Gambit Of The Living Weapon - Chapter 243 Into the fire

Dia, as usual, was carrying a snack around with her and sitting by Ellie’s side under the shadow of a tree while they watched Joseph and Claire practicing their magic outside.

“Guys, what are you doing…?” Ellie asked while Dia continued to crunch her cookies next to her ear.

“I’m trying to master this one spell that Xadi gave me… I managed to get the hang of fire magic very quickly, but electric magic still gives me a bit of trouble…” Claire explained while trying to gather energy on her shield.

“… Why…? After we return home we won’t need to use magic anymore…” Ellie noted.

“I just don’t wanna spend my whole life wondering if I could do it or not…”

“If you say so…” Ellie then shifted her gaze, “what about you Joey?”

“I’m… I’m just trying to distract myself a bit…” he admitted. The truth was that he wanted to show off in front of Dia but the girl looked like her bag of snacks had all her attention.

“Dia, how many of those have you eaten…?” Ellie wondered.

“… I don’t wanna answer that…” Dia bluntly stated.

“Are you still hungry??”

“I know right?? It’s so weird, it feels like I haven’t eaten anything in years… I keep eating but I never feel full… The only times I feel full is…”

“When someone is in pain…?”

“… I also don’t wanna answer that…”

“…”

“Am I… Am I weird…?” Dia asked while trying to hide her face with her ponytails.

“Yes…” Ellie confessed, “but so is everyone here, so… who cares…?”

“I- I see…” Dia commented. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that answer but she was glad Ellie didn’t felt the need to stay away from her, “by the way… How come their staffs look like a shield that was split in half?”

“Oh, about that-”

“Oh, great… All of you are here…” said a voice coming from behind the tree and interrupting Ellie’s answer.

“Oh, hey Detra! How was the chat with that Hana lady? Did you manage to find out if she is evil or good?” Ellie wondered.

“What? No! Who cares about that… I just wanted to learn her secrets… That lady has lived even longer than me… She’s bound to know a lot of interesting details that nobody else does…”

Dia tilted her head, “Longer than you…? How old are you exactly…?”

“I don’t wanna answer that…” Detra stated, “so anyway, I’m satisfied now… When are we going home?”

“Oh, aunt Evie and her team went off to fight Knucker at the temple of the west… They should be back any minute now…”

“Fight Knucker…? That’s odd…” Detra commented while holding her chin.

“Why…?”

“Hana told me that Knucker’s body has never been found…”

“Never been found…? But… Didn’t Hana came here to aske aunt Evie to kill him?”

“She did… But Hana herself never managed to find Knucker’s real body, according to what she told me…”

“Ok… So… I guess he just decided to reveal himself right now out of nowhere…?”

Detra looked at the sky as many thoughts began to cross her head, “unlikely…”

Ellie became worried again.

“Oh, great… ” Dia mumbled as she realized she wasn’t hungry anymore.

“Do you think they might have gone into a trap…?” Claire wondered.

Ellie’s concern grew even further.

“Possibly…” Detra agreed.

Ellie started to shiver.

“Would you guys stop making Ellie upset!!!??? I’m trying to eat here!!” Dia shouted.

Joseph noticed Dia’s distress and tried to cheer Ellie up once again, “Ellie! Don’t worry!! Your aunt is a very powerful mage, right? I’m sure she can deal with anything this dragon throws at her!!”

Ellie still seemed upset, “that’s what I was thinking when Mia began to attack us…”

Dia finally gave up trying to finish her bag and just offered them to Detra, “want some…?”

“Sure, why not…” Detra replied while gladly taking a few bites herself.

Ellie’s eyes suddenly began to burn with a blue glow. Her future sight had activated itself.

“Oh, no… Danger! Detra!! Take us away from this tree!!”

Detra heard those words and noticed Ellie’s power activating, followed by grabbing the two girls and moving them away from the tree as fast as she could, and soon as they leaped away, it exploded in a massive ball of fire that ignited all the grass around them.

“Wasn’t me!!” Claire announced while hiding her shield behind her back.

