I slammed through the wall of flames and hit the floor hard. Even with my Acrobatics I tumbled for a bit before I could get back on my feet. And the heat. Dear god the heat!

“Gyah!” I cried as I held my arms up over my face. Even with my mana constantly pumping to feed the Heat Reduction Layer covering my body I could still feel the exposed skin on my arms sizzling as the sweat evaporated. I’d been hoping that my new Spell Splinter would just cancel out the heat entirely but that wasn’t the case at all. It had been part of a fire spell sure, but I could feel even with my Class ability that the heat protection it provided was just that. Heat protection. Not fire protection or immunity.

The spell it had been apart of, Flame Wave, wasn’t a sustained ability. It was cast and then over. The Heat Reduction Layer I’d lifted when I’d broken the spell wasn’t meant to cancel out a sustained blaze like this. It was just enough to prevent casters from burning their hands or clothes as the spell went off.

Jesus, if it was this bad for me then-

“Pyga!” I called out. Rocking back on my feet as something inside the building collapsed and became more unstable. Squinting through the fires all around me I got a good look at where I was. It was one of the protruding floors exposed when the outside walls of the building had fell away. The inside of the building was no better. Nothing had been spared the fire.

I could see that the skeletal frame of the walls, ceilings, and floors had already charred black, and was crumbling away even as I watched. The fire seemed alive almost, moving in and around me like a living thing.

Gritting my teeth against the pain of the heat I forced myself forward and deeper into the building. When a door barred my way it took just a kick from me to splinter the thing apart enough for me to trudge through. My quickly fashioned mask kept me from inhaling too much smoke but it still left me coughing and hacking as I forced my way out of what had once been someone’s home and into the hallway.

What was left of the hallway.

Thirty feet down the hallway it just ended as the floor gave way to the levels underneath. The thundering crack of splintering wood caused me to flinch as the hole in the floor widened another ten feet. I stood almost mesmerized as I watched the floor and part of the surrounding apartments fall into the burning maw. The flames around the hole almost giving the illusion of teeth.

Taking a step back I shielded my eyes from the light of the fire as I tried to think of a way to get around.

Pyga’s apartment was on the opposite side from where I’d entered. Near the end of this hallway. Even with the hole I might still be able to get around. There were two flights of stairs near each end of the hallway. I just had to take one up a floor go across then come down the other side to floor…

“Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me!” I yelled as I remembered my fall into the building. When I’d climbed up to jump across I’d been across from floor fifteen. I knew I’d fall as I jumped so I’d compensated by going up two floors to land on floor thirteen, but I’d only fallen a single floor.

For the first time in Kanaan I swore at how well my Attribute enhanced body had done. Now I had to go down a floor and across that damn hole to get to Pyga. If he had made it to his apartment. God how I hoped he made it to his apartment. If he wasn’t there then I’d have no hope of finding him if I had to search the whole building before it came down.

Trudging through flame and smoke alike I found my way to the stairs on my side of the hole. Coughing profusely I stepped back as a wave of rising hot air buffeted me at the top of the steps before I made my way down. Stepping quickly as the steps beneath me groaned and threatened to snap under my weight.

What had taken me no time at all just a few days ago felt like a crucible as I fought against my instincts and leaned into the fire and smoke. Reaching the thirteenth floor in a coughing fit as I pressed my mask over my mouth to keep as much smoke out as possible. When my lungs were capable of holding air again I called out as loud as I could.

“Pyga!” I shouted. “Pyga I’m here!”

I tried to listen for him over the noise of the fire but everything was just too loud. The wood splintering and cracking was one thing but the inferno itself seemed to roar as it raged around me. I stumbled as the hallway around me shifted again. My hand reaching out to a smoldering wall as more of the floor fell away from the hole in the floor. It was huge now, almost fifteen feet across and I didn’t have the confidence that I could jump over it even with my Attributes. The floor on either side of the hole looked ready to give way at any moment. The only thing that had held up was the left hand wall of the hallway itself which miraculously hadn’t plunged into the hole like the floor had. It just hung in the air like it hadn’t gotten the memo that it was supposed to fall too.

