Here is the corrected chapter:
Keo and Mekna stood facing each other in the forest clearing, their breathing synchronized as they began their training session. Keo gripped her bident tightly, its polished azure metal glinting in the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees. Mekna, meanwhile, wielded his two cleaver swords, their blades flashing with a fiery intensity that, unlike Keo's, contrasted the snowy landscape.
"Come at me with everything you've got," Keo said, her voice firm and commanding.
Mekna nodded, a fierce glint in his eye. He charged forward, his swords flashing in swift, fiery arcs, following up with a barrage of slashes. Keo jumped back, her bident weaving intricate patterns as she parried Mekna's strikes. The sound of clashing metal echoed through the forest, the only sound besides the rustling of leaves and snapping of twigs.
As they fought, Keo noticed Mekna's focus wavering. He was leaving himself open, his movements becoming sloppy. She saw her chance and struck. He managed to dodge, only to be struck from behind by a spike of ice that rose from the snow, biting deep into his shoulder. He grunted, breaking the ice by rotating one sword behind him, and stumbled backward as Keo advanced on him.
"Get your head in the game, Mekna," she said, her voice stern. She dodged a swing from Mekna, ducking under him and turning in a 360-degree spin, kicking his feet from under him and steadily rising as Mekna was suspended in the air. She readjusted her grip on her weapon, bringing her hands further down the shaft, using it as a club and bringing it down on Mekna, slamming him into the ground and sending a cloud of snow above the trees.
"We need to strengthen our abilities if we're going to serve Master properly," she said, turning to look to her left.
Mekna looked up at her, a mixture of annoyance and amusement in his eyes. "You're as strict as ever, Keo," he said, reaching out a hand for her to help him up.
Keo ignored his outstretched hand and walked a few steps to the left, her expression unyielding.
"We need to sharpen each other," she said. "Our powers are opposites – my water and Negentropy, your fire and entropy. We should be like iron sharpening iron."
Mekna grunted, pushing himself to his feet without her help. "Alright, alright. But you don't have to be so harsh, Keo," he said, brushing frost from his clothes.
Keo's gaze never wavered. "Keep quiet and listen," she said, her eyes scanning the surrounding trees.
Mekna fell silent, his ears perked up. Keo's sharp senses had picked up on something – the distant sound of shouting. A small tremor, so subtle that it was negligible, tore through the forest and caused some of the snow on the leaves of a nearby tree to pour to the ground. They exchanged a look, and without a word, they rushed toward the noise. Keo used her ice to slide forward, while Mekna propelled himself forward above the trees using small bursts of heat. This was to enable them to get a good look at the situation from two angles.
As they burst into a clearing, they saw a group of people being attacked by... Maajin? – the twisted, corrupted creatures with eyes that burned with an otherworldly energy. Keo was slightly taken aback, wondering what these things were doing here. There had been fewer sightings of these unsightly creatures of late, so to suddenly see them, and so close to Ekron as well... Mekna was thinking the same thing. They didn't have to talk to unanimously decide to take out the invaders as quickly as possible and report this to their master.
Keo noticed the people; men, women, and children numbering about thirty, were cowering in fear, trying to defend themselves against the Maajin's relentless assault. There was a mage among them who put up a barrier to protect the group, but it was only a few seconds away from cracking under the bombardment of the malicious beams of energy fired at it, leaving them at the mercy of the fiends.
There was no doubting it, the Maajin wielded curse magic. But how? Curse magic worked under the premise of sacrificing a portion of one's own soul to corruption in order to gain power. In that case, how were these fiends able to use curse magic if they possessed no soul or the brains to be able to use one? Barrier magic severed space between points. Even a simple barrier wouldn't be easy to bypass, and yet...
At that moment, the barrier collapsed, and the single mage who was holding it up passed out. Keo shook her head. This was no time to ask questions. Only act.
From above, Mekna threw one of his cleavers, which severed the clawed hand of a monkey-like Maajin which was descending towards the mage. It opened its mouth to yelp but was impaled by ice spikes which shot out of the ground around it, impaling it and all other Maajin around it. The cleaver that Mekna had thrown emitted a powerful wave of heat that caused the spikes to instantly evaporate, exploding and killing them instantly. However, that was only the four Maajin that were unable to react to the sudden appearance of a maid and butler in time. The remaining four landed and instantly charged towards Keo and Mekna.
