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Chapter 5: Fire!

M’azzal exclaimed, “You can’t be serious!”

“I-I am! I have no clue who I am!”

“Don’t shout at me, you’re my captive. Only I have the right to shout!”

“Oh yes, I’m sorry, I forgot about that.”

“How in the spirits’ names can you act so casual?!”

“I thought the questioning session was over?”

“I’m the one asking the questions here, dammit!”

“Can you please just stop being so bossy and just talk normally?!”

M’azzal went quiet for a moment. Maybe the red toa was right. He didn’t seem so dangerous personality-wise, he just looked pretty intimidating. And it would probably be better for her if she stayed on his good side. He looked like he could easily break the spine of a fullgrown muaka.

The big toa had already sat down on the hot sand. He patiently waited until she would do the same.
She sighed. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.” She sat down in front of him. After she did so, he kept looking at her with a self-satisfied smile, seemingly expecting her to start talking.

“So, uh, do you really not know your name?” M’azzal asked, getting over with the silence.

The red toa seemed uncomfortable with the question. “Well... I don’t have any personal memories of my past...”

“Oh for the love of- do you know your name or not!?”

“Y-yes, I do.” Then he kept quiet.

“Well?..”

“My name is Banserko.”

M’azzal calmed down a bit. Finally she got a straight answer out of this weird person. She wanted to ask him why he didn’t tell her his name the first time she asked for it. But this “Banserko” person seemed uncomfortable about it. A little too uncomfortable.

“Can I ask you a question?” Banserko asked.

“Fine. But don’t expect me to give you a satisfying answer.”

“Well, what’s your name?”

M’azzal couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s of your biggest concern right now?”

Banserko shrugged. “My name seems of concern to you too, so why are you acting so surprised?”

“Oh please, just stop. My name is M’azzal, got it?”

“M’azzal? What a nice name.” Banserko genuently smiled. “So, M’azzal, what brings you here?”

A murdering maniac and a hole in the sky, M’azzal thought. But instead she said “I’ve got to find a person, and get some business done with him and his friend.”

“Can I help?” Banserko eagerly asked. He had shot forward, and was now resting on his hands, his face serious yet somewhat excited.

“W-why would you-”

“Well, for one, I don’t want to find my way out of this desert on my own.”

M’azzal nodded. The last thing she wanted was to do was explore a desert alone, with weird hovering things in the sky and undead toa walking around. She could use Banserko as her protection. He insisted on helping her, after all. But there was something else that bothered her. “Why would you want to come with me on my journey after I almost killed you?”

Banserko thought for a moment. “Well, you said something about me being dead, right?”

M’azzal nodded again.

“And I don’t remember anything from before you almost killed me, so you must have acted out of self-defence, I suppose.” He squinted his eyes. “You did act out of self-defence, right?”

M’azzal shrugged. “If you believe I did, then I did so.”

Banserko leaned back. “You are a mysterious person, M’azzal.”

“Says the guy with no memory.”

The red toa grinned. “Something tells me this journey is going to be far from boring.”

M’azzal didn’t smile back. This toa seemed so weirdly comforting, even though he was practically a resurrected toa she had just met. But his honesty, calmness, his will to help. It just added up to everything she needed right now. No fear to be lied to, no worry to be betrayed, and a voluntary companion. But he could still be a potential enemy.

She stood up. “Well then, let’s get out of here as fast as we can.”

Banserko nodded, still with that happy grin on his face. He also stood up, and M’azzal noticed his joints didn’t squeak this time. She immediately reminded herself that she still had to be carefull with him, no matter how safe she felt near him.

She looked around her, the desert stretching as far as she could see. Where should we actually start?

“M’azzal?” Banserko said, his back turned to her. M’azzal turned to him.

“What?”

“Maybe we could ask them the way.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She looked up to where Banserko was looking. On top of a huge dune, there stood a row of small beings. M’azzal recognised them as matoran. But something was unsettling about them. They all had weird tube-like tools in their hands, and their bodies seemed unnaturally modified.

A matoran, a dark green one with red accents, two mechanical fingers and weird predator-like legs spoke up. “Toa, how many times do we have to repeat ourselves? We don’t need your protection. Aren’t our skies filled with hovering mines threatening enough for you?”

