It’s great to see Gerben alive, but I shouldn’t stand around talking. Leal is waiting.
I step toward the rest of the cell’s residents and the tall ursu moves to stop me. Gerben pulls him back, his eyes not leaving me.
“Move,” I demand.
The group’s eyes flick between the massive arachnid looming in the corridor behind me and the flames around my form. When they don’t move as asked, I step forward again, forcing them to scramble to the corners. That’s good enough for me. Fire blasts into the cell’s rear wall.
The tall ursu tries to break from Gerben’s grip, only to find his head locked under Gerben’s fingerless arm.
“Calm down. I know her.” He looks up from the struggling ursu in his grip. “Solvei, this is not a place you should have come.”
“Oh? I’m sure your daughter would love to know that you don’t want us here,” I say, trying to suppress a smirk as I pull my fire back into myself. All that remains of the back cell wall is a puddle of molten rock dribbling onto the paving outside.
“Leal is here?” He doesn’t sound happy. His voice wavers at the knowledge she is here.
“Yes, now come. Don’t make me drag you to her,” I say and push through the new opening.
Hesitantly, he follows… as do the other dozen ursu in his cell. I want them to stay where they are until I make sure of Gerben’s safety at Leal’s side. Can I tell them to stay while I help another right in front of them, though? If it were possible to take them all out together, I would, but I cannot protect them from those mini-cannons the guards wield.
A round of gunfire crackles from the north. From where I originally broke through the wall, a sphere of water rolls toward the wire fence.
Damn it, Leal. You were supposed to wait outside.
I spin around Gerben, his height making my plan rather daunting.
“All of you hide in your cell for now. I’ll come back,” I try to reassure the others before throwing myself into Gerben’s chest and rocketing us into the air. It takes an immense jet of flames just to push us off the ground.
And I thought Leal was heavy.
In moments, the two of us are speeding over the wire fence. It’s a struggle to slow us to land without splatting Leal’s dad across the ground, but I bring us down safely. Flying off with him will be impossible.
My flames spread out over the mesh fence and consume every section that falls within my range. I expended a lot of physical flame to thrust Gerben a few hundred metres, but at least I’m close enough to Leal to keep her safe.
I look up, ready to take out the guards attacking my friend, only to find long tendrils of water striking out of her protective shell and easily disarming each guard as if they were only an annoyance.
Suspended inside the ball only slightly bigger than herself, she rolls along the earth toward us. Leal doesn’t slow and I have to jump away as she crashes into Gerben. Her sphere melts away as she envelops him in an embrace.
I feel sympathy for Gerben, first being tossed around by me, then taking his daughter’s charge. Despite looking like he’s about to collapse at any second, he does well to hold Leal upright as she loses all focus on where we are.
“Leal,” I say to get her attention. She lifts her head to lock eyes with me but doesn’t let go of her dad. “Take him and leave.”
She nods her head but freezes in mid motion. “You are coming, too.”
“No, I’m gong to free the others.” I step in close and ignite an inferno around us, scaring off the guards trying to approach and obscuring their sight. “I don’t want to make the same mistake with you again. If I kill the guards, I can be sure to get the prisoners out safe. It is up to you.”
Maybe it’s cruel to pin the choice on Leal, but I care more about her choice than the lives of those stuck here. That is probably cruel of me, but I can’t lie about how I feel.
“No. We need to go now!” she ignores my question. “We can’t compete when the warden shows up.”
Too late for that. I feel an ursu with a thick longsword moving within my range even as she says that. He doesn’t come right for my fire right away. Instead conversing with the guards standing near the now cleared fence.
“He’s already here, Leal. Can I kill them or not?” I don’t mean for my tone to be as harsh as it is, but we won’t have long before he comes.
“But, can’t you… I can’t…”
She can’t respond, and just before I settle on her answer being no, Gerben pats her head and addresses me. “Yes, do what you need to. I will take responsibility.”
I nod and angle my head to the wall she came from. “Leal, take your dad and get out.”
“I will not let you fight alone.”
