"Conflagrate."
Evenson pointed a finger.
The Immolate flames engulfing the Abomination detonated in a violent explosion.
The monster staggered.
Taylor seized the opening immediately, his colossal axe carving another deep wound across the Abomination’s body.
At the same time, a stream of crimson energy peeled away from the burning giant and flowed into Evenson.
He exhaled a breath hot enough to shimmer the air.
"...That feels amazing."
The rush hit like pure adrenaline.
There was a reason the spell was called Immolate.
Every sacrifice required someone to receive the offering.
Normally, that recipient was the Warlock himself.
As the flames consumed an enemy’s life force, Conflagrate could detonate all of that stolen energy at once for maximum damage.
A skilled Warlock, however, never spent the entire reserve.
He ignited only part of it.
The remainder was drawn into his own body, triggering Backdraft, flooding his magic with stolen vitality and dramatically accelerating his spellcasting.
Bathed in the crimson aura, Evenson produced three Soul Shards.
They floated between his hands, circling one another.
Then they ignited.
Across the battlefield, the Abomination instinctively sensed danger.
His animal instincts screamed.
He roared.
A crushing left hook swept toward Taylor.
The Felguard ducked beneath it by inches.
It was exactly what the Abomination had planned.
His right fist followed immediately.
CRACK!
The blow slammed into Taylor’s chest.
The two-and-a-half-meter demon was launched through the air like a cannonball.
The Abomination ignored him.
Instead, he charged straight toward Evenson.
By then, every Soul Shard in the Warlock’s hands had burned to completion.
The spell was ready.
When the Abomination crossed within twenty meters...
Evenson unleashed the Warlock’s most devastating single-target spell.
Soul Fire.
A blazing sphere the size of a washbasin streaked through the night, accompanied by faint echoes of anguished screams.
It struck the Abomination square in the chest.
The explosion rivaled a light artillery shell.
Nearby cars were hurled into the air.
The asphalt liquefied beneath the unimaginable heat.
Even standing well back, Evenson was forced to reinforce his Void Barrier with everything he had simply to survive the blast wave.
The Abomination took the hit directly.
He disappeared inside the inferno before being blasted more than fifty meters through the air, trailing smoke.
Evenson lowered his barrier.
It was covered in cracks resembling shattered glass.
He leaned on his staff, breathing heavily.
"Haa... haa..."
Casting Soul Fire wasn’t normally beyond him.
With Backdraft active, even its notoriously long casting time had become manageable.
The problem was that this one had been vastly overcharged.
Instead of consuming a single Soul Shard...
He had fed it three.
Soul Fire worked by converting souls into pure magical energy before releasing them as destructive flame.
In principle, it had no upper limit.
Given enough high-quality souls...
Given enough magical power to compress and stabilize them...
A single Soul Fire could theoretically annihilate an entire planet.
In reality, only beings such as Kil’jaeden or Archimonde possessed that kind of power.
Even then, they had far easier ways to destroy worlds.
Charging a Soul Fire on that scale would take so long the Burning Legion could conquer the planet conventionally before the spell ever finished.
There was another practical problem.
A world-ending Soul Fire required approximately the combined souls of every intelligent creature living on that world.
On sparsely populated planets...
Even that wasn’t enough.
Which explained why Soul Fire remained, in practice, a single-target spell.
A terrifying one.
But still a single-target spell.
Normally, one Soul Shard produced one Soul Fire.
Tonight, facing the Abomination, Evenson had burned three.
The result was devastating.
So was the cost.
His mana reserves were almost empty.
He nodded toward the smoking crater.
"Go check whether he’s dead."
Taylor’s preferred method of confirming a kill was wonderfully uncomplicated.
He strode over to the motionless Abomination, raised his gigantic axe...
...and aimed directly for the monster’s neck.
If he wasn’t dead already...
Decapitation would solve that.
The axe began its descent.
The Abomination’s eyes snapped open.
BANG!
One kick struck Taylor square in the stomach.
The Felguard was launched backward.
"He’s alive!" Taylor shouted while flying through the air.
"I noticed," Evenson replied weakly.
The Abomination’s condition was horrifying.
One horn had been blasted off.
One shoulder spike was gone.
Most of the bony protrusions along his back had shattered.
The worst damage lay across his chest.
The impact point from Soul Fire had become a mass of charred flesh split by glowing cracks that leaked thick green blood.
"Seriously..." Evenson muttered. "That health pool is ridiculous."
"If only I had four teammates."
He snapped his fingers.
Before Taylor hit the ground, the Felguard vanished and reappeared beside him.
The sudden teleport left the demon swaying.
"...I hate that feeling."
"It’s still preferable to dying."
Evenson rolled his eyes before studying the Abomination again.
Something had changed.
The creature’s presence had become even more savage.
Its eyes glowed crimson.
Drool streamed continuously from its mouth.
Reason had vanished.
Instead of attacking intelligently, it simply smashed everything nearby.
Cars.
Streetlights.
Concrete walls.
Anything within reach exploded beneath its fists.
"It really has become a beast."
Evenson’s expression turned serious.
"I’ll need to be much more careful with Fel energy in the future."
He recognized the transformation immediately.
Blood Frenzy.
The Hulk’s strength naturally increased alongside his anger.
Because Blonsky had become the Abomination through an artificial transformation rather than Banner’s mutation, that trait had remained mostly dormant.
Until now.
The trace amounts of Fel energy hidden inside his body had reacted violently to the catastrophic injuries inflicted by Soul Fire.
The two forces merged.
The dormant rage awakened.
Blood Frenzy was born.
The Abomination’s already fragile sanity burned away completely.
In exchange...
His strength climbed dramatically.
Meanwhile, Evenson’s curses had all expired.
Time.
Distance.
And most importantly...
He had nearly exhausted his mana.
The Abomination stood free of every debuff.
Stronger than before.
More dangerous than ever.
Evenson sighed.
"Looks like it’s time for Plan B."
He gathered what little mana remained and began another summoning spell.
Taylor blinked.
"...Plan B?"
"I don’t remember there being a Plan A."
There hadn’t been.
When Evenson stormed out after seeing his beloved car destroyed, strategic planning had not exactly been a priority.
Evenson grinned.
"Oh, Plan B is simple."
The summoning circle flared.
A Nightmare steed wreathed in hellfire emerged with an earsplitting scream.
Evenson vaulted smoothly into the saddle.
As a final courtesy, he flicked a completely harmless Searing Pain toward the Abomination.
"...Run."
The flaming horse exploded into motion.
It disappeared down the street in a blaze of infernal fire.
Taylor stared.
Then he looked at the enraged Abomination charging straight toward him.
"...You’ve got to be kidding me!"
He bolted after his master at top speed.
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