Looking at the remains of the wall and the drop of the hole in the floor I made up my mind in an instant. I’d already come this far. How could I let the crumbling interior of a burning building stop me now?

Drawing my dagger and holding it firmly in a reverse grip I approached my side of the wall and slammed it into the blackened wood of the wall. Despite the give in the wood, there was enough left of the wall that it should be able to bear my weight. Before I could second guess my actions I tore out the dagger and plunged it into a higher part of the wall. Positioning my body on the wall like an ice climber I forced myself to keep my eyes locked straight ahead as I started across. Acrobatics and my Dexterity working overtime to help my body make the most of the small indents and broken pieces of the wall as footholds and handholds.

Waves of heat rolled across me and made the Heat Reduction Layer over my skin shiver as it tried and failed to keep out most of the heat. I dared a look down as I moved over the hole in the hallway, and quickly looked away as I redoubled my climb to the other side. Pulling out and stabbing in my dagger again and again to make a sturdy handhold for me as I moved across the flaming pit of doom. As soon as I got close enough I heaved my body off the wall and across the last gap of open air to land on the other side of the hole. Scrambling up to my feet as I felt the floor beneath me buckle under my weight.

Just a little more. I thought, recognizing this part of the hallway. I was just a few doors down from Pyga’s apartment. A fresh wave of coughing fits overtook me as I tried to shout out for Pyga again and choked on smoke instead. Moving forward I found the burnt out remains of Pyga’s door. Burnt to a blackened crisp and barely holding together as it hung from half its hinges. I could barely recognize the door by the remains of the numbers on it as I forced my way inside.

My heart ached to see what had become of Pyga’s home. The table and chairs next to the kitchen nothing but a smoking ruin. The decorations melting down the walls into unrecognizable puddles. Despite the urgency of the situation and how I’d been rushing to get here, I froze for a split second at the sight.

I remembered so clearly sitting at that same table and feeling real joy at the sight of Pyga figuring out the trick to pulling water from the air. My whole life on Earth was just a constant mess of mistakes and failures. To have actually made a difference in someone’s life. Even if it was just because I could teach basic physics to a child it still meant the world to me.

I moved to each of the apartment’s two rooms kicking open the remains of their doors with a panicked strength. I scoured every inch of the space but there wasn’t any sign Pyga had made it here. He could be anywhere, I realized.

The thought of Pyga not making it to this floor roiled through me. I’d worried that I might break down in the middle of the flames but that wasn’t the case at all.

I saw red.

I screamed out my frustration as I cried out Pyga’s name again. My voice cracking as I tried to hold back a sob. This couldn’t be it. There had to be something I could do.

I scoured my own abilities from breaking the few spells I’ve interacted with, from Psychometry to Danger Sense, until I landed on the one I’d completely disregarded till now.

[Multi-Sensory Override]

There was no description. I almost didn’t need one to understand what the Spell Splinter did. It had originally come from the same Identify spell that had caused me so much strife since arriving in Kanaan. Like the other Splinters I could feel intuitively what it did. It was the sensory amplification aspect of the Identify Spell. It used a conjunction of dampening and amplifying sub structures within the spell to block out unwanted sensory inputs and focus on whatever the target of the identify was.

What else did I have to lose?

With all my meditating to help increase my mana capacity I was able to hold the Heat Reduction Layer in place as I spun up Multi-Sensory Override. I felt the thing well up in me like a tide, reaching out to each of my senses as it-

I bent over as a wave of nausea hit my head like a freight train. Gagging on air as the Spell Splinter dampened my other senses and amplified my taste buds. I could taste the soot in the air, the ash, the smoke, the flavor of the blackened wood. Almost stumbling into the flames I wrestled with the Splinter. Forcing it away from my sense of taste and trying to redirect it elsewhere. The Multi-Sensory Override locked onto my eyes next and I slammed my palms over my eyes as I cried out in pain, the light of the fires around me piercing my skull like I’d dipped my eyes into the sun. Even as I grit my teeth against the pain, I could still see the afterimage of the burning red of the fire through my closed eyelids.

