BATTLING A FIRE FIEND

Lynne had remained asleep for nearly a day before waking up. He still didn’t feel refreshed enough, but knowing that every day counted, he forced himself awake. Grunting lowly, his ached expression quickly changed as he remembered just how much progress he made yesterday. Although there was a general rule of thumb that talented Mages wouldn’t use pills to advance their strength, Lynne didn’t concern himself greatly with that at the moment.

After inspecting his body, he had spotted the subtle changes; thanks to the Frostfire Surge Pill, his Mana had obtained a faint, fire attribute. This, coupled with the fact that Gift of Firmament had done the same to his blood, made him nearly invulnerable to all fire attacks, while increasing his own exponentially.

Without delaying any further, he carefully peaked outside the cave to see whether they caught up. Then, he quickly changed his face yet again to that of a middle-aged man, as well as his aura. Now, he felt, it was virtually impossible to recognize him.

However, there was a slight hint of an issue as he left the cave. He scratched his head gently as he looked around towards the horizon, pondering briefly.

“… where the hell am I?” he said.

Indeed, Lynne was lost. Because he had been simply running away like a madman previously, he wasn’t able to keep track of where he was going, resulting in him being completely, utterly lost. He knew that he was somewhere in the central-ish parts of the Rolyhard Kingdom, and that as long as he moved west he’d eventually cross into Elvernheimn Empire, but that was easier said than done.

For instance, about five or six miles west, was a massive, erupting volcano which spewed fireballs one after another. Only a madman would actually go directly through it, and only someone who had enough time to waste would circle it. Still, Lynne cared for his life very much, so he simply decided to circle the volcano, because he didn’t wish to die just yet. Even if he had good defenses against fire, that was a massive volcano.

“Lynne.” a hoarse voice sounded out in his mind; Lynne froze for a second and realized that it was Eternal Spirit talking to him.

“Hm?”

“Go to that volcano.”

“…”

“What?”

“Look, if you want me dead, just say so.”

“Dead? Why would I want you dead?”

“Do you see the size of that thing?”

“Yeah, it’s just a normal, small volcano.”

“Look, I know that all things fire to you are like candy,” Lynne immediately complained as if he was being sent to gallows. “But, to the rest of us, a giant freaking volcano that’s in the midst of spewing fireballs all over the place isn’t exactly a ‘tourist destination’.”

“… didn’t you promise me you’d gather all types of flames in exchange for binding the Seven Worlds?” the Eternal Spirit said.

“… there’s a specific type of flame in the volcano?” Lynne asked cautiously.

“Where the hell did you think they appear?!” the Spirit bellowed angrily. “At the bottom of the ocean?!”

“Hoi, sarcasm unappreciated! Fine, if you want me to swim through the lakes of fire to get your damned flame, I definitely won’t do it! But if it’s just something relatively safer, I might as well.”

“…”

“Don’t bargain,” Lynne added. “Take what is offered to you.”

“… just go, please…” the Spirit didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. For someone who’s studying Origin Law of Flames to be afraid of a simple, small volcano… ah, let it not be mentioned again.

Lynne carefully moved towards the volcano, his face growing ever so grimmer by every mile crossed. By the time he was half a mile away, he had entered the section where the falling fireballs could reach. In addition, several dozen cracks ran through the ground, filled to brim with molten lava flowing like a river.

Most ordinary people – and even ordinary Mages – would need to actually circulate their Mana in order to defend against the heat at this point. However, Lynne was even a tad bit hotter than the flames from the volcano, making it so that he felt absolutely no change.

“A small volcano,” he, of course, didn’t forget to complain all the way through as he slowly scaled the mountain, evading the flowing lava, countless eruptions, deathly gray smoke… “Small my ass! Look at the size of things! Look at that ball! It’s like a mini meteor! Humph, where did I think they grow? Not in the freaking volcano I didn’t!”

“Here,” the Spirit finally interrupted his grumbling. “Drill a hole at the side of the mountain, roughly a quarter a mile deep in a flat angle. Then plunge a mile downwards, and you should reach it.”

“…”

“… is there a problem?”

“No,” Lynne reluctantly said as cast Aqua Blade, quickly forming a drill-shaped object and pointing it at the mountain side. “But you better let that doggy become my mount after this. My feet are sore, my calves are hurting, and my thighs are on fire. And not in a good way.”