It was a quiet night as the wind blew over the low-cut grass, barely making noise in the valley of jungle. Several agori were still talking with their neighbours outside, enjoying the small campfire they had lit. Young ones sat on their parent’s laps and listened as the older ones told stories from both desperate and great times.

They told tales about almighty deities who created living creatures out of nothing. There were legends of glatorian, who got turned into powerful landlords, then became corrupt in a fight over what belonged to the almighty deities. Stories about the giants who fought on their homeground, bringing back peace after their initial destruction.

And of course there were tales about Mata Nui, an extraterrestial being who was a gift sent from heaven, created by the almighty deities, who were also known as the “Great Beings.” He was one of the two fighting giants, originally arriving on their home planet, which was barren back then. Starting out as glatorian, Mata Nui eventually got himself a giant body, meant to fight his old servant, Teridax, who had obtained an even bigger body.

Children laughed, and tried to replay the scene themselves when the older agori told about Mata Nui eventually throwing a moon at Teridax, thus crushing him. The kids climbed on top of each other in an attempt to appear as their savior, when the storytellers told how Mata Nui pulled the two moons to Bara Magna, to restore the ecosystem and turning the planet back into Spherus Magna.

As the neighbours finished their stories, the fires grew weaker and the amount of lighted windows became lesser, a deep and menacing crack echoed through the valley. Every agori abruptly stopped what they were doing and turned to see where the sound had come from. Doors opened and other agori walked out of their dome-shaped homes to find out what was happening.

In the east wall of the valley, which was the only fabricated wall there, appeared a deep crack just above the barred windows. A wild orange light shone through the windows, making the bricks around them look like they were glowing. Agori ran to the far western wall, as far away from the obvious threat as they could get. Children sought their parents, some glatorian accompanied the fleeing group to make sure no one got left behind, while other glatorian made their way to the cracked wall.

As the group of glatorian got closer to the east wall, orange flames licked the bars, and a horrifying skull appeared through a window, its empty eyesockets ablaze with bright yellow flames. The same went for the rest of its visible body. The glatorian halted, not wanting to scratch their warrior’s pride, but even less wanting to turn into a heap of ash. They stood there, staring at the fiery being. Its sharp teeth formed a permanent grin, although it somehow seemed scared. Then it lowered down, leaving the wall’s bricks still glowing from the heat. As the orange light grew weaker, and a screech that the glatorian could only guess came from the weird being sounded, their leader gestured to move onward, to the gate. One of them split from the group, walking up a tower to open the gigantic entry to the outside, where the menacing beast of fire was waiting for them.

As the gateway started to open, a low voice from the other side shouted at them. “Don’t open the gate! Don’t open the gate, dammit!”

Then the same voice roared, and another crack at head level appeared in the wall. Soon after, the bricks started to glow orange.

The voice of metal against rock sounded through the tumult of raging fire, as if a sword was being pulled out of the wall. “Come at me, beast!” the voice shouted at the fiery creature.

“Tahu, that won’t do,” A calmer, yet colder, voice said, barely hearable for the glatorian of the other sides of the light-grey wall. There didn’t sound any voices for a while, suggesting the two persons were just exchanging looks.

“Keep your nonsense to yourself. I’m making progress on this guy, see?!” A few seconds later, another crack appeared, followed by the bricks glowing orange.

“You’re making progress on the wall.” It was the calm voice again. It somehow sounded menacing to the glatorian, but the first voice didn’t seem to care.

“I said,” another web of cracks formed in the wall, this time a lot higher again. “Keep your nonsense,” instead of another crack appearing, the newest web spread out, the glow of the bricks intensifying. “To yourself!”

One last loud crack, and then a huge portion of the wall collapsed. The glatorian leader quickly shouted commands at his comrades, retreating to a safe distance from the collapsing wall. A cloud of grey dust covered the grass surrounding the gaping hole, and rubble shot in all directions, hitting one glatorian in the stomach, leaving him to the care of a medic in the team.

