As the orange glow before her intensified and the heat continued to increase, Asher approached the edge of the clearing before her. Pushing through to the other side of the obstacle, the source of the glow was confirmed to be a lava flow. A much larger lava flow then what she had seen when she first woke up, easily seven or eight feet across. The stream did not flow downhill like earlier, at least not directly. It cut across the clearing at a wide angle, starting a few feet downhill to her right and ending maybe twenty feet downhill on her left. The ground around here was full of porous red and black pumice, with occasional deposits of glassy obsidian reflecting light in large sheets.

Thankfully the heat was still nowhere near where it would have been if she was still in the Old World, but that just meant it was quickly drawing all the moisture from her body as sweat rather than scorching her lungs. She could feel a tightness on her skin as it began to slowly burn, like she had stayed out in the sun for too long. She definitely could not afford to stay here for long.

My best bet is probably to cross the lava flow. Keep working my way downhill. It feels like Thunderstep should be able to manage it, but I’m not going to be feeling too good when I make it to the other side. Every moment evaporating her precious and rapidly dwindling internal supply of water, Asher began looking for the narrowest part of the flow. She hoped to minimize the after effect of using the ability for such a large jump. From what her senses were telling her, the ability was really meant for only the tiniest of jumps currently, just enough to escape a swinging sword. With time and practice she could probably get to the point where she made a ten-foot jump with no problem, but right now she wasn’t close to that level.

She didn’t want to get any closer to the heat radiating off of the lava flow then she had to, so she hoped to force a fifteen-foot jump. It felt like the very limits of what she was currently capable of, given a little time and concentration. If she could find a particularly narrow part of the river, that distance should give her three or four feet of clearance on either side. Concentrating, she swept her gaze up and down the length of the riverbank.

Then a flicker to her left caught her eye, causing her to immediately focus in on the area. Nothing was immediately obvious, but as she examined the spot closer she noticed that one of the rocks was twitching. No, not a rock, a clubbed tail. The knob of bone and scale was perfectly colored to blend in with the volcanic rocks all around it, and the body it was attached to was hidden behind a small mound of obsidian. She would never have known mound, approximately the size of both her fists but together, was part of a living creature if its owner hadn’t been flicking it back and forth.

Slowly circling around the obsidian, the rest of the creature was gradually revealed. Armored head to tail with more scales that perfectly matched its surrounding, this Certilia was significantly smaller than the owner of the skeleton she had found previously. Its head rose maybe to knee height, and it seemed to be about six feet long.

The creature was distracted, busy eating an Emberwing that it had gotten ahold of. The body was hidden inside it’s jaws, with the bright wings protruding from each side. Each bite elicited an obvious crunch, followed by a spurt of green hemolymph leaking from its mouth. The bug was large, but definitely only a snack for something of the Certrilia’s size. Thankfully, the creature seemed content focusing on consuming its prey and oblivious to her own presence.

At least until she rolled her ankle and sent a pile of loose rocks tumbling down the hill. The creature snapped its horned head in her direction and opened its jaws in a hiss, viscous red scaled mouth stained a combination of orange and green with the fluids of its meal. A rotting smell wafted in her direction from within the mouth, causing her to gag. Rearing up on its back 4 legs, the front two feet and their large digging claws were on prominent display. Meanwhile the thing’s tail raised above it and began whipping back and forth.

Hardening her heart, she decided now was an opportunity. All day she had found nothing even close to a clean source of water, and the closest thing to food she had found was a likely rotten egg. This creature, and the points earned by killing it, could provide both.

Speaking slowly so as not to scare it off, she called out to the Certilia in a morose tone, “Sorry little guy, but it’s you or me at this point.” Then she began charging a Thunderbolt.

Seeing the lightning building in her hands, the creature took a cautious step back and studied her. Large, golden reptile eyes flicked around, taking her in. Apparently not liking what it saw, its angry hissing increased in volume. Finally, seeing her refuse to back down and apparently having had enough of the situation, it charged. The thing moved incredibly fast, far faster than she would have believed possible from the rather stocky build.

Panicking, she launched her charged Thunderbolt at it, only for the attack to fly over its head and hit the rocks behind it. Trace amounts of water trapped inside the porous lava rock vaporized and rapidly expanded, causing the rock to explode and both she and the Certilia were hit with the flying Shards. While painful for her, she was fortunate when the unexpected impact sent the Certilia stumbling and ending its charge. The small cuts across her face and arms were a small price to pay to gain some distance and calm herself.

