The moment I got off the horse thing, two of the bandit look-alikes were already upon me, swinging down their weapons, a scimitar and morningstar and I already feared the possibility of my story ending far too soon. However, all my fears were laid to rest as something whistled through the air behind me and impaled both of these bastards through their chests. I don't know what it was, but one moment they were alive and in the next they were on the ground.
Not being one to squander a good opportunity, I ran past both of them towards the weird statue. Behind me I heard the sounds of explosions and people screaming, which made me think that I had chosen well in my choice of companions. Finally I reached the damn thing and hid behind the largest rock I could find. After securing my safety, I carefully looked over my cover to see what I had missed.
Yeah, this battle was pretty one-sided. A third of the guys attacking us were already beaten, while the remaining ones were doing their best to battle these two. They were doing a pretty poor job at doing so.
The bunny girl was somehow in the air, where she propelled herself by the streams of fire that came out of her feet. She would shoot an arrow towards a group of the attackers, after which the arrow would seemingly burn up before reaching them; however, multiple explosions would then occur where they stood and the attackers would be blown to bits.
The cat douche, meanwhile, had a different approach. Literal black fire was covering his blades, which made me feel that his sole purpose of existence was to make me envious. Often he would swing his blades towards an enemy, after which waves of black fire would come out of them and immolate everything in his path.
However, this didn't mean that their opponents didn't have powers of their own. Most of their weapons were also covered in flames and some even created fireballs or torrents of fire that they launched at either bunny girl or cat douche. It was just that these two outclassed them in every conceivable way.
Like for example, when a group of the attackers managed to somehow tank one of the black waves of fire and were charging directly at cat douche with their weapons held high. None of them hit, though, because the double sword wielder managed to perfectly evade each strike and then respond by striking the opponents with his own fire-covered blades. After which the guys attacking him would just fall like puppets with their strings cut off.
At one point one of the attackers split off from the group and made a beeline to me. I didn't know if he wanted to use me as a hostage or just to kill me, but I quickly raised the knife that I was given while trying to not pay attention to my beating heart because that was how scared I was.
But he didn't get that far. Something whistled through the air and the next moment the guy was decapitated. The killing instrument was one of the knives that I had seen on the bunny girl, that was now lying next to the dead attacker's body while its blade was still slightly smoldering. It seems that those two hadn't forgotten about me.
Still, after watching these two single-handedly get rid of our attackers, I felt kind of left out. It's not that I really wanted to kill someone. I wasn't psychotic. I just didn't like the feeling that I wasn't contributing to the fight. I felt useless. Like I had been back home.
However, I didn't have time to further contemplate my uselessness because I suddenly realized something. The heavily armored person that resembled a furnace hadn't moved a muscle. They still stood atop that cliff and gazed on how these two slaughtered their troops. It didn't give me a good feeling.
Suddenly when the last of the attackers had been dealt with. I heard a loud explosion sound, after which the furnace person was no longer up there. Something impacted the ground and I heard the cat douche scream.
The heavily armored person was now on our level, while the bunny girl was no longer in the air. Instead I saw her lying some meters away from us while not moving. Did he somehow attack her so fast that I couldn't see him? The very idea filled me with dread.
I heard further screaming and I saw that the cat douche was now looking at me. He yelled something and then gestured at the other end of the pass, which hadn't been blocked like the direction from which we came. I quickly realized what he was trying to tell me. He wanted me to run away.
He didn't have anything more to convey to me because the armored giant was suddenly upon him and swung his massive fist that was now bright orange and superheated. The cat douche managed to dodge it, after which the two engaged in a dance that was too fast for my eyes to follow so I swallowed my pride and ran. Towards the bunny girl.
There was no way I was just going to leave these two. It wasn't something a hero would do and even if I did run, that action would hunt me for the rest of my life. But perhaps the bunny girl wasn't in such a bad state that she couldn't move. And perhaps she had some kind of secret weapon that would be effective against our opponent.
These were the hopes that fueled my heart and were subsequently crushed once I saw the state she was in. The bunny girl was still alive. Her chest still moved, but from the way her limbs were bent, it was obvious that she wouldn't be helping anyone for some time.
