The Messenger of Death

Bam!!

Al could feel his wrist go numb after hitting the Prince's hand. Although his blow sent the Prince flying for a few meters, Al felt as if he had just hit a rock.

['Is fucker's bones made of stone or what?'] Al flexed the hand that he used to punch the Prince.

Taking 12 steps back, the Prince was finally able to stabilize himself. He glanced at Al with his eyebrows raised, unable to believe that Al had reached his level in just a single day since he saw him last.

"How is this possible?" He muttered. 'Did he cheat?' He wondered.

One had to take note that the Prince also had his fruitful encounters in the forest and had the chance to permanently increase his cultivation base, raising it to the Earth Cultivation realm. Unaware that Al had a Midas petal with him, the Prince found it hard to comprehend how Al could catch up with him with all the bad Karma he had accumulated.

While the Prince was still trying to understand how Al had reached this point, Al circulated his blood QI, causing his fire bloodline abilities to activate. Guiding the overwhelming energy coming from his blood QI to his forehead, his hair began changing, turning into hair that looked as if it was made of fire. His eyebrows went through a similar transformation.

The temperature within a few radii spiked due to Al's transformation.

"Filthy!" The Prince shouted as he too circulated his blood QI, making a similar transformation to that of Al's.

The two of them charged, turning into yellow streaks of light that collided in the next second.

-Bang!!

The Prince threw a kicked at Al and Al reciprocated with another blow, each carrying almost equal strength. However, the Prince could tell that Al's strength was somehow stronger than his.

Unbeknownst to the Prince, Al regulated his strength to match that of his. While the two of them had activated their bloodline abilities, the Prince's bloodline is only a Class-1 type that can increase his cultivation by 5 ranks, while Al's own could go up to 7 ranks.

If one checked, they would see that Al and the Prince's cultivation had shot up to the sixth rank of the Earth realm.

Ignoring this feeling of being overpowered, the Prince opened his mouth and breathed out.

-Kiiee!!

The screeching cry of a Phoenix exploded out of the Prince's mouth, bringing along a terrifying line of fire. This line of fire was as thick as a spear.

Feeling threatened by this, Al dodged to the side as fast he could and put a bit of space between him and the Prince. Al felt as if he had nearly lost his head.

The line of fire that came out of the Prince's mouth pierced through the ground, digging deep into the earth.

"You can do that!?" Al blurted out. He had never thought of doing anything like that.

['Now that I think about it, aren't Dragons able to breathe out fire?'] Alex mentioned.

['Say no more,'] Al stated as excitement sent chills downs his body.

Al wasn't the battle-crazy type, but when he gets excited in a fight he becomes something else.

Imitating the prince, Al took in a deep breath and when he exhaled from his mouth, an unintentional instinctual roar escaped his mouth, bringing along a terrifying cloud of fire that shot at the Prince, eliminating everything in its part.

Seeing this terrifying cloud of fire heading for him, The Prince had to dive to the side to escape. When he landed, he fell to his side. He felt shame wash through him as his attack didn't make Al fall on the dirt, in anger, he charged at Al.

"Hahaha!! Show me something new!" Al mentioned mockingly.

-Bam! Bam! Boom!!

The two of them threw fists covered in flames at each other, causing heat waves that roasted the trees around them, setting anything flammable on fire. This made the rest that was around scurry away in fear of being caught in the waves of frightening heat. Only Milo and the Young man that came along with the Prince were still around, the two of them could ignore the heat waves.

Both Al and the Prince were feeling some level of hurt from the flames they were both emitting. Draconic flames that devoured whatever was in its part and the Nirvanic flames of a Phoenix that could bring about rebirth. These were the nature of the two flames, the destructive draconic flame that was coming from Al was corrosive to the Prince, while the nirvanic flame was acid-like to Al.

Each exchange that carried their flames caused harm to the other.

In exhaustion, after being hit so many times by flames that were harmful to the two of them, they jumped back and put some distance between themselves.

The Prince's body had some molten-colored spots that seemed to increase in size as time went by. This was Al's flames causing harm to the Prince. It was as if the destructive flames from Al were seeping into his bones, trying to melt his insides.

And over at Al's side, his skin had burnt off in many places that had been hit by the Prince's flames, revealing the flesh underneath his skin.

"Arrgh!" The Prince cried out and his whole body was covered in flames. This flame of his countered the effects of Al's flames that had seeped into his body, canceling their destructive nature and healing his body rapidly.

['We can do that too!?'] Al wondered.

Al saw this and he did the same, setting his whole body on fire, countering the effects of the flames from the Prince. Al also began healing rapidly, albeit slower than that of the Prince's speed of healing.

This was to be expected, after all, the Phoenix flames have healing properties.

After the two of them were done healing, they glared at their selves, no one making a move yet. After exchanging a few blows, the two of them had come to understand that close combat wasn't as easy as either thought it would be.

Al suddenly opened his palm and a condensed ball of fire hovered over his palm and soon broke off into little specks of light.

'Sunset, Fireflies.' Al said to himself.

The Prince was on guard when saw this, he conjured two whips of flames on each hand and quickly began brandishing them at the specks of light.

-Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several consecutive explosions occurred the moment the whips hit the specks of light that originated from Al's fireball. The whole forest around 20 kilometers had been affected by this explosion and had been reduced to ashes.

Blinding lights from the explosions made it hard for people that were watching the battle from a distance to see what was happening. To them, it was like trying to stare at the sun.

Al waved his hands, subsequently conjuring 8 halos of fire. Pushing his hand forward these halos headed for the Prince from different angels.

Sensing the danger coming from the halos, the Prince knew that his whips couldn't protect him from what was coming, so he quickly left where he was. Immediately he did so, a pillar of fire burst out from one of the halos and hit the spot where he was.

The pillar dug into the earth, creating a deep ditch on the ground.

Appearing in another spot, the Prince saw that 7 of the halos had followed him along. "Despicable!!" The Prince screamed out as he immediately covered his body in flames and crossed his arms, entering a defensive stance.

-Booomm!!

The 7 halos shot pillars of flames at the Prince at the same time, with each pillar hitting its target and burying the Prince in a deep ditch.

When these pillars dissipated, silence filled the forest. Al was waiting to see the Prince emerge from the ditch, but nothing happened.

"Hmph, I guess he was just all talk." Al sneered while watching the ditch from afar.

He didn't know that the Prince was taking his time to heal in the ditch. Those pillars of flames had burnt most of his skin and turned his whole body red. He couldn't even bleed from the impact because the flames from the pillars evaporated his blood.

When half of his injuries had healed, the Prince opened his mouth and the cry of a phoenix echoed out from the ditch.

Hearing this cry, Al was on high alert, as he kept on looking at the ditch, waiting for the line of fire to come out of there.

However, contrary to his expectations, the line of fire didn't come from above the ditch, rather, from below.

The earth beneath Al parted and the line of fire appeared below him, heading for his head. Al, still looking at the ditch, placed a palm in front of the line of fire and quickly moved his head to the side.

The line of fire penetrated through Al's palm, making a large hole in his Palm and almost hitting his head. It would have done so if Al didn't move his head in time, and he was able to do this because of the heightened senses that his bloodline brought along the moment he activated it.

Al's palm trembled in pain, but he didn't have time to think about it when he felt something dangerous heading for him again. He looked above and saw that the Prince had arrived over his head.

"Die!!" The Prince roared out as he shot towards the ground in front of Al.

"Shiitt!!"

-Boom!!

Al didn't have enough time to get himself when an explosion came from the Prince's descent. The explosion shook his internal organs as it sent him flying…