J.R. Rain's Vampire for Hire World_Fire Warrior

by H. T. Night

  As I was right on top of the fire, I realized it seemed to be in a liquid form. Almost as if it were lava.

  Holy shit! The Cherufe!

  As I thought the words, the Cherufe began forming into some sort of fire monster. The sea of fire slowly formed into a beast that was twenty feet tall.

  There was no possible way to fight a fire beast of this magnitude. Unless I unleashed a fire beast of my own. I looked at the fiery beast defiantly and was not afraid. There was a part of me that wanted to defeat this creature on my own terms. I had consumed two gallons of my disgusting fire potion, after all. Calling on the Fire Warrior was always an option, but there was a huge part of me that wanted to defeat this creature in my own skin.

  It was time for me to put my alchemy and my boxing training to work. As an alchemist, I was able to shoot fireballs from my hands and manipulate my present space. I couldn’t fly, but I could skip around in the air like a flea and avoid being smushed. It was time to put all my gym work to use once again.

  I skipped my body into the air to reach eye level with the beast. I lunged forward and released a fiery ball into its face. To my surprise, when the ball made contact, the beast flew backward. I looked down at my right hand and I couldn’t believe the power I had just displayed. The Cherufe slammed down to its back. To my surprise, the Cherufe did not set fire to everything it landed on. The fire was sentient, just as the Cherufe. The beast completely controlled it. As long as I didn’t miss with my fireballs, we could avoid a forest fire.

  The Cherufe stood up again to its full height. I was starting to think this might be a good time to call on the Fire Warrior. But I was as stubborn as my mother. I shot multiple fireballs from both of my hands with as much force as I could muster.

  However, this time, the Cherufe took the shots and did not fall down. Still, as it stood in its tracks, I could tell I’d done some damage by the beast’s demeanor.

  The beast was changing form once again. The process of the transformation was slower than the last time. This time, the Cherufe transformed into a ten-foot beast with eight arms.

  I looked at the mini-giant and was not afraid. I went at him hard, throwing fireballs from my left and right hands. This was a street fight for the ages and I treated this monster as such.

  Using my alchemy skills, I manipulated the air and danced around the Cherufe, shooting fireballs at his red-headed skull. Relentlessly, I continued to throw my own brand of fire at this creature, still in my human form. Dodging each arm took concentration and speed I wasn’t aware I had.

  The Cherufe absorbed the fireballs this time around. They seem to be having less effect than they had two minutes ago. That was not good. I unleashed a series of fireballs that were so punishing that every inch of my body fell forward after the last fireball was unleashed. I must have thrown over a hundred fiery balls at the creature. The Cherufe absorbed every ball I threw.

  I realized my approach wasn’t working. In fact, it seemed to be making the beast stronger.

  Suddenly, I watched as more arms grew out from the great beast. My fire was making the creature bigger and more powerful.

  I needed to give myself some space from this thing. It appeared I needed supernatural help to defeat a supernatural being. I gave the beast all I could in my human form, but it was now time for the Fire Warrior.

  When I was a safe distance from the Cherufe, I closed my eyes and I searched through the darkness. I concentrated with all I had until I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and I ran to my brother in arms. I needed to hurry because this beast would be upon my human body at any second. In my mind, I was running and reaching for the Fire Warrior. We made contact and immediately, I became the Fire Warrior.

  I looked down at the Cherufe and now the beast was shorter than I was. Transformation complete.

  I am the Fire Warrior.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  The sun was setting and it didn’t matter because together we were lighting up the sky. This creature had caused so much pain to the woman that I love. I needed to destroy it once and for all.

  As the Fire Warrior, I took out both my swords and charged the great beast. I slammed my fiery swords at the monster and chopped half its arms off as if they were butter. The arms fell and turned into stone as they were detached from the beast. As the arms hit the ground, they exploded and crumbled.

  The beast was deteriorating.

