Kingdom of the Malaise (20)

"Bloody Hell that was tiring"

I collapsed against the ground with tired breath's uncaring of the soot that was now sticking to my skin due to my copious amounts of sweat.

Closing my eyes, I panted against the ground as the heat tickled my flushed skin.

The [Inferno Spirit] as it was called was incredibly difficult to defeat as besides a few chosen weapons that were immaterial in nature.

Such as the ice shards, Light's Bane, electric whip and the magnet grenade could affect it.

The fact that it was basically made of flames also made up for a good portion of the difficult fight.

It didn't help that the bastard was able to burn the corpses in the area for health.

If I didn't have an inventory, I'm a hundred percent sure that this battle would've lasted much longer than it should've.

Slowly propping myself up I reopened my eyes to observe my surroundings.

The surroundings were still incredibly charred and covered in soot if not for a portion of the parts melting to become some sort of tar like substance than everything was the same.

Myself though...

Besides being slightly charred and being covered in soot, all of my body was otherwise unharmed if not being slightly sensitive.

Seeing that I was basically unharmed, I grimaced and took a bite out of rotten flesh to heal myself for a small bit and dumped the rest of the corpses out of my inventory.

Besides depriving the Inferno Spirit of it's sustenance there was little use to them now.

So, dumping the corpses to some random corner, I randomly chose a direction to walk in and started to walk that direction.

And while I was at it, I looked at my spoils of war that the Inferno Spirit had dropped as I killed it.

'What is this?'

[Cracked Inferno Core]

'An accessory? I haven't seen many of these since the Shield of Cthulhu'

Raising an eyebrow at the sight of the accessory I read the item's description and effects.

'The Fragment of the Inferno Spirit's core grants it's users the power over blood fires and enhances itself in the presence of blood...'

I took the core out of my inventory and stared at the fragment of the Inferno Core.

"Basically, you cover my weapons in blood fire and the more blood there is the stronger it becomes huh?"

I grinned.

'Yeah, I know what I'm gonna use you on'

Equipping the inferno fragment and putting it away to the back of my mind, right in front of me were a few monsters that could be my test subjects.

"Oh! How convenient!"

jovially rushing into the crowd of monsters, I quickly assessed my enemies that were still unaware of me.

There were the normal zombies that were still there.

A few Grenadiers and one slasher of the not elite kind.

However, alongside the three monsters I was familiar with, there were a few more to note of which I soon found out there names.

'A [Thorny]?'

Slightly confused, soon enough I reached them and unsheathed the weapon of choice.

'Hello Blood sword' I grinned 'Meet Broken Inferno Core'

As the blood red flames climbed up from my hand and touched the edge of the bloody sword that was soaked and made of blood.

It suddenly ignited into a pillar of flame.

Widening my eyes in surprise at the incredible ferocity of the flames that rushed out like hellhounds unleashed from their chains, I instinctively swung the blade forwards.

And in doing so...

A thick pillar of blood red flames covered the entire corridor in its ferocious all devouring glow.

Seeing the launched flame pillar I stared at the Blood Sword that was the cause of this and turned back to see the devastation it caused.

In front of me where the flame was launched.

A large portion of the corpses in the hall had been reduced to ash as blood red embers rested within the ash and soot that rested all over.

And those corpses included the monsters that were the initial target of the flames.

'Well god damn'

Staring at the Scarlet blaze that continued to flicker on the edges of the blade, the Blood Sword that enjoyed the enhancement of the Cracked Inferno Core seemingly waved to me.

I quickly put it away once I noticed that the durability was disappearing worryingly quick however.

'Noted, Blood fire consumes blood which the sword is made of and thus should only be used briefly'

Hopping forwards, all around me the walls had melted due to the immense heat that the Blood Fire had put out.

All of the gunk that caked the walls in it's dark ash now turning slightly liquid in texture.

'Ugh'

Grimacing, my feet stepped into the uncomfortable substances before picking up the various items that were dropped when the monsters were killed.

Instinctively rolling forwards when a tingle on the back of my neck announced a presence.

I dodged a blade in the nick of time that barely nicked the back of my neck granting me a haircut.

'The hell!?'

Turning around on my knees, my arm balancing myself as a Light's Bane reappeared in my other hand.

I stared at the new arrival.

[Dark Tracker]

They were a pair of small little monsters the same size as Guillian and had the same features as Guillian.

However, instead of being not infected like the Mutation selling Chameleon, these guys were definitely infected by the Malaise.

Seeing as they were wearing ominous garbs in the form of black hood, shirt and pants that left the abdomens and upper arms revealed.

Holding a pair of knives with a long blade in its hands, the monster didn't let go of me yet as it pursued me with the desire to hunt.

'No you don't!'

Activating the shield of Cthulhu to drag me up from my prone position I switched to the broadsword in quick motions and slammed the blade down.

Impacting the ground, the vibrations in my arm told me that the pair of Dark trackers had dodged the attack unlike other monsters that would usually tank the hit due to low intelligence.

'What?'

As I was confused, the Dark trackers took this chance to attack my vulnerable back.

Quickly realizing my mistake, it was to late to manifest a shield in protection, so I did the next best thing.

Feeling the edge of the blade bite into my left forearm I grit my teeth and put away the broadsword and paid the monster in kind with an incredibly powerful punch.

Feeling the satisfying sensation of the enemy's bones cracking under the blow, I didn't forget the other dark tracker and quickly brought out my Rampart.

Just in the nick of time as the other leaped from above, holding both blades in a reverse grip.

Swinging my shield, I deflected the blades aiming for my life and stabbed forwards with my blade.

As the sensation of steel cutting flesh ran through my hands, I threw a magnet grenade behind me without looking and continued to cut up the monster impaled on top of my blade.

Turning the Dark Tracker into bits of flesh and bone on the ground, I quickly turned around and spun the blade in my hand into a reverse grip.

Stabbing it at the Dark Tracker that was caught in the pull of the Magnet Grenade, the sensation of my blade cutting through flesh told me the blade landed where it was supposed to.

Turning around, I confirmed that fact.

Grinning as I successfully slayed a new foe with relative ease without counting the spiky backed turtle monster that I destroyed with the Blood fire.

That grin quickly disappeared upon noticing a few more monsters appearing from the distance.

'Yeah no' Turning around to avoid the confrontation as I was already injured from the battle with the Dark Trackers.

A Fiery figure appeared right behind me.

'Nope!'

Quickly turning again because I was soon going to be surrounded on two sides, I turned to the other free path left.

And as if fate was mocking me...

More malaise infected monsters were arriving from that hallway.

Blinking at that sight, I turned to the final path way in the cross road of four halls in the Ash filled Ossuary, I let out a sigh.

From that direction another monster was arriving, luckily it wasn't another Inferno Spirit and it was only one.

Slightly relieved, I looked at it's name and cursed again upon seeing the additional elite tag.

"Fuck"

Spinning my sword in my hands, I looked at my enemies and thought about using the blood sword before getting rid of that idea.

'I should use it when they're all gathered together'

Staring with slightly anxious eyes, my heart beat furiously against my chest.

And as if noticing my gaze, from all four directions, the monsters screeched loudly and ran to attack.

Who would've thought that I would've regretted doing that when I realized in the heat of battle that one of my opponents was made of the fire that I thought about using.

But in the heat of battle it was to late for regret.

---

"So we meet again..."

Cherry brandished her Broadsword with both hands as she stared at the Knight in Silver armor wearing the coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Malaise.

However, that coat of arms had been clawed out.

A raspy and dry voice replied to her. "Yes... I guess we meet again Royal Bodyguard Rose..."

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