Power Punch

"No! Wait, you dummy!" Levia shouts as I stand up and exit the booth with a grin, waving her to come as well.

"What? Why?" I turn around with surprise on my face, trying not to show the funny effect 'dummy' has on me.

"Don't get yourself killed! Plan something!" She says in exasperation, waving her arms. "Come here for a second."

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." I roll my eyes, but nevertheless step back to the table and look at her with raised eyebrows.

"They are silver monsters, we can't just fight them, and we can't save the whole town." Levia says urgently, whispering so we wouldn't be overheard and pulling closer to me. "We should go to western gate and kill monsters on the way, then go to Tavensville and warn the people there. If this town gets destroyed, the monsters will sooner or later arrive in further villages. I know how you want to fight, but please, we can't fight with everything stupidly." She looks at me with pleading eyes.

I give her a stink eye for most likely accidental suggestion that I'm stupid, but on second thought I realize that there won't be any less chances to fight on the way to western gate than if I went without thinking into the fray, while the danger and potential escape routes can't even be compared, so I pull my face straight. And, damn, how am I supposed to refuse this cute, pleading face?

"Okay." I nod. "Do you know where's the western gate or do we need to just go in western direction?"

"Uh, no, I don't know." She stands up energetically and gets out of the booth. "Let's follow the main street." -She stops in place and looks at me somewhat expectantly.

"What?" I ask with cheeky grin. "You're in the lead today."

Her face seems to redden a bit and she hesitates sligthly with pursed lips, but then turns around and quickly walks away. "Alright, let's go."

I follow her in skippy steps, eager for a good fight, and we go out of already empty inn onto a chaotic street. We both pause for a while to assess our situation.

There is a lot of people running around, shouting and talking anxiously, carrying various things and packing belongings, though not as much as to make running between them too hard. Fortunately there are no monsters on the market and close to it, but as I look to the east I notice pure chaos - people running around and screaming, monsters thrashing around and running between damaged buildings, various items and larger things including bodies strewn around and among those some hunters trying to fend off the attackers, but struggling greatly since their numbers and strength are just too low to easily deal with such horde.

On a whim I try to boost my hearing with demonic energy like yesterday and a huge, almost overwhelming amount of sounds assaults me. With some trouble I fish out those coming from the west and quickly conclude there are also many monsters on that side, similar in number as to the east or even more numerous.

"Let's go through the market! There are just as many monsters in the west!" I shout to Levia, who glances at me and nods, and we both rush out quickly in this direction.

We appear on the main square within seconds and I take in the sight quickly with no time to admire the view.

It's a large empty space laid with stone, close to a hundred meters on each side, filled with people, various stalls, some wagons belonging to merchants, and a lot og other things, currently in complete disarray and chaos with people running around, stalls turned over and constant shouting. The square is rounded by stone and wooden buildings, most of them two or three stories tall, on three sides, and on western side there is a river in a deep canal flowing through the town.

There are eight roads leading from the main square, two in each corner, and two of them begin with flat, stone bridges on the edge of the square. The one we ran out of is the eastern one closer to the edge. I quickly place the square on my mental map and conclude that the eastern gate will be along one of the two roads to the west, most likely the southern one, since the western and eastern streets seem to be in parallel with the edge of the island.

I guide my demonic energy to my eyes under sudden inspiration and my eyesight sharpens greatly. I jump upwards, noticing in the corner of my eyes that Levia stopped in place somewhat uncertainly. I look along the street and try to see the wall over half a kilometer away and surprise myself with the ease I make out the gate in the distance and goblins pouring out to the street. Not to the point of seeing small details, but I can easily distinguish each head.

"Straight forward over the bridge!" I shout to Levia when I land. "The gate is along the left street to the west!"

She turns to me for a moment and nods gratefully, then rushes out once again along the buildings on the side of the square where there is less people. Still quite a lot though.

I follow her quickly, straining my ears and eyes to keep track how far away the monsters are. We cross the bridge shortly and continue along the street, but we don't pass even two hundred meters from around five there are to the gate before first monsters come into our sight along with a panicking crowd, pushing franatically in terror through the street with monsters on their feet that fell one person after another and drag them into the mayhem.

And just, wow, holy shit. That's literally a massacre. I knew what we were signing up for when we started playing a fully immersive and most realistic game ever released, not to mention there were multiple warnings from the devs about gore, violence and oftentimes morally questionable content, but that's not something I expected to encounter at all, much less so quickly and closely.

"Let's jump over them!" Levia shouts, glancing at me and straining her legs, shaking me out my small gap in focus.

"Yeah!" I reply and glance at nanobots swarming around her legs. The next second she flies upwards like a gymanst on a good trampoline and sails above the densest crowd with a black string of contracting nanobots trailing below her legs.

I don't stop to admire her and crouch low, then spring upwards, noticing offhandedly that stones crack a bit under my claws, and beat my wings repeatedly, attempting to gain more attitude. I only partially succed, because despite my efforts I only manage to pass the crowd on stable attitude of around three meters above the ground, but I achieve my goal nevertheless.

And now it's time for the fun to start.

