I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 117: Fireball, that’s a basic spell.

Blue lightning hissed across Jack’s skin as the thunder-wreathed air vibrated with the low hum of his Static Orbs.

Corvin circled overhead, a dark silhouette against the blood-red sky, violet eyes locked on the demon below.

Cho’s charred skin still smoked from the last detonation, crimson skin split and weeping dark blood.

But the demon’s grin returned. Feral and mocking, though Jack could see the strain beneath it now. The way his breathing had deepened. The slight tension in his shoulders.

”Not bad,” Cho said, his cultured voice rougher now, edged with grudging respect.

Before Jack could react, the demon scuffed a massive foot through the black sand, kicking up a swirling wall of grit and ash.

The sudden storm of darkness swallowed sight, leaving Jack blind in a world of howling wind and stinging particles.

’I can’t see.’

Panic clawed at Jack’s throat. In the darkness, every shadow could hide death.

Every sound could be Cho closing in for the kill.

[Visual obstruction detected]

A rush of displaced air came from above, barely audible over the windstorm. Jack looked up through the swirling chaos.

Cho vaulted high into the obscuring cloud, using the darkness to mask his movement. Muscles coiled like steel springs as he tried to clear the ring of invisible orbs entirely, his massive form arcing through the air.

A shriek split the haze like a blade cutting stone.

Corvin dove like a thunderbolt of pure shadow, wings folded tight against his body.

[Corvin: Shadow Strike Activated]

The great raven slammed into Cho’s chest mid-leap, spectral talons raking deep furrows through demonic flesh.

Dark blood sprayed in arcs as Corvin’s strike found its mark with devastating precision.

[-900 HP]

[Cho HP: 19,921/22,000]

Cho’s snarl of pain and fury echoed off the stone pillars as the impact sent him tumbling off-balance.

He crashed down hard, his perfect landing ruined, stumbling backward in exactly the direction Jack had hoped.

BOOM!

One of Jack’s hidden orbs detonated directly behind the demon, blue electricity consuming the space where he stood.

[-1,179 HP]

[Cho HP: 18,742/22,000]

The blast hurled Cho forward in a shower of electric sparks and superheated sand.

For the first time, the demon’s perfect composure cracked completely, his cultured mask slipping to reveal the beast beneath.

”You dare...” Cho’s voice was a growl now, all pretense of sophistication burned away by pain and humiliation.

Hellfire erupted between his claws, dancing flames that cast twisted shadows on his rage-contorted features. He spat a single word laced with rage.

”Fireball!”

Jack blinked, confusion cutting through his focus. ’A basic spell? That’s what he’s going to do with that?’

But the inferno that erupted shattered every assumption Jack had about ”basic” magic.

A roaring sphere of flame, six meters across and blazing white-hot at its core, surged toward him like a miniature sun given malevolent purpose.

The heat was so intense that sand turned to glass in its wake, the air itself seeming to catch fire.

[Warning: Extreme heat signature detected]

[Damage potential: Fatal]

Terror spiked through Jack’s chest as he threw himself sideways, every instinct screaming at him to move faster than humanly possible.

Lightning crackled around his form as he teleported desperately.

Once, twice, three times. Dodging the searing death that melted everything it touched.

The shockwave still caught him, a superheated explosion slamming into his ribs sent him tumbling across the sand. His cloak smoldered, edges blackened and smoked from the near miss.

Before he could recover his footing, before he could even process what had happened, Cho materialized out of the heat like a demon stepping through the gates of hell itself.

A crimson knee, hard as a battering ram, drove into Jack’s gut with bone-crushing force.

[-250 HP]

Air exploded from Jack’s lungs in a painful rush, his body folding around the impact. The world went white at the edges as agony flooded his system.

Cho followed instantly with a brutal head-butt, his skull made a sickening crack sound in the air.

[-274 HP]

Jack’s vision exploded into stars, then darkness, then blinding light again. Blood filled his mouth as he staggered.

A heavy fist, moving with the force of a sledgehammer, smashed across his jaw and sent him spinning like a broken doll.

[-472 HP]

[Jack HP: 879/1,875]

[Warning: Significant injury sustained]

Jack hit the black sand hard, his Thunder Mantle sputtering and dimming as his concentration shattered.

Every bone in his body felt like it was on fire, his vision swimming in and out of focus. Blood ran freely from his nose and split lip.

’This is it. This is how I die.’

The demon didn’t relent. Cho kicked off the ground with an explosion of hellfire, flames jetting from his heels like demonic rockets.

He launched himself skyward in a graceful arc, easily clearing Corvin’s desperate attempt to intercept.

