B-rank Dungeon, Lava-Lake
Above the half-destroyed volcano.
A huge dragon made of pure blue flames could be seen rushing toward a demon brimming with an evil aura around him. This scene is so eye-catching that anyone looking at the sky can see that huge dragon from the corner of the dungeon's space all the way in the center.
The mana of the whole dungeon was slowly concentrating on the central area, where two S-rankers were about to collide their attacks.
Durik looked at the huge dragon with killing intent and rushed at it with his Great-sword which was covered by a layer of blood-like aura from Durik. Also, the silver moon he pulled out was enhancing his stats by a huge margin.
In just a fraction of a second Durik and the huge fire, dragon collided with each other. Durik tried to destroy the core of this magic by targeting all his power but he failed to even reach close to it.
The huge fire dragon was cut in half by Durik's previous strike but it instantly recovered and rushed forwards unceasingly. Eventually, it engulfed Durik in those intense flames, which were actually hotter than the flames on the surface of the Sun itself.
The flames collided with the volcano below and destroyed the rest half of the volcano creating a huge crater in the place of the volcano. Slowly the flames diminished and Durik could be seen lying unconscious in the middle of the huge crater.
'That was actually very close, I have spent seventy percent of mana already. That spell was strong but cost too much mana, after all, I had to keep it controlled so that the damage doesn't reach the students too.' (Anna)
(There's a huge myth that it takes huge amounts of mana to use a master rank spell, this is actually not right. The huge amount of mana is used because it is very difficult to control and making it very more controllable like Anna did would cost extra mana. The main attack of the flames takes only a little more mana than the advanced rank spells.)
'But at least, this guy has fainted now, I just need to evacuate the students out of this place….' (Anna)
Just as Anna was about to go and Look for the students, her senses told her of incoming danger, she immediately dodged the attack, yet she got a small cut on her shoulder, making her hand bleed.
"Hahaha, how does it feel to bleed! Tell me! Doesn't it feel exciting!!..." (Durik)
Anna looked at Durik whose wing has been destroyed and the other one have several holes in it. His face is also half burnt and his left hand seems to be missing.
'It seems he sacrificed his left hand to recover… he must have used the 'forbidden demon art: Sacrifice' … this is troublesome, why is he going so far, he is really hell-bent on killing me… fine I will give you a fast death…' (Anna)
Looking at Durik smiling in madness, Anna's face turned cold. She pointed her wand towards her left hand:
[Advance Rank Fire magic: Divine flames of healing!]
After covering her Left arm with the flames of healing Anna, pointed her wand toward Durik:
[Master rank Fire magic: Unquenchable flames of Phoenix!]
A huge magic circle covering the whole central area of the dungeon appeared in the sky. The circle lit up brightly with concentrated magic shining like gems. Suddenly a phoenix flew out of the magic circle it circled around Anna twice and then instantly launched towards Durik who was preparing his attack.
"I won't fall for it twice!" (Durik)
[Forbidden demon art: sacrifice, Life Essence: increase speed!]
(Every forbidden demon art contains the name of the particular art like 'sacrifice' in this case, the thing that is sacrificed to gain like 'life essence' in this case, and lastly the thing gained from the sacrifice like 'increased speed' in this case. The downside of these things is that you sacrifice too much and gain less.)
Durik's speed increased tremendously by sacrificing his life essence of thirty years on this single spell. For any ordinary person sacrificing thirty years of his life might be a huge problem but for an S-ranker who can live for five hundred to eight-hundred years easily, this is nothing to worry about. Not to mention Demons can live longer compared to humans.
Durik avoided the phoenix's attack trajectory instantly by using his enhanced speed, he then rushed towards Anna.
'Humph, you think a master rank spell can be avoided by just simply dodging, how idiotic… it seems you have never fought an S-rank fire mage before…' (Anna)
The phoenix changed its direction immediately and rather than decreasing, its speed increased instead. The phoenix flapped its wing and rushed towards Durik, making Durik try to avoid it once again.
