Episode 1: The Trial of Akorrin (Part 2 of 6)

Most of the day passes and our heroes rest, preparing for their Trial later in the night. After a long trek, the two finally negotiate Thorny Grove and now stand at the two, old oak doors that seal the inside of the mansion. The moon is high, illuminating the mansion in an eerie white glow. Locke rubs one of the doors slightly with his fingertips, taking some dust off the old oak door.

"So, what do you think?" Locke asks as he looks to Lil.

"Well, the door looks like it hasn't been opened in years; maybe the Orcs have a secret entrance."

Lil explores, digging through some nearby boulders but doesn't see any obvious sign of an entrance. Locke meanwhile moves towards a window as a breeze picks up –the howling breeze followed by a slight rattling noise.

"What was that?" Locke asks, looking around.

Lil hears the rattling noise as well, and after listening intently for a few moments notices the noise is emanating from the window by Locke. Lil looks closely at the window and wonders out loud, "Is the window locked?"

Locke looks at the window and answers, "It doesn't looked locked."

"Can you open it?" Lil asks.

Locke looks at the window, and notices that the old wooden frame is teetering due to the wind. He grabs the window's old frame and is surprised that only a little force causes the window to come away, revealing an entrance!

"Looks like we've got a way in," Locke announces as Lil grins.

"So much for a secret entrance," She says.

The duo enter through the window, landing in a dark circular room. The floor creaks below their weight, and the moonlight reveals nothing but torn wallpaper, a dusty floor and a door that is boarded shut.

"Huh," Locke mutters. "This is an obvious way to get in, but I don't see any way further. What do you reckon?"

"I don't know. You're the sneaky one; you tell me!" Lil replies.

Locke sniffs and takes a side step, thinking of what to do. Again, he hears the floor creak under his weight, "This floor feels slightly. . . soft?"

"You don't think . . ." Lil begins.

"That the floor could be our way in?" Locke finishes. Kneeling down at the edge of the floor, he tries to lift it. He grunts and groans as he turns slightly red, but the floor doesn't move.

"Move out of the way, buffoon!" Lil orders. "Let a real woman do it!" She carefully strategizes where to try and lift the floor. She moves to the center of the room, kneels down and grabs a floor board. She lifts, and the floor board lifts easily in her hands, revealing part of a trap door!

"Ta-da!" Lil boasts.

"Hmph. . ." Locke mutters. "Let's clear the rest of these floorboards."

Our heroes lift away five floor boards, revealing a secret entrance. They slip down it and follow a faint light in a stair case. The two follow the winding steps until they reach the bottom of the staircase, where one candle mounted on the wall reveals a small room with two doors. One ahead of them and one to their left.

"Well," Locke announces. "Door number one or door number two?"

Lil looks at the door directly across the room to the door adjacent to them, "Why don't you use your little thief powers to listen and see if there's anyone on the other side?"

Locke complies, walking slowly across the room and pressing his ear to the door. Upon concentrating, he hears a feint ticking. He frowns slightly, "I'm no genius, but that doesn't sound right. I dunno about it."

"What, do you think we should try the other door?" Lil asks.

"I'd say so," Locke replies.

Lil, without listening first, approaches the next door and attempts to open it. The door easily swings open under the weight of Lil's arm. With a self satisfied grin, Lil steps out of the door and into a corridor. The corridor is brightly lit, giving away that it's inhabited. To her left, Lil sees that a rock face blocks the path. To her right, the corridor goes on past the light emanating from the mounted candle on that wall. Lil looks down the hallway and hesitates slightly, but after a moment, she calls to Locke, who remains inside the room.

"Well, nothing down this way," she calls, motioning towards the left.

Locke peeps out the doorway and looks left. Seeing the rock face, he looks right and notices the slight flicker of a candle up ahead, "I guess we go right." He says.

