Ace Versus Ace

In the bleachers, Khalor was watching as Phoenix and Astaroth were running around the arena. After two minutes of this, he started frowning.

'Shouldn't she have reverted back already?' he thought.

'Last time, it only lasted for two minutes. Is there something different this time around?'

He observed carefully, and in the next few seconds, he noticed another oddity.

'He could have dodged that hit. Why did he block it instead? He's taking unnecessary damage.' He thought.

But as he looked closer, he saw something weird.

'Did he just… Absorb some flames? No, that's not it. He absorbed some of the Aether in the flames!' Khalor realized.

Back in the arena, Astaroth was now grinning wide. This threw Phoenix off, so she backed away from him.

"Why are you smiling so much? Is getting beat up your thing?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Oh, no. Quite the opposite. I'm smiling because the roles are about to switch up," Astaroth replied.