Chapter 147 : The Ocean of Flames
BRRRMMM!
BOOM–BOOOM–KA-BOOOOOOM!!
The battlefield disappeared beneath fire.
There was no longer a desert in any meaningful sense, only an ocean of flames that stretched across the ruined dimension. Explosions rolled one after another, each detonation feeding the next until the inferno seemed to possess a life of its own. Fire raced through shattered ravines, climbed the towering black rock formations, and poured over the remains of ancient monsters like molten rivers flowing through the ruins of a forgotten world.
The heat distorted the air, turning distant objects into wavering silhouettes, while the thick clouds of smoke made visibility an unreliable luxury. Even breathing had become difficult, as the temperature continued to rise and the atmosphere filled with ash and burning debris.
BOOOOOOM!!
Another homing layer-beam carved across the battlefield, its brilliant trajectory curving through the air as it locked onto Daito's position. The projectile followed him around the remains of a cliff before striking the stone formation he had chosen as temporary cover.
BBRRRMMM!
CRACK! BREAK! SCATTER!
The detonation swallowed the entire structure.
FWOOOSH!
Rock, dust, and incandescent fragments erupted into the sky as the cliff vanished beneath the blast, but Daito had already moved before the explosion reached its peak. He emerged from the opposite side of the formation, sprinting through the narrow gap between two enormous boulders as the shockwave tore through the space he had occupied moments earlier.
SWOOOSH!!
"Huff.....huff.....huff.."
His breathing had become uneven, and his damaged shoulder barely responded to his commands anymore. The improvised monster-bone armor he had assembled during the earlier bombardment was cracked from shoulder to waist, with several plates already shattered by the relentless force of Gyoran's attacks.
Even so, the armor had accomplished exactly what Daito intended.
It had bought him time.
'He's using too much ammunition.'
Despite the pain coursing through his body, Daito's mind continued to work, searching for a solution while he ran. He couldn't afford to overpower Gyoran, and attempting to outshoot someone wielding the Salvation Duo would be an exercise in stupidity. His only realistic option was to exploit the limitations of the weapons themselves.
Every weapon has a limit.
A magazine, a battery, a cooling system, an energy reserve as there had to be something that prevented Gyoran from firing indefinitely. The weapons might have been advanced beyond anything Daito had encountered before, but they had still been constructed by someone, and anything that was constructed could possess limitations.
Daito ducked beneath another laser.
SWOOSH!
'Nothing fires forever.'
BOOM!!
An explosive round detonated beside him, and the shockwave threw his body against a towering stone pillar. Pain exploded through his ribs as he struck the surface, but he refused to remain there long enough for Gyoran to follow up.
THUD–THUD–ROLL!
BOOOOM!!
He rolled across the ground just as another blast consumed the area where he had landed, then forced himself back onto his feet and continued running.
'He's human. He built these weapons. If he built them, they have constraints.'
That single thought became the foundation of Daito's strategy.
He didn't need to overpower Gyoran, outshoot him, or even defeat him immediately. He needed to survive long enough for the Salvation Duo to reach its limits, whatever those limits might be.
It was a gamble, and a dangerous one at that, but it was the only path he could see.
Across the burning landscape, Gyoran watched Daito weave through the destruction, his expression brightening as he recognized the familiar signs of calculation in his opponent's movements.
"...Still calculating."
He smiled.
"Good."
Then he squeezed both triggers.
BRRRRMMMM!!
The Salvation Duo roared.
RA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA!!
BOOOM–BOOOOM–BOOOOOOMM!!
A relentless barrage erupted from the two weapons, sending streams of destructive projectiles across the battlefield. The homing beams curved through the air like hunting predators, changing direction whenever Daito altered his course, while the explosive rounds tore into the surrounding terrain and transformed mountains into expanding spheres of fire.
SWIIISHH!
DASH!
Daito sprinted through the narrow gaps between colossal rock formations, forcing his battered body to maintain a pace that threatened to tear his remaining strength away with every step.
BOOM!!
A laser struck the ground behind him, and the resulting blast hurled molten stone across his back.
BOOOOOOM!!
Another explosion collapsed the passage ahead, sending enormous slabs of black rock crashing down into his path. Daito immediately changed direction without slowing, slipping through a narrow opening just before the falling debris sealed the route completely.
CRAAAASHH!!
BOOOOOM!!
His feet barely touched the ground.
SWOOOSH!
Every movement was instinct, calculation, and survival combined into a single desperate effort to remain one step ahead of the destruction pursuing him.
Behind him, the fire followed.
It was no longer simply burning the landscape. The overlapping detonations had created waves of heat that rolled across the desert like tidal currents, while flames crawled through every opening, canyon, and crack in the shattered terrain.
There was nowhere left untouched.
Gyoran wasn't merely attacking Daito anymore.
He was erasing the battlefield itself.
"Run!" Gyoran shouted, his voice carrying across the inferno. "I want to see how long that brain of yours keeps saving you!"
Daito vaulted over the enormous rib cage of a colossal monster, using one of its exposed bones as a temporary bridge across a ravine filled with fire. His boots struck the skeletal structure, and he pushed off with everything he had left.
The instant he left the ground, the Salvation Duo responded.
FWOOOOOOOM!!
Three homing beams curved around opposite sides of the skeleton, their trajectories converging precisely on the point where Daito was about to land.