Despite her desperate declaration, I have to smirk back. I can see the ursu through my flames now. He doesn’t have mage markings. He doesn’t have the terrifying inscriptions on his blade that the Henosis general had. The only thing he has is his blade and a hell of a lot of strength. I’m sure he would be a challenge to my team, but this match up is terribly out of his favour as a purely physical fighter.
Hund is the only physical fighter I could imagine killing me.
“I told you before, but you really shouldn’t worry about me.” I turn and clear my flame, giving the enhanced ursu clear sight of me.
His eyes narrow as I stare him down. I’m giddy for this fight. Not long ago, I would have been terrified, but I’m confident in my strength. It would be nice to have a spear with me, but I’ll have to do without. Today, I have an audience to show off to.
The warden doesn’t hesitate. He dashes toward me, affronted that I could dare to think myself his equal. At least, I assume so from his indignant scowl.
He moves fast, and I can immediately tell my outfit is going to end up as rags if I keep it. Instead, I allow my body to become incorporeal and abandon the snowsuit where I shouldn’t have to worry about it. My body, burning with intense white flame, bursts forward, ready to meet the ursu half way.
Fire twists through the air ahead of me, but the warden takes my golden flames head on. I’d expected it, but the flames barely burn his fur. This fight will be white flames only, then. I won’t be able to just submerge my surroundings in fire, as I usually do.
His sword arcs toward my chest, which is around knee level for him considering he is more than double my height. The advantage of being so small lets me duck beneath his swing with ease.
The claws I formed on my hands slice at his leg, but I don’t have the strength to penetrate. I grasp at his ankle instead and his flesh bubbles. A grunt is the only sign he even feels it before his blade drops on me. A burst of physical flame throws me back, but not quick enough to dodge the longsword.
Both my arms dismember, only to lose their definition and reconnect to my body within moments.
I grin up at the warrior, waving both unharmed arms at him. He dashes forward and severs my head with a clean cut before I can react. I simply laugh, inciting an enraged growl from the large ursu.
This is great! He moves just like the general, but I don’t need the Fog’s assistance anymore. He can’t touch me, nor can he defend against my flames. I could stand here and take attacks from his blade all day… but I probably shouldn’t in case the ursu has some hidden card like the general did.
I dodge beneath a swing and dart forward. My hand slaps the back of his knee and sizzles away some of the flesh there. My white flames stay behind, but a swipe of the ursu’s free hand clears it off. Shame. He strikes again, an overhead arc this time. With the faintest touch of physical flame, I dodge out of his sword’s path before I dash in again for another strike.
The fight turns into a game. For me, at least. The warden grows increasingly agitated.
“What. The fuck. Are you?” he asks between swings.
Maybe it’s the exhilaration of the fight, or the audience watching on, or even just a whim of the moment, but his question goads me. My firestorm builds around me once more, swallowing the area as far as my flames can reach. I don’t let them burn, though. No, I form my flames into the most terrifying existence I’ve ever seen.
The Titan.
A conflagration of a crocodile stands over a hundred metres tall. An instinctual feeling rises within me, and I let it guide me. The mimicry of a Titan rears its head, jaws opening wide, and a roar of wind deafens the world. At the same moment, the feeling within me unleashes, applying pressure on everything and everyone around.
The warden’s body goes rigid, freezing up under the concentrated pressure clamping down on him.
I make the Titan crash its maw down on the ursu, compressing the entire being into its teeth as they clamp around him. I replace the crocodile with white flame and rush in before he can brush them off again. His blade swings wide while he tries to step back, fear in his eyes.
He bats at me with the flat edge, which I have to admit is more effective against me than simply slicing through me. As it comes, I have an idea. Instead of letting myself be bisected again, I harden my body and catch the blade. At least that is the intent. I’m scooped up by the sword and carried along.
I hang in the air off the ursu’s sword as he takes a moment to realise where I’ve gone. Not exactly what I planned, but this works.
The blade glows beneath my touch. It is clearly not normal steel, as it isn’t melting immediately, but it is only a matter of time until his weapon is no more.
The warden clearly understands what I’m doing as he attempts to crush me between the blade and the ground. Unfortunately for him, I simply reform on the other side of the blade. No worse for wear.
