The Achievement Junkie

"Defend yourself and die!"

Kori no longer contained his feelings, rushing Tralbok with all of his fury contained in his small flame body.

Not daring to take the Fox God lightly, Tralbok attempted to distance himself. But he was startled that the Fox God's natural speed could keep up without the use of wind of lightning magic.

Tralbok evaded while doing his best to remember everything he could about Kori and the few Hell-flame Foxes that have existed in Kartonia. Two of the three major incidents involving Hell-flame Foxes were Kori making a name for himself, but the one Tralbok keyed in on was the third and final incident Kori caused.

By then, Kori had already become a god and gained his pitch-black flames. And he ended up dueling with another god who had boldly challenged the Fox God's pride.

That face-off was the inciting act behind the fairy tales labeling Hell-flame Foxes as natural disasters waiting to happen. It was the fight that destroyed a nation's capital and left all spectating gods stunned. How could such a close duel of gods not be memorable, especially when the two gods were from the same faction?

Proud as ever, Naparn had denounced the Hell-flame Foxes as lower beings to Magma Dragons, even though their bloodlines were equally powerful. It was just after Halmut's battle with Skaryn, leaving Naparn entirely in charge of the holy gods during Halmut's initial recovery phase. And given Naparn's grudge against Kori for not joining the war, Naparn's natural pride drove him to punish the fox's reputation, stating that the fox's defenses were rubbish and that the Hell-flame Foxes were the equivalent to a glass cannon.

Not taking that lightly, Kori disputed with the Molten God verbally first, but Naparn insisted they test his theory, remaining confident in his higher level.

When Kori eventually ignored Naparn, the Magma Dragons incited a few Hell-flame foxes to battles. But they would team up and pick on the foxes, never killing them but crippling them or taking a limb as a trophy.

Unable to stomach such a thing, Kori lashed out against Naparn in the Molten God's territory. The divine Hell-flame Fox leveled the capital city that was later rebuilt with the rise of the Maltor Kingdom as Scorch City.

Enraged, Naparn descended from Olympic Chateau to find Kori waiting for him within the ashes of the city.

The two gods faced each other without mercy, putting their mutual allegiance to Halmut aside.

Though the battle was very straightforward with both gods fighting in their beastly forms, in the end, the battle resulted in a draw. Naparn's natural defenses and attacks as a Magma Dragon proved formidable but Kori's pitch black flames also proved unstoppable. There were no tricks to the battle, only pure, unadulterated rage between the two most powerful wielders of fire magic.

Keeping Kori's flames in mind, Tralbok had to come up with a strategy on the fly for facing his newest opponent. Even if Tralbok knew that he had a single level advantage over Kori, Tralbok would never dare to test himself against the undying black flames that Kori controlled.

"You call that defending yourself?!" Kori shouted. The Fox God was tired of Tralbok running and tossed out a dozen of those small black fireballs.

Spotting those fireballs was an instant red flag for Tralbok. They appeared to be the same expanding fireballs as the one that defended Bowzer and devoured Tralbok's earlier attack.

Tralbok halted momentarily and shot up into the sky to avoid the minefield of black fireballs.

This strategy only worked for a moment though as more and more black fireballs formed around them. Soon, Tralbok found himself and Kori entirely surrounded in those black fireballs. They formed a perimeter in the air, giving Tralbok only a few hundred meters of space to move in.

Tralbok attempted to reverse and counter them, but he realized that each fireball was cast individually and Kori must've been able to cast so many at once due to his bloodline.

Some would argue that wielding more magic types was always better and made for stronger opponents. Such people would find facing an elemental specialist incredibly difficult and Kori was an example of that. While most people can only dual cast spells, Kori could cast up to half a dozen at a time so long as they were fire spells and weren't his most powerful attacks. That was one of the bonuses to having a single element if it was mastered, something that Kori's bloodline and training had accomplished.

Seeing no way out, Tralbok turned to Kori one last time. "Kori, must we do this? Sure, you'll deal me quite a lot of damage, but that doesn't mean I can't kill you in the meantime."

"Then prove it!" Kori shouted and rushed Tralbok as he regained his hundred-meter height and foxy flame body.

With Kori committing to a battle that even the fox wasn't fully confident in, Tralbok looked to the north and deeply frowned. At the same time, that purple scythe from earlier reappeared in Tralbok's hand.

Before Kori could pounce on top of Tralbok, the God of Time stabbed his second foot with the scythe and shouted in pain as he was teleported away in a subtle blink of purple energy.

Roaring in dissatisfaction, Kori consumed all of the black fireballs and returned to his normal fox form with no fire. Kori then dashed back toward the west gate and ate the flames protecting his evolving son. He ignored the shouts of Rikko as the Goblin God and Eedaj dragged the motionless husk of Pestro out of the northern woods. Instead, Kori reactivated his flame body and started to devour Bowzer's rampant flames.

Somehow, Bowzer's shouts and howls lessened. It seemed like the fox wasn't feeling as much pain with Kori's help.

*****

"Oh, so Tralbok was saving his energy in case he wanted to escape. He's such a schemer, that one…" Halmut sighed, unhappy to not see Kori fight at full strength.

"If you're unhappy about the outcome Halmut, you should ask Naparn about the incident that destroyed Magma City," Sterfen commented, feeling much better as the situation proved to end positively for his side.

"Right, I was resting while that happened. Tell me, Naparn, what caused the destruction of the city you and your people were so proud of?" Halmut asked.

Stiffening up, Naparn beat around the bush. "Well… that's a very…"

"Naparn had challenged Kori as a punishment for not participating in the war effort but Kori refused," Lyrun spoke up, explaining everything succinctly yet in detail. "The Magma Dragons then started to pester and team up against Hell-flame Foxes to prove they were stronger. Angered by the crippling of the few Hell-flame Foxes that survived the war, Kori laid waste to Magma City and dueled with Naparn to a draw, all while Kori was only lv. 95 and Naparn was lv. 97."

"That--"

"What?!" Startled, Halmut shouted with a baffled look plastered across his face. "Naparn… Is that why you didn't tell me about your acts against Kori's family?"

Naparn kept quiet but his silence was answer enough.

Feeling torn, Halmut thought carefully about the current relationships he had with the holy gods. Sadly, had he known that Kori showed so much potential, Halmut would've definitely supported the fox over Naparn despite Naparn being a dragon. Yet Halmut had already missed his chance to fix Kori's standing in the holy gods. Already, Kori's family had been hunted down and Kori gave up his arm recently after he left his isolation, which was reported to Halmut unlike the first time Kori left isolation to face Naparn.

Halmut understood that it was too late to right the wrongs that had been done to Kori and that Kori would never be loyal with Naparn around. And given the current situation, Halmut made his decision.