Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Whether the forest moved to protector or hunt didn't matter.

Seth was prepared for genocide.

"Tell the caravan people to huddle together and protect themself. I can't guarantee for their lives." Seth barked at Marcel.

Confused the guild leader looked like he wanted to ask something, but he held back the question when he saw Seth's gaze. The glint of madness was enough to hint for him to hurry back.

He had barely run half the way when the whole forest was illuminated. From beyond the canopy of leaves fell a rain of fire incomparable to anything the people of the caravan had ever seen before.

Fire Arrows penetrated the crown and set them on fire in bypassing. Marcel almost stumbled and fell when the first projectiles crashed into the ground and exploded like mortar shells.

"Fuck!" he suddenly felled like he was running across a battlefield as he was surrounded by explosions. Although the shots roughly grouped around the mass of leaves and the wolves, it was more of a shotgun shot than a precise aim.

When Marcel finally reached the campsite, the surrounding had already become a sea of fire. The ground, the sky, the trees everything was enveloped in flames. Now the warrior understood what Seth had meant with being not responsible for their lives.

"To me! Assemble here! Bring out any kind of protection you can! The whole place is being nuked!" Marcel shouted over and over as he brought order to the confused caravan.

Any wolf who was directly hit was disintegrated but many were fest enough to evade or only suffer partial destruction. The raving mass with the humanoid appendage on the other hand had no agility at all. It could only tank the attack and kept screaming every time it was hit.

And when the explosions just started slowing down and the rain of fire lost power, it came back with full power for a second wave. There was no break for the attacker and defenders. This was the power of <Double Cast>.

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"Isn't this... overkill?" Duhu asked slightly unsure whether he should have even spoken up.

"Overkill? I haven't even started yet." Seth answered with a mad smile on his lips.

Seth was serious, as the fire rain was "only" the magic from his gloves powered up bis his passive skills and equipment. He was intent on acting on his self-proclaimed right for excessive self-defense.

~ Psst, just let him vent a little. He's been tense the whole time. He will calm down when you let him vent a little. ~

Puffles told the worried tiger man and only him.

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Although everything was bathed in fire, the massive trees only burned on the surface. Even while the flaming rain kept thundering, the trees kept releasing more and more leaves to regenerate their forces.

The remaining people of the caravan had grouped together and were hiding under several layers of protective shields and barriers. Hundreds of magicians worked together to protect the crowd and resist the bombardment.

Marcel was lucky enough to look up and see the very start of the next wave of attacks. Bright lances of pale blue fire launched at the thick tree trunks of the surrounding forest. Compared to the thick wood they seemed like toothpicks but when they exploded, they took away a third of the trunk, bathing big parts of the hit trees in their cold bright fire.

With the bright jet flames lighting up all around them, while the bombardment still held on, the heat in the forest started to rise quickly. Where the plants resisted the normal fie spread by the fire rain, they could not do so with this eerie flame.

Suddenly the humanoid appendage began screaming like a madman.

"We know this fire! We know it! The nightmare! Where did it come from!? Who? Where?!"

The only answer it got were several lances that launched into the mass of leaves and set it aflame.

"We will eradicate you!" as if angered by the answer it started spouting death threats.

"Ahhhh!" with a loud cry the mass of leaves burst apart into several parts that started to fly around and tried to extinguish the blue flames on the trees. Some others spread to the forest and entered the crown to collect more leaves as if trying to empty the trees altogether.

And soon they could feel a constant rumble through the ground, different from the irregular explosions of the fire rain that was slowly subsiding. Soon a black tsunami of leaves became visible in the distance, and it was rushing towards the area of the campsite from all sides.

As it came closer it became clearer that it was a stampede of creatures created from leaves that was coming as the vanguard of the blobs that spawned them. It was really the whole forest aiming for their lives now!

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And for Seth, this feeling was mutual. Was it a little petty to lash out at the forest for the fear he suffered in the past? Maybe. Did it change what he was going to do?

No, he was here to destroy nature.

As he had promised, it would not end with paltry campfires.

Seth sat cross-legged on the ground at their camp and started off by singing a short verse that roused the tiger man's blood and made his fur stand up. For just a moment he felt an immense battle rage.

"Puff, put up a stronger barrier," Seth said with a mad look on his face.

~ Ohoh, not good. ~

"What do you mean?" the tiger asked

~ What are you waiting for fudge roll!? Put up a barrier! ~ the sorceress commanded in a hurry.

They both could see what Seth was about to do.

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The stampede of leaves trampled down all the flames left by the fire rain on their way. The constant thunder of their advance grew louder and louder as they closed in.

Was this their end? Marcel couldn't help but think of home. He didn't want to die. He wanted to go home. He just managed to find success and didn't even get the chance to enjoy it!

With tears in his eyes, he hugged the ice queen beside him tightly. He didn't wish to die alone.

"W-What a weak man..." Elza said with a slight blush and patted his back. She had gotten used to him and... nobody wanted to die alone, right?

They were looking into the abyss of destruction when a fine tune overpowered the rush of the stampede. It wasn't loud, not at all. They couldn't understand what it said, but it sounded refined and charming.

What was this music? It distracted them from their fear and impending doom, and it did more. Feelings started bubbling up from the darkness within them.

Why did they have to be afraid? Was this fair? They didn't deserve to die. Who allowed them to take their lives? It was unfair.

Questions over questions kept flooding their mind and their fear started turning into rage. But before they could act on the impulse to take up arms and die in a glorious last battle the sky was illuminated once again.

A cold unnatural light was cast on the dark forest with its black trees, black ground, and leaf creatures. As if a bolt of lightning had struck and its light simply stayed.

Once again fire rained down from the sky, but this time the fireballs were an almost white, pale blue, and they kept growing in size as they fell. When the first crashed into the front rows of the stampede it exploded like a bomb and flattened anything in a radius of 20 meters with a wall of fire.

Just its shockwave caused the barrier above the caravan to almost collapse. The distracted casters hurried to stabilize and strengthen the shields. Had they been directly hit; they would have died then and there. Killed by not-so-friendly friendly fire.

The audience was torn between the awe and fear from the fireballs and the music-induced thirst for destruction.