It takes a dozen seconds for his sword to become nothing more than a handle. His body doesn’t look in much better shape, either. My flames leave his body a patchy mess of burnt flesh. He staggers back, fear and pain predominant on his features. This is already over, and he knows it.
Thermal signatures enter my range at the same time the warden spots them. His demeanour flips. Instead of the fear at his defeat, he grins victoriously. I can feel what’s coming, but I turn regardless.
A squad of guards herds children toward our battlefield, holding their guns toward kids as young as five.
“Give up now, or I’ll give the order.” The ursu I’d been playing with not a moment ago jeers at me, assured of his victory.
I sneer in return, but more angry at myself. I’d seen how they kept the kids as hostages with the adult ursu around. Why did I think they wouldn’t try the same with me? Honestly, I’m confused about why the warden is so sure this would work. I’m not an ursu, so why would he think this would stop me?
I still plan to keep them safe, but from everything I’ve seen, people of different races care very little about those other than their own. The pact nations being the only exception. Even there, some races differences cannot be overcome.
The warden thinks this is enough to beat me. He thinks threats will cow me. Just the thought of him getting his way irritates me more than a bunch of kids being threatened.
My eyes flicker to Leal, standing beside her father. I’m not sure whether I look her way in apology for the risk I’m about to take, to assure her I know what I’m doing, or simply to make sure she’s still okay.
I stare down the guards with their mini-cannons held dangerously close to the heads of the defenceless kids. What I did before is not something that makes a lot of sense, but I intuitively know that was my presence. It showed itself before, and I know I can unleash it any time I want. It’s instinctual. A part of me has broken free and can never be locked away again.
So I let my presence be known. It feels a bit like shining the light of my fire over an area, telling everyone I’m here and forcing them to pay attention. I focus the pressure on the guards and they feel my anger. I’m glaring at them with the world itself assisting me.
Their fingers go stiff, bodies freezing under the pressure of a being far more than them. The guards cannot move, and I make good use of that opportunity. Tiny balls of white flame appear over each of their hands, burning through the fingers holding each gun. It is immensely difficult. Both remotely creating and controlling seven individual intense flames at very precise points strains my control far more than creating a firestorm ever could.
But it works. Each of the weapons falls out of their hands. Pained shrieks resound and snap each out of the stupor my presence locked them in. The mini-cannons clatter against the ground. One misfires on impact, and we’re lucky it shoots its projectile into the sky without victim.
I move each of the small balls of fire up the guard’s bodies and quickly end their lives by burning through their heads. The flesh hardly even burns. It simply vaporises on contact with the intense heat.
I’m back in front of the warden before he can even comprehend the loss of his winning card. Flames gauge through his chest, bubbling away at his flesh with greater ease the deeper I get within his dense muscle. He lets out a desperate roar, glaring at me with hatred I’ve only seen in a few. The ursu dashes toward the group of children, but considering it’s his only option, I’ve already positioned myself in his way.
He tries to brush past me, but this isn’t a game anymore. The ursu isn’t content to leave this just between the two of us, so I make sure he cannot reach them. I swing my clawed hands at the deep burns on his legs, cutting through the tender muscle with an ease that wasn’t possible while his hide still protected him.
The towering creature loses motion to his foot and falls to the earth. But that doesn’t stop him. His fingers dig into the earth and he throws himself forward. I cling to his back and blast a jet upward, slamming the ursu into the ground once more and grinding his face along the dirt.
I don’t care for a clean and fun fight anymore. My flames dig into his eyes, burn through his nostrils and ears. Anything that gives me an easier path to burn through this monster, I take it.
He tries to scrape away my flames, tries to dig his eyes out to stop the spread of fire as it reduces his flesh to a blackened char. The ursu struggles along the ground, forgetting his goal as he grunts and digs his fingers into his own body, desperate to stop the flames now buried within his body.
I watch on as the flames reach his brain, and he lets out a scream to announce his death throes. His thick chest and strong lungs blast his pain across the entire gulag for every prisoner to relish, and every guard to dread.
The warden’s body twitches and jerks as he eventually loses control of his motor functions. Soon, his body stills, and I’m treated to an immensely enhanced feast.
