New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The mage looked at the situation, dumbfounded.

He somehow now understood the Ash Elf wasn't lying. But his actions were all but conventional.

After all, who would willingly throw themselves into the jaws of hell? That was like signing your own death warrant.

"Your friend will die in there. Why is he sacrificing himself for the Elves?"

Phoenix glanced at him.

"You are wrong."

The mage frowned.

"On what? Do you think he has a chance in hell? Few men traverse into that plane and live to tell the tale."

Phoenix chortled.

"You underestimate him. But that is not what I meant. I'm more worried about the demons' well-being than his. I meant you are wrong about his reasons. Astaroth isn't sacrificing himself for Elves. He is taking a risk for people. Be it your people, or his. That is how he is. Now tell us how we can help you with those dragons."

As she said that, two dragons bathed the shield he was holding in flames and thunder, making the shield flicker in strain.

The mage hurriedly brought his second arm up, channelling more mana into it.

"What can you even do to help me? These are dragons. Six of them. If I could defeat them, they would already be dead. And you are whelps," the mage scoffed.

Phoenix furrowed her brows.

What was the point of trying to help a man who didn't believe they could help him? She was half-tempted to call back Astaroth from the demons' plane, and let the Elf perish along with his arrogance.

"What is wrong with them? Why are they all gathered here, attacking this place?" she asked, trying to get a better grasp of the situation.

"These dragons are my familiars. Normally, they aren't trying to attack me. I don't know what is wrong with them."

Diverting a bit of her attention, Phoenix scanned one of them.

*Red Dragon Fledgling (Corrupted)*

Level: 60

Grade: Rare

Health: 298,200

Mana: 9,730

**

She doubted this mage, whatever his level was, couldn't handle them. Which brought her to wonder why he hadn't struck them down yet.

"These dragons are not that strong. Why haven't you gotten rid of them yet?"

The Elven mage looked at her with an irate face.

"I can't kill them because they are tied to my soul. I would hurt myself by taking them down. Do you think I'm stupid, Human girl?"

Phoenix clicked her tongue.

*Tsk*

"Rude! The first part would have been enough. Fine then. What else could we do?"

In the meantime, the rest of the party was sitting idle, wondering what they could do as well. They wanted to dive inside the portal with Astaroth since they couldn't do anything here.

But they were waiting for their orders.

Jaxx was fidgeting in place uncomfortably, itching to fight, as was SharpTusk.

Even Galtion was nervously squeezing his spear shaft.

But the mage's face suddenly brightened.

"I have an idea. You seem like you like to take risks if you follow such a madman. I may have a way to fix this problem, but I will need your help."

Phoenix looked at him expectantly.

"I can feel the dragon's resisting the corruption. But they are losing. I can send one of you to each dragon's mind space to help them. But I will need specific affinities for each of them."

Phoenix thought about it for a moment. This didn't sound too bad of a plan. But she felt like there was a catch.

"What are the affinities you need?" she asked, keeping a realistic outlook.

The mage nodded his head.

"I need your fastest person, your strongest person physically, your most resistant to attacks, your most powerful mage, your most wise healer, and finally, your most balanced ally in all those categories."

Phoenix could easily figure out who she would dispatch to each category. But there was a problem.

Their most balanced player was stuck in the hell plane.

Violette could see the conundrum she was going through with her facial expressions.

"I have an idea, Phoenix," she said, taking a step toward her.

Phoenix looked at her, waiting for her to talk.

"Dispatch the players and get Astaroth to go into the last dragon. You can take the one of magic. Whoever you leave here can deal with the demons from the portal."

Phoenix thought about it for a moment. She could agree to her plan, but there was still a nagging feeling in her mind that they were missing some information.

But there was no time to lose. The barrier protecting them from the dragon attacks was visibly dimming.

It wouldn't hold much longer.

"Fine. Let's do it this way," Phoenix said, making up her mind.

She called back Astaroth, who agreed to the plan she explained, even though it left the demon plane in a delicate state if he left. He wondered who would keep the imps at bay, but he trusted Phoenix and Violette.

Dashing out of the fire Phoenix was keeping in place, he landed back inside the room, his armour covered in gore and viscera.

"Violette, take charge of covering the portal, for now."

Violette nodded her head and waved her hands at it. A wave of water appeared out of thin air, washing away the flames, before solidifying into ice.

The imps, now left alone, started pushing back toward the portal. In no time flat, they reached for the ice sheet and started hacking away at it with their claws.

But Phoenix was already picking out the people to tackle the dragons.

"Meat-Shield, Jeanne, Galtion, Astaroth, SharpTusk and Myself will deal with the dragons. Grove, Twinxie, Violette, Food Goblin, Chronos, and Jaxx, you deal with the portal and whatever other problem crops up," she commanded.

She then locker her gaze on Jaxx.

"You want to prove your strength, now is the time. Try to fill Astaroth's shoes for just a few minutes."

Jaxx gulped audibly. The pressure pushed on his shoulders heavily, and his back arced down a bit.

But his sister slapped his shoulder as she walked toward the Elven Mage.

"Come on, brother. Straighten up. You can finally prove you are strong, to all the people that matter."

Her words weren't much of an encouragement, but were more than enough to light a fire under Jaxx's ass. His eyes flashed with resolve, and his back straightened.

"I will not disappoint you, vice-leader Phoenix!" he cried out, slamming his axes together.

"Good," Phoenix replied, turning her back on him.

"Now, on to our task…" she mumbled to herself.