Chapter 45: Beat Blaze Shadow

"Hm?" We are teleported to another location… no… this is just like back in Lindwurm. We are in a completely different dimension. All around us is nothing but lava. A sea of blazing lava as far as the eye can see. I had to put a layer of barrier around my skin to protect myself from the intense heat and poured more magic to my slime suit in order to prevent it from melting.

"Welcome to my world, Shadow. Here, everything is as I want it to be." He declared.

How terrifying you are, my nemesis. I've focused my training on making myself strong and you went ahead and create cool spells like this. I almost want to call you sensei. Almost!

With a wave of his hand, a wave of lava emerged, threatening to consume me. I've always wanted to try swimming in lava but doing it in his lava is a risk I don't want to take. Who knows? Maybe there are lava sharks around.

I flew away from the lava wave and more waves emerged all around me. I tried flying up to avoid them but a rain of molten rocks is raining down around me. Naturally I avoided them all, destroying some of them with a slash of my sword. Heh heh heh. This is so much fun!

But if this keeps up, I'll be at a disadvantage. Maintaining the barrier around my skin whilst maintaining my slime suit in this environment is taking so much magic energy. Though I'm not the only one who expends a large amount of magical energy in this fight.

I swiped the sea of lava with my sword, sending a wave of lava at him. But as expected, the lava didn't harm him. I'm sure he didn't even feel all these heat either.

"It's useless. As I said before, my magic is not meant to trap me." He said mockingly.

I flew closer to him but… everytime I drew closer to him, he teleported away. He sent more lava waves at me with every teleportation.

He sent another wave of lava and instead of dodging, this time I… surfed through the lava wave with a black surfboard made of slime that I reinforced so it would survive contact with the lava.

"Ho ho ho. Not bad." He said mockingly while clapping his hands.

I put my hand on the lava and tried to inject it with magic but… my magic was rejected. His control over this dimension is absolute.

"This is MY domain! Everything obeys only me!" He exclaimed as he created a shark made of lava and sent it my way.

I knew it wasn't wise to swim in his lava.

I sliced the shark apart as it attempts to bite me but it quickly reforms itself. I jumped off the lava wave to dodge the shark's bite.

As I floated in the air, several lava sharks jumped out of the sea of lava to try biting me.

With a single swipe of my sword, I diced all of them, sending them back to the lava.

"Is that all?" I taunted him, wanting him to show more of his tricks.

"How about this?" He said as he held an open palm in my direction and sent…. Holy shit! A pyroclastic flow! I dodged the huge wave of black hot cloud coming my way. A deadly natural disaster conjured by his magic is bound to be dangerous. Even inhaling the gas is risky. But I can use this.

He kept conjuring more and more pyroclastic waves and I kept dodging, using the cloud from the pyroclastic flows as smoke screen to mask my steps as I slowly approached him silently.

I eventually moved at high speed and appeared behind him, a slash of my sword blocked by his staff.

"I knew you would be there. How predictable, nemesis." He said mockingly.

Well, backstabbing seems to get old by now. I need to do something fresh. And I know just what to do.

Without disengaging from him, I released a burst of magical energy and pushed him downwards into the lava.

I watched as he fell into the lava but I know this isn't the end. This is his lava. The lava sharks won't attack him either.

Few seconds after he dropped into the lava, he emerged out of the lava… as a giant version of him made of lava.

"It's useless! This is my domain!" He exclaimed, his voice louder due to his size.

He then vomits a stream of lava out of his mouth. Instead of dodging, I stepped into the stream of lava he vomited and ran towards him.

I put magic into my feet and caused a burst which sent me flying straight into his gigantic skull-like face.

I plunged my sword between his eye sockets and injected more magic to the sword, causing a burst of magic to drive deeper into his skull, bursting behind his head.

Ignoring the damage in his skull, the Necromancer raised his hand to try and grab me. I simply stepped in his hand to dodge the slow moving hand.

I sliced his lava form apart with high speed slashes, revealing his true self inside the head, slightly damaged from the magic burst I gave to his lava form's skull.

Not giving him a chance to retaliate, I stabbed my blade into his chest and… instead of blood, what came out of his body is snow and a burst of cold air, completely contrasting the current environment.

The cold air eventually envelops the whole place, turning it from a sea of lava into a winter wasteland surrounded by harsh blizzard.

I had to adjust the barrier coating my skin to protect me from cold instead of heat in order to adapt to the change in environment.

The Necromancer that I stabbed disappeared when the environment changed.

I stepped on the snow coated ground, slightly relieved that I no longer have to constantly fly.

I turned behind me to see a giant spear made of ice emerged from the blizzard, flying towards me. I sidestepped the spear before noticing another spear coming from another direction.

The blizzard obscured my vision slightly but I managed dodged several more ice spears before finally spotting his silhouette in the distance, obscured by the blizzard.

