A man stood at the edge of a stone platform. He confronted an evil spirit with three flaming eyes in it's cloak of flames.

The battlefield was an inferno of ruins. Nothing but ashes and stone remained for miles. The sky above was a desolate patina of grey, red and black clouds.

Ben sent out a command to his drone swarm.

Stationed in the cooler clouds above, thousands of intelligent machines began a barrage of the target below them.

Missiles were the slowest moving attacks, they took a little over a second to reach the target. Large mass projectiles fired next, there were railguns, air guns and gunpowder rounds. The heavier rounds traveled more slowly, they took a tenth of a second to impact the area around the spirit. The sniper and penetration rounds fired next, they took a hundredth of a second to travel down from the skies above.

Firing on a different time scale altogether were the plasma, laser, radiation, shockwave, magnetic and other related weapons.

Each attack was timed perfectly.

Strikes rained down from all directions. Bullets, missiles, lasers, shockwaves, radiation and other high tech weapons struck at the same time.

The blast shook the obsidian lotus. Ben injected some of his Sword Qi into it and it stabilized against the blastwave.

Ben peered through the storm of dust and kept an eye on the fire spirit. Its silhouette wavered in the heat, but it showed no damage at all.

‘It's immune to physical attacks, radiation and vibration weapons. Only if they are reinforced with Qi will they cause damage.’ Ben thought to himself.

‘I hoped to save some of this special weaponry for later. That also means my biggest guns are useless. I was afraid this would be the case.’

From one of his interspatial rings he brought out a familiar weapon from Earth, it was a grenade launcher. It had been strengthened with formations to withstand increased strain and built into it's magazine was a spatial array that held dozens of different kinds of rounds.

He lifted the launcher towards the fire spirit. As he focused in on it, the three eyed figure vanished from view.

‘Shit’

He turned around and pointed the gun at Terra’s head. Her eyes widened, then squeezed shut. The muzzle flashed and a blue grenade the size of a fist whistled past her ear, ruffling her hair.

The round then curved slightly and detonated right in front of the evil spirit that had been reaching for her neck. A blue grey mist exploded out, sending the spirit back and knocking Terra into Ben's arms.

The spirit howled, but showed no signs of damage.

‘The vapor rounds aren't effective. This thing is tougher than I expected. I'm running out of options.’

He switched the magazine to variant mode and held the trigger down.

Boom

Splash

Crack

Sizzle

Thump

There were rounds filled with acid that exploded in a cone, spraying the area. There were tunnel clearing rounds that devoured the oxygen in an area, making any living being suffocate. There were airburst rounds that made secondary implosions that crushed everything for meters. There were poisonous gases, corrosive chemicals and more weird weaponry. Each shot stunned the spirit for a split second, but none of them had any permanent effect.

Ben ran out of his alternative rounds. Next was a volley of high explosive grenades didn't even stun the evil spirit, it simply floated through the area, disregarding the shockwaves and shrapnel.

The fire spirit stretched out an ephemeral arm and clenched it. Flames from the surrounding area began coalescing into a fireball the size of a watermelon. They then shrank to the size of an orange, getting brighter and hotter.

The fireball condensed until it trembled under the pressure, then the spirit tried to throw it at Ben and Terra.

Ben didn't wait for it to reach him. He pulled out a railgun and fired it at the fireball before it had a chance to leave the spirits hand.

The railgun projectile traveled at supersonic speeds and hit the fireball before the spirit could react. Ben may not be able to use his conventional weapons to harm the spirit, but that didn't mean he couldn't use them to defend.

The volatile fireball exploded in the hand of the spirit. It screeched in outrage. While it remained unharmed, it's frustration was clear.

Ambient temperatures rose even further. The flame spirit used this to absorb more Qi, growing ever more powerful as it gathered Fire Qi. The corona of flames around it became darker and more excited.

It raised both hands to the sky and released a large amount of Fire Qi. Ben was wary, he wasn’t sure what form the next attack would take. He prepared several items that could be used in different situations.

The sun broke through the grey clouds and shone down on the battle. The light coming from it intensified until it was burning the skin, then a flash of fire rode the light down towards the lotus.

The attack happened too quickly for an easy response and Ben had to resort to one of his life saving items.

He activated a talisman he was holding ready. The whole area lit up with a flash of light and a blast of plasma shot up and met the light flame attack. Unbearable heat shot out in every direction.

The blast weakened the lotus formation even further. It’s light began to dim and Terra was hit with feedback that knocked her to the ground.

Ben took out a new device that looked like a long tube. He placed a water spirit stone inside it and turned it on, then leapt at the evil spirit. This was one of his all purpose tools that could use almost any form of Qi to create a cone of destruction.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The spirit gathered a ring of flames that orbited around it. The flames grew until there was a low wall of fire spinning around it at high speeds.

