Ifrit grinned at the incoming colossal spike as he loosened his fist and swerved around the spike as if he was pole dancing around it. At the same time, Ifrit scratched the giant projectile’s surface, leaving behind claw marks with a touch of his magic.
The moment he let go of it, the spike exploded silently like a distant firework in the barren ice wasteland.
Ice Father Porkcupine was intelligent to know that his attack failed and shooting again would inevitably be futile. Hence, he decided to do something different by separating his spikes again and shot them out like a fusillade.
The only difference was that each of the spike was similar to a shot from a flak cannon. Each time Ice Father Porkcupine released a spike, it would pop at a specific range, causing multiple ice shards to disperse in mid air.
Initially, Ifrit thought that dodging the spike would be sufficient, but when it found out the secondary function of the beast’s attack, he got even more glad that the Giant existed. “And here I thought I would not have fun hunting you,” Ifrit caught an ice shard with his teeth and chew on it.
The Fire Shaitan then conjured a ring of fire around him, allowing it to rotate repeatedly with his body as the axis, destroying the rest of the dispersed ice shards.
But preventing those attacks were not enough, Ifrit wanted Ice Father Porkcupine to be afraid of him, especially when the beast dared to provoke him.
So, he summoned the second ring of fire, making it to his prey. It did not take long for the Porkcupine to realised that his enemy had decided to perform a long range attack. To him, the Porckcupine believed that his attacks were working as intended.
Thus the Giant of Giants decided to fire more intensely, especially since Ifrit was stationary. He increased the rate of his attack as well as cleverly mixing a mix of solid spikes and the popping spikes in hopes that Ifrit would be overwhelmed by it.
Yet Ifrit was not fazed by these puny ice shards; instead, he hovered over the giant pig and loosen his fingers before squeezing the ring of fire. As if another dimension had opened from the ring, the secondary Ring of Fire subsequently released a waterfall of lava onto the Porkcupine itself. The Boar did not realised it at first and thought the pain was from his spikes since he was concentrating firing everything he got outwards.
But when Ice Father Porkcupine felt more than just a burning sensation, he then figured something was off and decided to run to seek for cover.
“Hahahahaha! What fun! Where are you going to hide? Everything is all too small for you, little pig.” Ifrit said as he eventually stopped the lava and turned the ring of fire into a bow. “Let’s see if I am still proficient with this weapon.” The bow eventually became the very same one that Ifrit loaned Flame Ripper, except this time it was magnified to fit his human sized hands.
Although Flame Ripper had transformed to Ifrit, the body was still Flame Ripper’s despite the change in size. So, to a certain degree, what Ifrit was doing was based on Flame Ripper’s finesse. Naturally, the Shaitan transformation did give Flame Ripper a boost in his body’s makeup so Ifrit should not have any trouble missing a large target.
The bow was drawn and set loose the moment the Shaitan of Unyielding Flames had the sights on the running animal. His blood boiled with excitement to see the arrow flying to catch on the Porkcupine. “Ahh, the Thrill of the hunt. It’s been such a long time since I had a prey to play with.” Ifrit giggled to himself
When the arrow was let loose, it flew and burnt brightly in the cold evening like a phoenix illuminating the dark skies… before it struck on right between Ice Father Porkcupine’s butt. The beast let out an eerie snort and to Ifrit’s pleasant surprise, the Boar did not run for long as he turned and faced the Fire Shaitan.
It later dawned on him that the prey was never going to run away at all, he was preparing itself for a jump! A run and leap to hit the stationary floating human sized powerhouse. With his size, Father Porkcupine thought that such a feat was possible, hoping that it knocked him out of the sky and trample on him subsequently.
However what gave Father Porkcupine such confidence was the most unexpected ability he’s keeping. The capability to roll in midair and shoot his spikes as and when he wanted. He knew Ifrit would be dodging but would he anticipate a midair attack by the Porkcupine?
Ifrit was assuming that simple hit and run concept from Father Porcupine and even entertained that thought process of his. The Fire Shatian stayed stationary while he unsuspectingly shot his arrows against the incoming charge.
And as Ice Father Porkcupine leapt into the air, Ifrit purposely gave a shocked face before placing his hands in front. The beast was cautious when he charged towards Ifrit and ready to turn in midair. But instead of evading, Ifrit surprisingly held on to the Giant Porkcupine via his nostrils.
“Too bad for you, you do not know the difference in our ability,” Ifrit said as his hands warmed up with heat and shot out a burst of flames right through his nostrils and into the Porkcupine’s lungs.
The flames were intense enough to spiral through his mouth, throat and later into his lungs and stomach. Any organ that connects to the mouth were torched. The output was so intense that there was a slight illumination of Ifrit’s flames within the lungs that could be seen from the outside of the beast’s body.
Ice Father Porkcupine tried to struggle but with it being stuck floating in mid air, there was nothing much it could do. He tried to release his spikes, but he needed air to release them out into the open, and that was one thing it was unable to receive especially when all the oxygen was consumed by Ifrit’s flames within his burning lungs.
The poor Porkcupine was gasping for air so hard that it eventually died from suffocation as his lungs were ultimately toasted.
“Oof! The smell of burnt meat! Flame Ripper, quickly kill it and bring it to your master or else, I would lose such a valuable dish!” Ifrit said he left Flame Ripper’s body as soon as he finished his sentence.
Because of the strength disparity from Ifrit, holding onto the near dead Porkcupine was not an option for Flame Ripper as he quickly released the dead beast and drew his dagger out. He was actually contemplating whether to stab the Giant Beast or wait until the Porkcupine reached the ground from the fall.
But instead of rational thoughts, instinct took over as he stabbed a few times the body a few times as if marking a temporary achievement for defeating the foe which every minion had trouble with, even Jin. But after a couple of deep stabs, the Porkcupine’s body dematerialised.
“Relax, Goblin Flame Ripper. While Shaitan Ifrit might not have been captured, the body he used is still yours. You belong to the System, and thus, the Porkcupine would be considered captured. System merely required some time to allocate space for the Giant Porkcupine to exist within the Guest Instance of the Sanctum of Worlds.” The System reported as Flame Ripper’s dagger subsequently absorbed the ‘data’ of the Ice Father Porkcupine into the System’s possession.
“Wait?! …WHAT? WHY NOW? I AM ACTUALLY NOT CONCERN ABOUT THAT! MORE OF THIS!” Flame Ripper instantly discerned that he was falling from a height that he might not actually survive with the lack of the Boar’s body to be his buffer. “System, TELEPORT ME OUT NOW!!” Flame Ripper shouted as he fell straight from the sky with nothing to break his fall.
If he had his Gearbox boots, it would not be an issue, but no, he did not.
The further and faster he fell, the more afraid Flame Ripper became and tried to break the fall as much as he could by rotating his body in hopes to executing some killing techniques to slow now the fall. (Even though he know that it was no use.)
The curb seemed nearer than it looked. And just as his face was barely a few centimetres away from hitting the curb, the System transported him back to the Sanctum of Worlds instance.
If it was a practical joke by the System, the dagger goblin concluded that it had succeeded very well.
