“Hah… Hah…” I heaved as I looked around this wide hall by the entrance of the base.
There were a bunch of charred people, fire all over the place, melted metal, and destroyed walls. My Fire Summon, Miss Pepi, was doing rounds all over the place, intimidating with her fierce fiery glare anyone that dared attack me once more, like the soldiers and knights that still remained.
The soldiers of the PLA surrendered first shortly after Althy went ahead to find that Eletha elf. They knew they didn’t have a chance with someone like me fighting here, but the Holy Knights… they really didn’t want to give up, so I was forced to fight them back without holding back. A bunch of them were dead… a few of them were still burning with a couple of missing limbs… and only, like, two of them decided they had enough and surrendered—but only once they realized that they were no match for someone special like me.
“Phew!” I let out, cleaning the sweat that had accumulated over my forehead.
This place sure was hot, even with my fire resistance and Fire Magic, I could feel the humidity of this place surrounding me.
With one last caw, Miss Pepi landed in the middle of the room. Heh heh, what a good looking Phoenix, I had to admit. Master Asteora wanted me to actually use one of those big fire chickens that they call Phoenix, but no way! I wasn’t going to let people tease me by using things like that! No matter how strong they claimed those were!
Anyway, I placed one finger on my chin and considered the people that were left here. The soldiers wouldn’t really be an issue, even if they stood up and decided to fight back or even run away, so I could just ignore them. The knights… they might try to do something, but really, the worst was behind us, and they might not be that dumb… so I turned my eyes to the entrance, and the set of wide stairs that led outside. It was still dark and rainy, and I could hear and see some flashes of the fighting happening outside. I might be needed out there to help James, or any of the people that marched with us but…
I turned this time to look right behind me in the direction that Althy went. She was alone with Skelly-Steven, and I don’t think that he would be of any use… I mean, it was quite surprising to see him revived as a skeleton and that he was acting as the superhero that he always wanted to be with that special Soul Magic, but really, he was still the same silly kid that he used to be.
How do I know that that’s Steven? I mean… it’s fairly obvious, isn’t it? His voice, despite being all ethereal, is the exact same that Steven had; he’s about the same height, walks like him, and even glances at coach Reeta the same way.
I’ve refused to mention it ‘cause for some reason… nobody else seems to be aware of it—not even Steven himself—so I thought it would be a bit awkward if I just came up and said ‘Hey! That’s Steven!’ only for everyone else to say ‘Nuh-uh! He’s dead. Want to talk to a psychologist about it?’
Though… there's also the possibility that he's just some random skeleton that acts like Steven... Maybe once we’re out of all of this, I might bring it up with Althy or Master Asteora. They might know about skeletons and stuff like that.
Oh shoot! I nearly forgot I was in the middle of a war zone! I shook my head and tried to put all of those thoughts behind me. Right now, I needed to go help others, and who else to help other than both Althy and Skelly-Steven, so I turned over and made my way to the same hallway that they went to, only to be stopped by the sounds of slow footsteps coming over from one of the side hallways that connected to this wide entrance hall I was fighting just a few minutes ago.
I looked over to my left, considering who that might be. It was a man, slowly walking in. He was dressed in a dark-blue suit, with a white shirt and a bright blue tie, making him look really out of place. There was a rather calm look in his eyes as he walked in, and by looking at his face… he had some nice, sharp facial features… a real eye candy that one… especially those bright blue eyes that seemed to sparkle, which perfectly matched the side-swept hairstyle of his blue hair.
“Let's see now how things are going over…” he softly said, his sultry voice resounding all over the place but pausing once he noticed me. “Oh! There still seems to be someone here.”
I quickly snapped out of the daze that his looks gave me and pointed a finger at him. “Who are you!? Are you part of the Followers of Leyfall?! A zealot of the Holy Gods?!”
He cocked his head to the side, seemingly confused. “Leyfall…? Holy Gods…? I guess I am…?”
“You guess…?” I asked, giving him a narrow-eyed look.
