19: A Quick Death

A Quick Death

Whirling around, I grabbed ahold of the wolf's tail. Due to the fact that my body was currently set ablaze, it's tail started to smoke within my tight grip, which caused the wolf to yelp in pain.

However, that didn't stop me from hefting it's weight as I began to spin in circles with the tail still locked in my grasp. Acheros could do nothing but endure the motion sickness, and it didn't last for very long before I let go and threw him a great distance.

The weeping wolf quickly descended from the sky, crushing a large amount of 'people' in the stands with it's massive body. Even the Outlander shook his head before reviving them after Acheros bounced back up on all fours. The wolf let out a vicious snarl, leaping off of an elevated position only to come back down with it's deadly claws extended and ready to eviscerate me.

Once it was getting a little too close for comfort, I finally released the energy that was building up in both of my hands.

--------------------------------------------------

~Darren's POV~

"Stop moving, you big dunderhead!" I quickly rolled to the right when the giant swung his sword in my direction, which nearly took my head clean off. Whenever the huge blade was swung, I could hear the vacuum of rushing air behind it, reminding me of the times I used to play with sticks when I was younger.

Although, it probably wasn't the best time to reminisce on childhood memories.

The giant raised his sword once again and I took that opportunity to slide through his legs, turning so that I was now looking at his scarred back. Dual wielding two sharp daggers, I jumped and held on by driving the blades into the giant, similar to my strategy with the worm that was still half-way sticking out of the ground.

"God, you fucking reek!"

The smell wafting off of the giant was just now noticeable to my sense of smell and it was horrible. I was glad that I was successful in getting onto it's back, but I couldn't wait to get off now that my nose was being assaulted with it's stench.

One of the daggers was stabbed into it's shoulder so that I could stay on as the giant flailed around to hit me. Using my other one, I put all my power into shoving the blade into the area near the base of it's skull.

The giant stopped moving all of a sudden, instead beginning to fall over as the sword in it's hand was unceremoniously dropped to the ground, resulting in a loud clanking noise. I jumped off of it's back before I was flattened by the giant, which caused a slight vibration when it hit the ground.

It may not have felt pain, but that didn't mean it couldn't be killed.

I sat there for a moment, staring at the now dead giant in contemplation. My body was extremely fatigued and I felt slightly weak in the legs. This has been the weirdest, most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me.

I mean, it's not like I haven't been through shit, but this definitely took the cake. All of these creatures came from straight out of a fairy tale, yet I had just successfully killed a literal giant all on my own.

On another note, I could feel my power trying to take over. I wasn't surprised by it, considering how much I've had to rely on it just to survive this hellish place. I just need to hold on a bit longer so that I can get the fuck out of here.

Turning towards the Outlander, I noticed he was looking down at the other fight. Throwing a glance to my left, the being made of fire seemed to be easily taking on the wolf with his pyrokinesis and a surprising amount of strength.

He was able to get under the wolf's body and lift it up before slamming it back down onto the ground. The wolf latched onto his arm with it's teeth but quickly let go after a few seconds, crying out in pain when the man's body inevitably burned it.

I couldn't blame it, considering there wasn't much the wolf could do with someone like that. It was simply outmatched with their flaming opponent.

The man released a stream of flames at the downed wolf, burning it's body as it cried out in agony before trying it's hardest to somehow escape it's death sentence. The wolf's body was turned into a pile of ashes soon after.

In that moment, once I knew he was done with his fight, I went through on my plan. I just hoped that he would be able to act fast enough so that it actually worked.

While the Outlander still had his attention locked onto him, I manipulated a tendril of darkness to quickly wrap around the giant's sword before I reeled it back and threw it straight at the Outlander like a spear.

It cut through the air at a high speed, headed straight for the Outlander's midsection.

"Master, watch out!" Cyrus Inkwell, who had been watching from one of the tunnels at the bottom, shouted out in alarm.

--------------------------------------------------

~Dante's POV~

I turned around when my ears picked up on the sound of a scream, quickly noticing the big ass sword flying towards the Outlander. When I saw where it was coming from, and the fact that Darren glanced at me right after it was thrown, I jumped into action.

A tornado of flames enveloped my body before I suddenly appeared on the railing in front of the Outlander, quickly ducking as the sword flew over my head and pinned the guy to the wall behind him. A noise came out of his mouth that seemed to indicate a mixture of shock and confusion, looking between me and the sword lodged in his stomach with a clear look of disdain.

Darren appeared from a shadow next to us and used his manipulation of darkness to fasten the Outlander's wrists to the wall as well before driving the sword even further. We knew that the sword wasn't actually harming him, considering he was made of some type of energy, but that didn't mean we couldn't keep him restrained.