Keo ducked low and spun into a sweeping kick that cracked against the Maajin's knee, eliciting a guttural roar. Before the humanoid, dog-like creature could recover, the second Maajin, a lithe serpent with four arms and quick with wickedly curved claws, lunged, aiming for her throat. Mekna intercepted the attack with a swift forearm block, the impact jarring his bones, and in the same motion, twisted his body, catching the fiend by the tail and using the Maajin's own momentum to throw it into the dog Maajin Keo had crippled. The third Maajin appeared to be a humanoid armored beetle, its skin shimmering with an oily black sheen, spat a stream of viscous liquid, forcing Keo and Mekna to leap backward, narrowly avoiding the corrosive spray. Seizing the opportunity, Keo darted forward, a blur of motion, and delivered a rapid series of water bullets from below and landed a spinning heel kick that connected squarely with the third Maajin's chest, the force sending it sprawling amongst the fallen gourds, momentarily stunned. However, this didn't last long, and the three rose to their feet, their wounds already healing.
Keo and Mekna realized that these Maajin were... different, different from the mindless monsters that only caused destruction. They seemed to possess a semblance of intelligence, predicting their movements and adapting their tactics accordingly.
In unison, the creatures unleashed curse-laden blasts of fire from their mouths, forcing Keo and Mekna to dodge and weave to avoid the attacks.
Mekna swiftly created a barrier around the group, adding his fire element to turn it into a wall of swirling flames that counteracted the Maajin's magic, while Keo made one around the immediate area to prevent damage to the forest.
Within this protected sphere, Keo and Mekna synchronized their attacks, their movements becoming a deadly dance of fire and ice.
Keo summoned a vortex of icy water from the snow below, encasing the Maajin in a prison of frozen crystals. Mekna countered with a wave of intense heat, his flames scorching the creatures and causing them to get cooked inside their encasements. Of course, this was done to weaken them and slow down their regeneration. As the Maajin struggled within the boiling ice, Keo unleashed a burst of Negentropy, creating a balance of temperature so that the heat would bypass their defenses and affect their insides, disrupting the creatures' twisted physiology.
The Maajin retaliated, unleashing a maelstrom of dark energy that sought to hit Keo. Mekna countered with a blast of Entropy, amplifying the chaos and causing the blast to shoot out in random directions and richocet off the barriers and trees but ultimately sending them back towards the Maajin. The creatures stumbled against the dark magic rebound.
Keo summoned discs of water around the area, using its surface tension to support her as she leapt across the battlefield, striking at the Maajin from unexpected angles, using the discs as spinning blades to attack. Mekna, meanwhile, used his flames to manipulate the air currents, creating whirlwinds of fire that knocked the Maajin around and disrupted their balance.
The Maajin, however, refused to yield. They adapted, evolving their tactics to counter Keo and Mekna's synchronized attacks. The creatures began to merge their bodies, forming twisted, amalgamated forms that blurred the lines between individual entities.
Keo and Mekna recognized the threat and responded in kind. Keo summoned a maelstrom of icy shards, using it as a catalyst to affect the Maajin from the inside with her Negentropy, shattering the Maajin's merged forms and restoring individuality to the creatures. Mekna countered with a blast of concentrated flame, searing the Maajin's twisted flesh and disrupting their curse magic.
The battle reached its climax as Keo and Mekna launched a final, decisive assault. Keo threw her bident, which Mekna had engulfed in flames, at the three, impaling them onto a tree. Keo then attacked, using their ice and fire abilities to freeze and burn them simultaneously, further bolstering their magic with order and disorder, until a state of Equilibrium was reached, leaving nothing behind but images of black ice.
Keo raised her hand, and the bident flew into her outstretched hand, while Mekna went to pick up his other cleaver.
The group of drifters, shaken but alive, emerged from the protective barrier, their eyes wide with gratitude.
"I think we should bring these people to Ekron," Mekna said, his voice low and measured.
Keo's expression turned skeptical. "I'm not sure that's wise. We don't know where they are coming from or how they ended up in our forest without alerting the scouts."
"True," Mekna agreed, his gaze sweeping over the group of drifters, their faces etched with fear and uncertainty. "But they're shaken, Keo. They need shelter and care. Ekron's the safest place for them. We don't have to keep them among us. We can isolate them while they are being catered for. And besides, don't we need answers about the Maajin and about what they themselves are doing here?"
Keo nodded reluctantly, her gaze flicking to the drifters. Mekna's smile broadened as he turned to lead the group toward Ekron. "Come on, let's get moving," he said, his voice warm and reassuring.