Arc | Chapter. 73: Against all Odds (Patreon)

Chapter. 73: Against all Odds

Ceylon gasped and the Hero of Flames chuckled.

“Well, whatever I was doing doesn’t really matter does it?”

“Funny,” Arc said coldly.

Then, the Hero of Flames was smashed against the ground, wood exploded into the surroundings as a small grunt was heard. Then, without hesitation his bleeding head was pulled before throwing him across the room and through the door⁠— kicking him out.

Ceylon looked in disbelief, then Arc turned to her some level of sadness in her face.

“Sorry I didn’t make it in time,” she said, walking slowly towards her.

Ceylon blinked. “Wait, what do you mean, you’re here⁠—”

And Arc knelt before her, touching her cheek. “You got injured, and that is my fault.” A bitter smile left her before sighing. Her thumb caressed Ceylon’s wound, and then she stood up. “Please try to relax.”

“Right.” Ceylon nodded awkwardly, only to realize the pain on her skin was no longer there.

She didn’t understand what happened, the area was almost… numb? Confused, she touched her cheek, but next thing she knew was that Arc had turned around and left. By the time Ceylon regained her wits, her friend was already stepping past the office doors.

And beyond that, laid the Hero of Flames. A man with a terrifying reputation.

Arc was strong, in fact⁠— she was incredibly strong after returning from her journey, Ceylon could just sense it, but somehow she was… unsure. Her heart rushed at the prospect of the fight that was about to occur, and in the end ⁠— just like always ⁠— she hoped that Arc would be fine…

But…

Ceylon shook her head and smiled, touching her cheek.

This time was different.

Her smile shifted into a grin as she cheered.

“Beat his ass Arc!”

* * * * *

His name was Jaye, however his title was the Hero of Flames, his renown was known especially amongst those that lived in the previous century. Some people had called him the Devil of the Depths, others had called him the Primordial Spark, while he wasn’t the strongest of heroes he was still someone feared.

Someone respected, and someone that had a lot of experience in multitudes of battlefields, from fighting the Hero of Humanity, fighting the Heroine of Water, or even having a small dispute with the Hero of Arlas himself, managing to injure the man. Jaye was certain that he was one of the most experienced heroes when it came to fighting, and yet⁠—

He blocked a punch, his arms trembled as he was thrown crashing through a wooden wall, wallpaper and splinters flying through the air as he landed into a tumbling roll.

The situation was dire.

Jaye hastily stood up on guard, he was over level 170, that was over 20 levels more than the normal SS Tier individual, and yet even though Arc was still under his level ⁠— that he was certain ⁠— she could still match her strength. A smile appeared on his face as he ducked before punching forth.

Had he made a mistake?

A second later, like a blink, a fist landed on his face, the world immediately spun around him as he was thrown to the ground. He rolled, the world spinning around him and yet his mind was clear.

“Time frozen for 0.4 seconds, interesting.”

He commented, coming to a stop as he stood up. His mana wasn’t working, he was aware of that. The Hero of Flames that couldn’t use flames⁠— that was an interesting dynamic to him but it also wasn’t completely accurate. The mana within his body was frozen, but the same couldn’t be said about the air’s.

And the reason was simple.

With a smile he rubbed his fingers together, and side-stepped Arc, he could feel the heat gathering within his grip; the mana particles slowly gathering as Arc pressed on this time an ice sword appearing within her grip⁠, and without hesitation she swung⁠—

Jaye gasped and part of his shoulder was cleaved⁠— instantly freezing as a grunt left him. This situation was… dangerous⁠— much more dangerous than he expected. He was sure he could defeat peak form Arc, the Arc he first met but, this Arc, this Heroine of Frost was something else. This oppression…

His fingers continued to rub as a small orange light sparked.

Wasn’t this like the Heroine of Water’s⁠—?

And Arc swung sideways, Jaye raised his hand as a small orange stiletto dagger appeared, then the sword struck. A searing pain hit him as the sword still sliced into his arm, barely being stopped by the sizzling orange dagger. Arc’s eyes flashed with surprise for a moment, before Jaye sensed a change in mana, he dashed back and⁠—

A myriad of spikes exploded at his feet. Then, his eyes grew wide as he sensed a shift within the air⁠⁠— something⁠— it was familiar; it was the same move that had been used against the Hero of Shadows. An ice spear formed, the Hero of Flames threw his poultry dagger forward and exploded it, then the ice slammed.

