Chapter 5

I must’ve made quite a sight, ambling through the forest, tossing careless fireballs, singing ironic songs to myself; it was easy to say I didn’t want to light the world on fire, but my actions definitely spoke otherwise. I’m pretty sure I started the fire. After all of the fighting I had done, I wasn’t awfully surprised to find myself growing exhausted. My movements were sluggish, the firebolts practically crawling away from my hand. My body was sore, both from wounds and fatigue, my eyelids growing heavier with every step. Realizing I was too worn out to keep moving, I began to look for a relatively safe place to sit down, just for a little while. After a bare handful of minutes looking, I found an appetizing spot in the shadow of a tree, cradled between its’ roots and visible only from above or directly in front. Figuring it was good enough – just for a little sit-down, a small break – I sat down, and leaned back against the coarse bark of the tree, glancing up at the crown of branches above me, and the pale sunlight trickling through.

It felt like I blinked, and when I looked again, no light shone through the branches, and there were a number of sore spots where I had gracelessly fallen asleep with various protrusions digging into me. It took a long, swimming moment for me to remember where I was, and what was happening to me. A fitful dream of endless offices clung to me, the vague memory of a great heat pursuing me, and everywhere I turned was just more cubicles, with no windows or doors in sight…

Then I realized, it still felt like a great heat was pursuing me. The sharp pop of burning sap turned my head, and I peered up at the tree I was leaning against. The other side of the tree was aflame, crimson licking up the trunk and snapping at the lowest branches, a burning hellscape behind it. Despite what I knew to be immense heat and choking smoke, I was unbothered; the heat, in fact, felt comfortable, welcoming, more like a fireplace than a wildfire. I realized, belatedly, that this must be my Heat Adaptation at work, nearly letting me sleep long enough for the wildfire to consume me. I felt the pressure of several notifications weighing at the edge of my consciousness, and when I gave them my attention, my jaw nearly hit the mossy ground.

A long parade of kill notifications, and a handful of levelling notifications, as well as one I definitely hadn’t expected to see.

Quest Complete: [Trial by Fire]

Slay 10 Beasts (22/10)

Reward: Weapon of your choice.

You have embraced the path of the Flame Incarnate, and left only destruction in your wake. Even the world itself is not immune to your flames.

While I knew I had to get going quickly, I still couldn’t stifle my curiosity, and I mentally touched the idea of the reward. A slew of possibilities entered my mind, and I quickly, unconsciously sorted and pared the list down to a handful that interested me.

[Wildfire Ring] (Uncommon): This copper ring still seems to carry the heat of the forge within it, and never quite seems to cool off. This ring enhances your control over flame, allowing you to more easily control and direct your flame-based attacks. Increases Mana efficiency of flame-based attacks channeled through the ring.

[Flameheart Staff] (Uncommon): Crafted from the heartwood of a Flame-breathing Mahogany Treant, and banded with bronze, this staff carries the memory of the fires that it once commanded. This staff allows you to more easily cast area-affecting spells, and amplifies their destructive range.

[Fire-Spitter Wand] (Uncommon): Crafted of bronze, with a radiant flame-ruby embedded in the tip, this wand allows you to store natural flame within it. By spending natural flame from within the gem, you greatly reduce the strain of casting, no longer having to draw the flames forth from the Cindervault. If the gem is ever entirely emptied of flames, it may crack, reducing its’ power.

I thought on this for several seconds. A ring, a staff, and a wand. It made sense, being on the path of arcane power, but I still found the presence of a ring confusing. I waffled between the choices, liking the idea of all three… but my thinking time cost me something else.

As I glanced up, I realized the flames had nearly encircled me, igniting the trees ahead of me, away from the heart of the blaze. I knew the shelter of this tree wouldn’t last for long, and so I made what seemed like the most currently useful choice.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Wand in hand, I ran toward the edge of the ring of flames, and held it out in front of me as if it were a fire extinguisher, willing it to consume the flames and carve me a path to safety. As I got closer, the heat finally became uncomfortable, bordering on unbearable, heat pushing at me like a heavy blanket. The smoke finally began to bother me, making my lungs itch with heat and cinders. I tried waving the wand. I tried commanding the wand. I even tried to focus on the gem, hoping that somehow my mental energy could direct it into action, that somehow I could-

A lick of flame swept up, consuming a nearby branch, and I wasn’t quite quick enough to pull away. Instead of burning my sleeve, however, the flames veered away at the last instant, and poured into the gem. After a couple of seconds, the bush that had formerly been burning had been doused entirely, most of its’ branches frail and cracked from the flames, all but the roots consumed. I laughed triumphantly, and shoved it at another nearby flame, watching it vacuum up the fire rapaciously. I doused a tree, and another handful of bushes, exulting in the magical ability to suck up every flame in my path. With a wand like this, I could tame the whole wildfire, absorb all of its’ power and-

The next flame was entirely unresponsive. The wand did nothing, absorbing nothing, and the flame barely even wavered in its’ presence. I stared at the wand dumbly, and the gem blazing with light set into the tip, belatedly realizing there had to be a limit somewhere.