“…”

“Oh, and also pay me,” he pushed the drill into the mountain, causing the slight tremor as he a man-sized hole appeared, whereupon Lynne slowly began walking after the drill. “Fifty million gold would be enough! No, wait, Elynal mentioned some Mana Stones, saying they are the true currency Mages use. Give me fifty million of those instead.”

“… anything else?”

“The next time there’s a maniacal chick after my ass, you send someone who can actually kill her!”

“… hai …”

After about half an hour, Lynne managed to drill quarter a mile horizontally, and then pointed the drill downwards, pushing it through. He followed after it, his legs spread apart as he glided through the hole, his arms crossed against his chest. A small, spherical flame flickered above his head, illuminating the passage.

Another half an hour later, the drill-shaped object suddenly struck something metallic, halting immediately. Lynne furrowed his brow as he inspected the situation; a few minutes later, he concluded that there’s a dozen centimeters wide ‘wall’ of sorts rounding the empty chamber inside. After pondering for a moment on how to enter, a crimson greatsword suddenly appeared in front of him, and the Spirit’s voice echoed inside of his mind: “Use this.”

Without delaying, Lynne picked up the greatsword and struck downwards. The ground and walls around shook, and after another strike, the wall crumbled, revealing a small, round chamber beneath. In the center of the chamber was a palm-sized, violet flicker of flame. He quickly approached it, and he suddenly felt his own soul emit sucking power. Although startled, he figured it was probably the Spirit, so he simply stood there.

The little flicker, after a short struggle, was sucked into his soul and then into that bead-sized object floating in it. However, the moment the little flame disappeared from the chamber, the entire volcano seemingly shook. Nobody had to tell Lynne that something bad was soon to happen, so he immediately ran up the hole he descended through, and then ran back through the other one up top.

Mere fifteen minutes later, he found himself at the side of the volcano again; the raining fireballs stopped, and the flowing lava lost some of its luster. Just as Lynne sighed in relief due to his escape, the earth beneath him quaked as a heart-shaking roar bellowed from deep within the volcano. Lynne’s eyes bulged out from their sockets as his legs shook. He didn’t even dare glance backwards as he immediately bolted down the volcano, escaping as quickly as his legs would carry him.

He cast Fiery Sweeps over and over again, but after a few breaths’ time, he still hadn’t left the half the mile radius of the volcano. Suddenly, a massive eruption sounded out behind him; this time, after swallowing down mouthful of saliva, he dared glance backwards, but immediately wished he didn’t. What he saw as a gigantic, a hundred meters tall creature coated entirely in violet flames. It had human-like arms and torso, but its head and bottom were like edgeless flames, continiously burning.

Despite that, it had a narrow and long pair of eyes, and those same eyes immediately locked onto Lynne as the creature bellowed out a roar yet again, causing numerous cracks to appear throughout the volcano.

“It’s just a small volcano, right?!!” Lynne screamed angrily as he ran even faster. “Look! Look at that thing!!”

“It’s just a small Fire Fiend, what’s the--”

“Small my ass, you brainless shit!” Lynne interrupted. “Do you see the size of that thing?”

“… didn’t you want to enrich your battle experience?”

“Eh?!” Lynne’s brows furrowed as he imagined the Spirit’s next sentence.

“Go fight that thing,” I knew it!! Shit, I totally knew it! “You can definitely defeat it. Now that you’ve gone up a rank, the best way to solidify it is to immediately fight a worthy foe. Although that Fire Fiend was made from one of the Sparks, it’s not half-bad of an opponent for you.”

“… are you serious?”

“Ah… you ought to trust those with the experience, no?”

“… ugh, fine!” Lynne grit his teeth; indeed, he needed some more battle experience. The best example was during his fight against the Prince; he foolishly believed that the Prince was a long-raged Mage, and he entered into a close-quarter duel against him only to become miserable. “But, if it looks like I’m going to die, unleash that doggy immediately!”

