It was now raining flaming monkeys. Scores of burning figures fell from the trees in droves, crashing down upon the white monkeys. I ducked to the side as I dodged a screaming monkey whose entire body had been lit aflame. He smashed into the ground below me, writhing in pain as his cries were drowned by dozens of others.

  I actually felt quite sorry for these monkeys, as I had experienced first hand what the pain of burning alive felt like. I shivered as I thought back to the time Celeste had lit me on fire before bringing me to this world.

  Six-Tails’ sudden attack on these monkeys had evidently caught them off guard, and he was able to kill many of them before they could even react. However, the defending monkeys had now realized what was happening. I looked deeper into the forest where the flames had yet to reach, and my eyes caught glimpses of black figures moving across the trees.

  Soon, a swarm of monkeys had coalesced around our position. I belatedly realized that they had surrounded us!

  These monkeys were howling in rage, and they charged through the forest, paying no mind to their burning surroundings. Dozens caught fire or were crushed by flaming logs as they approached us, but a hundred more appeared from behind to replace them.

  Monkeys with thick, black fur soon came into vision. They had the same numerous tails and shining blue eyes of the white monkeys, but their fur was a stark contrast. Both sides wasted no time as they pounded their fists on their chests and charged. In only a few moments they were tearing each other limb from limb as sharp claws and bared teeth flashed.

  It was such a chaotic frenzy that I couldn’t tell who even held the advantage. Looking down, I spotted Six-Tails swinging his flaming stick wildly amidst the carnage. Each time he swung, a handful of night monkeys were sent flying, their bodies instantly erupting into flames.

  Many black-furred monkeys had also spotted me drifting above the chaos below. They howled as they jumped at me from nearby trees, intent on ripping me to shreds. I was nearly twenty meters in the air now, but this was well within the reach of something that could climb trees.

  I figured that Six-Tails could hold his own, so I turned my attention to my own attackers. Even without my sword my aether was a potent weapon, and I sent a wave of it outwards towards the attacking monkeys, quickly sweeping them up in its depths.

  In the past year I had come to visualize my aether in the form of water, as that seemed to be the most apt description for its properties. It was seemingly formless, but when I visualized my powers in that way I could exert them to their fullest potential. When I sent a ‘wave’ of aether at these monkeys, it was as if a quite literal wave of water had smashed into them. They didn’t even have time to be surprised as they were instantly sent back into the flaming depths of the forest.

  My focus shifted as the initial group of black-furred monkeys were blasted out of sight, their fading shrieks swallowed by the chaos of battle. My attention was immediately drawn to another group of adversaries, their dark forms launching into the air with terrifying speed and agility.

  Unfazed by their sudden assault, I enveloped the two monkeys in a suffocating grip of aether, simultaneously willing my power to lift me higher into the sky—far beyond their reach. Clenching my tiny fist, I crushed the hapless creatures in a display of raw power. Their bodies contorted and collapsed inwards, the pressure of my aether so immense that not even their blood could escape its grasp.

  This technique, a newly discovered skill born of necessity, had previously been tested only on wooden toys. Seeing its devastating effects on living adversaries filled me with a cold satisfaction, I was pleased to see that it worked on more.. dangerous targets. The mangled remains of the monkeys plummeted to the battlefield below, forgotten as a shadowy figure emerged from my periphery. I dispatched it with a swift, decisive blast of aether, turning just in time to find yet another assailant shooting towards me!

  This monkey, a three-tailed beast, bellowed a war cry as it barreled toward me, its claws poised to strike. In a split second, it was upon me, its formidable presence casting a menacing shadow over my small form. I quickly wrapped myself in a protective cocoon of aether, allowing it to catapult me downwards, out of harm's way.

  Executing a daring aerial maneuver, I dipped and swerved before hurtling back towards the treetops, narrowly evading the three-tailed monkey's ferocious attack. As I regained my bearings, I found myself in a position of advantage, gazing down at my enemy with a steely determination.

  I promptly channeled my aether towards the monkey, sweeping them up into the air. They howled in confusion as they were blown backwards, not even able to control their descent. Remarkably, my aether seemed to have even picked up some of the nearby flames gathering in the vicinity. It was almost like the aether was absorbing the fire, for it was licking at its formless edges, steadily growing.

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  My aether lacked a true form, yet it wasn’t the air itself. It behaved more like a solid—intangible but undeniably present. My gaze expanded in shock as I saw the fire spread across my wave of aether, creating a blazing inferno in the air.

  ‘How is that possible?! Is my aether flammable?’ I wondered, never having considered such a possibility.

  However, it actually seemed like the flames were merely hitching a ride on my aether. They didn’t seem to be burning it in any way. I watched as the monkey I had grabbed was cooked alive in the air, its sickening screeches haunting my ears. The blaze from the fire spread across the air as it followed the monkey, causing even more trees to catch fire in the distance.