Shards of ice pelted him as his heart skipped numerous beats, he rolled across the ground in a flaming mess, pieces of his outfit shredded as his breaths became shallow. It wasn’t a game. Arc’s SS Tier was incredibly strong, but there was also a very simple reason as to why he had come out alive out of all his encounters.

One simple skill, it didn’t need mana, not his mana anyway. It just needed his body.

He reached to the ground, and at that moment Arc appeared before him⁠— time had been stopped once more ⁠— already swinging upon his body and she struck. The slash carved into his clavicle as the Hero of Flames let out a painful grunt, his bones breaking as he nearly collapsed on the ground, his wound riddled with frostbite.

“Huh you’re sturdier than I thought,” Arc commented. “No matter, your life ends here now.”

She raised the sword in the air, and Jaye finally touched the ground.

This was one of his trump cards.

The skill that had saved him against the Hero of Water and turned the tides.

The skill that had surprised the Hero of Arlaws, Uwell.

A skill he had created himself…

And without hesitation his finger flicked⁠—

[Mana Ignition]!

In a single instant the room exploded into flames. A caldera like white spot emerged from the epicenter⁠. His whole body burst, the walls, the air, the ice⁠— and they froze in a single moment, the flames had come to a stop, but it was enough for the Hero of Flames to move away and begin to regenerate.

Of course it wasn’t that simple.

He watched as the flames around Arc quickly extinguished but the ones around the room continued to burn brightly.

He had thought that by making Arc come to him instead of chasing he could easily squish a loose thread. But looking at her he realized things had changed. It had been just over a month and now she was…

Stronger.

And half of the flames were extinguished. These flames were SS Tier, thanks to his boon, but… It clearly wasn’t enough. This was just the beginning. Shaking his head he stomped on the flames on the ground and in an instant his body became covered in a radiant gold. Twin swords appeared within his hand, and without hesitation he pushed.

He sliced down and Arc parried with a massive frown.

“Your skill is absolutely terrifying, and in fact I know it doesn’t take much mana.” The Hero of Flames sliced again, as Arc was pushed back. “But I also know that any drastic changes to the environment consume more mana than normal, with stopping my time being the largest culprit⁠—!”

He dashed gritting his teeth as a spear formed within Arc’s hand. Then, he slashed once more, Arc’s dexterous agility allowed her to parry with ease, and she spoke.

“You’re not wrong, but if it was that simple then I wouldn’t be confident in fighting you like this⁠—”

The Hero of Flames blinked and a spear stabbed through his chest. He coughed blood as he was thrown to the ground. Again⁠— And Arc flashed before him, her fist raised as it was covered in ice and she punched before he could react. Jaye grunted in pain and next thing he knew was⁠—

“Agh!”

His left arm flew through the air as blood splattered onto the ground. His mind calculated, each time stop was about a tenth of a second if not worse⁠— how!? Such fine mana control it was something similar to his and yet this newbie hero was matching up to that?!

A moment later, Arc stabbed him through the heart as a grunt of pain left him. How long had it been since that happened?! The flames engulfed him, trying to heal his wound to no avail. The ever-frozen spear permeated his being with a lasting and chilling cold. But, he wasn’t going to die, he knew that⁠—

His mana began to whirl within his body, ignoring whatever laws had been imposed on him. He wasn’t going to die. The fire began to go out of control. He didn’t want to use this skill, not in such a way, not for it to be forced, but he had no choice⁠—

The fire became nearly white and a moment later, he was thrown across the building, walls breaking and his limbs freezing with frostbite. From afar, he saw Arc raising her hand up, but it didn’t matter.

He wasn’t going to die like this!

And Arc brought her hand down.

* * * * *

[Judgment of the Ice God].

In a single moment a spear was brought down as the man exited into the street. Everything burst into an explosion of ice, all of the flames extinguished but I had a bad feeling⁠—

And flames came. A white ripple that engulfed over half of the area of [Frost, Stasis, Eternity and a Prophecy]. In a single moment the atmosphere became a scalding hot hell, I was apprehensive to even approach. That… was probably his trump card, and it didn’t take much of me to acknowledge that I couldn’t kill him.

