"Whoa!"
Fenris stumbled, clutching the beast beneath him tightly with his claws. They traveled at a great and haphazard speed. Not on land, but in mid-air.
"Enough of this," Fenris muttered, stabbing the beast in the neck. It screeched, the sound echoing through the magma cave as both of them soared.
With its bat-like wings, it flapped wildly, crashing into the rough, heated walls, trying to shake Fenris off.
Grunting through the impacts, Fenris persisted, stabbing the creature again with his other hand, also in the neck.
It screeched even louder. Like the reins of a horse, Fenris steered the creature toward the ground. They both crashed and tumbled, but Fenris held onto the creature's neck as it struggled for freedom.
Fenris didn't let it succeed. Its neck leaked magma-like blood. Fenris's hands should have been burning.
But the elemental heart he had consumed protected him—somewhat.
"Ahhhhh!" With a scream, he pulled and leaned back. The creature's neck followed. In a heated tug of war, Fenris came out victorious, decapitating the monster.
He screamed again, a mixture of a howl and a roar tearing from the top of his lungs.
"Finally." He threw the large creature to the side and looked around. Over a dozen more lay dead, courtesy of him.
They were about five times his size and took on the appearance of a rocky, fiery hybrid bat.
The book about the traveler hadn't mentioned this version of the elementals. Maybe he had missed it. It didn't have a name, so he had dubbed them one:
Guardians.
He felt a slight shift in his pocket, then reached for it. His map began to burn with new symbols. A flaming bat, with its dubbed name below.
"Incredible," Fenris said, astounded. This was a sort of first for him. Or was it? It seemed the world was reacting to him in more ways than one. His eyes wandered to the snowy field shown on the map above. Other symbols with names appeared:
Lesser Ice Elementals and Greater Ice Elementals.
"When had these shown up? When I encountered them, or when I killed them?"
Fenris's ears picked up more screeching in the far distance. It was hard to tell time in this underground cave of flowing magma. He looked to his map—the only way out was through.
"Not a problem. But before I do…"
Fenris lunged a hand into one of the Guardian's corpses and pulled out an object.
A core rested in his hand, far smaller than the ice giant elemental's, obviously. And this one radiated a gentle heat.
He wouldn't consume it just yet. He had to wait.
"Or maybe I could just speed things along," Fenris said.
He dropped the core, then clenched his fist. His dark claws protruded from the other side. He flinched, but only slightly.
"Not enough."
Rolling up his sleeves, he slashed his arm repeatedly, digging deeper and deeper, tearing through bone and tendon.
"AHHHHHH!" he roared, almost collapsing to his knees. Now that hurt.
As his blood dripped to the hot ground and slowly hissed into steam, Fenris felt his stomach churn, and the piercing cold protecting him dissipated.
The heat was harsher than he remembered. Or maybe it was because he was deeper in the cave.
He picked up the core from the Guardian's remains and split it in two. Just like with the ice elementals, there was a heart inside this one too—but it was brighter and hotter.
He braced for pain before devouring its heart, and there was pain. But it was different from the ice elemental's.
Like before, power traveled and burst through him. But this wasn't chilling nor was it patient.
Fenris couldn't help but smirk. He wasn't sure why, but something about this just felt right.
Without explanation or reason, he swung at nothing repeatedly, rapidly and violently, chuckling as he did. Embers trailed from the tips of his dark claws with each strike.
With one final swing of both claws, the fiery power within him vanished.
"The power… it burns quickly. Like a flame."
He was eager to try it again, to feel the uncontainable rush of power. But he resisted. There were effects to taking multiple in a short time.
Fenris grabbed his chest as he felt a strain in his heart—unusual for his kind. It did make him wonder what would happen if a human were to take them.
One of the Guardian's corpses twitched, gaining Fenris's attention, its decapitated head reforming.
"Damn," he cursed, removing the creature's core—and the rest. As he did, a thought occurred to him.
"Is this what taking potions is like?"
Hunters, soldiers, even regular humans such as farmers took potions to enhance their strength or other capabilities to new levels to accomplish a task.
There were side effects, such as strain or even addiction. It did seem to correspond with Fenris's behaviors. But he wouldn't truly know. Potions didn't work on werewolves.
"Maybe I can dilute the effects. But getting blessed water from the Aqua Kingdom may be a hassle."
"Lycan's a noble and Gwendolyn's a witch. Surely one of them would have it."
"Too bad I'm not on good terms with either of them."
For one of the first few times, Fenris was beginning to regret his lack of social norms.
Ripping the last of the Guardian's cores, he placed them in his dimensional pouch for later use. Some of the ice elemental cores remained as well. He wasn't in a rush to use those anytime soon.
He continued to walk through the cave. His sight and hearing were slowly coming back.
As he walked, he constantly clenched his fists, trying to confirm something.
"I'm different," he whispered, somewhat excited.
Earlier, he had compared consuming the cores of the elementals to drinking potions. But something did differ.
He felt it in his bones, clenching his fists even harder. The sturdiness—the durability he felt when consuming the ice elemental cores—remained. Not completely, more like a remnant of its power.
But it was there.
