Chapter 245: Liquid Fire (1/2)

As the monster's teeth tried to bite his arm away, Arthur hurried to use his barrier. The barrier clashed with the monster's teeth, stalling it long enough for Arthur to pull back.

The crocodile bit down on empty air and looked at Arthur with hateful eyes. Its eyes began to lose focus as it slumped down, breathing heavily.

Before Arthur could sense its life fade away, a giant tree branch attacked him like a spear. He jumped upward before it reached him and began running on top of the branch.

The giant tree's movements were unpredictable but Ruki worked to hinder it. Sadly, her stats were only half of Arthur's stats, making her unable to fight on her own against the tree.

A branch whipped his way but Arthur did a front flip, avoiding it without losing momentum. He kept running on the tree's branch as his arms were engulfed in flames.

Three branches attacked him from every direction. Arthur stopped using his fire rune and teleported far above the tree. As he rapidly descended toward the tree, it didn't hesitate to attack with every branch and root it can.

Arthur could see that spikes were growing on the tree's surface, threateningly dripping with a dark green liquid. He clapped his hands and flames exploded around him. His body burned brightly like a meteor as Arthur pushed his mana toward his fire rune.

The air stretched under the effect of his flames making it harder to breathe. However, this was nothing to a superhuman. The countless branches attacked him as he threw his hands forward, creating a giant pillar of fire with him in the center.

The pillar of fire descended on the tree as the countless branches began burning, but kept attacking Arthur.

”Let's see who outlasts the other, Monster!” Arthur laughed as the fire condensed until it seemed like liquid lava. He wielded the pillar of flame and it burned the tree to embers.

[New Rune has been obtained: Liquid-Fire.]

[Liquid-Fire: A new rune was obtained due to the flexible usage of the fire rune. Combines the flexibility of liquid and the destructiveness of fire.]

As soon as this message appeared, his fire changed from its free plasma state into a liquid of destruction that cut apart anything that came in its way.

Without hesitation, Arthur spread his ten fingers. The fire gathered around them in threads of liquid fire that swayed like whips. As he fell downward, he brought his hands together and the ten fire whips intersected and attacked the monster, cutting it to pieces while leaving scorched marks on its body.

Arthur landed on the ground and rolled as the flames surrounded his body. He came to a stop and began gathering his breath. He heard the tiger issue its last roar as another message appeared in front of him.

[You have leveled up.]

As he looked at the purple sky, caused by Lilo's barrier, Arthur tried to replenish his mana. All of the weaker monsters have escaped the moment the battle commenced.

'Are you okay, Master?' Lilo's head appeared in front of him upside down. Its giant eyes blinked at Arthur who simply smiled and patted its head.

”Well done, Lilo.”

'Hehe.'

Arthur stood up and looked at the destruction they had caused. Dismembered body parts, roasted crocodile, and a headless tiger. Arthur stood up and used his absorb rune.

[Strength has increased by 3.]

[Agility has increased by 3.]

[Stamina has increased by 3.]

Each of the three monsters gave him three stats. With everything now peaceful and quiet, Arthur headed toward the tree Jaran drew something on.

Unlike a few hours ago, Arthur didn't feel any magical property to the shape drawn on the tree. He frowned and took out his phone and snapped a photo.

'I need to find what this symbol means,' Arthur looked at the circle with five slashes on its circumference and frowned. 'But where do I look?'

”Beep!”

His phone rang and Arthur opened it to find Jonah calling him. As soon as he did, Jonah's anxious voice came from the other end.

”Alexie! Arlo has met with your clone! You need to get back now!”

”Where are they?”

”I'll send you the approximate location, but make sure no one sees you when the two of you swap.”

”I have a way,” Arthur closed the line and saw the location. It was three kilometers in the direction Arlo and the rest ran in.

He used his teleport rune and appeared above the tree near the location. As he looked around, he saw the two groups standing against each other with Arlo grabbing his sword.

”This is against the rules, Arlo,” Alice warned. ”Don't expect we won't retaliate.”

”There was no rule about snatching cores,” Arlo sneered as he glared at Arthur's clone. ”You didn't seem to mind such tricks yesterday.”

”Don't be petty.”

”You two, get the girl and the guy. I'll take Alice. As for you, Ellen,” Arlo grinned. ”You'll take on that bastard.” His sword pointed at Arthur's clone.

Arthur sighed inwardly as he looked down on them. These people will always have an egotistical personality, thinking anyone that stands up to them was an enemy. It was a competition; he didn't understand why Arlo took it so personally.

”This is against the rules.” Ellen frowned. ”I'm not going to participate in it.”

”I'm your leader,” Arlo said coldly. ”If you don't follow my orders, I can report you.”

As they were talking, the forest suddenly was filled with smoke. In the Runes Apprentices Competition, Arthur bought a simple artifact that produced smoke. He gave it to Ruki so that she would use it to create a smokescreen.

As for Lilo, Arthur asked him to cause a disturbance. Hearing the roars of the monsters, the two teams braced themselves and unsheathed their weapons.

Using the moment of distraction, Arthur teleported next to his clone and patted it. His clone looked at him and handed him the bracelet before disappearing.