The two figures rushed at each other and unleashed their respective attacks. The evil spirit released wave after wave of flames that surged towards Ben. He turned on the device in his hands and a cone of Water Qi blasted out through the walls of fire. Steam shot out in every direction and formed mist that hung in the air for a fraction of a second. The mist was soon burned away by the high temperatures of the battle.

The spirit, further incensed by it’s lack of progress, gathered it's wall of flames and forced it into the shape of a small ring. The circle of fire vibrated with condensed power.

The evil spirit held the ring up to it's face and exhaled from it's spectral mouth.

A torrent of fire swept out over everything. It sprayed over the formation, putting more and more pressure on Terra.

Ben knelt down and placed his hands on the ground. He injected the majority of his sword Qi into the array, making the dome shorter so that it would deflect more of the fire.

The stream of fire engulfed the stone flower, but the protective dome held strong.

The evil spirit screeched in outrage. This time it leapt at Ben personally.

It raised it's arm and turned it into a flaming sword two meters long. This ephemeral blade swept towards Ben so quickly it left behind after images. Ben could feel the destructive pressure contained inside the sword, this attack would destroy the formation and leave Terra helpless against the intense fires.

He had barely any time to react. The best he could do was summon Brother Jian to parry the blow downwards.

The two swords met and the one made from flames burst apart in a explosion that enfolded Ben. Flames tore at his defensive barrier, most of his body came out unscathed, but the Qi on his right leg was evaporated in an instant.

The skin on his leg was burnt away. His muscles, ligaments and blood vessels all started cooking while still on the bone. The Blood Qi resisted the fire, but it could only do so much.

‘Ben!’ Alice’s voice rang in his head, he ignored it.

He was infuriated. The pain was minimal, but Ben was more angry than injured. This insignificant little fuck dared harm him? He who stood at the peak of two realms? He who broke the fetters of Earth to spread his influence over countless worlds? He who effortlessly commanded everything around him?

This little insect. This little ghoul who dared lay a finger on his betters? This evil little shit dared to land a blow on Ben’s superior self?

Courting death!

Ben’s eye went blood red and his consciousness shifted to one of complete aggression. There was only one other being in his world, the spirit before him. There was only one aim in his world, destruction.

Unseen by him, a shadowy image of a cadaverous man appeared behind him like the avatar of a bloody god. Flames wrapped his skinless frame and evil eyes peered out malevolently at the fire spirit.

All the Blood Qi in Ben’s body gathered in his right arm. He reached out with his fingers spread out in a claw like shape.

The avatar behind Ben also reached out with it’s wizened claw. It’s aura had a mix of Ben’s different types of Qi with Blood Fire Qi being the strongest, followed by a new type of energy, Slaughter Qi.

The Slaughter Qi wanted to tear everything down at all costs. End life, uproot tree, drain river, grind stone to dust, reduce to nothingness.

Ben’s hand got closer and closer to the fire spirit, who began panicking.

It tried to escape, but the avatar’s aura had it pinned in place. It was immune to physical attacks, but ethereal attacks were twice as effective.

Piece by piece the flesh of Ben’s right arm burnt off, revealing a skeletal claw beneath.

Ben’s fleshless hand reached into the empty hood of the figure and closed around the third eye.

The fire spirit tried to retreat, but Ben was holding onto its core, the third eye. The spirit thrashed about, claws raking down Ben’s chest and sides, revealing the ribs and organs beneath. Ben ignored the wounds and pulled the third eye from the empty hood of flames.

He held the eye in his hand, it burned like the sun, but Ben didn't care. He closed his bony fist around it and flexed his fingers closed. The eye burst like a grape and white flames seared up his arm, burning it further.

Ben laughed wildly and rejoiced in his victory. To bring his enemy down before him at all costs was his only delight. To taste his victory and seize everything from them.

His clothes had been burned away. His right arm and leg were left as skeletal remains. His abdominal flesh was left in tatters and his face had been badly burnt.

All four of his cores were intact, but straining just to keep him alive. It was fortunate that he had a blood type core, otherwise he would already be dead.

Ben felt cold chains wrap around him and pull him backwards. The air around him cooled down and he felt gentle hands start separating the tattered robes from the rest of his charred body.

Piece by piece his charred robe was removed. It had fused with his flesh in places, Terra small hands peeled the blackened cloth away so that Ben could begin healing.

His mental state returned to normal and he began to pass out from exhaustion, exsanguination and inability to maintain consciousness.

‘The rift has closed. What you fought was a spirit body that was used to open up the portal. Something on the other side was controlling it, something a thousand times stronger than you.’

‘I’m sorry Alice. I let myself get out of control.’ While he couldn’t talk, he could apologize.

‘...Idiot.’