Her glossed-over eyes became more attentive once she looked upon me and I saw that very slowly she started to speak to me. Probably seeing that I had no idea what she meant, the bunny girl raised one of her least mangled arms and imitated movement with her fingers. I would've usually found such a pantomime funny if not for the messed-up situation I was currently in.
She also wanted me to run away. Shame and loathing bubbled in my chest like poison as I tried to swallow what was asked of me. No one believed that I could do anything. Just like at home, I was completely useless and I hated it.
The sound of more and more explosions caught my attention and I turned towards it. Cat douche was still alive and fighting the armored guy, though from the few moments when he was still enough for me to see him; he looked so tired that I knew that it was only a matter of time until he would lose. He also threw wave after wave of black flames at the armored one, but they didn't seem to have any effect.
Perhaps if he could stab his swords in the opening of the other person's helmet, he could do some actual damage, but I doubted that the giant furnace would give him the opportunity to do it. Well, unless there was someone to distract him. I then realized that I still had that knife that he had given me.
I kneeled next to the bunny girl, who was still looking at me and I reached out to pat her on the cheek. Usually I would never even dare to do such a thing, but compared to what I was about to do, this was nothing.
"You're going to be okay." I said to her before standing up.
The knife was clutched in my hand so hard that my fingers were turning white. I took a deep breath while eyeing the chaos in front of me, trying to understand which would be a good moment for me to get involved without becoming collateral.
"I was an Isekai character, so I couldn't die." That was what I told myself to make the fear go away because otherwise I wouldn't be able to move. However, this didn't feel like anything I've ever watched or read. There was no assurance that the main character would win. No hand of destiny guiding my every move. Only fear and a vague plan that I hoped wasn't completely useless.
Finally, not being able to endure the waiting, I clutched that knife as hard as I could and ran at the armored one screaming. I had no idea if what I'll do would work, but I sure as hell knew one thing: that it was certainly better than running away like a coward and leaving these two to die. And in my mind it had to mean something, right?
Unfortunately it didn't seem to because as I got close enough I felt something hitting me and the next moment I went flying. I then impacted something else and I literally heard as the bones on the left side of my body broke before I realized what just happened.
The giant metal guy had swatted me away with one of his hands, which, by the intense pain I felt in my right side, meant that this action had broken a lot of things there as well.
And instead of using the opportunity to finish this guy, the cat douche was looking at me shocked as if he had no idea why I did this. Frankly, after seeing how poorly this went, neither did I.
That armored guy then said something and continued to attack him while I lay pressed against a hard surface and wondered if this is how everything will end.
After looking down, I realized that I was sitting on the altar, which meant I was launched back at the statue. I opened my eyes on an altar and now I was about to close my eyes on one. I wondered if there was some poetic irony found here. But I didn't care.
I didn't want to go out like this. All my life I wanted to do nothing more than to show to everyone who had looked down on me that I could become better than them.
But now that I was on death's door, I knew that it was complete rubbish. The only thing I've ever truly wanted was to prove that I could be useful to someone. Not to underperform or to disappoint, but to genuinely do something that matters.
I reached out with my hand despite the pain coursing through my every nerve. I begged that I'd do anything if I could just help out at this very moment and believe it or not, someone heard it.
An inferno erupted from the statue and covered every part of my body in flames. For a second I felt only pain. Then it subsided and instead of that, I felt something else. Power. Pure, unbridled strength fueled every part of me, together with a strange feeling of confidence and for once I felt that it was warranted.
The flames disappeared and I saw that both cat douche and the furnace thing were looking at me. Cat douche's eyes were widened and his mouth stood slightly ajar, while even though I couldn't see the furnace thing's expression, I liked to believe that it was something similar.
I grinned and immediately went for the kill. I somehow covered the distance between us in an instant and aimed my fist against the armored giant's chest. To my partial surprise, instead of breaking every single bone in my fist, the furnace thing was instead thrown a couple of meters away, where it loudly impacted the ground.
I, meanwhile, noticed something else. That my hand and most of my body were now covered by some intricate golden armor. I couldn't believe it. I did a transformation
"Pinky?" A voice next to me said and I turned to see that it was cat douche.
He looked shorter than how I remembered him or maybe I was just taller now. The idea made my grin only widen. Then I realized how he called me.