“… fine, fine…” I wonder how Master would feel if he heard a kid calling his Spirit Beast a ‘doggy’… ah, better not think about it, yeah, let’s not think about it…

Lynne then came to a halt, quickly turning around and in one, swift motion, he summoned his two Chakrams, one hundred Elemental Blades of Space attribute, Aqua Blade in a shape of a massive, one hundred meters tall shield, as well as coating his feet in green flames. This kid truly has a Divine Talent… perhaps one of the best ones…

If someone had seen Lynne cast so many spells in a mere blink, they’d no doubt faint from agony. Most Mages took between five to ten seconds to fully cast all spells in preparation for a battle, while Lynne did it in a blink. Still, he was in no position to feel smug about his achievements, as the gigantic flame of death finally crushed the entire mountain to smithereens with its fist, sending masses of rock and boiling lava to rain upon the land around. It then cupped its fists together and smashed them at Lynne.

Lynne didn’t slack either; he immediately bolted forward, running towards the Fiend; as he had coated his feet in green flames, his speed increased exponentionally, and he managed to cross half the mile in two breaths’ time. At that point, the cupped fists of the fiend crashed into his towering shield. The two forces clashed against one another, causing massive shockwave to erupt outwardly, uprooting earth around into massive chunks and then blowing them backwards.

Lynne felt as if the mountain had caved upon him, but he endured bitterly; he sent one hundred Elemental Blades piercing through the space itself as they attack the fiend from virtually every angle. The Fiend roared angrily as it battled off the blades, but at that point, two Chakrams were descending from above. Lynne had swung them upwardly into the air, coating them in golden flames as well as casting Starcarrier. In addition, he gently touched the side Mana storage with a tinge of his Soul Force.

His body immediately erupted into fire, coating him from top to bottom in seemingly unstoppable flames. As Chakrams descended from above, Lynne summoned yet another Elemental Blade – coated in golden flames – but this time he held it in his hands. He cast Fiery Sweeps – enhancing his legs with golden flames as well – as he spiraled into the air, rising to the level of the Fiend’s neck.

The Fiend’s two hands were raised upwardly, blocking off the two Chakrams, so he had no means of battling Lynne himself; coated completely in flames, with his eyes bloodshot red, Lynne swung the blade in his hands, enhancing it further with Starcarrier Spell Art, directly at the Fiend’s neck. He appeared like a flaming blur as he sped through the air, clashing directly into the fiend.

It all took but a few breaths’ time before ant-sized figure clashed into towering bulge of fire. Lynne’s blade stopped for a mere second before directly slashing through the neck; massive, two hundred meters wide flaming arc wreathed out of the blade, beheading the Fiend immediately. The flaming arc continued on into horizon, forming a beautiful sight.

The Fiend roared angrily one last time as its body began collapsing; as there was nothing to hold it all together, the violet flames of the fiend rained down like meteor shower, barreling against the land beneath. The surroundings of the volcano were absolute mess; either various flames were burning brightly, or massive craters were spreading about.

Lynne landed good quarter a mile away from where he clashed against the Fiend, panting loudly. In that single exchange, he had wasted over ninety percent of his Mana, mainly because of Starcarrier. Although the Spell Art could greatly enhance one’s attack, it also meant spending exuberant amounts of Mana in order to do so.

He quickly collapsed onto his butt, and then his back, but despite the exhaustion, he couldn’t wipe off a smirk from his face. Although he had fought before, this was definitely the most exciting battle for him. Battling about other people was one thing, but battling against absolute giants was whole another.

“Didn’t I tell you?” the Spirit’s voice sounded out.

“Yeah,” Lynne muttered as he fought for a breath. “That was fun.”

“Good,” the Spirit laughed briefly as it spoke. “Part of reason people strive towards the peak heights of Magic is because of that exact thing: the stronger one becomes, the more fun it is to battle.”

“Hai, but don’t ever ask me to steal flames for you again,” Lynne immediately added. “That was terrifying.”

“…”

“What, just because it was fun, it can’t be terrifying? That thing was one hundred meters tall!! It was bigger than a freaking hill!”

“… ai, you truly are a coward.”

“Coward? I’m not a coward!” Lynne rebuked. “I’m merely a wimp. No, wait, a craven. Hai, that’s not it either. I think I’m a… pessimist. Yeah, let’s go with that one.”

“… I’m going to take a nap.”

“Good idea.”

“You really want to stay here and wait for others to come?”

“Yeah, better idea.”

Lynne quickly jumped onto his feet, orientated himself towards the west yet again, and began running as he slowly recovered his Mana. Although he would eventually reach his destination if he moved like this, he didn’t have the luxury of ‘eventually’. Instead, he was scouting around for a high mountain, so he can find a larger town with a teleportation array, and speed towards Holy Paradise yet again.