Flashfire

‘RUN’

For a moment, nothing else existed. John’s memories, wishes, dreams, aspirations, identity, and everything else had been stripped away to sharpen everything in his mind to the needle point of that single, instinctive impulse. Until a screeching, frustrated sound from behind brought him back. He was running down the gap between the two containers where he had snuck moments before, away from the rat ogre.

His heart beat against his chest with what felt like it should be enough **** to crack his ribs from the inside, and his lungs heaved like bellows, all so his legs could pound ground and carry him away from the threat faster than he would’ve thought his body capable of. Still, it was not enough. He had seen how fast that beast moved, how much closer it had gotten in the blink of an eye when it first charged, before he had turned and ran.

Even though the beast should’ve caught up by now, it was currently screeching in frustration behind him, instead of smearing his brain across the container’s side. Something had to have changed. And if John wanted to be alive in five minutes, let alone long enough to see his mother again, he would have to know what it was, because knowing, and thinking, was his only advantage. So he very reluctantly, and against the loud protests of his survival instincts, slowed down enough to look over his shoulder.

The rat ogre was too wide! The selfsame broad-framed, almost grotesquely muscle bound body that made its victory in any sort of fight against John a foregone conclusion was now working against the beast, as it couldn’t run John down between the containers. Instead, it had to walk awkwardly sideways, screeching in frustration as it watched John gain distance, even slowing down to look over his shoulder as he was.

John couldn’t sustain this pace, or any pace that wouldn’t get caught, for long though. Probably not long enough to make the rat ogre give up on chasing him. And even if he could, the thought of leaving Qhila behind made his stomach turn, despite his survival instinct screaming at him to do just that, and despite the fact that he knew nothing about her. So he needed a plan, and he needed one fast.

The half-baked bits of plans he had thought up before the kobold girl practically fell into the rat ogre’s grasp were no good, though. The zombies had been no match for the beast whatsoever, to the point where he doubted leading hundreds of them to it would be enough. Plus, even if he could find something strong enough to challenge the rat ogre, without getting caught and flattened in the process, that would still place an **** girl in the thick of it.

Trying to lead it into some sort of environmental hazard, like collapsing a building on top of it, was out too. There were no hazards in between the containers nor close enough to reach. His chances of reaching the administrative building were slim to none, unless the rat ogre was very deep between the containers when he made a run for it, and as far as he knew, the only thing in there were zombies that were probably dangerous to John but barely an annoyance to the brute. Meanwhile, the open stretch to the warehouse, which did look like a genuine collapsing hazard, was long enough for the creature to catch him ten times over, even if John had been able to sprint that far.

The Inferior Alchemist’s Fire in John’s inventory wasn’t a great plan either. Against himself, or something else of his Level, the stuff was deadly. Against something three times that, he wasn’t sure if three vials would be enough to finish off a glass cannon sort of build, and he very much doubted the rat ogre was a fragile sort of creature. It might be painful enough to make the beast run away, but unless it was also painful enough to make it drop Qhila, that wasn’t good enough. There was also the risk of some of the stuff ending up on her, but with her being Level 13, it probably wouldn’t do her in and some burns were definitely preferable to **** by monster cock.

John was about to resign himself to the Alchemist’s Fire plan, **** as it was, when he reached a small open area in between containers. The containers on the inside of the road loop were arranged such that the gaps between them looked like spokes on a wheel when seen from above. A wheel that John was currently at the center of. The ‘spoke’ next to the one that the screeching brute was currently halfway down pointed almost directly at the administrative building, which was important because it also made a clear path directly towards something very important that John had briefly forgotten about: Qhila’s clothes.

More precisely, the important part was the vial-laden belt and vest she had worn. Since her Class was ‘alchemist’, she had tried to use one of those vials against the rat ogre before losing consciousness, and her Level was 10 above John’s, so it was almost certain that her arsenal had something in it that would pack a lot more punch than the Alchemist’s Fire John had. And since the ruined clothes hadn’t burst into flames or exploded or anything like that when the rat ogre tossed them aside, it was practically certain that at least some of the vials had survived.

On top of that, the beast had unknowingly flung it in John’s general direction, shaving a few meters off the distance that he’d have to run, and with Theft he wouldn’t have to bend down to pick it up and fumble a vial free. He still didn’t like his odds, but they didn’t seem worse than the Alchemist’s Fire option and Qhila’s seemed better this way. Plus, he might still be able to fall back on that option if this didn’t pan out. If he survived the first hit from the rat ogre, anyway.

Still, as he dashed down the gap between containers, John wished there was something more he could do to help matters. He very briefly considered trying to make his legs longer with Augment Body, but even if that worked, suddenly having slightly longer legs seemed like an excellent way to make himself stumble and fuck up everything. Using it to make his leg muscles bigger probably wasn’t going to go anywhere good either. Assuming it didn’t mess up his balance and make him fall on his ass, like longer legs probably would, any increase to leg strength it might’ve given, if it gave any, would probably only be enough to counteract the increased weight of the muscles. If only he could have used the skill to just straight up make the muscle fibers stronger, but that was definitely not a cosmetic change.