Lil pauses for a short moment, expecting Locke to move first; when he doesn't, she sighs and begins a slow descent down the corridor. Locke brings up the rear and the two soon notice in front of them is a large door. To the left and right, the path worms around the wall of the large room in front of them. Lil looks at the door and down both corridors respectively and states simply, "Choices, choices. . ."

"Wanna go through the door?" Locke asks with a cheeky grin.

Her initial frown disappears quickly as she grabs him by the arm and shoves him towards the door, "Why, of course – you first!"

Locke stumbles by the door. His echoing footsteps cause a louder noise to be heard on the other side of the door – a chair moving backward as if someone has suddenly stood from it. Illegible growling is heard from the other side of the door.

"I think somebody's on the other side of this door," Locke states. "And they don't sound happy. . ."

The footsteps echo louder and louder – something is coming towards the door. Lil, hearing the footsteps, freezes in place. The door opens, revealing an Orc Berserker! The heroes charge into the room and stop when they see another four Berserkers with the leader; this room is the Orc's dining room!

The largest of the Orcs makes his move first, moving to Locke's left and attacking. With a great swing, he slices his Great Axe into Locke's upper left arm, revealing a nasty gash. The slimmest of the five moves next, flanking Lil on her right as he stares her down with a menacing glare. Meanwhile, a rather small, impish Orc swiftly flanks Lil's front, quickly swinging his Great Axe. With a cry, the blade catches Lil's cheek, grazing it. Seeing the vulnerable human, the fattest of the Orcs cackles as he begins to make his own way towards the frightened Lilanei. Fully aware of the danger they're waltzed into, Lil snaps out of her initial panic and begins to form an orb of magical force in her palms. She attempts to launch this orb into the Leader Orc's chest – and it just misses. However, the orb immediately explodes into shards in the air, spraying directly into the small Orc, who shrieks in surprise.

The large Orc howls, attempting to attack Locke by swinging his Great Axe once more – yet Locke anticipates the strike and flips out of the way, avoiding the swinging blade. As he flips, Locke swiftly arms his Crossbow and aims it for the massive Orc. With a gust, the arrow flies through the air and collides with the Orc's right thigh, piercing his green flesh which causes the creature to snarl in irritation.

Meanwhile, the Leader moves forward, further surrounding the vulnerable Lil but not attacking yet, teasing her with its sinister grin. Seeing its leader make his move, the slimmest Orc moves in from the back of the dining room and covers his rear. During the mean time, the small Orc roars intimidatingly at Lil, the slobber on his fangs dripping off and flying onto Lil's clothing from the force of this roar – to which Lil whimpers with a disgusted look on her face. It attacks, swinging his Great Axe once again, but as Lil wipes the drool from her clothing – causing her torso to bend backwards – the slice of the Orc's Axe misses with a loud swoosh! The fat Orc now attempts a swing of his Great Axe at Lil due to his comrade's swing missing. The Axe swings like a pendulum in the air towards Lil's shoulder, but she anticipates this attack, dipping out of the way at the last second. Drool dripping on her fingers, Lil flicks the remainder of it at Locke – the drool flying across the distance between them and landing on Locke's eyebrows before dripping off them slowly.

"They're disgusting!" She shrieks as she whips out her spell book and prepares to attack. As she carefully chants words from her spell book, a crackle of energy begins to rumble the stone floor around her, before this sonic energy whips towards all the Orcs, except for one, who surround her – striking all of them with a sickening crack. Lil decides then to make a move, passing Locke and rushing through the dining room, retreating around the large dinner table. As Lil stands on the other side of the room, she notices a closed door to her immediate right. The only Orc to have been spared from her attack, the largest, notices Lil duck and run towards the door. With a sense of urgency, he leaves Locke and runs towards Lil.