  I attacked the Cherufe relentlessly with my fire swords. Each piece fell off his body and turned into stone as it hit the ground.

  Finally, the creature retreated one hundred feet away and gathered all of its remaining lava into one form.

  And once again, the beast decided to change. The transformation was the slowest one yet and must have taken thirty seconds to transform. The beast decided to change into a giant worm. I supposed it figured it would out-duel the Fire Warrior with snakelike quickness.

  Suddenly, the Cherufe began sliding down the path. Even in this form, the Cherufe was still not setting fire to anything it touched. The beast slid down the trail toward the school and I realized the Cherufe was now after Katherine. That was the whole reason why it was even out here. It was looking for Katherine. To kill her.

  I charged after the fiery snake in my giant Fire Warrior body. We were a mile away from the school, but and it wouldn’t take long for the Cherufe to reach Katherine, if she and Barry were back from the food run.

  I was gaining on the creature and it was damn fast. I ran my Fire Warrior legs as fast as I could. About 500 yards from the school, I finally caught up to the beast.

  As the Fire Warrior, I dove on top of the fiery serpent as it slid across the trail. I grabbed it with both hands. Thankfully, the fire caused no damage or burning effect on me. I felt no pain from its fire. I did feel its pressure, however.

  Trying to corral this snake was something I hadn’t experienced in my real life, so trying to do it as a man almost twice as big as I was proved to be twice as challenging. I gripped the beast and rode on top of it for several feet until the Cherufe tired out from carrying a 700-pound man on its back.

  The Cherufe stopped its motion, which allowed me to pick up the creature. I lifted it up to my waist in a dead-lift motion. Then in a curling motion, I brought it to my chest. Now, to show the beast my true power, I lifted the entire Cherufe over my head and threw it backward a hundred yards on the trail.

  The Cherufe flipped and tumbled to the ground.

  Sometimes, when I fought, something deep came over me. I couldn’t explain it. When my father was with me, I thought I felt his pain. But he had been long gone, and I have had a few rumbles. Since then, if anything, the pain was deeper. It was overwhelming and the only release I felt was when I struck my opponent. To be honest, it was what I used to feel when I trained with Jacky years ago. That was why Jacky gave me few opponents. I think he was afraid I would maim—or worse yet, kill—my opponents.

  Well, that boxing training had led me to this. I used those skills as the Fire Warrior.

  Then it hit me.

  How much of me is in the Fire Warrior? Can my alchemy skills work as the Fire Warrior?

  I didn’t know much about what happened to my body when we switched. I just knew we switched.

  The Cherufe was still a hundred feet away from me. I decided to run and jump toward the Cherufe and see if I could manipulate the air as I could in my human form.

  I charged the Cherufe and jumped as high as I could. Before I knew it, I was manipulating, floating and jerking through the air. I landed 50 yards from the Cherufe. The beast slid backward. This unorthodox act by the Fire Warrior at the very least confused the creature.

  The creature began changing form. As it evolved, this was its slowest transformation yet. It slowly turned its body into the image that was identical to the Fire Warrior. But, the Cherufe’s version was twice as big as mine. It had all my details. Two swords in the back and with helmet, armor and kick-ass boots.

  That was fine; I could defe
at the Cherufe. I had all the tools I needed.

  As we faced off, we must have looked like a giant version of David versus Goliath, but in fire version. I was blocking his path to reach Katherine. I knew that was what this beast wanted even though I had lured it out here by wearing the necklace.

  I was glad I had gone with my feeling and told Barry and Katherine to go off together. Also, that Archibald was on his game knowing enough to pass the baton to me.

  Here I stand. I cannot let this South American volcanic monster pass me on this trail. I need to defeat it out here, far away from all civilization.

  How was I going to do that? I wasn’t sure.

  I always believed it was important to be on the offensive when it came to fighting. Especially a fight to the death. But this was a special situation. I didn’t want this asshole to make it around me. I had to hold my ground and wait for his version of the Fire Warrior to attack me.

