Chapter 16 – Pride and Wrath

I spin in the air and slam my foot into gray, furry neck of the second wolf, sending it sprawling to the ground with a loud sound of spine breaking, and turn around to Crimson fighting with three other using a sword he brought out from somewhere. Huh. He is getting overwhelmed while I can defeat two with comical ease, courtesy of being a Demon.

It is, to be fair, starting to feel ridiculous. Two quick kicks to the necks without chance of retaliation and done, unlike Crimson who needs to be careful of each claw and jaw and doesn't dare to attack carelessly, anticipating a counter and way too slow to beat the enemy with just superior power.

I turn around sharply and look at Daria almost failing in weaving some spell and looking at me incedulously, Catherine next to her with alike expression. I guess throwing wolves like ragdolls is not something they expected even from a Demon, despite the fact they are supposedly significantly stronger than normal people.

"Behind you!" I shout a warning and run in Crimson's direction to help him while the two will be preoccupied.

My gaze lingers a while longer, noticing the Wolfkin looking around in alert, her disproportionally large black sword being coated in a silvery glow, and lauching herself quickly to two wolves previously hiding in ambush and now getting up and starting to attack. Daria meanwhile finishes the spell, a fiery bolt that crosses the short distance between her and Crimson within barely a second. It embeds itself in a wolf trying to attack the elf from behind, setting it on fire with a sizzle accompanied by pained snarl, and by the time the wolf backs away in pain and alarm Daria is already preparing another spell against the two wolves on other side.

Seeing they will have no problems I launch myself forward and tackle the wolf whimpering after getting turned halfway to a roast, fire still lingering on its fur licking me harmlessly, and lift it up, flapping my wings a few times. Before it is able to react in any meaningful manner I fold my wings and sommersault in the air with a grin plastered on my face, then slam it down onto another wolf, sending both onto the ground in unuseable state.

In the corner of my eye I notice Crimson finishing off one of the three wolves with a sidestep and jab to its neck as it tries to throw him off balance.

I quickly focus on my magic sight and the two wolves, noticing that both are still alive. I realized it a while back that dead monsters have their cores, or mana stones, materialized and distinctly different to my magic sight than alive monsters. I can't tell the exact difference though. They are more, like, shallow? They feel closer, as if something obstructing the view, like a transparent plastic screen, was removed.

I reach out with my hands and grab the most likely unconscious monster by its head, twisting it sharply and snapping the spine, then repeat with the second wolf that tries to struggle dizzily, and turn around to Crimson. He seems fine, merely a few minor scratches on his unprotected arms, so I direct my attention to the rest of our party.

Catherine and Daria seem to be doing fine, with one of the wolves lying before Daria, most likely dead, and another circling each other with growling Catherine. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

I have neither time or need to interfere as Catherine suddenly rushes forward, feinting an overhead slash as the wolf tries to approach. It lunges at her, noticing an opening, and the girl sidesteps and slashes at its throat in a sudden twirl, almost decapitating it with a spurt of blood.

Good work, I'd say, as much as it was amateurish and almost caused her to lose balance when the sword embedded itself in the neck.

I circle my arms with a grin, looking between Crimson, whose chest is heaving up and down, Daria getting somewhat fainter to my magic sight and Catherine stowing her sword into her inventory and taking a deep breath.

"Nice exercise." I comment. "I hope five heads are remaining?"

Catherine looks at me with expression as if she wanted to laugh and shout angrily at me at the same time. "Excercise!? You-! Gh-, khu!" She chokes on her words, but quickly gulps down and continues. "You're asking that!? You're the one breaking spines left and right! What the hell is wrong with your stats!?"

Oooh, she's so cute~! As in, the cute, pissed off little wolf. Never thought I'd see it anywhere else than on a holographic projector.

"Oh, you don't remember?" I narrow my eyes playfully. "They are demonically~ high. But seriously, I just have extremely high strength and high speed. There's nothing wrong with my stats."