A sigh left me as I took out a small black bead of my pocket.

I really wanted to kill him myself.

But in the end, I wasn’t strong enough. Not against his durability and battle senses. He had even read the entirety of my skill in less than a minute, but it didn’t bother me.

From within the flames a man came, some blood was still coming out of his mouth but it was still diminishing, the spears on his chest and heart were quickly melting. And a sigh left me. This was really, really annoying.

The Hero of Flames grinned at me. “Time for round two.”

I shook my head. “Round one hasn’t even ended.”

And with those words I shattered the bead within my grip, for him to see. Then the entirety of the world turned dark.

* * * * *

Jaye immediately sensed it, his danger senses blared like never before as  three more presences appeared. First he turned to the side where he saw a red dragon⁠— it was⁠—

[Dragon of Flames. Tier: ???]

And the Dragon of Flames and Herald of the First Flame fired⁠. Jaye wasn’t afraid, but the beam struck and he was thrown back to the edge of his dome of fire. He coughed a mouthful of blood from the impact, it really wasn’t all that much for him to bear.

That was her so-called round two⁠— no, there were more presences.

A moment later a person appeared from thin air, a weirdly dressed man in blue robes and bandages. Something Jaye didn’t understand, it was almost familiar. Something about his presence was almost… nostalgic.

The air seemed to cool down for a moment as a small amount of relaxation hit him.

Then a system notification came.

[Dragon of Water. Tier: SS]

Jaye blinked and a moment later the Dragon of Water pulled his staff, and he immediately felt his insides be rearranged⁠— flood began to flow from his eyes, nose and mouth. Then a moment

“So now the dragon version shows up!”

And he slammed, flames went everywhere as the Dragon of Water backed off. Jaye was stronger, he could deal with all of these people combined⁠⁠⁠—

And a gust of wind swept all the flames away, another dragon appeared as sharp blades of wind cut through his body in an instant, thousands of cuts appeared all around his body. He looked onward⁠.

[Dragon of Wind. Tier: SS]

“Tsk!” And he pushed his flames, consuming the neighboring air as fuel. “You mean nothing⁠—”

Then his vision darkened. His ears became muffled and a moment later he was slammed onto the ground by a barrage of shadows. This was⁠— and he was hit, slapped, his flesh was pulled as he was thrown across a shadowed world.

The Dragon of Shadow’s⁠—

The Hero of Flames spat a mouthful of blood as he was pierced through the stomach by a spike of shadows⁠.

“Enough!” He roared.

The flames exploded around him and immediately ended the skill, he found himself standing in the same spot still bleeding.

He was going to kill everyone here⁠—

And an ice spear hit him on the shoulder, shattering it as a scream of pain left him and pinning him to the wall of flames behind. Jaye blinked and then looked forward. Before him, the Dragon of Flames stood, the Dragon of Shadows, the Dragon of Water, and Arc, the Heroine of Frost. Three SS Tier beings and an S Tier being that could step into the next Tier.

All of them there to kill him.

It finally settled on him.

Jaye realized.

He couldn’t win.

But he wasn’t going to die either. Gritting his teeth his body began to fade into flames, looking at the Heroine of Frost.

“We shall see each other again⁠—”

She appeared behind him, her hand slamming him against the wall of flames as it froze over like glass. His body was actively vanishing and yet⁠— he coughed as his organs re-arranged, a super-heated beam of flames hit him breaking all of his bones and burning his skin, and then thousands of shadowed pins stabbed him as well as deadly currents of wind slashed him.

He screamed as only his head remained, and he was turned to face Arc. Who held a spear and she stabbed⁠— he vanished.

The Hero of Flames screamed as his eye was pierced, appearing in the castle tower. His skill forcefully came to an end as he flailed on the ground, blood pooling beneath him.

He was going to kill them!

Not once had he suffered such humiliation in the past. Not once had he felt like this⁠—

And his world began to darken as his screams died out. He didn’t even know if he could recover from these kind of injuries…

The wounds inflicted by the ice hadn’t healed.

Unlike other heroes he didn’t have a revival skill, so Jaye wondered…

Is this the end?

And he fainted.