From the cloud of dust, the group of glatorian, minus the unconscious one and the medic taking care of him, could see the enormous, blazing body of the creature lying on the ground. It slowly stood up, leaning on its arms while trying to get its legs under its body. As it straightened up, the creature seemed to grow in size slightly. Then it turned around, facing away from the hole in the wall. After a few seconds, it took several steps out of the grey mass of blurryness. It gave its surroundings a cursory scan, not even stopping to inspect the small group of glatorian.

Suddenly, coming from the cloud, a white bolt of energy struck the creature in its back, throwing it to the ground and temporarily extinguishing the flames covering its skeletal body. In addition, the blast had driven most of the floating dust out of the way.

In the opening in the wall, six figures stood there. The one up front was a bulky red person, covered in gold chest- and shoulder armour, and wearing a fancy golden mask. He stood in a pose as if he was tired, yet still hungry for more fighting.

Next to him stood a white person of about the same size. His expression on his white Akaku was blank, which revealed to his teammates how he felt: disappointed.

Behind them stood a hunched black person with big claws, a brown warrior with big feet and a still glowing Kakama and a blue female fighter, her hooks attached to her back and her arms folded. She stared angrily at the red warrior.

The sixth one, a sleek green fighter with an axe in his right hand, stumbled forward, peeking over the red one’s shoulder to catch a glimpse of the caused damage. “Good job, Tahu. You got that rage-mad fire guy into a nice-village of peasants.”
Without any warning or even looking at him, the red person known as Tahu punched the green one in the face.

“You know that only Kopaka can affront our brother without risking to break a few ribs, Lewa,” the blue female said, still looking at her comrade of fire.

“That, Gali,” Tahu turned to her. “Is what you’re right about.” To give his words strength, he cracked his knuckles.

“Oh please, ain’t there something you can’t loud-crack for once?,” Lewa said, having already recovered from the hit in his face. A small crevice was visible in his Miru, however.

Tahu replied by elbowing him harshly in the stomach. “It’s not like I don’t deserve the mockery. But I’d rather have someone... clever do that to me.” He swung his thin sword, activating the crown of flames around it. Gali rolled her eyes. He always had to act so theatrical.

“Tahu,” his white comrade said.

“What?”

“You’re planning on fighting a living piece of flame,” he pointed at Tahu’s weapon. “With a stick of fire.”

“Yes?..”

“Think about it for a second.”

Tahu looked at his ‘stick.’ “I can still take him on, Kopaka.”

The white one, named Kopaka, shook his head. “That behaviour will be your death.” He turned around to face his sister. “Gali.”

The toa of water nodded with a big smile on her face. She took the two hooks of her back, attaching them to her hands so it looked like she had weapons instead of lower arms. “I’m ready when you are.”

But Kopaka had already started approaching the creature of fire. He switched his position constantly while charging at the creature, making it impossible for it to predict his movements. He skillfully dodged every ball of fire thrown at him. He didn’t even move quickly, just carefully and efficiently.

Gali quickly passed him, gathering water from several different sources on her way, taking it with her in the form of two liquid snakes. The creature created waves of fire in an attempt to hit the female toa, but Kopaka quickly estinguished them each time with his ice power.

After several attempts to turn the two toa into ashes, the creature of fire changed its tactics. With one roar that echoed through the valley, it took out some of his pointy ribs that were set in place in its mostly fire-based body. The result was that it now wore extremely long and razor-sharp claws, still able to move easily thanks to the support by tiny pistons in its fingers. Other sharp bones, like teeth and some more ribs, rearranged themselves to give the creature some long fangs and menacing horns. Then it charged on all fours at the two approaching toa, leaving a trail of thrown away dirt behind it.

This time, a clear expression of disappointment appeared on Kopaka’s face. Gali looked at him. “Brother, what should I do now?”

He didn’t answer. For Gali, that made it clear. She guided the two snakes of water to Kopaka, then stopped running and focused on keeping the bodies of water under control. Kopaka increased his speed, now only twenty feet away from the devilish creature.

Then he suddenly pressed his feet in the ground, stopping his run abruptly. Gali charged the bodies of water forward, towards the giant fire creature. The creature increased the flames at the front of his body to vaporise most of the incoming water. But an almost unnoticable little twist of Kopaka’s sword turned the water snakes into two enormous spears of solid ice, reflecting the last few seconds of the creature’s terrified face on their shining surfaces, before the sharp chunks of ice slammed into its shoulders.

