Flames in the Mist

Val stood his ground defiantly as it shook beneath him. The shadow of a figure at least four meters tall lumbered towards him. Behind the enormous creature, another couple dozen obscured shadows approached. Flames were spreading behind and in front of him, but he needed it to be much hotter to dispel the murky shroud.

"Fuck me. You're a big one..." Val's brows raised subtly as the gargantuan figure came into sight. It was a genuinely monstrous sight. A man built like a bodybuilder scaled up in size, with pale gray skin covered in barnacles, sand, thick kelp, and other bits of the sea. The monstrous part was his upper body. His right arm seemed replaced with an enormous, dark gray crab claw as if chitinous shell fused to his flesh near his shoulder. His disproportionately small head that seemed fused to his shoulders held sunken, clouded eyes, only they did not appear as lifeless and dead as the pawns who barely reached his waist. The frightfully massive figure lumbered forward on amusingly small legs relative to his upper body. Still, they were nearly as thick as tree trunks.

"Be careful, that's a brute, the main assault force of the Draug. While not particularly smart, they are intelligent enough to lead the pawns." Muninn warned as she eyed the drowned giant.

Val regarded the approaching brute with a fiery gaze. At the very least, it appeared he was no less intimidating to the Draug, as the three pawns in front refused to advance any further. Without hesitation, the brute brought his massive claw down on the head of one of the pawns, ruthlessly crushing him. He issued a bellowing roar at the other two, and they quickly charged at Val, fear fueling their advance.

Val narrowed his eyes. "Intelligence, or simple brutality?"

Muninn tensed as she prepared to alight from his shoulder. "Does it matter?"

"Guess not." Val's magic surged, fueling his body as he moved with superhuman swiftness. In the span of a few seconds, he dodged the pairs' wild swings before liberating them both of their heads in two clean motions. The brute roared in anger, though Val was unmoved, glaring defiantly, fire danced beneath a fresh layer of blood along Tyrfing's length.

"Hey, you're going to need to call all of your friends if you want to kill me." Val, taking a mocking tone, taunted the brute who was now eying him cautiously. Seeing no reaction, Val swung his leg wide and kicked over one of the heads like a soccer ball, causing it to land at the brute's feet. The brute roared again, before speaking in a strange guttural language Val could not understand. Many of his soldiers raised their weapons and began shouting in response. Muninn eyed Val's demeanor with concern, as he looked to be enjoying himself.

"Yeah, no, I don't understand." Val called out.

Muninn looked thoughtful for a moment. "He was not speaking to you, that sounded like orders... I can't be sure, but I think he said, 'Whoever brings me the puny human's head will be blessed by the masters.'"

"Oh, good, so he's afraid of me." Not interested in waiting, Val raised an arm and discharged another couple of firebolts, igniting the last two kerosene tanks. Now the street was beginning to burn all around him as smoke and mist blended, noticeably warming the air.

Almost all of the pawns started to advance, wielding a variety of vicious weapons, barbed spears, jagged machete-like swords, crude axes. The only notable tactic was that they were moving as a group, fanning out to try to surround Val. However, he was not willing to allow them to do so. Taking a few steps back toward a battered car, he plucked the grenade he slipped onto his belt.

Val had a boss once whose favorite phrase was 'RTFM,' he would almost repeat it like a mantra. He had read the manual to be sure there were no surprises with the weapon. Val grabbed the pin, applied a small torque, and pulled hard, ripping out the pin and arming the fuse. He held it only for a moment before tossing it to land and roll beneath the feet of the quickly approaching crowd. They were hardly ten meters away from Val and all but ignored it, likely figuring it to be a rock of some sort, as he ducked behind the car. A loud and sudden boom resounded through the street, lasting only for a split second. He had barely caught the sound of a couple of pieces of small shrapnel striking the other side of the car.

Poking his head out, Val looked on with satisfaction. The crowd of pawns was in complete disarray. The grisly remains of those caught too close painted the street and their comrades. Most of them had been at least injured by the ejected shrapnel, some missing limbs, or bleeding profusely. The pawns on the periphery of the loose formation had been shielded by the bodies of immediate victims. Val took advantage of the situation and leaped upon them, claiming several more kills before they regained their senses.

Val grinned, enjoying, for the first time, the advantage of fighting a foe head-on, whose morale could be broken. The remaining pawns barely managed to defend themselves from his onslaught as they retreated back the way they came, trying to regroup. Not willing to follow them, but also not willing to let them go, Val picked up any fallen weapons and threw them with all his might. He was not terribly accurate, but with a little over a dozen trying to pack together, he had a big enough target. Val claimed a few more and injured many others. The brute roared at his soldiers as they retreated to them, clearly reminding them that they would die by his hand if not Val's.

A bizarre scene unfolded in the street as the handful of remaining pawns were trapped between their leader and Val, frozen by a primal fear of death.

"As I said, you're going to need more of your friends!" Val taunted, tossing in his hand, a somewhat round stone about the size of the grenade he had thrown. Unsure of what they had just experienced, the Draug pawns were terrified, fully trusting Val's bluff.

Val, despite his bravado, was beginning to grow concerned. He was trying to buy time for the flames to spread and rise higher, as well as to draw out more Draug. However, Val was unsure of how many there were but assumed there must be more. The flames would never be able to climb fast enough, with concern for his friend's safety on his mind.