Detra moved her gaze and tried to search for the source of the problem, she looked through the smoke and noticed a figure slowly approaching.

It was a man with long blond hair, orange eyes, with a very thin but tall body. He was dressed like a regular villager with a normal combination of pants, boots, and a white shirt.

But there was one thing about him that wasn’t normal at all, his mouth was on fire.

“Which one of you is the crossbow mage’s niece?” he asked.

Detra placed Dia and Ellie behind her, “who wants to know?”

The man just tilted his head in confusion, “Uuhh… Me… That’s why I asked… What kind of question is that?”

Joseph began to rub his chin, “he has a point…”

Detra glared at the boy and pointed at him, “that’s her niece… You can kill her if you want…”

“Wait! What!!??” the boy screamed.

“Ah! Thank you!!” the man replied.

He then placed one foot in front of him and took a deep breath, followed by releasing a massive breath of fire aimed at Joseph.

“Ah! Ah! Wait, wait!!!!”

The young man was about to be turned into ashes but Detra stepped in front of him and blocked the attack with a wall of ice.

“Interesting…” she commented while observing the fire and ice canceling each other.

“D- Did you just used me to find out what this guy’s power was???” Joseph asked.

“Oh, heavens no… I was hoping he would kill you…”

“What!!??”

“But I still needed to know if this was a type of attack that I can stand against… ” she commented while forming a massive icicle above her palm, “and now I do!”

The ice mage then took aim as well and launched her frozen shard at the fire-breathing man, who just responded by melting the ice with his breath before it even touched him.

“What’s wrong…? Too hot for you?” he joked.

“Indeed…” Detra replied, followed by creating ten new shards, “I always preferred the cold…”

She then launched the icicles at him once again but the blond man just responded by releasing his fire breath while spinning around.

“Who is this guy…?” Dia asked.

“And why is he after Ellie…?” Claire added.

“Both good questions…” Detra noted, “you wouldn’t happen to be a dragon would you…?”

“The fire gave it away, huh?” the man responded.

“A little bit, yeah… And I assume the one attacking the temple of the west right now is your friend…”

“Maybe…” he commented while taking a stance of bringing his head back and raising his chest, “survive this, and I might tell you!!”

The dragon then moved his face forward and unleashed an even bigger wave of fire aimed at all five of them.

Detra rushed to make an ice barrier but it proved to not be strong enough to sustain the heat and ended up exploding in front of them.

Detra, Ellie, Dia, Joseph, and Claire all were launched by the force of the impact and began to roll on the grass.

“Ugh… This was more powerful than I imagined…” Detra commented while gazing at the temple of the east, “where the hell are the fire mages!!??? This is a time where their help would be extremely welcomed!!!”

“Hate to break it to you, but nobody is coming to help…” the blond individual stated.

“What!? Why??”

He then took something out of his pocket, a small seed that was emitting some kind of red gas.

“My girl, Sloth, planted these things all over the place while everyone was sleeping… One sniff and you will be traveling to dreamland for at least three days…”

“Sloth…?” Detra asked, “Oh, no… You’re… Claire!!! Claire, blow him up right now!!!!”

“Ah- Ah! On it!!” Claire stated as she began to charge her explosion fire spell aimed at the man.

“Oh! looks like you know about us!! I’m glad!!” the man commented as he noticed the despair on Detra’s expression.

He then looked up and gazed at the particles of fire magic gathering itself right above him like fireflies.

“That’s right boys and girls… I’m one of the seven demon leaders of sin…” he stated while taking a bow.

Claire finally finished her spell and a massive explosion took place right on top of him.

Detra stared carefully to see if he had taken any damage, but the color on her face began to vanish as the explosion began to shrink.

She looked again and realized that the demon was absorbing the spell with his mouth, he was literally eating Claire’s explosion.

“Demon dragon of gluttony! At your service!”

“Oh… Come on…” Detra cried.

“Now…” Gluttony took one step forward once again, “WHO’S HUNGRY???”

And right after that, he unleashed another fire breath even bigger than before powered by Claire’s explosion and launched it at Detra and the kids.