"you must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame;
how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?"
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Ven leaned back. A razor-fine spear of acid slipped past his face. His body angled, and he launched himself at the nearest pillar of rock. The vast yellow column rose beyond sight, and it was Ven's only chance to counterattack his yellow-green tormentor.
The power of my cores is amazing, but...
Without his aura, Ven couldn't fly. The two energies were incompatible, but Ven needed to battle an airborne opponent. So he dodged back and forth , forced to evade the fly's attacks as he sought higher ground.
The heady rush that came from his inner world still tainted his thoughts, but Ven kept it in check as he darted up the sheer rock face. His foe maintained its distance and launched attacks, both above and below his path. Ven ran in a spiral. His feet carved small craters into the stone as he corkscrewed up the tower.
The acidic spears gouged huge swaths from the pillar and filled the air with heavy yellow dust. Ven stayed a step ahead of the deluge, but his skin burned. Invisible flames licked every inch of him, and small patches of muscle screamed, exposed to open air.
Even when I avoid them, the area of effect is too large. The acid mist that lingered after the attacks chipped away at his defenses. Even with the extra boost from his cores, his regeneration couldn't keep up.
"More..." Ven pulled harder and increased the flow from his cores. The stream became a tide. The energy folded up into a tsunami and crashed through his body. Vendak's eyes glowed white, the void at their center transformed into pinpricks. His speed multiplied once more, and the world blurred around him.
"MORE!"
The spears of compressed acid closed in around him and Ven became a needle. He weaved through the maelstrom, a step ahead of the fly's attacks. His muscles screamed, and cracks formed across his skin. White light billowed from beneath his robes, uncontained energy that ruptured its way into the world.
Blood filled his mouth, sweeter than he remembered. Ven pressed against the resisting air, a wall that he had to shatter with each step. The world around him was still, save for the spears that inched through the air. They no longer traveled in a blur.
I'll kill myself before the fly does at this point...
After what seemed like minutes, Ven had pressed higher than the golden fly. He eyed the insect, which had lost sight of him as he accelerated up the rock.
"Time to pay, you bastard…" Ven muttered. He drew yet more power into his body and his steps faltered. He opened his mouth and exhaled a thick stream of white light, an involuntary release of the pressure that boiled him alive.
The beam caved a thick channel in the rock ahead and launched him backward. Separated from both his mask and the stone column, Ven flipped to face the ground. That hurt... yet it was also something he could use.
He aimed towards his target and overstuffed himself with energy. The massive fly turned its head upward, its movements comically slow. No escape for you, bud… Ven aimed himself, head first, toward the insect king. As the power rammed its way through his body, one of his hands exploded, a cascade of energy that shifted Ven off target.
"Grrrrrr," Ven grit his teeth and struggled with all his might. He pressed against the power, guided it back into line. Vendak led a bull down a broken path and smiled.
"Say hello to the devil for me," Light spilled from Ven's mouth, another cannon of untamed energy that split the skies. It shaved away his teeth and lanced through the air, a meteor that had only one purpose.
The Fly King twisted, a feat that shocked Ven. The creature's wings accelerated, and it pulled to the side. The beam screamed past, followed by multiple sonic booms. The ground below sundered to dust and billowed into the air, a veil that hid Ven's results from sight.
He fell, his body a collapsed husk, one arm severed at the elbow. The light that filled him was gone. His cores, empty wells, provided him with nothing more. Unable to move, Ven called on his aura, comforted by its smooth caress. He drew in the energy around him and floated, motionless in the air.
The world was still silent, though he no longer moved faster than sound could travel. Ven squinted into the dust, careful as it began to clear on the wind. The artificial cloud dispersed, and Ven gazed at what remained of his enemy.
The great fly still hovered in the air, not far from where the attack had passed. Half of its body was missing, erased from existence. The edges of its wound were orange-white and radiated intense heat. The massive segmented eye that still existed glared up at him.
"This thing refuses to die..." Ven took a deep breath. He was out of gas. It took everything he had to stay in the air. Fighting wasn't an option. Ven let himself fall and guided his path toward the gate that led him here.
The fly followed him with its eye. The massive wound had already begun to heal. Within minutes, Ven suspected the creature would be whole once more. He planned to be long gone by then. He drifted closer to his escape and the Fly King chittered in rage, but it did not move.
"I'll see you again," Ven grinned and forced one arm up in a wave. "Next time I won't miss."
Ven lowered himself through the gate, into the comparative safety of the tunnels, and thudded to the ground. Every part of him was filled with broken glass. A river of jagged fire that circled his body like a snake. His mind screamed at him to sleep, but he turned around and placed his hands on the door.
"I hope Rafe is still on the other side..."
The halfling could rot, for all Ven cared. Maybe a big pack of monsters would devour the little man before he could find another exit. Unlikely, but the thought filled him with a morbid joy.
"After I heal up, I'm going to drink that bastard's blood like soup."
Ven pressed with everything that remained to him, and the stone doors inched closed. As the crack sealed shut, the wrathful cries of the insect king thundered out, only to be silenced as the door finally closed. Some kind of mechanism clicked. Ven prayed it was a lock as he fell to the ground.
"Time for a nap..." Ven's eyes slid shut, and darkness wrapped him up, a blanket for his weary mind.
***************************************************
"Impressive," Rafe said, his foot extended to poke Ven in the forehead "I've never seen anything like it." The halfling spun Ven's silver mask between his fingers. He'd recovered it after the idiot had overcharged himself into oblivion.
"This moron can do so much, and he's barely able to call on his cores without destroying himself." He reached out and grabbed Ven by the hair. "Once he learns how to properly use the power..." Rafe frowned. If Ven was left to grow, he may be the first non-dragon to make it beyond the power of an Earth-Deity, at least on this planet.
"Whatever, that's for Aangor to worry about." Rafe smiled and dragged Vendak down the tunnel like a sack. "All I have to do is make sure he stays alive long enough to do what we need him to do."
He skipped forward and jerked Ven behind him as he hummed to himself. None of the monsters they passed noticed either of them, and Rafe even jumped onto some of them to save time.
"You better be worth it," Rafe spared a glance toward Ven. "If Ooulin died for nothing, I'll kill you myself."