Athren of course didn't take too long to get ready, in all honesty he kind of rushed himself. He didn't want to linger around much longer and he just really wanted to get out and do something with his night, distract himself from the thoughts that had been rushing through his head. Sometimes being the leader of what he called a large faction wasn't exactly the easiest, he had way too many choices to make and had to try to do the absolute best for his crew and most importantly, he needed to make the best decisions possible for his kids while keeping them all safe. Not only did he want everybody safe and healthy but he wanted everybody genuinely happy and that was a task that was difficult in itself.

It didn't take much time for him to be airborne flying towards the destination of the job. The location of the job was Poco Poco Volcano village which was located at the base of the volcano itself. Athren wasn't exactly an engineer or a professional at building and design but something gave him the idea that it probably wasn't the best location for a village? If that Volcano actually erupted, surely the entire population of the town would be wiped out but hey, he wasn't exactly going to argue with the villagers about it. Their problem, it wasn't his!

The Volcano was located on an island in the southwest sea, the darkness of night had made it difficult to see but he was heading in the right direct. He flew as fast as he could, he wanted to get there and see exactly what this threat was about. He had genuinely been curious as to what had been killing off and attacking the villagers, maybe if he was lucky. It would even give him a challenging fight, that was something he'd really go for about now.

After flying in the right direction for a little bit of time Athren would finally see the shape of the Volcano in the distance and as he drew closer he could see the village lights, though they weren't modern. The light being immited wasn't from electricity and light bulbs but the crackling of bonfires and torches. A large group of the villagers had been having a drink together in the middle of the town and it had seemed like the best place to get answers as to what he had to deal with.

Athren landed near the villagers rather slowly and calmly and once he was noticed the villagers spooked up and seemed to be rather startled. "Relax, Alright? I heard you've got some kind of an issue with a monster attacking you guys or something? I'm here to put an end to it." His ocean blues looked around the environment, what he could see was multiple buildings completely burned to nothing and a crusting black residue from dried lava. He wasn't quite sure how lava burned them without trails leading from the volcano but it wasn't really his concern at the moment. Athren had crossed his arms and awaited and answers from the group, all they really had to do was point him in the right direction.

It was at this point that every single villager began to go to their homes except for a single, elderly man. He rose his shaking hand to point a single finger to the top of the volcano. "It laid dormant for years in the lava, when it woke up it began to wreck havoc on our people. You'll find it at the top." It was at this point that the elderly man began to walk to his own home, slowly but surely.

At this point Athren arched his brow curiously, I mean that wasn't much to go off of. "Uh, That's all you've got for me? Really?" He stated as he watched the elderly man ignore him and enter his home with the door closing behind him. "I guess that's all." Athren then mumbled to himself as he looked up to the mountain top. Though the volcano wasn't flowing, he could see the orange light emitting from the top, surely he'd find his answers there, thankfully he wore his short sleeves, he had a feeling that things were about to get hot.

Taking flight once again Athren flew himself to the top of the volcana and landed upon the ridge to the large opening. Far below he could see plenty of edges and places to stand but at the bottom was the extremely hot and bubbling lava.
He couldn't really begin to think what was even going to be up here, was this all just a joke? It had to be too hot here to sustain any kind of life. There was no plants and no animals, surely there wasn't a creature that could endure such heat, could there? Regardless of what he believed, he was here now and knew he had to investigate. After all, he'd only get paid upon completion of the job, so some sort of creature had to be brought down and killed.

Jumping off the ledge Athren landed upon the next landing lower, and then the next, he continued to jump to all the solid landing spots until he got to the very bottom of it all. He was next to the lava and got a really good look at it, it was the first time he'd ever seen something like that so close up, it was surely an experience. He scanned around with his ocean blues, looking for any kind of dwelling that a creature could live in but the fact was, there was just nothing around, no homes, no caves, it was just the large pool of lava. He couldn't help but wonder if he was just being played at this point.

"Alright, What the actual hell?" He mumbled aloud as he looked back up to the entrance. Maybe he was wasting his time after all, nothing appeared to be here.

