His weapon and armor discarded, body of blood-red skin and muscle dressed in a blaze of fire, Father begins to glow like a star, bringing light and heat crashing back into the place where my attack had previously pulled it all away.
As the light of the Sun is still bringing this place back from a state of twilight, Father stands tall and radiant, shining with a gloriously incandescent light. Where he stands, the stone floor begins to glow and melt, his feet sinking into the ground as everything around him quickly becomes molten, the heat growing to become far more intense than it was earlier by several degrees. With the world around him melting away, Father moves forward, the ground exploding below his feet in a spray of magma, his flaming body moving towards me like a comet.
Even with my body covered in shadow flames to protect me, the heat radiating off from him alone is enough to set my clothes on fire and start melting the steel and Kevlar plates in my armor.
As I dodge to the side, his fist smashes into the ground beside me and is buried up to his elbow. The ground around his arm quickly melts, and when he rips his arm back out, it sends a spray of molten rock towards me.
My shadows spring up to block the molten projectiles as I attack him, swinging for him with both of my hand axes, their thick metal blades already glowing red as I swing down at him. He blocks with his arm, laughing as my blades sink into his arm down to the bone.
Despite how hard I hit him, I can’t get past the bone, the strike feeling like I just hit a wall. He smiles as he flexes the muscles in his arm, holding the axes tightly in his arm as their blades start to melt into slag and their handles go up in flames.
With his other hand, he goes to try and grab me, but I let go of the axes and quickly move back, letting my shadows attack him as I make space. They fail to get though his flames as he knocks them aside, ripping the melting axes out of his arm as he walks towards me, dropping the deformed chunks of metal to the ground as his flesh slowly heals.
Where the hells is he getting all the energy for this!? I’m already feeling drained just from that one attack!
He goes on the attack again, forcing me back as I am still trying to catch my breath, sweat steaming off my skin as my armor is slowly falling apart from the heat, my own magic doing everything it can just to keep my skin from going up in flames as well.
We clash, Father constantly moving to keep me close and on the defensive as he throws punches and kicks, each strike sending up splashes of the molten rubble around us. Reaching down to my side, I draw my service pistol from my hip at aim it at his face, disengaging the safety before pulling the trigger several times. The pistol only manages to fire three times before it malfunctions, the slide disforming before it returns for a fourth shot. The pistol already melting in my hand, I try to toss it aside but fail, before the remaining rounds in the clip all explode in my grip.
Cursing, I flare up my black flames and delete the destroyed gun from my grip, rather than trying to rip it away. My hand comes away bloody and raw, the black bones in my palm and fingers exposed for a few moments before my regeneration kicks in and muscles start to regrow.
Father is touching his face curiously, feeling at where the bullets, fired at point blank range, had managed to tear through his face. I had managed to put a hole through his cheek, ripped a line across his forehead, and blow off half of his left ear. I was aiming for his eyes…
Ahh, my accuracy really fucking sucks! No wonder they won’t let me play with the bigger guns. I was practically holding it to his face, and I still missed!
Making some distance while he is still examining his healing face, a thought hits me, and I quickly reach down to throw away my remaining clips before they can explode as well. Lastly, I grab both of the grenades that I have and quickly pull the pins, chucking them at him in a hurry.
It took me so long to finally be allowed to keep some grenades, I doubt that they will kill him, but they should definitely hurt. And I definitely don’t need them blowing up on me!
Throwing up some shields of shadows, I keep moving to get out of the blast radius. Father finally turns his attention away from his wounds and towards the two green balls that I just chucked at him. He actually reaches out and catches one to look at it curiously.
“Hmm? What kind of toy is this, Gre’de-“
BANG!
Both of the grenades explode, one held in his hand and one at his feet. Shockwaves spreading out with a snap, slapping against the protection of my shield as I jump back, further pushing me in the air as my ears ring for a couple seconds until my regeneration can fix them.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Landing on my feet, I drop my shield and try to catch my breath as I watch the smoke from the explosions.
“Hahahahahahaha! Interesting toyyys Grem’deemm!” He laughs through slurred speech.
As the smoke fades, his flames flare back up again. His right arm is nothing but bone and torn meat now, large sections of his body having been blasted off to reveal muscles and an exposed ribcage. Half of his face has been removed, exposing his skull and the empty socket where an eye used to be, his tongue lolling out the side of his open mouth where several teeth are now missing.
Looking at his now naked and half destroyed body, I can’t help but gawk as I see his bones.
Black… His bones are just like mine! What the hell, why is he so much like me?!
