*Tahoma*

[Meanwhile- In another section of Mt. Rios]

I dodged a blue beam and watched as a glacier appeared on the spot it had hit. I looked forward and saw another one coming at me. Someone was sniping at me from the cliff above.

I narrowed my eyes at the rocky protrusion and noticed what appeared to be bits of ice. We were high enough for ice to form, but given they formed a straight line pointing to the direction of where the beam hit, it was a safe bet that the fighter was there.

"Tahoma! There you are!" a familiar voice called out. Or rather a pair of voices.

Approaching me was a pair of black haired, greyish-blue-eyed boys. They were the jokester twins, Tasunke and Tashunka.

"Y-you ran off," they said.

"I felt the presence of someone here," I said, glancing back at the cliff. They hadn't taken another shot after their two failed attempts, but why? Did their spell require a recharge time or was it the casting time that was the issue?

"Hmm, looks like a simple ice beam, though," the twins said as if they had read my mind. One of them reached their hand out to touch the glacier.

"Stop, Tashunka, you'll freeze!" Kachina yelled as she ran up the worn out mountain trail. I was surprised that there was even a trial to this far up the mountain to begin with. Had Mt. Rios once been a sacred site to the people here like how we had Mt. Wahkan?

Tashunka stopped.

"You idiot," his brother said, hitting him upside the head.

"Hey!" Tashunka snapped. He hit Tasunke in return.

"Stop fighting," Kachina yelled. "You're supposed to be fighting the opposing teams!"

"Sorry, Kachi," the two said in unison as they stepped away from one another.

I sighed. "Must've been tough babysitting them all the way up here."

"Indeed it was," Kachina said, taking a deep breath. "Well, now that we're here, how about we start looking for our opponents?"

I glanced back up at the rocky cliff overlooking us. The thin traces of ice had been evaporated away. They had probably moved while I was distracted.

Suddenly red stone tore through the ground. The four of us jumped back

Standing at the origin of the red crystal wall was Haroun.

I removed the wooden totem around my neck. The other two did the same. Bright lights emitted from our hands and blinded Harun.

He jumped back and slammed the ground, raising a wall of ruby between us.

Two figures jumped down from the cliff and ejected blasts of high pressured water out of their hands.

A silver humanoid figure stood in front of the blasts and raised a shield over its head. The shield screeched as it bent under the pressure of the two water beams.

"Argentum!" Tasunke yelled.

"I'm fine," the silver humanoid said as it struggled to fix its bending shield.

"Aurum!" Tashunke yelled. Another humanoid, this one with a golden armored body and with a spear in hand flew up toward the source of the water beams. "Go! Destroy them!"

"I'll leave those Shui clan twins to you two," I said.

"Huh? How do you know it's them?" they asked.

I snickered. "Rather obvious given their attack." Suddenly a small butterfly landed on my shoulder. I gasped. "So Ayawamat wants us to return to camp. We need to obtain Sera and Harun's gems. Sarah and Vermeil are down."

Haroun gasped. "Vermeil..."

I jumped on the back of my familiar, a four-legged dragon the size of a horse and with red feathered wings.

I smiled at Haroun as I transformed my hands into dragon claws. "Time to finish this!"

Haroun grunted. "Ruby Storm!" Swirling barrage of the red stone flew toward me but I slashed through the stones with my claws. The gems were like butter against my claws.

"Let's take down those twins, Tashunke!" Tasunke yelled as he jumped on top of his silver armored familiar.

"You got it, bro!" Tashunke yelled with a jubilant smile.

"Well, our spirits sure went up," Kachina said, chuckling as she patted her white horse. She gasped. "Tahoma! Ice beam incoming!"

I jumped back. Just like Kachina had warned, a beam of ice passed by where I was heading to, covering the area in a thick glacier. Another beam rained down on me.

I dodged once more. "Kachina, take care of whoever is launching those!" I yelled.

"I'm on it!" Kachina yelled as he horse ran up the vertical rock walls of the cliff.

"Thanks!" I yelled, waving at her. I stared down Haroun.

"Now, how about we fight without interruptions this time?"

Haroun gritted his teeth. "It's just like when we lost Lucette..."

"Huh?"

"My power isn't enough," he murmured. He summoned a red polearm and swung it, slashing the rock. "Still, I'll continue to fight!"

I smiled. "Foolish, but admirable," I said. My familiar opened its mouth and unleashed an indigo colored blast of smoke.

Haroun slammed his pole arm against the ground and balanced on the end of the shaft.

"Nice trick," I said, summoning a sword. "But it ends now!"

"You would be wise not to underestimate me," Haroun said, snapping his fingers. Rubies rose all around us. I gasped as my familiar was impaled by red spikes of the gem.

I jumped on my familiars back and jumped up.

"Tobey, return!" I yelled. My familiar returned to the wooden dragon totem in my right hand. I glared at Haroun who was smiling.

"It isn't over," the white haired young man said as he snapped his fingers again. "Crimson Ruby Bloom!"

I screamed as the rubies sliced through my skin like a thousand cuts. Who knew, perhaps they were a thousand rubies striking me.