There was a reason I’d stayed away from this Spell Splinter from so long. Even with what little I knew about magic, I could see now that every Spell Splinter I had was less a functional ability in its own right and more of a magic hotwire rigged together from broken spells. They worked, my Heat Reduction Layer was proof of that, but there was absolutely no guarantee about safety. Especially since I didn’t have the Wisdom to mitigate and control the effects.

Growling in frustration I beat back the Spell Splinter from my eyes until it latched onto the one sense I’d originally intended to enhance. My sense of hearing. Immediately the noises around me tripled in intensity as I instinctively clapped my hands over my ears. I could hear my own frantic heartbeat as blood rushed through my palms. The scraping sound of skin on skin as my fingers brushed against each other.

With an effort I focused on the dampening effect of the Splinter. Isolating the distracting heat and eyewatering pain in my eyes as I focused on my hearing. Painfully slowly I pulled my hands away from my ears as the sounds of the inferno engulfed me.

There was the sound of wood cracking, splintering, breaking. The crashing staccato of walls, floors, and ceilings collapsing elsewhere in the building. The almost animal like roars of the fire itself as it devoured oxygen. Straining to keep up the Multi-Sensory Override and not drop it, I focused the dampening effects of the Splinter on the sounds I didn’t want to hear. One by one they fell away. Until it felt like I’d made myself completely deaf. It felt utterly surreal to see and feel the raging fires around me but not hear any of it.

I focused on listening to any other sound. The sound of someone breathing, calling out for help, anything. Then when I was beginning to lose hope I heard something. Almost at the edge of my awareness. A voice I recognized.

Crying.

Instantly I turned and sprinted out the door of the apartment and locked onto the sound. Dropping the Multi-Sensory Override with relief as I ran deeper down the disintegrating hallway.

“Pyga! Hang on!” I shouted as I ran. It hadn’t made sense in the moment why Pyga wouldn’t have been in his apartment but now, realizing where he was it made perfect sense.

The apartments didn’t have bathrooms themselves, they had communal washrooms spaced out on every floor. I’d never been to one myself, but even if this building didn’t have the same amount of benefits other buildings in the better districts of High Water had. I was willing to bet it was one of the only places left that might have water. Water Pyga might have thought to use to put out some fires himself.

Making it to the doorway of the washrooms I wrenched the door open, heedless of the heat against my skin as I raced inside. Finding exactly the person I’d been looking for. “Pyga!” I shouted out in relief. The poor kid looked rough, patches of his fur were clearly burned and parts of his clothes seemed to have caught fire at some point before being put out. But I was so happy to find him alive. He was in the middle of dousing an crumbling portion of the tiled walls of the washroom that had fallen away as the fire spread. If I’d had to hazard a guess by the empty pails of water on the floor around Pyga, he’d come here for water before the fire grew too intense outside for him to make it back to his apartment safely and got stuck in here. Using up the water that was available to keep the fire from burning into the room itself. It wasn’t much but the tiled walls and floor must have held out better than rooms with just wall paper and plaster.

“Toby!” Pyga shouted out panicked. The fires spreading through the portions he’d been splashing with his dwindling water supply even as he applied more water to it. “Help me!”

“It’s alright Pyga!” I said coming over to him and embracing him. Smiling wide as he clung to me. “Just leave it to me! I’ll get you out of-”

“Toby!” Pyga said even more desperately and I looked into Pyga’s eyes for the first time. I’d seen panic before, just recently as the beast folk of the Murk district ran away from the attacks of the Redbrands. But Pyga’s eyes were filled with pure terror as he clutched at my shirt and pulled me close. “They’re coming through the walls!”

What…. What.

The howl of the inferno seemed to redouble through the breach Pyga had been trying to douse. Not just the howl of flames devouring oxygen I thought I’d been hearing, but an actual honest to god howl. My jaw fell open as I looked at the fire, really looked at it. And found a shape in the flames that was almost humanoid. My brain stuttered over the image as the part of me still functioning powered my Identify Sigmata. The thrum of my mana whirring through the design and lighting up my eye as I took in the information the Sigmata fed back into me.