Durik continuously dodged the phoenix with his enhanced speed several times but the phoenix adjusted its direction each time and became even faster every time he dodged.
Eventually, after dodging the phoenix about a hundred times and failing to attack Anna, three-hundred times, the phoenix finally caught up to Durik and the unquenchable flames touched Durik's body. (All this happened in just three seconds.)
The very moment the unquenchable flames touched Durik's body, his whole body started to feel extreme pain from the flames, this is no mere body pain this pain generates from the soul itself. The immense pain from the burning of his soul made Durik scream at the top of his lungs.
(Unquenchable flames- The flames that once touch a living being can burn the soul of the individual continuously until the whole soul is extinguished from existence. Also, when the soul is burned, the victim feels extreme pain all over his body, which is even worse than torture. Additionally, these flames purposely burn slowly thus making the victim feel pain for a long time.)
Looking at Durik howling in pain, Anna had only one thought:
'Every time I use this spell it always ends up like this, I didn't want to use this one, but only this spell costs less mana to control and still do immense damage. Of course, this spell is not invincible… after all, Jin easily destroys this spell with a single swipe of his sword…. Sigh~' (Anna)
Just as Anna was thinking that everything was finally coming to an end. Durik successfully extinguished the flames.
[Forbidden demon art: Sacrifice, Life Essence: soul strengthening!]
By sacrificing hundred years of his life, Durik finally extinguished the flames by strengthening his soul temporarily. This was actually a very idiotic move. It's like drinking poison to quench your thirst.
"Annaaaa!! It seems you are indeed the most talented fire mage of this millennia! But…. Everyone has a weakness you certainly also have a weakness too!…" (Durik)
An angry expression appeared on Durik's face, he pointed his great sword toward the sky and used the forbidden demon art once again:
[Forbidden demon art: Sacrifice, Soul: enhanced Self-destruction!]
A substantial red-colored magic circle appeared all around Durik, this magic circle was so huge that it covered the whole dungeon. The immense aura of this demon art caused the whole B-rank dungeon to become unstable, several spatial cracks started to appear in the dungeon.
A B-rank dungeon can't handle the self-destruction of an S-ranker. Not to mention, the self-destruction alone is powerful, Durik has already enhanced it with forbidden demon art.
"Damn! I didn't expect that this guy would be so desperate that he will literally self-destruct himself, I must stop him if he self-destructs here, not only will he kill all the students he will also cause a fatal injury to me as well…" (Anna)
'I can't let any more students die, I have already been unable to save many of the students earlier, but now I must not let the top students of the academy get killed that will make the future of humanity bleak. All these talented children must survive at all cost.' (Anna)
A serious and determined expression appeared on Anna's face, she pointed her wand toward the huge magic spell Durik has created:
"I just have to destroy the core of this magic…. This is gonna cost a huge amount of mana, but I must do it!..." (Anna)
[Magic interference!]
(Magic interference is a non-ranked spell, it can be used to dismantle magic circle of any rank, the only conditions are that the caster must be of the same or higher rank than the spell also it needs a monstrous level of mana control and mental strength to exactly attack the core of magic.)
Using nearly all of the leftover mana Anna had, she finally diffused the self-destruct spell before it could have blasted all the students to their untimely death. But...
"As I said… everyone has weaknesses…. Your weakness is that you care about those students!" (Durik)
Durik pointed out Anna's weakness as he stabbed his great sword into Anna's heart…
.
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Author's Note
I have been stuck in my internal debate on whether should I end Anna or not? But my thoughts have been in chaos for several days, I still am unable to decide what to do about this, so I leave this choice to you guys.
Question of the day
Should we end Anna's character here?
Make your choice guys:
1. Yes (Only a teacher's death can make the students grow…)
2. Yeah (It is a hard decision, but we have to do this, for the sake of the plot…)
3. Okay (Just do it, we want a tragic story!)
Hidden option:
4. Reader's authority. (Post an interesting comment and save the life of Anna.)
(By the way, the author is not a bad person, he is just hella bored.)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.