Chapter 61
Into The Inferno
The announcer woman gives the four of us an incredibly wide birth before she calls to begin. When she does the crowd roars and I doubt I’d have been able to hear her were her voice not augmented the way it is. As things stand my heart races the moment the word leaves her mouth. It isn’t the only thing either.
Besides me, Xael flies at Klash like he has been launched from a ballista. If the two of them fight for more than a few heartbeats the human’s headlong attack will absolutely get him killed. Fortunately, he isn’t going to, the foreigner will use his fancy footwork to disengage once my part of the plan is complete.
The elephant boy surges forward to meet the onrushing human with his spear ready to strike. Somehow he seems to loom even larger than when I saw him last, a mountain of muscle and nearly impenetrable flesh.
That doesn’t matter to me though, he can be a moving mountain all he wants that won’t make the other cursed my quarry now. My job is to get the flame witch, a task I am honestly not as well suited to as my partner. The fancy footwork that will allow him to disengage from his opponent at will would serve him well here. A lot better than my own agility is going to help me get to her but he just couldn’t get the last part of the plan right. We tried, and tried, and tried in practice but for whatever reason my inhumanity just lends itself to this trick better.
Still against this enemy I am going to need to be a dancer, the lightest on my feet I have ever been. Even in my match against Resh I have needed the kind of movement I am going to today. There was never any hope of keeping up with The Rush so while my reflexes needed to be sharp I only really needed to face in his direction when it came to footwork.
I have seen the flame witch perhaps a dozen times in the last few weeks, but today I have to admit she looks kind of beautiful. I have never really noticed it before, but the way her long dark hair hangs is honestly prettier than Viscarra’s. She is made of entirely lean muscle, and there is something appealing about the roughness of her skin. None of that is going to hold me back though, if I get the chance to kill this girl I am absolutely going to take it.
The Itti’atti whips her flamestick around her and my own personal World Of Fire begins.
Streams of living flame drive towards my legs, but I think I've seen this pattern from her before. She expects me to jump the whip-like fire, and as soon as I do the stream will split into a net that will explode out and engulf me as I’m landing.
Instead, I pivot and change the direction of my run. It costs me some fur from the backs of my legs but that is a price I will pay all day long if it means not dying.
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‘Twenty feet.’
Obeying the Itti’atti girls' will and slight hand movements the fire splits into two streams that surge at me from different directions. Now is when I jump, leaping forward both over the twisting flames that strike at my legs once more.
I can feel the heat as one of the streams follows me into the air, and the other vanishes entirely but only for a moment. A new stream of living fire surges from the other end of the flame witch’s weapon and rushes to intercept me.
‘Fifteen feet.’
I land on all fours ducking low as the newest stream of fire lunges towards my face. It misses but not in the way a normal projectile might miss. The fire obeys the girl with virtually any amount of notice.
That means It doesn’t sail harmlessly overhead, but stops mid air and explodes down at me like a firework or some sort of burning rain.
Resisting the urge to breath through my mouth I use my stupid Hyena legs to launch myself forwards and up into a sprint.
‘Ten feet. Almost there.’
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Klash charging towards me. Funnily enough, it turned out to be the elephant cursed who chose to disengage the contest with the human boy. I’m not sure what HighSail have promised Klash in return for keeping Embella safe, but he was willing to get cut multiple times by Xael both on his side and back to come to her aid.
In terms of strategy, it honestly makes a degree of sense, the flame witch is more than capable of holding her own even in close quarters against almost anyone. Wielding her flamestick like a bow staff she can keep herself safe, whilst also threatening to simply touch you with her hands and turning you into a pillar of fire. All the while a walking landslide is bearing down on you...on me.
Almost Anyone.
Embella brings her staff forward as she tries to circle away from me. It’s a smart move, both intended to avoid my charge and buy her a little more time to recall her streams of fire to protect her.
‘Five feet. It doesn’t matter that the charge won’t get my axe in range.’
I see the fire vanish and reappear once more, this time from both ends of the hollow metal pole we call a flamestick.
‘Four feet, It doesn’t matter that she can launch fire at me yet again.’
The slightest frown crosses her features as she realizes something is wrong. I haven’t lifted my axe from beside my hip the entire time I’ve been running at Embella, and I don’t do it now.
‘Three Feet. Got you!’
Opening my mouth I exhale the water I’ve had in there since before I even left my little solo cage. It isn’t a spit, that could be dodged. Oh no, just like Gorri taught me I launch the liquid forward in a fine mist that explodes outwards in a cone from my mouth.
The spray of water easily covers the distance between us, and in less than a heartbeat the girl who doesn’t really belong on a world with so much water is covered in fine droplets of the stuff.