“Ah, don’t mind the details,” he said, shaking his hand in the air in denial.
“Then… are you here to stop me or something like that?” I asked as I readied myself once more and set my Fire Phoenix Battledress aflame.
“Hmmm…” he considered, pinching his chin for a moment as his sparkly eyes went from me to the hallway behind me, then to the people that took the opportunity to run away when he showed up, and then back to me. “I guess I could have fun with you for a while.”
Okay… then this meant that he was indeed an enemy! Hehe, and judging by the fact that I can’t feel his Magic Power nearly as strongly as I could with the Knights, or even someone like Asteora, he might not be as strong as he looks. But since he’s so good looking, it was a shame that I couldn't just beat him down and put him on the right track in life.
With my finger pointed at him I shouted, “Let's go Miss Pepi!”
The phoenix, who had been watching so far with her head turned this way, loudly cawed, spread her long fiery wings, and with a powerful beating of her wings, took to the air, leaving a shockwave of fire that spread through the floor.
She flew directly at the good looking man with her beak open and a fiery ball formed at the front. I moved right after her, my hands facing forward and a large ball of fire forming in front of my hands. Sorry, good-looking-dude.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
At the same time, from both my ball of fire and Miss Pepi’s ball of fire, a powerful jet of fire was shot, quickly covering the distance to get to the good looking man.
And yet… he appeared to be completely unconcerned… and, and! He even smirked!? Couldn’t he see what was going on?!
In a second, both our spells covered him. Ah jeez, he was getting cooked… but well, this was a battlefield, and if he was on the other side, then I had to do what I came here to do, otherwise I was going to be the one that was going to get done.
I sustained the spell for a moment, and stopped once I felt like it was enough. Miss Pepi, being my summon, understood my intentions and also stopped her spell as she just watched while beating her wings in the air; both of us just looking at what was probably going to be a good looking pile of ash…
However, to my surprise, the fire was cleared away with one quick swing of the man’s arm. He was completely unharmed, not even a little bit of a burned mark on his well-fitting suit! Uh… was he stronger than he looked…? Probably…
“That was a good spell,” he leisurely said with a cold smile on his mouth that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You’re a deviant, aren’t you? Your kind are supposed to be exterminated. Only the Gods should be masters of an element.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time I heard that… though you are the first one to actually say it to my face,” I replied with a wry smile.
So Althy was right when she said that people like him didn’t like people like me… what a shame, really. Such a good looking guy should’ve been on the side of the good guys.
“Why don’t you show me if you can be exterminated or not?” he said, and with the same cold smile, he swiped his arm.
From the tip of his fingers, a sudden wave of water rushed out. It was just as big as a wave from the ocean, with the same loud noise that one would make, only that this one was moving much faster than anything like that.
I used my own version of a flying spell, and with my soles burning, I took to the air. The wave washed over right under my feet and crashed into a wall, which got destroyed from the force alone. In my momentary distraction, the good looking guy created a bunch of ice spears and threw them my way.
I maneuvered to get out of their way, allowing them to pass right by my body, only for them to crash at the ceiling. There was an explosion of ice, and particles fell, just like snow. But that couldn’t be good if that was someone’s spell, so I focused on the magic within me and created a Fire Aura. Miss Pepi didn’t need to worry about that since she was already made out of fire.
The snow got close to me and then immediately turned to steam, safely away from me. Though, the guy remained in the same spot… He was stronger than he looked. I would have to get closer and use one of my most powerful Fire Jets if I wanted to beat him! They could burn through steel, y’know.
I needed Miss Pepi to move with me, and understanding my intentions, she dashed through the air, going for the guy, but instead of going directly to him, she turned to the side, trying to get his attention away from me.
She opened her beak and started shooting small fireballs, but he only glanced at her. A mistake, since those small fireballs were strong enough to blow up your car! And they indeed exploded on contact.
Boom! With enough of that fire blocking his view, it was the perfect opportunity to get close to him and burn him down.