Locke decides now is the time to take action. He withdraws his Sickle from its sheath on his right boot before he makes an attempt at slashing in an uppercut motion at the small Orc. Locke's Sickle connects, slashing the Orc's leather armour and piercing his chest. As the strike connects, Locke shoves the Orc who stumbles backwards onto its backside. The leader snarls, seeing his comrade laying on the floor; nevertheless, he decides to move away from the majority of the group, choosing to assist the large Orc in detaining the retreating Lil. The slim Orc, however, is unimpressed as he begins his advance towards Locke, preparing to attack. A now flustered Orc rises to his feet, charging at Locke, and with its axe resting down to his right he slices at him in an upwards motion. The massive blade swings to the left in an attempt to catch Locke's face; however, Locke sees the attack coming and dodges the strike, the Orc's weight and momentum forcing it to trip and fall flat on its face. Now, an elephantine Orc attacks Locke, trying to strike a blow with his Great Axe, but he too misses as he trips over the small, fallen Orc with a heavy thud.

Having nowhere to go, Lil looks at the large Orc coming towards her and with a swift movement of her wrist, attempts to launch a silvery magic missile at the large creature. The missile flies towards him and connects, colliding with his chest before bursting into a mass of silvery shards, further illuminating the room for a brief moment as it knocks the Orc to its knees. He immediately rises to his feet and backs away from Lil, slightly intimidated by her magical powers. Locke notices the large Orc back away. He quickly sidesteps so that he is behind the cowering monster and retrieves his Hand Crossbow, loading it with an arrow and firing. The arrow swiftly collides with the Orc's shoulder blade, pierces the skin deeply, and remains embedded in his shoulder. The leader advances towards Lil and now attempts to swing his Great Axe at the human's legs, literally trying to cut her off at the knees. Lil sees the strike coming and leaps into the air, tucking her knees into her chest before landing, successfully avoiding the swing.

The skinny Orc repositions himself in the room so that he is now to Locke's immediate right, sandwiching him between himself and the voluminous Orc. He attempts to make a strike with his Axe, however the swing misses. During this time, the imp-like Orc makes his way to the door our heroes entered through, effectively blocking the door. The leader snarls with great contempt, instructing the fat Orc to attack the female human, who follows these orders promptly. Lil sees this Orc approaching and notices as well a very trapped Locke on the other side of the room. Angrily, she points her finger at their leader and prepares her attack. Stoked by her annoyance, her pointed finger glows and suddenly causes the Orc leader to burst into flames.

The large Orc turns around to face Locke and attempts another attack with his Great Axe, but once again the swing misses as Locke dips out of the Axe's range. Locke lowers his Hand Crossbow and raises his Sickle which he holds in his right hand. He thrusts forward, causing the Sickle to slice into the Orc's nipple. As he howls in pain, Locke kicks him backwards, which causes him to crash into the back of the overweight Orc.

Wounded and irritated from Lil's last attack, the leader grabs his Great Axe with both hands and raises it above his head, before he swings it in a large circular motion towards Lil's head. The Axe swings, with the tip of the blade catching Lil in the forehead, slightly piercing it. This only proves to further anger Lil and as the effect from her last fire attack still remains, the Orc glows a fiery red as he bursts into flame once again, caused by the surging of Lil's fury. Seeing his leader once again burst into flames, the slim Orc looks to the other four within the dining room before he roars, snarls and grunts in their native language. All of the Orcs respond immediately, thoroughly frightened by what they have encountered, and beat a hasty retreat through the opened dining room door.

After a brief moment, a bemused Locke notes, "Well, that went well(!)"

With a pant, Lil collapses slightly against the Orc's dining table, giving a quiet "Phew!" of relief.

Locke walks over to the doorway and grabs the side of the door. Exerting his weight through both of his hands, Locke swings the door shut. The rusting hinges echo loudly through the dining room with the sound piercing their ears before it closes with a loud “SLAM!” Locke turns towards Lil and the two relax slightly, taking the opportunity to have a short rest, recovering their strength. Locke sits next to the table with Lil sitting across from Locke on the other side. The room is still brightly lit, due to the many lamps fixed onto the walls of the dining room.

