I woke up in the middle of the night with my throat parched from dehydration, sat up in bed, rubbed my eyes and placed a hand to the side for support, since I was getting out. I expected my hand to land on my soft bed, what I didn't expect was my hand landing on something even softer. I sighed. "Aurora, god damn it, why are you here again!?"
She jolted awake and frantically looked around as if someone was attacking her. "Yes, you are in danger, you're in such deep shit right now that you don't even know it." She gave me a mischievous smile. "Oh no, you sneaky little witch, that's not the point. Just because I told you that I would kick you out of my bed if I saw you in it in the morning, doesn't mean that you can sleep here until dawn and then go back to the couch as if nothing's happened."
"How long have you been doing this?" She thought for a second, then gave me an innocent smile. "You're joking, right? you've been coming here to sleep ever since I told you not to?!" She nodded. "You're dead." I lunged at her with tickling intent, trying to grab her by the waist. Aurora, with the reflexes of a cat, jumped up, over my arms and kicked me in the back. I, being flung forward by my inertia and the force of the kick, fell out of the bed.
I stayed down for long enough for Aurora to get closer to see what happened to me. This is what I was waiting for, I lunged, with the speed of a striking cobra, straight at her and pushed her down on the bed, catching her in the process. "Did you actually believe that a feeble mortal like you could defeat a GOD?! Time for your punishment." The tickling began.
Aurora squirmed in my hands trying to stop me or at least delay me, but I was resolute, I kept tickling her sides without mercy or sympathy. "Did you have enough, you dirty little cheater?! Well, did you?!" She managed to nod her head and I finally let her go. That was a mistake.
As soon as she was free and able to concentrate, she enveloped her right fist with wind and landed a devastating blow straight at my gut. The blow sent me flying straight at the ceiling with a loud bang, cracking it. I fell down on the bed, still reeling from pain and Aurora stood in front of me with a victorious look on her face.
"Di-did you actually think that that much would be enough to even scratch me?! I asked, coughing blood. "I'll show you the meaning of power, the meaning of fear and pain!" I stood up. "Did you think your life was rough until now?! All that was nothing compared to what you're about to endure!" I shouted, flames exuding from every part of my body, burning the bed and the carper under neath to sunder.
This made Aurora worried, she leaped back to gain some distance, hitting a wall and cracking it. I charged at her, blazing like the sun, she barely dodged to the side, as for me, it was too late to stop, so I accidentally made another door in the room, connecting my bedroom to that of the next guest's.
The middle aged man, lying in the bed in the room I was now in, screamed like a ten year old girl. "Who… Who the hell are you?! What are you doing here?!"
I gave him a quick glance. "Sorry about that mate. You should probably evacuate the room, we're going to get a bit rowdy in here." I was about to dash to the other side of the wall, but then stopped. "On second thought, evacuate the whole inn, tell the owner that I'm buying it at double the market price… Or at least what's left of it in the end." Then I dashed back.
"Come here, you!" I fired a 'fireball' at Aurora, she blocked it with ice armor that shattered, sending ice shards in every direction, ruining the wallpaper. She countered with a reverse round-house infused with wind at my head. I dodged under the kick and performed a leg sweep. That brat was too fast to fall for that, in the middle of her kick, she changed the direction downwards, trying to shatter my collar bone. I dodged to the side, not being able to finish the leg sweep. Aurora's heel hit the ground, breaking it and sending us to the first floor in a cloud of dust.
"Play time's over, kid, let's see how you manage with this!" I released my fire in every direction, setting the whole inn on fire. Aurora, jumped up on the chandelier. "What's next? You might be safe for now, but the higher you are, the more heat and smoke is coming your way. Besides…" I started launching fire at her. "There are these!"
She smiled, then a huge tornado enveloped her body, blocking all of my attacks and also destroying the better part of the inn. But that was what I've been waiting for, while she was blinded by her own tornado, I got behind her and when the wind ceased, kicked her ass down to the ground. She landed with a bang and I landed on my feet like a pro, right in front of her. "Had enough?" She smiled, then started laughing without a sound, I joined in.
We sat, side by side in the destroyed inn, both bruised and battered, just looking at the surroundings. "It seems that I destroy everything I touch… What's that? Don't be ridiculous, the destruction that I've caused is far greater than anything that you ever could have mustered. There's no comparing it!" We started laughing again.
I could feel Aurora's happiness through the mental link, it was so genuine and pure. Seeing and feeling is so different, one of the reasons that I spoiled the girl so much was because I could feel her happiness for myself. We sat there together until the owner came in, I handed him a sizable bag of platinum coins and addressed Aurora. "C'mon, let's go, we have work to do. Yes, hunting bandits, my favorite."
A bit after dawn, we approached a cave guarded by two men with spears. This was a job given to us through the guild, the employer was unknown and they asked for the 'Wolf's fang' by name. It isn't unheard of to hire specific adventurers for a job, so I didn't really take any issue with the job, the pay was well above the average and, best of all, it was bandits! Oh, how I love hunting bandits!
