Chapter 995: Black Cloud
The fox's claw struck the magma pool, instantly collapsing into a vast swath of Foxfire.
In an instant, so much Foxfire ignited half the magma pool. The boiling magma couldn't extinguish it—instead, Foxfire rapidly spread outward, threatening to set the entire magma lake ablaze.
Leon blinked twice in quick succession, abandoning the ignited half of the magma lake and reigniting a new magma pool several hundred meters away. Such a massive spread of Foxfire couldn't be devoured by Theo in one gulp, even though Theo had already absorbed quite a bit and fused with its properties. Ordinary Foxfire could no longer burn him.
It took Theo much longer to consume all that Foxfire than it would for Foxfire to ignite the entire magma lake, so Leon decisively cut off half of the lake.
Leon dodged away, careful not to let Theo stray from his protection. Sure enough, as soon as Leon moved, the Foxfire that had ignited a few hundred meters suddenly converged at the center and exploded, annihilating everything within a three-hundred-meter radius...
If Theo had tried to consume that Foxfire, the only outcome would have been complete annihilation...
Leon's gaze grew cold. Foxes are cunning, and this one—a Sky Rank beast—had definitely awakened intelligence, yet it still fought like a typical magical beast, hiding its wisdom. Now it suddenly pulled this trick...
With Theo around, the Red Flame Fire Fox's Foxfire was nearly useless, unable to play its intended role and instead constantly being devoured by Theo.
In just a few minutes, Theo's level had already soared to thirty-seven. Though the rate of increase had slowed, he was still growing steadily as he consumed the flames.
This shows just how high Foxfire ranks among magical flames, and it contains the power of extraordinary magical beasts. For Theo, a flame spirit that devours fire, it's like an alchemical potion that directly boosts his level and essence of life.
If he keeps devouring it, it's not impossible for Theo to advance to level thirty-eight, or even evolve into a higher-tier flame spirit!
The Red Flame Fire Fox schemed relentlessly, aiming to eliminate Theo first, but Leon never let Theo leave his protection.
When its plan failed, the Red Flame Fire Fox didn't pause for a second. It had already prepared a backup: as the Foxfire exploded, it suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a blinding orange flame, targeting the Mage Legion in the sky—unable to unleash their full power.
The sudden assault left the Mage Legion with no chance to dodge; they could only defend. In the blink of an eye, that stream of Foxfire surged to the front of their ranks.
Every defensive measure of the Mage Legion was useless against Foxfire. The flames didn't break through their defenses, but ignited their fire shields instead. Waves of orange Foxfire swept rapidly across the whole Mage Legion.
In the blink of an eye, half the elemental sea of fire around the Mage Legion was set ablaze. One mage's elemental avatar even got contaminated by Foxfire...
First, it suppressed Leon, then tried to trap Theo, and finally blasted a stream of Foxfire at the Mage Legion—who had almost no resistance to it. This Foxfire was even more advanced than the flames on the Red Flame Fire Fox's body, condensed into a blinding liquid fire.
After igniting the Mage Legion's elemental sea of fire, the Red Flame Fire Fox squinted and gave a chilling smile. The flames extending from its three swaying tails suddenly split, as if each tail grew three more...
The thick flaming tails turned into a whirlwind of fire, tripling the intensity of its assault on Reina, Hubert, Anderson, and the Patchwork Golem!
The Red Flame Fire Fox's body suddenly leapt, pressing in on Leon.
Its two massive claws struck out, the flames instantly stretching hundreds of meters, forming two colossal fiery paws that slammed toward Leon from both sides.
The three-hundred-meter magma lake was shattered in an instant by those flaming claws. The entire lake broke apart, sending waves of magma surging for a kilometer, incinerating every tree within range to ash...
Ash drifted through the air, the atmosphere crackling with explosions. White shockwaves spread wildly in all directions, and fierce winds tore through everything within a kilometer like endless blades.
After all this, the Red Flame Fire Fox smirked coldly. It opened its mouth, instantly condensing a Destruction Energy Sphere radiating annihilation. The sphere grew from the size of a fist to seven or eight meters across in moments.
At this point, the Red Flame Fire Fox didn't wait any longer—it fired the Destruction Energy Sphere straight into the heart of the swirling shockwaves without hesitation.
In an instant, the Destruction Energy Sphere crushed every shockwave and impact, striking dead center.
Boom...
