CHAPTER 215(Fire and Wrath)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk

pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

Seeing a crimson flaming meteor descending toward them the soldiers wasted no time with their response.

"WATER!" one of the commanders ordered, his manic shout carrying across the massive battlefield with Command Howl, the same skill many military leaders have, including Finn.

Feeling the heat on his skin he raises his spear and watches Welf's descent. As his mouth becomes dry, his skin cracks, and his eyes begin to itch. His throat becomes sore as their few mages with water magic finally complete their chants.

Magic isn't common even amongst adventurers. Orario has an abundance of mages simply because it's a city built upon the only dungeon which makes it easier to level up.

But Rakia had something else.

"FIRE!" he yells out, raising his spear and pointing to Welf.

A dozen torrents of water manifest into existence, like geysers appearing out of nowhere they slice through the air and move to intercept Welf.

The Magic Swords used to create them were Crozzo Swords, but not modern Welf Crozzo Magic Swords, this difference became apparent as they shattered immediately upon casting just once.

Seeing the water and flames about to clash everyone prepared to engage, only for the water to completely disappear before making contact, not even water vapor hung in the air and the crimson flame of death continued.

The soldiers' eyes widen in shock and despair.

BOOM!

An explosion rocks the battlefield, and a wave of heat spreads around for hundreds of meters as entire battalions are cremated.

The commander covers his face and digs into the dirt with his spear to hold his ground. Gritting his teeth he feels his armor melting into his skin, the wooden shaft of his spear disintegrates in his grip. Looking down at his weapon he sees the remains of the shaft become black ash and blow away.

All around him he sees the ground redden as ash blows past him like a sandstorm.

With every breath he feels his lungs burning. Keeping his hands raised and eyes narrow to defend himself he ignored the feeling of metal melting into his skin.

"Get away from the enemy!" he orders, all his men eagerly obey and turn tail.

Feeling the skin of even his level three-body burning, among the very few on the battlefield and tied with others for the highest level in their army. He ignores the pain, the noise, the feeling of flesh tearing every time his armor shift and pulls at his skin. He ignored the scent of his burnt soldiers.

He ignores the dying men on the floor, desperate to live as they reach out and grab onto him as he runs past them.

He ignores the feeling of death constantly growing as he runs toward Welf, toward Ignis.

As the very few still mobile soldiers constantly bump into him in their panic state he simply knocks them aside and continues to fight against the traffic. Seeing the flame dying down he grits his teeth and continues the last few dozen meters, all around him he sees fewer and fewer survivors.

Now he sees only bits and pieces of metal armor, no bigger than a coin, the only remains of this attack.

He feels his feet, clad in metal boots, sinking into the dirt floor. Molten earth swallows his boots ankle-deep, pain reaching into his bones, and he soldiers onward.

'Just a bit more, just a bit more. I'm the highest rank here, this is my duty!' he mentally chants, over and over to push through the pain.

As he arrives at the final dozen meters, he sees Welf clad in black and red armor, face completely hidden behind the metal helmet as he stands with Mosoka deactivated. The broken tuning fork missing one prong and terrifying the commander.

He couldn't tell where Welf was looking or what he was thinking, but the helmet was moving. Standing in a small crater of molten dirt Welf was simply taking in the death he caused.

"Hey!" the commander yells out, waving and gaining Welf's attention.

Welf turns to look at him but doesn't say anything.

With dried-out skin and bleeding, cracked lips. The commander raises his hands, the metal of his gauntlets already melted and fused with his skin, every minute movement was excruciating, but necessary.

"WE SURRENDER!" he declares across the battlefield, knowing they couldn't win against these monsters, especially not since this was the alleged 'Weakest of the Trifecta', their support member.

Welf turns to face the commander, his grip on Mosoka tightens, simmering rage only growing beneath his helmet.

"Did you hear me?" the man cries out, his voice still carried to everyone on the battlefield. "We surrender, we're your prisoners of war," the man says as he endures the pain of raising his arms.

Flexing his fingers he feels the skin separate from his body as he grips his helmet.

"We lost," he says as he begins lifting his helmet. Feeling the skin on his skull and face melded with the metal being torn away. Between each word he can't help but grunt, "we...are...your...prisoners!" he howls in pain as he tears off the helmet and drops it to the floor.

Swaying in place, delirious from the pain, standing with most of the skin around his head and pieces of his face missing, he doesn't see Welf react.

"No," Welf's shaky voice answers. A bubbling rage was easily sensed within. Raising Mosoka he aims at the defenseless, surrendered man, "only punishment..."

"Wh-" a deep crimson flame fire out of Mosoka, uncontrolled and wild, shapeless like that of a flamethrower. Gone was the calm and focused Magic Swordsman, gone are the disciplined and precise Flame Constructs and pillars.

The captain becomes ash and dust moments before the flames make contact.

Seeing this display, contrary to the heat burning away at them. All the soldiers feel their blood run cold. Looking above, the massive walls of blue fire still kept them caged in, locked in here with this monster.

"RARRGHHH!!" Welf bellows, his rageful cry drowned out by the flames raging across the battlefield.

The screams of men reach high above and the scent of burnt flesh becomes unbearable to any sane person.

With one swing to his right Welf releases a powerful blast of flame, knocking himself back into the air where he spins around and flips Mosoka into a reverse grip in his right hand.

With his other hand he reaches to the back of his belt and draws his new weapon.

A black Magic Sword, an indestructible Welf Crozzo Magic Sword. A combat knife with 'teeth' cut out, grooves meant for catching blades and breaking them, a Sword Breaker with all the same properties as Mosoka. Thalie's recommendation.

