Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

Ike leaped out of the round room and ran to the battlements. Fire blazed in the forest. Dark figures streamed through the trees, setting them alight as they passed. Their black, charcoal bodies blazed with flames. Horns pushed through their foreheads. Red-hot cracks blazed through their blackened skin. The humanoid monsters' huge bodies smashed trees aside, and their claws thrashed through the undergrowth.

From the castle, he could see the other castles, as well. The castles where the large pig or boar had charged directly through the forest toward the castle were crawling with the flaming monsters. They poured down those open avenues all the way up to the castle walls. The other cities hit them with cannons and spell formations, but there were just too many monsters. Every time their attacks wiped them out, another hundred monsters poured in.

Of course, the downside on ours is that the forest is on fire, now, Ike noted to himself. He stepped up onto the crenelations, preparing to jump down.

"Fire? Damn. I won't hold them long at the river pass, even with my fireproof thread," Wisp complained. "It's still thread, at the end of the day. Too much fire will overwhelm it."

"Hold as long as you can. Let me know when you need to fall back," Ike said. He leaped out, and Wisp hopped out beside him. The two of them raced to the river crossing.

The burning monsters rushed to the river's edge, then leaped over it all at once. By the time they arrived, several of them were already caught in Wisp's web. Some had overrun the boundaries, racing toward the castle. Ike patted Wisp's shoulder. "You hold the river, I'll run down the strays."

"You got it." Wisp transformed into a giant spider and leaped into the fray. The fire monsters charged her, only to find themselves on the wrong side of eight sharp-tipped legs and a pair of venomous fangs, to boot. Cinders flew as Wisp eviscerated the monsters. The ones already in her web received a shot of venom as she passed by, enough to incapacitate, if not kill outright.

Ike raced after the escaped fire monsters. The first one turned back just as he arrived. His blazing-red eyes met Ike's for just long enough for him to realize what was coming his way, before Ike landed a Shockwave Punch on his jaw. The monster's charcoal body shook apart, and glowing embers spilled on the ground. The next two turned around, planting their feet and charging toward Ike instead. Ike grinned. He slammed his foot down and blasted forward. Before they were ready, he'd already drawn even with them. His sword flashed twice, left, right, and the monster's heads hit the ground.

Dashing through the woods, Ike chased down the rest of the escaped fire monsters. They were too slow to handle him, and couldn't do anything about his attacks in time to matter. He slayed them, one after another. Embers scattered around the forest. One after another, fires scattered around the forest. Smoke clouded the air, and heat beat at Ike's body. He summoned Storm Clad, not because he needed the physical boost or the lightning, but because he was choking on smoke and burning from the heat of the flames.

Running to a clear point in the forest, Ike waved his hands. "Mag!"

"What?" Mag hurtled from the sky and landed beside him.

"Do you have any water techniques? Any skills that will suppress the fire?"

Mag wrinkled his nose. He hopped in place a bit, then nodded. "I have something I can use. It's a bit flashy, though."

"Flashy is fine. We need to get this fire under control," Ike said.

Nodding, Mag leaped into the air. The rush of his wings blasted against Ike's skin, and then he was gone.

Ike lifted a hand to his eyes to peer after the bird. Mag flew up, up, up, then paused. He hovered over the battlefield, watching it from above. As he hovered there, he took a deep breath, and kept breathing in. His body inflated. His chest, his stomach, his limbs, the whole thing swelling up until he was all but a ball, with only nubs for his head and limbs. He hauled back, then let out a blast of air all at once.

Wind rushed through the forest. The flames blew away. Not out, but just away, as the wind changed and the weather shifted to meet Mag's will. A cold, wet wind blew from behind him, and the flames rushed before it. The fire spread into Rufus' territory from Ike's. As more fires spawned in Ike's territory, they continued to blow Rufus' direction as the wind maintained its new direction.

Ike gave Mag a thumbs up. "Great job!"

Back to his normal size, Mag hung in the air, visibly winded, his cheeks cherry red. At Ike's encouragement, though, he perked up enough to preen, tossing his hair in pride. "That's right. Be amazed by the magnificent Mag!"

With the flames taken care of, there was nothing to hold him back from charging back into the fray. Ike rushed in, once more playing sweeper to Wisp's defense. Between the two of them, they managed to stem the flow of monsters. The few who got past them were swiftly taken care of by Mag or the castle's defenses. The fire blew toward his opponents, and Ike had no trouble with fighting off the fire monsters. If anything, they were too weak. They felt weaker than the boars, individually. There were more of them, but that was it.

Maybe the balance is the fire that's supposed to be the real challenge? But Mag's skills had made a mockery of the fire. He shrugged to himself. If he had to battle the fire and the fire monsters at the same time, it would be difficult. But with the wind blowing the fire away and nothing but the monsters to deal with, they weren't very hard at all.

"There's no way this is all there is to this round," Ike muttered.

Wisp looked up from her webs. "Don't say that."

Right on cue, a visceral roar echoed from the depths of the forest. Wisp looked at Ike and shook her head at him, even if she had to turn her whole spider body to do it.

"Oh, come on. You know it's not my fault," Ike said.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Your fault. Totally your fault," Wisp said.

Heavy footsteps pounded through the forest, quickly growing closer. Ike stepped forward, and Wisp stood at his side. Tensing, Ike raised his sword. Now the real fight starts.