V2Ch35-The Bond

Nikolai Rostov was enjoying a wonderful dream.

The ladies were all over him, and they were not shy. Hands roamed all across the landscape of his body, and where fingers touched, lips followed. In Rostov’s dreams, all massages seemed to have happy endings.

As he anticipated an intensification of pleasure, there was a sudden piercing noise in his ear.

What the fuck?!

His eyes fluttered open, his brain struggling between the sharp noise and the temptations of the dream, which seemed to grip him more forcefully than normal.

Then he felt a splitting pain in the front of his head, and the world of his dream began to shatter.

There was a stabbing pain in his chest next.

Then nothing. Darkness.

And a sudden burst of intense heat, spreading all around him.

“W-what’s happening?” he whimpered, confused.

Rostov’s eyes opened wide, and he found himself in a place of sweltering heat and encircling flames. Above him, a deep blackness opened wide. He exhaled slowly.

Okay. I know this place.

“L-Lord Moloch!” Rostov called. “It’s such a pleasure to be pulled into your realm again. Um, thank you for the great honor?”

Nothing for a few seconds but the movement of flickering flames.

“Is something the matter, Master?” Rostov asked hesitantly.

Finally, there was a familiar swirling of fire and smoke from all around Rostov, forming a tornado of flames in front of him. He didn’t bother to shield his eyes this time. He simply stared into the flame.

The body of Moloch appeared once more.

A nude humanoid figure with the head and horns of a bull and the wings of an eagle, body wreathed in flame, breathing fire in and out of its nostrils.

Rostov silently knelt.

“So, Nikolai, we are reunited once again. Under most unfavorable circumstances this time, I must say,” Moloch said. There was clear displeasure in his voice.

“What, if I may ask, are those circumstances, Lord? I was just sleeping, and I seem to have awakened here.”

“The circumstances are such that punishing you for them would be pointless, although I would like to.” Moloch spoke these words with a sadistic relish. “You see, you somehow managed to end up receiving two fatal gunshots. One to the head, and one to the chest. Frankly, the only reason that you remain alive, in a sense, is that in the moment before you would have died, I pulled upon the bond that connects a god with his Chosen One. Out of appreciation for all your efforts on my behalf, I brought you here, to give you a choice. Your final choice in this life.”

Rostov swallowed and fixed his eyes on the ground. So it’s come to this.

“Am I to become food for you, Master? Is that what you mean by my final choice? Is it death or being consumed by you?”

“That is not quite what I mean, Nikolai. You are not far from the mark. Your choice is between immediate death at the hands of the one who shot you, or the possibility of revenge. If you die now, you will become food for me. However, I wanted to give you one last chance at destroying your enemies before you die. A forced Evolution to a certain specific Race would allow you to circumvent your fatal wounds. You would no longer be quite yourself, and your personhood would fade further and further away over time, but at least you could have your revenge. What do you say?”

So, a quick death or a slow one in which I take others with me, essentially? Rostov thought. Easy choice.

“Where do I sign?” Rostov managed a smile, though his eyes were tearing up. He already missed his humanity.

An alert appeared.

[Divine flame detected within and around your body. A Race Evolution is available! Accept Evolution to Flame Elemental Race? Y/N]

Rostov immediately selected ‘Y,’ before he could chicken out.

The world went dark again for a moment. Then all he felt was flame, engulfing every part of his body. He felt all the pain of being incinerated alive. He tried to scream, but when he opened his mouth, the fire flowed in between his lips. It kept pushing in until it filled his insides and burned away all the oxygen in his body.

In a few seconds, all that was left of Rostov was the shape of him, the unending pain, and fire.

—

So, you had the situation under control, Ross? James shot the Officer a dirty look as they both flew through the air.

Officer Ross didn’t seem to notice. Too busy trying to steady himself and put his feet on the ground. James didn’t bother trying to steady himself or control his landing. He’d used gravity magic to cut his own weight by more than half before he launched his sneak attack earlier. Whatever force he landed with was unlikely to hurt him, even if he hadn’t been wearing his Royal Exoarmor.

