Lightning and Fire!
At the mountain pass, the Gloom Wolf Beast had leaped into the spring pool to escape the flames searing its body.
For some reason, though, the creature that dragged itself back out — drenched to the bone — looked like an entirely different beast. Its pupils, once a vivid green, had turned a deep and blazing crimson.
The Gloom Wolf Beast was a creature barely tameable even under ordinary conditions. A strong enough shock could send it spiraling into mindless frenzy.
In open combat, that berserk state could produce spectacular results. For the students trapped here right now, it would be nothing short of a death sentence.
Those crimson pupils burned with savage, undiluted malice. Fury beyond reason, the Gloom Wolf Beast locked onto Mo Fan and refused to let go — and the killing intent radiating from it crashed over him like a wave of ice.
Every muscle in Mo Fan's body locked up.
This creature was far stronger and more ferocious than any of them had imagined.
"Hou... Xiaohou!" The words came out barely above a whisper.
Zhang Xiaohou felt that murderous pressure too. He threw himself into linking his Star Trail, pushing harder than he ever had.
He had failed to form a Wind Element Star Trail before. But he had to form one now — or Mo Fan would be torn apart in the next instant.
**"Awoooo~~~~~~~~~~!"**
The Gloom Wolf Beast launched forward, all four limbs churning. A roiling cloud of dust billowed up in its wake.
That explosive burst of speed —
It went from dead stillness to a full sprint in under a second. Raw power, terrifying beyond words.
"Bro Fan!"
At the last possible instant, Zhang Xiaohou's hand shot out and seized Mo Fan's arm.
A corridor of wind tore open as Zhang Xiaohou's Star Trail blazed to life — Wind Trail: Rapid Rush. In that razor-thin window, he wrenched Mo Fan clear of the Gloom Wolf Beast's closing jaws and hurtled them both deeper into the cave.
**Clack!**
The beast's fangs snapped shut on nothing, producing a sharp, grating crack.
Missing its prey felt like an unforgivable insult to its dignity. It unleashed that terrifying burst of speed a second time and gave chase.
Inside the cave, students still lay scattered and dazed from the earlier assault. They had barely managed to push themselves upright when the Gloom Wolf Beast barreled through them — hurling bodies through the air, blood spraying across the stone.
"Run — go, move, NOW!!" Mo Fan glanced back. He could feel it plainly: the beast's speed was just a fraction beyond what Zhang Xiaohou's Wind Trail: Rapid Rush could sustain.
"I... I'm going as fast as I can!" Zhang Xiaohou was drenched in cold sweat, yet dared not falter even a step.
Wind screamed past their ears. Behind them, an enormous rampaging wolf drove forward in relentless pursuit. Mo Fan's heart hammered so hard he thought it might stop.
"Just up ahead — you keep running. I'll hold it here!" Mo Fan had finally spotted his destination. His voice left no room for doubt.
"That's not happening — I'm not leaving Bro Fan behind..."
*True colors come out when lives are on the line.*
If he survived this, Mo Fan thought, he'd actually be kind of moved by that.
The problem was whether either of them would survive at all — and that rested entirely on this godforsaken cave.
Deep in the passage, the tunnel opened into a wider cavern. The floor was a field of jagged, uneven rock formations. Above, stalactites hung from the ceiling like stone teeth.
No other students had made it this far. No other paths remained. It was, by every measure, a dead end.
Zhang Xiaohou had given everything he had — his Wind Trail had bought them both enough time to reach this point. But now the Gloom Wolf Beast had sealed off the exit and cornered them completely. There was nowhere left to run.
"Bro Fan..." Zhang Xiaohou said quietly, almost to himself. "Aren't we kind of heroic? Luring the Gloom Wolf Beast all the way back here — everyone else gets to escape..."
Mo Fan pressed his back against the cavern wall and watched the beast home in on them. He laughed and swore in the same breath. "Bullshit. I don't do that noble self-sacrifice garbage."
"Watch out!!"
The words had barely left his mouth when a blast erupted from the Gloom Wolf Beast's maw — a storm of flying debris that swept up every jagged fragment of rock in the cavern and drove them like a battering wave at the two of them.
Zhang Xiaohou had the Wind Element's edge in reflexes.
He had meant to dodge. Then it hit him: Mo Fan had no chance of moving as quickly as he could.
He gritted his teeth — and shoved Mo Fan hard, sending him tumbling behind a tall boulder.
For himself, there was no time left. In an instant, the razor-edged stones tore through him — wound after wound punched open across his body, each blazing red.
"You beast — if anything happens to Xiaohou, I swear I'll grind you into paste!!" Mo Fan's roar ripped through the cavern.
There was no time to check on Zhang Xiaohou's condition. As the Gloom Wolf Beast paused in the wake of its own breath attack, Mo Fan snapped his eyes shut.
When they opened again, his pupils blazed with dense, crackling violet lightning.
Eyes sharp as lightning. Hair burning like fire.
Star Mote after Star Mote lit up within Mo Fan's gaze. Sensing their master's fury — deeper than anything they had felt before — the radiant violet motes moved with a perfect, electric unity, linking in rapid succession into a blazing violet Star Trail that shone like a beacon in the pitch darkness of the cavern.
At the center of the Star Trail, Mo Fan stood.
"Lightning Seal: Serpent Mark!!"
The words rang out. Lightning seal-marks erupted into existence around Mo Fan and above him — coiling, writhing, vast as pythons — the physical form of every thunderbolt of rage within him given shape.
He raised his palm and clenched his fist. Lightning crackled between his fingers, spilling from his grip in jagged arcs.
Answering his command, Lightning Seal: Serpent Mark became a storm of crackling lightning warriors — striking, coiling, lashing in relentless succession!
One after another, the seal-marks hammered into the Gloom Wolf Beast — numbing shocks tearing through its muscles, ripping its hide and flesh apart!!
**"Awuuuuuu~~~~~~~~~~!"**
Lightning Seal hit harder than Fire Burst: Scorch by a clear margin — and right now, it was the only technique with the raw force to actually wound the Gloom Wolf Beast.
The creature's fur had been scorched to blackened ruin. Dark blood poured in torrents from the shredded muscle and flesh beneath.
Even writhing in agony, even paralyzed by the numbing current and unable to move, those crimson eyes never wavered from Mo Fan.
That was killing intent. Pure. Undiluted.
This berserk Summoned Beast had crossed a threshold from which there was no coming back — it had become a Demon-Beast in everything but its origin. Its eyes held nothing but the drive to kill and a contempt for life that went all the way down.
"Fire Burst: Char Bone!"
Mo Fan linked his Star Motes again. This time, his pupils shifted from violet to a blazing, burning crimson.
The Fire Element Star Motes flared in his gaze and snapped together in rapid succession, forming a Star Trail that channeled a surge of magical energy into Mo Fan's body.
Staring into those crimson eyes, Mo Fan felt not a shred of fear. Only fury. Only iron resolve.
But in the beast's gaze, something flickered. Contempt — for this pathetically weak human. *Another round? What good will it do? Char Bone won't kill me outright. The instant this paralysis lifts, I'll bite you clean in half.*
Char Bone — agonizing as it was, the Gloom Wolf Beast could endure another round of that internal burning.
Neither Lightning Seal: Serpent Mark nor Fire Burst: Char Bone was enough to kill it. The outcome was therefore certain: this human would end up as food.
"You filthy animal..." Mo Fan could feel the contempt pouring from those eyes like heat from an open flame.
"Let's see who ends up dead!!" he roared — and the Fire Element Star Motes blazed into a mass of searing, white-hot fire, coalescing in the palm of his hand.