As the unconscious creature lay on the charred ground, two slowly melting spikes of ice pinning it to the ground, Lewa flew down and landed next to his brother of ice.

“You two sure quick-slayed that beast,” he said. His eyes were filled with excitement. Although they were the same age, Lewa was unarguably mentally the youngest member of their team.

When Kopaka didn’t reply, he continued. “You think he can speak-tell us more ‘bout that Argavyx fellow?”

Kopaka looked down at the creature. He listened to the hissing sound of the melting ice for a short moment, then answered. “I almost died three times. Don’t even consider it to be for nothing.”

The brown toa joined them. He wrapped his arms around his two brothers. “I agree with Kopaka. He probably risked his life more times that week than any of us did in our entire lives. What was it again, Kopaka? A pillar barely crushed you, you almost got choked by vines... Didn’t one of those Elemental Lords almost step on you too?”

With that, Kopaka removed himself from his brown brother’s hold.

“Uh- hey, Kopaka, I didn’t mean to-”

“He needs some alone time, Pohatu,” Gali interrupted him.

“But why would he? There ain’t no reason why cold-brother would be down-sad,” Lewa said.

But Gali shook her head. “No, you’re wrong. He doubts this creature. And to be honest, so do I. It just doesn’t seem as tough as Kopaka’s reports suggest.“

She looked at her brother of ice, who stood next to the Elemental Lord’s head, his sword and shield still in his hands. The group of glatorian had gathered beside him, and Kopaka was talking with their leader. After a while, the toa of ice walked back to Gali, Pohatu and Lewa. He nodded to his sister. Her eyes widened, muscles tensed. That calm yet meaningful nod. That subtle move with his sword at the unconscious creatue.

Just moments later, the Elemental Lord erupted in flames, vaporising the spears in an instant. The toa and glatorian protected their eyes from the bright light, and once they looked back at where the creature had just been lying seconds ago, it was gone. But not only that. Kopaka was also gone.

“Hovering mines you said?,” Banserko asked the matoran. “You don’t need those on us, we’re peaceful.”

Shut up, firehead, they’re clearly not peaceful, M’azzal thought to herself. She tightened her grip on her weapon.

The green matoran steadied the long tube, pointed at Banserko. “Don’t fool with us. You think you are superior to us matoran. Well, say hello from me to your comrades in the afterlife!” The other matoran followed his action, pointing their weapons at the toa duo.

“I’m going to take them out,” M’azzal whispered. “At my sign, you’ll distract them while I charge to the right.” She wasn’t sure of her words, however. She was still deciding in her head wether she would try to escape or truly take out the hostile matoran. A few would be enough to have them reconsider their execution.

Banserko nodded, and whispered back. “Okay then, I’ll--” He cut himself off. M’azzal didn’t care.

“One, two...”

“Goodbye, toa,” the green matoran leader said. Then, he pulled the trigger, followed by the other matoran.

At the last moment, Banserko stepped in front of M’azzal, pushing her to his back to keep her with him.

“Banserko, what the-” She was cut off by a roaring explosion. She shut her eyes, unwilling to see her demise. But she didn’t feel any heat. She didn’t feel her flesh melting of her bones. There was no feeling of bullets hitting her. When she opened her eyes, she found herself under a dome of flames that shot past her. Banserko had spread his arms, his muscles twitched as he seemed to put all his energy in a protecting barrier. When M’azzal tried to get a look at his face, she saw he had his eyes closed, fully concentrating on maintaining the forcefield as long as the matoran were still shooting at them and launching explosives.

“M... M’azzal!” he exclaimed with effort.

She was too amazed to reply back.

“M’azzal, wasn’t it?” Banserko asked. M’azzal nodded, forgetting the toa of fire couldn’t see her. She looked at his face again, seeing a pity smile appear.

“Nice to meet ya. My name...” The rain of bullets and explosions had stopped, and their surroundings slowly turned sharp again, an indication that the forcefield was fading away. Banserko lowered his arms and straightened himself, then looked to his right, down at M’azzal. His eyes were narrowed, making his expression as a whole look slightly crazy. “The name’s Saato. I’m Banser’s ol’ guardian.”

