Fire Giant Nether

Chapter 39
Alex woke up laying down, facing up. He tried to get up, but found it impossible. He looked around to see himself strapped to an operating table.

"I see the anesthesia wore off," said a man in a white lab coat. "Looks like we'll have to put you under again."

"What're you doing to me?" said Alex weakly.

"We're trying to figure out how to extract your eyes."

Alex was mortified.

"You see your eyes are unique, only a Doomkaiser is capable of wielding their powers.  Even if properly extracted we won't be able to plant them onto any person in Muspelheim, otherwise it just kills them, and if the eyes aren't transplanted into a usable host within ten minutes of being extracted the eyes just wither away.  They require a strong source of magical energy to keep them working properly." The doctor readied a syringe. "Fortunately I believe I figured out a way to remove your eyes and implant them into any host.  I'll need to try it out first, so for now I'll only be taking one." Alex summoned his shadows but they just receded back into his body. "That won't work, the straps suppress magical energy." He injected Alex with the syringe.

"No!" he cried.

Suddenly a sword went through the doctor's chest. He dropped to the ground.

"Sorry we're late Alex we got a little held up," said Luke. "What did he inject you with?"

"Just an anesthetic," he answered. "I'll be out but I'll live.  They wanted to take my eyes."

"Well we won't let them do that." Luke cut off Alex's restraints as he lost consciousness.

"Well you may not let us, but we're still going to do it," said a malefic voice behind Luke. He whirled around to see a man in a beige cloak with the hood covering his eyes.

"Who're you?" Luke asked.

"I'm one of Muspelheim's top two mages, the Fire Giant Nether," he answered. "And you're the infamous Luke Gandor, Black Void's resident Dragon Slayer, and heralded Dragon of Destruction."

"I never liked that nickname."

"Really?  Then I'll call you it the entire time we're fighting, Dragon of Destruction."

"Destruction Dragon's Roar!" The cascade of explosions exited Luke's mouth, barreling straight for Nether. He made no attempts to move. He held out his hands in front of his and the flames just went out. Luke was taken aback by this and charged fire on his fist. "Destruction Dragon's Bomb Fist!" Before the punch even made contact, the fire extinguished and Nether caught his fist.

"You couldn't have picked a worse opponent than me," said Nether as he punched Luke in the gut, causing him to fly backwards.

"How's this possible?" Luke thought to himself. "I'm in Dragon Force, nothing should be able to stop my fire in this state."

"You're probably wondering how I'm nullifying your magic," said Nether. "My abilities allow me to change the oxygen levels in the air, and what does fire need to survive?  That's right!  Oxygen!  Right now all I'm doing is smothering your fires, but I can do worse as you can probably imagine."

"Well if that won't work," started Luke, "why don't we try these?" Luke unsheathed his swords.

"Those are Dead Skull's," said Nether, "so you are the one killed him.  To think Dead Skull, one of our brightest and most powerful mages, was beaten by the likes of you."

"Yeah well I'm more powerful than I look." Luke charged at Nether, igniting his swords. As he got closer to Nether, the more his flames dwindled, he swung his sword at Nether, although the flames had already died, the sword didn't lose any of its sharpness. Nether was forced to dodge every swing. He quickly backed up, gaining distance between himself and Luke. Luke quickly threw ten kunai in a circle around Nether. "Destruction Dragon's 10 Magic Circles!" Ten magical seals appeared around Nether and went off simultaneously. The fire encompassed Nether, leaving him unseen. "Gotcha!"

The smoke cleared. Nether stood still, completely unharmed.

"That was close," he said. "I barely had time to smother the fire." Nether quickly snatched up all of Luke's kunai and threw them at various points in the room. Luke charged Nether once more. "Gas chamber!" Luke stopped dead in his tracks. He gripped at his throat, unable to breath. "Like I said Dragon of Destruction, I'm the absolute worst opponent for you to have faced.  What you're experiencing right now is the feeling of suffocation.  I just love the look people get on their face as they realize they can't breathe." Luke turned to run away, he received a brief second of relief. "Oh no you don't." Nether set off a kunai near Luke, causing the oxygen-less space to encompass him once more. Luke was gasping for air once again. "Die!" Nether cried in ecstasy. Luke dropped to the ground.