[Ember Elemental]

[Rarity: Uncommon]

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[Threat Level: F Rank]

[Description: A weaker variant of Elemental that is most often birthed from the ashes and intense heat of wildfires. They rapidly multiply as they feed and hunger for more fuel to stoke their flames, living or dead. Alone they can be easily eliminated but in groups they must not be allowed to join together. Combined they become a threat not easily dealt with.]

“No…” I said to myself in horror as I took a step back as Pyga clung to me. Shaking my head in disbelief as if I could convince the universe I didn’t deserve to fight a fire monster after all I’d been through. I already had a fucking monster in my head. I’d literally jumped into a burning building damnit, that should have earned me a lifetime of good karma. So where the fuck was it?

The fire, no, the monster. Reached its flaming fingers to the sides of the burning opening in the wall and pulled itself through. It shifted in place even as it held itself still, the edges of its flames flickering and moving as it crouched. It didn’t so much as have eyes or a mouth as it had the suggestions of them. Differently colored shades of white hot fire made up the outlines of its eyes as its mouth shifted in size and shape. Less a mouth and more just a gap in the flames.

And it was looking right at Pyga and me.

Before I could even think of running away with Pyga the elemental rushed us. Arms extended as it barreled forward like some half corporeal phantom.

Thought Acceleration!

I slammed down on the skill as time slowed and I gave myself a few precious seconds to act. With a shove, I pushed Pyga behind me and drew my dagger. Putting myself in between the Elemental and Pyga as it came at us. It felt surreal watching the flames of the elemental wave and dance in slow motion as it came close. I didn’t even have to think. My fear addled brain clinging to the new instincts instilled into me by Small Blades. Instincts that didn’t let me down. My dagger swinging out in a wide arc as the blade passed through the elemental’s head. High on panic and adrenaline I sent the blade back through the elemental again and again. Watching the passage of the blade leave eddies of swirling flames trailing every arc.

Swirling flames that weren’t going away.

It’s not dead!? I thought in horror as I leaned out of the way of a glacially slow swipe by the Elemental. Gritting my teeth I stepped in, Heat Reduction Layer sparking as it met the heat of the elemental as I sent the blade home again and again and again. Despite actually having the Small Blades Skill I felt like I was frantically waving my dagger through hot air more than anything. There was no body to the elemental, no skin to cut or organs to pierce. Not even a brain as far as I could tell. It felt like the fight had been going on for a small lifetime with Thought Acceleration slowing everything down as I sent my blade back and forth through the beast. It was only when I sent my knife through a particular spot on the Elemental, a blazing core of heat inside of it that I got the notification.

[You have slain an Ember Elemental]

Hissing with pain I drew my hand back as I gripped my hand. Even through the protection of the Heat Reduction Layer the skin was scalded like my hand had been dipped in boiling water. Forcing down the pain, panting more from fear than exertion at my first brush with a monster in Kanaan I stepped back from the dissipating form of the Ember Elemental and looked to Pyga. “Was that it?” I said hearing my voice crack a little as I looked to the child for reassurance. Pyga shook his head mutely as he pointed back towards the opening the ember elemental had come through.

I turned towards the flames as the howls coming from the flames seemed to cry out at the loss of one of their own. The fire seemed to roil with movement as more Elementals became visible through the opening in the wall. It occurred to me then that despite having a water based Class it didn’t seem like Pyga had been able to kill any elementals on his own. If that was true, then that Elemental might have been the first to die tonight. And killing it might have just singled me and Pyga out for the rest of them.

“Oh shi-” I cursed as my words were drowned out by the roaring of Elementals pouring from the wall and into the room. In the span of two seconds I’d turned, sheathed my dagger, picked up Pyga and slammed through the Washroom door as I sprinted for the nearest staircase. Holding Pyga to my chest I forced extra mana into the Spell Splinter as red crisscrossing patterns of light enveloped Pyga and shielded him at least somewhat from the heat.

Reaching the staircase, which was mostly clear of burning debris thank God, I hurtled down the steps four at a time. Landing on the next floor in a near fatal stumble as I self corrected and ran forwards. Legs pumping like pistons as I risked a look backwards. The Elementals flowed down the stairs after me in a crimson tide. Roaring as a whole as they swept forward like a living inferno.

