With the intent to kill roaring through my mind, I unleashed a sea of Hellfire in the middle of Sableton. Everything between me and the Red Knight was instantly vaporized. The rain falling from the sky was turned into a silver mist as the temperature was instantly raised above boiling. The Red Knight was standing in the middle of a five-meter-wide road, and everything on that road was engulfed in flames. At this level of output, I was not in control of the fire. The flames struck the buildings on the side of the road, twirling upward like hungry, grasping hands from Hell itself.
The fire was upon the Red Knight in seconds. As the flames approached, the Red Knight turned at an almost casual pace and interposed his cloak between himself and the Hellfire. The flames struck the red cloak and harmlessly diverted away from the knight. Like a waterfall striking a heavy stone, the stream of fire spread out in a cone of unaffected space after contacting the Red Knight.
There was some enchantment on that cloak. It was as if my fire was allergic to the red material of the knight’s vestment. Upon contact with the cloak, the Hellfire was immediately extinguished.
The instant that I had an unobstructed view at the Red Knight's face, I peered deep into the Red Knight's visor and activated [Observe].
[Observe, Lvl. 6]
Nothing happened. Either he was wearing an Anti-Observation Ring, or I simply coudn't get a good look at his eyes. The visor covered his whole face, and the small slit through which he saw was cloaked in shadow. It was very possible that his eyes were simply too concealed for me to activate my Talent.
Two more sparks of Hellfire roared into existence over my shoulders. A moment later, they flew toward the knight. As the two new sparks charged toward the knight, a lance of blood rocketed toward him at a much greater speed. I didn’t see if the blood lance hit, but Beltane’s sharp oath a moment later informed me of everything I needed to know.
When the two flaming missiles were halfway between me and the Red Knight, they began spraying cones of flaming death at the knight’s position. The attack more closely resembled a napalm strike than anything else. The two sources of Hellfire began to circle the Red Knight, obscuring his body entirely in a curtain of obscuring fire. As these two Hellfire sparks moved to engulf the Red Knight in fire, Beltane launched several blood lances at him. Every time it seemed that a blood lance was about to make contact with the Red Knight, he adjusted his body just enough that the beam of concentrated blood missed.
When the Red Knight was completely obscured behind the fire, I moved the Hellfire spark in my hand forward. As the Hellfire spark moved, it continued spraying a steady torrent of orange flame at the knight. The houses to both sides of the road had caught fire. A small voice in my brain hoped that no one was inside those houses, but that voice was completely overshadowed by the voices screaming for revenge.
Stolen novel; please report.
After a few seconds, the spark of Hellfire reached the massive sphere of flame that had completely engulfed the Red Knight. With Beltane next to me, I took slow, steady steps toward the flaming orb in the center of town. I clenched my two small fists together as I willed the sphere to condense.
The sphere of Hellfire grew much brighter as it shrunk. Within seconds, it was brighter than the sun on a hot summer’s day. As the sphere crushed down on the Red Knight with the power of a raging star, Beltane shot several blood lances at the knight.
There was no way the blood lances would reach the Red Knight through the flame, however. The heat in the center of the sphere had long since surpassed the boiling point of blood. As a rough approximation, I would say that the sphere had reached a temperature equivalent to that of molten rock. At such a temperature, rock turned to liquid and water turned to gas.
The Red Knight’s cloak would not protect him from the heat of the Hellfire, I thought. At these temperatures, the blood in a man’s body would instantaneously boil and the skin would melt. I pictured the Red Knight’s body melting inside of his armor, and a venomous smile appeared on my face.
Suddenly, I lost control of the Hellfire sparks surrounding the Red Knight, and the sphere of fire disappeared. Standing in the center of a moat of molten rock, the Red Knight stood completely unharmed. His sword was half raised, and he slowly returned the blade to a resting position once he saw me.
Shining on the knight’s cloak was a bright orange arcane circle, and another arcane circle shone on his helmet. The circle on the Red Knight’s cloak was a [Ward of Fire Resistance], and the circle on the knight’s faceplate was some kind of sorcerous ward that involved air. The [Ward of Fire Resistance] granted the Red Knight’s body the same resistance to fire that Solana, Armond, and I had.
With terror starting to seep into my bones, I realized that the Red Knight had prepared for Hellfire. The ward protected him from the flames, and the circle on his helmet protected him from the Oxygen deprivation that being engulfed in flames would cause.
One more lance of blood rocketed at the Red Knight. Almost casually, he lifted his sword and caught the red projectile on the flat of the blade. My mind ran frantically, trying to think of something we could do about the Red Knight. Before I could think of anything, however, he took a step in our direction.
In a single second, the Red Knight traveled half of the distance between himself and me. It was as if he was walking, but each stride was ten meters long. All I could do was raise a hand defensively and fire three motes of Hellfire at the knight.
The Red Knight’s sword flashed through the air, cleaving each spark in half before they could reach their target. There was nothing I could do. He would reach me in mere seconds.
“ᛊᚰᚥᚽᚠᛣᚪ (inskuta)!” Beltane shouted in the language of orcs.
A mere instant before the Red Knight brought his sword upon my head, one of Beltane’s zombies jumped in front of me. The Red Knight’s blade scythed through the undead without resistance, instantly chopping the corpse into two equal pieces.