As he is laughing, I slowly reach back and draw my sledgehammer from the straps on my back, my ruined armor only just barley keeping it held in place. One of the straps even ends up ripping off as it goes with the handle of my second to last weapon. All I have left beside it is my big survival knife.
I try not to use either of them anymore because I have been getting stronger and stronger as time goes by. And with that increase in strength, comes the worry of breaking them. My knife was a gift from dad, something I have carried with me almost every day for two years now and has been a constant source of comfort and protection in the end of the world. My hammer, it was my very first gift from Sky, basically the Kobald equivalent of an engagement gift depending on how you think about it. I’ve been considering replacing the old fiberglass handle with an all metal one, but I just haven’t been able to get around to it. I’m regretting that choice now…
If I am going to break her hammer, it might as well be over a Goblin’s skull…
Tightening my grip on the weapon, I charge forward to strike him, my hammer raised high above my head. He just gives a smile with the half of his face that is still there and says, “Grem’deem, have you learrned all ourr giftss?”
“Huh?”
“Haha!”
He just scoffs at me as I rush him. When I jump at him, his body flares with flames, especially where he is wounded, and I go wide-eyed at what I see.
In a flash, his muscles start to rapidly heal as flame feeds into his body and seemingly turns into flesh. In a moment, his body is completely healed and back into pristine state. I can’t stop moving and have to commit to the attack as I move through the air towards him, swinging down at him with my hammer coated in as much shadow flame as I can to keep it safe.
He pulls his head to side to dodge the blow, the head of my hammer sinking into his shoulder as he sends a straight punch into my gut.
I get sent flying back, the remains of my armor falling apart as I am sent back several yards, the air getting blown out of me despite trying to take the blow as well as I can. It only takes a second for me to get some smoldering hot air back into my lungs. He is already moving towards me, back on the attack as he grabs his arm and forces it back up and into his shoulder, relocating it with an audible pop.
How the hells did he heal like that!? We can do that!?
Even tumbling through the air, I keep a close eye on him and rotate to land on the balls of my feet, moving right as he reaches me a moment later. Dodging, I move to avoid several of his blows in quick succession, molten craters getting left behind with every blow as his fists and feet smash into the earth. Between hits, I swing out and smack him with my hammer, the blows landing with meaty hits and pushing him back before he quickly moves back in to continue the assault. He definitely hits harder than I do, but I at least have the advantage of speed over him. Still, I’m not dealing enough damage to actually stop him. Every blow I land leaves a nasty looking welt, but they are quick to heal like they were never even there.
He gets several hits in on me as well, his giant fists knocking me around before I can go back on the attack and smack him with my hammer or a flaming limb. Keeping on the retreat, we continue to trade blows as the environment around us continues to be devastated. The landscape having become like a volcano’s surface as molten rock flows down piles of rubble and into the massive hole that I deleted from the city.
As we continue to exchange blows, I get more and more winded, the heat continuing to sap my strength.
This is bad. I’m getting tired and I’m starting to shake… If it keeps up like this, I’m going to get warn down the longer this takes... And how the hells am I going to finish this fight? We just keep healing, and if he is as hard to break as I am, I’m not even sure if I can crack open his skull. Our magic is roughly an even match, but he has the advantage of environment right now. If it was nighttime I would have the advantage. Maybe if I could draw this out until the sun sets, I could beat him them… Fuck it, let’s draw this out. Assassination has failed, fist fight isn’t going to work, so let’s go with guerilla warfare. Besides, the most important thing is to keep him away from base while the others deal with the rest of the Goblins. I trust that they can handle it.
I exchange a few more blows with the laughing Goblin who seems to be getting far too much entertainment out of getting hit with a flaming sledgehammer, dodging around a bit until I can find another opening. With a blow to his thigh that has him going down to one knee, I feint another strike, making him move to bock his face with his arms. I immediately turn around and bolt the second his eyes are off of me. I give a look back at him as I sprint away, peeking back before I dive behind some cover. He lowers his arms and gives a surprised look, blinking at the sight of me running off.
After I disappear from view, I can hear him roaring with rage, probably cursing me out in Goblin, an explosion of flames filling the place where we were fighting. I don’t stop moving as I try to draw some distance and flood the place with my Field and finally have some cool air to breathe. The first chance I get, I rip my half-melted canteen off my belt and down the rest of my boiling water before tossing it aside. It tastes horrible, but I need the water.
Hah, this is going to be a pain in the ass, isn’t it? Although, I’m not used to fights that last longer than a few minutes at the most. I feel like I’m going to be in this for the long-haul…