In front of me the hallway abruptly dropped away as the section of floor ended in another wide hole. One I wasn't sure I could jump across. Pyga must have come to the same conclusion looking at the hole and back towards the Elementals as he shouted. “We’re not gonna make it!” At the speed I was being chased at I wouldn’t be able to force open an apartment door and make an escape that way. Racing towards the hole and running through my options I latched onto the only thing I could think of. It wasn’t what I needed. Hell, I’d give anything to have broken some kind of fire extinguishing spell instead of a fire attack but it would have to do.

Racing towards the hole in the floor I held out my right hand towards the floor and focused on the second Spell Splinter I’d acquired earlier tonight.

Variable Ignition!

Immediately I felt the mana go out of me as I fed the shining spark I was holding between my fingers. Feeling the heat of the thing even over the blaze I was currently running through. I could sense exactly what portion of that Redbrand’s spell this Splinter had come from with my Class ability. It wasn’t the damaging portion of the spell, it was basically the spark that initiated the reaction that ignited the mana fueling the spell. It was essentially a fire starter. Almost useless on its own. The only saving grace it had was the variable aspect that had come attached to it. It increased and decreased the intensity of the ignition so that higher level mages could cast bigger badder Flame Waves. It was a feature strictly limited within the spell’s original framework by its internal safety mechanisms.

Safeties my Class conveniently left behind.

Running towards the hole I pumped mana into Variable Ignition as fast as I regenerated it, almost undoing my hold on the Heat reduction Layer in the process. That little spark in my hand grew to the size of a baseball as the colors inside it roiled and danced. Pyga was saying something to me in warning as he looked towards the hole we were speeding towards but I couldn’t hear him as I focused on not losing control of Variable Ignition. Even as the collective heat of the pursuing Ember Elementals pressed against my back.

I reached the edge of the hole and with all my momentum leaped across as I turned around in the air. The wave of Elementals collectively jumping across after us as I’d feared they would but I was prepared. Grinning madly I raised my right hand, a basketball sized orange and red star vibrating in my palm as I pointed it back. Not towards the Ember Elementals, but the ceiling right above them.

A small shockwave of force almost bent my arm to the point of breaking with recoil as the Variable Ignition shot out and exploded as it made contact with the ceiling. Collapsing wooden beams and Debris crashed into the Elementals as it carried them down into the hole I’d leapt over. The hole I’d cleared quite handily with the force of the overloaded Spell Splinter knocking us back. I braced myself as I bounced off the floor and rolled to a stop, groaning on the ground as I took the brunt of the fall to protect Pyga.

“You…You good kid?” I managed, rising to my knees as I checked on Pyga. The poor fox was wide eyed as he looked back at the collapsed portion of the ceiling I’d destroyed. Rather than just have part of the ceiling rain down like I’d planned that one attack triggered a small avalanche of wood and burning beams from the upper floors that completely blocked the end of the hallway we’d just ran through. Nodding mutely he said. “I-I didn’t know you could do that.”

I was about to tell him that I felt the exact same way but held myself back once I realized telling the kid I was trying to save that I was basically figuring out everything on the fly would not be very cash money of me. Instead, I got up, wincing at the pain in my right arm from the Variable Ignition and tried looking like I had a plan. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” I said assuredly.

Before I could get an actual plan together I flinched as the howls of more Ember Elementals echoed around me. Pyga clung to my chest tighter as fiery bodies pulled themselves out of the remains of apartments on either side of the hallway. With the way behind us closed, we didn’t have anywhere else to go. I swore internally and made a split second decision. Before any more could bar the way and trap us against the remains of the hole and collapsed hallway I ran forward. Hurtling past outstretched flames as they failed to grab onto me. Holding Pyga tight as I approached the fully formed Elementals barring the way. In an instant I drew my dagger and tapped the Skill that was quickly becoming my go-to answer for all of life's problems.

Thought Acceleration.