Taking advantage of the distraction, she took a step back and fired off another Thunderbolt without charging it first. This time she was on target, but the Certilia leaped to the side. Immediately after dodging the blast, it resumed the charge and rammed the horns on its head into her calf. Crying out in pain at the deep punctures marks the monster left, she kicked it back with all her might only to be greeted by burning pain in her ankle. Looking down, she realized that as her foot had made contact with its stomach and begun flipping the thing backward, one of its front paws had managed to swipe at her leg and leave three claw marks behind.

Bleeding and limping, Asher took a hobbling step back as the little monstrosity rolled itself back over and hissed at her again. Too hurt to care about how stupid it was, she screamed back and launched yet another Thunderbolt at the thing. Somehow it managed to dodge yet again before launching itself at her once more. The thing was a demon, with some kind of preternatural sense for where she was aiming her spells!

Heart pounding and a fearful scream echoing in her head, she changed her approach and yelled, “FEEDBACK!”

This spell was easy, taking almost no effort to control, and a wave of power launched itself from her body. As the creature passed through the event horizon of the ability, its limbs locked up for just a moment and it plowed into the ground. The thing hadn’t seemed to take any damage, but she fixed that by stomping on one of the things front legs. A crack like dried tinder came from under her shoe and the thing released a pained whistle.

The clubbed tail came sailing through the air with bruising force, but she managed to pull her leg back before it could manage to hit. She quickly prepared to use Feedback again, but the spell left her skin tingling and she was worried a second use could be just as hard on her as the demon lizard.

Her gaze flicked down to her bleeding leg, quickly taking in the damage and noting that while it was certainly painful it didn’t seem to have hit anything important. The discomfort was causing a definite limp, but that was about the worst of it. Nothing needing her immediate attention she refocused on the horrid creature. It was acting strangely, backing off a bit and bunching up.

“Oh shit,” Asher breathed out as it launched itself at her face, quickly flying toward her head. The beast hooted something like a warbling war cry and spread its limbs wide. Seemingly intent on grappling around her neck and biting at her face, the thing was already snapping its jaws down.

Unsure what else to do, she threw an arm out before her. Even as the thing landed, she was kicking herself for not using Thunderstep. The things jaw clamped shut on her arm and the claws began digging in to keep itself in place. Her worry was doubled when she felt a burning sensation coming from the site of the bite and a message popped up in her field of view.

You have been poisoned. A creature with a venomous attack has pumped your veins with toxins. Current poison level – Minor.

Thinking quickly, she hissed out, “Shock Grasp.” Almost immediately, sparks started flying up and down the arm not currently being savaged by the devil beast. Quickly grabbing the thing’s head she held it there and continued to channel the spell for a brief moment. Realizing the electricity running through it was keeping its jaw clenched, she deactivated the ability just long enough to rip the creature off and slam it into the ground.

“FRY YOU LITTLE BASTARD!” She cried out as she restarted the spell with both hands around the demon’s skull. The thing writhed and shrieked on the ground trying to escape her iron grip on it. She kept it up until her hand began twitching from the continuous flow of electricity and her mind began to get fuzzy from Mana usage. When she removed her hand, a charred handprint wreathed in inflamed red scales was left behind. The thing had suffered an electrical burn across the entirety of its head and one eye.

Now looking like some kind of lizard spy flick villain, the creature glared balefully at her for a moment before it let out a chuffing hoot exactly like she had heard from within the ash cloud earlier. Eye’s widening in fear, Asher stopped focusing so single mindedly on her opponent. The sound of pumping blood and heavy breathing that had previously been echoing in her ears drained away and she heard it, answering hoots coming from the cloud uphill from their fight. She had to get out of here, now!

Turning around she began sprinting for the lava flow. She didn’t care about finishing the fight, the poison and mana usage had her head spinning and she could barely afford the concentration to put one foot in front of the other. She had to get away before more of the things showed up. Put a barrier between her and them.

As she got within a yard of the river of molten stone, she found herself screaming once again. Launching herself forward with all the strength she could muster, she very briefly felt the burning heat above the river of fire before she got out the word, “Thunderstep!”

A bright flash, like a small sun manifesting or lightning striking, surrounded her along with a resounding boom as space tore around her. Her form disappeared for just the briefest moment, becoming a bolt of electricity. Reappearing on the far side of the river, the world spun around Asher. She fell to her knees and vomited all over the bank before finally turning around and refocusing on the monster. “Your move!”

Whenever she told the story in the future, she would swear the reptile from hell grinned at her at that moment. Then it climbed onto a tall piece of obsidian, coiled up, and launched itself into the air. The flaps under its legs expanded to their full size, far larger than they had appeared before. It’s six legs quickly looking like a pair of large wings instead, the beast glided over the river of lave. Strong updrafts from the insane heat kept it afloat just long enough to land on her side before it turned and hissed at her yet again.