Chapter 563 Fire Elemental

Tucking his wings for a dive, the Falcon was instantly reduced to a charred husk. Trailing pungent white smoke, his momentum carried him tumbling across the ground, leaving a scorched black trail through the meadow.

The glowing blue cluster he had just touched—which he had mistaken for a godsend of life energy—suddenly transformed the moment he hit the dirt.

Like ink dripping into clear water, the blue light churned like a luminous mist as a streak of scorching orange-red rapidly spread from the deepest part of the cluster.

The air temperature surged. Under the rushing, scorching wind, the shrubs and grass yellowed and charred at a visible rate.

Supported by the life energy, the flames burned in midair.

Expanding, contracting.

It looked as though it would collapse in the next second from its lack of a physical form, yet it seemed bound by something invisible. Ultimately, it formed a blurry, ever-shifting humanoid silhouette made entirely of fire.

This was a Fire Elemental with a Challenge Rating as high as Level 5!

That meant dealing with it safely would require a fully prepared, well-balanced party of at least four Level 5 adventurers.

From a purely combat-oriented perspective, it was absolutely "powerful."

To put it bluntly, even back in the Material Plane, very few of the adventurers currently on Stodd Island could handle a monster of this tier.

With bad luck, an entire fleet could easily be wiped out by one.

And there was no need to mention what that meant here in the secret realm.

The vast majority of the adventurers inside were still fighting alone or in simple two- or three-person teams, and none of them had surpassed the Third Evolution.

Calling it a "massacre" might even be underestimating the Fire Elemental.

The sudden appearance of such a powerful monster was obviously an unforeseen anomaly for all the adventurers present.

But likely because they were all experienced veterans, everyone maintained their rationality—except for the Falcon, who had tried to sneak a quick advantage and ended up scorched to a crisp by the point-blank flames.

Xia Nan watched it happen. A second after the Falcon adventurer's corpse hit the ground and the glowing blue light shifted into a current of flames—confirming its identity as a Fire Elemental—an adventurer possessing a gazelle who had been hiding in the bushes fled. Without a moment's hesitation, he sprinted wildly away from the area without looking back.

His choice certainly wasn't wrong; it could even be considered sharp and decisive.

But just like fleeing blindly after running into a vicious dog, his actions drew the Fire Elemental's attention, instantly triggering the monster's hunting instincts.

"Boom!"

A flash of orange-red flame tore through the air.

It had no physical body and didn't rely on legs to move.

Like a violent gale scraping against the ground, it closed the gap of a few dozen meters in the blink of an eye.

It didn't even need to make a proper attack motion. Made entirely of shifting flame currents, the Fire Elemental simply caught up and lightly waved its hand.

The Gazelle, who had been alive and leaping just moments ago, was reduced to an obviously overcooked roast antelope.

The smell of roasting meat mixed with the stench of char, filling the air as it was swept up by the scorching wind. The crackling pop of roaring flames echoed in their ears.

'A bit fast.'

Xia Nan shielded his two un-evolved teammates behind him, silently estimating the burst of speed the Fire Elemental had just displayed.

It didn't need a physical body to move. As a creature of pure energy, its method of movement was virtually identical to flying, and it could even ignore obstacles.

It was only because they were currently in an open plain; if they were in the hills or dense forests from before, it would have been even more troublesome.

Fortunately, his current body had already undergone its Fourth Evolution. His physical attributes were staggeringly high, and he possessed the [Fang Hunt] combat technique from his human body.

Judging solely by the speed the monster had just shown, he would have plenty of leeway if they just wanted to flee, even if he had to carry his two teammates.

What Xia Nan was considering now was whether to take the conservative route and temporarily retreat, or take the aggressive approach and stay to fight.

After all, he had watched with his own eyes as this Fire Elemental formed from life energy. If he could kill it, he might harvest another massive amount of combat technique proficiency.

As he pondered this, the other adventurers on the field saw the Gazelle adventurer get run down instantly. Realizing they couldn't possibly outrun it, they abandoned their original plans to retreat and unanimously changed their stance toward the Fire Elemental.

One adventurer—possessing a large, long-limbed feline body that resembled a cheetah—crouched low and let out a threatening growl. The Hyena adventurer sneaked around to the flank, seemingly looking for the Fire Elemental's weak point.