It’s great to see Gerben alive, but I shouldn’t stand around talking. Leal is waiting.
I step toward the rest of the cell’s residents and the tall ursu moves to stop me. Gerben pulls him back, his eyes not leaving me.
“Move,” I demand.
The group’s eyes flick between the massive arachnid looming in the corridor behind me and the flames around my form. When they don’t move as asked, I step forward again, forcing them to scramble to the corners. That’s good enough for me. Fire blasts into the cell’s rear wall.
The tall ursu tries to break from Gerben’s grip, only to find his head locked under Gerben’s fingerless arm.
“Calm down. I know her.” He looks up from the struggling ursu in his grip. “Solvei, this is not a place you should have come.”
“Oh? I’m sure your daughter would love to know that you don’t want us here,” I say, trying to suppress a smirk as I pull my fire back into myself. All that remains of the back cell wall is a puddle of molten rock dribbling onto the paving outside.
“Leal is here?” He doesn’t sound happy. His voice wavers at the knowledge she is here.
“Yes, now come. Don’t make me drag you to her,” I say and push through the new opening.
Hesitantly, he follows… as do the other dozen ursu in his cell. I want them to stay where they are until I make sure of Gerben’s safety at Leal’s side. Can I tell them to stay while I help another right in front of them, though? If it were possible to take them all out together, I would, but I cannot protect them from those mini-cannons the guards wield.
A round of gunfire crackles from the north. From where I originally broke through the wall, a sphere of water rolls toward the wire fence.
Damn it, Leal. You were supposed to wait outside.
I spin around Gerben, his height making my plan rather daunting.
“All of you hide in your cell for now. I’ll come back,” I try to reassure the others before throwing myself into Gerben’s chest and rocketing us into the air. It takes an immense jet of flames just to push us off the ground.
And I thought Leal was heavy.
In moments, the two of us are speeding over the wire fence. It’s a struggle to slow us to land without splatting Leal’s dad across the ground, but I bring us down safely. Flying off with him will be impossible.
My flames spread out over the mesh fence and consume every section that falls within my range. I expended a lot of physical flame to thrust Gerben a few hundred metres, but at least I’m close enough to Leal to keep her safe.
I look up, ready to take out the guards attacking my friend, only to find long tendrils of water striking out of her protective shell and easily disarming each guard as if they were only an annoyance.
Suspended inside the ball only slightly bigger than herself, she rolls along the earth toward us. Leal doesn’t slow and I have to jump away as she crashes into Gerben. Her sphere melts away as she envelops him in an embrace.
I feel sympathy for Gerben, first being tossed around by me, then taking his daughter’s charge. Despite looking like he’s about to collapse at any second, he does well to hold Leal upright as she loses all focus on where we are.
“Leal,” I say to get her attention. She lifts her head to lock eyes with me but doesn’t let go of her dad. “Take him and leave.”
She nods her head but freezes in mid motion. “You are coming, too.”
“No, I’m gong to free the others.” I step in close and ignite an inferno around us, scaring off the guards trying to approach and obscuring their sight. “I don’t want to make the same mistake with you again. If I kill the guards, I can be sure to get the prisoners out safe. It is up to you.”
Maybe it’s cruel to pin the choice on Leal, but I care more about her choice than the lives of those stuck here. That is probably cruel of me, but I can’t lie about how I feel.
“No. We need to go now!” she ignores my question. “We can’t compete when the warden shows up.”
Too late for that. I feel an ursu with a thick longsword moving within my range even as she says that. He doesn’t come right for my fire right away. Instead conversing with the guards standing near the now cleared fence.
“He’s already here, Leal. Can I kill them or not?” I don’t mean for my tone to be as harsh as it is, but we won’t have long before he comes.
“But, can’t you… I can’t…”
She can’t respond, and just before I settle on her answer being no, Gerben pats her head and addresses me. “Yes, do what you need to. I will take responsibility.”
I nod and angle my head to the wall she came from. “Leal, take your dad and get out.”
“I will not let you fight alone.”