"I don't think those Orcs are going to let us lay low for too long. We'd best get moving. But first, why don't we check what's on this table?"

"I'll look," Lil responds.

On the table, Lil notices among the bloody stained plates, bowls, and goblets, two large bottles of blurry glowing liquid. These bottles are filled with potion, which she immediately recognizes.

"Aha! These will come in handy!" Lil pipes up as she stuffs them into her bag.

"What are they?" Locke asks curiously. "Drink?"

"Is that all you think about?" Lil asks abruptly. "They're potions, stupid!" She adds, to which Locke merely grumbles.

"We really should get out of here," Locke finally announces. "Which door should we go through?"

"Well, we've already gone through the door behind you. Maybe we should try this door," Lil suggests, motioning behind her.

"Good idea." Locke replies.

"Urgh," Locke grunts as he tries to push the door. "I must still be a bit tired from the fight earlier. You wanna try?"

Lil nods and attempts to open the door. Instead of trying to push the door open, Lil turns the hooped handle, which clicks and then she pulls the door backwards, opening it.

"Don't say one word," Locke sternly orders, to which Lil looks at him with a self satisfied grin.

"Why, I wouldn't dream of it, Locky!"

Lilanei takes a peek outside of the door and notices the hallway is dimly lit, which does not affect her sight due to her low light vision. Lil looks left, right and forward before turning to Locke and saying, "It all looks normal to me."

Locke now takes a look outside and with a wondrous look on his face asks, "What are you talking about? I can only see about a few feet in front!"

Lil once again rolls her eyes, turns back to the door and announces, "Well, since you can't see as far ahead, I'll lead."

Lil and Locke walk about twenty five feet away from the dining room, when Lil suddenly notices two doors either side of her. Both doors are rather large and wooden.

"Well, well, another set of doors," Locke notes. "Which one do you think will take us where we want to go?"

Lil looks at both doors and says, motioning to her right, "Well, let's try this one."

"Okay," Locke replies as he walks to the door and attempts to open it. Locke turns the hooped handle of the door and pushes it forward; however, the door seems to be on a lock. Locke takes his hand away from the door and instead kicks it, forcing the old, weakened lock on the door to break and the door to swing open, to which they hear a roar.

Lil flinches and cries, "Don't you think we should have listened first?"

Lil and Locke look on to see they've encountered a rather large, and rather angry, Ogre which was locked and chained up in the room, seemingly as a captive "guard dog" for the Orcs whenever they felt the need to use it. As Locke and Lil look on, the Ogre sees them, roars, and breaks free of the one chain that kept its right leg attached to its bonds.

Locke immediately takes out his crossbow and decides to attack first with his ranged weapon. Locke fires the crossbow, but the Ogre simply knocks the arrow aside with his club, which he holds in his hand. The Ogre then takes a swing at Lil with the large club. The club swings across the distance between them and catches Lil in the cheek. She is knocked back by the blow of the club; however she regains her composure, quickly spitting out a bit of blood and moving towards the ogre to make her attack. She runs behind the Ogre and raises her orb into the air as the ground around her begins to crackle. The Ogre nevertheless notices that Lil is behind him after he hears the crackling noise. Turning his head, he sees the orb and simply stomps his right foot on the floor, causing Lil to lose her balance and drop the orb.

Locke runs into the cell to the Ogre's right hand side as Lil drops her orb. He unsheathes his sickle and thrusts forward, forcing the blade to plunge into the Ogre's right thigh. The Ogre turns towards Locke and after a cry of pain due to the sickle landing in its thigh, the Ogre makes its move. He jabs the brunt of its club into Locke's abdomen, shoving him off his feet and landing onto the floor. While the Ogre is turned to Locke, Lil seizes the opportunity to pick up her orb to raise it in the air as she attempts to attack once more. However, the roar emitted from the Ogre causes Lil to jump in fright and lose focus, negating the attack, to which she grumbles in irritation.

