The Roar and the Bomb
The Nightmare Beast inhaled, lungs vast enough to swallow storms. Flames gathered in its cavernous maw, spiraling into a molten vortex that lit the sky crimson-orange. The clearing sweltered under its heat. Trees shriveled further, leaves crumbling to ash before they even caught fire.
Liuyue adjusted her stance. Her sword pulsed brighter, silver light steady and calm against the infernal glow. She said nothing, but her eyes locked on the beast with the sharpness of a hawk.
And then there was Ahmed.
Still hopping around with trousers that were more smoke than fabric, clutching a fireball in his trembling hand like a child holding an overcooked potato. His face went pale.
"…Oh no," Ahmed whispered. "Oh no no no." His eyes bulged. "This one feels… different."
The fireball quivered violently, buzzing with a sound that could only be described as 'something very bad about to happen.' It looked denser, darker, its light spitting sparks like a short-circuited star.
🔊 [WARNING: FIREBALL INSTABILITY LEVEL: MAXIMUM. HOST'S CHANCE OF SURVIVAL: NEGATIVE.]
Ahmed squealed, voice shooting into falsetto. "Negative survival chance?! How does that even—Ya ALLAH, my death already in minus?! Does that mean I died yesterday?"
The beast unleashed its fiery breath.
A column of molten fire tore across the battlefield, the ground cracking, the air itself screaming from the heat.
Ahmed screamed louder.
Liuyue planted her feet and raised her blade, channeling radiant qi to slice a protective arc through the inferno. Her light clashed against the monster's hellfire in a storm of sparks and raw energy, splitting the wave enough that only stray flames licked around her.
Ahmed, meanwhile, panicked so badly that he forgot how his own legs worked. He tripped backward, clutching the unstable fireball to his chest like a bomb someone had cursed him with.
"NOT LIKE THIS!" he shrieked. "NOT—WHATEVER THIS IS!"
Dignity Damage: 1000%
The Nightmare Beast paused mid-breath when it realized something insane: Ahmed hadn't died. Not only that, but he was still shrieking, rolling in the dirt, pants aflame, clutching a glowing sphere of unstable doom.
It blinked. Its massive, horned head tilted.
Was… was this human mocking it?
🔊 [NOTICE: BEAST'S DIGNITY DAMAGE INCREASED TO 1000%. HATRED LEVEL: LEGENDARY.]
The beast's roar this time was less about dominance and more about personal vengeance. It charged straight for Ahmed, claws carving trenches into the earth.
Ahmed flailed on his back like an upturned beetle. "Sister! It's coming for me again! Why is it always me?! You're the warrior, I'm just the handsome sidekick!"
Liuyue didn't even look at him. Her blade flashed, intercepting the beast's swipe. Metal rang against fire, the shockwave rattling the ground. "Sidekick? You cannot even side."
Ahmed gawked, momentarily forgetting the bomb in his hands. "Did you just… insult me during battle? Sister, that's cold!"
The fireball crackled ominously, demanding attention. Ahmed yelped and scrambled upright, clutching it tighter. "Okay, okay, what do I do? Throw it? Drop it? Eat it?"
🔊 [NOTICE: ATTEMPTING TO CONSUME THE FIREBALL WILL LEAD TO EXPLOSIVE INDIGESTION.]
"…That wasn't a serious suggestion!" Ahmed snapped.
The Worst Dodge Ever
The beast's horned head whipped toward him, fiery drool spilling from its jaws. It lunged, fangs snapping with a force that could cleave mountains.
Ahmed screamed. Reflex kicked in. He hurled the unstable fireball directly upward.
The fireball soared into the night sky like a drunken star.
The Nightmare Beast's jaws clamped shut on empty ground where Ahmed had just thrown himself sideways, sliding through mud and ash on his belly like an eel.
The beast froze. Its horned head lifted. Slowly. Very slowly.
Above them, the unstable fireball reached the peak of its arc.
And then gravity reclaimed it.
The Nightmare Beast squinted upward, confused.
B O O M !
The fireball detonated not on the beast, not on Ahmed, not even on the clearing—but directly above its head. The explosion expanded like a chaotic firework, showering the monster in flaming debris, sparks, and sheer humiliation.
The Beast's roar shook mountains.
🔊 [NOTICE: BEAST HUMILIATION LEVEL REACHED. TITLE ACQUIRED: "THE MOCKED ONE."]
Ahmed's Terror, Everyone Else's Headache
Ahmed sat up from the mud, shaking, covered in soot. He blinked. Then blinked again.
"…Did… did I just survive? Did I—"
🔊 [CORRECTION: HOST DID NOT SURVIVE. HOST TEMPORARILY DELAYED INEVITABLE FAILURE.]
Ahmed threw his arms in the air. "Ya rabbi, you can't let me enjoy one moment, can you?!"
The Nightmare Beast was no longer just angry. It was incandescent with shame. It had been burned not by enemy skill, but by sheer stupidity of the one human it despised most. Its chest swelled with flame once more. Its gaze locked on Ahmed like a hawk hunting prey.
Liuyue exhaled through her nose, her expression calm but her grip on the sword tightening. "Ahmed."
He scrambled upright. "Yes, my moonlight?"
"Do not throw upward again."
Ahmed pointed wildly. "I panicked! Gravity is my enemy!"
🔊 [FACT-CHECK: HOST HAS LOST TO GRAVITY 1,248 TIMES.]
Ahmed stomped his foot. "That's slander!"
The Countdown Marches
The air grew hotter still as the beast prepared another catastrophic breath. The clearing itself seemed to shrink under the intensity of its rage.
🔊 [NOTICE: BEGINNER PACK FULL POWER AVAILABLE IN… 27 MINUTES.]
Ahmed froze. His jaw fell open. "Twenty-seven?! I survived one minute only?! That felt like three years!"
He staggered back, arms flailing. "There's no way I last that long! Even prophets of patience would quit this nonsense!"
The System hummed smugly.
🔊 [SURVIVAL TIP: DIE FASTER.]
Ahmed slapped his forehead. "You're helping me die faster!"
Liuyue cut down another blast of flame, her qi aura shielding the ground where Ahmed had been floundering seconds earlier. "Stop wasting energy. Focus. Your chaos… distracts it."
Ahmed blinked. "…Wait. You mean… I'm useful?"
Liuyue's eyes flicked toward him, cold and precise. "…Like bait."
Ahmed clutched his chest as if stabbed. "That's… that's crueler than the System!"
🔊 [FACT-CHECK: SYSTEM IS CRUELER.]
Epilogue Cliffhanger :– The Double Disaster.
The Nightmare Beast reared back, flames coiling around its horns. Its maw glowed like the mouth of a volcano.
Ahmed gulped. "Oh no. That's the big one. That's the very big one."
In his hands, another fireball spawned. But this one didn't flicker weakly—it burned brighter, heavier, larger than any before.
His face drained of blood. "No no no no… why is it so big?!"
🔊 [NOTICE: FIREBALL QUALITY: ULTRA-UNSTABLE. HOST'S DEATH NOW HIGHLY ENTERTAINING.]
Liuyue raised her blade, preparing for impact. The Nightmare Beast unleashed its attack, a tidal wave of hellfire sweeping toward them.
Ahmed, holding the oversized bomb, screamed with a force that shook the forest.
And in that instant—he slipped on the mud.
The massive unstable fireball flew from his grip… straight toward the incoming inferno.
The world turned white.
[TO BE CONTINUED...]