"Huff... Huff..."

Heavy breathing echoed through the forest as a lightning drake filled with claw marks all over his body did its best to catch its breath.

Suddenly the lightning drake raised its head as it roared to the sky.

"Show yourself, coward!"

Laughter suddenly sounded from the treetops.

"You didn't feel like a coward when you used that plain of lightning to your advantage not long ago, but now that the tables are turned, you insult me for being a coward. How funny."

"You are just a..."

Before the drake could finish his words, a shadow quickly fell on him, followed by a blue trail.

*slash*

With the sound of flesh being cut, the drake let out another roar before unleashing a blast of lightning all around him.

The area within a five-meter radius of the drake was carbonized black as small lightning snakes could be seen traveling through the ground.

Kieran paused on a tree branch staring at the breathless drake.

"With all the lightning attacks he's been producing for a while, he probably won't have much crystal essence left. It's time to finish him off."

He looked over his shoulder, Ryan's skin tone was pale, the continuous use of his barriers had exhausted him. Unlike Kieran, who had over 100 crystal essence, Ryan was just at the early stage of Iron rank, he owned less than 1/10 of the total amount that Kieran owned.

"Hold on, it'll be over soon."

Ryan nodded slowly.

Spreading each of his claws with his hand, Kieran held it up in the air. Getting ready to throw himself on the drake, with his body leaning forward, he suddenly stopped.

He looked up before looking in a particular direction. There he could see a red flame heading towards them and the drake burning everything in its path.

"Shit."

Kieran quickly jumped out of the tree, trying to flee the area, but before he could run far enough, the whole area was engulfed in flames.

The drake's cry grew louder before its body disappeared in the flames.

The flames finally reached Kieran burning his legs, he gritted his teeth, trying to hold back a scream of pain as he forced his legs to move to propel him forward.

Intense pain passed through him as his feet touched the ground, causing him to fall. Unable to maintain his transformation, his shape returned to the one of a human. He and Ryan rolled on the ground for several meters.

"Ryan, are you ok?"

Kieran tried his best to get up, to move closer to his brother.

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As he approached Ryan, the flames suddenly stopped as a figure slowly approached them, an arrogant voice reached his ears.

"Again, weak trash, I wonder how you lasted until now."

"Who are you?"

Kieran's voice was hoarse as he tried to resist the pain in his legs, he stood in front of his brother, trying to protect him.

"You don't need to know that. You're going to be eliminated anyway."

Allen finally arrived in front of him, gazing at Kieran in the eyes. His eyes covered Kieran’s body before stopping on his burnt legs.

"Looks like it hurts."

Allen threw himself at Kieran, kicking him hard in the legs, knocking him to the ground.

Kieran bit down on his tongue to drown out the sound of pain that threatened to leave his throat.

"Oh! You're tougher than I thought."

Allen checked the time on his aurora collar before continuing.

"The competition will end soon. I don't have time to play with weaklings like you."

A red flame burned on his hand, with a gesture from him, the flame shot towards Ryan, embracing his body in an instant.

A message appeared in front of Kieran telling him that Ryan had been eliminated.

Kieran's body shook with rage, paying no heed to his wounds, his body shapeshifted to a lycan form before throwing his pair of claws towards Allen’s head.

Allen took a slight step back, easily dodging his attack.

"Looks like you still have a lot of energy. Since you want to have fun with me so much, let's play."

A playful smile appeared on Allen's face before he waved his hand. Chains made of fire appeared behind him before wrapping around Kieran's body and lifting him up in front of him.

Kieran felt his whole body burning wherever the chains passed. He wanted to scream in pain, but he forced himself to hold back.

'This guy is a fucking sadist. If I shout here, it will only make him happy.'

His eyes were cold, as his body shook constantly from the pain.

Watching Kieran's body float in front of him, Allen gently raised his hand, laying it on Kieran’s chest.

Red flames appeared on each of his fingers before he plunged them into Kieran’s body.

Allen's smile widened even more when he saw Kieran struggle to not scream.

"Come on react a little otherwise, it won't be fun," Allen said before twisting his fingers.

*cough*

Blood ran down Kieran's mouth, staring at Allen in front of him, he spat a mouthful of blood on his face.

"Burn in hell, bastard!"

Wiping Kieran’s blood on his face, a cold gaze passed through Allen’s eyes.

"You’ll be the only one who burns. Since you won’t entertain me, I’ll do it alone."

Removing his fingers from Kieran’s body, Allen formed a new chain of fire with a spike at its end.

With a flick of his hand, the chain went through Kieran's body like it was butter.

"Urgh!!"

Although muffling, Kieran's small sound of pain was heard by Allen.

"You see, you are already starting to react. We still have time to play."

Chains of fire started to appear one after the other around Allen.

"Let’s continue."

***

"Wow, I'm really impressed. It's almost been 20 minutes, and you still haven't uttered a single cry of pain."

Floating in front of Allen was Kieran's body, still restrained by the chains. Each of his limbs had been severed. One of his eyes had been burned, as his chest was filled with holes.

Although the wounds on Kieran's body were severe, Allen did his best to avoid any area that could kill him. Thanks to his fire ability, the wounds he inflicted on Kieran would never cause him to die of blood loss. This situation has now lasted for the last 20 minutes.

Seeing no reaction from Kieran to his words, Allen approached him, grabbing his hair, he lifted his head to look him straight in the eye.

Contrary to his expectation, the look in Kieran's eyes was not dead. Instead, his remaining eye glowed coldly. Allen suddenly felt a chill down his spine, stepping back when his body finally stopped.

'What did I do? Am I afraid? Me? From trash like him?'

A muffled laugh came from Kieran.

"What’s the matter? Are you afraid of me? You better be. When I reach the Bronze rank, we’ll see who will smile at that moment."

The smile on Allen's face finally disappeared.

'Never! I would never be afraid of trash like him!'

Doing his best to deny his own body's reaction, Allen formed a fireball in his hand before throwing it at Kieran.

But as if he had gone mad, Allen formed a second fireball before repeating his movement, then a third was formed, a fourth, fifth...

"Die! Die! Die!"

As Kieran's body disappeared, Allen's didn't stop, continuing to hit the area where Kieran's body had been a moment ago.

"DIE!!!!!!"

A huge explosion shook the whole area before Allen fell to the ground on his knees. He was breathing heavily while his entire body trembled with rage.