Their mentality was good, but truthfully, one side was a powerful monster made entirely of fire that slightly distorted the surrounding air, while the other side consisted of nothing more than a few ordinary wild beasts.

Even an ignorant child could easily see the gap in combat power between them.

And that was indeed the case.

Everyone in the secret realm was a lone wolf. No adventurer was willing to strike first; they were all waiting for an opportunity.

It wasn't until the Fire Elemental lunged at the Cheetah adventurer—turning the dodging feline into a charred husk—that the Hyena hiding behind it dared to pounce.

The timing was impeccable, and the positioning was even more precise.

Driven by the momentum of its leaping body, jaws capable of easily crushing hard bone snapped shut around the neck of the Fire Elemental's humanoid silhouette.

"Crack."

A teeth-aching collision rang through the air.

Perhaps due to a lack of experience fighting this kind of energy creature, the spot the Hyena adventurer chose to attack was clearly a mistake.

It was like biting into a cloud of orange-red mist. The attack dealt no actual damage, and instead left the Hyena's entire head buried inside the Fire Elemental's body.

Painful whimpers echoed in the air as its flesh burned.

The Hyena adventurer crashed to the ground in agony, rolling and struggling on the scorched meadow before the Fire Elemental casually turned it into cooked meat.

'Physical damage immunity, huh...'

Since he was in competition with the other adventurers on the field and had an avenue of retreat, Xia Nan remained on the sidelines in a wait-and-see posture, carefully observing the Fire Elemental's combat abilities.

In many cases, this was exactly why elemental monsters were so unfair.

They didn't need profound combat techniques, nor did they have to summarize or review any battle experience.

Just the trait of physical damage immunity was enough to make them invincible against ninety-nine percent of bottom-tier adventurers.

Not to mention that their bodies, formed from elemental energy, could ignore the vast majority of terrain obstacles and unleash elemental attacks that were incredibly lethal to flesh and blood.

Only by personally fighting this type of monster could one truly feel how troublesome they were.

Seeing that the adventurers on the field were mostly cleared out, he now had a rough estimate of the Fire Elemental's combat strength.

He quickly formulated a battle plan in his head, wondering if he should enter the fray now.

Suddenly, an incredibly thick, foul stench of sulfur surged into his nose.

The extremely sharp Perception granted by his Fourth Evolution body made Xia Nan subconsciously look toward the other side of the field, at a scorched patch of ground beneath the Fire Elemental.

There, a cluster of shadows could be seen writhing quietly.

It abruptly expanded!

Like a shark breaching the surface of the water, a jagged, hideous, and gaunt figure burst out from the shadows.

Wide membranous wings, purplish-black skin, razor-sharp claws, and a long, barbed tail—this was a Spined Devil from hell.

Xia Nan was, of course, no stranger to this kind of devil.

He had already fought them back when he was still operating around Rivervale Town.

But unlike the ones he had encountered before, this Spined Devil had a much more slender build and was visibly several sizes larger. Moreover, the shadow energy manipulation techniques it had displayed in that brief glimpse were absolutely not something an ordinary Spined Devil could master.

Most crucially, it had bright, spirited eyes unique to intelligent creatures—eyes that a lesser devil could never possess.

This was an adventurer too!

Seemingly having watched from the sidelines for a long time just like Xia Nan, this adventurer possessing the Spined Devil unleashed a killing move right off the bat.

The flapping of its wide, powerful membranous wings granted it an exaggerated burst of speed. Gripping a simple spear made of wood and branches wrapped in a layer of faint black shadow energy, it thrust the spear straight toward the core of the flames in the center of the Fire Elemental's chest.

Noticeably, unlike a standard physical attack, the shadow energy empowerment caused the spear's thrust to visibly slow upon piercing contact with the flames.

It made the Fire Elemental's churning body seem to freeze for a fraction of a second.

Unfortunately, this suspected mutant Spined Devil's ability to control shadow energy was ultimately limited. Perhaps it could forcibly resist the burning corrosion of the flames at first, but the spearhead had barely pierced halfway into the Fire Elemental's body before the shadow energy coating its surface was worn away and devoured by the scorching flames.

Without the protection of the shadow energy, this so-called spear naturally exposed the material weaknesses of its stone and wood construction and was instantly incinerated.

"Boom!"

Orange-red flames spread up the spear shaft and onto the Spined Devil's arm.