I hopped off the railing and stood in front of the Outlander, who tried pulling his arms off of the wall but failed to do so. A chuckle slipped from my mouth as I watched him struggle.

From behind us, Cyrus used the mark on his left hand to blink onto the railing I was just on, and attempted to take us for surprise. However, it didn't work as Darren shot out another tendril that quickly covered his entire body, which would slowly kill him since it eliminated the possibility to breathe and a field of view so that he could escape with his teleportation ability.

Man, that power was really useful.

--------------------------------------------------

~The Outlander's POV~

These weaklings have the nerve to go against me, a being of immense power that is superior to them in every way! My anger increased the more I struggled with the restraints that one of them put on me.

If only I could've gotten rid of this damn seal sooner... it's practically taken all of my power and turned me into something that I despise. A weakling! Just like these vile rats that think they can beat me!

How dare they...

The taunting look on the one made of fire made my blood boil, not to mention the fact that the other one was able to take care of Cyrus without any effort.

Ugh... USELESS!

It was about time I showed them why I was their god.

The mysterious ring located on my finger awakened, an eye appearing in the center. The iris was a dark mixture containing black and gold while the slit pupil glowed white, and it held an immense amount of power.

(The picture of the ring's appearance will be here.)

Due to the glow emanating from the ring, the two in front of me noticed it. Apparently, they perceived it as a threat because the one made of fire quickly reacted and grabbed ahold of my hand before attempting to take it off.

As we fought over the ring, I noticed his eyes changed into an hourglass symbol and pulsed a bright yellow color before reverting to normal.

"NO! IT'S MINE, YOU FOOL!" I yelled, trying to close my hand so that he couldn't take it off. However, he appeared to possess more physical strength than I originally thought, considering the fact that I was actually struggling to keep my hand closed.

The ring's eye began to glow even brighter, which caused a dangerous feeling to emanate from it.

--------------------------------------------------

~Dante's POV~

"Come on, it's my turn to play with it!" I joked, attempting to pry the Outlander's fingers open. Darren contributed by having a hammer made of darkness slam into his face, which dazed him enough so that I could finally slip the ring off.

However, once I took it from off of his hand, the blinding light that was being released from the ring appeared to have reached its peak.

Oh shit.

Darren seemed to notice the same thing, quickly deciding to kill Cyrus by snapping his neck and dropping him on the floor to focus on protecting himself. I turned towards my partner right as I could feel the ring about to release the energy built up inside.

"Get out of here!"

--------------------------------------------------

~Darren's POV~

A thick layer of darkness covered my entire body as I jumped into a shadow, falling out of another one that was at the bottom of the arena on the other side.

As soon as my head turned upwards, I expected a massive explosion of energy to rip through everything in it's path, vaporizing whatever it touched, but that surprisingly never happened.

I was curious but didn't want to take the chance of going back and catching an explosion straight to the face, and so I decided to wait for a bit.

However, the question was still stuck in my mind as I sat in silence.

Did he actually find a way to stop it?0

--------------------------------------------------

~Dante's POV~

The flames covering my body were now replaced with golden metal skin, black stripes, and three transparent pieces of green glass, revealing the gears that were inside of me. Not to mention, my eyes and mouth were green as well and I had a large key on my head.

This alien form reminded me a lot of a clock.

(The picture of Clockwork's appearance will be here.)

From the look on his face, the Outlander was shocked beyond belief at my sudden transformation. Turning my attention to the ring in my hand that was about to blow, the large key on my head began to turn as I focused on using my newfound power.

Targeting the ring specifically, I reversed time back to when it was still in a deep slumber. I watched as the bright glow slowly faded away and the eye itself closed shut, which was when I finally released a sigh of relief.

... I just successfully prevented a catastrophic event.

I'm just glad that this was one of the aliens I unlocked earlier today. However, unless it was a situation like this, I doubt I'd use it very often.

"H-How did you..." The Outlander trailed off, weaker than he's ever been, especially now that he didn't have the ring in his possession anymore.

Considering the seal that was placed upon his body also seemed to be catching up with him, he looked sort of pathetic with the giant's sword still pinning him against the wall.

"I'm just awesome. You wouldn't understand."

My body began to switch forms once again, reverting back to a Pyronite in front of the Outlander. I didn't really see the point in trying to hide it now since he's already witnessed it. Examining the ring in my hand, I decided to slip it on my right middle finger, and it appeared to be a perfect fit.

That was convenient.

The Outlander began to open his mouth in order to speak, but before he could even get a word out, the eye on the ring opened once more and released a faint glow this time.

Using the power held within the ring, all I had to do was think about vaporizing him and a beam of pure energy shot out and turned his body into... nothing.

There wasn't a single thing left.

pqdm.com