Ham took a deep breath as he selected his Swerfvalk to empower.
In practice the size of the flame tips was a bit limiting, the Flame Swerfvalk could only cause cuts as deep as the point of flame, which was only a few centimeters across. On the other hand, this could slice the wings off a Nkwazi or invading Swerfvalk, completely nullifying the previously most effective of the basic invaders.
It was also able to curl its wings under itself, so that the points of heat acted to make a thermal for it to use in its flying. In this way it could reach speeds approaching 200m/s, compared to 90m/s of the regular Swerfvalk. More importantly, it was still able to manouver at these speeds, it seemed the general enhancement of becoming a monster had focused on reinforcing the body structure without increasing the size or the weight.
As another three lesser snakes fell Ham was irritated to be interrupted again by an angry looking screen.
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Ham found this curse frustrating but not terribly difficult. At this point the issues were the occasional Fire Wyrm, which was made even more problematic, and the thankfully rare Swerfvalk invaders. He had yet to see a Flame Swerfvalk, but it was only a matter of time.
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Thankfully Ham's luck held out for a hundred invaders without a Flame Swerfvalk occuring, and he was finally able to implement his planned upgrade of his "boss".
Do the gods intervene? And what should he choose?