Not too far into the Arena, my advance is suddenly stopped by a wall of flames. I slow my steps and shoot out a modified noer from my hand. It lands on the floor and comes into effect almost immediately. I watch, relieved, as all the nearby flames surge into it and disappear. Now that everything seems to work, I quickly but cautiously begin to make my way deeper into the Arena. Heading to the spot where Brian had told me he saw Cassandra. I still have no idea how I am going to find her, but searching around where she was last seen is not a bad idea.

As I move deeper and deeper into the flames, the quality of the air around me begins to change. It went from bearable, to something that makes me want to plug up my nose every time I take a breath. It is at this point that I begin to take in little puffs of air from my pseudo oxygen tank. In a fire, the flames are not the only thing one needs to worry about, the smoke and other things in the air could also prove just as deadly if one isn’t careful. It is for that reason that the first problem I considered was oxygen. Still, apart from the quality of air, I soon begin to feel like I am in a furnace. There is fire on every side of me, and despite the relief, the heat absorbing noer gives me when used, the temperature in here is getting to the point where I’m beginning to worry. If things continue like this, I might not be able to go deeper, unless I am trying to kill myself.

Fortunately, I get to the spot Brian told me about before any of that happens. But now that I have arrived, I have no idea how to go about looking for her. There is one thing I can try, however. I mobilize my Uua and in the next second, throw a lot of heat-absorbing noers in a circle around me. A moment later, all the flames around me are thrown into chaos as they surge into the noers, leaving a large area around me clear. Within the area, I see three bodies.

I walk towards the nearest body and scan the face. It is one I know, the boy who had been sitting beside Brian in the car. For a second I m surprised, wondering what he is doing here, then I remember that when Diane and the rest got out, he hadn’t been with them. I had been so worried about Cassandra that I overlooked the fact that there was someone else missing. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to have been burned, and neither was the next person. Cassandra.

After confirming that both Cassandra and the boy are okay, well, as okay as they can possibly be in a situation like this, I look at the third body, another boy, who looks to be about thirteen. This one is in pretty bad shape. He is at the very edge of my noers influence and I can immediately tell that he had been burned, thankfully not too badly. Still, he needs to get to a hospital as quickly as possible. But first, I gently carry him away from the flames that are slowly creeping closer.

Now, however, I have a new problem. How do I carry three bodies out of here? I originally came here for just Cassandra, but now there are two more people here than I came for and I can’t just leave them behind, especially the boy who had been burned. At this moment, my enhanced hearing picked up a sound from behind me. I turn around and see Brian’s friend struggling to stand up. I quickly move over and help him.

“Are you okay?” I ask. If he is, I could attempt to carry Cassandra and the child out of here. With a combination of the strengthening and enhancement noer, it should be possible.

He nods, finally managing to steady himself. “Good,” I say, “we have to leave now. I found a path leading outside, but it isn’t going to last long.”

I start to carry the young boy when he speaks. “We need to tell the others.”

“Others?” I give him a questioning look.

He coughs. “Before I fainted,” he coughs again. “I saw some people trapped over there.”

He points, and I turn to where he is pointing. I squint, trying to make out anything through the flames and then I see what he means. There are some people over there. I hadn’t been paying attention earlier, and with the flames obscuring most of what I could see, I hadn’t noticed them. They are all lying on the ground, and it might be a trick of the eyes, but they seem to be shifting. Still, to rescue them, I would have to use magic, but now Brian’s friend is awake and watching me. Thinking quickly, I say to him. “Cassandra’s over there, make sure she’s alright.”

As he goes over to her, I move towards where those people are trapped, and after making sure his attention isn’t on me, I throw out a noer. A second later all the flames near me are gone, and finally, I can see the people who are trapped. There are four of them, three women and a man. They are surrounded on all sides by fire, but where they are staying is, fortunately, free from flames. Still, I can immediately see that they are not unconscious; but why they decided to lie down in the middle of fire is beyond me.

A woman raises her head as if sensing my presence. “Come on,” I shout before turning around. “I found a way out!”

They all come to life, rushing towards me and the opening I had created. I return to where Brian’s friend is, picking up the young boy easily with one hand before turning to Cassandra. “She’s fine,” he says, coughing slightly as I pick her up in my other hand, before dropping her on my shoulder, “I’m not sure why she’s unconscious though.”

As I start to leave, I notice how badly everyone seems to be coughing. We all needed some fresh air or the smoke would kill us before the fire did. I didn’t gather too much air when I first came in, but as long as I am careful we should be able to manage until we get out. Just as I am about to release some oxygen into the surroundings, I pause, knowing how close I had just been to put us all in danger. I breathe out deeply to calm myself. I could have tried to create a telekinetic pipe leading to everyone’s noses like I did for myself but I’m just not skilled enough with telekinesis to pull that off when faced with this many people.

“We need to start moving, quickly,” the man who I rescued states, the urgency in his voice plain for all to hear.

Not knowing if it is the best plan or not, I do the first thing that comes to mind and cause my pseudo oxygen tank to expand and envelope the entire group. Almost immediately everyone’s breathing becomes easier, but we are also put on a time limit. We need to get out of here before we run out of breathable air. That aside, some parts of me note with a little satisfaction that the telekinetic bubble also seems to have the added benefit of keeping most of the heat away from us. At least now we don’t have to worry about being roasted before we can get out.

I take the lead and begin jogging. As we move I note with growing concern that the path I had created earlier has begun to shrink as the fire started spreading once more. That combined with our limited oxygen meant that we had to be speedy about our escape or risk being trapped here.