John had only just completed that thought when he lost 25 MP, gained a Buff icon next to the Food Buff in his power’s HUD, and his counter of minimized notifications went from 2 to 3. He hadn’t noticed when the other 2 had come in at all, and he would have to leave that mystery unsolved for now. For all his practice speed reading game chats and tooltips while playing high paced games, now was not the time to divert focus to getting snarked at by The Developer. He did notice that he was running significantly faster now, though, but still not enough to outrun the rat ogre, and figured a succinct explanation might be found with the buff.

Enhance Muscles: Legs (Power)
+12.5 to effective STR for the purpose of leg movements, including running speed, jump distances and kick damage.
Duration: 29 min 59 s
Source: The Gamer

That was just awesome. Pretty much exactly what he had wished for. Not enough to make him exactly feel good about his odds, it did at least make everything feel a bit less ****.

John made it two thirds of the way across the open stretch when the rat ogre’s annoyed screeching changed into a roar of equal parts anger and triumph. Clearly, it felt that John’s **** at its hands was now a foregone conclusion. John, for his part, was going to spend the last second or so before it caught up trying to make it mistaken.

Theft Failed. Target out of range.

Theft Failed. Target out of range.

Theft Failed. Target out of range.

Theft Failed. Target out of range.

Theft Failed. Target out of range.

Theft Successful.

With nothing turning up in his hand, John immediately realized it must have gone directly to his inventory. Expecting every moment for the beast to grab him and slam him into the ground, John tried to will whatever was most recently added back out. Willing out money without opening his inventory had worked when he bought lunch for Christie and himself.

Thankfully, his ‘instruction’ was enough for this. He’d have to try to find out the limits of that some time later. What he’d gotten was a vial quarter full of thick, dark brown liquid while the rest of it was filled with lighter, golden brown fumes.

John immediately Observed it, but only threw enough of a glance at the result to catch ‘highly flammable gas’. That was a useful bit of information, and he could hear the creature too close behind him to dare read more. So he turned and tossed it at the rat ogre’s face and, without hesitation, willed one of his vials of Alchemist’s Fire into his hand and threw it the same way.

0 blunt damage. Debuff inflicted.

3 fire damage (ongoing).

63 fire damage. 22 fire damage. 3 fire damage.

-3 HP

‘Ouch.’ The last 3 fire damage had been to John himself. Thankfully, it was heat from the gas igniting, none of the Alchemist’s Fire had ended up on him, but it still hurt like hell. He very much didn’t want to know how the 63 the rat ogre had taken would have felt, though its deafening roar of fury and pain gave him some idea. Qhila had taken some damage as well, and even after the brute had dropped her, she wasn’t moving, which worried John a bit. Her nameplate was still there though, so she should be alive at least.

The rat ogre was moving in a rather wobbly fashion now, while it screeched, roared and clawed at the alchemist’s fire that had gotten on it, trying to get rid of the pain. For a moment, it paid neither of its prey any mind. The beast’s unsteady movements could’ve been because of being badly hurt, but John didn’t think he was that lucky. More likely, it was the debuff. Perhaps the Observe he had barely glanced at before held some answers.

3 fire damage (ongoing).

So basically, in addition to being on fire, the rat ogre was now also drunk as a skunk. That was a nice advantage. Hopefully, it being a type of rat didn’t mean that the intoxication would wear off too soon, because furious clawing aside, it didn’t look like 66 Damage hurt it severely enough for John’s remaining Alchemist’s Fire to finish the job.

3 fire damage (ongoing).

John warily started to head around the currently distracted rat ogre in order to check on the **** Qhila. If he could wake her up somehow, maybe with his Minor Healing Potion, their odds looked good. Based on their levels, she should’ve had the upper hand against it on her own, if things hadn’t started out with her in such a terrible position. And John had just proved that despite being underleveled he could make a difference, even if it was mostly as an extra delivery mechanism for her creations. Together, they should be well able to take it down.

3 fire damage (ongoing).

John had nearly reached the **** kobold when the rat ogre suddenly lunged at him. Despite having kept his eyes on it throughout and making sure to be ready to jump to the side, John only avoided getting tackled, and probably flattened, by the beast because of its sluggish, poorly coordinated movements. Apparently, it had given up on getting rid of the pain. Or maybe the debilitating pain had been from the flash-burnt gas all along and it had simply subsided enough for the thing to focus elsewhere.

In any case, John clearly wasn’t getting enough calm to do any first aid. Even administering a potion would need enough haste that she might drown in it, and that was without considering the risk that it simply trampled Qhila while trying to kill John.

Instead, he reached out for the pile of ruined leather and cloth scraps that used to be the kobold’s clothes and willed the first best vest fragment into his inventory, along with three vials. Luckily, in his dodge leap he had landed next to the stuff and not on top of it, or he might have accidentally broken a container and killed himself with the contents.

3 fire damage (ongoing).

Checking what was in the vials would have to wait though, as the rat ogre had gotten back onto its feet and its beady, red eyes glared hatefully at him as it charged again. John half-jumped, half-rolled in another narrow dodge, scrambled to his feet and dashed towards the ruined warehouse.

He’d have to Observe the vials on the way, but between the Enhance Muscles buff and the Ogre’s intoxication, he just might be able to make it there alive, and if the vials didn’t prove useful, or enough, to kill the beast, he could fall back to getting it to drop a building on itself.