  So, I waited.

  It didn’t take long for the man to run at me with a charge so great that I had no idea what our collision was going to feel like. I timed it perfectly and jumped into the air and pulled out both my swords and struck the creature on both sides of its fiery head.

  The Cherufe fell backward in a mighty fall, much like how I imagined Goliath looked when David hit him with the infamous rock. I didn’t hit the Cherufe with a rock. I struck him twice with my mighty fire swords, in the face, no less. He fell straight on his back and made a mighty rumble as he landed on the trail.

  I jumped on top of the Cherufe and began punching the creature relentlessly in its face with my flaming arms. I was half his size, but I knew I was as strong as hell. I pounded the beast until it began to revert back into lava. Once it was in its lava form, the creature slid past me quickly and began charging toward the school again. This time, the Cherufe did not have far to go.

  I stood up and ran as fast as I could after the beast. The Fire Warrior never ran anywhere this fast and this strong. The school was approaching in the distance. I needed to catch the creature before it reached school grounds.

  Finally, I caught up to the Cherufe as it approached the parking lot. I glanced around quickly and saw that were no cars in the parking lot. Thank God, that meant Kat and Barry were still at the store.

  I didn’t want this creature to destroy my school, so I was going to have to keep it isolated to the parking lot. I grabbed the fiery blob. The Cherufe stayed in one form. I picked up the blob and hurled it two hundred feet back up the trail.

  As I did so, Kat and Barry whipped around the highway in Kat’s car and made their way into the parking lot.

  I was the Fire Warrior. Neither one of them knew this secret about me. I couldn’t worry about that at the moment. I needed to get them to safety.

  When Kat saw the Fire Warrior, she stopped her car in utter horror. I quickly walked over to Barry and Katherine inside her car and made three gestures. As the Fire Warrior, I put up my hand. Meaning, do not drive any further into the parking lot. I pointed to my running trail and shook my head. That was to tell them the danger was over there. Then, I pointed back to the highway and gave them as good of a thumbs-up sign as I could in my giant Fire Warrior body.

  Kat gave me the thumbs-up sign, reversed the car and headed back in the direction of the highway. Thank goodness, she understood. Hopefully, she wouldn’t come anywhere near here again until this was over.

  Chapter Thirty

  Watching from the middle of the parking lot, I turned and faced the trail and waited to see what form the Cherufe decided to take this time.

  I was shocked to see it coming back at me in a larger, more liquid form. I was confused and wasn’t sure how to attack such a creature. It was as if I was fighting a fiery river. This river continued to come at me with no regard to what it believed I could do to it. I took out both my swords and struck down hard as the liquid began to cover my body. I fought off the Cherufe, but it seemed to have little effect. The Cherufe covered my entire Fire Warrior body. As it did so, it started to suck the power from my body.

  I was weakening. I needed to move away from this thing and recoup. I lunged my body away from the Cherufe and landed twenty feet away. To my surprise, it held on like a bull rider, continuing to light up the night as it covered my humongous warrior body.

  With all my strength, I caused the Cherufe to release my entire body by extending all of my limbs. It released my large body like a rubber band snapping and I flew ten feet forward.

  For the first time, I heard sounds coming from the Cherufe. It sounded like distant moaning. As I lay on the ground, I watched it take yet another form. This time, the transformation took at least ninety seconds. I was too far away to attack but I knew the beast was weakening.

  The Cherufe had transformed itself into a much-thicker lava, smaller and denser than the river of fire it had just displayed.

  We were both much weaker than we were when this fight first started. I wasn’t sure how much fight I had left in me. But I knew I would fight all night if that was what it took.

  The Cherufe once again tried to take another form. The transformation took seemingly forever, and I thought about attacking the Cherufe multiple times, but could not find the opening I needed. So instead, I watched it finish it turn into what looked like a large, fiery octopus. It was a tight transformation and it needed all of its remaining lava to create this type of creature.