It’s really my fault the situation went sideways, James thought, looking back toward the column of fire that had engulfed the tent where Rostov used to live, along with a half dozen cultists who were standing too close.

If you want someone killed right, you have to kill him yourself.

James’s eyes adjusted to the brightness of the flame the longer he stared, and he finally made out a humanoid shape in the center of the flames. Rostov didn’t look like a human anymore. He was just a big outline of a man, radiating flame in all directions. Overall, perhaps an improvement.

“YOU DID THIS TO ME?!?!” A horrendous voice bellowed in anger and pain. It took James a moment to recognize the sound as Rostov’s voice, it was so distorted by pain.

I guess he can still talk. Not as much of an improvement on Rostov as I thought. Still, I like that he seems to be suffering wonderfully.

A tiny projectile that James could barely see flew through the air at inhuman speed. For a moment, he braced to try and change his direction. Though he was still in midair, some of his abilities might propel him one way or another. But then he noticed that it wasn’t aimed at him.

Officer Ross, who had managed to land a few feet in front of where James now stood, didn’t even have time to change his expression.

The tiny object struck its target—and embedded itself deep in Officer Ross’s skull.

The policeman collapsed to the ground a moment later.

Son of a bitch, James thought. He found himself getting angry.

He grabbed hold of the Ego Antler Spear, which was floating in midair alongside his body. James used the haft to catch onto a tree and break his momentum.

Then he charged forward. Screaming cultists running in a panic, burning tents, and the few allies of Officer Ross who were throwing projectiles and trying to hurt Rostov—James ignored them all. He focused on the enemy and prepared to make an attack on Rostov’s center of mass.

And he began Silent Spellcasting, gathering non-elemental Mana. He wanted to make a shield around himself. Wrathful though he felt, James was keenly aware of how hot the flames of Rostov’s new body looked. If he was going to get close, he would need some protection.

It would have to be a quickly charged shield, because he wanted to strike while Rostov was distracted with Officer Ross’s allies.

Then a voice penetrated his focus.

“James! James, help!”

I recognize that voice, he thought. He dodged a fire blast that Rostov tossed off in his direction, and then he ran toward the voice.

“Thank God for you, James!” Moishe Rose breathed out a long sigh of relief as James moved into close range with him. James slashed through the stone that Moishe was chained to with a single swipe of his spear.

Moishe’s chains instantly became looser, since the stone they bound him to had been smashed apart. He pulled a bobby pin from his hair and immediately started picking the locks on his chains.

“What can I do to help you, man?” Moishe asked, looking at the fiery figure of Rostov that was now incinerating one of Ross’s allies as he screamed for his life.

“I can’t protect anyone from this thing,” James said brusquely. “Whatever your Skills are, probably best that you run.” Then he shook himself slightly and smiled. “We really have to stop meeting like this.”

“Just run?” Moishe asked, a little disappointed.

“Do you think you can destroy that?” James asked, pointing a thumb at Rostov.

“No,” Moishe admitted.

“Then you would be a distraction for me more than a help,” James said bluntly. “Actually, you can do one thing to help me. Grab Officer Ross. I think he’s still alive over there.” He gestured in Ross’s direction. “If you run off carrying him, possible we can find a way to heal him later.”

“Ross,” Moishe said distastefully. “Well, if you say so.”

“Hey, I’m not happy with him either,” James said. “But he put a bullet in the big guy’s head, which is why he’s in final boss mode over there. And I can sense that he’s in a great deal of well-deserved pain. I think he’s done all he can to earn a second chance.”

Moishe smiled, then gave a slight nod.

And the two men ran off in different directions.

James’s Silent Spellcasting finished a moment after he and Moishe split off from each other. An invisible shield appeared around his body, and he felt that little bit safer. He began Silent Spellcasting again, gathering water Mana this time. Just in case his spear couldn’t do the job.

Then he rushed into melee range with the giant fire monster, who was fighting many of his own cult members at this point, mindlessly throwing flames everywhere.

