Rogue Villain-Chapter 332: Fire

Since there was no need to worry about Mastrax’s well-being, the others got into position. Mara and Kargas exchanged glances before dashing to either side of Mbelg while Karandiel took up a defensive stance in front of Makkel. As the weakest in the group, Makkel needed protection. But he wasn’t completely useless.

Karandiel had a triangular shield of light in one hand and a sword in the other. But that didn’t stop her from launching spears of light at the demon while Makkel prepared his fire.

At the same time, Mara buffed Mbelg.

Mbelg was more than surprised to notice himself recover quicker. It was like he was being carried by a thin layer of mana that made him quicker, stronger, and tougher. He wondered if the dragonling mage might be a traitor or if this was another one of Ackster’s ways of making the fight more interesting.

But Mbelg didn’t have much leeway to spend thinking idly. Ackster had sapped him of a large portion of his strength, but Ackster could no longer kill him. As long as he dealt with the small fry, Mbelg would be free, or, at least, safe.

Mbelg got ready to defend and counterattack against Karandiel’s volley. However, he only had time to begin defending when a serrated blade dug through his body like a piece of rotten wood.

Kargas’ blade easily shredded through Mbelg’s defenses, forcing him to waste even more of his strength to recover. A moment later, with Mbelg’s defenses still down, Karandiel’s light spears rained down on him, turning him into a glowing pin cushion.

Karandiel’s weapons of light obstructed Mbelg’s movements and recovery. However, the quality of Mbelg’s miasma trumped Karandiel’s light and quickly eroded the spears stuck inside him.

Mbelg was about to let out a mist of poison to make some room for himself. This onslaught wouldn’t kill him just like that. But it would make it more difficult for him to recover, which he needed if he wanted to kill them all and escape from Ackster.

That was when Makkel’s Providence Burn enveloped the demon.

Makkel wasn’t sure if it would work. Unlike humans and most sentient species on Millmeria, whose degree of luck he could sort of sense, he had no idea whether the demon in front of them was lucky or unlucky. Since Mbelg had met Ackster, Makkel guessed that it was unlucky.

But as long as it adhered to some principle of fate, Makkel felt that it would at least catch fire.

It did. Makkel’s fire burned Mbelg with flames that quickly turned black from the miasma.

"I don’t know what’s happening! Those aren’t my flames!"

Makkel lost control of his fire. Since he was aware of how disastrous it could be for his team, he alerted the others as quickly as he could.

Mbelg seemed to admire the fire hugging his body while Mara and the others hesitated.

*Make them yours.*

Ackster saw an opportunity for Makkel to grow. He had said he wouldn’t interfere. But exceptions could be made. And he hadn’t interfered. He just gave some encouragement.

Makkel heard what Ackster said. And Ackster’s voice had long since been ingrained in his bones as something to obey. Makkel had no idea how to make the flames he had lost to the demon become his again. But that wouldn’t stop him from trying!

Without another moment’s hesitation, Makkel poured a deep-red stream of fire onto the demon, trying to wrest back control over the flames by using his own to dominate them.

However, the demon was stronger and better than Makkel. Even with Makkel’s fire affinity and the quantity of his own fire, Mbelg just needed to fuel the black flames with miasma to corrupt them further and win the tug of war.

Mara, Karandiel, and Kargas knew what they needed to do. They needed to support Makkel. They had never thought the day would come, but it had, and it wouldn’t stop them.

Mara didn’t risk buffing Mbelg as he was now. Instead, she buffed Makkel, attacked Mbelg with her own fire, and sent a lightning bolt toward Kargas, which he used to temporarily boost his speed and attack against Mbelg. It wasn’t perfect, and he lost a lot of the power as soon as the lightning faded.

But Mara supplied him with more draconic magic to continuously boost his stats.

Karandiel used her weapons of light to cut away the black fire from Mbelg’s body while also cutting and skewering Mbelg in the hopes that he would be unable to win the fight for the fire.

None of them were sure what would happen if Mbelg adapted and took Makkel’s luck-burning fire and made it his own ability. But they could all sense the ominous air around the black flames. If he learned how to attack with flames like those, they might all be in trouble.

Mara, Karandiel, Kargas, and Makkel attacked Mbelg without break as they fought fire with fire.

After checking on Mastrax and stopping him from lunging at the demon in a crazed attack again, Wilma wondered how she could contribute. Unlike the others, except Mastrax, she wasn’t combat-oriented. She was strong and good at combat. But she was more geared toward handling simpler fights that weren’t as chaotic.

What Wilma could do, however, was analyze the situation. Her eyes didn’t just give her the ability to see how much she could get by investing in people. Trained by the Guild’s higher-ups and The One Outside Time since she was young, Wilma’s insight and her eyes’ ability to see things others couldn’t were very useful tools in situations where others might not know what they were dealing with.

Wilma looked at Mbelg, enveloped in the black flames. Makkel’s red and Mara’s blue fire tried to burn away the darkness of the Mbelg’s fire. They did interfere with Mbelg’s process of corrupting Makkel’s fire. But they weren’t doing much to remove the fire from Mbelg’s control.

They needed something that could counteract Mbelg’s fire. They needed Makkel to reach the next level.