[2250 GTs chapter bonus]
Sylas' eyes narrowed. This creature was simply far too powerful. The only saving grace was that it was quite slow all things considered. But given its other stats, did it matter?
Could they even break its defenses with Constitution that powerful? And with Intelligence that high, how powerful were its Skills?
The snail was unlike any Sylas had ever seen before. Its shell made it two meters tall, and it reflected with a ruby light. Its body was a transparent red that radiated with a silver-blue hue from within that could have only been its Aether.
Right now, it wasn't doing anything. Yet Sylas felt clear spikes of danger every time he thought of acting himself.
'Is it controlling those beasts?'
Sylas had hardly thought the question before he suddenly found a horde rushing toward him. He still couldn't confirm with 100% certainty, but it was hard to believe that they'd be so coordinated otherwise.
Creatures that looked not much different from the Flaming Hound of the Dungeon he had just left. Their palms burst with flames as they raced across the lava, their tongues swinging about wildly as though he was their next meal.
Three of them were bounding toward Sylas with a great amount of Speed.
Several thoughts ran through Sylas' mind at once. His top priority was obviously to leave this place, but he was entirely alone. There were certainly more government officials outside, and even if they hadn't noticed that he had the disk, they wouldn't let him leave regardless.
If he ended this battle too quickly, not only would he expose the true extent of his strength to them, but the snail might focus more on him as well.
But if he didn't end it quickly enough, he would end up wasting a lot of strength meaninglessly. He wasn't skilled in combat to the point that he could afford to extend the battle on purpose without facing any consequences.
This was what Sylas wanted to do. If he was fast enough, he could enter the portal first and then take things from there.
But then he thought of another problem: the lava.
If his experience had taught him anything, he was absolutely terrible at running on lava. Though he had improved in the last day, it wasn't nearly enough.
Comparatively speaking, these fire hounds were clearly comfortable. Even if his Speed was greater than theirs, his Effective Speed in this environment was likely even lower. He couldn't let them get close.
Sylas vaguely noticed that his thoughts were running faster before he placed the disk in the Madness Key and then pulled out his kunai.
He spotted the nearest island and rushed toward it.
'My steps are smoother.'
His gaze sharpened. He could only deduce that it was related to Voice of a King. His Speed still wasn't as fast as it was on land, but it was still more than 90% of the way there now.
It was enough to outpace the hounds.
With a leap, he landed on the solid ground and spun around, scanning the region.
As expected, without the odd mirror world trapping him, everything made much more sense.
They were in the middle of a volcano. High above, there was a hole to the skies. The volcano itself was enormous, being what must have been at least five kilometers in diameter.
From the hole above, some creatures could be seen curiously peeking in. But many who couldn't handle the heat left.
The sound of the hounds reaching the island reached his ears, and Sylas' gaze turned to face them.
Three fireballs suddenly shot in his direction, but he swiftly dodged them.
The Skills rebounded against the ground, beginning to spread around as the hounds lunged toward him.
'The portal is still about half a kilometer from me. The snail is about 200 meters from me, and the trio of government agents is securing the perimeter around the portal. It's way too difficult for me to make it this far .'
His kunai zipped through the air, attacking the paw of a hound that was just about to leap at him. He repeated the same action for a second, stalling the jumps of two.
The third flashed its teeth, lunging itself through the air and biting at his throat with flames nipping at its lips.
Sylas coldly stared it down, executing a sharp punch to its face.
His fist collided perfectly. He could feel that the skull of the hound would have ruptured if he hadn't held back somewhat.
It fell to the ground, and he kicked it away, sending it back into the lava before bearing down on the other two.
Using a combination of distraction with his kunai and his personal Physical, he overwhelmed the hounds.
They came again and again, even as they were beaten, but the situation was only becoming worse.
As more creatures descended into the volcano, seemingly pulled in by the Aether of the portal, the snail seemed to only be gaining more and more troops.
'It must have only come recently. If not for this, the portal would have been overwhelmed long ago. Either that, or the government would have sent more powerful warriors too. These three can't be all they have.'
Sylas took a breath, making a decision.
He couldn't continue to sit here, wasting time in hopes that the situation would change.
If he was correct and the snail had only appeared recently, this likely also meant that the trio of government agents had called for help and much more powerful backup was on its way.
At that point, how would he even have the chance to survive?
'I have to go all out…'
Sylas took a breath and closed his eyes as he blasted the hounds away once more.
When he opened his eyes again, they had turned a blinding shade of gold, and his pupils had become slits.
His skin bristled and goosebumps raised across his body.
'The Fusion will take two and a half minutes to complete and will last 30 seconds once it does. Nothing left but to push it to the limits.'
Sylas burst into action as Madness bloomed.