"You still sore from the fight from this morning? You want to sit this one out?" I asked my partner. She just shook her head and gave me a smile. "No way in hell are you leaving all the fun for me, huh? Well, try to keep up with me then!" I dashed towards the cave. The guards outside noticed, but weren't able to do anything before having their throats slit. That makes two.
As we entered the cave, something seemed to be off. All the bandits looked ready to fight from the get go - none were sleeping or eating, they all had their weapons drawn. Well, whatever… 7, 8 ,9… Then, when we had approached the end of the cave, I heard a strong rumble and the cave began shaking.
The rocks of all sizes began to fall on to us, the more time passed the more rocks fell, before we knew it the entirety of the cave collapsed straight on to us.
We were trapped with nowhere to go, the only thing between us and the rocks being Aurora's wind barrier. "Good job, Aurora, the distances between you and your spells is increasing by the minute, you're a real prodigy." She looked at me, expectantly. "OK, OK, I've got you…" I patted her head.
"Hey, let's see how long you can hold this up, I'm betting no more than five minutes. More than 10? With your remaining mana and the weight of the stones? You're on! In the meantime, I'll play with him." I stabbed a, still alive, bandit that was lying near us in the leg and twisted the blade. The bandit screamed. This made me very happy.
"Huh? Why do I hate bandits so much? It's not like I hate them specifically, it's just that I hate bad people in general. The author of this shitty light novel killed everyone that I ever cared about in the most gruesome ways imaginable just to watch me suffer. Yeah, I'd call him a bad person, but he's not the only one. Can you believe that people actually read this slaughter fest of a book and like it?"
"Some asshole on 'Royal Road' actually rated it five stars. Yes, the sicko rated my suffering five stars! He's the type of guy to watch 'Redo Of Healer', even if he has never seen it, he'll watch it right after reading this chapter. Trust me on this. Yeah, I can't touch those people, so I go for the scum that I can find."
"It seems that you're running low on mana, your spell is breaking, let's leave this place." I conjured black flames and sent them the way we came from. The flame, while not big, was powerful enough to melt all the rubble in our path. We followed suite.
"Seven and a half minutes, we both lost, it seems…" I said while leaving the cave. Outside we were surrounded by around 20 people wearing brown robes and conjuring spells.
"Surender and I'll make your deaths painless." Shouted a middle aged man with bushy brown hair and beard. "I am one of the eight masters of the tower of 'Babel' - the master of earth - …"
"Spare me the name, I still won't remember it."
"What? You dare…"
"Look, do you know how much of my brain would I have to dedicate just to remember the names of all the people that I've killed?"
"You arrogant little boy, you think that you can kill me?" The tower master looked furious. "Do you think that I've come unprepared? Why do you think it took me so long to take revenge on you? I know that you're strong so I bit my time and planned for your every move. Who do you think hired you to come here in the first place?!"
"That's not all, we're here as well…" A man with red hair and eyes shouted, a middle aged woman with golden hair stood right behind him. "We're…"
"Let me guess, the tower master of fire and the tower master of light?" I interrupted.
"I see that you've done your homework as well, that's smart of you…" The golden haired lady retorted.
"Not really, It's easy to tell since you guys are color coded. Anyway, what kind of revenge are you talking about? I don't remember…"
"Stop playing dumb!" The earth master shouted. "You've killed my disciple, or have you already forgotten?"
"Oh… Right, I think I remember something of that sort. But wait, wasn't your disciple killed in a fair duel?"
"You killed a disciple of the tower, do you think your petty excuses will save you?!" The earth master shouted. "Enough talk, die!" All the disciples around us release their spells at once. Me and Aurora dodged them with practiced ease and didn't wait for the next wave.
We went for the arrack, charging at them, the earth master mumbled a spell and touched the ground making a quagmire beneath our feet. I countered, releasing my flames at the ground, turning the quagmire to impure glass. Aurora used this as a stepping stone and dashed at the weaker mages, aiming for their throats.
I was left to deal with the three masters. The light master used a spell that created light chains that chained me in place and the other two masters started conjuring their most powerful spells. "Prepare to die, boy!" The red head shouted.
This is going to be fun, let's see their power… I activated 'stone skin'. The spells were heading my way. 100 m. 50 m. 20 m. It's almost here! 10 m. Just as the spell was about to hit me, I saw a head of grey hair in front of me.
Aurora, that fool, jumped in front to save me. She was flung back tens of meters and landed on the ground. "What!?" My flames turned black and the chains holding me disappeared. I rushed to her side, put two fingers on her neck and sighed a sigh of relief.
She was badly injured, barely breathing, I took out every healing potion that I had and started feeding them to her. Finally, she stabilized. "I really am cursed, huh? I destroy everything I touch…" I muttered, then turned back to the enemies, my hair turning grey. "Now you've crossed the line."
"That stupid mut got what she…" Everything in the 1 kilometer radius, apart from me and Aurora turned to ash in an instant.
Join me on patreon at patreon.com/BonsaiCat for early access to new chapters or buy my book 'How to rule a fantasy world' on Amazon. It's the same stuff that you read here, but I fucked up with the naming and the book is already out, so fuck it, let's go with this name for the book. I appreciate all of your support and your forgiveness for my utter incompetence. Best regards, BonsaiCat.