Description
Chapter 5: Fire!

M’azzal exclaimed, “You can’t be serious!”

“I-I am! I have no clue who I am!”

“Don’t shout at me, you’re my captive. Only I have the right to shout!”

“Oh yes, I’m sorry, I forgot about that.”

“How in the spirits’ names can you act so casual?!”

“I thought the questioning session was over?”

“I’m the one asking the questions here, dammit!”

“Can you please just stop being so bossy and just talk normally?!”

M’azzal went quiet for a moment. Maybe the red toa was right. He didn’t seem so dangerous personality-wise, he just looked pretty intimidating. And it would probably be better for her if she stayed on his good side. He looked like he could easily break the spine of a fullgrown muaka.

The big toa had already sat down on the hot sand. He patiently waited until she would do the same.
She sighed. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.” She sat down in front of him. After she did so, he kept looking at her with a self-satisfied smile, seemingly expecting her to start talking.

“So, uh, do you really not know your name?” M’azzal asked, getting over with the silence.

The red toa seemed uncomfortable with the question. “Well... I don’t have any personal memories of my past...”

“Oh for the love of- do you know your name or not!?”

“Y-yes, I do.” Then he kept quiet.

“Well?..”

“My name is Banserko.”

M’azzal calmed down a bit. Finally she got a straight answer out of this weird person. She wanted to ask him why he didn’t tell her his name the first time she asked for it. But this “Banserko” person seemed uncomfortable about it. A little too uncomfortable.

“Can I ask you a question?” Banserko asked.

“Fine. But don’t expect me to give you a satisfying answer.”

“Well, what’s your name?”

M’azzal couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s of your biggest concern right now?”

Banserko shrugged. “My name seems of concern to you too, so why are you acting so surprised?”

“Oh please, just stop. My name is M’azzal, got it?”

“M’azzal? What a nice name.” Banserko genuently smiled. “So, M’azzal, what brings you here?”

A murdering maniac and a hole in the sky, M’azzal thought. But instead she said “I’ve got to find a person, and get some business done with him and his friend.”

“Can I help?” Banserko eagerly asked. He had shot forward, and was now resting on his hands, his face serious yet somewhat excited.

“W-why would you-”

“Well, for one, I don’t want to find my way out of this desert on my own.”

M’azzal nodded. The last thing she wanted was to do was explore a desert alone, with weird hovering things in the sky and undead toa walking around. She could use Banserko as her protection. He insisted on helping her, after all. But there was something else that bothered her. “Why would you want to come with me on my journey after I almost killed you?”

Banserko thought for a moment. “Well, you said something about me being dead, right?”

M’azzal nodded again.

“And I don’t remember anything from before you almost killed me, so you must have acted out of self-defence, I suppose.” He squinted his eyes. “You did act out of self-defence, right?”

M’azzal shrugged. “If you believe I did, then I did so.”

Banserko leaned back. “You are a mysterious person, M’azzal.”

“Says the guy with no memory.”

The red toa grinned. “Something tells me this journey is going to be far from boring.”

M’azzal didn’t smile back. This toa seemed so weirdly comforting, even though he was practically a resurrected toa she had just met. But his honesty, calmness, his will to help. It just added up to everything she needed right now. No fear to be lied to, no worry to be betrayed, and a voluntary companion. But he could still be a potential enemy.

She stood up. “Well then, let’s get out of here as fast as we can.”

Banserko nodded, still with that happy grin on his face. He also stood up, and M’azzal noticed his joints didn’t squeak this time. She immediately reminded herself that she still had to be carefull with him, no matter how safe she felt near him.

She looked around her, the desert stretching as far as she could see. Where should we actually start?

“M’azzal?” Banserko said, his back turned to her. M’azzal turned to him.

“What?”

“Maybe we could ask them the way.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She looked up to where Banserko was looking. On top of a huge dune, there stood a row of small beings. M’azzal recognised them as matoran. But something was unsettling about them. They all had weird tube-like tools in their hands, and their bodies seemed unnaturally modified.

A matoran, a dark green one with red accents, two mechanical fingers and weird predator-like legs spoke up. “Toa, how many times do we have to repeat ourselves? We don’t need your protection. Aren’t our skies filled with hovering mines threatening enough for you?”

