Kaden charged towards the tunnel entrance with everyone else coming right behind. The tunnel seemed to lead down deeper into the remnant. Heat increased slightly with each step, but not to unbearable level. At least not unbearable to Kaden. The other seemed to slow down and put more effort into resisting the heat.

As for the ash zombies and fire elementals, they seemed to stop. The zombies did not seem to be able to go too far from the large fire elemental that created them and started to disintegrate. They then stopped and returned after roaring a few screeches. The smaller fire elementals did follow, but eventually they too stopped and disapeared into nearby lava puddles and crevices on the walls.

“This is bad”, Kaden thought. “If there is only one entrance to this remnant, the way back is blocked. Perhaps it can be cleared or maybe I can dig through it, but all of that is going to take time. If the large fire elemental in the lava pool is around or its minions, I won’t be able to do any of that. Perhaps the others still in there can open the way by themselves, but in case that doesn’t happen, I need to do it myself.”

Kaden though about it a bit longer. He had quite a few Fire Stones that he felt would be extremely useful for his magic cultivation, but they would also serve as good material for bombs. Stick a Fire Stone into a right kind of formation and its going to become far stronger explosive than similar formation without one. Perhaps the entrance could be cleared open, if he had a few?

Kaden did not worry about collapsing anything. If the walls and tunnels had lasted through the blasts released by the fire elemental, they should last anything he could put together. That huge fire elemental was far beyond his abilities. Leoren had said something about it being likely comparable to a limit Condensation stage expert. If it wanted to kill him, it would be able to do so effortlessly.

Around at this time rest of the survivors, that followed him, arrived. Almost immediately few of the straglers that had been alone, decided to leave. They quickly made their way into smaller adjacent tunnels. They were members of Sacronan’s side and Kaden and the group from nobles were all saints. Smart move. Kaden at least would have pulled out their entrails.

Yet, the remaining people, the noble’s group that included Olren was not any more preferable.

That extremely obnoxious looking noble approached Kaden.

“My name is Dorin”, said Dorin to Kaden with a voice that clearly showed that he thought he was somehow his better. “You may call me Lord Dorin! I will be taking command now. Go in front and search for any danger. We will be looking for another exit.”

Kaden tilted his head a bit and then ignored Dorin entirely. He continued thinking how to best construct his bombs. Fire Stones were clearly useful to him, but he would receive no use of them, if he was dead. Still he wanted to waste as few of them as possible.

“You dare ignore me, mutant!” Dorin said in clearly upsed manner. “I gave you an order! I outrank you!”

“I don’t give a shit”, Kaden replied and started to put together some formations around the Fire Stone. “If you want to talk about some orders, I’m still following the original orders given by commander Leoren. Nothing has changed. Things happen in remnants.” A moment of silence, but then Kaden continued before Dorin could open his mouth again. “Perhaps you are planning desertion?”

“You must be deranged”, Dorin said angrily, but then calmed down. “No matter. This should be far enough. Everyone, kill the mutant.”

Kaden frowned in surprise and then leaped from the spot he had been just as various attacks struck the spot he had just been at! Then he took some distance further in the tunnel. He could not go back with the group blocking his way.

Then he snorted. “Hmph, Olren can’t even deal with his problems himself”, Kaden said in mocking tone. “Elite my ass.”

“Faults of my little brother are not something you can have say in, mutant from common birth”, Dorin replied. “It seems he was right that you are probably stronger than you seem. Still, there is no escape. Just give up and die.”

This all was kind of a problem. The group had three fighters at Formation stage, one of which was Dorin himself and five at Channel Opening, six if Olren is counted. Kaden had noted this group already back before the attack, but it seems they had lost some people along the way.

“Oh, little brother?” Kaden continued, ignoring rest of Dorin’s words. “I can see the resemblance. Your noses have grown too long after looking down along it at things for far too long. I think I’ll tear off it from your face before I kill you. I don’t want to eat something so disgusting.”

At this point, Kaden threw the Fire Stone he had modified. It would waste one, but he kind of wanted to test the power. It was relatively hastily made, but he expected it to function already. He immediately fled.

*KABOOM*

A fiery blast errupted at the group. Kaden looked back and noticed there were some injuries, but they had managed to mostly shield themselves. Only one of the weaklings at Channel Opening had died after being blown into pieces. Both Olren and Dorin were still alive and well. What a shame. It was good enough distraction anyway. It was also strong enough for his uses!

He would not be able fight the group directly. Possible solutions were to find favorable chance and kill those at Formation stage one by one. Even a single one of them gone would help him a lot. Two would like not be able to stop him at that point from rushing past to the main group. If they were losing or dead at that point, he could still blow up the entrance and run.

The heat continued rising as Kaden proceeded further. Any discomfort he was feeling was diminished by some amount of pleasure he was feeling that always seemed to be present, also due to the heat. Kaden sighed and realized, if it was not a remnant, it would likely be a very good place to live for him.

Putting that out of his mind, he noticed a hole in the ground. It was several meters in radius. A tunnel leading down? Winds of heat were blowing out from it. The Formation stage pursuers were already behind him, so Kaden decided to take the risk and go down. He jumped into the hole.

