scroll was gone.
"What...?"
Steel scraped stone as her gauntlets tore at the cracked altar.
"Where is it?"
Her team swarmed the dais — ripping rubble, digging at moss, clawing dirt.
Nothing.
"Someone already took it," one snarled.
Heat rolled off the leader again.
Her eyes snapped to the treeline.
"They're close. Whoever has it... is still here."
Lila's chest tightened.
She sank lower into the roots.
Her aura thinned and spread, washing over every spark of life she was hiding — Aria's shallow rise, Minerva's faint pulse — cooling it under a veil of water.
The victors fanned out, blades drawn.
Don't look here.
Please don't look here.
A boot scuffed to a stop.
One boy eyed the very tree sheltering them.
Lila's heart pounded loud enough to feel in her teeth.
She pressed her palm to damp soil, drawing heat and life into silence.
The boy's sword hovered inches from the bark.
"...I thought I felt something."
"Then stop thinking and keep searching!" the iron-gauntlet girl barked.
He grunted, lowered the blade, and moved on.
Only when his steps faded did Lila breathe.
"We're still ghosts," she whispered.
"Just a little longer."
Bushes rattled —
and Lila Butters stepped out.
Leaves in her hair.
Dirt on her cheek.
That lopsided grin like she'd tripped into the moment by accident.
"Uh... hi."
A small wave.
"You found me. Guess hide-and-seek isn't my best game."
Snickers rolled through the squad.
Their leader — a tall woman in jade-inlaid armor — folded her arms, disdain flat in her voice.
"This is what they left? A stray? Don't waste my time."
More laughter.
"She's their backup? Seriously?"
The leader didn't bother looking again.
She snapped her fingers.
"Rooke. End this."
Rooke "Mad Dog" Raker swaggered forward, grinning wide.
Shoulders rolled.
Neck cracked.
His aura came off in jagged bursts.
"They left a clown to hold the fort. Cute."
"I like breaking clowns."
Lila tilted her head, unbothered.
"Clown? That's new."
"I usually get 'adorable' or 'harmless.'"
The squad laughed harder.
Even the leader smirked.
Rooke stomped once, cracking the dirt, closing in.
"You got guts. Let's see if they stay inside."
He lunged.
Lila moved.
A smooth pivot, almost casual.
Her knee snapped up with explosive precision.
It landed clean.
Air whooshed out of him in a violent wheeze.
Eyes wide.
Grin erased.
His body folded and hit the dirt face-first.
Silence.
The squad stared.
The leader's smirk slipped.
Lila shook out her leg, wincing.
"Oof. Solid core. That stung."
A cheeky head scratch.
"Guess Mom's training wasn't for nothing..."
Mom wouldn't have broken a sweat.
Elric's students never do.
Me? Still catching up.
Out loud, her grin returned.
"So. Who's next?"
"Or do you all wanna nap too?"
No one stepped.
Their laughter was gone.
All eyes fell to their leader.
Mei Lei's expression didn't crack.
She walked forward, slow and deliberate, the ground hardening under her heel.
Vines rippled at her ankles, her aura pressing heavily.
"You're not as helpless as you look," Mei Lei said, voice all Chun discipline.
"Don't mistake one lucky knee for strength."
"You're in my forest."
The twins slid in at her flanks — Jabibi and Sabibi, moving like mirror images, the same crooked smirk.
Fingers snapped.
The air vibrated, a low hum that made the trees shiver.
Lila's grin thinned.
"...Great."
"Copy-paste villains."
"My favorite."
Sabibi tilted his head.
"We're not copy-paste."
"We're harmony," Jabibi finished.
"And harmony breaks anything out of tune."
A pulse ripped out from them.
Leaves rattled from branches.
The noise didn't just echo — it stung.
Lila winced.
"Ow."
"Okay, rude."
Mei Lei's aura climbed.
Roots slid from the ground.
"Enough games."
"You're outnumbered, outclassed, already cornered."
She crouched, stance wide, stone cracking underfoot.
"Last chance."
"Tell me where your squad is—"
"—or I bury you here."
Lila swallowed.
Her body remembered every drill.
Every kata.
Every sobbing spar as a kid.
Mom stood taller.
My mom never flinched.
She kept the smile anyway.
"Bury me?"
"Lady, I'm hanging on with tape and friendship."
"Might be doing me a favor."
The twins' laugh bounced off itself, warping the space between them.
Stone crept up Mei Lei's arms like bark gauntlets.
The fight was a breath from breaking.
Lila stepped back, laughing nervously.
"Okay, okay."
"Three-on-one."
"Totally fair."
"Just a goofy girl with no plan—"
The smile dropped.
Fists closed.
"...But you picked the wrong idiot."
Aura rippled from her sternum.
Baby-blue light ran through her veins like rivers.
Her eyes lit sapphire, bright enough to cut the mist.
The air smelled like ocean spray.
Mei Lei froze mid-step.
Vines hesitated.
Water bled from roots, leaves, air — drawn into orbit around Lila, spiraling faster, shaping into streams and whips.
The twins lost their smirks together.
"No way—"
"—she's transforming?!"
Lila's hair lifted on unseen currents.
The clearing creaked under the weight of her surge.
"This is me not holding back."
Her hands moved like muscle memory had been waiting years.
A wave burst from nothing, drowning the twins' hum in a rushing roar.
She spun, heel slamming into dirt.
A geyser erupted, forcing Mei Lei back.
"Water martial style..." Mei Lei whispered, eyes widening.
Lila blurred.
A water whip coiled her arm.
She drove it like a spear —
Mei Lei threw up a wall of stone.