"I consumed what… ten of those ice elemental cores. What happens if I do the same with the Guardians'?"
He thought back to the moment of consuming it.
"Would my speed increase? Or maybe my agility? Or would my emotions also be permanently altered like before?".
He stopped at an opening, taking cover along the side of the cave. The flying bat-like creatures swirled in a massive magma landscape, curling all around.
Protecting elemental cores and transporting them to other locations—the very reason he called them Guardians in the first place. By his count, there were dozens of them, close to a hundred.
He contemplated. "Should I… attack them?" Fenris had come to this world to acquire power. However, he wasn't stupid, nor was he invincible.
The giant bats' screeches weren't just intimidating—they also acted as a form of calling, like a wolf's howl. If he did attack, it wouldn't take long for more of the Guardians to appear.
He could be fighting several hundreds. Besides, he had his sights set on something else. His eyes shifted forward, toward an area covered by a dome, the inside blurry.
Its formation reminded Fenris of the barrier surrounding Lycan's castle in his world. Fenris opened his map. It was one of the safe zones.
Fighting the Guardians might not have been optimal, but it didn't look like he had much of a choice.
When one spotted him, the rest would attack in an omnidirectional assault.
Which left a question: could he fight them all while making his way to the safe zone?
"If the moon was out, definitely," Fenris said to himself. "Wait, does this world even have a moon?"
He let out an impatient sigh. He had spent too much time thinking. Opening his pouch, he brought out all the cores of the slain Guardians.
If he was going to make it to the safe zone, he'd need all the power and speed he could get. He broke a core and fed on its heart—but he didn't stop at one.
He fed on them all, feeling a mix of unfathomable gluttony and almost pleasurable pain. He dropped the final core. The heat overwhelmed him. Each core he took didn't just add to his power—it greatly expanded it.
He roared, his voice echoing through the caves. The Guardians saw him, but it didn't matter. In a blur, Fenris dashed toward them, embers trailing behind him.
They descended on him. He leaped toward them, landing on their backs, mauling their wings, their necks—anything and everything.
As one crashed, Fenris leaped onto another, repeating the process over and over, steering and crashing them into one another.
Fenris barked, roared, and chuckled like a madman as he rigorously tore into the Guardians one by one.
"More… more," he whispered coldly. The sparkling embers surrounding Fenris grew chaotic. His irises didn't glow golden but flickered like flame.
He leaped to another. His claws and fangs were slightly aflame, burning brighter by the second.
A loud screech. Fenris was knocked down by one of the Guardians. He was picked up by another, crashing and scraping his body through the cave walls.
He was tossed to another Guardian and another, mauled and played with as if he were their prey.
"ENOUGH!" Fenris roared. A burst of flames erupted from him. A claw from a Guardian crumbled to stone. Fenris landed from high above—bones cracked.
He stood, his bruises and scrapes down to the bone and muscle sealing up or burning, revealing a new layer of skin.
"How dare they," Fenris whispered, vexed, ready to fight. The Guardians' screeches grew louder and echoed, along with the flapping of huge wings.
They surrounded him from above in a circle. Hundreds of Guardians gazed down upon him. Sweat ran down his cheeks as he moved back on instinct.This was exactly what he feared. His eyes trailed behind him—the safe zone. It was still far away, but he could make it.
He dashed toward it in a fiery blur. The Guardians chased him. One belched out a constant stream of magma toward Fenris, almost hitting him.
Another followed, then another. Each time, the magma became brighter, larger, more powerful—more erratic.
All the Guardians had joined in, releasing their magma attacks, turning them into a unified energy blast—wide and large, covering the entire width of the cave.
Incinerating everything as it moved, Fenris felt the indescribable heat from behind.
"If that thing touches me, I'll be nothing but ash," he said, fearful.
The safe zone drew closer, but Fenris's heart skipped a beat. The fire within him began to dwindle. His speed and power—he felt them leaving him.
"No, no! Not yet," Fenris roared. "Just a little longer!"
The beam of magma drew closer, the safe zone barrier still farther ahead.
"I'm not going to make it."
Then Fenris felt power once more. Not from the fiery kind, but one he knew well. Luminous rays shone through the cracks of the underground walls.
"Moonlight," he said, relieved, his hide emerging.
Using both sources of power—moonlight and elemental flames—Fenris charged with all his might.
His speed hastened. The barrier to the safe zone was closer than ever.
"Now!" he screamed, leaping forward, still leaving a trail of embers, though it began to fade. Fenris crossed the barrier, tumbling, then pushing himself back to his feet, panting heavily.
The magma attack crashed and dissipated against the barrier. The Guardians stopped their assault, staring at Fenris—or perhaps into nothingness—before flapping away.
Fenris chuckled victoriously before dropping to one knee and grabbing his chest tightly, gasping for air, a sly smirk forming.
"What a rush," he said, still gasping. He felt a swirling mix of emotions: fear, relief, but also excitement. Yes, he had almost died—but he had survived, doing something he could never have even dreamed of.
"When was the last time I had such fun?"
He stood and looked around, trying to figure out just what this safe zone was. He raised an eyebrow.
"A city?"