Unfortunately, that somewhere was right here, closer to the heart of the inferno than I had started, with the narrow path I’d first carved out already overgrown with flames once more. I coughed heavily, trying to remember which way I had come, eyes watering from the heat.

Well, shit, I thought to myself. What now?

I charged through the flames, arms crossed in front of me to protect my face from the burning branches that lashed at me, choking down bone-aching coughing as I kept my eyes on the unburnt trees I could see looming ahead through the smoke. I waved the wand this way and that, sending reckless firebolts blazing behind me, emptying out just enough room in the wand’s gem to absorb any flames that came too close to me. The heat was so strong it was painful, my heat adaptation already strained to – and beyond – the limits of its’ Basic aptitude. I slowed my breathing, trying to take in as little of the lung-searing heat as possible, willing the flames away whenever they drew close, absorbing whatever I couldn’t push away. I felt myself nearing the edge, even as the flames reared up, and I thrust myself through the wall of flames as if parting a curtain.

When I emerged from the edge of the flames, skin smoking, the wand in my hand burning like the heart of a volcano, I found a handful of people standing in front of me. All of them had burns, some worse than others; one person, a mage by the robes and staff, was summoning water like a fire hose, trying to douse the edges of the clearing and keep back the encroaching flames, while another person knelt down by the two most wounded, trying to quickly bandage them and treat their wounds, his hands glowing with a warm-looking light.

I must’ve made quite a sight; the flames behind me, the wand in my hand smoking in the relatively cooler air, the corded burn-scars on all of my visible flesh, the chest in tatters. I breathed in clean air, throwing my head back, and laughed. It had worked! The wand worked way better than I had expected. I exulted in still being alive, relishing the way the cold air practically bit at my flame-touched limbs.

“D-did you do this!?” The accusation startled me, the water mage now pointing their staff directly at me, the sapphire on the tip seeming to reflect water in ripples, as if an ocean lay within. “Is this your fault?” My mouth opened in confusion, though I couldn’t quite seem to get words out beyond the heat I felt spilling from my lungs, my throat parched.

“You fucking killed her!” He screamed at me, and moved the staff in a circle over his head, before thrusting the point toward me. The geyser of water it emitted nearly threw me back into the flames behind me, dousing me from head to toe in an instant. I wanted to tell him that it was alright, that we come back to life; if we didn’t, I wouldn’t be standing here, the Shepherd’s creatures having slain me several times. I held out my hand to stall him, trying to get another room to breathe against the torrent of water. “He’s attacking!” I heard the man cry over the sound of rushing water. I realized, suddenly, that the flow of water was slacking off. As I caught sight of the man behind it, I could see the exhaustion weighing on him; he had clearly been fighting the fires for some time, and that immense spell had taken quite a bit out of him. The man with the healing hands had picked up a vine-wrapped bow, and pointed it toward me. Before I could speak, he loosed, and I blasted the arrow aside with a cone of flames from the tip of the wand.

Well, damnit. If he’s not going to listen, I’ll just show him. I whipped the wand forward and hurled a roiling ball of flames, nearly a foot across. I had been intending to throw a firebolt at him, but the magic drew from an unexpected source, fueled by my rage and the flames within the wand, launching toward the pair like a tumbling rocket. When it exploded, it struck the archer near center of mass, blowing him away toward the edge of the small clearing, his clothing ablaze and in tatters. With an inchoate scream of rage, the Mage thrust his staff toward me again, but this time I was ready. I released a torrent of flames toward him, showering him in fire from head to toe. I could feel the wand draining of power even as the torrent overtook him and the two wounded near him, too hot and too fast for them to even have a chance to scream. I turned and fled from the clearing, running past the archer’s smoldering corpse, unwilling to face their burned bodies, and even less willing to stay near the rapidly expanding edge of my accidental wildfire.

That’s me, David, walking ecological disaster.

Damnit.