I flew, just as fast as Miss Pepi, and got right on top of him—not in the way I would’ve preferred, but right where my Fire Jet would turn him to ash. I stretched my hand, and from it, a powerful blue jet was fired, just like the ones you’d see from a spacecraft lifting off.
The jet pushed out the fire that was blocking the view, and immediately after, steam started rising from all over the place—a result of the ocean wave that he created before. He didn’t even have time to look at me as the jet closed in on his face… oh what a poor guy… he wasn’t going to be good looking anymore…
Steam covered him once more, and I felt a bit relieved that I wasn’t going to be able to see him melt down… but still, I had to be thorough. I pressed down on him, my jet getting wider and my magic power being consumed more.
More steam started rising, and as more and more of it covered the whole hall… I started getting suspicious. There wasn’t that much water in this place… And as if to answer my doubts, a pillar of ice suddenly rose from the steam, hitting me right in my pretty face and sending my flying up to the ceiling, where I crashed, the impact knocking the air out of me.
“Khg!” I exclaimed, and quickly tried to recover myself.
Both Master Asteora and Althy say that if one loses focus like that, the enemy was going to take advantage of it and completely destroy you, so as soon as I took a deep breath, I created a barrier of fire to protect myself, just in case.
Sure enough, a large block of ice flew right out of the steam, crashing with my barrier and making it crack. I expected the ice block to fall down, but it kept pressing my barrier, causing it to crack more and more. It wasn’t even melting! What?!
Oh gosh, I couldn’t just let him strike me down. I reinforced the barrier and tried my best to make it hotter. The ice block finally started to melt, and I smiled despite myself. It was working, I could overpower him and come out of this victorious! So I used more and more magic.
“Heh!” I chuckled and saw now that the water coming from the ice block was dripping down and even evaporating.
But then, suddenly, from the steam below, a bunch of ice blocks appeared. They flew super fast and not only hit the block that I was trying to push back, but crashed all over the barrier! I was getting covered by them and the barrier wasn’t going to stand for long.
Miss Pepi felt the worry I felt and flew over to the ceiling where I was, and like me, used her own magic to try to burn down the ice blocks, but they weren’t melting fast enough.
I would have to run away, but where!?
The blocks suddenly stopped pushing and fell back slightly. Was he also running out of mana…? This could be the perfect opportunity to move away and gather myself. So I turned to look over at where I could go, but then, the blocks all gave one final push into the barrier and it shattered, allowing the ice blocks to come directly at me.
I widened my eyes and then quickly shut them when the first block hit me. Then the second followed, the third, and every single of them.
I covered myself with my arms, and reinforced myself with the Fire Aura and my Fire Phoenix Battledress, but it wasn’t enough. I was getting overwhelmed—I was—I was going to die here!
No way! Noooo way!
“Ahhhhh!” I shouted and tried to summon as much magic as I could—as much as my body could handle.
Everything turned fiery white, but I couldn’t handle that much magic power at the same time, and… a magic rebound followed. An explosion of fire spread through the hall, the ice blocks all either melted or crashed back down the floor, and I lost the concentration needed to keep up the fire flying spell, causing me to finally fall back down.
I had to regain myself, otherwise that—that asshole!—was going to kill me. As I fell down, I scrambled to turn on my flying spell, but all I managed was to create a small explosion, right before I hit the ground.
“Ugh!” I let out after bouncing off the ground and then looked up at the place where that man was supposed to be.
He leisurely walked out of the steam that was already fading. There wasn’t a hint of tiredness, fear or anything like that… just a… cold smile that didn’t reach his eyes…
“What’s wrong?” he asked, nearly mocking. “You can’t give up just yet. You’re so deep—so far into enemy territory… I’m sure you can do more than this.”
Was he pitying me…? Making fun of me…? Or seriously hoping that I could keep fighting…?
I couldn’t tell, but just looking at him… standing all proud and stuff, like I wasn’t a big deal caused me to feel a bit of despair, so I looked down to the floor.
Maybe… I wasn’t going to come out of this alive…