Locke targets the Ogre once again with his sickle by leaping into the air and as he drops down towards the Ogre, he thrusts the tip of the Sickle into the Ogre's left trapezius, its shoulder muscle, before quickly pulling it back out as he drops to the floor. Because Locke executed such a vicious attack on the Ogre, he reacts by trying to kick Locke; however Locke leaps to the left causing the kick to harmlessly miss as Locke then once again launches at the Ogre with an attempted strike of his sickle. However Locke trips on a loose stone block in the ground and instead tumbles in a heap before the Ogre.

Still frustrated from her two previous missed attacks, Lil unsheathes her dagger and launches at the Ogre's already wounded right leg. Lil's blade plunges into the wound already caused by Locke's sickle, fitting like a key in a lock, forcing the Ogre to cry in pain and irritation. Seeing Lil attack the Ogre in his already wounded right leg, Locke decides to make an attack at the Ogre's left leg. He takes his crossbow, loading it with an arrow before he aims at the Ogre's left thigh and attempts a shot. The arrow flies through the air but instead of hitting the Ogre's leg, simply sticks into the Ogre's large, wooden club. The Ogre notices the arrow in his favourite club, which has split the wood of the club. His already angered face turns even more sour as he swings it, arrow and all towards Locke. The Ogre's club strikes Locke in the right cheek, with the arrow hitting his face first, forcing the arrow to snap, followed by the impact of the club.

Lil jumps back about five feet, pointing her dagger at the Ogre, and with a quiet chant she begins to concentrate her magic power into the tip of the blade; however, this magic simply fizzles out, to which she lowers her head and screams, "This just isn't my day!"

"Focus, dang-nab-bit!" Locke screams from across the room, "Remember what you were taught! You're the smart one here!"

Locke then loads his crossbow and attempts to fire at the Ogre, this time at his face; however, Lil screams an obscenity at Locke for his earlier comment which causes the arrow to fly up past the Ogre's head and into the wooden chandelier that gave the cell its light. The chandelier drops from the ceiling and smashes on the floor, causing the candles to instantly burn out, leaving the lamp from outside the cell in the hallway as the only light in the room. Despite the cover of darkness, the Ogre is undeterred. Now he begins to swing his Club wildly in hopes of hitting a target. The club swings towards Locke and hits; nonetheless, due to the darkness, the club only grazes Locke's forehead, but while only a minor hit, it still causes the skin to break, forcing blood to rush from Locke's new wound.

"Argh!" Locke cries, gripping his forehead with his right hand, "I'm bleeding! Lil, do something and make it count!"

She notices from her position besides the Ogre that Locke is squinting to see his target, so with a sigh she waves her hand towards the chandelier. With a flick of her wrist, all the candles relight and the room is once again exposed to the light, after which she screams, "Stop stumbling around like a buffoon and attack him!"

Locke says nothing and instead his eyes readjust to the light in the room; he reloads his crossbow without hesitation or calculation before he fires at the Ogre's head once more. The arrow flies towards the Ogre and hits the Ogre square in the left eye. The Ogre literally cries as the arrow hangs from his eye, now blinded in the left eye. Locke looks over to Lil and with a small grin asks, "How's that?"

Lil ignores Locke, rolling her eyes as the Ogre prepares to attack once more. He turns his attention to Lil in a half blinded stupor before he drops his club and simply swings his left fist towards the right, attempting to catch Lil with a right hook. The Ogre's large fist simply swings across the air in front as his perception is now inaccurate. Lil runs to the Ogre's side, taking advantage of his half blinded state before she points her dagger at the Ogre, attempting to launch her Magic Missile attack once again. A ball of silver energy forms at the tip of Lil's dagger before launching into the side of the Ogre's torso, exploding on contact, causing the Ogre to stumble and cry out. With the Ogre stumbling, Locke uses this chance to attack as he sidesteps so that he is now behind the Ogre, and with his sickle in hand, he plunges the weapon into the Ogre's left glute. The sickle easily pierces the Ogre's loincloth and plunges into its left cheek, forcing him to stumble forwards and the blade of the sickle to slide right out.

