Chapter 134 – A Test of Passion

Chapter 134 – A Test of Passion

Salamander was still hovering around, visibly annoyed by the fact that she had nothing to do but watch the two of them fuck. A surge of panic preceded John’s realization that Nathalia was no longer kneeling in front of him. He turned his head to see the dragoness standing, fire spirit in hand.

Then Nathalia bathed Salamander in a breath of fire. John felt the intense heat where he sat, unable to interject as the whole scene was over as quickly as it began. Nathalia let Salamander go just as a window popped up.



‘I mean, Gaia, you placed her in my path or not?’ John asked the supreme deity, not expecting an answer as he closed the window. “Thank y-”

“What the fuck?! Do you usually breathe on people without asking them first?!” Salamander shouted and quickly distanced herself from the dragoness, who let it happen without a care.

Nathalia turned away from John and Salamander and simply waved for them to follow. ‘Heading naked towards a lava lake sounds like a terrible idea,’ the Gamer thought, his eyes glued to the ass of the dragoness. Hips swinging, the big, round pillow kept rippling with every step she took. ‘Well, that’s as good a reason as it comes.’

John walked and Salamander hid behind his ear. “Well, I guess I feel that it worked, but a warning would have been appropriate.” She low-key stuck out her tongue.

‘I do not disagree,’ John sent her mentally, he was certain that Nathalia heard every word they spoke.

Whether or not she did, Nathalia hit the edge of the island and then just kept walking. Underneath her feet, a path formed. Magma solidified into black rock. Still, the temperature was bearable. The goddess of this space made it liveable for an almost regular human like him. John gulped as he glanced behind him and realized that the path disappeared just a few metres behind the dragoness. He quickly caught up with Nathalia. The scales and claws appeared again, cladding her curves in black obsidian and liquid orange.

“What do you plan to do?” John had a bad feeling about all of this. Walking over a fading path through lava in a landscape so hellish, the ashes of distant volcanoes blocking out the sun was not confidence inducing.

“Help you realize the lesson of your fire elemental,” was all Nathalia had to say before coming to a halt. John looked around, they had walked for a while and were several hundred metres away from any land. He was sweating all over and he was pretty sure that, if Nathalia wouldn’t have been around to regulate it, the heat would have turned him as crunchy as toast.

Nathalia stomped once and the lake rippled. The small platform they stood on expanded, as waves hardened and spikes shot through the surface. Layer upon layer, forming forests of stone and obsidian, and caves from tiny to massive, a structure akin to an arena was erected. They were at the centre of it.

Nathalia grabbed one of the spikes and snapped it off like it was a dry twig hanging from a dead tree. A dangerous glint in her eyes, she faced the Gamer, who immediately came to the realization that this place didn’t just look like an arena.

The spike looked like a lance in Nathalia’s hand, as she weighed it. “This will do,” she said and then thrust it towards John without any further explanation. The move was anticipated and John did a jumping roll to escape. Immediately he was back on his feet and sprinted towards the forest of spikes. He needed a moment to analyse the situation. Salamander was right behind him.

Obviously, Nathalia was holding back. There was no way he would have dodged that attack if she wanted to kill him. Her using a random chunk of rock as a weapon was probably a way to limit herself.

She had stated the purpose of this whole thing so the question he had now wasn’t for Nathalia, whose intent was clear, but for Salamander. ‘What are you trying to teach me that needs to throw me into such a desperate situation?’ he wanted to know.VịSit no(v)3lb/!n(.)com for new novels

‘What the fuck is that supposed to mean?’

‘If you don’t get it, think about the important fights we had up until now!’ she gave him a cryptic hint and then, silence. Salamander was still there but clearly uninterested in speaking with him anymore. John only was able to see what she saw, which was her finding Nathalia and engaging her in combat.

John, meanwhile, hid inside a deep corner. There was a whisper accusing him of cowardice in the back of his head. ‘But what can I do?’ he asked himself. There had to be something between his own inability and Salamander’s brashness, something that actually worked. John needed to analyse this step by step.

The win condition of this fight was realizing and embracing whatever lesson Salamander had for him, everything else was just speculation. How did he do that? How did he do it with Gnome? He had reached a state where he felt like he was part of the earth, he had listened to her voice, she had guided him. He had the feeling that this wouldn’t work with Salamander.

‘Not the guiding part at the very least,’ John thought, however he could try to become one with fire, he closed his eyes and took deep breaths. There was a feeling, a calm and deep feeling, one that didn’t in the slightest resemble fire. No, all he was doing was tapping into earth again. If that wasn’t it then what was? Salamander had told him to think about the important fights, the one that came to mind was against the Bloodfallen.

Then he realized what she meant. It was so obvious, his overthinking nature had refused to see it. For a moment, caution struggled against the realization, then he dragged a part of him to the forefront that he had only recently been developing. Something that had been culled by the years of living in a safe world and then further diminished by the bullies who had kept him down.

John smiled and pulled the Necklace of the World Ender out again.

Through Salamander’s eyes, he watched as Nathalia, who had been fighting Salamander with a bored expression up until now, suddenly reared her head and sprinted into the cave he was hiding in. Salamander hurried after her.

Nathalia didn’t even bother with running through the windings of the cave, instead she broke and melted a direct way through the stone, “I warn you and you are stupid enough to do it a second time?” she growled, amused and angry in equal part. “You better surprise me...” the last wall in front of her broke apart under a punch of her black fist and she came to a rather abrupt halt when she saw the necklace. It just lay there, on the floor.

‘Salamander, the answer, it’s the passion for fighting, isn’t it?’ John asked as he sent her 887 points worth of his mana. The answer was so easy that it was just too far away.

From the first time he had stomped down on the seedlings to the fight against the Bloodfallen, violence had changed his character. Physical activity was no longer something he was dreadfully bad at. Combat, especially, was something he had experienced over and over again. The back and forth of abilities, the many puzzles of the environment and the actors involved, it all engaged his mind. To put it simply: it was fun.

‘Yes, finally!’ Salamander laughed and basked Nathalia in a cascade of fire. The red filled the dark cave.

John had never enjoyed fighting as much as Rave did. He likely never would. That was no reason not to enjoy it. Even if he was calculating, even if he always wanted to have a plan, why make fighting a chore? Why make the struggle for life a stressful endeavour when it could be so much more?

Stepping out from behind the corner, John raised his palm. The last bit of mana he had formed into the preparation of Mana Ray.

One, the flames stirred as Salamander quickly burned through the mana. The goal was clear: The mana used for the fire had to mask the mana pulsating in John’s hand from Nathalia’s senses. Two, a silhouette became apparent in the flames, a figure with orange glowing hair broke out. Three, Nathalia grabbed his hand, and turned it to the ceiling. The attack flared up and uselessly hit the stone above, the dragoness’ face got dangerously close. Sharp teeth parted.

Nathalia kissed him wildly on the lips, her blessing sharpening his senses and helping refill his depleted HP bar. He relaxed (most of him anyway) and at the same moment the window popped up.