Hessien, Vacinay, and Ghomas are taken aback by the size of the fireball.

“You weren’t kidding about being level 21?!” Vacinay exclaims.

Ignoring her, I unleash the fireball, depleting almost all of my energy points.

The guards, who had been spouting off, are left dumbstruck as they see their impending doom in the form of a massive fireball.

“Wha—,” is the last thing I hear before the fireball explodes, engulfing them all. Many run amidst the flames, screaming in pain and terror, but I am indifferent. Hessien nudges my shoulder, and I turn to him, visibly drained.

He asks, “So… fire…”

“Yeah,” I reply, “I was fighting some spider woman and threw a fire stone or an explosion at her. So, I just took a skill to weaponize the already existing flames.”

He nods slowly, “How did you get so strong and so fast?”

“I accidentally burned part of the forest, which had other half-men.”

"Semi-genocide, nice."

Vacinay sighs, “How much of a level-up did you get this time?”

“Surprisingly, none.”

Ghomas’s eyes widen, “They were around level 12-14. To think killing over 40 of them wasn’t enough.”

“Welp!” Vacinay shrugs as she walks forth, which confuses me.

I ask, “You got fire immunity?”

“Nope!” She goes from running to dashing at full speed.

What the… Upon reaching the flames, she transforms into a red monkey, makes an impressive leap, and lands in the middle of the fire. What’s wrong with her?!

I turn to Hessien in a panic, “Why did she do that?!”

“She is okay.”

“How are you sure?”

“Because… I am sure. But can you remove the flames?”

“Yeah,” I sit down, “Once I recover enough energy points…”

Perhaps not taking the fire suppression skill was a mistake.

I ask again, “You are sure she is okay?”

He nods, “She is most likely relying on her self-repair skill.”

Ghomas mutters, “That’s a bit insane. But Hessien, can’t you just put out the flames with a new skill card?”

Oh? Did he get water?

Hessien nods, his hand glowing as he approaches the flame, sweat trickling down his face.

He touches the fire, grunts, and then touches the ground. Suddenly, I feel heat under my feet.

He pulls back his burnt hand and grunts, “Done, let’s go!”

Ghomas, who is hugging a tree that is catching on fire, exclaims, “You couldn’t think of anything else?!”

I am puzzled by Hessien’s actions. He walks into the flames.

Did he exchange the temperature? That makes no sense.

I have an idea, but I am too stunned to articulate it.

Ghomas hops off the tree and sprints towards the flame. I look around, seeing all the trees catching on fire. It is pretty amazing.

I also like the fact we aren’t overlapping in skills. I like feeling unique, despite the fact fire control is far from unique.

I join them. When I approach the flame, I feel no heat from it; instead, it feels like I am walking through soil.

After some walking, I meet the other three who are in the hole in the mountain. Vacinay is on the ground, limbs spread wide open. Half of her body is burnt, which makes me question her.

Her eyes are fixed on the ceiling. “I have a skill that lets me turn into a big rat which can dig and travel underground,” she says.

I ask, “So… why didn’t you do that out of the flames?”

She replies, “Well… My original plan was to rely on self-repair, but once I got in the flames, it hurt way too much.”

I call her an idiot.

She retorts, “Shut up…” and forces herself up.

Then she says, “By the way… I got my second skill card too.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Oh? What’s it? Sword combat?”

She replies, “Oh. You know, well that’s my third one.”

“You got another one that quickly.”

“Yessss.”

As I am about to ask her what it is, weird sounds come from inside the tunnel, like those of beasts.

Vacinay draws her sword but not before making a circle in the air, from which a small firefly…? Floats out.

The room is illuminated by a blue light that buzzes and glows. My senses are upgraded, so I don’t really need it.

Vacinay asks, “So… we are doing a rescue mission?”

Ghomas nods. “Like actual Defenders?”

Hessien grins. “This is some heroing shit.”

I step forth. “I will function as the tank.”

As I make my way through them, the three exchange glances.

Then Ghomas asks, “Um… You can make a fire barrier?”

I smile smugly, “No. I can do this.”

Instantly, I ignite my forearms and my legs. “Fire skin. I can of course focus on which parts of my skin are affected.”

“Wow…” Hessien mutters in amazement.

“By the way, Hessien, what does your skill card do?”

“Oh, it’s called effect exchange. It allows me to make exchanges of kinds of states. I can make fire wet and water burning.”

“How did you even think about—”

Immediately, Vacinay dashes in front of me. Blood spills in the air as a spear pierces through her chest like a bullet.

“Shit…” Vacinay drops to her knees. “It doesn’t hurt that much…”

Huh… what?

Hessien immediately releases mist covering the entire area. But I am still baffled.

He sends a message using the chat through the system. “Your flames! Turn them off.”

Oh… Right. I do as he says.

From deep inside the mountains, loud footsteps make their way to us. “One down. Three more too—”

“One down?! Which one?!” Vacinay, who regenerates her wound, shoots forth, following after the voice.

Hessien, able to see in his mist, aims and shoots constant beams.

But, I can’t see anything!

I dash out of the mist and what I see makes me consider turning back. It is a massive green man. His arms are the size of literal tree trunks.

