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Before they could get to him, a big shadow grey rune (that had yellow writings all around it) appeared behind him, spinning slowly while shimmering, "I like two against one. Let's see how potent you are," he let out raucous mirth, vanishing and materialising behind the female that had pitched the ice chains at him.
"Take this!" he launched golden spheres of dark magic at her swiftly, giving her no time to attempt eluding. The attacks passed through her as her body became translucent, stunning him. These golden spheres, though not as deadly as that of the dark mist, could make one almost dead, but they actually did zero damage to her!
He peeked at the tribrid once more and saw her body was glowing more than before- a confirmation that the two were related.

"Old guy, look this way," Cephina blurted out as she commenced casting a sequence of fire spheres at him. Now it was the man's turn to dodge all her attacks, as well as that of the bothersome daggers launched by Phoenix.
He harrumphed and another much bigger rune appeared behind the first rune- one of a slate grey colour that had several symbols in a red colour, glowing brighter than the first rune and rotating much faster.
As he pressed his palms together, eyes shut, the runes separated from each other, the first one facing Phoenix and the other, Cephina.

Phoenix disappeared from his spot and when he materialised behind the man, three distinct runes were behind him. The first one was black with eburnean ancient writings, the second was smaragdine with golden symbols and the third was of a greige colour with violet writings around it.
Without any utterance, he pressed both palms together, eyes shut.

A second after, under his lower eyelids, four circular purple marks appeared on each, and a red moon mark appeared on his forehead, resulting in the fourth rune- a larger circular golden one that was above him with silver writings and symbols, glowing brighter than the other three.

Cephina also did likewise, pressing both palms together, but no rune appeared. Rather, a translucent purple-eyed black dragon (that possessed silver horns, huge black wings with red spikes at the edges, a long tail with golden spikes, and a golden underpart with horizontal red lines) materialised on her left and a pearl-white nine-tailed giant wolf also appeared on her right. Cephina's hair turned purple, her eyes orange, and her lips blue, with a few purple scales visible on her arms.

The sorcerer simply sniggered after discerning he had more company. Opening his eyes which were now glowing gold, 8 more runes of various colours appeared- each one larger than the other- taking their various positions, and he even duplicated himself twice. While the copies couldn't speak, they were half as good as him at fighting.
"Now what is your choice? Battle, or concede and calmly go to hell?" he asked, looking more conceited than before.

"You already know the answer, old thing," Lavana's mate responded as his eyes opened, revealing glowing sage green eyes, also duplicating himself thrice, the copies each having four runes like him.
"A scourge like you is better fit to perish," Cephina said, stretching both hands forward. Both translucent creatures ran forward, excited to battle.
"Very well then," With a signal to proceed, the masked sorcerer's copies flew forward, making complex hand movements as they increased their pace.
The writings and symbols on the copies' chosen rune lit up and commenced raining meteor-like attacks at the two creatures and the 2 copies that Phoenix had also sent forward.

Lavana's mate's copies disappeared and materialised just right behind the enemy copies, their selected runes also showering venomous spikes of varied colours.
One of the opponent copies turned around and flew towards the venom spikes-launching copies, its chosen rune raining lava balls at them instead, which the two skillfully evaded, taking any chance to launch venomous arrows at the rival copy.
The other replica belonging to the grinning old man went after the two translucent creatures, 2 of its runes showering ice spikes and hail, 3 rained rocks of various sizes and another rune was responsible for raining various translucent ancient weapons that caused a lot of headaches for the creatures.

Muttering some inaudible words, Cephina's eyes turned purple, linking with the dragon. The creature opened its mouth spitting lightning bolts nonstop at the pesky copy itself, while the Olmpha used its tails to ward off as many of the attacks, not shrinking back even after by hit by a few attacks.

Below was a trembling Lavana whose lips had become pale and finding it rather challenging to retain her bearing, but she still held on. Unless that old bastard was taken down, she wouldn't give up. There's still a long way to go.
...

