Chapter 265: Burning Embers

As soon as I flew the sphere of water into the burning zone, I could feel it heating up and beginning to boil within a matter of seconds. In order to maintain its shape and structure, I had to devote a great deal of my attention to constantly replenishing the sphere. In the meantime, I had to focus on flying through the forest at high speeds, dodging various trees while looking for the dungeon’s entrance.

Theoretically, I could have taken on my dragon form and let Diane ride me, conducting the bulk of the investigation with Beyond the Veil. However, it was much harder for me to identify structures while doing that because of the wispy effect that skill had on the world. Combined with the already raging flames, it would create additional work with little actual gain. Not to mention, I wasn’t entirely sure if the water sphere would follow us or not.

All in all, there were too many unknown factors involved with that method. I had even tried to send in my Spirit Sentries to look for the dungeon, but the flames had a spiritual component to them as a result of being manipulated by the nymphs. Because of that, the sentries were burned soon after sending them into the blaze.

Thanks to all of this, I simply resolved myself to finding the dungeon manually. If I didn’t find it before it became difficult to breathe, I could just teleport us back to the home of the water nymphs, take a few minutes to breathe, and then try again.

Thankfully, that did not seem to be necessary. No more than eight minutes after we began flying through the dense, black smoke, I caught sight of a burning mansion tucked between two trees. Although the flames were firmly attached to every surface of the mansion, they were unable to leave so much as a single scorch mark.

I reached over to pat Diane’s shoulder, signalling to her that we were approaching the dungeon. Understanding my intention, she readied her short swords to prepare for battle. Unlike with the lightning ninja dungeon, the ninjas here were unable to freely patrol their surroundings. This meant that there were bound to be far more of them crammed inside the dungeon itself.

With that thought in mind, I flew us towards the dungeon’s gate and opened it with a pair of projected hands. Without spending a single moment longer within the dense smoke, I guided us into the dungeon. Immediately, the heat seemed to dissipate, the air clearing. We could see the sky, something impossible even outside of the blaze in Verdantia, and the wary glares of dozens of nearby humans draped in red robes.

Before we had the chance to speak, they were already attacking. Fists and snakes of flame lashed out towards us, and I hastily erected layers of barriers to block them. Diane vanished from my side, appearing at the back line of the enemy. Her blades stabbed into their throats from behind, while I teleported up above the group.

When their attacks pushed through my barriers and landed on nothing, the ninjas immediately became wary again. Some of them near the back noticed Diane, and engaged her in a frantic melee, while I surrounded most of the others within multiple crystal domes. With this many enemies, it was important that we controlled them as much as possible.

While the captured groups were trying to break free, I launched spears of projected energy from above. Once the first spear landed, the others quickly identified my position, launching themselves towards me with flames wrapped around their feet.

My eyes widened at their movement method, having not expected ninjas to have such a flashy method of flight. Still, it took them only a second before I was surrounded on all sides. Their attacks lashed out at me, with the first barrage landing on my skin before I disappeared again. Instinctively, the group looked higher up, as if expecting me to appear above them again. Instead, I had appeared on the ground where they had previously stood themselves.

Before their gazes reached the ground, I wrapped the airborne group within a projected field, and then filled it with flying blades. Although I wanted to focus on them to confirm the kills, the first of the imprisoned groups had already broken free. With the destruction of the crystal dome, thick shards flew inwards, skewering a few of the attacking ninjas, while others managed to dodge and charge at me.

Still, this at least gave me a moment to breathe. Since there were no flame nymphs within this dungeon, there was no reason for me not to use the Infernal Hellstar. The black core appeared above my head, draining away every wisp of flame summoned by these ninjas. When they saw their power leave them, they stood dumbfounded, looking at the core above my head in something akin to awe.

“Capture him!” one of them shouted urgently. “If we can learn this technique, we will be able to break through the blockade! Someone go and alert the sect master!”

I blinked in surprise, subconsciously taking a step back as I saw the look in their eyes changing. They were no longer looking at me like I was an invader trampling on their martial school. Instead, I had become a living experimental subject. As long as they captured me, they saw hope of copying my Infernal Hellstar to devour the flames outside the dungeon.

Three of the ninjas rushed off deeper into the mansion, completely abandoning the fight. I turned to try to stop them, but ten more blocked my path. Even without their flames, they launched powerful punches and kicks.

The one thing that I could be thankful for was that Diane disappeared from her own engagement after slaying most of the enemies that had surrounded her. I didn’t have the attention to spare to tell if she had gone after the retreating group or if she was lying in ambush, but that didn’t matter. The other group that had been imprisoned had finally managed to free themselves. When they saw the flames being devoured by the black orb above my head, they showed a similar reaction to the first group.

Fortunately, the ninjas had lost the vast majority of their combat ability when their flames were sealed. They were still expert martial artists, many of whom were focused on grappling me and locking up my joints, but they had no way to defend if a projected dagger stabbed into their chest from behind.