"Talk about a sting in the tail!" Locke laughs.

The Ogre turns around and his vision refocuses for a brief moment, allowing him to see Locke's bloody sickle. Immediately, he moves forward to attack him, attempting a kick which Locke dodges by rolling to the right and stopping in front of the door. Lil backs up about another ten feet and while holding her palm forth, Lil forms a magical orb of energy. She bends her right arm backwards and then quickly thrusts her arm forwards, loosening her grip on the orb which flies across the room and collides with the side of the Ogre's torso. The orb bursts when it hits the Ogre, flying across the area in razor sharp shards.

The Ogre drops down to one knee, now feeling the effects of our heroes combined efforts. Seeing the advantage, Locke moves back in front of the Ogre by tumbling, and as he tumbles, he extend his sickle out towards the Ogre and catches him in the chest, slicing it. Because it is in a kneeling position, the Ogre decides to attack by thrusting its head forwards towards Locke. Considering the size of its head in comparison to Locke's height, the blow it throws from its head, if it connects, will literally hit most of Locke's upper body. However, as the Ogre's head thrusts towards Locke, Locke rises to his feet and in one motion springs into the air, landing back on the ground after the Ogre retracts its head and stands.

As the Ogre is distracted, Lil conjures a rolling ball of fire behind the Ogre. The flames from the ball of fire hit the Ogre, singeing its already injured backside. Quickly, Locke loads his crossbow with an arrow and takes aim of the Ogre, running to the Ogre's right hand side as he does. Once Locke is in position, he fires the arrow. The arrow collides with the Ogre's waist, sticking into the Ogre and giving the Ogre a new wound.

Before the Ogre can react, Locke turns to Lil, who stands behind him, "Do you think it's wise to keep attacking this thing? We're hitting it with everything we've got and it's still standing. What should we do? Haven't we got any potions or something?"

With an ambitious grin, Lil simply replies, "You got us into this mess, and we've come this far – let's just finish it off!"

As the Ogre turns to attack a distracted Locke, the ball of fire continues to rage behind him and causes him further damage. The Ogre shifts its weight into its right leg and raises its left knee in an attempt to strike a blow from the knee into Locke's back. The knee connects, not with Locke's lower back but instead the back of his head, knocking Locke down to the ground. Seeing Locke fallen, Lil runs to his side, meanwhile pulling one of the bottles of potion out of her bag. She then administers the potion to Locke, restoring some of his health. Revitalized, Locke rises to his knees and springs onto his backside so that he is seated in front of the Ogre. In one quick motion, Locke jabs his sickle towards the Ogre's right shin. The sickle plunges into the Ogre's leg before Locke quickly pulls it out and rises to his feet. As the Ogre roars, Locke steps back to survey the situation.

The fireball continues to surge beside the Ogre, the flames still licking at his body and forcing more damage upon him. The Ogre moves forwards towards Locke before thrusting its left fist out in a straight punch. The punch connects with Locke's chest, the force of which knocks Locke down to one knee, winding him. Lil steps to her right before stepping back. Using her hands, she motions to the Ogre's back, which causes the orb of flames to float and stop right behind the Ogre. The flames surge at the Ogre once again, burning his backside even more, which causes his loin cloth to burn. Lil shrieks "Ewww!" as the loincloth burns off his waist, revealing his shame to our heroes.

Locke looks at the Ogre and grimaces, "I wish you would've gone easier on him!"

He then grabs his sickle and rises from his knees, which due to his height only brings Locke up to the Ogre's waist line. Locke slashes his sickle, grazing the Ogre across his lower abdomen. The Ogre beats his chest with his fists, seemingly embarrassed and enraged that his loincloth has been destroyed. After beating his chest and roaring, the adrenaline rush of his shock to his defrocking wears off and he cries when he realizes the flames continue to burn him. With his health deteriorating, and his heart rate increasing in panic, blood begins to violently spurt from his wounds. Still, the Ogre continues his assault by pumping his elbow out at Locke in an attempted strike. Locke quickly ducks the blow, causing the Ogre's elbow to swing overhead, which makes Locke's hair wave from the gust of air it creates.