It was a quiet night as the wind blew over the low-cut grass, barely making noise in the valley of jungle. Several agori were still talking with their neighbours outside, enjoying the small campfire they had lit. Young ones sat on their parent’s laps and listened as the older ones told stories from both desperate and great times.

They told tales about almighty deities who created living creatures out of nothing. There were legends of glatorian, who got turned into powerful landlords, then became corrupt in a fight over what belonged to the almighty deities. Stories about the giants who fought on their homeground, bringing back peace after their initial destruction.

And of course there were tales about Mata Nui, an extraterrestial being who was a gift sent from heaven, created by the almighty deities, who were also known as the “Great Beings.” He was one of the two fighting giants, originally arriving on their home planet, which was barren back then. Starting out as glatorian, Mata Nui eventually got himself a giant body, meant to fight his old servant, Teridax, who had obtained an even bigger body.

Children laughed, and tried to replay the scene themselves when the older agori told about Mata Nui eventually throwing a moon at Teridax, thus crushing him. The kids climbed on top of each other in an attempt to appear as their savior, when the storytellers told how Mata Nui pulled the two moons to Bara Magna, to restore the ecosystem and turning the planet back into Spherus Magna.

As the neighbours finished their stories, the fires grew weaker and the amount of lighted windows became lesser, a deep and menacing crack echoed through the valley. Every agori abruptly stopped what they were doing and turned to see where the sound had come from. Doors opened and other agori walked out of their dome-shaped homes to find out what was happening.

In the east wall of the valley, which was the only fabricated wall there, appeared a deep crack just above the barred windows. A wild orange light shone through the windows, making the bricks around them look like they were glowing. Agori ran to the far western wall, as far away from the obvious threat as they could get. Children sought their parents, some glatorian accompanied the fleeing group to make sure no one got left behind, while other glatorian made their way to the cracked wall.

As the group of glatorian got closer to the east wall, orange flames licked the bars, and a horrifying skull appeared through a window, its empty eyesockets ablaze with bright yellow flames. The same went for the rest of its visible body. The glatorian halted, not wanting to scratch their warrior’s pride, but even less wanting to turn into a heap of ash. They stood there, staring at the fiery being. Its sharp teeth formed a permanent grin, although it somehow seemed scared. Then it lowered down, leaving the wall’s bricks still glowing from the heat. As the orange light grew weaker, and a screech that the glatorian could only guess came from the weird being sounded, their leader gestured to move onward, to the gate. One of them split from the group, walking up a tower to open the gigantic entry to the outside, where the menacing beast of fire was waiting for them.

As the gateway started to open, a low voice from the other side shouted at them. “Don’t open the gate! Don’t open the gate, dammit!”

Then the same voice roared, and another crack at head level appeared in the wall. Soon after, the bricks started to glow orange.

The voice of metal against rock sounded through the tumult of raging fire, as if a sword was being pulled out of the wall. “Come at me, beast!” the voice shouted at the fiery creature.

“Tahu, that won’t do,” A calmer, yet colder, voice said, barely hearable for the glatorian of the other sides of the light-grey wall. There didn’t sound any voices for a while, suggesting the two persons were just exchanging looks.

“Keep your nonsense to yourself. I’m making progress on this guy, see?!” A few seconds later, another crack appeared, followed by the bricks glowing orange.

“You’re making progress on the wall.” It was the calm voice again. It somehow sounded menacing to the glatorian, but the first voice didn’t seem to care.

“I said,” another web of cracks formed in the wall, this time a lot higher again. “Keep your nonsense,” instead of another crack appearing, the newest web spread out, the glow of the bricks intensifying. “To yourself!”

One last loud crack, and then a huge portion of the wall collapsed. The glatorian leader quickly shouted commands at his comrades, retreating to a safe distance from the collapsing wall. A cloud of grey dust covered the grass surrounding the gaping hole, and rubble shot in all directions, hitting one glatorian in the stomach, leaving him to the care of a medic in the team.

