Cursed Devourer

Malik's body burned like a star amidst the battlefield wreckage, but even his flames were starting to dim.

Leo and Katya weren't just strong. They were coordinated, relentless, merciless.

He had fought powerful warriors before, but never two who complemented each other's abilities so perfectly.

Every time Malik countered one, the other struck at his blind spot. Every second forced him to adapt, dodge, counterattack, and anticipate the next move. He could feel his body struggling to keep up—his energy reserves weren't endless, and his regeneration had its limits.

Leo attacked first.

He twisted his blood-forged blade, transforming it into a serrated whip and sent it slashing toward Malik's midsection. Malik raised his sword to deflect, but Katya had already anticipated that.

She flicked her hand, and a spear of high-pressure water shot toward Malik's head, aiming for his eye.

Malik barely managed to twist mid-air, letting the spear graze his cheek, but that moment of distraction was enough.

Leo closed the distance in a blink.

His blood-whip coiled around Malik's left arm, tightened, and with a single yank—

RIP.

Malik's left arm was torn from his body, blood spraying in a thick arc.

His vision blurred for a fraction of a second as pain crashed over him, but he had no time to react before—

CRACK.

Katya's water blade materialized from the ground and sliced through his left leg, severing it cleanly at the thigh.

Malik collapsed, slamming onto the ground with a heavy thud.

His breathing was ragged, his vision hazy. The pain was immense, even with his regeneration already working to fix his mutilated body.

But there was no time.

Leo was moving in for the kill.

The blood sword in his hand twisted, narrowing into a deadly needle-sharp point aimed directly at Malik's heart.

This was it.

Leo dashed forward, a crimson blur, aiming to end Malik's life in one final thrust—

But Malik wasn't done yet.

He didn't have time to dodge. His flames were too slow. His body was still healing.

So he did the only thing he could.

Malik forced his divine flames into his eyes, compressing them into focused points of heat, directing them through his retinas, through the very nerves that allowed him to see.

A blinding gold-white glow filled his vision.

Then—

FWOOOOOOOSH!

Twin beams of pure, condensed divine fire exploded from Malik's eyes, moving at the speed of thought, a heat so intense it warped the air itself.

Leo's smirk vanished.

The beams struck dead center on his face.

His head melted in an instant—not just burned, but liquefied—his skull collapsing inward, his brain turning to bubbling molten mush before he even realised what was happening.

The blood blade he wielded dissolved mid-air, his body twitching for a brief moment before it collapsed lifelessly onto the ground.

Leo was dead.

The moment Leo's corpse hit the ground, Katya's scream tore through the battlefield.

It wasn't a cry of grief.

It was a cry of rage.

Of pure, unfathomable hatred.

The air shifted. The pressure dropped.

Malik barely had time to react before the battlefield exploded into an ocean of water.

A monsoon of impossible proportions burst into existence, the very land submerged beneath an endless abyss of water. Waves hundreds of meters high crashed down like celestial hammers, and Malik, still recovering, was nearly swallowed whole.

"Shit."

He ignited his divine flames at full force, blasting himself into the sky just in time to avoid being crushed by a forming tsunami. The battlefield was gone—what remained was an endless sea, stretching as far as his eyes could see.

Katya wasn't finished.

She rose from the water, her body hovering in the air, her hands outstretched as torrents of liquid energy circled her like an elemental goddess.

Her eyes were wild, filled with nothing but murderous intent.

"You. BURNER." she spat. "I will drown you. I will crush your lungs. I will turn your body into a forgotten corpse at the bottom of my ocean."

She raised her hands—

And the tsunami followed.

Katya attacked first, a sharp flick of her wrist sending a barrage of water blades shooting through the air toward Malik.

They weren't just fast—they were nearly invisible, their edges vibrating at such high frequencies that the air around them warped.

Malik barely had time to react. He twisted mid-flight, letting the first barrage slice millimetres past his skin, but even with his speed, a few blades managed to graze him, cutting cleanly through his armour and flesh.

Blood splattered into the wind.

'Shit, she's fast.'

Malik retaliated, raising his arm and releasing a wave of divine fire that expanded outward like a blazing nova.

Katya responded instantly.

She clapped her hands together, and the air itself froze.

The moisture around them solidified into jagged ice shields, countering Malik's flames in an instant. Steam exploded outward, obscuring the battlefield in a thick fog, reducing visibility to nothing.

'Tch, she's using this mist to control my line of sight.'

Malik's eyes darted through the fog. He couldn't see her, but he could feel her presence—moving, shifting, repositioning.

He barely had a second to react before—

A massive, liquid harpoon erupted from the mist, aimed at his chest.