---

Word Count: 1,003
Total Word Count: 2,125

As Athren flew closer the Elemental whipped her hair towards him once with plenty of force, he simply manouvered himself mid flight to twirl around it though along with the loud SNAP it had made, it had also managed to whip some balls of lava towards him too. He raised himself quickly to get out of the way before darting towards her once again. This wasn't exactly his offensive plan, this was simply him testing the waters to see exactly what it was that he was up against and what kind of abilities he may have been dealing with. His powers were rather common, he wasn't anything out of the ordinary and any strong fighter could theoretically do what he was capable of.

As Athren had been approaching once again the elemental whipped her hair at him one more time and with it flung more lava his way, though this time she lifted both of her hands outwards and lifted balls of lava with it, she began to fling them at him rapidly. "I told you, You're going to die here!" she exclaimed as she tossed them towards the saiyan.

Athren on the other hand once again stopped his approach, he darted upwards once more and began flying circles around the inside of the volcano, flying higher and lower rapidly to dodge all of the incoming attacks. It was pretty clear at this point that she was a ranged fighter and Athren was going to somehow need to find a way to get through that range and attempt a melee assault or he'd have to counter with his own ranged attacks even if it wasn't his style. Even though he was already pretty warm given his location, he really didn't want to get right up and close to the lava. It was literally her element, she had all the advantages there and it would be easy to catch him off guard, especially considering he had absolutely no knowledge of her abilities.

Even under the pressure of the assault Athren kept his cool and remained focused, he continued to fly around rapidly avoiding all the attacks she had thrown his way. For a brief moment Athren had decided to stop, he unleashed his power and no longer kept his suppressed. It was at this point that he simply just slipped and dipped out of the way from the incoming attacks. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that to kill me!" He exclaimed as he slowly tried to move himself forward.

It was at this point that the elemental had shot both hands forward, instead of a barrage of lava balls, she now fired two consistent beams of lava towards the saiyan warrior. Athren of course began flying around again, dodging them as effectively as he could. Even having the lava as close as it was to him, he could feel the temperature rising. He really didn't want to get any of this stuff on him, he knew he'd be alright, he just didn't know exactly how badly it would burn. "Urgh!" She grunted as she was getting annoyed by his quick maneuvers and his ability to stay out of harms way.

This had been going on for a few minutes and Athren really wasn't quite sure how to break through and do some damage though he made a quick assumption and came up with a concept. What he wanted to do was remove her from the volcano and get her over the ocean, he'd try and blast her into it as a finishing blow. The question would be how the hell would he manage to do that if he couldn't get close enough.

"Just DIE already!" She exclaimed, it was obvious that she had never faced somebody above the average level of human if simply flying around was getting on her nerves, at this point she stopped her lava beam and dropped both hands before quickly lifting them up forcing the lava beneath Athren to blast up towards him, of course though he quickly twirled out of the way before glaring at her from his hovering position.

"You're far too slow! How the hell do you expect to hit me with those speeds?" Athren couldn't help but taunt her, he wanted her to start making mistakes, he wanted an opportunity to get her off the lava base. He had thought about hitting her with a massive Ki blast but he didn't want to risk having the Volcano going off, after all if he killed the ones who hired him. Surely he wouldn't get paid.

It was then that she extended her arms and created two large lava whips, each extending from both of her hands. She began walking towards him on top of the lava as she whipped at him, one and another. She was closing the distance to make the travel time faster and making them harder to dodge. Athren of course just kept up, ducking and slipping under each and every one of them, as she drew closer and closer, they became slightly harder to deal with but that really just made it all the more fun, but this entertainment had caused Athren to make one error. He got too caught up with how easy it was, he failed to see when one of the whips cracked against the molten rock above him. By time he heard the noise of a large boulder falling he was barely quick enough to hover out of the way but at the exact same moment he felt one of the whips tightly constrict around his ankle.

"This is where you die!" In one swift movement the elemental shifted her body and turned, her arm swinging widely from behind her, over head and in front of her, whipping the saiyan down and splashing into the hot lava. The elemental smirking as she retracted both of her whips, she was thinking that it was over. "You shouldn't have come, foolish boy."

---

Word Count: 1,000
Total Word Count: 4,126