From the cloud of dust, the group of glatorian, minus the unconscious one and the medic taking care of him, could see the enormous, blazing body of the creature lying on the ground. It slowly stood up, leaning on its arms while trying to get its legs under its body. As it straightened up, the creature seemed to grow in size slightly. Then it turned around, facing away from the hole in the wall. After a few seconds, it took several steps out of the grey mass of blurryness. It gave its surroundings a cursory scan, not even stopping to inspect the small group of glatorian.

Suddenly, coming from the cloud, a white bolt of energy struck the creature in its back, throwing it to the ground and temporarily extinguishing the flames covering its skeletal body. In addition, the blast had driven most of the floating dust out of the way.

In the opening in the wall, six figures stood there. The one up front was a bulky red person, covered in gold chest- and shoulder armour, and wearing a fancy golden mask. He stood in a pose as if he was tired, yet still hungry for more fighting.

Next to him stood a white person of about the same size. His expression on his white Akaku was blank, which revealed to his teammates how he felt: disappointed.

Behind them stood a hunched black person with big claws, a brown warrior with big feet and a still glowing Kakama and a blue female fighter, her hooks attached to her back and her arms folded. She stared angrily at the red warrior.

The sixth one, a sleek green fighter with an axe in his right hand, stumbled forward, peeking over the red one’s shoulder to catch a glimpse of the caused damage. “Good job, Tahu. You got that rage-mad fire guy into a nice-village of peasants.”
Without any warning or even looking at him, the red person known as Tahu punched the green one in the face.

“You know that only Kopaka can affront our brother without risking to break a few ribs, Lewa,” the blue female said, still looking at her comrade of fire.

“That, Gali,” Tahu turned to her. “Is what you’re right about.” To give his words strength, he cracked his knuckles.

“Oh please, ain’t there something you can’t loud-crack for once?,” Lewa said, having already recovered from the hit in his face. A small crevice was visible in his Miru, however.

Tahu replied by elbowing him harshly in the stomach. “It’s not like I don’t deserve the mockery. But I’d rather have someone... clever do that to me.” He swung his thin sword, activating the crown of flames around it. Gali rolled her eyes. He always had to act so theatrical.

“Tahu,” his white comrade said.

“What?”

“You’re planning on fighting a living piece of flame,” he pointed at Tahu’s weapon. “With a stick of fire.”

“Yes?..”

“Think about it for a second.”

Tahu looked at his ‘stick.’ “I can still take him on, Kopaka.”

The white one, named Kopaka, shook his head. “That behaviour will be your death.” He turned around to face his sister. “Gali.”

The toa of water nodded with a big smile on her face. She took the two hooks of her back, attaching them to her hands so it looked like she had weapons instead of lower arms. “I’m ready when you are.”

But Kopaka had already started approaching the creature of fire. He switched his position constantly while charging at the creature, making it impossible for it to predict his movements. He skillfully dodged every ball of fire thrown at him. He didn’t even move quickly, just carefully and efficiently.

Gali quickly passed him, gathering water from several different sources on her way, taking it with her in the form of two liquid snakes. The creature created waves of fire in an attempt to hit the female toa, but Kopaka quickly estinguished them each time with his ice power.

After several attempts to turn the two toa into ashes, the creature of fire changed its tactics. With one roar that echoed through the valley, it took out some of his pointy ribs that were set in place in its mostly fire-based body. The result was that it now wore extremely long and razor-sharp claws, still able to move easily thanks to the support by tiny pistons in its fingers. Other sharp bones, like teeth and some more ribs, rearranged themselves to give the creature some long fangs and menacing horns. Then it charged on all fours at the two approaching toa, leaving a trail of thrown away dirt behind it.

This time, a clear expression of disappointment appeared on Kopaka’s face. Gali looked at him. “Brother, what should I do now?”

He didn’t answer. For Gali, that made it clear. She guided the two snakes of water to Kopaka, then stopped running and focused on keeping the bodies of water under control. Kopaka increased his speed, now only twenty feet away from the devilish creature.

Then he suddenly pressed his feet in the ground, stopping his run abruptly. Gali charged the bodies of water forward, towards the giant fire creature. The creature increased the flames at the front of his body to vaporise most of the incoming water. But an almost unnoticable little twist of Kopaka’s sword turned the water snakes into two enormous spears of solid ice, reflecting the last few seconds of the creature’s terrified face on their shining surfaces, before the sharp chunks of ice slammed into its shoulders.

