‘This is bad.’ thought Feng Yan.

Sixth rank spirit beast!

Spirit beasts were powerful monsters that normally outmatched the strength of cultivators. They, like cultivators, also possessed a system of ranking from one to twelve.

The Flamefur Tiger was a second-rank beast, equal to a mid-level Foundation Realm practitioner. But this sixth rank spirit beast was strong as a high-level Soul Core practitioner, and could be considered a mere step away from the Nascent Soul Realm!

The spirit beast was a giant ape ten meters tall and wide as a house, with red fur and blazing yellow eyes. Flames occasionally ran down its tree-trunk-like arms and legs, scorching the earth where it walked.

It was a feared animal in the prefecture that not even the grandmaster would underestimate: a Rising Inferno Ape!

Feng Yan and the core disciples had only one instinct: run! But the lord…

A great flaming fist occupied the ground where Aryon just stood a moment ago.

“Run!” said Liu Wong.

“But lord Aryon!”

“What can we do? We can only escape with o-”

“Look!”

An ethereal hand as large as the ape’s appeared beneath that fist crushing the lord, lifting upwards. The ape struggled to push it back down, but the opposing force was a little bit greater than his. From beneath the small crater that fist formed rose the dirtied figure of Aryon.

From this distance, he still hear the lord’s struggled muttering: “Animals... still hate me.”

The mystic art that formed the hand flickered and faded away, and the ape’s fist returned to the ground. But Aryon appeared not far from where they were before the fist fell.

‘Void step?!’

“Stay behind me and be wary!”

Realising his prey had moved, the ape came bounding forward with great speed, leaving fiery craters with each pace.

“ [Hold Monster]! ”

Bands of blue light formed around the beast, stopping it in its tracks. But the ape broke free after a mighty struggle, shocking the lord.

“So quickly?! Get back you five! [Wall of Stone!] ”

The Rising Inferno Ape raised both hands for an overhead smash, but his meteor-like hands fell on a dome of rock that rose up from the earth, blocking the strike and causing the dome to crack.

The ape raised his hands again for another strike.

" [Polar Ray!] ”

A hole formed on the dome’s cracked surface from which a ray of white light shot out, striking the ape on the chest. It stumbled mid-strike as frost spread from the impact point, causing it to screech and back away while clawing at the spreading ice.

Feng Yan and the others looked on in shock. ‘Such powerful mystic arts!’

Aryon did not let the ape off after that. While its arms flailed at its chest, he emerged from his dome of rock and held one arm out towards it.

“ [Freezing Sphere]! ”

A sphere of blue shot out from his outstretched hand, striking the earth the ape stood on. The ground froze on impact, white ice covering an area around it as if winter snow had been covering it for weeks.

Trapped and numbed by the chill, the Rising Inferno Ape gave one last struggle. Ignoring its current predicament, its crimson fur glew red hot as it unleashed a deadly breath of fire towards its enemy.

Feng Yan and the others backed away as the searing heat reached even them. “That beast can cast mystic arts?!” he yelled.

“It’s a natural weapon! Inferno Apes can generate a flame hot enough to melt rock and burn parts of this forest to ash in an instant!” said Ming Guo.

He could not help but look over at where Aryon stood after hearing that, but blinding flames engulfed the spot where…

‘Wait…’

A chill swept over the area, gathering towards Aryon’s location. Then came a blast of wintry wind so powerful that the Inferno Ape’s fire breath was pushed back. The ape, sensing its attack being countered, increased its own power.

A deadlock of fire and ice ensued between the two opposing mystic arts. Yet, for all the ape’s efforts, its flame was gradually being pushed back. Aryon gave one more burst of effort, raising the white staff in his hand whilst maintaining the spell with his other.

Pointing the staff forward, he shouted in that unintelligible language.

“ [Lightning]! ”

Arcing lightning lashed out from the staff, striking the ape on the chest once more and causing it to lose its footing. As it fell on the frozen ground, the fire breath it was maintaining stopped.

With no more hindrances, Aryon’s freezing assault fell on the downed ape. Struck by lightning and now ice, it thrashed for some seconds before the raging winter winds slowed it down and finally froze its corpse.

The last echoes of the battle slowly died down, replaced by the forest ambience. The white statue of ice and the frost around it looked strange in contrast to the greenery.

Feng Yan looked upon Aryon who stood before that statue, unmoving yet showing no sign of fatigue nor injury…

‘That… felt good.’

Aryon had a lot of pent-up frustrations and worries building up since he found the Staff of Kings. He felt refreshed after dumping all of it on that magical beast.

‘Still, that was embarassing. I rarely fought on my own even during my tenure as a Relic King. Seems my duelling skills have been getting rustier over my time of sleep.’

Nevertheless, he gave himself a mental pat on the back. A magical beast such as this would’ve neede a band of heroes to take down back in Tarminas. ‘And good heroes at that.’

“L-lord Aryon!”

‘Oh no. The children.’

He turned away from his defeated foe and hastened to the disciple group. ‘They must’ve been shaken from that encounter.’

“Young ones, I am so-”

“That was amazing!”

‘...oh?’

“What mystic arts were those?! I’ve never seen them before!”

“How did you escape that fist?! Was it a movement technique?! Or the legendary void step?!”

“Lord, please teach me those mystic arts!”

“Lord Aryon!...”

Aryon scratched his head, but basked in the limelight nonetheless. ‘...Mayhaps I should do this more often.’