He had only a short head start. Kaden hadn’t yet released his core suppression yet. He wanted to seem weaker than he was. This was because he wanted to get one surprise attack with full power before they would realize their mistake. Perhaps he could disable one of the three.

Kaden soon hit the ground. It was another large chamber. The area was basically glowing with heat. There was a large stream of lava passing by to a large lava pool and some more lava was flowing down like a waterfall in the distance from above.

With some quick movements, Kaden placed a few explosive formations at the area where he landed and leaped towards some rocks not far away. The formations were weaker and he did not have chance to truly charge them, but he hoped they would do some damage. They should serve as distractions. There were still some paths to take across the area, if he had to, but this spot was good for an ambush attempt.

Kaden charged up a Fire Beam after releasing all suppression on his core. Soon after his pursuers dropped down and immediately the formations exploded to their surprise. He noticed Dorin among them. Kaden sneered and released the Fire Beam.

*CHOOM*

It was a direct hit on Dorin. He was blasted backwards with a burnt spot on his chest. He was alive, but injured. Those Fire Beams were not a joke. Kaden also assumed the noble was a loser who had merely wasted tons of resources to grow forcibly. While Kaden was not different regarding consumption of resources, he at least had always fought his battles himself where Dorin had likely used his minions. He was likely the easiest target to eliminate from the three at Formation stage.

“My lord!” Shouted one of them. Their greatest concern seemed to be their master instead of Kaden. Their purpose was likely to be bodyguards mainly. “Burgen! Deal with him while I check on lord Dorin!”

Around at this time the Channel Opening stage minions were coming down too.

Kaden released his core to maximum and charged at the one remaining bodyguard, Burgen, intending to disable him before the other Formation stage bodyguard returns from checking on Dorin. His mana armor surrounded him and the plume glowed, seemingly more so in the favorable heat of the area.

“What the fuck!” Burgen shouted as he noticed Kaden’s true powerup. Still, the man had probably quite a bit of experience as he reacted quickly and struck Kaden with a mana charged palm strike. “Penetration Palm!”

Too fast!

Kaden was hit in the chest with this strike. His armor shattered at that spot and the force still continued through his flesh as he was knocked backwards. Kaden vomited some blood. There were also some fractures on his chest and his internal organs had received quite a shock. Core was fine. It was likely hardest part of his body. Still, that strike could likely have injured heavily or killed most normal humans at Formation stage! Only reason Kaden was able to take it was due to having his armor and extremely tough body.

“Shit!” Kaden cursed and tried to shrug off the pain. “That guy is a melee fighter. It will be hard to deal with him. That hurt.”

He had sensed the strike coming, but it had been too fast.

“He is still alive?!” The man said. “Ronnald! The info was right! He has likely hidden his true strength somehow! He is probably at Formation stage already! I can’t seem to sense it right! Perhaps he is using some concealment spell!”

Kaden likely still felt to their senses to be merely at Channel Opening, but his power clearly exceeded it. It was obvious.

“I better clear away the pests”, Kaden thought and leaped towards the man that had struck him. Yet, before being in his range, he used his favorite trick and shifted his movement towards another target. The Channel Opening stage minions were somewhat surprised. They had been seemingly trying to put together some kind of group attack.

“Get out of there!” Olren who was among them shouted at the others. He knew very well how Kaden fought and now seeing his true strength, he was already thinking of ways to hide. Olren had expected Kaden to be much stronger than he seemed, but not to this extent.

Kaden’s plume flashed and mana traveled through his body and was then released as Flame Burst. With the current amount of strength available, closest few people just exploded into smoldering pieces while the rest were ignited in flames. That fire was not even normal fire to begin with and was extremely difficult to put out. The level difference was too great and none of them could do so. Therefore they ran around flailing and screaming as they burned. All that would remain of them at the end would be ash. Only one of those at Channel Opening was left and Olren.

He had not Devoured them because they were too weak and it would have been waste of time. He knew he would need flesh from someone stronger.

“M… Monster!!” The remaining Channel Opening minion screamed and tried to escape.

A quick fireball hit him in the back and his life was ended. Kaden was not planning on letting anyone escape. Kaden noticed Olren trying to hide who by now already knew he was out of his league.

“Hehehe”, Kaden chuckled and turned to look at the remaining people. He was somewhat injured, but well in fight condition. Breathing hurt a bit and there was still some taste of blood in his mouth. There had to be some internal damage, but with his body it was still at acceptable levels. “You know, you guys are traitors. I can kill you all.”

That was just something Kaden said to piss off his enemies. He didn’t care about traitors, loyalty or anything, but perhaps they would. It was also to get a short breather. He wanted time to be able to use Fire Beam again. It was his best trump card. Even if they knew about it already, with proper setup he would likely be able to injure or kill one more of them. Specially that melee fighter, Burgen, and he still didn’t know how the other one, Ronnald , who was still trying to treat Dorin, would fight.

“Yet, no one will think twice”, Kaden continued. “Once you are dead, all will assume you simply perished in this remnant just like many already did. Whether you are traitors, whether you are nobles. Your status no longer matters.”

While talking, Kaden quickly thought up a plan. He would have to execute is soon as he doubted he could fight two against one. If Dorin could get up, it would be even three againt one.

Time to act was now!