As the world slowed to a crawl it was almost trivial dodging the Elementals as they came forward. I ducked and weaved out of the way of attacks as the Elementals missed me again and again. With my higher Dexterity compared to theirs it was like I was practicing slowed down dance choreography with the monsters instead of dodging attacks that could possibly end my life.

With the memory of the first Elemental still fresh in my mind I swiped out my Dagger at those balls of heat that seemed to make up the Elementals’ cores, careful not to overextend myself. Pushing my one point of Wisdom hard to mold the Heat Reduction Layer covering my hand to thicken and protect my skin from cooking.

My awareness shrunk in those seconds my Skill stretched into moments. There was only the next step, the next Elemental, the next attack I needed to begin moving to avoid. I aimed for the cores as best I could but the flickering nature of the fire they resided in made hitting them difficult. Even if my aim had been perfect I couldn’t kill every Elemental here. Not before they swarmed me. I charged forward as notifications came and went from the Elementals I did kill, even as the others recovered from my failed strikes at their cores and tried turning after me as I left their kin’s dissolving flames behind. My sweat drenched forehead creased in concentration as my focus narrowed. I was still afraid on the inside but the idea of letting Pyga fall to these monsters, of Falisa grieving her only child…

That terrified me so much more.

Kaleidoscoping red sparks sheared off my heat shield and pain spiked in my shoulder as I chose to take a blow to shield Pyga and to not get trapped against the wall by two other Elementals. For a moment my mind wavered as I almost slipped out of Meditation but Equilibrium helped me keep stable. With my gathered momentum running I leapt up onto the wall and ran over the heads of several Elementals. My slowed perception making it seem as though gravity had shifted and the wall had become the floor.

Jumping off the wall over the heads of several Elementals I twisted in the air as Acrobatics guided my spin. Even as I went head over heels through the air my Dagger snaked out. Cutting through one, two, three cores before I hit the ground.

Too many. I thought with a grimace. There’s too many!

With Thought Acceleration active I could see it clearly. Every Elemental in this section of the building was clawing their ways through the walls, floors and ceiling to get at us. Even if I kept running for the stairs it would only be a matter of time until I slipped up and the Elementals smothered us. We had to get outside.

Picking a blackened side door for an apartment that would have a window facing the street I slammed into it with my shoulder. The spike of pain that came through my burns getting used as a battering ram was far too much for Equilibrium to take and my meditative state with Thought Acceleration shattered as the world sped back up to normal speed. The roars of the Elementals sped up as I hurtled through the remains of the apartment, aiming for a window that somehow hadn’t melted at this point. Gritting my teeth and covering Pyga with both arms I slammed through the glass. Bits of sharpened shards grazing my exposed skin as we stayed aloft in the air for a brief moment.

Then we started falling.

Twisting around like a cat I aimed my Grapple towards a higher point on the building I’d just jumped out of and fired. I'd have loved to sail to safety and grapple to another building but I knew from experience the range of my Grapple wasn’t the greatest.

As the grapple point hit home in a still intact portion of the upper floors I swung back towards the building like a pendulum. Bracing my legs to land against the side of the building that, mercifully, had already been burnt and was no longer on fire.

“Just hold on Pyga!” I said straining as I held my arm up with the grapple and used the other to hold Pyga. “I’ll get you down. We’re almost there.” I said.

“But the monsters!” He said shaken. And I turned to look towards the window we’d come flying through. Elementals were pouring through the window like fire ants out of an anthill. Hanging on the side of the building and spreading out as they searched for us. And some of them were starting to look towards the ground, towards the…

“Oh God.” I said breathless. Remembering the description of the Elementals all too clearly. Not the portion about multiplying but how they constantly searched for fuel. Living or dead. I craned my neck to stare at the ground and cursed internally at the sight of so many people still surrounding the base of the building. I hadn’t realized it in my haste to get Pyga and my multiple uses of Thought Acceleration but it had only been a terrifying number of minutes for me inside the building. Where were the Maulers? The Redbrands had to be dealt with by now right? There had to be some people in that crowd who could fight off any Elementals that went for the crowds.

There had to be, because if there weren’t…

“We…We have to stop them.” Pyga said shocking me out of my internal thoughts and back to him. He was still clearly scared, but his features were set in a determined grimace I’d never seen on his face before. “What?” I said trying too catch up.