It earns me three eyerolls and a quip from Daria "Like killing two wolves within one second is normal for a new player."

"Eeeh, screw it." Catherine throws her arms down. "Let's collect these brains and we're going, it's getting late." She says, with helpless, kinda annoyed expression, crouching by a wolf and bashing its skull.

"Wh- Sure." Crimson looks like he wants to say something, but decides against it and walks to another wolf.

"Um, are we taking whole heads or what?" Daria asks with a frown and lips curled in disgust. "I'm not keen on digging into their skulls."

"Take the whole head if you're uncomfotable." Catherine glances at her. "I'll take it out later."

"Oh... okay then."

After the question that leaves me wondering if Catherine hasn't been doing something suspicious out in real life I and Daria approach our own wolves without needlessly dawdling around. I touch the head of a wolf laying on the ground with unnaturally bent neck, a victim of my kick, and reach out to my Flame.

Shiva has told me to use my flame and be creative, and I guess it's time to finally do something about it.

I use my magic sight and try to reach the Flame inside me. I try to coax it to come out, but it stays firm in place, unwavering. It doesn't move, ignoring my nudge.

I realize it's prideful, it refuses to obey such weak, half-assed attempt, so I try another method.

I try to command it, move it to my palm. It's closer, but it still refuses. It refuses to be controlled like a servant, a slave.

I think for a while how to make it mine to control. What made it obey the skill, but not me? It's surely not that I can't control it, I just need to know how.

What's the difference then? What was the skill doing? It wasn't commanding or coaxing the Flame, that's for sure. It wanted the Flame to do something.

I try to will the Flame to manifest on my hand, but it's also not working. It doesn't obey whims, it wants something more like a goal. What made the flame different when I burned the blood on me and when I killed the first goblin or that man?

There was something present in both these cases that made the Flame move. One was to kill, another was to remove. Is it the intent to destroy, to kill, that triggers the Flame? Surely not. It was not exactly that when I used it for the first time. At that time I just wanted to test the Flame, and killing the goblin was a side objective.

What it was then? I wanted it to do something, that's for sure, but where's the catch?

...I wanted it to manifest, to achieve something. Is it certain type of reason or objective that's missing?

No, that doesn't sound right as well. Getting it onto my palm could be the objective, but it's not working.

What's missing then? Is there something different between my intentions now and earlier? I ask myself and my eyes widen at the realization.

There is one thing, always has been under my nose.

Purpose. Getting onto my palm serves no purpose, so it obviously wouldn't work.

I confidenly focus on the Flame, somehow absolutely sure this will work. I wish it to form on my fingers, to cover them, to burn, to cut, and to protect from harm. To reach inside the skull, to get what I came for.

The moment I think it, my fingers are quickly covered in beautiful, lazily swirling, bright yellow flame like a glove, with whiter, sharp tips in place of my nails. It doesn't burn wildly, uncontrollably, but slowly, carefully, shaped like solid flame with no wisps escaping the determined shape, suited perfectly for cutting and ripping.

I watch it for a while, then bring it to the wolf before me. Sticking the claws into the side of neck results in the touched parts slowly incinerating and falling to ashes, but the Flame is calm and doesn't burn an inch more. It also doesn't seem to emit heat, preserving even the fur a hair distance from the flame in perfect condition.

I accustom quickly to flames on my hand and soon enough I am quickly, almost mechanically cutting off the unneeded parts, opening the skull from upside and burning out the spine connecting it to take out the brain.

Afterwards, with help of my magic sight, I pull out the mana stone from the body and stand up, brain in my left hand, now without the glove, and I quickly store both in my inventory.

I look around, noticing that the group is faster than me and almost all wolves are already finished, only Daria is finishing with her second one. It must have taken me more time with my Flame than I thought it did. Catherine seems to have already finished with her two wolves and is looking at me with curiosity.

"What were you doing?" She asks.

"Testing out my abilities a bit. Successfully." I answer simply, waving my arm and releasing the flame back into me.