In a blur of crimson motion, he descended like a falling meteor aimed straight for Jack’s prone form.

Jack rolled desperately, black sand filling his mouth and nose, but Cho still landed atop him with crushing weight.

Razor-sharp claws dug deep into his shoulders, pinning him to the ground like a trapped rabbit.

White-hot agony lanced through every nerve. ’He’s going to tear my throat out. Right here in the sand, and I can’t do anything to stop it.’

But through the haze of pain and terror, Jack’s mind crystallized around a single, desperate gamble.

He thrust his hand outward, palm open as if commanding one of his unseen orbs. His movements were shaky and uncertain.

A perfect imitation of desperation that wasn’t entirely an act.

Cho’s burning eyes flicked to the gesture and he chuckled, a sound like breaking glass mixed with distant screams. ”Another pitiful trick?”

The demon drew back his fist, claws extending for what would certainly be the killing blow.

BOOM!

An unseen Static Orb, positioned precisely where Jack had gambled it would be, exploded point-blank between them.

[-1,179 HP]

[Cho HP: 17,563/22,000]

The blast hurled Cho sideways with tremendous force, tearing him off Jack and sending him crashing into a jagged pillar of stone. The ancient formation cracked and crumbled as the demon’s body carved a crater into its surface.

Before Cho could recover, before he could even process what had happened, Corvin shrieked an unearthly battle cry that seemed to come from the void itself.

[Carrion Swarm]

A living storm of spectral ravens erupted from the great bird’s outstretched mouth, shadow-shapes streaking across the battlefield in a lethal cloud of fury.

Their eyes burned with violet fire, their beaks gleamed like obsidian daggers forged in a nightmare.

The swarm descended on Cho like the wrath of forgotten gods, spectral talons and beaks of pure darkness raking at crimson flesh relentlessly.

[-4,000 HP]

[Cho HP: 13,563/22,000]

The demon’s howl of pain and rage echoed across the wasteland as he whipped torrents of hellfire through the air in sweeping arcs, trying desperately to disperse the living storm that was shredding his skin.

Jack pushed himself to his knees, chest heaving, every breath sending fresh spikes of agony through his battered ribs.

Through their bond, he sent Corvin a pulse of desperate gratitude and a command to withdraw before Cho could retaliate.

The great raven banked away with predatory grace, the shadow swarm dissolving into wisps of fading darkness that left only the echo of their violence behind.

’System,’ Jack thought, wiping blood from his split lip with a trembling hand, ’why did Corvin’s attack do so much less damage than it should have?’

[DING!]

[Higher-class entities possess natural damage mitigation]

[Lower-rank attackers suffer 5-45% damage reduction against superior opponents]

[This prevents low-level entities from defeating high-level threats through numbers alone]

Frustration cut through Jack’s exhaustion like a knife. ’Then why doesn’t my lightning get reduced the same way?’

[Lightning magic is classified as a Superior Elemental Affinity]

[Standard magical defenses offer limited resistance to superior elements]

[Only vastly stronger opponents or specialized defenses can significantly reduce lightning effectiveness]

[Continue increasing Lightning Magic potency if you wish to keep your damage up.]

So that was the key, raw, overwhelming power. Jack flexed his bloodied fingers, feeling the storm still crackling in his veins despite everything.

’If lightning cuts through their defenses like they’re not even there, I just need more of it. More power.’

Cho staggered upright among the scattered stone debris, smoke and steam rising from dozens of wounds that painted his already-crimson skin even darker.

His perfect composure was completely shattered now, replaced by something primal and murderous that made the air itself seem to recoil.

But Jack was already shifting gears, processing new possibilities even through the haze of pain.

He spread his arms wide, feeling something he’d never noticed before, a connection to the remaining Static Orbs that felt like extensions of his own arm.

It hit him like a bolt of his own lightning. He could control them. Direct them. Use them as more than just static traps.

One by one, the glowing spheres stirred from their hidden positions, breaking free of their static formation and beginning to orbit the battlefield in a slow, deadly dance.

Their soft electric hum swelled into a dangerous chorus that made the air itself vibrate with potential violence.

Cho’s burning gaze snapped frantically around the battlefield, trying to track the movement of forces he couldn’t see but could definitely feel.

For the first time since the fight began, genuine uncertainty flickered in those hellish eyes.

Blue light flickered across Jack’s bloodied and battered face as he let the orbs spin faster, their orbital pattern becoming more complex, more unpredictable.

Despite his injuries, despite the exhaustion threatening to drag him into unconsciousness, he smiled, sharp and cold as a dagger of black ice.

The hunter had become the hunted, and they both knew it.