The fire spread becoming increasingly difficult to control. The energy consumption intensified along with it and the constant flow of energy induced a headache. With the little attention he could pay to it he sensed the connection to the fire tightening as though on the verge of snapping. With slow steps, he somehow managed to drag the fire along with him next to the nearest tree. He groaned, and the pain intensified. He tried manipulating the fire. The outflow of energy suddenly intensified even further.

He imagined and the fire twitched, spreading rather than moving as it burnt the moss and spread towards the tree. He could barely make it out, that the speed at which it was spreading toward the tree was faster than in the other directions. He fell as everything in his vision doubled. Barely was he able to keep the tether to the fire from breaking, it would have instantly erupted out engulfing him his instincts told him. He could constantly feel the wild nature of the fire fighting to regain its freedom, to spread everywhere causing havoc. It exhausted him mentally.

This was what massively increased the consumption of energy, he felt. 

The constant desire he could feel from it to just erupt forth even though all he had accomplished was barely slowing down it spread. It slowly circled the tree and started burning the trunk. Not even a minute had passed but his energy levels had dipped below the half so he slowly walked out of the fire. The fire was unable to come near him it was as though the barrier was surrounding him. It was something that he had picked out of the Cloak of Fire, isolating its trait of blocking out the fire and heat.

Once he was out the consumption slightly reduced. He kept increasing his distance and went he was on the opposite end he let go of the connection which instantly broke.

The fire exploded, its speed increasing manifolds. It was like a rampaging beast was allowed to run rampant. The white forest floor within a blink turned orange and the next moment hot air came crashing onto his face.

***

Everything blurred by, his mind was unable to process what was happening for a moment. It took some time for him to conclude, that he was running. It was as though he was sitting in the back seat, no longer in control meanwhile the body kept running. A familiar hum sounded and everything snapped back into its place.

Putting all force into his front leg he forcefully rotated, and the arrow cut through his skin. He fell, using the momentum rolled away, stood up, and swung the sword deflecting the arrow. The force transferred to his hand, unable to bear it, the sword fell out from his hand.

While he was gathering himself the fighters attacked. His hands stretched towards both sides and cast Spark, bearing through the headache. His vision blacked out momentarily. A buzzing resounded in his ears that tuned out any normal sound.

When he recovered arrows were flying at him. He crouched and grabbed a root, pulling himself away. While the fighters were tackling the fires he ran. With no distractions, dodging the arrows became much easier.

The ground was stable, there was no risk of falling off that would most likely lead to death. This fear had held him back up in the trees but there was no restriction in here. He applied what he had learned above with his ideas.

After mutilating the monsters within his path he jumped, stabbing the knives into the trunk. He let the gravity do its work, it pulled him down making it easier to pull out the knives from the trunk. Just before they came out completely he jumped towards the opposite tree.

Just as he was chasing after the archers the fighters got rid of the fire and ran after him.

The hands and legs of the monsters seemed to have been made for climbing the trees as the fighter and the archers chased and attacked him from all around. He slipped through them, looking for an opportunity. As soon as he saw a nearby monster in midair he threw a disk at it. It flew but rather than hitting, it was passing when it exploded. The explosion erupted downwards, its force slamming the monster. All it accomplished was sabotaging the monster's motion and it fell while the small flames quickly spread across its body.

He finished the fight with relatively light wounds. Looking around he quickly found a creeper plant and cut it off, warping it up around his wounds. He cut off another piece and used it to make a vest for the wooden bombs. It was much easier to take them out now, he instantly noticed.

He connected with the fire of his torch and moved, controlling the flames to light the moss on fire wherever he passed through. Time passed and he kept on counting the number of encounters he had with the monster. By the time the count reached fifty he was covered in sweat and blood, both his own. The temperature had risen.

He could feel the difference. While he was covered in sweat the monster appeared no different but where there was no outward difference physically their actions proved the effectiveness of the method. There was a grin on his face as he fought them, the rush hit him hard making him giddy as the spiky morningstar made minced meat out of their bodies. Only when there was no other option would he kill the monster otherwise he kept breaking their bodies until the bodies disintegrated.

The temperature only kept rising. It crossed his limits and he could feel his movements becoming affected, a barrier covered him. He instantly felt better. Taking full advantage of this he searched for the monsters with renewed vigor, fighting with them physically. With each fight, it only became easier as more and more energy was seeped out of them.