“Stop this, Prophet!” screamed one woman before she was engulfed in flames.

“Please, no!” cried one man as he suffered the same treatment.

Then James leaped in and jabbed at Rostov’s center of mass with Deep Antler Penetration. Two big holes appeared in the burning abomination—and almost instantly filled in with flames again.

James jumped back instantly, but at the same time, Rostov threw a flaming left hook. James could feel his shield drop to around fifty percent power after that single contact.

He pushed off the ground and got another few feet of distance, then kicked his legs and threw out two Air Strikes. Just like the Deep Antler Penetration, the wind blades passed through Rostov’s fiery form—and then he re-formed around the places where he’d been cut.

At least that attack seemed to slow him down a little, James thought optimistically. His rage was giving way, now, to simple admiration for how durable Rostov’s new body seemed to be. If only he didn’t show, with his posture, that brief sound of his voice, and his erratic behavior that he was in horrible pain at every moment, James might almost envy him his seeming invulnerability.

I only have enough juice left in my shield to endure one more close range attack, he thought as he did a backflip to avoid a curtain of flame that Rostov had thrown his way. And I can’t re-cast the shield until after I finish with my water magic. Probably the water magic is more useful than a melee attack would be anyway, since he seems to be made of fire. There had to be a core or something somewhere that James could destroy, though. If this was a video game, there would be a weakness like that. And the System operated on video game-like logic a lot of the time.

James dodged another wall of fire and leaped in close with a Lightning Strike aimed where the equivalent of Rostov’s neck was. A decapitation move would normally end a fight with anyone, in his experience so far. This time, his attack didn’t even seem to do any damage. There was no parting of the flame, perhaps because lightning wasn’t harmful to fire on some elemental level.

James bent backward at a ninety degree angle as one of Rostov’s limbs swung out at him. Then it smashed downward into him, wiping out his shield and slamming him into the ground with a single hit.

James jumped away before the next blow landed, slightly winded but otherwise unhurt.

He dodged around for a few minutes, which was increasingly difficult. Rostov was focusing all his wrath on James now, and he had burned most of the nearby trees away, so there wasn’t much cover for James to hide behind. The small number of cultists remaining had almost all run for it while James was engaging Rostov up close. Only two of Officer Ross’s little band of helpers remained nearby, and they had backed off beyond melee range, apparently content to watch him fight Rostov.

What the fuck do they think this is?! A spectator sport?! Either help me out, or get the fuck out of here!

The only advantages remaining to James were his superior Stats, and his sheer variety of Skills. With Empathic Projection, he had started to get an idea of where Rostov was likely to strike next. He could use that to perform otherwise impossible last second dodges. And with his impossible Agility, he managed to avoid any serious damage even when Rostov surprised him with a sudden, wild, barroom swing.

Finally, James unleashed the thick, heavy aura of blue Mana around him, conjuring a lake of water over Rostov’s head. Rostov had a single moment to tilt his head up, and then the water fell straight down onto and all around him.

James had a moment of thinking he had won.

Then the center of the lake turned to steam, and he saw Rostov’s fiery visage and heard his howl of frustrated anger.

“KILL YOUUUUUU!!!”

James used his hands to direct the water, condensing it around Rostov’s body.

But he was simply too hot.

Whatever water touched or drew near him, Rostov boiled and turned to steam almost in an instant. There seemed nothing more creative James could do to make the water function better as a flame retardant. Finally, he had too little water to contain Rostov anymore.

Rostov stood uncontained, yowling with rage: “KILL YOUUUU!!!”

He took a step toward James, foot evaporating some of the puddle of water around him, and James began to reassess his strategy.

It was gratifying to see that he had reduced Rostov slightly in size, from a fourteen foot tall monstrosity to perhaps an eleven foot tall fire monster. But conjuring up that lake had taken a large chunk of his Mana, more than one third. James was doubtful that the same tactic would be effective if repeated. And if it didn’t work, his only option would probably be to run. It didn’t seem wise to fight this non-physical creature without the use of Mana.

So what do I do now?