Chapter 23: Chapter 23: {Jack}’s Flaming Swan Song

Chapter 23: {Jack}'s Flaming Swan Song

 

Jack burst through the hull of the ship, grappling with the monster that kept tearing at his body, removing chunks of his flesh as the pair soared into the midnight sky.

Ignoring the symphony of explosions dyeing the air around them in an array of colors, Jack focused entirely on the monstrosity in front of him as it sprouted black wings covered in a viscous fluid.

The birdbeak screeched, immediately flapping its new-grown appendages and reversing the trajectory of their ascent into an awkward mid-air tussle. It tried to remove the boy but failed as Jack sent his fist through the monster's chest, burying it deep.

Jack activated Fira, attempting to burn the creature from the inside out, but instead of a low burst of red flames, the entire creature instantly combusted, unexpectedly setting the teen on fire as well.

Jack screamed as the Monster roared. Both simultaneously letting out cries of agony as the ghastly white flames engulfed them both.

The teen grit his teeth and focused on hanging on, even as his eyes boiled away and regenerated, causing his sight to flicker in and out repeatedly.

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE YOU BASTARD?!" Jack roared, his voice coming out in a guttural shrill as his hand gripped upon something hard and dense.

[WARNING! Four Minutes remaining!]

He yanked, making the bird creature squawk and the duo suddenly lose altitude as the monster's flaming wings went rigid. Entering into a freefall, they quickly picked up speed with Jack repeatedly punching the monster in the face, and screaming. Transcribing his pain into pure rage that helped him to ignore the fact that they were getting further and further away from the landship.

Just before they made contact with the sea of trees, Jack managed to reach over and grab hold of one of the creature's wings. Digging his fingers into the charred leathery appendage, he yanked with all his strength, ripping it off. The force of the wing being torn spun the abomination around, just in time for Jack to use it as a living shield against the myriad of trees and rocks they collided through.

The impact of hitting the ground made Jack let go of the creature's spine, flinging him away where he flew through a massive tree, snapping it in half. He quickly rolled to his feet, the adrenaline coupled with his pain tolerance helping him to shrug off the fact that his arm was mangled but rapidly repairing itself.

"COME ON!" Jack roared, the monster thrashing to its feet as it rolled around putting out the flames.

Before the monstrosity could recover, Jack activated Dash and sprinted toward it, turning his arms behind him and activating the Empowered Fira to give him a burst of speed that sent him airborne.

"DIE YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" Jack screamed as he bore down and interlocked his flaming hands mid cast and brought them crashing down on top of the creature's skull, causing it to reeled back in pain. Landing in front of the charred monstrosity , he then clocked the monster in its ugly beak. Once, twice, three times before finishing the combo with an uppercut that sent the creature fumbling.

With the muscular bird-face stumbling back, Jack then tried to activate windblade point blank to finish the damn thing off, but oddly it was taking longer than usual to activate. Before he could cancel the skill and try Fira, something collided into him, latching on and dragging him away from the wounded Bird-face.

"Off!" Jack barked, activating the now-ready wind blade point blank into the muscular hound’s neck, decapitating the creature that deposited Jack to the ground.

Rolling the carcass off Jack scrambled to his feet, intent on finishing the boss monster but now bird-beak wasn't alone. Dozens of muscular hounds had appeared from the woodwork and began encircling beak-face, snarling in Jack's direction as he eyed the moonlight sky being dotted by familiar leathery creatures from above.

[WARNING! Three Minutes remaining!]

With a roar from bird-beak they charged, but Jack wasn't about to flee. He backpedaled to gain distance and charged another empowered wind blade, sending a surprisingly large green swath that cut a path of carnage through the demonspawn's ranks. Despite the loss of so many of their brethren the hounds continued their charge,trampling over their fallen comrades to get to the teen.

Jack activated wind blade again, but this time the survivors split, dodging the attack and using the trees for cover as they moved at him from different directions, forcing him to split his attention.

“Just won’t make it easy for me huh?!” With the creatures rapidly closing in, Jack debated his options before settling on the one that would inflict the most carnage.

"Screw it! I’m starting to really hate dogs!" Jack spread his arms out, pouring all his energy into Fira and activated it. White hot flames spewed out of his palms like a beam, igniting the nearby shrubbery that escalated quickly into a sea of fire as he slowly brought his palms together.

With the forest floor illuminated clearly by his flames Jack could see that the hounds were being immediately incinerated by the blaze, along with the leathery creatures that tried to dive bomb the teen, but fortunately for him, the erupting fire traveling up the tree's canopies caught the creatures in their attempt, igniting them and sending the leathery bats sprawling to the ground in screeches.