"IKARI!" he yells out as he hovers in the air. Mosoka in his right and Ikari, the sword breaker, in his left.

Keeping him perfectly balanced and allowing him to hover like Yang, just as the man said, all he needed was another source of fire to stay balanced.

"Immolation!" he turns both weapons toward the sky and rockets directly downward on two pillars of blood-red flame.

Twirling toward the ground everyone sees a beautiful spiral of magical power as a new and more intense wave of heat washed over the army. Some men drop their weapons and fall to their knees, taking the next few moments to appeal to a higher power.

Some pray to Ares, others pray to the gods of love and mercy for forgiveness, in their last moments abandoning the war god who led them to this hell.

As if a missile hit the battlefield an earth-shaking explosion rings out, and out of the flames leaps Welf, both incomprehensible weapons raised high as he swings down.

Gritting his teeth almost hard enough to shatter them he frees himself of all control and gives in to his rage, unleashing his wrath.

"Flank him!" some desperate few soldiers yell out. Seeing him release a massive flame pillar and slam it into a battalion, hundreds of soldiers dying every second. Dying to attacks, dying from simply being exposed to the heat he's releasing.

Dying to the same uncontrolled heat that was melting his specially made armor into his own skin.

With one wide arching swing he clears a swath of men. Not hearing their desperate cries and ignoring the scent of their burnt flesh.

"DIE!" he yells out and rushes forward, met with a wall of arrows and crossbow bolts he raises Ikari, the sword breaker releases a small torrent of flame and incinerates the projectiles.

"BURN AWAY!" he screams while swinging Mosoka horizontally. A cascading wave of fire tumbles out, consuming thousands of men.

As Welf continues his rampage, eventually the will of desperate men begins to show even more.

One of the more durable commanders flanks him, jumping over dozens of men to approach.

"You monster!" the commander yells, a foot taller than Welf and a hundred pounds heavier.

Swinging his battleaxe at the smith as he surprises him, with Welf's lack of focus he's so committed to extermination that defense isn't on his mind at all.

The sneak attack works as Welf slams the tip of Mosoka into the ground, generating a tidal wave of lava to kill the last of the soldiers to the East and slowly close in the battlefield, making his life much easier.

CLANG!

The axe slams into Welf's helmet.

The shock of the impact sends a quake through the commander's entire body. His blackened and burnt skin aches that much more as he watches pieces of himself flake away.

Welf isn't even moved by the hit as the axe bounces off, not even making a scratch in the helmet.

Without even looking at the man Welfswings Ikari back and releases a massive torrent of fire, clearing away another swath of soldiers.

As the commander dies Welf feels something he hadn't felt in over five years. A dozen Welf Crozzo Magic Swords are activated and instantly shatter. All their magic being used in one instance, his amateurish work.

Turning around immediately he waves Mosoka through the air and clears his view of the fire.

Then he sees it, a unit of soldiers with a reinforced cart. The crystal clear shards of magic swords are at their feet as their allies reach into the cart to replace them.

Longswords that look as if they were torn out of iron, black with red blades for fire. Blue blades for water. As if a child carved them out, blocky and ugly creations of a young and unrefined Welf Crozzo.

Seeing them boiled his blood, his eyes almost going bloodshot with rage as he sprints forward.

"I'll break you!" he declares while charging.

Before them men can realize what's going on he's already upon them, bulldozing through squads of men hard enough to shatter skulls and kill them. The heat from both his weapons ramped up more and more.

In a panicked moment, all the magic swords that create water are used, and nothing happens.

The magic flows, the blades shattered, and no water was even seen.

The moisture was destroyed so quickly and ferociously that they never even saw the water. The same radiant heat that was making their armor melt into their bodies and caused boils of blood to erupt on their face. Blood becoming vapor and trying to get out of their bodies.

Swinging his weapons as he gets close, Mosoka takes much of his magic, gathering an absurd amount of fire as he stops in front of these soldiers.

When he swings nothing happens, he simply holds out the sword.

"Ikari!" he commands while bringing the Sword Breaker, Ikari, up, and slamming it down onto Mosoka.

As if a tactical nuke was detonated on his position a fireball cremates everything and everyone for five hundred meters.

As the flames clear out Welf is left standing in place, with no crater at his feat as this was only a wave of fire and heat. The gauntlets and chest plate of his armor melted and stripped apart.

As Welf continues his rampage, recklessly killing everyone he can find, Yang and Thalie are atop the earth monolith he created at the western edge of the battlefield.

"How many is that?" Yang asks sitting at the edge of the structure, his Elemental Wheel hovering at his back as a blue flame, focused entirely on maintaining the wall of fire keeping the army trapped.

"About half, roughly two hundred and fifty...maybe three hundred thousand people," Thalie says with some amusement. "Not bad for half an hour, but-"

"He's being reckless," Yang says for her. "Running out of magic."

"Mhm," she nods thoughtfully. "Why not just wave your hand and clear the other half?"

He gives her a bored look, "you know why."

"Right, right, I'll go help out, being emotional like that can get you killed, even with all his levels," Thalie says as she readies her new weapon.

"Focus on those swords first," Yang says as she removes her new spear from the ground.

"Yeah, I'll take care of it, besides," Thalie put on her helmet and gives her weapon a twirl, "been meaning to test this out on the surface, the upper floors just don't have enough room, you know."

"Hahaha," Yang shakes his head, "I know that better than anyone..."

END CHAPTER---

Ikari roughly translates to wrath/rage.