A great explosion occurred as the fighting parties clashed. One of the enemy copies had only 2 runes left after the clash, but the other one who was fighting the creatures had only 4 left. The opponent copies' runes were dimming though. But one of Phoenix's copies was gone along with the translucent Olmpha. The remaining copy of Phoenix's had just one rune left and that was the golden rune that was dimming. The translucent dragon had its tail cut off and even lost its horns but it still roared, ready to attack.

"Hahaha! So weak," the old man laughed wildly. He made the copies disappear as he felt he didn't need them anymore. Doing hand movements at a speed that the human eye can't comprehend, his ten runes changed shape and turned into ten different mythical creatures, one of them being a draconic-tailed cheetah, the writings and symbols still present on their bodies and glistening brighter than before.
Cephina made the translucent dragon vanish and then summoned another dragon and Olmpha creature that weren't translucent this time.

Phoenix also made his duplicates disappear. The replicas are meant for testing how one would fare against an enemy sorcerer. He, from the battle just now, had comprehended that this man was more powerful than he envisioned, but he wasn't just going to back down just because the opponent was seemingly invincible. That wasn't like him!
"Antero Oswald, prepare to die," he yelled, letting out a battle cry after his four runes also altered into different mythical creatures, the golden one above him being a dragon. He flew straight to the sorcerer, telepathically requesting Cephina to retreat.
The latter didn't reply, but the two creatures she summoned vanished.

She began to sing in a language that neither of the two men understood but its effects showed up soon enough. While Phoenix's felt a great surge in his powers as his body glowed a golden light, the other felt something wrong with his body.
"You... siren!" the dark sorcerer said through gritted teeth, vanishing before Phoenix could get to him.
He appeared right in front of Lavana.
"You stupid lass, better go to hell and stop annoying me," he spat, launching dark mist at her, but a red magical barrier suddenly appeared around her, absorbing the attack.
Phoenix and Cepina turned around and found the opponent already before the tribrid, relentlessly launching attacks at the barrier that protected Lavana.

"Damn it," Lavana's mate cussed under his breath, also vanishing and appearing behind Lavana. He launched a grey mist at the old man who eluded it and reciprocated by launching a golden mist sphere at Lavana's mate.
Cephina had ceased singing after noticing that the slick guy was attacking Phoenix. The barrier didn't seem like it would hold on for much longer. She pitched multiple ice chains at him, one was successful in wrapping around his neck, tightening its grip, but it was too early to jubilate, as her ice chains instantly broke into fragments.

A bit dumbstruck, she didn't lose her composure still, pitching another set of ice chains at him. Two caught his hands, wrapping around them, and she promptly pulled on the chains, preventing him from further trying to ruin the barrier or attack Phoenix
"You think I can't harm him, uh?" Antero chortled as his eyes turned a mazarine blue, "You're in for a surprise,"
Instantly, giant blue vines sprung up from the ground. Phoenix, on seeing this tried to flee, but the vines were faster. One of them caught his left foot and impaled its thorns into it.

Gritting his teeth, Lavana's mate still tried to escape its grasp by casting spheres of black mist at the vines, which immediately got obliterated. But there was no time to be relieved as another set of even bigger, thorny, massive vines sprung up again and caught hold of his right foot, impaling it also with the thorns. Phoenix took out his peacock fan which immediately turned into a dagger.

Manipulating it by means of telekinesis, he endeavoured to use the weapon to cut off the vines. While this move was successful to an extent, the very vine that held onto his foot was harder than a diamond surprisingly. It even ruined the dagger!
Phoenix spat out blood when the dagger was cut in half, holding his chest.

Cephina summoned the two creatures once again and ordered them to go save Phoenix, but black shadows suddenly appeared, blocking their way, forming the appearance of demonic-looking creatures, engaging the dragon and Olmpha in fierce combat.

Phoenix, on the other hand, felt especially weakened. The thorns of those vines were accountable for this. His runes had disappeared, as he had no vitality to keep maintaining all four of them. More vines sprung up and encaged him, dragging him downwards into a quicksand that had formed.
The terrible part was, he couldn't even vanish from the cage. There was barely any space for him to take out another weapon from his spatial ring to cut through the cursed vines. The thorns were embedding into his skin from all sides. He had a protective barrier all around him to lessen the impact though, but it was even on the verge of shattering. This Antero must have sold his soul to the devil for him to be this mighty. The shadow beasts were sufficient proof.