Vacinay, who also sees it, takes a break in her pace. “Uhh… You don’t perhaps like negotiations?”

He grins at her. “You wouldn’t like it. It's a lot of blood.”

Vacinay grunts.

With a crackle of light, a lightning bolt hits the man directly in his face. We get a scream from him as he grabs his face.

Vacinay and I immediately take advantage of the situation and dash forward. Of course, I am faster than her. Utilizing future sight, my eyes feel like they are staring down a path that shouldn’t have been available.

A blue version of the half-man screams and plants his right foot deep, cracking the ground before swinging his 2-meter long axe at my head.

“Eh?” I exclaim.

The half-man, the actual one, follows that movement, planting his right foot deep!

Oh, the blue represents the future versions!

I shout, “His axe has a range of around 2 meters!”

As soon as I shout that, I dive onto the ground, dodging it. I get up quickly, following him with my future sight which gives me two seconds in the future.

However, I could tweak it to give me more! But I have to be wary of the EP drain!

The half-man moves so fast that if it weren’t for my future sight, I’d definitely have gotten hit.

While distracted by me, an explosive mist pellet hits him directly in his face. But it’s concentrated on his face. In that same notion, Ghomas makes two clones, however, they aren’t lean. They look jacked on steroids.

They dash forth and both grab his legs.

“Let go of me!” the half-man screams.

Vacinay leaps and stabs him in his back with her sword, but it doesn’t go deep.

“Damn it!” she exclaims.

With future sight, I see the future version of him launching back and breaking her body.

“Get off him, quickly!” I shout.

He hears me and must have figured I could tell what his moves were going to be. So, he uses a skill, needles start to generate from his skin.

Time freeze!

Everything in the world becomes still.

I move quickly and leap on his back, grab Vacinay, and land down.

Time freeze breaks.

I am out of energy points…

Like something out of a video game, his skin needles pierce the air a meter long in range. At least they don’t shoot forward.

“Thanks,” Vacinay tells me as she repairs her wounds—or tries to.

“Oh… I am out of energy points.” Her little firefly disappears too.

The half-man laughs as his skin needles retreat into his skin and he makes his way to us.

“I am still here, you know,” Hessien shouts.

It seems Ghomas is almost empty.

The half-man turns back to him and asks, “What can you possibly do?”

Hessien drops the spear-gun.

“Not sure, let’s find out.” From his fingers lingers a dense mist.

Is he trying to get himself killed?

I get up, but as soon as I do that, the half-man kicks me, sending me into the wall with a cracking sound.

A wild scream escapes my lips as I drop to the ground.

The half-man drags his axe on the ground as he walks towards Hessien. “You know, I killed a lot of bold kids like you. You and the blond girl smell similar, siblings or cousins?”

Ghomas is breaking in an anxious sweat as Hessien answers, “Cousins. But, I am basically taking on the role of her big brother.”

“Oh. Don’t worry. When we use them in the next ritual batch, I will make sure to tell her you fought hard.”

Hessien smiles. “Damn, how considerate of you.”

They stand a meter away from each other.

“I did have siblings too. Well before, I desired power to protect them of course, and then turned into this.”

“That’s tough, but I don’t care,” Hessien replies as he generates a mist around him.

“I see…”

The half-man clears the distance between the two so fast that he appears as a blur. But… the axe doesn’t make its full arc. Instead it abruptly stopped halfway in the air.

The half-man is puzzled and tries to free his axe, but his actions are in vain. When did Hessien get the po—

“Well, I didn’t expect to see an ex-knight here.” From the mist, I hear a very familiar voice.

Vacinay shouts, “Miss Yamanda?!”

Out of nowhere, Yamanda appears mid-air near his face and kicks him so hard that his face visibly deforms. He is sent flying for meters before rolling on the ground.

She stands in the air as if she’s literally flying.

Insane...

I turn back to the half-man which has blood pouring from his face.

Hessien runs mist towards me and Vacinay with a grin. “You all okay?”

I try to smile. “For the most part, yeah.”

Vacinay nods. “Kinda.”

He offers me a hand. “You can stand?”

“Of course,” I reply as I attempt to move my legs. But why couldn’t I feel them?

I stare at them. “Move.” But they do not move.

Please don’t tell me this guy crippled me.

“You can’t move?” Hessien asks.

“I-I I am sure it’s just exhaustion,” I look around, unable to maintain steady eye contact.

Vacinay pokes me. “My self-repair should be able to be applied to others. Once I recover enough EP, I will repair it for you.”

Oh right, she did have that skill.

I nod, “Thanks.”

Then the half-man is teleported in front of Yamanda. When he gets a proper look at her, she allows him to drop to the ground.

He shakes his head as he tries to form words. “Why… are you here?”

Yamanda appears behind him. “Why not? We were close, right? You tried to kill me many times after all.”

“No… no!” He expands his skin needles to insane lengths.

But Yamanda doesn’t move. She doesn’t even need to. The needles don’t penetrate her armor.

She then grabs a needle. “Well, to tell the truth, I am here because I am these kids’ teacher.”

His eyes widen as he suddenly… becomes hundreds of meat chunks. The pieces of meat drop to the ground in a bloody puddle.