*I can cast maybe four or five more firebolts before it'll really start to cost me...* Val noted he was starting to feel Tyrfing's tax more and more, exertion brought beads of sweat to his back. His endurance and mana reserves were far higher than average, but not limitless. Were it not for the strange effects of the mist hampering his ability to draw magic from his surroundings, stalling would be a viable strategy.

A stalemate seemed to form in the street, neither side moved. Waiting was both good and bad for Val, as the mist had almost thinned out completely, but until it did, he could barely recover any magic through his brand. The Draug were clearly wary of the runeblade that had so easily cut down their reinforced flesh.

Muninn surveyed the scene carefully, trying to listen in on the strange language the brute was speaking to the few that remained behind him.

Nearly ten minutes had passed when Val heard the clattering of weapons and shuffling of feet behind him. About forty more Draug pawns had circled around to flank him, all much more eager than their brethren in front of Val. He frowned at the scene and glanced at Muninn, noting she was usually keeping an eye out for this sort of thing. Muninn herself looked worried. They stood in a T-intersection and had a path of retreat but only if they moved immediately.

"Super... Is this the whole party then—" Val paused, feeling the breeze shift suddenly and unnaturally. A grin returned to his face as he burned with renewed vigor. The street was more smoke than mist, and warm enough to almost be called pleasant. More importantly, the unnatural movement of the wind meant Asha could finally leverage her powers.

"Val—"

"Yeah, I noticed, only need to buy a bit more time." Val brandished his blade as the previously fear-struck pawns found their courage and charged at him together with their new allies. Leveraging one of his favorite cost-efficient tricks, Val ignited Sigil in his palm, temporarily blinding the pawns and slowing their advance.

He fought a retreating battle, using the spreading flames and abandoned vehicles as obstacles. The pawns were relentless this time. Chucking the rock hardly disturbed them, only buying him a little over ten seconds as they scrambled away from it, before quickly realizing no explosion was coming.

Val deflected blows, being forced to retreat back up the steep road as they continually tried to surround him. The gargantuan brute merely followed behind, cutting off the retreat path for his own soldiers. The pawns seemed to no longer fear for their lives. When Val disarmed one, instead of retrieving their weapon, they leaped at him in an attempt to pin him down. He moved quickly and without rest, disabling or dispatching any foe that stepped too far ahead of the others. When the latest pawn tried to grab him, he cleaved its skull in two and kicked the body into the oncoming crowd, further slowing them down.

When the Draug were halfway up the street, Val grinned, taking advantage of the nearly forty-five-degree incline. He raised a hand and poured almost half of what he had left into Thorn, invoking its power and sending a sweeping wall of pressure against the pawns. The frontline was blown from their feet. They slammed into their allies and caused many to tumble down toward the angry brute. The gargantuan monster casually picked up any who fell into his reach and hurled them at Val with incredible strength. The clumsily launched Draug projectiles secured several easy kills for Val but also cost him the entire stretch of road he had gained.

"Fucking hell... Where is Kainoa?! There's too many of them!" Val shouted as he weaved and stepped around stabbing spears, giving up ground at a steady pace. He had been pushed almost entirely up the hill and was close to losing his terrain advantage.

"We cannot hold this, retreat and we can regroup!" Muninn called down from the sky. She was looking for signs of Asha and Kainoa but had only spotted their empty truck parked a couple of blocks away.

"No! If this is all of them, it's now or never. We catch them off guard now. Next time, they'll be prepared!" Val poured his strength into Tyrfing, setting her ablaze as he beheaded two soldiers with a single wide-sweeping strike. The moment of satisfaction was cut short as one of the Draug used his beheaded comrades as a cover, thrusting a crude blade from under the fresh corpse's arm. The blade dug at least three inches into Val's ribs on his right side, piercing his armor and causing a stabbing pain as one of his lungs was punctured and threatened to collapse, causing him to exhale sharply.

"Val!" Muninn called as Val angrily brought his sword back along its path in a brutal swing and cleaved through both the corpse and the assailant's torso. Val quickly retreated, spewing bits of blood in painful hacking coughs.

"I'm fine!" Val's brand felt like it was on fire, breathing was painful, and he felt as if his very veins burned in his muscles as his mana reserves ran critically low. The brand was working in overdrive to gather magic and rapidly pump it into his body, causing the painful burning sensation.

He had been warned of the consequences of mana exhaustion, that it could lead to cascading organ failure if he was not careful. A body adjusted to operating under the benefits of magic became dependent on it. The body's internal homeostasis would go haywire in a much more dramatic fashion. System after system would collapse without the mana to fuel the enhanced operation the body now required. Finally, out of options, Val cut off his mana supply to Tyrfing, causing the runes along its length to flare for only another moment, before slowly being extinguished. Seeing the runeblade darken, the Draug were emboldened.

Val had claimed nearly half of the combined forces of Draug. He glared with as much killing intent in his fiery eyes as he could muster, clutching his injury with his left hand as he stood at the top of the steep road. They approached cautiously, as a throaty growling noise carried from the Draug brute, though by the undulating sound, it seemed to him as if the monstrous figure was chuckling. After nearly a half-hour of continually fighting an uphill battle, the brute seemed satisfied at the sight of finally wearing down his prey.