Chapter 6: - Prometheus.

Nero hadn’t been in too many fights, but he knew the basics. Hit the other guy until he can’t hit you back anymore. The issue was that most fights he’d seen were against other humans, with four limbs and not eight. Also they were one on ones and not one versus five.

All things considered, he’d be needing to do a fair bit of improvising here.

With a roar he swung the branch in a wide arc in front of him. He had hoped to scare off the Sin Spinners as he had the first. Courage bolstered by numbers, they barely even looked phased.

One moved in on him and Nero swung the branch at its face with all his might. To his surprise, awe and relief, it struck. To his horror, the wood shattered into splinters on impact. It did however have the effect of pissing off the spider, which let out a high pitched squeal. It wasn’t hurt however, or at least it didn’t look it.

The other four were moving in now.

Makes sense, they’ve seen the extent of their prey’s defences and weren’t impressed.

He was going to die here, and that boiled him with rage. He should have just laid there, let the cold take him and be over with it. Why did it have to come just when things were beginning to look up for him?

I suppose this place really is Hell. He almost laughed.

The spiders had encircled him now, there was no hope of escape. Nero grit his teeth, took a deep breath then let it all out with a roar. If he was to die, he’d die fighting, maybe, just maybe he’d be able to pluck out one of their eyes before this was over. “Come at me then, finish the fucking job!”

But they didn’t. The spiders all took a step or two back, a simple man might have thought they were scared of his voice, but it was clear something else was going on.

“Nero.” Ember whispered with hope.

He followed her gaze to find his palm alight with the same smokey golden aura that seemed to make up her form. For a moment he thought his hand was on fire and waited for the pain to hit, but only a soft warm tingle met him in its place.

Nero blinked. “Huh… that’s… that’s new.”

Out of the corner of his eye, a spider leapt at him and Nero swung for the creature, flaming hand coming down hard on its face and sending it flying.

It disappeared into the dark before Nero even heard it hit the ground, body thumping softly, squeal escaping sharply.

“I.. Holy shit, I didn’t know I could hit that hard.” He stared off into the distance with awe.

“Nero!” Ember screamed.

It was just in time for him to catch sight of the remaining four moving in on him. Despite his new trick, Nero wasn’t quite certain it’d be enough to get him through this without dying. After all, so close to the ground, the Spiders were at the perfect height to make punching them a pain in the ass.

One dashed at him, scuttering along the ground with a speed to match the armoured soldier that Atix beheaded. They’re treating me like a real threat now, not good.

It leapt at him, but Nero found that he was out of the way just before its attack had landed. Somehow, he’d dodged it.

Its friends came in next, leaping, biting and squealing at him with each of their attacks and yet Nero found that he’d flowed away from all of them.

His hands were shaking, his heart was drumming. At first he’d thought it was adrenaline, but now he knew it was something else, something foreign flowing through his veins.

Again, a spider came for him and Nero slid out of the way, this time not before a claw tipped leg caught his thigh and opened up the skin there. Shit!

The bleeding wasn’t severe, only a small trickle of blood ran down his leg, but it told him two very important things.

These spiders were not to be taken lightly, and he couldn't dodge them forever.

Emboldened, another sprung into action, keeping low to stay out of range of his most dangerous asset. That meant he couldn’t rely on his new magical glowing hand to get him out of this one.

Nero didn’t know what possessed him to throw a kick at the thing, but he did. His foot tore through the air and cracked into the side of the closest spider’s body like an anvil against glass.

He heard its squeak of pain as it was lifted off the ground and sent rolling into the dirt. It came to a stop soon after, not going nearly as far as the one he had previously hit did. Nero was fairly sure he’d not been able to kick like that on earth.

So, whatever this is, it’s increased not just my speed but my strength too. He looked at the spider begin to limp back into the fight.

Sill, it’s better if I get them with the weird light in my hand.

Simultaneously, the remaining three sprang into action just as Nero was beginning to gather his bearings. He moved a moment after they did.

The closest clashed with him first and he met it with a kick to the side, it dodged, jumping right into his golden blow. The beast shot towards the ground and slammed into its friend with enough force to topple them both over.

Nero was fast now, faster than he ever was, but he wasn't fast enough. The third had jumped onto his knee, claws dug into his skin and Nero saw it open its mouth to sink that deadly venom into his veins.

Fucker!

He ignored the pain that tormented him and slammed his knee into a tree with malice. Nero felt something give within the monster with a crunch, and green fluids leaked from its orifices like juice from a burst fruit. It fell limply to the ground. Twitching.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He turned; only two remained now, the two he hadn’t hit with his glowing hand. Both were limping and orbiting him with caution.

Nero was panting, heaving, his body felt like it was on fire- no, he felt like he was the fire. “Come on, let’s fucking finish this!” He roared at them.

The creatures seemed to have other ideas on how they wanted this fight to end, for they limped away from him as fast as their injured forms could manage and slunk into the night.

That strange energy still coursed through Nero, telling him to chase them into the dark and rip them limb from limb. He ignored it, though it was quite a tempting proposition.

Once he knew in his heart of hearts that the fight was over, the flame died in his palm. Nero slumped against a tree, took a deep breath and slid down into a sitting position. “What the fuck was that?” He asked Ember.

The imp floated in front of him, a strange expression on her face. “Light Breathing… I think.”