I decided to show off a little bit of magic I developed myself by studying the Mist Dragon's breath.

I inhaled deeply, focusing my magic in my lungs, converting it into fire element before blowing it out of my mouth. A stream of fire came out of my mouth towards the direction of his silhouette, engulfing his form in flames. But it was not the real him. It was merely an illusion.

"A dragon's breath, eh? Impressive. But can you find me?" His voice echoes in the air.

I saw another silhouette of him but as I tried to take a step closer, I found my shoes frozen solid. My slime outfit also becomes heavier and harder to be molded into shapes and density I desired.

"Haah… Even the frozen environment won't make it easy for me." I muttered as I poured more magic into my slime suit, breaking the ice and protecting it from freezing further.

I sent another fire breath at the direction of the silhouette, dispelling the illusion. Another spear emerged and I slice it apart with my sword.

"Hmph. This is getting repetitive. Playtime is over!" I exclaimed as I gathered magical energy for my ultimate move. My purple energy envelops a large area around me.

"I… AM…" I said before I was interrupted by the Necromancer finally showing himself with a hand coated in a black aura. I cancelled my ultimate magic to dodge the dangerous rot magic.

"Now, you're mine." I said as I coated my sword in flame and bisected him. This time, I drew blood.

His body, now in two pieces, fell to the ground, coating the snow red with his blood.

"Playtime isn't over yet." He said with a clear voice as if he wasn't bisected at all before red tentacle like things emerged from his wounds and reattached his bisected body.

I moved to slash him with my sword before he fully reattached his body. I hit him… but…

"It was only an afterimage." He said as he suddenly appeared behind me, sending his rot magic on my back.

"Aaaagh!" I screamed in pain as I jumped away. I have high pain tolerance but his rot magic is damn painful. My magic defense and even the slime covering my back evaporated, completely defenseless against that magic. Also, stealing my technique and line. Very clever.

I kept jumping away from him as he kept chasing me with that rot magic of his while healing the wounds on my back. Ow! Ow! Even being skinned alive wouldn't be this painful!

Like a game of tag, he now becomes the "it". But I have no intention of being chased forever, you know?

As I ran and he kept chasing, I suddenly stopped and began gathering magic around my body, converting it into fire element and unleashed it in a large burst of flames which envelops him.

The burst of flames knocked him away, though it wouldn't burn him much, not in this blizzard.

Before he recovers, I moved at high speed and stabbed him with my flaming sword. Blood came out of his wound… along with a spark of electricity.

"Another change in element, eh?" I muttered as I moved away before he exploded in a burst of electricity. The bright light from his explosion also brought change to the scenery. This time we are flying above mountains surrounded by tornadoes and lightning.

"Hmm. If I'm not careful, I could be blown away." I muttered as I poured magic to keep my position steady and prevent myself from being blown away by the harsh wind. He always finds a way to make me expend more magic than I'm comfortable with.

As I expected, several lightning strikes rained down upon me. Dodging them was made harder with the wind from the tornadoes constantly interrupting my flight. To top it all off, the damn Necromancer shots lightning from his hands. Hooray for more projectiles to dodge!

I tried flying towards him but he just blew me away by surrounding himself with a tornado.

Being blown away caused me to be struck by some lightning.

"Aghh!" I grunted as lightning from the sky struck me.

This is getting me nowhere. I must destroy this dimension with a huge bang. Using I Am Atomic is out of the question because he can just attack me with his rot magic before I can finish the technique. But I know a technique that can do the trick.

You know what they say. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Heh heh heh.

I raised my hand to the sky and began creating a black sphere out of magic. The sphere was surrounded by purplish lights forming a spiral.

"You…!" He muttered hatefully as he tried to attack me but was blown away by the chaotic force generated by the black hole above me. This is the advantage in his technique that my I Am Atomic did not have. I grinned as I watched him being blown away.

"I hope you enjoy your present, Necromancer! MEGIDDO!" I shouted as I aimed the black hole towards him, causing it to burst in a huge cone, shattering the dimension.

Author's Note:

As you probably guessed, the title of this chapter is a reference of Tekken 7's OST, Heat Haze Shadow. Even the lava environment was a reference to Heihachi VS Kazuya in Tekken 7. I listened to that song while writing this chapter. It's a banger and fits an epic battle between rivals and sworn enemies.

Thanks to Zero for suggesting the Necromancer having ability similar to Reality Marbles. It gave me the idea to write this chapter.

Wholesome07: I shall wait for you so rest and return to your once you called slumber.

Answer: Yeah I'll rest properly. Don't worry.

BetweenIandGirl: did claude just teleported cid or is it one of those 'memories' arc case?

Answer: Subdimension, like the Sanctuary.

primenidus: Now they gone

Answer: Not for long.

TheVirtualPug: What's Claude's plan for dealing with his 'weakness.'

Answer: I have a plan for that. You'll see.