While before it was difficult to even hit them, now he could overpower the fighters in a single strike something that was a pipe dream before when it was a hell to even hit them. The encounters that were usually dragged up till half an hour, suddenly their conclusion only required a few minutes. Even this was the start. The archers started falling from the trees taking out the only danger that he had to be careful of. He had created a situation where he was free to do what he wanted. 

Fight, fight and fight. Only when there was no other choice did he rest otherwise he was constantly on the move searching for the monsters. The monsters became even more powerless removing the thrill of the fights. He pondered about the situation and an idea came. Taking out another unlit piece of wood it lit it on fire.

Focusing on the fires, he connected with them both. His mind felt burdened and pain started emerging but he shrugged it off, the pain was equivalent to a strong pinch, painful but harmless.

He spotted a fighter and moved closer. Despite its reduced physical capabilities, its aggressiveness had not lessened. It jumped at him. Sidestepping he swung the torch and willed the fire to expand outwards. The fire covered its head and he willed it to compress causing it to invade inside through the orifices. It screamed and so did he too as he felt something hammering his head. Its knife-like finger cut into its own face as it tried to end the pain. He grinned seeing that, he felt wonderful each time they screamed or cried in pain.

With time he kept on getting better at controlling the flames. Now that he had completed one of his main objectives he turned his focus to manipulating the barrier. Connecting with the barrier he again observed the web-like structure of energy within. He sat down and flooded the barrier with the energy. The structure lit up to his senses. Individually, he connected to every part of the barrier and tried compressing it.

Originally the barrier was more than arm's length away from him but now the distance he become halved. Despite the result being not what he wanted he was still filled with happiness at seeing concrete results.

Cycle continued. He kept fighting and thinking, resting when required. The fire spread even faster with him partaking in arson and in turn the effect of rising temperature spread farther and farther.

He was sensing through the spell module of the Cloak of Fire. Reducing the energy to a bare minimum he started tweaking the mechanisms, his goal, the mechanism that controlled the shape of the barrier. It was difficult to work, exhausting, and something that showed almost no results. Sometimes the changes did not show any outwards results. Sometimes the spell became unstable, collapsing. Sometimes they exploded. Sometimes nothing happened. He had to brute force through all the mechanisms which would most likely give no results. Then he would have to go through the combinations of the mechanisms he thought would give the desired result. It was a long arduous process, even thinking that he would have to start doing this mindless task again filled him with frustration.

He had tried to change the web-like structure within the barrier but just the slight modification to the individual parts and the ripple effect destroyed the whole structure. No matter what he did.

The fire spread more quickly on the top than on the ground. Wherever he went the sky was now orange and it came with its own dangers. Massive branches fell from above, breaking into smaller pieces that rained fire upon the earth. It started becoming more and more common. Their unpredictability made it dangerous. Without warning and being so high up the sound of them breaking did not reach down here and when one started falling, it was like a domino effect as the surrounding branches all started tearing apart making the area they covered massive.

He ran through the rain. The burning blocks of wood kept falling at high speeds. As they collided, their impacts tore the earth. An electric current passed through his body making him run at full speed. Despite his best efforts, one hit and he understood that the barrier would break. With much difficulty he threw himself away, conjuring the new barrier before he even fell.

This started becoming more and more regular causing him to angle his head at the sky regularly.

The monsters were nowhere to be found. He ran through the forest but did not come across any. He pushed himself even harder and after repeatedly burning his lungs he came into a part of the forest that was still safe from the fire. 

There was no fire on the ground but the darkness was not absolute. The fire had reached here, the canopy above allowing the fire to spread with such a fast speed that the fire below had still not caught up.

Cold air rushed into his lungs as he took in a deep breath and coughed violently. His lungs which had been overloaded to the extreme reacted negatively to the sudden rush of cold air.

He sat down to rest. The eyes felt incredibly heavy and it took too much willpower to force them to remain open. Knowing that he was in no position to fight the slowly went deeper into the darkness, taking care to not make his presence known.

The darkness was diluted allowing him to see. 

Without a torch, he did not attract the same level of attention, coupled with him being careful to not make a sound he was able to safely hide in a hole. Closing the entryway he was unable to force himself awake much longer and drifted into sleep then and there.

***

He staggered, stabbing the spear on the ground to bear his weight. Taking in short quick breaths, he tried to clear out the suffocation he was feeling. The was no time to recover as the sounds of footsteps entered his ears.