Nero took a deep breath. “Light Breathing…” He repeated softly. “And you didn’t think to tell me I could do that, ever?” He asked, hearing the edge to his voice, it could have saved him from torture, saved Alisan and Atix from death.

Ember flinched back like she’d been struck. She shook her head guiltily. “I didn’t know you could… Didn’t know what it was… Things weren’t clear before, they still aren’t… I’m… I’m sorry.” Her voice was barely higher than a whisper.

Nero sighed. “It’s… It’s okay.” He told her, biting back his guilt. There was a lot he didn’t understand, but that wasn’t her fault. He grinned. “I showed those guys, didn't I.”

“You were okay.” Ember smiled back smugly, eyes suddenly bright again. “But, I think we both know who the real star of the show was if we’re being honest.”

“You?” Nero scoffed.

She feigned bashfulness. “Oh Nero, you’re too kind.”

“The hypothermia must really be getting to me, cause I can’t seem to remember the part where you did anything.”

Ember lifted a finger. “There were all those times I warned you n’ stuff, do you think it's easy for someone with as tiny vocal cords as mine to yell ‘Nero!’ every three minutes.”

“Do you even have vocal cords?” He raised an eyebrow.

“That’s not the point!” She said, strict as a teacher. “And then it was also me who told you the Spiders were venomous.”

“Negligible,” He waved a dismissive hand. “It’s hell, I would be surprised if they didn’t have aids too.”

Ember huffed, folding her arms. “You’re ungrateful.”

“That is one of my many redeeming qualities, yes.” He groaned and pushed himself up to his feet. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go back to freezing my balls off.”

“You’re excused.” She said, flitting off behind him. He’d noticed that she either didn’t want to or couldn’t go off further than about a ten metre radius away from him. Likely the latter since she didn’t immediately zoom off to look for a cave for us.

He walked over to the corpse of the spider he hit with his magic. Nero could see that the spot where he had struck it still burnt with a bright golden energy. It ate away at the flesh, like acid through paper. He raised a hand above it and could feel heat from the burn rise up and lick his flesh.

“Light Breathing magic is anathema to Demons.” Ember said from above him.

“I thought Demons looked like Mercury did, with horns and stuff.” He said, careful to keep the terror of recalling everything that monster did away from his mind.

Ember floated down, frowning in what looked like deep thought. “They’re both Demons…I… I think.” She said finally, looking defeated. “I’m sorry Nero, it’s hard to… Remember things.”

It was an oddly disturbing thing to observe, she looked like she both simultaneously knew the answer and didn’t have a clue what the question even meant. He chose not to dwell on it, perhaps he could help her remember. “Are you trying to say every living thing native to Hell is technically a Demon?”

Ember smiled. “Yes, yes!” She nodded. “And- and Mercury is a higher Demon.”

“Just like humans are higher animals, makes sense.” He nodded. That makes me anathema to everything here. Nero noticed himself shivering again. It didn’t matter that he now had cool magic powers, that wouldn’t save him from freezing to death.

Unless it did.

“I’ve got an idea!” He sprung to his feet.

“What is it?” Ember asked eagerly.

He scoffed. “I’m not going to tell you.” He said, pulling down the branches of a tree.

“Why?” She asked and he could feel her pouting glare burning into the back of his skull.

“Because you’re just going to take credit for it.” He grinned.

“Oh, you’re going to try using Light Breathing to start a campfire.” Ember guessed.

Nero turned around to face her with a bundle of sticks and leaves in his arms. “Eat shit Ember.” He huffed while she giggled. Nero placed them on the ground and sat down in front of it.

“Okay,” he took a deep breath. “Now I just have to remember how I set my hand on fire.” He stared intently at his palm. “I do not remember how I set my hand on fire.”

Ember smirked. “Try to put yourself in the same headspace you were in when you first did it.”

“Oh, that would have been my second guess.” He replied. “Alright, so let’s see, I was angry, terrified and nearly pissing myself in anticipation of a horrific death- god that sounds horrible, I don’t want to do that again.”

Ember shrugged. “Do you want to do that, or do you want to freeze to death?”

“Do you want to do that, or do you want to freeze to death?” Nero repeated in a high pitched nasally voice. Because he was mature like that.

Ember gasped as if he’d committed blasphemy. “That is not how I sound Nero, you take that back, right this very instant- '' He tuned her out and focused on drawing in his magic.

Nero thought back to the desperation he felt when the Sin Spinners came for him, the powerlessness. He felt nothing.

He tugged on the fear. Nothing.

Finally he brushed the anger, the rage, the decision he made to go down fighting. Nero gasped, his heart raced and his palm burned with a now familiar bright golden light.

He lowered his hand into the pile of wood and leaves. It began to eat through them like it ate through the Sin Spinner. It seemed trees due to being native here were also under the classification of Demons. A problem loomed however, no fire came with the burning, only warmth.

Piss and shit!

As disheartening as it felt, it made sense now that he thought about it. It wasn’t a fire but a substance that reacted with Demonic matter to give off heat. That meant it couldn’t set things aflame. But it should be able to start a reaction that will. All he needed was enough fuel.

He gathered more leaves until they were a small heap and placed his hand on top of them. “Come on, come on…” Nero saw a glow, orange not golden like his magic. It was a small thing, fragile but growing and spreading across the leaves. He’d done it, he’d made a fire.

“We did it!” Ember grinned.