  When I looked back down, I saw that the night monkeys were slowly overwhelming the white ones. While the white monkeys had initially held the advantage due to Six-Tails’ surprise attack, they were now being swarmed from deeper within the forest.

  There had to have been hundreds of black figures now swinging across the treetops. Their numbers were almost three to one, and if I didn’t do anything, I knew that my allies would slowly be whittled away. This gave me an idea, one that could likely change the tide of this battle.

  I sent my aether out all around me—in every direction. My head began to spin from this sudden exertion, but I clenched my teeth as I forced my powers into overdrive. When my aether touched the fire in the vicinity, the flames abruptly began to spread through the air. I then lifted myself higher, making sure the fire would be unable to spread to my position.

  The inferno roared to life beneath me, a ravenous beast unfurling its molten jaws. Ten meters. Twenty. Fifty. The air itself screamed as it was devoured, trees dissolving into ash before they could fall—their skeletal remains crumbling like charred parchment. Below, the battlefield froze, warriors from both sides gaping upward as my creation blotted out the sun. Even the clatter of yells ceased, drowned by the fire’s primal hymn.

  When the sphere of flame swelled to a critical mass, I unleashed it.

  Aether surged through my veins as I guided the conflagration downward, targeting the black-furred horde’s heart. The forest erupted. Fire cascaded like liquid death, swallowing trunks, roots, screeching monkeys—everything. It moved with sentient malice, curling around boulders, leaping gullies, birthing cyclones of embers that seeded new blazes leagues ahead.

  Chaos erupted. Night monkeys—those not already vaporized—wheeled and fled, their panicked shrieks harmonizing with the crackle of devoured pines. White-furred stragglers stumbled, too slow, their fur igniting like tinder. The lucky ones died instantly, reduced to shadow-puppets etched briefly on the inferno’s glow. The unlucky writhed, their howls cut short as flames filled their lungs.

  I hovered, numb. What began as a controlled strike had metastasized into a an act of divine might. The initial wave had been a hammer; this was a plague. Tsunamis of flame rolled outward, incinerating entire slopes. Canopies collapsed in fiery rain, each leaf a dying star. The black-furred masses—their numbers once terrifying—melted like wax, their war cries silenced mid-roar.

  By the time my aether’s tether snapped, the blaze had a will of its own. It vaulted ridges, scaled cliffs, fed on winds of its own making. The forest became a funeral pyre, its smoke a shroud staining the sky bile-green.

  Below, the survivors—few, scattered—stared at the holocaust. At me.

  And in that moment, I understood: I hadn’t unleashed fire.

  I’d unleashed extinction.

  The word lodged in my throat like a stone. 'Holy f*ck. This isn’t a weapon—it’s a primordial force.'

  If I could harness that cataclysm again, refine it, it would rewrite the rules of every fight. Later. For now, the smoldering crater below simmered with victory chants. Fifty-odd white-furred survivors staggered through the carnage, their fur smeared with ash and gore. Hollow-eyed, many clutched stumps where limbs had been, or pressed ragged hands to gouges weeping black.

  Six-Tails stood motionless amid the ruin, his gaze locked on me—pride warped by something raw, primal. Fear. Then, as if shaking off a trance, he resumed his methodical slaughter. An iron spear materialized in his grip, its tip glinting as he drove it into twitching bodies. Each thrust was precise, rhythmic, a butcher’s rhythm.

  The forest reeked of charred meat and iron. Victory, it seemed, had two faces.

  The clearing was a graveyard of twitching fur and stifled whimpers. Some monkeys lay still, their charred bodies fused to the ashen soil. Others writhed, mangled paws clawing at the air in desperate, wordless pleas. Six-Tails moved among them like a storm given flesh, his spear a silver viper that struck with mechanical precision. Each thrust severed a whine, a whimper, a final breath. Four-Tails soon followed, his own weapon carving arcs of crimson through the smoke—a disciple learning cruelty from his master.

  Their calm was the worst of it. No rage, no frenzy—just the methodical shunk of steel parting flesh, as routine as pruning weeds.

  A roar suddenly split the air—deep, guttural, vibrating in my molars. The kind of sound that turns marrow to ice.

  By now, the fire had gorged itself on the dry underbrush, leaving our immediate vicinity a smoldering wasteland. The earth crackled underfoot, the air thick with the stench of burnt sap and seared meat. Beyond this scar, the inferno raged on, devouring the forest in a voracious crimson maw.

  That’s when I saw it—a titanic silhouette wading through the flames. Fire licked its obsidian fur, but the beast didn’t flinch. Didn’t scream. Seven tails lashed behind it like scourges, each thicker than my torso. Its eyes glowed cerulean through the smoke, pupils slit with feral intelligence.

  It pounded its chest—a thunderclap of challenge—and ash rained from its singed pelt. Six-Tails froze, spear dripping. Four-Tails stumbled back, his weapon clattering to the scorched earth.

  The forest held its breath.

  “LITTLE FIVE-TAILS!” He screamed, his booming voice echoing across the burned clearing.