Rio wanted victory and despite finding himself disadvantaged, he believed he could still grab onto it.
Rio had it at the back of his mind that escape was an option, but this was an action handled by the extremely logical part of his mind.
Unfortunately, it wasn't this part of his brain that he used to make decisions most times, because if it was, he would never have ended up in his current situation, he doubted he would have even attempted eating the flesh of the direhog in the first place.
He wanted to find a way home, he was gravely hurt, his opponent was untouchable, he wanted to see the blood of his opponent, and he needed to end the battle as fast as he could if he wanted victory.
All these desires and frustrations that Rio had accumulated so far had given birth to the rage that was coursing through him, and as he gripped onto the energy that came with these feelings, pulling on as much of it as he could to boost his strength, in his most frustrating moment, he came across something strange.
With Ark out of his hold, Rion was clawing at any chance, and he did not hesitate to indulge in whatever presented itself.
He grabbed onto the unknown and made it his.
Rio controlled the new feeling within him instinctively, he directed it to his hands and then threw out a fist at his opponent, his eyes widening as a torrent of flames blasted forth.
The urge to test out his flames some more pulsed strongly within Rio, but he pushed it aside and shot forward, not wanting to lose the advantage he had just gained.
When the flames blasted out, they smashed into Ark, consuming him and sending him shooting backward and when they cleared away, the gallant king looked up to find a flaming fist heading for his face.
"Bang"
Punching as hard as he could, Rio buried Ark's head into the ground, but it was not enough.
Just as Rio looked to throw another flaming punch, Ark pushed against the ground with strength that had his palms cracking the earth beneath.
With power, Ark sent his body shooting to the left, but, before he could escape, with a frustrated snarl, Rio's hand shot out at blinding speeds and grabbed his leg, the muscles on his arm bulging as he canceled the man's momentum,
Letting out a furious roar, he swung him through the air, his hand lighting up on fire which spread to Ark, consuming his whole form before he was then smashed down, the force of the impact causing the ground to explode in a shower of flaming rocks.
"My king"
"Your Highness"
Rio could hear these voices fast-approaching from the distance and though he had no idea what they were saying, he knew he had to hurry up and kill the man at his feet.
Looking down at Ark, frustration ripped through Rio at the man's practically undamaged form, the image of his pristine armor a mockery of the fatal move he had just executed.
Seeing Ark's leg shoot into the air towards him, Rio quickly stomped down on the man's chest, his leg lighting up in flames as it hit him and then without hesitation, he sat upon the man just as he had before but this time, instead of punching him, he placed his hands on his chest and let as much fire as he could lose.
"Let's see how good your armor is at channeling heat."
At first, the flames came from just Rio's hand, blasting directly at Ark's armor and spilling over to the ground, but within seconds, as Rio screamed pouring more and more fire on his opponent, his arms lit up in flames, his legs quickly following after and by the time the supposed spectators arrived at his position, they could only stop several meters away from him as they found themselves standing before a raging firestorm.
"Your Majesty"
"Your Majesty"
The men screamed for their king in fear, their mounts screaming and struggling to move away, but unfortunately kept in place by their riders.
Amongst the men who had arrived was the commander who had questioned the grand priestess back in the throne room and the three men in fur coats who had arrived last when the king called a meeting.
Gritting their teeth, these men looked back at the exotic female who with her mount had remained unmoved from their initial position, seemingly unbothered that the king was about to be killed, and turning back and looking at each other, they nodded and with loud shouts jumped off their mounts and ran into the fire.
Far from the storm, the grand priestess's eyes narrowed at the chaos unfolding ahead, confusion, something which she hadn't known in decades, crossing across her face.
"But I checked, Kalios lied, there was no flaming demon. My visions have never been wrong."
The grand priestess's mind was in turmoil, yet her eyes remained calm like everything was in order.
"You two should go and help them," the busty woman said, her words for the two men who had remained beside her.
"Grand priestess, we can't just leave you. It could attack you at any time." one of them said in a firm tone.
"Is that so?" Immediately, these words left the woman's lips, the heads of the two men, along with their mount's exploded in a shower of blood, their forms crumbling.
The grand priestess was infallible, her words, the truth and the future. It was a fact, and she could not afford to let it be known that she doubted herself or was wrong.
Though she didn't want to, the grand priestess let her power flow, her eyes lighting up in a white glow as she looked up to the sky.
Previously, her vision had shown her Ark slaying the two-headed direhog, and now, when she checked, it showed her the same thing, the future unchanged.
At first, the grand priestess smiled, but then she remembered the man who spoke a foreign language and once again gleaned into the future, seeking to know his fate at the hands of her king.
At first, all she saw was darkness same as last time, but when she pushed harder, channeling her energies demanding answers, she was hit with an earth-quaking roar, one so loud that she immediately came out of her transcendent state and bleeding from her eyes, fell off her mount, a searing pain going through her head.