Six reached deep, pushing down through the pain in her head, in her shoulder, in the rest of her body. She crouched, looking Eleni right in the eyes. Then she sprinted. Her legs pumped with the last of the strength in her. She held the steel staff out. When she was a dozen feet from Eleni and the charging monster, she planted the pole and swung herself up and into the air.

The monster opened its jaws to catch her, but she sailed past it and connected with the Mog. Her feet hit Eleni in the chest, knocking her backwards. Eleni fell, landing on the arena floor. Six fell beside her, the wind knocked out of her.

Neither of them moved for a moment. Then Eleni was on her feet. She called to the retreating monster, which turned and came towards them. Then she brought her attention back to Six and kicked her in the side. Six grabbed the Mog’s leg and pulled, throwing Eleni off-balance. Eleni stumbled and fell again. Six rolled on top of her, pinning her down. She gripped Eleni’s wrists and held her arms down.

“Try to make a fireball now,” she said.

Eleni thrust her hips up, trying to throw Six off. Six dug her knees into the Mog’s sides as hard as she could. She leaned forward, using her weight to press Eleni into the floor.

“You’ll have to try harder than that,” Six said.

Eleni turned her head and shouted something to the approaching beast. It opened its mouth and screeched.

“If it runs over us, it’ll kill you, too,” Six said.

“Then we die together,” said Eleni.

The enormous creature was bearing down on them. Six stared into Eleni’s face, deciding what to do. She knew she was too weak to fight her much longer, especially now that the Mog had a Legacy. If she was going to die anyway, maybe it was better to do it taking Eleni with her. At least then there would be one less thing for Nine and the others to worry about when they showed up.

She could feel Eleni struggling to throw her off. The Mog was scared. This made Six even more determined not to let her up. Let her feel what it’s like to stare death down, she thought.

The monster was almost on them. Six could feel each thunderous step it took. The smoke from the growing fires stung her eyes, and the heat was increasing around them.

When there were just seconds left, Eleni screamed and tried one last time to get out from under Six and save herself. Six almost relented. Then she felt a powerful push, like a great gust of wind. Smoke and flames streaked around her. The charging beast was shoved sideways, rolling over on itself with a grunt of surprise, its limbs flailing. Caught up in the blast of air, Six was tugged from atop the Mog and pulled along the floor.

When she came to a stop, she was on her back. She sat up, looking for the source of the force. The monster still lay on its side, unmoving but bellowing in pain. Six realized then that one of the metal staffs was sticking out of its chest. She looked for the second creature, but couldn’t see much through the smoke and flames. She also couldn’t see where Eleni was. She had disappeared.