James aims his crossbow at Oscar, who stupidly stands defiantly right in the line of fire.

James: You…I don’t remember…were you wanted as well?

James: Either way, if you want to die I’m always looking for an easy kill.

Oscar: If I only have one last fight with these gloves, it’s going to be of them being shoved into your face!

James half-laughs at Oscar before firing three arrows in rapid, blended succession at him. Oscar leaps high in the air, the arrows passing under him. James looks up and fires another arrow at him, but Oscar bounces off the side of the cliff, avoiding the arrow and coming down hard at James. James makes a motion like he is about to dodge, but to his surprise Oscar lands on his crossbow instead, his fist outstretched.

James quickly lets go of his crossbow, and backflips to avoid the attack, gracefully landing on his feet right out of the reach of Oscar’s attack. Oscar leaps at him, twirling into a kick at James’s side. James ducks under the attack, grabbing Oscar’s leg above him and tossing him aside like a rag doll. Oscar lands on his hands and flips back onto his feet, but by the time he faces James, James already has retaken his crossbow and has it aimed directly at Oscar.

James fires at Oscar, but his arrow is cut in midair by Iricryo, who jumps in the way.

Iricryo: About time I can finally get into this fight.

Jack slashes at Bel with both of his swords, but she steps slightly out of the reach of both of them. He charges head-on, both his swords aimed forward, and Bel side-steps, letting Jack pass her by. She knees him in the back as he does, but it barely makes any impact and Jack twirls around, swords first, trying to hit Bel. Bel leaps backwards, landing a few feet away.

Jack: You’re fast. But you can’t win just by jumping out of the way, you know. Besides, it may not look like it now, but I’m way faster.

Jack: Don’t believe me, I’ll prove it to you in a second!

He charges head-on at Bel again, who does a twirl where she is standing, her shoes and legs glowing white.

A white beam fires from the tip of her shoes, soaring in an arc towards Jack, tearing up the ground where it passes as it does. It meet’s Jack’s head-on charge, and Jack disappears into the white glow.

Bel lands and watches through the glow as Jack cuts straight through the glow with his swords, the glow parting around him. His charge at her continues. Bel jumps back a step to avoid the initial attack, but Jack somersaults forward towards her, bringing his swords down as he does.

Bel brings her arms up to guard her as thousands of sword slashes barrage her. Most of them seem to be deflected off her clothing, but some of them cut her hands and one slices her across the side of her face. As the attack ends, Bel once again twirls before Jack has a chance to recover from his roll.

This one is a direct hit to Jack, sending him soaring with light arc into the cliff, then engulfed in the white glow.

Jack: Whatever it is that you’re wearing, it’s a lot tougher than I expected. You got lucky.

Bel hands bleed from the cuts and she has blood running down the side of her face.

Bel: Damn, he survived that like it was nothing. He’s definitely a lot tougher than my normal opponents. I might be able to beat him still, but not in time to save my gloves, I mean, the guy with the gloves and his friends. I hope they can hold on for a little longer.

James: He’s making no attempt to come at me…that is because, he is a diversion…

He leaps out of the way, just as he does needles land in the area he had been standing. He spots Melanie, hiding only a few feet away.

Melanie: Damn, how did he catch on?!

He fires rapidly at Melanie, who tries desperately to avoid the arrows. One pierces her leg and sends her sprawling to the ground.

James aims again at Melanie, but is cut off when he notices Oscar charging straight for him.

He does not get to finish, as he is cut off by James slamming his crossbow into Oscar’s stomach. Oscar kneels over and then is knocked away by James. Oscar struggles, but doesn’t seem to be able to pick himself back to his feet. He falls over forward.

James turns suddenly and blocks a sword swing by Rook with his crossbow.

James: So you’re still able to fight?

Rook: As long as I am able to lift my sword, I will keep fighting.

James: Is that what it will take to make you stop?