Jack smirked, but before he could revel In his handy work, his senses screamed at him, forcing him to duck just in time to avoid beak-face's claws that were aimed at his head.

[WARNING! Two minutes remaining!]

Jack clicked his teeth and launched himself at the monster, sending the two sprawling to the ground in a flurry of punches and claw marks as the world seemed to burn around them.

Eyeing the timer between punches, Jack decided to go all in and incinerate the monstrosity point blank, even if it would ignite himself.

So far only fire seemed to be effective and his Empowered version of Wind blade took too long to activate, forcing him to commit everything to this one attack.

Grappling towards the monster's back, Jack managed to wrap his legs around the creature's neck and dug his fingers into the bird-face’s still regenerating eyes. He clenched his jaw and activated his skill, immolating the creature and himself in an instant.

Bird-beak roared in pain, thrashing violently as the flames swallowed it whole once more. It tried to remove the persistent bug known as Jack, but despite being clawed at, shook, and slammed into the ground, Jack closed his eyes and held on, screaming at the monster to die as his own flesh burned away and regenerated. As this happened a number of notifications began appearing in Jack’s mind.

You are reading story Awakening The Angel System(LITRPG): S1 Metal and Magic (LN) at novel35.com

[WARNING! ONE MINUTE REMAINING! PLEASE SEEK AID!]

[Congratulations! Fire Resistance LvL 1 Obtained!]

[Congratulations! Pain tolerance LvL 2 Obtained!]

Suddenly the pain of the fire faded considerably, causing Jack to scoff at the notifications.

Ah, of course. Right as I'm about to die of course I get a notification for fire resistance and pain tolerance. What a joke!

Jack laughed maniacally as he burned, he had seconds left before his Soul Ignition ran out. He didn’t know what would happen once it did, but he didn’t care as he flexed his burning hands and held on for dear life. Would he die? Would his ability end and cause him to revert back? Or would he just sputter out with no energy left and get devoured by passing monsters nearby? None of it mattered as he poured everything into a desperate gamble, activating Ghenna on top of his flamethrowing to put the monster down for good.

“Die! Die! DIE!” Jack screamed as the bird-beak let out a pitiful low squawk. Its movements became sluggish, with its thrashing slowing down considerably until finally, it dropped to its knees. Black particles wafted off the monster's torso as its regeneration failed to keep up with the damage of the white flames clinging to its body.

“Just die… Please.” Jack was getting tired now as he eyed the timer hitting ten seconds.

Nine. The creature shuddered.

Eight. The Monster stabbed Jack, racking the teen across his back.

Seven. The beast began to crawl, yowling out in pain.

Six. Jack released one of his flaming arms and began punching down on the monster.

Five. “Just die! Die already!”

Four. Bird-face attempted to stand but wobbled and dropped to all fours.

Three. “Please… just die. Please…”

Two. The monstrosity let out a wailful squawk.

[GREAT FOE FELLED! Guardian of The Halfbloom Rex Defeated!]

[CONGRATULATIONS! Against all odds, you have overcome a vigorous trial and defeated a foe of substantial power. +10 points awarded!]

 

Jack nearly wept at the notification. What remained of the monster soon collapsed to the ground, tossing the boy away just as his timer hit zero and the runes covering his body ceased to exist. Upon hitting the ground, Jack was immediately seized with pain.

He was on fire. While parts of his body were physically lit, this pain differed from the flames that licked his skin. It felt spiritual as if his very essence was being ignited and boiled in the hottest temperatures of hell.

“GaaaaaAAAAAAHHH!” Jack let out a blood-curdling scream, snapping himself onto his stomach and grabbing handfuls of dirt as he spasmed out of control. “Sahaqiel! Help! Mike! MIIIIIKKKE!”

Despite pleading uncontrollably, Jack was met with only silence, leaving the boy to endure the pain of having his very essence erased slowly.

Crazed laughter began to echo out into the illuminated forest until it slowly died out, replaced instead by the sounds of coughing and desperate choking.

The pain eased up, but now Jack struggled to breathe as the flames dancing on the woodland trees began to spread. Parts of his body were still on fire as he lay there, but he didn’t care, he had no more screams to give. And no more strength to continue. In a last desperate grasp Jack tried pulling up his status screen but a giant-

[ERROR/503!]

Message displayed in front of the teen instead.

“Ah. I’m sorry.” Jack muttered, realizing that he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his promise with the Angel. “I’m really… sorry.”

Just before Jack closed his eyes for the last time, a petite golden-haired girl appeared in front of him with her hands on her hips looking down with pursed lips.

“Well... You’ve certainly made a mess of things haven't you?”

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