  The octopus flew forward and came at me in a blaze of rage. I stepped forward and the Cherufe tripped me with one its tentacle arms. I didn’t fall often as the Fire Warrior but when I did, it caused a small seismic earthquake, I was sure.

  I hit the ground face down. I turned around as quickly as I could and before I knew it, the damn fiery octopus was on top of me.

  It used four of its legs to pin my neck to the ground. The beast was strong and it was hard to resist it. Suddenly, one of the tentacle arms came at my forehead spinning like a power drill. It was attacking my forehead. Not my heart or stomach, but my forehead. I used all my strength to keep the Cherufe at bay in its new drill form. The octopus’s tentacle reached the base of my forehead. I resisted the spinning tentacle with every inch of my being. With all my might, I yanked the spinning tentacle down to the ground. Then, I chucked the fiery octopus fifty feet across the parking lot. This time, all of its tentacles broke off into pieces and crumbled to the ground.

  What remained of the Cherufe was only the size of a puddle.

  I looked on to what remained of the Cherufe. It was trying to transform again to expand into its twenty-foot version of myself but failed to do so. It didn’t have enough lava.

  I charged the beast as the lava tried to expand into the warrior again. But this time, it was just a pair of legs. I grabbed both legs with both of my true Fire Warrior hands and smashed them into each other, causing the Cherufe to look even more deformed. It had two broken legs on top of a fiery, blobby mess. I took out my sword and pounded the Cherufe until every bit of it had turned into stone.

  I had killed the damn thing.

  I turned and walked back into the parking lot. To my surprise, Barry and Kat were standing there. It appeared they had been watching from behind one of the buildings.

  In my Fire Warrior form, I walked over to them. I made a motion with my hand that it was okay for them to walk to me. I looked down at Kat through my warrior eyes and I was more in love with her than I ever had been.

  Neither Kat or Barry said a word. They just looked up at me in utter awe. I smiled at them both. I had finished off the Cherufe forever.

  It was time for them to know the truth.

  I closed my eyes and looked toward the flame with my mind. It took a moment, but I finally saw the flame. At the end of the tunnel, I could see my naked body waiting for me. I went toward my body.

  On this day, I knew the Fire Warrior was a part of me, more and more. And I was a part of him. Together, we had defeated the Cherufe. I reached out and touched my own hand.

  Chapter Thirty-
one

  I laid naked in the middle of the parking lot at the Alchemy Academy. Just five feet to my right were two people who needed someone to close their jaws.

  “That was you?” Barry asked.

  “Does anyone have something I can wear?” I asked as I covered the goods. They had both seen me naked, but that didn’t mean I was going to parade around here nude.

  “You can wear my shorts. I have boxers on.” Barry whipped off his shorts and I was thankful he didn’t offer the boxers. Barry’s shorts were bigger than what I normally wore but I was grateful to not be completely naked, and I told him as much. So, I put on Barry’s shorts with my ass facing my girlfriend and my best friend.

  “What the hell was all that, Anthony?” Barry was looking far more confused than normal. “Who were those guys and why the hell did you appear out of nowhere naked?”

  I smiled at Barry and then looked at Katherine. She ran to me and hugged me tightly. “What just happened, Anthony?”

  “I solved your mother’s murder,” I answered.

  “You did?” she asked.

  “And in the process, killed the beast that took her life.”

  “You did?” Barry asked. “It appeared to me that the giant warrior guy did.”

  “The Fire Warrior,” I said.

  “You have a name for him.” Barry was utterly confused. “How many times have you seen this guy?”

  I looked at Katherine and smiled. “You know what happened? Don’t you?”

  “I’m not exactly sure how it works. But it appears you can turn into this Fire Warrior when need be. And when you return, you come back in your birthday suit.”

  I smiled at Katherine. “I’m not exactly sure how it works either. But yes.”

  Barry looked at me with disbelief. “You’re the Fire Warrior? You were that guy we just saw kicking that fire worm’s ass?”