The impact spider-cracked it clean through.
The twins sent razor sound at her.
Lila's aura flared.
Water armored her forearms.
She crossed them and took the hit.
The sound shattered into harmless spray.
She grinned through the glow.
"Three-on-one?"
"Perfect."
Mei Lei's vines ripped free, thorns lashing like spears.
"Water Muti: Blue Dragon Smash!"
A dragon-shaped torrent roared out, smashing the thorn wall and flooding the field.
Mei Lei snarled, stamped hard, and the ground split — stone claws erupting, vines lancing forward.
Lila laughed and spun.
"Water Muti: Tidal Breaker!"
The dragon coiled and slammed down, pulverizing stone claws to rubble.
Vines snapped and washed away in a foaming surge.
The twins raised their hands.
Sound Muti shrieked invisible blades that stripped bark.
"Water Muti: Soundproof Splash!"
A wall of water snapped into place, scales rippling like a living serpent.
The sound-blades hit and blew apart in mist.
Mei Lei's jaw set.
Both palms hit the ground.
Venomous roots burst up, corkscrewing around Lila's legs.
Lila rolled her eyes.
"Ropes?"
"Really?"
She stomped.
"Water Muti: Hydro Drill!"
Water corkscrewed into a drilling lance, chewing through the vines and spitting mist.
The twins warped the air again, bending sight and sound until space felt brittle.
Lila crouched, veins burning blue.
"Water Muti: Dragon Drive!"
Her fist fired.
Water condensed into a dragon's jaw that tore their distortion apart and pile-drove Jabibi into a tree.
Sabibi staggered.
Mei Lei leapt to cover, both hands slamming earth.
A jagged stone wave clothed in thorns reared and rushed like a natural disaster.
Lila took one step.
Her aura roared brighter.
Eyes pure sapphire.
"Spirit Bloom — Aqua Nova!"
Water spiraled around her like a river-dragon.
Hair whipped back, streaked in blue light, every droplet thrumming with ruthless control.
Mei Lei hissed and charged.
Armored fist crashed.
Earth fractured.
Thorns exploded.
Lila didn't back up.
She shot forward surfing a coiled stream.
"Water Muti: Tsunami Crash!"
A towering wall of water roared.
Mei Lei's claws ripped through a dragon in spray —
but the water reformed and snared her torso.
Mei Lei roared and planted.
A colossal trunk burst from underfoot, rocketing her skyward.
Vines lashed, tearing at the binds.
Lila looked up, palms meeting.
"Water Muti: Dragon Fang Barrage!"
Dozens of smaller dragons erupted, snapping at every vine.
Impacts ripped bark and blossom.
Petals and splinters fountained.
Tree roots versus river jaws.
Blue and green light strobed the clearing.
Shockwaves rattled the wood.
Birds screamed out of the canopy.
Mei Lei's aura cracked under the weight.
Teeth clenched.
Vines shattered one by one.
"Impossible..."
The last dragon hammered her chestplate.
Bark split.
Roots failed.
The sky-tree shuddered and broke, collapsing with an echoing boom.
Mei Lei blasted backward, armor splintering to leaf and dust.
Mist thinned.
Lila stood center, aura still bright, water dragons orbiting like sentinels.
Her breathing wasn't as steady as her smile.
"Three-on-one."
She rolled her shoulders.
"You really should've brought more to face a queen."
Smoke drifted.
Trees lay like matchsticks, puddles steaming under the faint moon.
Mei Lei's squad retreated in a battered scramble — Jabibi hauling Sabibi, both half-dragging Rooke.
Mei Lei limped last, vines in tatters.
She glared once at Lila, then vanished into the trees.
Lila exhaled, shoulders dropping.
"Yeah, you better run..."
Her knees buckled — almost.
She planted her water staff to steady herself.
Branches rustled.
"Lila!"
Kai stepped in, Sun slung across his back.
His black gi was torn at the sleeve.
Rin leaned on him, pale but burning-eyed.
"Rin pushed too far," Kai said.
"But we got the scroll."
He lifted his hand.
Relic-light shimmered between his fingers.
Rin's smirk was thin.
"We didn't get lost for nothing."
"Don't remind me," Kai muttered, easing Rin down by a tree.
Aria stirred, groaning, static flickering over her knuckles.
Her eyes cracked open — tired, sharp.
Kai crouched.
Relief softened him.
"You're awake."
Aria's grin was weak.
"Miss me?"
Kai looked past her at the altar clearing — trenches, uprooted trunks, steaming soil.
"This wasn't like this," he said, turning to Lila.
"What happened?"
Lila blinked at the devastation and gave a big, goofy shrug.
"Honestly?"
"No idea."
"Bad feng shui?"
Kai squinted.
Rin arched a brow.
Lila waved her hands, laughing.
"Hey, I just held the line, okay?"
"Someone had to keep the fort while you boys played hide-and-seek."
Kai held her stare a beat, then chuckled.
"You're a terrible liar."
She puffed her cheeks.
"And you're terrible at compliments."
"'Thanks' is right there."
Rin let his head rest back, a faint smirk sneaking through exhaustion.
"She's right, Kai."
Kai sighed, smiling anyway.
"Fine."
"Thanks, Lila."
She sketched a wobbly bow.
"Anytime."
Kai looked down at the scroll.
Its weight wasn't wood and aura anymore —
it was everything they'd bled to keep.
His voice dropped.
"We found the way out."
"We move before the forest tests us again."
Aria sat up, sparks lighting her fingertips as strength clawed back.
"Good."
"I'm not prey in this cursed forest."
They gathered —
wounded, weary, together.