A mushroom cloud of flames rose, obliterating everything within hundreds of meters. Even after the flaming mushroom cloud soared into the sky, it lingered, and the shockwaves kept rippling outward.
Suddenly, a look of surprise flashed across the Red Flame Fire Fox's face. It looked up to see that, inside the fire cloud—most of it already ignited by Foxfire—the eerie Foxfire was rapidly dissipating, and an orange flame spirit darted through the cloud.
Every trace of Foxfire was devoured—gone without a trace in just three seconds.
Yet Leon wasn't killed by the Destruction Energy Sphere; instead, he floated beneath the fire cloud formed by the Mage Legion...
Leon hovered in midair, letting out a cold laugh.
From the very start of the battle, Leon sensed something was off and stayed cautious, secretly warning everyone not to get too close. A Sky Rank fox awakened to Foxfire was never easy to deal with—far craftier than any ordinary fox.
As expected, this extraordinary magical beast feigned a defensive stance, allowing itself to be surrounded and suppressed within three hundred meters—only to suddenly erupt, aiming to wipe everyone out in one blow.
Except for the Mage Legion, who couldn't dodge at all, everyone else escaped the Red Flame Fire Fox's outburst without hesitation. Though it was a bit messy, no one was seriously hurt.
Leon, the main target, abandoned control of the magma pool as those beast claws closed in from both sides. His Lava Avatar dispersed, and he swallowed a bottle of Void Elixir he'd just crafted from rare ingredients two days ago.
Thanks to the Void Elixir, he became intangible—immune to all spell attacks, his body vanishing, magic and aura gone.
Once airborne, he immediately saw the cunning Red Flame Fire Fox unleash the Destruction Energy Sphere...
The Void Elixir's effect is incredibly powerful—it's as if you've vanished from this space, making all attacks useless. But against the Destruction Energy Sphere, that brutishly simple, utterly unreasonable hybrid energy attack, it can't grant complete immunity.
The Destruction Energy Sphere destroys everything it hits, even shattering space into fragments. That's why top-tier magical beasts are so feared—it's their brutally straightforward style of attack.
At the height of Northend World's era, countless planes were discovered, like stars in the sky—and many destroyed as well. More were ruined by extraordinary magical beasts than by wars between powerful beings!
Leon once read a record: when Bain ruled Northend World, he fought a mighty extraordinary magical beast on a high-level plane. Just as Bain was about to kill it, the beast launched a suicidal attack.
A single, brutally simple Destruction Energy Sphere shattered all space and time in that plane.
The river of time that moved all things—its branch in that plane was blown apart. In the instant space collapsed, everything froze in place, and all time in the plane stopped...
The dying extraordinary magical beast, and everything in that plane, was instantly frozen...
That was Bain's most humiliating moment—he nearly got trapped in that plane forever.
That's why Leon is so wary of Destruction Energy Spheres from extraordinary magical beasts. This kind of brute-force tactic is far more troublesome and terrifying than even a Sky Rank mage...
Floating in midair, Leon summoned his Lava Avatar again, his mana billowing skyward like smoke. In an instant, a vast Black Cloud appeared overhead, as if a lake of magma had risen into the sky.
Flames churned in the magma lake, terrifying waves of magical energy spreading outward like a tsunami. Pure mana—though lacking transcendent power—was absolutely on par with a true Sky Rank mage.
"The real fight begins now, Red Flame Fire Fox. Even if you've broken through to Sky Rank, you're still just a Red Flame Fire Fox. Aside from Foxfire and the Destruction Energy Sphere, you have nothing worth mentioning..."
Leon sneered, swinging his Dragon Staff. From the Black Cloud above, dozens of massive meteors—each over ten meters wide—began to appear.
Each meteor crashed downward with a dull roar, slamming hard toward the Red Flame Fire Fox below.
The Red Flame Fire Fox bared its fangs, eyes locked on Leon—completely ignoring everyone else. As far as it was concerned, only Leon mattered.
Everyone else retreated a bit, quietly moving to the edge of the battlefield.
Meteors kept falling, while the Red Flame Fire Fox's three tails blurred into afterimages, whipping the meteors into fragments and occasionally spitting Foxfire.
After spraying liquid Foxfire three times, the Red Flame Fire Fox unleashed another Destruction Energy Sphere—not at Leon, but at the Black Cloud overhead.
The Destruction Energy Sphere exploded within the Black Cloud, instantly creating a circular void at its center that rapidly expanded, blasting the entire cloud to pieces.