The ice chains that were precluding Antero from pitching further mist attacks at Lavana soon melted and he turned to face Cephina, grinning evilly.
"Keep busy," he said, before turning his back to face her again.
His runes-turned beasts immediately headed for her all at once and she had to defend herself against the attacks of the ten. Now that no one was stopping him from sending this stinkpot of a tribrid to her ancestors, he chuckled, renewing his fierce attacks on the barrier that had shown more and more signs of cracking.

..
Meanwhile...

Rolandro and the other four had found their way into the pastry shop run by a she-wolf- a Lambda to be precise. No one was in the shop other than herself and she was feeling bored. Just like the past 2 days, she had put a notice outside that she wouldn't be receiving any customers from a specific time and it was the same today.
She'd been thrilled when things took a turn after that average-looking Alpha guy murdered the supposed winner of the triennial competition, Hillian. But at the point when the 2nd-ranked Alpha Chase shifted into a creature she'd never seen nor heard of before and let out a menacing howl, the screen went blank.

She thought it was the Tv, but soon, she discovered the fault to be from the other end and she waited patiently in hopes that it might continue. But to her dismay, the stream never resumed and she had so many unanswered questions. She thought that at worst she'll just have to wait until those at the venue returned, before getting any answers.

However, on seeing these five who looked unfamiliar enter her shop, she rose from her seat and walked towards them. They were unclothed and without them asking, she took them upstairs, showing them the guest bathroom that was meant for cases like them. When they finished showering, they came out of the bathroom, white towels around their waists. They found a fancy basket containing clothes just at the door and knew it was the thoughtful deed of that woman.

They, without hesitation, took the clothes that suited them and wore them. Mel was a bit hard-lucked- the clothes that fitted him were for females and the others teased him for a bit before heading down the stairs together to find the middle-aged lady seated at one of the customer tables, legs crossed.
"Thank you very much, ma'am," said Rolandro with gratitude.
"It's fine. It's what I ought to do," she replied with a smile, offering them seats. She couldn't help asking why they had blood on them earlier.
"Um... that... is a long story," said Mel as he rubbed his neck.
"Would you mind telling me a part of it?" she asked, curiosity clearly spelt on her face.
"Um, we're not in a calm state," he replied and the other four nodded their agreement, "And um... I think it's best you don't ask anyone else. Thank you once again for the kindness you have shown,"

She sighed and then nodded, "Okay. Where do you guys reside?" she inquired.
"Um... I don't think you need to know that, Lambda," Zyair said in a solemn tone.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad," she nervously laughed and the Zyair rescinded his killing intent after being patted on his right shoulder by Oliver.

"We'll be back to eat at your place. Then if possible, we'll answer a few questions and leave you satisfied. How does that sound?" Rolandro proposed.
Nodding, she replied smilingly, "Sounds great!"
...

A few minutes after, they came out of the shop, wearing baggy t-shirts that almost covered their shorts and bathroom slippers. They bid the lady farewell and continued their journey on foot. The hotel wasn't too far from here.

20 minutes later,

They reached the magnificent gate of the hotel and Mel knocked. Seconds after, the gatekeeper- a short but ripped middle-aged guy sporting a shaved head- came out and glanced at them all.
"Who are you?" he questioned.

"Um... we occupy a few rooms in this place. Please let us in. It's been a tiring journey. We lost our cars and even our clothes. It's a kind, someone that helped us out," replied Dante.
"I don't know you guys," the gatekeeper was about to go back in and shut the gate, but an irked Dante suddenly dragged him out and lifted him by the throat, "Do you not understand English?" he snarled.

A/n:
Hey, dearies. Sorry for the late updates. This was supposedly due last Saturday but I've been dealing with the perfectionist part of me that appears when it's battle scenes. I hope you had a good read. Thanks for sticking with this imperfect story. I wish y'all good luck.