Locke looks right ahead of him and closes his eyes, grimacing once more, "I really wish you hadn't have done this!"

Lil frowns and replies, "At least I'm doing something!"

"It could've been anything but this!" Locke screams back.

While Locke speaks, Lil side steps to the left while holding her cupped palms together as she forms another silver orb of magical force. A silver bolt shoots from the orb of magic from her palms with the resulting Magic Missile colliding with the Ogre's torso, opening up a new wound which spews blood. Locke stumbles back, nauseous from the smell that has begin to emit from the Ogre. He once again takes his crossbow and loads it, before firing another arrow off at the Ogre. The arrow shoots the Ogre in the stomach and hangs from his large abdominal area as blood drips off the shaft of the arrow. The Ogre then turns towards Lil, which now exposes another part of his body to the roaring ball of fire now located to his right. The Ogre steps forward to Lil, and with a roar, the Ogre thrusts his left foot out at her in an attempted kick. The blow connects with her stomach, forcing the wind out of her. As Lil rubs her stomach from the blow, she gags slightly and then spits up, blood streaming out of her mouth.

Slowly, Lil still coughing up a slight amount of blood, motions once again to the flaming sphere, making it move to the Ogre's rear once again. The sphere of flames reaches for the Ogre once more, but due to her weakened state, her concentration lapses and the flames fail to hit the Ogre. Locke moves in after replacing his crossbow for his sickle, slashing through the air as he runs towards the Ogre. The Ogre tries to dodge the attack, but Locke grazes him with the jagged edge of his blade. The Ogre flinches from the rogue's attack and grunts before emitting a pained expression on his face as the flames continue to burn at his back. Unable to think, as much as Ogres can think, the Ogre simply lashes out at Locke with his elbow. However, due to the pain the Ogre is suffering, the glancing blow misses as the Ogre drops down to both knees. Slightly hesitating due to the pain of her own wounds, Lil quickly thrusts her arm into the air as the ground begins to crackle around her feet; nevertheless, much like the Ogre, due to her injuries the attack simply fizzles out.

"Lil, are you alright?" Locke screams in worry, to which Lil simply drops her arm back to her side and pants. Locke looks at the Ogre, who is also reeling from its damage on its knees and attempts a shot with his crossbow. As the target is so close, the arrow easily hits the Ogre, piercing its throat. Blood spits from its throat and the Ogre struggles to breathe from the shot. The Ogre further sinks to its knees, covered in arrows, cuts and burns from the fireball, which continues to roar beside it. The creature places its palms on the floor and with each breath it takes, it grunts. It shifts its weight into its knees and right hand before it lifts its left fist and throws it down in an attempt to give Locke a jackhammer-like blow. The punch connects, its fist landing atop Locke's head, forcing him down to his knees as well. Too weakened to move, Lil raises her hand and with a flick of her wrists, she commands the flames to attack the Ogre again. The flames surge outwards, burning the Ogre further. Locke looks at the Ogre and sees the life slowly fading from its eyes.

He then looks to Lil and cries, "If you can, use all your power; I think the end's near!"

Lil grits her teeth through the pain and concentrates, and with each passing second that the blood in her head pulsates harder, the flames grow and increase in height and temperature. The flames begin to creep up the Ogre's body before it is finally consumed in the flames. The Ogre lets out one last cry of sickening pain before the flames wash over it and extinguish, leaving the charred remains of the Ogre lying on the ground in front of them. Finally, after a long and arduous battle, our Heroes feel bruised but ultimately triumphant. Locke looks towards Lil, his eyes scanning the charred remains of the Ogre which lies in front.