“They’re going to hurt those people if we don’t do something!” Pyga said more urgently as his grip tightened on my arm. To the point I was shocked at how strong his grip was before I remembered how much stronger Beast Folk were than normal humans.

“Pyga that’s insane. I can’t put you in danger like that.” I said.

“Everyone is in danger!”

“And you’re just a kid!” I said louder.

“I still have a Class!” Pyga said more desperately. “A water Class! With unspent skill points! I can’t put out these fires but I can help! You can’t beat them all on your own!” I hated to admit it but it was true. Even with Thought Acceleration, my Dexterity, and Acrobatics combined I couldn’t take out those Elementals in any number that mattered. There were just too many.

But the alternative was almost just as bad. I’d jumped into this hellish situation specifically to save Pyga, not drag him back in to use his Class as a pseudo fire extinguisher. It was nuts. It was unethical. And it might be the only way to stem the tide of Elementals pouring out of the building. I stared down at the ground for a heart wrenching moment. I couldn’t see her, but I knew May would be down there as well.

I stared into Pyga’s eyes hard, expecting him to back down but there was a ferocity to his gaze that was so desperate it hurt to look at. Damnit. How the hell did he turn out to be such a good kid? It had taken a literal brain parasite like Rykas mocking me to give me the kick in the pants I needed to go save Pyga. But he hadn’t needed that at all. I realized then that he hadn’t just gone back for the water pot I’d gifted him. This was Pyga’s home, burning to pieces around him even though his Class was exactly what was needed to put out the blaze. If I refused him now, just let him sit on the sidelines. How much would that haunt him? How many years would he hold it against himself for being too weak to save anyone? I’d lived with regrets growing up. I knew from personal experience how they could ruin you.

This was a kid who’d taken a Class, a taboo for most of his people, and used it to make drinking water for his mother and neighbors. Something that I knew with a pained certainty I probably wouldn't have been able to do if our circumstances were switched.

Falisa… I thought to myself. I promise to let you kill me after all this.

“We need water.” I said hating myself for what I was planning to do.

Pyga instantly perked up and spoke rapidly. “There’s a water tower on the roof. If we get to it I can put out these fires and stop the monsters.”

I nodded adjusting myself and my stance on the wall as I looked towards the few Ember Elementals that had taken notice of the people on the ground and were starting to move towards them.

“I’m going to swing us around. I can’t hold you if I’m holding my dagger and the grapple so hang on to my back. I need you to draw as much water from the air as you can as we swing around alright?”

“Right!” Pyga said adjusting his position to hang onto me Piggyback style. Wrapping his arms securely around my neck with a grip that felt more like a Python’s than a child’s.

“Use whatever Skill points you have and buy something good!” I said loudly, psyching myself up. “And don’t you dare let go of me.” I whispered fiercely as I leaped off the wall as hard as I could. With the Grapple at an angle in the wall above us my jump turned into a wide arc as we sailed out over the crowd, my arm's Sigmata whirred as I let as much line as I could spool out from the Grapple to extend us out as far as possible. At the furthest point from the blaze, where the air was just a bit cooler, moisture gathered in the air behind me as Pyga drew on it. Forming a ball of water the size of a beach ball behind my head. Something that was just as much a product of Pyga’s constant practice as whatever Skills Pyga had just spent his points on.

As we started swinging towards the Elementals and the few that had been making their way down the building towards the crowd. Pyga surprised me with as he shouted out the name of a Skill I knew he must have bought just for this situation. Just for me.

“Imbue Weapon!” He yelled out.

Immediately the ball of water shrank to half its size as two tendrils of water snaked down my arm towards my dagger. Enveloping my hand and the blade entirely. The water on the blade almost doubling the width and length of the dagger as its shape shifted and solidified somewhat, like a glob of knife shaped Jell-O.

Drawing back the blade, with Pyga hanging onto me, and the heat stinging my eyes I sailed back towards the fire. Ready to stop these beasts and the loss of any more innocent lives tonight. To put an end to this night of horrors and this hell spawning inferno.