Chapter 84 - Thermal...something something...HIT IT IN THE FACE!

When Voxea told me that aether armor would cause a monster to be three times as vulnerable to an affinity than normal, I didn't know what to expect exactly. I figured the ice armor to just disappear from the heat or nothing to occur and the monster just takes more damage. What actually happened was beyond my expectations.

At first, it had attempted to swipe at the flame with one of its claws. The moment it touched the flame, the ice affinity aether armor appeared on it for a second and then exploded into pieces, with bolts of lighting shooting it out and quickly disappearing. The ice armor on its claw was destroyed and the claw itself was absolutely mangled. A look of shock dawned on both of our faces, mine due to how violent the reaction that was, and its own due to it probably feeling proper pain for the first time in a while. The ice armor eventually reformed around the mangled claw, but it looked weaker.

The Grim Shrieker had enough sense at that point to try and avoid the trail of flames heading towards it, but it had headed deeper inside the building as opposed to leaving it. In its panic, I could hear it thrashing and smashing several more barrels of alcohol in there. This had the rather negative consequence of even more alcohol being splashed about the room, as well as over itself, and causing the fire to become even more intense.

As the fire grew and the Grim Shrieker became cornered, I noticed a strange smell in the air. It smelled sweet and...heady...oh crap, it's burning alcohol. I once breathed in the stuff when I wandered into the brewing room as a toddler. I don't remember what happened exactly, but father said I just walked in, took a deep breath and I was out like a snuffed out candle. Needless to say, breathing in these vapors were a bad idea.

I quickly covered my nose and mouth with part of the cloak that Voxea gave me to block out the alcoholic vapors. Meanwhile, I saw through the flames that the vapors were getting to the Grim Shrieker!

The monster's head began to bob and sway as the fire grew closer, and I could hear the messed up sounds from its throat sounding even more slurred than before.

[Silvia get ready], I heard Voxea chime in as I watched.

[Ready? For what]?

[The Grim Shrieker is about to do something very stupid].

As if on cue, the Grim Shrieker suddenly bolted out of the storeroom. The Grim Shrieker was now engulfed in flames, the alcohol on its body having been ignited at this point, and was now charging towards us. Rakka and I immediately braced ourselves at the sight of the charging monster, but as it can rushing towards us, a sudden explosion occured on its back and knocked into the ground. Small explosions yet powerful explosions began to occur all over its body as we watched in awe and horror.

[Voxea, what's going on? Why is it exploding?], I asked.

[Remember how I said aether armor triples the damage taken from vulnerabilities? That's how], she said nonchalantly.

[It causes explosions]?!

[Sometimes. This is actually a more exceptional case due to something called thermal expansion!], she replied excitedly.

[Thermal what]?

[It's a bit complicated to explain entirely, but just know that when you rapidly heat something up that's ice cold or rapidly cool something that's burning hot, it causes great bursts of force, i.e., explosions].

Digesting what Voxea had told me, I watched as even more explosions fired off from the Grim Shrieker's body. I could see that underneath the flames that the ice armor was trying to reform as quickly as possible, but the reforming of the armor was just setting off more explosions when it came into contact with the flames. If I had to guess, the Grim Shrieker was stuck in a loop of that rapid heating and cooling that Voxea said. I couldn't help but wonder if this would last up until it gets aethered or if it would eventually stop.

I got the answer to my wonderment when the Grim Shrieker suddenly stopped and threw up. A pale white ball covered in bile and other bodily fluids fell out of the Grim Shrieker's throat.

[And there's the aether armor], Voxea commented.

After that, the explosions stopped and the Grim Shrieker was now panting while still burning alive. It soon caught its breath and began to stare me and Rakka down. The sound of it taking a powerful inhalation tickled at my ears.

[And that's not good. Rakka, Freezing Horns]!

[Wait no, bad idea!], Voxea shouted just as Rakka let out a powerful snort and slammed a pair of icy antlers into the burning Grim Shrieker.

A loud and bright flash echoed out at the moment of impact.