Fire bloomed thin and tight over his body, a second skin. Fire Cloak and the surge of speed and strength was immediate.
He launched upward, smashing aside incoming fire spikes with his left hand. With his right, he drove a flaming punch through the creature’s second head as if crushing overripe fruit.
From three heads to one. The remaining head shrieked, lashing out with a brutal hook that slammed into Kaedros’ jaw, snapping his head back and sending him crashing down.
The Nightmare descended after him, wings rigid, glaring at the space where its heads had been. "You dare take my head?"
Kaedros touched his jaw, the ache throbbing deep. Without the Fire Cloak, it would have broken. "Why so angry? We’re fighting, you expect me not to hit you?"
The creature didn’t rise to the taunt. Instead, it charged, black-fire blade in hand. Kaedros met the rush with his fists, focusing all his effort on deflecting the deadly weapon, but his counterstrikes lacked the force to break through.
With a frustrated snarl, the monster discarded its sword and came at him barehanded.
They traded blows—punches, kicks, each leap and strike cracking the air. Kaedros strained to match its speed, but the Nightmare’s raw power was greater, and it drove him back step by step.
I need something... anything.
His core was dipping fast—if it ran dry, he’d die in seconds.
An advanced formation flared in his mind. Do I dare? His core wasn’t ready, but hesitation would mean death.
The monster’s fist slammed into his gut like a battering ram, snapping ribs and folding him over. He felt his Fire Cloak shatter. Blood filled his mouth. The Nightmare lunged for his neck.
But Kaedros caught its clawed hand, holding it inches from his throat.
"You’ve already lost," the creature growled, joy in its voice. All around them, lesser beasts tensed, ready to slaughter Kaedros’ allies when he fell.
Pain sharpened his focus. His grip tightened, and in that clarity he began weaving not one but two advanced formations, layered atop each other. Just visualizing it drained him to the last bit. He added a third, simpler, fire wave spell to prime the attack.
"I haven’t lost," Kaedros rasped.
His mind, stretched by pain, held the triple weave with precision. He exhaled fire point-blank into the Nightmare’s face, just as its maw erupted with black flames.
But Kaedros’s fire was different now, there was a hint of red and yellow in it.
The blasts met between them, detonating into an explosion of heat that blinded and seared them both. Pain flared white-hot in Kaedros’ body, but he held the creature close, forcing it to stay in the inferno.
When the flames died, they stood locked together, breathing hard, eyes locked in grudging respect.
But the Nightmare smiled, like it still had the upper hand.
"Your mana is running dry, isn’t it?"
The monster’s voice was low, taunting, as his clawed hand pressed closer toward Kaedros’s throat with each passing second.
Kaedros’s eyes narrowed, mind racing. He was one breath away from fully visualizing the formation in his mind’s eye. If he could just stall, just a little longer.
"And what’s that to you?" he shot back, keeping his tone flat. In truth, he wasn’t certain his core could fuel this spell, but if he was still breathing, he’d use every trick left to him.
The monster’s grip tightened, muscles bunching for a final push that would crush his windpipe, then, as if sensing his thoughts, the creature’s lips curled into a smile.
Kaedros’s eyes widened.
He’s not going for my throat .
Flames flickered deep in the monster’s gullet. Kaedros tried to pull back, but in a heartbeat, wings of living fire unfurled and wrapped around him like a lover’s embrace.
And then the fire came.
Taria gasped, catching herself before stepping forward. She knew the rules, no interfering unless it had been agreed upon beforehand, and Kael would never allow it.
Still, her grip on her spear tightened until her knuckles whitened. If Kael goes down, if he’s unconscious... then I step in. All of us will.
Rauk and Gold stood like carved statues, their faces taut with tension. Even the other monsters in the chamber had gone still, their gazes fixed on their leader and the defiant man before him.
The flames roared around Kaedros, but to him they felt distant, like the heat of the midday sun on skin. Untouchable. The formation on his forehead shone like a sapphire jewel, and with it came not only a hardened resistance to fire, but the final piece of his spell.
His right hand ignited, not with ordinary flame, but a condensed, solidified like the sun.
Heat so concentrated it had taken on form and weight. Golden.
The full spell was meant to envelop both arms and legs, but it was far beyond his current rank. For now, one arm was enough.
And one arm was all he needed.
Kaedros seized the monster’s flaming wings and ripped them from his back as though tearing cloth. The beast stumbled, his spell shattering in disbelief. His eyes widened further when he saw Kaedros’s blazing hand... and the tips of his hair now aflame with dancing golden fire.
It was as if every flame the monster had ever conjured, every ember he had ever known, had been compressed into that single hand.
Something primal stirred in the creature’s mind....fear born not from pain, but from facing something beyond his measure.
Kaedros walked forward slowly, the heat radiating from him thick enough to make the air shimmer.
The monster watched him approach and let out a shaky, grim smile. "It’s my loss."
When Kaedros reached him, he simply drove his hand forward. Flesh and bone parted like butter. He didn’t even touch the heart before the concentrated heat reduced it to dust.
Kaedros wanted to savor the victory, but pain knifed through his core. His body felt stretched to the breaking point, skin fever-hot. Something warm trickled down to the floor, blood.
Was that metallic tang on his tongue? Why was the floor suddenly closer? His hand reached out, trying to call to the prisoners—
Darkness claimed him.
The chamber went silent for a heartbeat. His allies, the monsters, everyone stared at Kael in shock. He should have been burned alive... yet instead, he had cut down their leader in an instant.
That spell... they all thought. The heat alone had made breathing difficult.
When Kael’s body collapsed, they snapped into motion, just as the monsters lunged to take advantage of his weakness.
A silver flash tore through the air, cleaving the first wave of attackers in half.
"No, you don’t!" Gold’s shout rang out, his weapon already in motion.
Battle exploded once more. Without their leader, the monsters were frenzied but disorganized, and Taria and the others carved through them with ruthless precision.
When it was over, they stood among piles of steaming corpses, blood and smoke thick in the air.
Taria knelt first beside Kaedros, making sure he was stable before sinking to the ground herself, uncaring of the gore beneath her.
"We finally... have our hunting, Rauk," she said between breaths, her gaze sweeping the carnage.
"Too bad we can’t take them with us," Rauk muttered, clearly imagining the fortune in monster parts and the power they’d gain from the kill.
Taria grunted. Hauling this many corpses back to their world was impossible.