Infernal Entity: Evolving With My Demonic System-Chapter 51: Firestarters
Luke Fern.
The Ferns.
That name landed hard in people’s minds in a heavy and dangerous way. The weight behind it was not something anyone took lightly.
Everybody knew the Ferns. Young or old. Weak or strong. Mutant or normal. It didn’t matter. If a person lived on Earth, they were bound to know that name.
They were one of the most powerful families on Earth.
Back in the early days of the Skavvern invasion, when genetic mutations first appeared among humans, not everyone was lucky. Some people were granted weak or flawed abilities. Others, however, received the very best of what the Algo pathogen had to offer.
Pyrokinesis was one of those gifts.
History recorded five families that played a major role in the war against the alien invaders. Five bloodlines whose power stood far above the rest. Their abilities shaped battlefields and decided outcomes.
The Algo pathogen didn’t give out power at random.
It rewrote human DNA based on compatibility. People with similar genes and DNA awakened similar abilities, and more often than not, those people were bound by blood. They were mostly blood relatives.
These families used their superior powers to dominate the war. Their names spread across the world, growing larger with every victory. By the end of the invasion, they had carved themselves into history and built empires that would last for generations.
The Ferns were one of those families. A lineage of Firestarters and Pyrokinetic users.
Normally, a Firestarter needed an external flame to use their ability. A lighter or a spark... something. But over time, the Ferns evolved past that limitation. They learned how to create fire from nothing.
That was why they were feared.
The strongest of them was Cassius Fern, the famed and current Lord of Pyro. Pyro became an interplanetary organization made up of elite pyrokinetic mutants during the attacks. During the war, it stood as one of the world’s greatest forces against the alien invaders.
And now... Out of all the opponents Ares could have faced, it had to be a Firestarter.
Not just any Firestarter but a Fern.
There were other pyrokinetic mutants in the world, of course. Some had even tried to join Pyro. But most were rejected. Too weak. Too unstable and too limited.
None of them could start a fire without an external source. Ares’s opponent could since he was a Fern.
And worse still, he was an Apex 1 mutant.
Most people watching didn’t know who Ares was fighting. Ares himself didn’t know, but Axel did through the ID skill.
And in that moment, he finally understood what Drax meant when he said that there was never a chance Ares was winning this fight.
"This isn’t fair..." Axel muttered under his breath as he came to that realization.
No matter how much he wanted to complain, he knew it would change nothing. The second years had already decided how this would end.
The glass dome stood between him and Ares like an unbreakable wall. It was thick. Too thick. No sound could pass through it. No warning would be able to go out to Ares
Axel clenched his fists.
The least he could do was warn him but he couldn’t.
"But he’s an Absorber... right?" Axel said quietly, almost trying to convince himself. "Surely he can absorb whatever a Firestarter throws at him..."
Ability absorption was rare. Very rare. It wasn’t something people saw every day. In fact, Ares might have been the only Absorber in the entire Oval Academy.
That was the problem because no one really knew the limits of an Absorber.
Axel wasn’t sure Ares could take this. Nile’s electricity was one thing. This was fire from an Apex. A Spectra 3 against an Apex 1. The gap was huge.
Drax cleared his throat, loud and sharp, pulling everyone’s attention back to the dome.
"Let the fighting begin!" he announced.
Inside the glass dome, Luke Fern cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders like this was nothing more than a warm-up.
Ares stood across from him, breathing hard. He had already been through too many fights.
Nile scoffed loudly from the crowd. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
"This is stupid," she voiced. "He’s already half-dead. How is this fair?"
Drax didn’t even look at her when he responded.
"Rules are rules, they’re meant to be followed always no matter the circumstances you find yourself in," he replied flatly.
"Difference is you made the damn rules."
That bit seemed to have gotten his attention.
Drax slowly turned his head and looked straight at her. His eyes were cold.
"Careful," he said. "Or I’ll sanction you."
For the first time, Nile said nothing.
Inside the dome, Luke made the first move against Ares.
He dashed forward in a blur and threw a punch. Ares barely managed to raise his arms in time. The punch landed on his guard, sending him sliding backward across the floor.
Luke didn’t stop there. He went in for a kick and Ares blocked again, but his legs shook as he stumbled back another step.
Punch. Kick. Elbow. All three came fast and clean.
Luke moved fast, clean, and with confidence. Every hit landed harder than the last.
Ares decided to fight back. He threw a punch of his own, but Luke dodged easily and answered with a knee to Ares’s stomach.
Ares bent over, coughing and from the crowd, Rick’s hands trembled.
"Stop..." he whispered. "Please... stop..."
Luke smiled a sinister, slow smile.
"Let the real fighting begin..."
All of a sudden, the air crackled. Then, flames appeared and wrapped around Luke’s fists like gloves made of fire. His feet burned next, leaving scorch marks on the floor with every step he took toward Ares. Heat rushed outward in a violent wave, forcing several students outside the dome to step back on instinct. The temperature inside spiked so fast it felt unreal, like the room itself had been thrown into an oven.
He was almost like a being made of fire. The ultimate Apex Predator...
****
