It had been a little over 30 hours since the three entered the secret realm. On their way to find the ancient formation array, they encountered many groups of students and crystal beasts.

Kieran let Ryan and Thomas train each time opponents of their level appeared while eliminating anyone who could endanger them.

As he walked through the forest with them, he tried to teach them how to move with the trees around them, but apparently, it wasn't as easy as he thought.

Compared to him, who seemed to have done this all his life, the other two couldn't figure out how he did it. They tried several times but without success.

"Are we still far from the ancient formation array?" Thomas asked.

"We should be almost there," Kieran replied, "Actually, we should be there soon."

The three eventually reached what appeared to be an ancient ruin made of stones that were in better condition than any they had seen so far. The ruin looked like the remains of an old palace that had suffered extensive damage. A pillar of soft light escapes from the roof of the ruined palace.

"Here we are!" said Thomas, running towards the old palace.

Kieran and Ryan followed behind him.

Once inside the old palace, the three saw a diaphanous wall made of light. Many inscriptions moved through the wall of light, crossing each other, creating a complex formation array before their amazed eyes.

Ryan's eyes sparkle with excitement as he tries to follow the paths each inscription takes.

The inscriptions moved in a strange way that made no sense for him to follow their path. They passed each other and formed different shapes that never stopped moving in some unknown way for him to follow.

After waking up from his astonishment, Kieran began to inspect around the ancient formation array.

A certain group of inscriptions seemed to form a passage through the formation array. Looking through the wall of light, Kieran could see a pond with several students sitting inside, cultivating.

"Some arrived before us?" Thomas asked, standing next to Kieran.

"Looks like. There are five people down there, so there are still five places left to go inside," Kieran replied.

"Let's go inside quickly," Thomas said, staring at the passages formed by the inscriptions that lead inside the formation array, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Of course."

As the three were about to walk towards a passage, a wall of red flame appeared before them, separating them from the ancient formation array.

Kieran grabbed Ryan and Thomas quickly before they could react, moving them away from the red flames.

'Who?'

Kieran looked around, his crystal sense was constantly activated, yet someone could have come so close to them without him being able to sense their presence.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

'Those red flames... Is that him?'

"Looks like you've gotten a little stronger since the last time we saw each other."

A cold, haughty voice reached their ears. Following where the voice was coming from, Kieran looked up to see a figure wearing light red armor without a helmet with inscriptions on it, sitting in a relaxed posture on a broken pillar that stood several meters tall.

His short blond hair and blue eyes seemed to glow unearthly in the light of the ancient formation array. His face was arrogant as he looked down at the three as a king looked at his subjects.

His fingers moved slightly with glowing flames above them that seemed to dance.

The flames seemed insignificant in his hands, yet they sent shivers down Ryan and Thomas's spines. But in Kieran's eyes, another scene played. The fire elemental particles around the area seemed to be competing to see who was the first to reach the youth sitting on the pillar.

'His affinity with fire seems higher than mine. If I just confront him with my fire element, I should be able to learn something from him,' a smile appeared on his face as he felt his heart pounding. An excitement he hadn't felt in a while filled his body.

Allen's eyes narrowed when he saw the smile on Kieran's face.

"Ryan, Thomas, get inside the formation array," said Kieran.

"Are you sure, Kieran?" replied Ryan.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of him."

The two wanted to stay to help him, but as soon as they saw the smile on Kieran's face, they shut up and rushed back to the ancient formation array.

"You going to take care of me? Did you already forget what happened the last time you encountered me? Don't make me laugh. As long as I'm here, none of you will enter this formation array."

Allen moved his fingers carelessly, causing three red fireballs to appear and fly toward the three.

Kieran waved his hand, forming a wall of fire that stopped the three red fireballs. Ryan and Thomas took advantage of the opportunity and managed to get inside the ancient formation array safely.

"You dare use fire against me? You should have done like your two friends and took the opportunity to enter the ancient formation array," said Allen as his eyes grew cold at the view of his red fireballs getting stopped by a fire wall.

He slowly stood up, staring at Kieran, crystal essence emerging from his body, and with it, the power of a late stage Bronze rank could be felt. The temperature in the area around him suddenly rose several degrees.

"It would be a shame not to take advantage of this situation to face you. Besides, I still have to reimburse you for what happened during the inter-class competition. But thanks to you, I just remembered that you could try to run away in the ancient formation array," said Kieran.

"What are you..."

Allen's words were interrupted by the appearance of a pillar of earth that struck his body, knocking him out of the ruined palace. Kieran quickly followed behind him.

Red flames appeared on Allen's body, triggering a slight explosion of flames that stabilized his position in the air before landing safely on the ground unscathed.

'What was that? An artifact? Or another of his abilities? No, it shouldn't be possible. During the inter-class competition, he could take the form of a lycan. His fire ability must come from his breakthrough to the Bronze rank,' Allen thought.

Kieran landed a few meters in front of Allen, who was watching him with a cold expression on his face.

Allen raised his right arm in front of him, and as if following his every move, the red flames on his body surged around his arm until they formed a ball of concentrated fire in front of his hand.

"You should take your lycan form while you still have time."

"Hum? Why should I?"

Allen frowned.

"Whether you shapeshift or not won't make a difference anyway. I'm going to eliminate you quickly."

The fireball was released from Allen's arm and quickly flew towards Kieran, who was smiling as he saw it getting closer and closer to him. The fire elemental particles around him began to stir and cluster around him.

Raising his arm in front of him, he reproduced the same movement as Allen, but compared to him, his fireball seemed less concentrated but contained a thicker crystal essence.

*boom*

A loud explosion sounded as the two fireballs made contact, forcing the two to take a step back.

A look of surprise crossed Allen's eyes before he regained his composure. Crystal essence quickly circulated inside his body, and balls of red fire appeared all around him, one after another.

"It's better like that!" Kieran said excitedly as he replicated what Allen was doing.

He wasted more crystal essence than him, who had a crystal tree based on the fire element, but he didn't care. He wanted to learn from Allen's moves to utilize fire elemental particles better.

And just like that, the fight between the two begins.