Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

From Ragnar's chest, a furious orange flame tore its way out of his heart, embracing his body in fire and heat. His eyes blazed with pure conflagration, and his shoulder blades and wrists spouted out fire like flamethrowers.

His original body was no more, and he was now a being of raw, pure fire. Heat and smoke radiated from him like a burning fire itself, and his face was no longer recognizable. Instead, what took its place was an ancient evil, a demon of fire and wrath. His eyes were angled upwards and pure white with no pupil or iris, and from his mouth, a forked white tongue similar to that of a snake hissed.

"Heheheheh… well, would you look at that? Guess what they say is true… what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

Raising his greatsword, caught on fire from the rest of his body, Ragnar charged towards Cyanide while laughing like a maniac. It was as if some other entity had possessed him, and was making him go insane. Cyanide, realizing he needed to step up his game as well if he wanted to remain in the fight, used his left hand and fired a special shot from his gun—the [Shock Ray] Weapon Art, able to stun any enemy. He usually used his right for the gun and left for the knife, but he was ambidextrous as a result of countless hours of training and practice.

… At least, that was the plan.

Ragnar charged straight into the laser beam of electricity without any thought, and showed no sign of stopping either. The stun effect was rendered useless by the flames all over his body, and Cyanide narrowed his eyes as he thought of another countermeasure.

He fired a couple more bullets into Ragnar's blazing body, but anything that came close was simply burnt to a crisp. Realizing there was nothing else he could do for the time being, Cyanide decided to go on the defensive for a bit, and focus on evading Ragnar's attacks.

As Ragnar cleaved in front of him with his flaming greatsword, Cyanide evaded with a deft tumble to the right, then swiftly leaped up to a nearby still-standing lamppost before swinging himself onto the top, and sitting there.

"Sly bastard…"

With a low, inhuman growl, Ragnar dashed towards the lamppost Cyanide was standing on top of, aiming to strike it down with a heavy swing of his greatsword. However, a tiny bit of time was all Cyanide needed to use [Inspect] on his foe, and see what was going on.

Apart from the usual stats and whatnot, there was one particular part of the listed information that was peculiar:

Ragnar's HP.

It was rapidly decreasing.

And not only that, the speed at which it decreased seemed to also get faster as time progressed. Without a doubt, this was the effect of this fire-demon-esque ability of Ragnar's.

"… So, all I have to do is wait it out."

It was a simple conclusion, one just about anyone could figure out. As Ragnar slammed his greatsword into the lamppost's base and set it ablaze, toppling its balance, Cyanide leaped off gracefully like a cat, and landed behind Ragnar.

"Alright, Cyanide… now I'm getting PISSED!" Ragnar roared, and charged at Cyanide again, but-

'Invisibility.'

-Once again, he cut nothing but thin air.

Of course, this wasn't necessary. Cyanide was simply turning invisible to spite Ragnar, just to see how angry he could get. To Cyanide, this was amusing.

But that, would prove to be his downfall.

"Burning Moon!"

"—!"

Suddenly, a winged circle of fire flew out all around Ragnar, including straight towards Cyanide's exact location. Quickly, he reacted, using [Skulls of Hell] to block the attack.

Unfortunately, that in turn gave away his location, and…

"There you are!"

Ragnar immediately charged towards Cyanide—this time, there was no time to run. He had to take this hit head-on, and Ragnar's triumphant, devilish grin on his flaming demonic face showed that he knew it as well.

In his Pyromaniac form, Ragnar's attack power was vastly enhanced. He had confirmed earlier when using [Inspect] on Cyanide—his VIT stat was not high enough to tank this hit. Cyanide may have survived the sword throw earlier, but this was point-blank range, using Ragnar's ultimate trump card. There was no chance he would liv-

Suddenly, Cyanide began running towards Ragnar, catching the latter off-guard. What the fuck was this guy thinking? Ragnar was utterly bewildered. He was about to impale Cyanide with his greatsword, and this man was running straight TOWARDS him? Did he want to die faster, or something?

At least, that was what a normal person would've thought upon seeing this. But Ragnar knew Cyanide was not as simple of a person as that. Yes, he was sadistic and fucked in the head, but he was not suicidal. He would not do something like this for no reason.

Still, there was no counterplay against something when Ragnar didn't even know what that 'something' was. Ragnar knew this, and so did Cyanide. That was why the latter was simply running forward right now, waiting for the final moment possible to make his move.

Following his own momentum, Ragnar stuck to his original plan—charging forward with his flaming sword, his HP running dangerously low, and swung his blade with all his might.

And it was at that moment that time seemed to slow down.

As the audience's eyes glued onto the final exchange of the battle, right before the flames of Ragnar's massive sword seared him, Cyanide slid underneath his opponent, right between Ragnar's blazing legs, before pushing himself off the ground with one hand and performing a graceful yet deadly attack that would end this battle.

Performing a stunning in-air backflip from a sliding position, Cyanide's foot drew a circle in the air as he kicked upwards and backwards, hitting Ragnar directly in the back of his head and taking advantage of his opponent's own momentum before they could even react.

"Ngh-!"

As Ragnar was sent flying forward against his will, Cyanide landed on both feet in a manner that would make any gymnast or acrobat gape in awe, right as the sound of a man crashing into an oil truck could be heard, followed by a booming explosion as the fire from Ragnar's body triggered a chemical reaction with the petroleum stored within the vehicle's tank.

"Woah…" Kirika watched in amazement, too intrigued to even blink. Luna, however, only continued smiling as if this was all within her expectations, and Lust's emotions were unknown as she stared at her chosen vessel.

"… Hmph." Cyanide, not even bothering to look back to confirm the kill, dusted his clothes off and began walking back towards the others without a single injury on him apart from his right hand, confident that the battle was over.

But once again, crawling straight out of the mouths of hell…

"… Urgh… where do you think… you're going…?!"