Haroun pulled up his pole-arm from the ground as the barrage of precious gems came to an end. He thrust the spear at my chest.

I grabbed the weapon with both hands.

"Sorry, for looking down on you," I said.

He smiled. "Crimson Rain!"

I looked up and realized that the gems that had frown up were suspended in the sky. All that changed in a second as they rained back down.

I moved the spear to the side and flew back.

"I'm not letting you to escape," Haroun said, taking a step forward. The gems shifted direction.

I gritted my teeth together and covered my whole body in scales. A howling scream escaped my lips as the gems sliced though my scales. Had he made them stronger? Wait, did he go easy on me earlier with this trap in mind?

Haroun put a hand on his hips. "Given up yet, Tahoma? If so then hand over your gems and you can be on your way!"

"N-never," I said, falling to my knees. I glanced up at him. "I won't surrender." I slammed my fist against the ground, shattering the rock underneath.

My opponent darted away as my surroundings threated to give in.

I raised my hand. "Lux!" Pillars of light flew down, tearing the stone and spreading the cracks.

Haroun jumped and grabbed a hold of the cliff wall as the ground cracked.

"You're the one who isn't getting away!" I yelled as I transformed my wand into a katana.

The wall of the cliff trembled as his spear blocked my sword. The resulting shockwave caused more cracks to appear on the wall of the cliff.

"Hey, be careful down there!" Kachina yelled. She was locked in battle with a white haired guy of her own.

"Get away!"

I heard the twins scream as they were tossed down. The knights of Sera ran down the cliff with swords of water. The twin knights attacked the jokester twin's familiars.

"Aurum!" Tashunke yelled.

"Argentum!" Tasunke yelled.

The two reached their hands outward for one another. "Fu-fusion!" the two yelled.

"Fusion?" Kachina said as he blocked a beam of ice from the white-haired guy she was fighting. I sent sphere of dragon energy at her opponent, forcing him to back away from her.

I smiled as I landed next to Kachina. "So the twins had a trick up their sleeve," I said. "Not surprised. Those clowns are always up to something."

Seriously, I couldn't help but ask why the twins and triplets I knew tended to be clowns... Was there something in Wahkan's water that did stuff to those with identical siblings or what?

The twins turned into two spheres. One light blue and the other greenish-blue. The two spheres danced around one another until they collided. The light vanished gradually and out of it emerged a light blue haired guy wearing a white sweater and black jeans.

"What should we call him?" Kachina whispered. "Tashusunke?"

"The name is Tasushu," the boy said, smiling. "Nice to meet you. Kachina, Tahoma."

"We already met," I said, narrowing my eyes at them.

"Turning you attention away from your opponents, how unprofessional!" the male Seran knight yelled as he closed in on the twin's fusion.

Tasushu held his hand out, blocking the blade.

"What?" he exclaimed. Kachina and I did the same internally.

"Hey, you two, ice beam and ruby storm incoming!" he yelled.

The two of us jumped, barely dodging a blizzard of frozen rubies.

"Kachi, Taho, let's finish this!" Tasushu said with a large grin as he shattered the sword in his hands.

"For Wahkan," all four... well three of us yelled in unison.

Kachina closed her eyes and unleashed a sphere of aura at her opponent.

The white haired Uanian caught it in his armored hands and dispersed it.

Kachi smiled. "You fell for it."

The Uan stepped back. He touched his head. Right about now he was probably starting to lose his vision. Kachina was an aura mage, meaning her magic had no elemental affinity nor it directly control creatures such as plants, animals, etc. However, she had a way of messing with people's senses by overloading their systems with concentrated energy.

As soon as that Uanian had exploded her sphere, his had sealed his defeat.

"Nui, I warned you about Kachina," Haroun said, staring at his teammate.

"I... didn't think her magic was this potent," Nui said, falling to his knees.

Kachina sighed. It was hard for her to be an aura mage. It was probably the most overlooked magic type in all of Xeleria.

Haroun stared at us. He picked up Nui and threw us a yellow gem.

"Giving up?"

"Yanyu and Sera said to retreat should we face the prospect of an unwinnable battle. I already used up all the tricks I had."

"But this is your last stone," I said.

Haroun smiled. "True, but that doesn't mean that I won't uphold my part of the alliance." His body began to glow bright white. "Can I trust Nui to you?"

"Sure," Kachina said, stepping forward and took Nui from him.

Haroun smiled as he vanished. "Thanks."

I felt a pang in my stomach. Haroun, why did he give up? He said that he was going to continue fighting earlier. Was he too tired? Perhaps Kachina's spell affected him too. He was rather close to Nui when the latter exploded the aura sphere. Or were those words just empty rhetoric after all?

I turned around and saw Tasushu take the jewel from the male knight.

"Brother, no!" his sister yelled as she stabbed Tasushu in the side.

The fusion of the twins smiled and threw the white stone down to us. I jumped up and caught it.

"We're done!" I yelled.

A bright light covered us.

"What's going on?" Kachina said, looking down at her glowing arms.

I looked up at the sky and smiled. "Seems that the others got the necessary stones. We're moving on." 

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter :3. Thoughts? Theories/predictions for what is to come in the next 40 chapters left in this story?**