Despite her desperate declaration, I have to smirk back. I can see the ursu through my flames now. He doesn’t have mage markings. He doesn’t have the terrifying inscriptions on his blade that the Henosis general had. The only thing he has is his blade and a hell of a lot of strength. I’m sure he would be a challenge to my team, but this match up is terribly out of his favour as a purely physical fighter.
Hund is the only physical fighter I could imagine killing me.
“I told you before, but you really shouldn’t worry about me.” I turn and clear my flame, giving the enhanced ursu clear sight of me.
His eyes narrow as I stare him down. I’m giddy for this fight. Not long ago, I would have been terrified, but I’m confident in my strength. It would be nice to have a spear with me, but I’ll have to do without. Today, I have an audience to show off to.
The warden doesn’t hesitate. He dashes toward me, affronted that I could dare to think myself his equal. At least, I assume so from his indignant scowl.
He moves fast, and I can immediately tell my outfit is going to end up as rags if I keep it. Instead, I allow my body to become incorporeal and abandon the snowsuit where I shouldn’t have to worry about it. My body, burning with intense white flame, bursts forward, ready to meet the ursu half way.
Fire twists through the air ahead of me, but the warden takes my golden flames head on. I’d expected it, but the flames barely burn his fur. This fight will be white flames only, then. I won’t be able to just submerge my surroundings in fire, as I usually do.
His sword arcs toward my chest, which is around knee level for him considering he is more than double my height. The advantage of being so small lets me duck beneath his swing with ease.
The claws I formed on my hands slice at his leg, but I don’t have the strength to penetrate. I grasp at his ankle instead and his flesh bubbles. A grunt is the only sign he even feels it before his blade drops on me. A burst of physical flame throws me back, but not quick enough to dodge the longsword.
Both my arms dismember, only to lose their definition and reconnect to my body within moments.
I grin up at the warrior, waving both unharmed arms at him. He dashes forward and severs my head with a clean cut before I can react. I simply laugh, inciting an enraged growl from the large ursu.
This is great! He moves just like the general, but I don’t need the Fog’s assistance anymore. He can’t touch me, nor can he defend against my flames. I could stand here and take attacks from his blade all day… but I probably shouldn’t in case the ursu has some hidden card like the general did.
I dodge beneath a swing and dart forward. My hand slaps the back of his knee and sizzles away some of the flesh there. My white flames stay behind, but a swipe of the ursu’s free hand clears it off. Shame. He strikes again, an overhead arc this time. With the faintest touch of physical flame, I dodge out of his sword’s path before I dash in again for another strike.
The fight turns into a game. For me, at least. The warden grows increasingly agitated.
“What. The fuck. Are you?” he asks between swings.
Maybe it’s the exhilaration of the fight, or the audience watching on, or even just a whim of the moment, but his question goads me. My firestorm builds around me once more, swallowing the area as far as my flames can reach. I don’t let them burn, though. No, I form my flames into the most terrifying existence I’ve ever seen.
The Titan.
A conflagration of a crocodile stands over a hundred metres tall. An instinctual feeling rises within me, and I let it guide me. The mimicry of a Titan rears its head, jaws opening wide, and a roar of wind deafens the world. At the same moment, the feeling within me unleashes, applying pressure on everything and everyone around.
The warden’s body goes rigid, freezing up under the concentrated pressure clamping down on him.
I make the Titan crash its maw down on the ursu, compressing the entire being into its teeth as they clamp around him. I replace the crocodile with white flame and rush in before he can brush them off again. His blade swings wide while he tries to step back, fear in his eyes.
He bats at me with the flat edge, which I have to admit is more effective against me than simply slicing through me. As it comes, I have an idea. Instead of letting myself be bisected again, I harden my body and catch the blade. At least that is the intent. I’m scooped up by the sword and carried along.
I hang in the air off the ursu’s sword as he takes a moment to realise where I’ve gone. Not exactly what I planned, but this works.
The blade glows beneath my touch. It is clearly not normal steel, as it isn’t melting immediately, but it is only a matter of time until his weapon is no more.
The warden clearly understands what I’m doing as he attempts to crush me between the blade and the ground. Unfortunately for him, I simply reform on the other side of the blade. No worse for wear.
