Soulforge Legacy Series

The tiny dots around me grew as I pushed a bit of mana into them. Each flickered a bit as if some breeze had decided to blow through the area at that moment. But other than the flickers, nothing in the room moved.

Every eye was locked onto me. Waiting for the moment that I so much as twitched. But I didn’t, at least, not physically.

Half of my mana poured out of me as it raced to spread itself across the room. Before it even finished moving, the information was nearly too much.

This wasn’t like the last time I had used this ability. I wasn’t just facing one person or even outside. Information on the dust floating down from above to the beating of the heart of the man just inside the door flowed into my head.

Maybe I should have pulled my reach back. To not try and see everything. But there wasn’t a choice. Not if I wanted a chance for my plan to work.

Though, it did help that they didn’t attack me the moment my mana started to move. Something that they might come to regret in a minute.

The instant I could read the old prayer carved into the stone hidden in the eaves on the far side of the room, I flexed my will.

Each flickering dot of black flame reached for the web of mana and consumed it. Used it to grow. To race out. To fill the space.

I felt every bit that it consumed. As the skill was consumed piece by piece. Thread by thread. It was enough to drop me to my knees.

The room went from the quiet calm of the world just before a storm, to what amounted to a hurricane of death and destruction. Only, instead of water battering its way around and through the place, fire burned and destroyed.

Screams of agony filled the space. Echoed off the walls. Only to be cut off nearly as fast as they started.

And just as fast as the fire had filled the room, it vanished, taking with it most of my mana.

Charred, pitted, and partially melted armor covered the floor. A testament to the number of people that had chosen to fight me.

My eyes looked over the destruction as I made my way back to my feet. Was I a bit sad that I had just killed a couple dozen people with little care or effort? Not really. Not given what they had been doing to this town.

Though, I did wish that my last debuff didn’t eat most of the experience these people would have given me. Even if they were too low level to give me all that much.

The last of the fire sputtered as it ran out of mana. With it gone, the people on the other side were revealed to still be alive, if a bit singed.

From the looks of it, Jeremiah had managed to cast a water barrier just in time. Whatever the spell was, it had been strong enough to take most of the damage. Not that the rest of the damage would be around for much longer as Linda looked like she was starting to cast some spell.

Those two were not the only ones to start to cast spells and use abilities. The clearly shocked group was finally doing what they should have while waiting for this battle to start. Michael had stepped a bit forward to act as a tank for the rest. All the while activating ability after ability.

Just behind him, bow in hand, Victor pulled on the string. Blood oozed from his fingers. The oozing liquid twisted and stretched to form a fairly menacing arrow.

As it formed, Patric vanished into a nearby shadow. Likely an attempt by him to catch me by surprise. Too bad for him one of my new abilities seemed to allow me to feel his position in the shadows.

Orange flames, tinged with black streaks, appeared above the shadow just as he tried to materialize behind me. His cries were fast and short as the fire burned through his half formed body. Eating both his physical and magical form.

Of course, Victor chose that moment to loose his arrow. Probably in some attempt to save Patric. Something that didn’t matter given that he was already dead.

The arrow whistled as it meandered across the space between us to strike at me. A bit surprised at the speed, or lack there of, I was unable to react to its passage. Instead, my eyes tracked it to the spot it embedded in my shoulder. It wasn’t even deep enough to make pulling it dangerous.

I only had a moment to pull it out as my full attention was pulled to Jeremiah and the spell he was casting. Of all the attacks so far, it was the only one that felt at all dangerous. Mostly because it would wash me away and probably down those below us. It wasn’t something I could let him finish.

White hot flames burned their way into the muscles of my arm as I threw the arrow. The arrow didn’t just blur, it teleported. One moment it was in my hand, the next it was embedded halfway into Jeremiah’s skull, killing him instantly.

Of course, he wasn’t the only one my attack had hurt. My arm fell limp to my side as the very muscles tore themselves to shreds. I had to grit my teeth to keep from screaming bloody murder.

Even in pain, I couldn’t help but taunt the group. “To be honest, I expected a bigger challenge.”

Okay, so it wasn’t as much a taunt as it was cold hard truth. These people were so much weaker than they should be. Then I expected them to be.

The only reason I had even won last time was because I had used a few tricks and caught them by surprise. Things they had taken away from me by directly challenging me. Yet it didn’t seem to matter. They were just too weak. Almost as though they had not even bothered to try and grow since we had last fought.

“You MONSTER!” Linda cried out.

“You’re calling me a monster?!” I scoffed as her sheer audacity. “That is hilarious considering everything that you and yours have done to this city. To its people!”

With a rage-filled scream, she reached for Michael. Whatever she did, what ever spell or skill she used, caused him to change. His armor melted and merged with his body as he changed.

I watched as flesh twisted and stretched. I listened as bones groaned and crunched. I felt the heat radiate from his body. As it caused the air around him to roil enough to bring the overwhelming and acrid stench of brimstone to my sensitive nose.

Where Michael had once stood, a typical looking demon took his place. Red skin, slit eyes, and horns. The look was counter to what I got from the other two demons. Like this was some weaker version or something.

Whatever he was, I had a feeling that he wouldn’t be as easy to take down as the rest of the group. That isn’t to say it wasn’t possible. If anything, I could probably hold him off long enough that he ran out of mana.

