Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

Variant(2)

The variant lizardman didn't try to stop them this time but had it's full focus on me. For good reason too as unlike before when Hroldar was not really a threat to it's life since he was so slow I had it effectively trapped. Any animal no matter how stupid understood this was bad and this thing was no base animal in terms of intelligence. Unlike a normal monster that would charge me recklessly this variant was clearly wary of me even though I was definitely a lower level than it was.-

It was misunderstanding something however in that while I was confident in surviving this confrontation and stalling for Hroldar I absolutely refused to believe I could kill it without a serious personal cost. It seemed to think I was hiding my power since I had opted for being here alone and was trying to trick it but I really wasn't. Like all monsters though the beast soon got impatient and broke the staring contest to attack. It blurred through the air with a flap of it's wings and swung it's blade at me as hard as it could.-

I barely readjusted my weapon to block the strike but was launched flying to the side from the almost level five force. My arm also dislocated but a quick flex of my technique fixed that instantly. The monster breathed in deeply and it's chest expanded before it exhaled a stream of green flames at me that I instinctively knew I did NOT want to get hit with. A fierce blast of flame from my side sent me flying out of the trajectory of the attack and I thanked my instincts as I saw the aftermath of the strange fire. It turns out it wasn't even fire but a cloud of acid that looked like it.-

The stuff sizzled angrily on the ice and was actually eating through it at a slow but visible rate. Compared to my ice I highly doubted it would have so little effect on me. 

'Fuck, that counters my technique and self healing ability perfectly!' I cursed mentally as I sent a blast of fire at the beast in a counter attack as well as a smoke screen of sorts.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

I wasn't surprised when the thing dodged the attack as I hadn't expected it to just take it. When it did dodge however I was already mid swing with my weapon as the edge of the axe side glimmered with erasure.-

It red eyes of the beast narrowed in instinctual fear and it lashed out with it's blade hoping to force me to block but I was more than willing to trade physical wounds in a normally suicidal fashion. I was pumping RCT for all it was worth as the blade cleaved through my side, organs, spine and out the other side all in one smooth motion. To anyone not in the know it would appear as though I was intangible as the blade went through me leaving no damage behind.-

The truth however was that I had burnt through a massive amount of energy instantly repairing the damage done the moment it occurred as the blade went through me. That didn't mean it didn't absolutely suck ass though as getting cleaved in half was really fucking painful. The look of confused terror in the beasts eyes as it felt it's blade land but fail to leave any damage behind all without stopping my own attack was not a surprise at all. Even at the very last moment the beasts better stats showed through as it moved to lessen the damage of my attack to be nonlethal.-

My axe head sliced smoothly through the hard scales of the beasts right side and across it's chest easily an inch deep before I switched from a thin edge of erasure to a beam that ALMOST killed it if it hadn't moved over at the last second. Rather than hitting it's magic stone like I had hoped I put a gash across it's chest and a hole going through it to the left of it's core. Painful? Yes. Fatal? Not even close!-

'Well that tricks out now.' I thought with a sigh.

It hadn't known I could do this and fell victim to this trick as a result but now that it did know there was no chance in hell it'd fall for it again. Knowing this I switched tactic and coated my body in intense flames that "peeled" off to form a human shaped clone of flames as I chose to utilize one of my trump cards. One me flame clone after another "peeled" off of me until there was five standing near me. The variant disregarded the gaping hole in it's chest and watched this warily as it was now very cautious of anything I did.-

"Scatter and overwhelm!" I spoke driving my will into each of the flame clones that obeyed.

This use of my flames utilized the "alive" factor of them in addition to my will to effectively create extremely fast and dangerous "phantoms" of me that could act independently of me to a degree but only in simple fashion. Against groups they aren't nearly as dangerous as just releasing a wave of flame. But against single tough opponents like this variant they shined as their speed that was greater than my own as well as the fact they needed but a touch to cause ignition meant they served to tax the enemies senses heavily.-

As the variant soon discovered physical attacks were useless against these flame phantoms as they had no physical weakness to strike. They were pure flame and never has stabbing a flame or slashing one ever done anything to harm it. The fact the things moved on their own also meant that you couldn't just focus on one but had to pay attention to all of them or risk getting hit.-

There was a downside to this trump card of mine however in that it took my full concentration as well as a considerable amount of energy to maintain. I was literally burning through my energy reserve with this move but it was clearly effective as the variant was on the ropes as it got swarmed by these nightmarish things. I didn't break my focus as I reached into my bag and took out a lesser mana potion and downed it causing my cursed energy regeneration to surge. All things had a breaking point however and after failing to dodge one of my flame clones the clone detonated itself to engulf the variant in flames.-

Unfortunately the thing was tough as fucking nails and to my surprise had created a burst of acid from it's body that shed off the flames while simultaneously creating a hole in my cage that it wasted no time at all fleeing through. I didn't bother chasing it as I knew it was faster than I was and there was no point. I breathed out and condensed my flames back to me between my palms before snuffing them out. I doubted this would be the last I heard of that variant but for now victory was mine if only just barely.