Rook’s sword clashes with James’s crossbow again. As it does, Rook reaches out and grabs James’s crossbow with his black arm. He squeezes it hard, trying to crush it in his grasp.

James quickly spins and kicks Rook across his chest, knocking Rook away. Before Rook is able to regain his footing, James aims and fires an arrow at him. Rook tries to block it with his sword, but the arrows breaks straight through his sword, shattering it. The arrow continues through to his black arm, hitting it where it was already cracked and now completely breaking it. Rook falls to his back.

Bel dodges slashes from Jack’s swords. She returns by kicking high at Jack, who blocks by placing both his swords in front of him in an X-shape. Still in this shape, Jack’s swords glow, and he swings them forward leaving a shining X in the swords’ trail.

Bel ducks under the attack, and a wave of energy explodes just inches over her head.

Jack retracts his swords, trying to get them in a defensive position, but as he does Bel suddenly high kicks, landing right under his chin.

There is a blinding white explosion from Bel’s kick, and Jack is sent flying high into the sky,

She leaps and uses the cliff as a launching point to get up in the air at Jack’s point, leg back to prepare for a kick. To her surprise, Jack regains control of himself in the air and brings both of his swords down hard on her as she reaches him. She holds out her arms to block the swords.

As they both hit the ground, Jack’s swords still pressing hard into Bel’s arms, the ground explodes into a blazing shockwave, flames being shot from Jack’s swords causing Bel to be lost in the explosion.

James was aiming at Iricryo, who is no bleeding in multiple places from arrows scraping by him, when he is forced to jump out of the way of the flaming shockwave.

Jack: The only one that matters, anyway.

James: No freaking consideration for anyone else, just like always. I don’t know how I put up with you.

Jack: I guess I’m just so cool that you can’t help but be friends with me.

James: Somehow I doubt that’s the reason.

Iricryo uses the temporary break in the action to analyze the situation. His eyes dart back and forth between Jack and James.

Iricryo: Did that woman just lose?

Iricryo: Am I the only one still standing? How did this happen? Just one guy managed to defeat all of us! And that other guy…he fought that woman with such power, I’ve never seen anything like it before. Even after seeing what they did to Lecithin, I still could not manage to grasp just how strong these guys are.

Jack: Hurry up and finish your guys. I don’t want to have to wait here all day.

He is backhanded and sent hard to the ground by Bel, have popped up behind him. Bel has a few burn marks, but otherwise still seems ready to fight.

James: Looks like you should be worrying more about finishing your fight.

Jack: You know, I’ll have to admit that you’re pretty strong if you survived that. In fact, I’d say you’re almost as strong as me. Now be honored, it’s not every day I give someone the pleasure of knowing they’re almost at my level.

Bel: There’s no way this fight would end anytime soon, and the rest of them would be dead far before one of us would fall. But I guess I have one more thing I haven’t yet tried.

She leaps up into the air. Jack jumps after her, swords ready. Bel positions herself in alignment with the sun, and her entire body glows.

The entire area becomes encompassed in a white blanket of light. Jack shields his eyes, but all he can see in front of him is white.

He lands, almost missing his landing due to not being able to see the ground. He winces as the area slowly becomes more visible. He spots James, but looking frantically around him he can’t see anyone else.

Jack: They couldn’t have gone that far!

James: With Bel as their escort, they could have. And I doubt where she would have them hide would be easily noticed, anyway.

Jack: Man, such a great fight, cut short.

James: Bel makes herself known wherever she goes, she will turn up soon enough if you are so desperate to prove yourself.

He looks around. Everyone else besides Iricryo and Rook are still unconscious and everyone has bandages and other treatments applied to their injuries.

Iricryo: We got our asses kicked, that’s what happened. If Bel here hadn’t saved us, it would have been game over for all of us.

Bel: Glad to see you’re awake. I saved your friends, like we agreed, so now it’s time for you to hold up you end of the bargain.