"What? what did you say?" Asked a surprisingly cool-sounding voice, which now belonged to me.
In response the cat guy looked even more confused.
"You can speak our tongue?" He asked in perfect English.
"I guess now I can," I said, happy about the many surprises that my new form was giving me.
My excitement, however, was interrupted.
"Who are you?"
I turned and saw that the furnace thing was standing again.
I cracked my knuckles and walked towards them.
"Someone who is about to scrap you." I replied.
Then before they could have any more time to react, I appeared in front of them and aimed my fist against their head. Frankly, I had never been in any fights before, but I presumed that it would be pretty easy as long as you were stronger than the other person.
To my surprise, the furnace head blocked my attack by putting their hands in front of their head and before I had any time to react, they swung at me with their massive gauntlet. An explosion occurred and I was being thrown face-first in the dirt.
Once I recovered from the fact that I essentially had a flashbang to my face, I realized that the attack hardly hurt compared to the last time. I got up and turned towards my opponent, who hadn't moved a step.
"Alright, you got that one," I said while cracking my neck.
Next I raised my arms to what I thought was a fighting position.
"But there won't be a next time."
My opponent made a sound that was most likely a scoff and with another explosion they were gone and were now in front of me while raising one of their massive arms to cave in my head.
Fortunately my reaction speed was also better than before so I managed to stumble back, avoiding the blow. I then tried to immediately hit them back, but unfortunately furnace head seemed to be prepared for my punches this time so they again blocked before swinging at me with one of their giant mitts.
There was another flashy explosion that blinded me and the next moment I was embedded in one of the passage's cliffs a few meters above the ground.
I pulled myself out from the "me"-shaped hole and looked at furnace head, who was staring at me from below.
"How durable are you?" The metal-clad thing asked, their voice oozing shock.
"Right back at you, pal," I said and realized that the battle was missing a feline-shaped annoyance.
I looked around and saw that cat douche was with bunny girl and might be using the fact that the furnace guy was preoccupied with me to treat her. I was a bit annoyed at being abandoned, but I knew that he was doing it for a better cause. Besides, I needed to reaffirm my main character status and what better way could there be than to beat a sub-boss?
Still, it was getting kind of old getting ragdolled like that. I jumped out of my self-created hole and landed on the ground. I didn't move further and neither did he. Both of us were eyeing each other while waiting for the other person's next move.
At this point I could conclude that everyone here had some kind of fire-based abilities. And since I'm pretty sure fire covered me as I transformed, I had a feeling that it might also have some extra tricks up my sleeve.
Though I knew it sounded like quite the leap in logic. Still, the Isekai Gods had treated me well before by giving me a cool transformation so why wouldn't they also add a couple of shiny toys to go with it?
I concentrated on my open palm and lo and behold, trails of fire started to converge in it, forming into some sort of ball. I didn't know what it was supposed to do, but I sure as hell knew that it was something that I should use on my opponent.
Again I charged my enemy, this time with my nasty surprise glowing in my palm. Seeing what I was doing from a mile away furnace head made a block while I threw my attack into them.
Two things happened. My orb unraveled and unleashed a massive beam of flames onto furnace head. The light show lasted for a couple of seconds but once it was done, my opponent was launched a couple of meters away, while the other side of the passage looked considerably more melted.
Unfortunately, instead of being unconscious, my opponent was still standing, though they looked to be smoking up a storm.
"Impressive," they wheezed, "though not nearly enough to slay me."
I see that. This guy seemed to be the definition of a damage sponge. I looked to my side and cat douche was still treating the bunny girl. I doubted that he would appreciate it if I accidentally hit him with any of my heat rays.
That's when a new idea dawned upon me. I didn't need as much to beat furnace head as to just get them away from here. Since they were still recovering from my previous attack, I focused my flames around my fist to hopefully get the result that I wanted. Then I ran up to them and struck.
Seeing me attack they blocked again and my improvised attack made contact. There was a large explosion this time from me and their body was launched high in the air and, most importantly, as far away from us as possible. They quickly became a little black dot that disappeared in the distance while I actually allowed myself to feel relieved.
"Say 'hi' to Team Rocket for me," I said even though no one here most likely understood the reference.
Still, I was too happy to care.