Fire Spirit Lord’s eyes twinkled like embers stirred by wind. “Confidence flatters you. While the cat’s away, the mice will play. Your old trick of blotting out the sky with one hand only proves level nine has grown pitifully weak.”
Soul Devourer stopped laughing. With a snarl, hurled himself forward, dark essence swirling around like a cyclone of soot.
Both hands flew through sinister seals. From the maelstrom erupted a colossal black claw, edges jagged as shattered glass, rushing down to rend reality. The air shrieked as it tore open.
Jared and the others went bloodless, the attack radiated such dread that they knew they would have been pulped before they could even raise a defense.
Facing that nightmare talon, Fire Spirit Lord merely kept smiling, as though a child had thrown a pinecone at him.
“Parlor tricks,” said, voice light as drifting ash. He lifted one finger. At its tip blossomed a pinhead of golden fire-frail in size, yet dense with a terror no word could contain.
Boom! Golden flame met black claw in a thundercrack that rattled mountains. The monstrous talon melted like frost beneath sunrise, vanishing in a hiss of vapor
“What?” Soul Devourer’s roar fractured into stunned silence. His full-force strike had been erased as though it never existed.
“Impossible!” screamed, voice ragged. “That can’t be… This can’t be!”
Refusing the truth, dredged up deeper darkness, weaving even harsher seals. Black mist erupted from like a volcanic plume.
“Demonic Sea of Flames!” bellowed. A tidal furnace of ink-black fire surged across the battlefield, racing to swallow the smiling elder.
A hellish ocean of black fire rolled across the battlefield, so corrosive that the very fabric of space buckled and warped in its passage.
Jared and the others gaped in speechless terror. Never had they witnessed devastation on this scale. Yet the whitehaired Fire Spirit Lord merely stood there, utterly unmoved by the approaching cataclysm.
“Ah…” breathed, his tone closer to pity than anger, “You really have no idea how small you are…”
He lifted his right hand. Golden flame roared outward, instantly fusing into a towering wall of fire that met the black tide head-on.
Against that radiant barrier, the Demonic Sea of Flames hissed, shrank, and then evaporated altogether, as though it had met its natural predator.
“H-How is that possible?” someone gasped, their voice cracking with fear.
Soul Devourer stared, stupefied. The Demonic Sea of Flames was one of his signature techniques, limitless and proud, yet it had been erased as easily as morning mist.
“That little trick of yours,” the Fire Spirit Lord said, smiling almost kindly, “Is child’s play before me.”
“Lies!” Soul Devourer howled. “I am Soul Devourer, an expert in level nine! I will not lose to you!” Snarling, lunged once more. Dark demonic aura boiled around him, condensing into a colossal obsidian blade.
“Soul Devouring Demon Sword!” roared. He swung, sending the sword screaming toward the Fire Spirit Lord.
Every inch of the blade writhed with Soul Devouring Threads, each strand shrieking like a tortured spirit. Jared’s group felt their souls quail. One hit from that strike would devour body and spirit alike.
The Fire Spirit Lord merely kept smiling. Unhurried, raised a single finger. A soft pop split the air. The enormous demon sword froze against that fingertip, unable to advance so much as an inch.