Malik spun at the last moment, but the spear clipped his ribs, cutting deep into his side before bursting into a concussive explosion of water pressure that sent him reeling backward.

He gritted his teeth.

'She's using the mist as cover, striking from angles I can't predict. If I stay in here, she'll keep landing attacks before I can react.'

His flames flared outward, evaporating the mist in a fiery eruption—

But the moment the fog cleared, Katya was already above him.

Her hands outstretched, forming a massive, spiralling vortex of water above her, easily the size of a small city.

With a roar, she brought it crashing down.

Malik thrust his arms forward, forming an X with his flames, and unleashed an explosive counterblast, attempting to burn through the descending tsunami.

But Katya had reinforced it.

The wave wasn't just water—it was pressurized, condensed to its absolute limit, hardened into something even Malik's flames couldn't instantly vaporize.

The force slammed into him.

BOOOOOM!

Malik was blasted downward, crashing through the air like a meteor, the pressure of the wave pressing against him, trying to crush him alive.

For the first time in this fight, he felt himself losing control.

'This isn't just water—she's using it like armour, like a weapon, like a fucking execution hammer.'

He needed to break free NOW.

Malik's flames surged to their peak, his entire body becoming a living sun.

With a furious roar, he ignited himself from the inside out, channelling all of his energy into a single, explosive blast.

BOOOOOOM!

The water around him evaporated instantly, turning into a massive column of superheated steam that shot into the sky like a volcanic eruption.

Malik burst free, flames trailing from his body, his breath ragged but his eyes sharp.

Katya wasn't done.

She appeared above him again, this time forming a dozen spears of pressurized water, each one hovering with lethal intent.

She launched them all at once.

Malik moved.

He zig-zagged through the air, twisting through the assault, barely avoiding each deadly projectile. One clipped his shoulder, another grazed his thigh, but he kept moving, his mind racing for a counterattack.

'She controls the battlefield. She controls the air. I need to change the flow of the fight.'

Katya lashed out with a water whip, catching Malik's leg mid-flight and yanking him downward.

He flipped, using the momentum to his advantage, and with a powerful twist, he sent a concentrated blast of flame down the length of the whip, igniting it like a fuse.

The fire raced toward Katya—but she snapped the whip apart before the flames could reach her.

She was adapting.

Malik knew he couldn't waste more time.

He had to end this now.

She was relentless, and if this fight dragged on, she might wear him down completely.

So he took a gamble.

As Katya formed another water dragon, her strongest attack yet, Malik did something she didn't expect.

He let go of his sword.

Katya's eyes narrowed.

The sword stopped falling.

Instead, it floated.

Malik was controlling it.

Divine flames wrapped around the blade, and with a mere flick of his fingers—

The sword shot forward like a missile.

Katya's instincts screamed, but it was too late, she had committed to a strong attack that took her full attention– cancelling it now would prove fatal in itself.

The flaming blade pierced straight through her back, the tip erupting from her chest, burning hot.

Her breath hitched.

Her eyes widened.

Her body froze in mid-air, trembling.

She coughed, blood spilling from her lips, her mind struggling to process what had just happened.

Her ocean collapsed.

The waves that had once swallowed the battlefield fell apart, evaporating into nothingness.

Her power was fading.

Katya's gaze locked onto Malik, filled with pure hatred.

"…Tch. You bastard."

Blood dripped from her lips as she smirked weakly.

"…You have no idea… what's waiting for you," she hissed.

Malik's flames flickered as he hovered above her. "The King."

Katya's smirk widened.

"…You're lucky," she whispered. "Lucky he wanted to wait until the army was dead before we fought you seriously."

Her grip on reality began to fade.

"If you thought you were a monster…" she coughed, blood spilling from her lips in heaps.

"Then the King is something far, far worse."

Her body fell from the sky, disappearing into the ruined battlefield below.

Malik watched as her lifeless form vanished, his flames flickering dimly in the night.

The battle was over.

Now, only one enemy remained.

The King.

With slow, deliberate steps, Malik began to descend toward Potix's gates.

The final battle was near.

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Name: Malik Thana

Age: 19

Race: Human(Devourer)

Level: 0

Stats = (Temporary Boosts for the Duration of the Third Quest)

Vitality - 5(+2500)

Strength - 3(+1900)

Agility - 5(+1900)

Endurance - 4(+1900)

Intelligence - 15(+1700)

Mana - 0(+1900)

Perception - 0(+1900)

Charm - 1(+1700)

Soul - 0(4,609,231,668/9.83B)

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Abilities: (New!) 

[Regenerative Adaptation]

[Water Creation & Manipulation]

[Blood Manipulation]

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