A hand the size of my chest smashed into one of the nearby stone pillars as Michael stretched. I watched as his muscles rippled a little more before finally settling. Then, without any preamble, his body started to flicker.

The last piece of armor left was his tower shield. A shield that looked like one of those half shields some fighters used.

Even with my attention on the shield, I nearly missed the attack as the piece of metal vanished from his grip. It was only out of sheer instinct or even luck that I managed to twist out of the way enough to let it fly past.

A fist met my side as he anticipated my dodge.

A fair number of my bones creaked as my body got to know the far wall.

Just that one attack had done more damage than any other and it was just the opening volley. There was no choice but to go full out. It would damage my body, but that was no other option. Not if I wanted to live.

Unlike before, the white fire didn’t focus on one arm. It thinned out as it spread across my body. Everywhere it went, my body sped up.

And it wasn’t just my muscles. Every cell kicked into high gear. From my marrow to my neurons. Blood production and healing increased as the world slowed.

To me, the world looked and felt like it was made of a thick syrup.

Unfortunately for me, none of this would last long. Even if I could supply the mana for what felt like hours, I would run out of fuel. Especially since I had not taken a single bite to eat since returning to the land of the living. The only thing that kept me going was however little fat I had.

Which meant I was on borrowed time. A fact that was only worsened when I tried to move. As the muscles tore themselves apart and were healed. Not just once, but every time.

In fact, there was no way for me to keep up this level of power for even a couple more seconds of real time. So I released most of my cells from the skill. Let my body slow down.

Not my neurons though. Those wouldn’t burn up. Or, at least I hoped they wouldn’t. If they didn’t, they would do the most good for the cost. If they did, I was probably too fucked to care.

With the world slowed down as it was, I was able to see each movement Michael made. Given how everyone else, including me, moved at a snail’s pace, his normal movement frightened the fuck out of me.

And while I could see his movements, that didn’t mean I could avoid them. In fact, the only part of me that seemed to react with any speed was my mana. But even that was limited by how fast I could form a spell.

Which begged the question, which spells could I cast in the time I had and how effective would they be.

My spike spell, while powerful enough to hurt him, was nowhere near fast enough. Both in formation and firing. It relied on too many layers and concentration. If I went too fast the entire thing could explode prematurely.

Then there was my go-to spell. The Body Enhancement spell. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as my new ability, but it also didn’t put as much of a strain on my body. But with how strained my body was already, it might be too much.

Of course, there was always the tried and tested fireball route. Sure one ball wouldn’t be enough to take him down, but what about a dozen? A hundred? More?

They didn’t have to be all that big. In fact, if I made them small enough then the cost for each would be negligible. Still, it would be like flinging tiny pebbles at a giant. But who knows, maybe this would be my David and Goliath moment.

It was at that moment that gravity finally did its job. Settling my feet against the ground below the wall I had become fairly close with.

Both of my tails spread out as I started to call forth as much fire as I could. Dozens of thumb sized balls of fire crackled as they popped into existence around me.

Even without looking, I knew they were a cerulean blue. They also seemed to rotate. I don’t mean they rotated on their axis, I mean they started to rotate around me. As they did so, they formed into a ring that encircled my entire body. Going out as far as the tips of my outstretched tails and above the tips of my ears.

The moment the structure stabilized, the one nearest the tip of each tail split. Even as the largest portion struck at my target, the other portion moved on. All while it started to reform. To regrow and rebuild for another shot.

Again and again, the balls of fire launched searing paths through the air. They fired off so rapidly that a pair of near continuous beams of light connected me to Michael. Specifically the arms he was using to defend his face from my attack.

Not that the attacks did much damage. In fact, they almost seemed to only stop his movement and little else. Slowly, the skin on his forearms started to darken before finally cracking.

Stunned at my attack, Linda almost reacted to his cries of pain too late. A series of red orbs hurled themselves at Michael’s body just as the white of his bone peaked through.

Instead of simply falling to the ground, the liquid raced across his body. Almost as though they were alive and looking for wounds to heal. The moment they found his arms, they poured in.

Flesh bubbled as it regrew at an impossible rate. One that I had no hope of keeping up with.

That didn’t stop me from trying. Especially as the mana cost was next to nothing.

“STOP!” The commanding voice reverberated through the air. With it came an authority and power to enforce its order.

The orbs stopped firing without my say so. And judging by how Michael’s wounds had ceased to heal, it was a blanket order.

Slowly, as if he was going for a stroll through the park, Kaelis walked through the smashed doors and into the church. His face was impassive as he looked over the damage our little battle had wrought upon the place. The blank mask didn’t crack once as he looked over the bodies of his men.

His eyes lifted off the body-covered ground to meet mine. The recognition in them was instant and sent a chill down my spine.

“Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise.” The melodic voice filled the space as he slowly crossed the room. Not once removing his eyes from me as he continued. “I didn’t think that you would return to me without at least some incentive. Then again, maybe you thought I would go easy on you. Or did you think I would reward you?” He shrugged. “And who knows, maybe I will. It all depends on how hard you make this.”

This wasn’t like the last time we had faced off. The demon wasn’t bothering to hold his power back. Power that was thick enough to make even breathing hard. Still, I managed to grit out one word. “Never.”

Stones rattled and dust fell as his laughter filled the space. “Of course not. You wouldn’t be worth my notice if you were not so stubborn.” His smile dropped as he grew serious. “Sadly though, your stubbornness is getting to the point where it is no longer cute."