Duskbound-Chapter 46Book 2,

Upon seeing that he’d failed to escape, Pevril spun in place and put a sneer on his face. “Ah, my little failure of an iron,” he said. “So full of himself, so indignant that anyone might refuse to bow down to his supposed greatness. How much money have you wasted persuading your betters to back you on your little quest for revenge?”

Whatever Pevril’s goal was—maybe to distract Velik, maybe to anger him and shake his focus, or maybe to just buy some time—he failed to achieve it. Velik charged right in, his spear leading, and cut the distance between the two of them in an instant.

Assuming he could trust what he’d learned when the team was discussing the rest of the guild, Pevril had a very strange class called [Flame Warden]. It was the result of his youth spent as a common [Soldier] serving as a foundation to build [Fire Mage] on top of, the latter being provided by a class orb he’d won for serving with distinction in some campaign or other.

It was a strange hybrid class, a mixture of physical and magical, one that forced Pevril to keep all three stats balanced in order for his skills to properly function. He pulled a thin rapier from his belt, and its length immediately ignited in flame. Turning sideways, he lunged forward, the tip of his blade finding Velik’s spear and circling around it.

Pevril was strong, at least compared to other mages. There was definitely a hint of skill usage behind the parry, as well. It came too fast and with too much power to be anything else. Velik’s spear shifted against his will, just an inch to the side, but the new angle would see the weapon pass right by Pevril without ever touching him.

It would also leave Velik himself open to be run through by that flaming blade, and he had no desire to experience that. The instant their weapons met, Velik activated the [Shape Shifting] enchantment on his spear and caused the shaft to curve. He stepped to the side, avoiding Pevril’s thrust and setting himself up to sink his spear into the man’s stomach on its new course.

That might have been the end of the fight right there, but Pevril’s free hand came up and unleashed a torrent of flame that engulfed the front half of the spear and threatened to do the same to Velik if he let it. Foiled again, Velik broke away, narrowly avoiding the scorching fire, but still caught in the wash of heat. His gear was all enchanted, though, and none of it combusted.

More heat pulsed out of Pevril’s body, this time spreading all around him to keep Velik from even approaching. “Poor, simple, stupid monster hunter,” he taunted. “No idea what to do when you have to fight an opponent with a brain? Too bad for y-hrrk!”

Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.

Velik’s dagger zipped through the air, thrown at speeds too fast for the average warrior to perceive. Even with all Pevril’s levels, his class was focused on fighting with fire magic, not enhancing his senses. That, combined with his egotistical rambling, ensured that he never even noticed Velik pull the dagger.

The Sixth Plague did its job, infecting Pevil with its [Weakness] and [Blinding] enchantments. With a snarl and quivering hands, he grabbed hold of the dagger and ripped it free. Blood sizzled for a moment and the wound closed, a thin red scar left in its place. “Nice try. I think I’ll keep this. It’ll make for an excellent… let’s call it a training tool.”

The thrown dagger hadn’t been Velik’s attack though. It was merely the distraction. The blazing aura surrounding Pevril was too long to reach without getting burned, and Velik was well past the time when he’d been forced to charge a fire elemental to get at its core and kill it. He had plenty of other options right now. If Pevril had actually been paying attention to the class he’d supposedly been instructing, he’d know that.

Maybe he could have done something to prevent Velik from hitting him.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

The spear drove into the ground, its tip still four feet from Pevril’s shoe. Even as the arrogant instructor opened his mouth to mock Velik again, light arced down the length of the shaft and sparked on its tip. [Dread Lance] exploded outward, catching Pevril in its wake and throwing him back to slam into a tree at the edge of the stand he’d originally been running for.

Velik pulled his spear free and advanced on his prey slowly. Pevril was still alive; his heartbeat gave that fact away. His breathing was ragged, and his legs were raw meat. One pant leg and boot had been obliterated by [Dread Lance], and what was left of his clothes was torn into rags. Velik’s dagger lay on the ground halfway between them, and he casually scooped it up as he walked by.

“You know,” Velik said, his first words since he’d caught up to his tormenter. “Part of me hopes you aren’t corrupted. Part of me wants you to just be the enormous asshole I know you are. I mean, nobody seemed to think your behavior was that out of character, so maybe this is the real you. Gods, I hope it’s true.”

He came to a stop ten feet away from Pevril, who was staring up at him with hate and struggling to pull himself to his feet. “Well?” Velik prodded. “Which is it? Are you a monster or a man? Either way, can you keep fighting or are you ready to surrender?”

“Stupid kid,” Pevril snarled. “You think you’ve accomplished something tonight, don’t you? You don’t have a clue what you’ve stuck your foot into. If you were smart, you’d have left well enough alone when you killed that aberration up north.”

“You really don’t know anything about me at all if you thought I was just going to call that a win and get out of the game. No, I know there are more of you. I know you’re planning something. It’s not going to work. I killed your last dungeon alone. Now there are dozens of us.”

“Please, that thing barely qualified as a dungeon. It lacked purpose and strength. Its fruit killed the host. I’ve heard how hard you struggled to claim that victory, and it’s meaningless. A real agent doesn’t eat its host from the inside. A real agent strengthens its host, takes it in new directions and unlocks new powers.”

[Apex Hunter] spiked in his head, a sudden warning that things had gotten drastically more dangerous. Pevril disappeared in a burst of roiling green and black flames, the tree he’d been leaning up going up like so much tinder. Above Velik, the fire eagerly leaped to nearby trees, alive and hungry and uncaring how green the wood was.

Back on the ground, the fire swirled away from where Pevril had been standing to reveal nothing there. His heartbeat had vanished, perhaps swallowed up by the roar of fire. Or maybe this was some sort of teleport.

He backed up from the fire. Already, the heat rolling off the evil-looking flames was browning the grass and scorching the dirt beneath the trees, and Velik could see the damage spreading another foot or two with each passing second. What he couldn’t see was where Pevril had gotten to. If he’d disappeared and left the fire behind as a distraction, it was a good one.

Not really my problem, though. I’m sure it’ll piss Phun off if his trees burn down, but the fire can’t spread past the wall. It’ll burn itself out. The only question is whether Pevril is already out in the city or if he’s hiding somewhere nearby.

Something moved in the flames overhead. Velik froze, [Apex Hunter] now screaming a warning to him that his role had shifted from predator to prey. He peered up into the strange, green-black flickering light, looking for Pevril. If anyone had a class that would let them sit unharmed in an inferno, it was him.

Then the form detached itself from the tree. It didn’t look like a person, not really. It had a body easily eight-foot tall, maybe more, but it also had fiery wings and long, curving horns coming out of its head. Black skin, roughly textured and oily, flexed and crinkled as the monster moved. Fire clung to its body, burning despite lacking the fuel it needed.

It glided by overhead, circling once before alighting on the grass behind Velik to trap him between the burning trees and itself. New fire started spreading where its clawed feet touched down, not that the monster seemed to care. A flap of its wings sent scorching hot air over Velik, burning his exposed skin and heating the head of his spear so much that it started to glow.

“I wasn’t planning on using this,” the monster spoke. Its voice crackled, giving Velik the eerie impression that it was living fire speaking to him. “You’re not worth it. But I have to be sure. There’s no room for error. Better to go for overkill than to risk letting you escape.”

Pevril? What did you do to yourself?

He didn’t realize he’d spoken the words out loud, not until the demonic creature made of fire and fury started laughing. “Your information is outdated, I take it. I took this host’s pitiful class and reforged it into something truly formidable. Tell me, fake-gold hunter, do you have any tricks for dealing with hellfire? No? Too bad for you.”