'He predicted my landing...'
SWIIISH!
THUD!
Daito twisted in midair and kicked against the monster's rib cage, changing his trajectory at the last possible moment. The beams converged on the skeleton instead, colliding with its enormous frame and detonating in a blinding explosion.
KRA-BOOOOOOM!!
The ancient bones disintegrated.
Fragments rained across the battlefield, several of them slamming into Daito's back as he landed. The impact sent him stumbling forward, and a sharp cracking sound came from the armor that had protected him throughout the bombardment.
CRACK!
One of the skeletal shoulder plates broke away and tumbled across the sand.
Then another fell from his side.
The improvised armor had finally reached its limit.
With the protective plates gone, the heat immediately reached his exposed flesh, searing his skin and forcing a fresh wave of pain through his already battered body. Daito clenched his jaw, refusing to scream as flames licked across his arms and the bandages wrapped around them began to blacken.
The skin beneath the fabric reddened, blistered, and burned.
SWOOOSH!
Still, he ran.
* * *
From a distant ridge, Gyoran continued advancing with steady, methodical steps, firing without pause as he followed Daito through the inferno. There was something almost unnatural about the sight, as though judgment itself had taken human form and decided to walk through the world while carrying the means to destroy it.
"You've noticed, haven't you?" Gyoran called out.
Another barrage erupted, illuminating his face as the Salvation Duo unleashed its next wave of destruction.
"The layered detonations aren't just explosions!"
BOOOOOOM!!
A mountain disappeared behind a wall of incandescent dust.
"Every overlapping blast raises the ambient temperature!"
Another beam swept through the flames, striking a cluster of rock formations and transforming them into a storm of molten fragments.
"The longer you delay..."
BOOOOOM!!
"...the hotter it gets!"
Daito burst through a curtain of fire, his movements becoming increasingly ragged as he forced himself to continue. His hair was singed, fresh burns covered his exposed skin, and the monster-bone armor that had once protected his body had been reduced to broken fragments hanging from his shoulders and waist.
Gyoran lowered one of his weapons slightly as he watched him.
His expression was no longer mocking. There was something almost disappointed in his eyes, as though he had hoped Daito would find a better answer than the one he was currently attempting to pursue.
"There's nowhere left to run, Daito."
The battlefield seemed to agree with him.
Every escape route was burning, every mountain that had once offered cover had been reduced to rubble, and thick smoke filled the sky while fire consumed the ground. The terrain Daito had been using to maneuver was disappearing faster than he could find new ways to exploit it.
"You understand what's happening," Gyoran continued calmly. "The constant heat is wearing you down, and the layered detonations are doing exactly what they were designed to do. Every second you spend trying to outlast me only makes your situation worse."
He watched Daito struggle to maintain his footing, noting the uneven rise and fall of his chest and the way his injured arm hung slightly lower than the other.
"I know your armor is failing. I know your burns are worsening, and I know every breath hurts more than the last."
BBRRRMMM!!
Another explosion shook the desert, sending a fresh wave of heat rolling across the battlefield.
Gyoran's expression grew more serious.
"There's no point pretending otherwise. You're running out of time."
He raised the Salvation Duo again, and both barrels began to glow with an intense, white-hot light.
"If you keep gambling on the hope that my ammunition will run dry..."
He paused, shaking his head slightly.
"...you may never live long enough to see it happen."
His eyes locked onto Daito's.
"And while you're gambling your life here..."
For a moment, Gyoran said nothing more.
Then his voice dropped, becoming colder than the fire surrounding them.
"...your friends are fighting on the other side."
The words struck harder than any of the explosions.
"If I return before you've stopped me," Gyoran continued, "they die."
Fwooo....
Silence fell between them.
For the first time since the battle began, Daito's calculations faltered.
Not because Gyoran had outsmarted him, nor because the Boss had discovered some weakness in his strategy that Daito couldn't overcome. It was because Gyoran had reminded him of the one variable he had deliberately pushed to the back of his mind, the one consideration he couldn't afford to let interfere with the fight if he wanted to survive.
His friends.
Aerin.
Champagne.
Wei-Wan.
Brandon.
Wasabi.
Fah-jin.
Nyx.
Avenor.
Zachia.
Mardale.
They weren't waiting in safety for him to return. They were still fighting, still bleeding, and still placing their trust in the belief that Daito would eventually make his way back to them.
He had spent the entire battle searching for a way to defeat Gyoran, treating every attack as a problem to be solved and every new development as another variable to incorporate into his calculations.
But while he had been doing that, time had continued to pass elsewhere.
The people he cared about were still facing their own battles, and every second he spent trapped in this dimension was another second in which they had to endure without him.
GRIP.....
Daito slowly tightened his grip on the battered shaft of The Piercer, feeling the rough texture of the bone beneath his fingers.
'I have to hide you, somehow.'
His gaze drifted across the burning battlefield, taking in the collapsed mountains, the shattered skeletons, and the flames that had consumed almost every remaining hiding place.
'Ahh....there we go.'
Then he stopped searching for somewhere to hide.
He stopped looking for another route through the destruction.
Instead, his eyes settled on the wreckage surrounding him, and his mind began to search for something entirely different.
Not cover or an escape but an opportunity.
to be continued.....