Still, they threw themselves at me with the single-minded devotion to keep me pinned down, refusing to release me even in their death. I could only teleport myself away every time my body became completely covered in the corpses of ninjas trying to hold me in place.

I couldn’t help but shudder at their willingness to throw their lives away to buy time for their leader to arrive. Knowing that these creatures had intelligence only made that all the more frightening. For starters, I didn’t know yet whether they retained their memories after being respawned, or if each newly spawned entity started with a fresh set of memories. If it was the former, that meant that they were willingly throwing away their entire existence just to buy time.

Once the last of the courtyard ninjas was taken care of, I immediately entered stealth and deactivated the Infernal Hellstar, sweeping my senses over the area. I could see Diane slowly moving through the corridors further in the dungeon, following the trio that had previously fled. She was keeping out of sight while relying on her various skills, but the deeper areas of the dungeon were only more densely populated.

Up ahead of her current position, I could see a large training hall, where an elderly figure in a red robe was training more than a hundred ninjas. They seemed to be working on a flame extinguishing technique. The elderly man himself provided the flames, while the students tried various methods to extinguish them.

This training was interrupted as the three escaped ninjas broke through the door. I couldn’t make out what they said, but the look in the elder’s eyes quickly changed. He clasped his hands together as flames wrapped around his body. The next thing I knew, a similar burst of flame appeared not far away from me.

The elderly man appeared from the burst of flames, having used it as a medium to teleport to the front of the dungeon. His gaze swept over the fallen ninjas, and then he closed his eyes. I watched as he stood still for nearly a full minute, before my Watch the Watcher skill sounded the alarm that I had been spotted. His eyes snapped open, and he launched himself straight towards my location.

Gritting my teeth, I exited stealth and summoned the Infernal Hellstar again, but the old man was not summoning any visible flames. Instead, they seemed to be circulating within his body itself, preventing me from drawing them out. His fist landed on my shoulder, a black scorch mark appearing on my skin as I stepped back.

I realized that he had immediately devised a way to counter my skill, but doing so no doubt came at a great cost to him. He was circulating fire within his own body, and it was impossible that wouldn’t have any effect on him. If he were immune to fire, he could have charged out of the dungeon and held his breath long enough to leave the densest area of smoke.

Still, I couldn’t just ignore the threat he posed. I immediately healed myself, and then constructed three layers of barriers around my body. The old man’s gaze flicked from myself up to the black sphere, and then back to me. “Young man, I don’t know how you managed to conceive a skill such as this. However, I assure you that we will give anything to acquire it. You may have any treasure you wish for, so long as you teach us the method for devouring flames.”

I chuckled slightly, taking a moment to process that a dungeon boss was willingly offering me treasure in order to learn the skill. “I don’t think that there’s anything that you could truly produce that would be worth it on my end,” I said, buying time while Diane rushed back through the halls of the dungeon.

The whole point of us coming here was for Diane to gain the ability to summon her own fire ninjas within the dungeon that she created. In order for her to add the boss monster to that list, she had to engage it in battle. Thus, I couldn’t kill the monster on my own while waiting for her.

It seemed that the elderly man was unaware of Diane. Perhaps the three that ran away had been too concerned reporting my skill, and had failed to mention the second intruder.

Either way, I knew that Diane was not the only one rushing in this direction. The more than one hundred students that the boss had been teaching were also following suit after watching their leader teleport here.

The elderly figure let out a small sigh. “I see. That is quite unfortunate. In that case, I can only ask that you remain here until we determine the secret to your power,” he said, taking a fighting stance with one hand held in front of himself.

There was a quick burst of flame at his feet, barely a fraction of a second, before he appeared in front of me, his hand glowing red as it crashed through my first barrier. I teleported up into the sky, but my vision only caught another red flash before he was above me, his foot kicking me back towards the ground and shattering another barrier.

Thankfully, the third barrier held firm as I crashed into the ground, drawing out a surprised cough. I hastily reformed the shattered barriers as he launched himself at the ground, attempting to create spears of energy to skewer him on the way down.

However, the boss monster released an instantaneous burst of flames from his side, evading the first spear and grabbing onto it, using it to help him navigate through the others. How are Players supposed to fight bosses with this level of intelligence and martial skill? I thought to myself as he arrived in front of me, delivering a two-handed strike that shattered all three of my barriers at once, sending me flying back towards the wall of the dungeon.

I landed with a grunt, barely having the time to heal myself before he was upon me again. His skin had started to blacken from the flames burning within himself, but he persisted through any pain he must have felt. His hands reached out towards my shoulders, grabbing them and infusing them with enough heat that I could feel the muscles melting. I grit my teeth, suppressing a scream that threatened to rise through my throat. This was an intense pain, but certainly not the worst that I had felt.

The elderly man seemed impressed by my restraint, continuing to burn my arms until it felt like they were about to be burnt away. In fact, that was likely his goal, to cripple me and take me back. Thankfully, I had bought all the time that I needed, as black threads had silently wrapped their way around his neck.