As a fiend from hell, this type of creature was inherently immune to the vast majority of fire damage. Even against the fiery attacks of an energy creature from the elemental planes, it possessed considerable resistance.

The Spined Devil decisively abandoned the incinerated spear. Enduring the pain of the flames scorching its body, shadow energy rippled across the surface of the wings on its back as it flapped them violently at the Fire Elemental directly in front of it!

The shadow energy covering its membranous wings hummed, transforming into an energy impact that resembled a sonic wave.

While extinguishing the burning flames on its arm and stalling the Fire Elemental in front of it, its gaunt, slender frame used the recoil force to retreat rapidly backward.

The entire sequence of movements was as smooth as flowing water, as if it had been repeated countless times.

Watching the battle from the sidelines, Xia Nan felt a sudden, inexplicable sense of déjà vu.

He felt like he had seen those exact same movements somewhere before.

Just as he was trying hard to recall, the black bear Sasha behind him, who had also been watching the battlefield, seemed to have recognized something.

Not daring to make a sound and draw the enemy's attention, he quickly patted Xia Nan's shoulder with his left paw. After Xia Nan turned his head to look, Sasha used his right paw to frantically and sloppily write a few characters in Common:

[Lorraine! Captain!]

Realization instantly dawned on Xia Nan.

In that split second, the image of the Spined Devil flapping its wings to deal shadow energy damage while using the recoil to retreat overlapped with the figure of Lorraine, the captain of the Blade of Vengeance—who had previously wielded a scimitar and used a flame combat technique to scorch enemies while using the blast force to pull back.

It wasn't actually some profound combat technique, and it was entirely possible that it was a coincidental overlap leading Xia Nan and the others to misjudge. But at this point in time, even a ten percent chance was enough to make Xia Nan intervene, bail her out, and then confirm her identity.

A loud, high-pitched wolf howl suddenly exploded across the field.

It drowned out the sounds of roaring flames and the Spined Devil's shrieks that had been echoing in the air.

It had sensed the lethal threat coming from behind.

The Fire Elemental, which had launched a frantic, seemingly mindless assault on the surrounding adventurers the moment it appeared, immediately halted its pursuit of the Spined Devil.

Surging with flames, its already massive energy body swelled several sizes larger. The currents of fire leaping and surging across its surface like solar prominences made the surrounding air distort slightly.

In stark contrast, the air around the longsword clenched firmly in the Wolf's Maw was distorting in exactly the same way.

However, one side was merely light refraction caused by hot air, while the other was optical deflection caused by shifts in gravity.

Perhaps because the enemies it had encountered in the Material Plane before were all low-level beings incapable of dealing it any substantial damage, this Fire Elemental didn't have the slightest intention of dodging, even after sensing the danger approaching from ahead.

It simply dialed up its firepower, expecting the opponent to charge straight into it and be devoured and charred by its flames, just like the enemies it had faced in the past.

Xia Nan didn't hold back.

Having already judged the Fire Elemental's combat abilities by observing its battles with the other adventurers, there was naturally no need to test the waters anymore.

"Hum—"

Ochre-red force field energy rapidly gathered across the blade's surface, while the pitch-black aura swirling around him sketched out the blurry shape of a Wolf Head.

He carefully felt the combination and coordination between his combat techniques, searching for the missing piece—the crucial point that would link them into a cohesive system.

Xia Nan pushed off with all four paws and leaped into the air.

The longsword tightly gripped in the Wolf's Maw carved a perfect arc through the air, and the ochre-red sword glint symbolizing the force field energy flashed past in an instant.

It was still noble, and it still lacked any resistance to force field damage.

The pure energy damage undoubtedly struck the Fire Elemental's fatal weak point.

Moreover, [Gravity Etching]—which had already reached Level 5 max proficiency before entering the secret realm—combined with his current robust Steel Skeleton·Ridgeblade Wolf body to unleash an unprecedentedly powerful force.

Under the impact of the force field energy, the incandescent flames in the center of the Fire Elemental's chest—its fiery core—were dispersed like a scrambled egg yolk, bursting into countless tiny flame currents that scattered in all directions.

Its body, made entirely of fire, exploded outward, yet it didn't completely extinguish.

In a direct reversal of how it had arrived, the orange-red faded away, dissipating back into a misty, glowing blue cluster.