"Oh, okay- Watch out!" She starts nodding, but then her head snaps up and her face morphs into horrified one as she shouts at me.

The next moment I feel something very, and yet not noticeably painful in my neck, and inside it. My head jerks back a bit and I notice a few drops of golden blood spilling out of my mouth and flying into the air. As they land on the foilage, they burn through it it like laser through sheets of paper, sizzling and raising smoke.

What... just happened?

I try to look downward, but find something blocking my neck from turning properly. I press on and something snaps inside my neck, then manage to look down and notice a spear sticking out of my throat.

Wow.

I turn around slowly and look at a goblin, or rather high goblin, a strong, more intelligent variant that could kill most newbie players with ease. Or rather stronger than normal, but still weak and pathetic. It's just standing here, around two meters away, looking at me and waiting for me to fall with this infuriating, cackling grin on its face. I feel boiling anger rising inside me and my face contorting despite myself.

This goblin, this inferior monster, dares attack me, interrupt me, and harm me? Me, Star Demoness?

I extend my arms and grab the already broken spear by its both ends, then yank them out in one sharp motion and throw the useless pieces of wood to the sides. I will my Demonic Flame to burn in my neck, restore, repair and heal, to reinvigorate and to close the wound, its purpose to make my condition as perfect as it should be.

I feel my muscles wiggling around and connecting properly, I feel my pierced throat closing and I feel the skin covering my neck flawlessly, but I don't feel pain. I know it's there, but it doesn't matter.

The goblin before me looks at me with shock, its face twisting with fear, and starts backing away. It turns around and tries to run away, understanding my strength and its own insignificance, inferiority. But I don't let it.

I wave my arm and will my Demonic Flame to manifest in my arm, to chase, to restrain, to cling, to pull, and to inflict pain. A long, fiery white whip appears in my hand and I snap it once without a sound, devoured by the fire. As it whips, all the foliage in its path is not turning to ashes, no. The plants cower in fear, they scream in ethereal pain as the flame burns through them slowly, eating away bit by bit.

I wave my arm once again and the whip extends, burning through the air without a sound and wrapping around the goblin amidst its piercing scream of pain. I then pull to myself strongly and will the whip to fade away while the goblin gets lifted up and sails through the air, still screaming in terror and pain and flailing around.

Pathetic.

I take a deep breath and open my mouth, concentrating my Primordial Energy in my throat. The energy of destruction, of eternal silence, of retribution and of chaos.

I breathe out and the goblin lets out one last screech and everytying about it dies, its body, soul and everything that signified there was a being in this place engulfed in white torrent of raging flames and ceasing to exist.

...

"Holy shit, Helia, that was scary." I hear a voice behind me as my thoughts stall, as I'm trying to understand what just happened.

Because I got fucking furious, as if completely another set of instincts suddenly took over me, and I'm not sure why. This goblin... attacked me from behind. What made me so furious?

Was it that it interrupted me? A bit for sure, but...

Or no, wait. I got so livid when I thought aboug it being a weak, pathetic, inferior monster that dared to attack and harm me.

I feel anger building up in my body at the thought.

It dared-, no, calm down. It's dead already, it paid the price.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, then turn around to the rest of the group. As I open my eyes I see Catherine flinching as she looks at me with eyes wide open. I relax my fists I only now notice are tightly clenched.

"Helia?" She asks uncertainly and a bit fearully.

"Yes?" I ask, raising my eyebrows. Did I seriously scare her so badly?

Catherine waves her hand and visibly takes a deep breath in relief. "Fuuuck, that was scary as shit." She says, letting out a puff of air. "I thought it was a berserk skill or something."

My eyebrows wander even higher at that. "Was I really so scary?"

"Holy shit, no, you were even more terrifying." Daria says from the side. "It was the scariest thing I saw in my life. You looked like... you had this terrifying grimace on your face and that flame felt like it would kill us if you barely noticed us."

"...Okay." I comment in deadpan tone.

Well, well, well.

That's interesting.