As the unconscious creature lay on the charred ground, two slowly melting spikes of ice pinning it to the ground, Lewa flew down and landed next to his brother of ice.

“You two sure quick-slayed that beast,” he said. His eyes were filled with excitement. Although they were the same age, Lewa was unarguably mentally the youngest member of their team.

When Kopaka didn’t reply, he continued. “You think he can speak-tell us more ‘bout that Argavyx fellow?”

Kopaka looked down at the creature. He listened to the hissing sound of the melting ice for a short moment, then answered. “I almost died three times. Don’t even consider it to be for nothing.”

The brown toa joined them. He wrapped his arms around his two brothers. “I agree with Kopaka. He probably risked his life more times that week than any of us did in our entire lives. What was it again, Kopaka? A pillar barely crushed you, you almost got choked by vines... Didn’t one of those Elemental Lords almost step on you too?”

With that, Kopaka removed himself from his brown brother’s hold.

“Uh- hey, Kopaka, I didn’t mean to-”

“He needs some alone time, Pohatu,” Gali interrupted him.

“But why would he? There ain’t no reason why cold-brother would be down-sad,” Lewa said.

But Gali shook her head. “No, you’re wrong. He doubts this creature. And to be honest, so do I. It just doesn’t seem as tough as Kopaka’s reports suggest.“

She looked at her brother of ice, who stood next to the Elemental Lord’s head, his sword and shield still in his hands. The group of glatorian had gathered beside him, and Kopaka was talking with their leader. After a while, the toa of ice walked back to Gali, Pohatu and Lewa. He nodded to his sister. Her eyes widened, muscles tensed. That calm yet meaningful nod. That subtle move with his sword at the unconscious creatue.

Just moments later, the Elemental Lord erupted in flames, vaporising the spears in an instant. The toa and glatorian protected their eyes from the bright light, and once they looked back at where the creature had just been lying seconds ago, it was gone. But not only that. Kopaka was also gone.

“Hovering mines you said?,” Banserko asked the matoran. “You don’t need those on us, we’re peaceful.”

Shut up, firehead, they’re clearly not peaceful, M’azzal thought to herself. She tightened her grip on her weapon.

The green matoran steadied the long tube, pointed at Banserko. “Don’t fool with us. You think you are superior to us matoran. Well, say hello from me to your comrades in the afterlife!” The other matoran followed his action, pointing their weapons at the toa duo.

“I’m going to take them out,” M’azzal whispered. “At my sign, you’ll distract them while I charge to the right.” She wasn’t sure of her words, however. She was still deciding in her head wether she would try to escape or truly take out the hostile matoran. A few would be enough to have them reconsider their execution.

Banserko nodded, and whispered back. “Okay then, I’ll--” He cut himself off. M’azzal didn’t care.

“One, two...”

“Goodbye, toa,” the green matoran leader said. Then, he pulled the trigger, followed by the other matoran.

At the last moment, Banserko stepped in front of M’azzal, pushing her to his back to keep her with him.

“Banserko, what the-” She was cut off by a roaring explosion. She shut her eyes, unwilling to see her demise. But she didn’t feel any heat. She didn’t feel her flesh melting of her bones. There was no feeling of bullets hitting her. When she opened her eyes, she found herself under a dome of flames that shot past her. Banserko had spread his arms, his muscles twitched as he seemed to put all his energy in a protecting barrier. When M’azzal tried to get a look at his face, she saw he had his eyes closed, fully concentrating on maintaining the forcefield as long as the matoran were still shooting at them and launching explosives.

“M... M’azzal!” he exclaimed with effort.

She was too amazed to reply back.

“M’azzal, wasn’t it?” Banserko asked. M’azzal nodded, forgetting the toa of fire couldn’t see her. She looked at his face again, seeing a pity smile appear.

“Nice to meet ya. My name...” The rain of bullets and explosions had stopped, and their surroundings slowly turned sharp again, an indication that the forcefield was fading away. Banserko lowered his arms and straightened himself, then looked to his right, down at M’azzal. His eyes were narrowed, making his expression as a whole look slightly crazy. “The name’s Saato. I’m Banser’s ol’ guardian.”