Chapter 398: Hellfire
"Are you beginning to understand now," Vale said softly. "Do you now understand that you can’t beat me, Oskar!"
Oskar gritted his teeth in visible denial. "You...you are just from the Athrimir Clan. No way! No way!"
Vale raised his brows. "In your arrogance you even speak words like this. In all of Hinterlands, which Clan can stand up to us in term of Knight quality? We have always produced the strongest of the Knights!"
"The Tachibana Clan is not your mate, they....!" Oskar suddenly closed his mouth with a loud clink, his eyes opened wide as he realized what he was saying.
Vale laughed freely at the reaction. "So the Tachibana are the one behind you? I’m surprised."
Of course Vale knew this, he was simply using the opportunity to ’expose’ the powers behind Matsumoto.
"Enough talk!" Oskar growled. Since the beginning, Vale always seems to be one step ahead of him, continously destabilizing him and putting him on the wrong foot. He realized that if he did not do something, things will turn disastrous. But what should he do? Vale seems...strong. "I will go for my strongest attack!"
Vale heard this word and he shook his head. "Fool. Why are you telling your strategy to me?"
Then Vale fell forward and down like a diving bird monster. Hellfire gathered around him, setting an explosion behind him and propelling him even faster.
Oskar wasn’t expecting it and he clumsily flew backwards but it was too late. Vale already arrived in front of him, directly in front of his face that only a few palm span separated him.
His eyes widened as he saw the crazy expression on Vale’s face, a face that loomed, closer and closer understand the Clan Leader’s head smashed into his own like a battling ram.
His skull shook and his brain even more so. His eyes turned and he blanked out for a fraction of a second. Only for him to come back and his eyes to focus on a punch that caught him on the nose, instantly turning his nose awkward as he was sent blasting backward.
This time though it seems the punch helped him get his sanity back as he constructed a shield of gold around himself. He did not continue to fly in the air but instead touched down on the ground, his eyes slightly red as he saw Vale followed his example.
Immediately Vale’s leg touch the ground, he tore forward again, making headway for Oskar!
Before it was Oskar that wanted to get close to him but now, he avoided Vale! With the golden shield around him, he jumped back and made way backward, and then he began running at full sprint!
Vale laughed, his eyes flickered with madness and bloodlust as he saw his ’prey’ run from him. The sight stimulated something in him, and the fire around him leaped even higher, scorching the air. Each footstep he took left a smoldering earth behind. He caught up quickly and sent a punch at the shield.
But suddenly, at the last moment when his fist was about to make contact, Oskar suddenly flipped around, the shield crumbled without resistance by itself and his hand blurred forward to grip the fist!
He caught the punch with his two hands, his eyes lit with the glow of victory. He smiled. "Taste defeat, Vale!"
Grey energy crawled and leaped from him and covered Vale. In that moment, Vale suddenly felt an incredible weight settled on him, no, he was the incredible weight. A weight that he couldn’t control!
He felt like an oversized mountain that suddenly lost its support! Worse, every part of his body has gained in weight, things that function normally couldn’t. His brain began to turn fuzzy from blood loss and lack of oxygen. Even his heart was on the verge of stopping!
No wonder Oskar wanted to touch him because ultimately he would end any battle that way.
And Vale, the madness caused by Infernal Dominion made him forgo caution and act like that.
Oskar gloated, breathing hard, his face still covered in sweat. He was still holding on to Vale, waiting for him to complete die. "At the end you’re still nothing before me and you’ll die for your arrogance. You think you can just come here and walk all over me? I am a Saint, I am worshipped. I can not be defeated by the likes of you."
On the side the five Master Knights of Matsumoto moved closer to Vale’s side to put pressure on them not to interfere. Their faces filled with glee.
Valtor looked angry and torn, he looked back at Tiber. Because even though he’s a Master Knight, he knew that Tiber carried more authority as the non official right hand man.
Tiber’s face was pale, but his eyes dark and deep. He gripped the pole like instrument on his back. Then he shook his head. "Ten seconds. If Vale did not make a move in ten seconds, we will interfere."
Slya began to prepare her warriors.
But no sooner has Tiber’s words landed that Vale made a move. Hellfire gathered around his stiffened form, so potent and concentrated that everyone began shielding themselves with their essence. It was as if they standing near an active volcano.
Oskar had it worse. The hands holding Vale began to sizzle and cook! He began the process of dropping his hand when the Hellfire that was gathering unleashed.
It was not a technique. Vale simply summoned Hellfire with his aspected essence and set it losse.
It was....terrible.
Hellfire leaped upward in a pillar of reddish light and black baleful fire. Heat condensed into kinetic shockwave that rippled in burning waves, destroying anything in its path.
Surprisingly, Oskar wasn’t hurt, at least not physically. The Hellfire parted around him, only burning his oxygen that made him dropped down to the ground. But the heat was enough to sting his hair into ashes and only the magical properties of his clothes let him kept his dignity.
Every other thing around Vale was destroyed, stones were blasted into dust, the ground melting, and where he was before was now a melting pit.
Vale was sitting in the pit, his hair burning with hellfire and it danced playful on his clothes. His eyes were so red they shone and the grin on this face was so maniac it made anyone that saw it felt a chill down their spin.
The grin and the fine control he had on his magic were so world apart.
He walked out of the pit and looked at the Hellfire that’s still burning the ground near him, he gathered then around his sword and even with his fine manipulation control, the sword still corroded and fell into pieces. He dispelled the fires.
Vale sighed. "I still can’t use my Hellfire for sword technique, I can only use my essence for now."
He put that aside for the moment and loomed over Oskar. "I almost killed you."
It was a close thing if Vale was being honest. The madness in him, once he was in the deep of battle, only want to destroy everything.
Vale looked up at the silent gathering. He blinked at their behavior before he nodded to himself. It should be the first time majority of them are seeing him fight since his advancement.
It must have been a real shock to some of them.
Vale crouch when he saw his opponent stirring. And so when Oskar came to again and he opened his eyes, the first thing that dominated his vision was two eyes, red like the moon and yet carried none of the gentleness of the moon. No, it was vicious and deadly.
Then he saw the grin and he felt a chill that made goosebumps all over his body. Without even intending to, or even thinking about it, Oskar flinched, crawling back. He couldn’t believe he had wanted to make someone like that bend!
"Why did you not want to give me what rightly belong to me, Oskar?" Vale asked softly. "Is this from the Tachibana Clan?"
Oskar was looking at Vale with a slightly daze expression but when Vale mentioned that Clan, his eyes was filled with hatred again and he spat. "Why should I tell a dead man...!!"
He saw a flash of something before his head suddenly exploded with pain. Oskar’s eyes turned and when he was coming to, another punch smashed into his face, even harder than last time!
"What are you....!!"
Vale punched him again, the same spot as before.
"You’ll regret...!!"
Another punch in the same spot.
"I..."
Another punch.
All the while Vale did not say a single word, as he punched the man’s face bloody. He only stopped when Oskar stopped talking and then when the man glared at him, he punched him two more times, adding more essence until a teeth fell out.
Oskar never looked him in the eyes again after that.