I grin, folding my wings, and plunge down onto a random screeching goblin. I land with one foot in its face and another in its chest and crush the life out of it along with its head splattering on the stone street.

I jump lightly and spin around, killing at least three monsters around me with one claw swipe alone and sending much more tumbling down, then will my flame into two heavy gaunlets to punch, to crush, to scorch and to kill, and I additionally make sure for them not to vaporize things. I feel a nice weight settling on my hands and glance down to see a pair of gaunlets that appear to be made from pure, white-yellow flames shaped like metal plates.

I grin at the sight and take a look around, notcing Levia already twirling around the battlefield with a black sword in hand and decapitating one monster after another. The monsters here are... goblins mostly. Most of them are either ordinary goblins or hobgoblins, both in copper rank, but there are also some visibly stronger. Mainly some high hobgoblins, but I also spot a few shamans, both of which are firmly among silver threats. All of them are in the backlines though.

Seems... suspiciously like a planned attack. It's definitely not a spontaneous stampede, not with such skewed monster types. There are practically no monsters common on the edge of Beholder's Eye, like zombies, wolves or slimes, and I don't spot any Stone Aberrations and other rarer.

Well, no matter. I'm here to punch things, not to investigate the cause of a monster attack.

I slam my gaunlets against each other with a satysfying crunch, then rush forward, bringing them straight onto the screeching horde. The first unfortunate goblin gets its head literally blown apart, its remains splattering on those behind it, and after that I weigh my strikes a tad more carefully.

I kick a goblin on my side, sending its head into the air followed by a trail of blood, at the same time turning around and slamming my gaunlet into a hobgoblin on another side, caving its chest in and throwing it backwards like a ragdoll. I dodge a spear flung my way from the horde and in the same motion spin around, tearing six deep claw wounds in two heads in front of me consecutively. I swirl on one leg, continuing the rotation, make a heart-shaped dent on the cheek of a goblin trying to attack me from behind and push with my wings, bringing me to more goblins and continuing the carnage.

I twirl around with joy for a good minute, sending one goblin after another flying with missing parts or with their faces torn to shreds along with Levia who has conjured second sword at some point and dances around the battlefield, sending head after head flying. We push the monsters back fighting side by side, often as much as brushing against each other, but I don't get any satisfaction from hitting something hard because everything here is too weak. They just get replaced and the piles of corpses grow.

It is compensated by the feeling of joy when we smile at each other with Levia among the bloodied corpses in the heat of the fight, and I just can't get nearly enough of this fight. Each second is a hot, passionate feeling in my stomach and heart, each time I lock my eyes with Levia my heart jumps in joy, and I just can't get enough of it. I love this dance.

The first silver monster that approaches is a high hobgoblin that shouts something in goblinish unintelligible, screeching voice. The goblins before us back away and make a road for the higher counterpart. It approaches confidently and angrily, looking at me and Levia standing side by side.

As a side note, just like normal hobgoblins it's taller, darker green and more muscular than normal goblins, and just like high goblins it has better stature, better shaped, larger head, and higher intelligence than normal goblins.

"Do you want him?" I ask, looking at Levia with raised eyebrows.

She looks at me with mock disbelief. "You're letting me kill it? What happened?"

"Yes, there will be stronger monsters later. Now go shut him up, he is annoying me." I say with a grin, nudging her with my gaunlet.

She jumps away from the flaming hunk over my arm with a cuuute~ small squeak, but is a bit too slow and my gaunlet still touches her. She doesn't look hurt though, but instead freezes and looks at it with eyes wide as saucers.

"Holy shit." She comments, looking between her shoulder and my hands.

"Good explanation." I fire back at her with a cheeky grin.

She glares at me in response, but her face morphs into a tad confused smile soon enough. "I don't know how that works, but I'm getting energy from your fire."

"Cool. I'm guessing it recognizes who you are for me and treats you well due to that." I reply with straight face. Well, that's obviously because I love~ her, but I'm not saying that in such moment.

Levia looks at me with uncomprehending face, blinking. "Uh, what?"

"I'll tell you later." Definitely. I glance at the goblin that meanwhile got seriously pissed off from us ignoring him and starts to run in our direction. "He's all yours, my lady." I bow lightly, gesturing to the goblin with a wave or my arm, like a maid, and earn myself a laugh from Levia.

I grin silly in happiness and look at her rushing confidently and with a wide smile unlike her usual cold and calculative expression to meet the goblin.

Their clash is quick and very one-sided. The goblin swings its crude iron sword sideways, attempting to cleave Levia in two, but she drops on the ground to the right, slashes at its ankle, almost severing it, and springs upwards in a quick spin that slices three wounds through the monster's thigh, stomach and armpit, almost disconnecting its arm.

The goblin roars in pain and anger and attempts to turn around and attack Levia, but she doesn't give it any chance, taking a step back to her enemy and chopping off its neck in two quick strikes and with a spurt of blood. Marvelous.

The goblins around us stay silent for a long while before raising a huge ruckus and falling into dissarray as half of them starts scrambling away where they came from and other half attacking Levia in rage.

