I immediately need to regain some semblance of control in this situation.
"Aren't you worried about what will happen to your son, or this whole place if you continue?"
From here on it's two possibilities, either I'm gonna to roast right now, or--.
It looked like his mind cleared for a moment, as his gaze instinctively shifted to his, so called, son.
That's all I need for a little while.
With one swift motion, taking the dagger from behind my back, I swiftly moved toward him aiming for his neck.
When the dagger was only inches from its target, it was stopped by a clawed hand.
Taking a second dagger out of my sleeve, I stab it into his side. But before I can do more damage, he punches me right in the jaw with his other hand.
As I flew through the table, I could definitely hear something shattering in process, then I crashed into the wall next to one of the cabinets.
I think since nothing is hissing or trying to burn me through, that's a fairly good sign at this moment.
But getting hit from that clawed paw was no better than being hit by a train. No, with a burned cheek and dried blood in my mouth, it would be worse.
Rising from the floor and looking at the blazing, clawed bonfire in the center of the room, I drew a new pair of daggers.
What a waste.
One, he was ripping out of himself right now. This one was poisonous, though I'm not quite sure what kind of, as a glowing purple colour started to spread from the wound.
Except it didn't last even for a second. The wound instead of bleeding immediately cauterized and soon the only light was the red hue of the flame.
At least it doesn't look like regeneration.
I was just coming to my feet, when he raised his right hand and pointed it in my direction. A fireball taking shape at the tip of his claw.
Not even a heartbeat later, a sphere about the size of my head was already flying at me.
One of the daggers I'd drawn was immediately thrown at its center. But instead of the expected explosion it simply went through, and the orb continues to fly like that at me.
I only had time to jump aside at the very last moment, covering my face with both my hands to protect myself from the heat. Even so, the shockwave was still strong enough to send me flying across the room and crush into another wall.
I didn't get any serious burns and my back will be only a little sore after today.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said about another pair of daggers. One was an interesting example of trying to achieve something similar to curse. And the other was able to hit up to a temperature capable of passing through steel without trouble, if I remember correctly it wasn't really made for combat.
Still better than all losses in the total mess the room has become, with all the shattered glass, and the liquid that spilled out of it and now started mixing on the floor. Along with the broken wood and the fire that's eating everything.
I guess with that, I would just hope that I achieve one point out of three. Now I have to get out.
And even worse, that this time he didn't wait for me to stand up. And with two palms placed together the sphere is at least twice the size of the one before.
I've learned from last time, and I also don't want to risk finding out exactly what happens if I include this one. So still lying on the bare rock, I roll over and throw the dagger at the ceiling above his head, at the same moment I dash toward the exit.
Immediately after the dagger stuck in the ceiling, there was a loud squeak and an explosion. But all it managed to accomplish was make a black stain on the ceiling, and enough of a tremor to deflect the fireball away from me just enough so that I was to get hurt.
Unfortunately being at the far end of the room in relation to the door, it was not difficult for him being in the center to block the way on the last quarter.
He loomed over me with his two-meter height and his clawed hand ready to slice me open like a sack of straw.
Now it's the last pair of enhanced daggers, and the most useless.
Closing my eyes, the dagger in my left hand produces a flash that illuminates the entire room and blinds him, followed by me plunging and leaving a second dagger in his shin with enough electricity to stun him for a split second.
Enough to throw that producing light into the patient.
When he comes to his senses, he rushes for the dagger, while I finally reach the stairs.
I'm glad he decided to spare one part of the room, and don't fight on full so I can save all the aether for the next
But I can still flood the entire passageway with shadows in the shape of small needle-like teeth. It's still more for visual effect to buy a little more time than anything else, shadows will disappear just from the heat.
For them to be able to do any real damage it takes time to form and the aether to support them in the meantime.
They need time to form and a lot of aether to support them all the time so they can do any real damage.
An animal roar and heavy footsteps follow me a little later, but I'm faster.
I blew up all the shards beforehand and half the mansion's already on fire.
Ironically, people with affinity to fire don't place protection on their house from it.
I can hear screams outside, but I couldn't care less about that right now.
I grabbed the corpse of one of the guards out of my shadow and put the first mask I could find on his face, throwing it towards the stairs to the second floor. I head for the exit, the doors are gone, and it's hard to find even a small island of shadows.
I'll only get one shot at it.
Not everyone was lucky enough to have a body made up of fire, or at least of darkness that would consume all that fire.
I'm left with a cloak, which depending on how much aether I channeling in it, makes me a little harder to notice. If I spend about a quarter of my entire aether, then for a few seconds I can become completely invisible if I stay in the shadows.
Inside a building consumed by fire, a few seconds is exactly how long the shadows will last.
Reaching for a bow from my shadow and spending another quarter of aether to form an arrow, I hold my breath.
Half of the remaining aether goes to shape a spear from the chandelier shadow on the ceiling, with that all that's left will only be enough to leave regardless of the outcome.
It's all back to that again.
Finally there were heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.
His head emerged from the gap, then his torso, finally he completely merged from the staircase.
He looked right at me and found nothing.
Then he noticed a body on the floor, and at that moment the chandelier's binding finally failed and it began to fall right on top of him.
He didn't react when the chandelier fell on him, but at the same moment a shadow spear, like a guillotine, began to drop into his head.
He swung off the chandelier and with no effort caught a spear in the air. He clenched his fist and the spear shattered into hundreds of small pieces.
At that moment he finally noticed the arrow sticking out of his chest, it was a clean hit.
Now all I can do is wait.
Even if it doesn't kill him, depending on the degree of the damage I might still have a chance to finish him off.
From a certain point, the anatomy of the body plays less and less of a role, sometimes even chopping off the head is not enough to kill.
For some time, there were no changes in him.
With his head down, he looks at the arrow that struck his heart.
Then he turns to me.
I already discarded the bow into my shadow, and now stand with my last dagger.
He begins to be enveloped by more and more flames all over his body and cracks begin to appear.
I release a breath.
I turn around and run for the exit. I can hear more screams starting to rise outside, but it's easy to find it with all the windows blown out from all the fire.
I jump through the window, next comes one step through the shadows to get out of the borough, followed by the sound of a colossal explosion.
A little time to realize where I am and another one to get out of town.
And the last one to get any meaningful distance.
This brings me to a small hill with a forest starting to grow. I wish I could get farther away but I have no aether left.
From here I can still see most of the city, and the aftermath from the explosion, the place where the estate had been was now a crater.