Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Beast Fire

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Beast Fire

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Despite my newfound power, I was still playing defense against the beast with three freaking heads.

“Vargr!” I cursed. “It’s like I’m fighting three monsters at the same time!”

The python’ tail snapped toward me, but I smacked my purple-flame-coated fist right between its eyes and drove it back. Meanwhile, the chimera’s goat head puked flames out at the patchwork wolf and kept it at bay. Meaning I had to deal with its lion head all on my own.

“I’m not in the mood to redo this entire day…” I grumbled. “So, I’m going to do my darndest to kill you properly.”

The python came at me a second time, and I drove a right flame-coated haymaker at its head and shoved the bastard, and the impact knocked it back so hard that the chimera’s flank was also sent reeling.

“Fire Fist,” I grinned excitedly.

Turned out this level-one spell was more powerful than I gave it credit for. I particularly enjoyed how it turned my punches into heavy hits.

I glanced down at my burning hands. “I can keep this up longer than wasting my magic on a single Nova Stella or Haste… Perhaps low key’s the way to go here.”

With confidence sparking to life within me, I lunged forward for the first time since our battle began. I only hoped that my one spectator—the patchwork wolf—didn’t think I was a fool marching toward death, but the underdog determined to sieve victory by its proverbial balls.

Predictably, my leap forward was met by the lion’s open maw—but my hands were faster.

One would think the chimera would have learned its lesson after I fried its throat with a ‘Thorn’ rune, but no. The lion had its mouth wide open once more like it was just begging me to shoot a purple Firebolt into its mouth, and that’s exactly what I did.

Of course, a Firebolt cast without a proper ‘focus’ like a staff or wand or a proper chant to the elements was bound to be weaker than my usual spell. However, the Beast Fire that made up the Firebolt still packed a punch. It exploded between the lion’s sharp teeth, causing the beast to waver for that split second that I needed to jam my last wolpertinger’s claw into its left eye.

In my mind’s eye, I saw the emissary’s wolfish snout baring down on my chest superimposed over the lion before me.

“Compared to my last death…”

The lion reared in obvious pain, disrupting the illusion and taking with it the phantom pain I was again experiencing.

Yes, I may have been more traumatized by that dungeon break than I care to admit, but there was no way I was visiting the school’s guidance counselor just for this.

“Compared to that beast that was like a freaking force of nature…”

I cast Volcanic Step on the ground, renewing Scorched Earth’s effect while causing the chimera to lose its footing. That wasn’t all though. I also used the explosion underneath me to propel myself upward and onto the chimera’s back so I could finally get at the annoying goat’s head that was stuck there.

Luckily, the goat had also been affected by the stuff I’d done to the chimera’s body so it was ill-prepared to face me when I appeared before it.

“Your freaky menagerie doesn’t scare me at all!”

The goat opened its muzzle wide, and I grabbed its horns just as it unleashed its purple flamethrower. I then dragged that head forward while I stepped aside so that the chimera’s own Beast Fire would torch its lion’s head.

As Divah liked to say whenever we dealt with multiple monsters of varying types, “Make them work for you, kiddo. That’s the trick to engaging groups.”

I’d never heard a lion’s screech of torment before, and I hoped to never hear it again because hearing a king of the jungle squealing in pain was just sad.

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Now, while the lion head burned and the rest of the chimera shuddered in pain, I grabbed the goat head by the neck.

“I know I don’t have herculean strength…” With both arms now wrapped around it, I began to coat my hands in purple flames. “But Fire Fist can make up the difference.”

Imagine burning something while also choking it to death—that’s basically my version of a ‘Fatality’ like in that fighting game Divah and I liked to play at the arcade in the town we sometimes visited for supplies.

The goat head buckled desperately against my burning choke hold, but its defiance only made me want to tighten my arms around it. Eventually—with the smell of burning fur beginning to make my eyes water—I heard that resounding final gasp that told me I’d finally choked the life out of it, and then the chimera’s goat head fell limp in my arms.

My elation was short-lived though because I felt this terrible pain flaring into my left arm. The freaking python tail was latching onto my arm, its fangs piercing deep into my flesh.

“Veslingr bastard!”

I was intending to burn that python alive, but it was ripped off me so violently that its fangs slid across my arm on their way out, causing me to grit my teeth to keep myself from crying out. Because big boys don’t cry out no matter what, or so Realmsflix taught me.

“I was wondering if you were planning to help out…”

The patchwork wolf had finally made its move. In a stroke of brutality that mirrored the way I’d killed the goat; it tore into the python with its knife-sized fangs and savagely ripped it in two before discarding it like a chew toy that was no longer interesting.

“I could have done…”

A strange wooziness overtook me so that I fell off the chimera’s back even before it tried to buckle up and down to throw me off. I crashed onto the burnt ground with my left arm growing number, and I realized that this sensation indicated that the godsdamn python must have been poisonous. I may have beaten the bucket soon afterward were it not for the lucky circumstance of my grimoire still being open.

See, the Flameheart wasn’t just a relic of vast knowledge. It was also an item with several functions, one of which I was learning about just now. Without my prompting, Flameheart’s magic filled my body, burning away the poison that was flowing through my veins.

How did I know this? Well, because my body was on fire, and it did feel like I was burning from the inside out.

Thankfully, I didn’t scream. I had to keep up appearances after all. Especially with the patchwork wolf so close by. It wouldn’t do to show my erstwhile ally any possible weaknesses.

Anyways, the Flameheart managed to burn the poison out of me, although I wasn’t really in any stage to get up just then as my insides still felt like I’d swallowed lava. Moreover, I was beginning to feel fatigued from having my grimoire constantly open, and I had no choice but to shut it close even though the fight was ongoing. Any more and I’d be courting a second ‘Mana Burn’ and that wouldn’t be good at all.

“Hey…” I called weakly. “I’ve done my part… You finish this.”

The patchwork wolf was only too happy to oblige. It snapped its jaws into the neck of the chimera’s injured lion’s head, and the beast was far too wounded now to give back as good as it got.

In my mind, I realized that I was so close to victory but I had to give up that last hit away so that I could heal enough for my next fight. It wasn’t like the patchwork wolf was going to just let me stroll out of here. Survival of the fittest and all that.

A certain gray-eyed she-elf appeared in my mind’s eye. She was giving me a look that said, ‘Are you done?’

“Shit…” I frowned in annoyance while I lay there on the ground. “I worked so hard… I don’t want to give up anything…”

Not even you…

I didn’t have the heart to say that last part out loud though.

“Vargr…” I let out a sigh because I knew I was going to be stubborn about this.

It was at this moment when the chimera found its second wind. Its claws bit deep into the patchwork wolf’s side, forcing the wolf to release the beast’s neck from its bite.

I took that as a sign. And, while the two of them continued to duke it out, I got up on shaky legs and roared, “Don’t you forget about me!”

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