I don't let them have their way though. Having accumulated demonic energy in my gaunlets in advance I throw my arms forward and two long, beautiful streams of bright yellow flames gush out of the insides of my hands. They engulf good half of the goblins on the street in two huge torrents and incinerate them, not vaporize, burning quickly enough to kill almost instantly and spread over their bodies in a flash.

I laugh with mirth as Levia looks at me with astonished face and turns to the goblins that got turned to charcoal black remains within five seconds, then starts laughing as well.

I run up to her with a grin and she raises her eyebrows, looking at me with a smile. "Well, now I know why you wanted the strongest enemies straight away."

"Oh, don't worry, that's the main dish and it's just being served." I indicate with my head to a growing ruckus behind her.

That ruckus is a Beisvart I could recognize from a mile away jumping around and killing left and right goblins and humans alike. It's the icon of dark forests at Beholder's Eye, arguably the most dangerous monster you can find if you don't enter the inner forests. A feline beast with fur black like tar, over three meters long and one and a half meter tall build similar to that of a tiger and long, sharp claws and fangs. In terms of appearance it's nothing impressive past its size, but it's very fast and quite intelligent, and not without reason stands at the top of silver monsters.

Levia looks behind her and whistles half in amazement and half in surprise seeing bodies thrown around like ragdolls and much more than one wall collapsing under monster's strength. "It's kinda clearing the place of monsters for us." Yep, I don't actually see any shamans or high hobgoblins remaining. "So?" She turns to me with raised eyebrows and a knowing smile.

I roll my eyes, almost succesfully stopping a smile from creeping up my face. "Do you wanna fight it?"

"I wouldn't mind, but I don't wanna steal your fun. Go wild." She grins and I respond in the same manner, merely my grin is much more feral and dangerous.

"Don't mind if I do." I respond and flare my wings, then jump from the ground with stone pavement cracking under my feet and rush forward as fast as I can. I think of a pair of heavy boots as my weapons and form fiery metallic plates over my feet in the same manner as my gaunlets, covering them up to my ankles. My feet start leaving hot, heavy marks on the street and clank against the stones as I accelerate further.

The Beisvart is almost hundred meters from me and yet I cross half of the distance between us in less than five seconds, which is also the point when the monster notices me and turns towards me with a roar, showing off two rows of sharp teeth with four fangs over half a foot in length. The next second it starts running in my direction and a moment later jumps at me, rising even higher than I expected and its good ton of weight rushes down on me from above.

I quickly step to the side, spin around with the help of my wings and use all my strength to slam my fiery foot into the side of its jaw with a satysfying series of crunches hidden under a booming sound and amidst a swirl of yellow flames that engulfs its head. The beast is thrown to the side, its body twisting under the strength of the kick, and I just barely lean away from a claw swiping my way almost as fast as Stone Aberration's tail.

I feel a shiver of excitement flowing down my spine and land on the ground, sliding a few meters further and leaving carved marks in the stone with both my feet and one hand. The Beisvart meanwhile crashes to the side, landing heavily on the ground, and stops a few meters further on its side with its back to me after rolling around once.

I stand up leisurely noticing that the monster stopped moving and tap the ground with my foot a few times to relax my leg that started aching slightly from the impact not only with all my strength and to such an enemy, but also empowered with an explosion of flame. The pain goes away after a moment with my natural regeneration kicking in and I walk towards the laying beast.

No, no, no. Don't tell me I kicked it too strong. My excitement from before evaporates in an instant. I take a look at my character sheet and notice that at some point my Demonic Flame grew close to fifth of the base soul size and my soul to well over twice that.

Wow. And my stats have risen by over a half since I last checked. And, uh, why is my skill missing? I'm missing the skill that let me coat my body in flames. Is it because I learned to do it by myself? And my magic sight and the ability that lets me influence my momentum are broken, I think. The former is only a little bit messed up and cut out, but half of the latter is a garbled mess and the rest is missing. Holy shit, don't tell me it's because I started learning to control it? No, wait, let's focus back on present.

After I shake my head and put the issue of my skills to the back of my mind I look at the still unmoving Beisvart. When I walk up to it and it doesn't react, even when there is no more than two meters between us, I start to suspect with growing disappointment that it really didn't survive the attack. I reach out to my Flame and create a hook on a rope, then stick it to the body and pull strongly to turn it around.

The sight very much confirms that the Beisvart is dead. Jaw crushed to the point that half of it can hardly be called anything else than meaty and bony mush, teeth and blackened bone visible under burned skin, one of the eyes evaporated and almost whole head with fur either charred or burned out. I feel sudden frustration well up inside me and I kick the body once again with a growl, making it heave violently and slide a foot away from me.

I didn't even hit the Beisvart in a weak spot, just its damned jaw, and it already decided it's lived long enough.

I turn around with pursed lips and notice Levia standing behind me, so I make a pitiful dissatisfied face and glance at her sideways.

"What is it?" She asks, half in concern and half in amusement.

"I hoped for a good fight." I whine in complaint. "And this damned high silver shit doesn't even have the decency to survive one hit from me."