It takes a dozen seconds for his sword to become nothing more than a handle. His body doesn’t look in much better shape, either. My flames leave his body a patchy mess of burnt flesh. He staggers back, fear and pain predominant on his features. This is already over, and he knows it.
Thermal signatures enter my range at the same time the warden spots them. His demeanour flips. Instead of the fear at his defeat, he grins victoriously. I can feel what’s coming, but I turn regardless.
A squad of guards herds children toward our battlefield, holding their guns toward kids as young as five.
“Give up now, or I’ll give the order.” The ursu I’d been playing with not a moment ago jeers at me, assured of his victory.
I sneer in return, but more angry at myself. I’d seen how they kept the kids as hostages with the adult ursu around. Why did I think they wouldn’t try the same with me? Honestly, I’m confused about why the warden is so sure this would work. I’m not an ursu, so why would he think this would stop me?
I still plan to keep them safe, but from everything I’ve seen, people of different races care very little about those other than their own. The pact nations being the only exception. Even there, some races differences cannot be overcome.
The warden thinks this is enough to beat me. He thinks threats will cow me. Just the thought of him getting his way irritates me more than a bunch of kids being threatened.
My eyes flicker to Leal, standing beside her father. I’m not sure whether I look her way in apology for the risk I’m about to take, to assure her I know what I’m doing, or simply to make sure she’s still okay.
I stare down the guards with their mini-cannons held dangerously close to the heads of the defenceless kids. What I did before is not something that makes a lot of sense, but I intuitively know that was my presence. It showed itself before, and I know I can unleash it any time I want. It’s instinctual. A part of me has broken free and can never be locked away again.
So I let my presence be known. It feels a bit like shining the light of my fire over an area, telling everyone I’m here and forcing them to pay attention. I focus the pressure on the guards and they feel my anger. I’m glaring at them with the world itself assisting me.
Their fingers go stiff, bodies freezing under the pressure of a being far more than them. The guards cannot move, and I make good use of that opportunity. Tiny balls of white flame appear over each of their hands, burning through the fingers holding each gun. It is immensely difficult. Both remotely creating and controlling seven individual intense flames at very precise points strains my control far more than creating a firestorm ever could.
But it works. Each of the weapons falls out of their hands. Pained shrieks resound and snap each out of the stupor my presence locked them in. The mini-cannons clatter against the ground. One misfires on impact, and we’re lucky it shoots its projectile into the sky without victim.
I move each of the small balls of fire up the guard’s bodies and quickly end their lives by burning through their heads. The flesh hardly even burns. It simply vaporises on contact with the intense heat.
I’m back in front of the warden before he can even comprehend the loss of his winning card. Flames gauge through his chest, bubbling away at his flesh with greater ease the deeper I get within his dense muscle. He lets out a desperate roar, glaring at me with hatred I’ve only seen in a few. The ursu dashes toward the group of children, but considering it’s his only option, I’ve already positioned myself in his way.
He tries to brush past me, but this isn’t a game anymore. The ursu isn’t content to leave this just between the two of us, so I make sure he cannot reach them. I swing my clawed hands at the deep burns on his legs, cutting through the tender muscle with an ease that wasn’t possible while his hide still protected him.
The towering creature loses motion to his foot and falls to the earth. But that doesn’t stop him. His fingers dig into the earth and he throws himself forward. I cling to his back and blast a jet upward, slamming the ursu into the ground once more and grinding his face along the dirt.
I don’t care for a clean and fun fight anymore. My flames dig into his eyes, burn through his nostrils and ears. Anything that gives me an easier path to burn through this monster, I take it.
He tries to scrape away my flames, tries to dig his eyes out to stop the spread of fire as it reduces his flesh to a blackened char. The ursu struggles along the ground, forgetting his goal as he grunts and digs his fingers into his own body, desperate to stop the flames now buried within his body.
I watch on as the flames reach his brain, and he lets out a scream to announce his death throes. His thick chest and strong lungs blast his pain across the entire gulag for every prisoner to relish, and every guard to dread.
The warden’s body twitches and jerks as he eventually loses control of his motor functions. Soon, his body stills, and I’m treated to an immensely enhanced feast.
