( Day 32 )
Max was finally only one level away from reaching the maximum level limit for his tier which was a testament to his growth rate which far exceeded even Angakok's wildest expectations.
A part of it was because of Mira who contributed 6 levels in total, but a major part of it was because Max had become very proficient in hunting the monsters of pit of fire and could hunt many more than he could in his first week here.
Having learnt Firebending, his attacks were now way more versatile than before aiming precisely at the weak spots in the enemy's defences, making 2 out of 3 hits a critical hit for him.
Instead of completing his levelling goal today, Max had decided to take his chances at hunting a phoenix and had been tracking one's trail silently.
It was a daunting task for him to track the phoenix and try and hunt it considering that all 3 phoenix's on the planet were pretty much at the top of tier5.
But having already fought a dragon god once and succeeding, Max had more confidence in his abilities while fighting creatures above his tier.
Even if worse came to worst and he did fail, Angakok would bail him out and deduct 5 days from his goal which would still leave him with 3 days to complete his levelling goal before the 40 day threshold that the god has set for him.
He stalker the phoenix for 3 hours, maintaining a respectable distance of 1.5 km between himself and the bird until he got the opportunity to close down the distance after the phoenix killed a lava hound and was chomping down on the flesh of its prey.
Max darted through the shadows of the boulders in the Pit Of Fire, his vampiric senses on high alert as he closed down the distance and came within 50 metres of where the bird was feeding.
He was prepared to launch a compressed Inferno spell and take the phoenix by surprise when suddenly, a gust of hot wind hit him in the face.
He turned just in time to see a brilliant flash of feathers and fire as another phoenix swooped towards him.
Max's reflexes kicked in, and he dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the bird's talons.
[ Nirvana Phoenix ] ( Tier 5 ) - The beasts with the supreme control over the element of fire.
The never dying, reincarnating phoenix.
Max had stalked the 3 phoenix's time and time again but had never realised that two of the three were actually brothers sharing the same nest and was extremely unfortunate to have been ambushed while he was planning to take on one of the two unassuming brothers.
Angry, the phoenix that was initially chomping on the dead carcass of the lava hound took to the skies and unleashed a [ Flamethrower ] towards Max who retaliated with the compressed [ Inferno ] spell he had prepared which neutralised the incoming attack easily before blasting the phoenix with its power.
The bird shook off the flames as if it were nothing as not a single HP point had reduced from its health bar making Max realise that it shared the same immunity from fire attacks as him.
The first Phoenix brother which has discovered Max's ambush continued its assault on Max by diving and clawing at Max with an ugly tenacity as at the speed it was diving in, it was most likely crash into Max and then into the ground beneath because of the momentum it was going at.
Max used [ Fake Out ] and made it seem like he was going to cast a fireball at the incoming phoenix before suddenly circling around the boulder he was taking cover against and making a run for his life.
Max understood that while being double teamed by two phoenix brothers he stood little to no chance of victory, but while he was fast the phoenix's were much faster.
The force at which the phoenix's flapped their wings was like a hurricane, and their manoeuvrability mid-air defied all laws of astro-physics he was familiar with, as they twisted and turned and changed directions without losing the slightest bit of momentum.
' The phoenix's superheated the air around them, boy, effectively reducing air-resistance around their bodies to 0 which allows them to make such manoeuvres.
It's the same technique that Fire God Agni used to break past his speed limit and go beyond what was physically possible in an environment where air-resistance was a factor' Drax said in Max's mind as he provided Max with an explanation for the absurd speed of the birds.
Max had never faced an opponent like this before. He tried to stay one step ahead, but the phoenix pair was always right on his tail.
They danced around each other, neither side able to gain the upper hand as while the beasts were faster and capable of hurling destructive fire-spells on Max. None of those spells were able to deal a single point of damage to Max either as the phoenix's soon realised that the opponent they were facing needed to be dealt with physical damage only and was immune to flames just like they were.
Soon, they started to swoop in and grab him by their sharp talons, but Max was able to evade them using his [ Way Of The Wind ] senses.
After this gruelling match of dodgeball went on for 10 minutes, Max began getting frustrated. He was used to being the predator, not the prey and running pointlessly like this was completely unlike his usual style.
He thought about summoning his melee reinforcements to find an opening through numbers, but the sheer attack power of the phoenix's meant that even if he did summon them, they would become a charred corpse within seconds and would not provide any meaningful help in this fight.
On the other hand Max also wanted to use his attack spells that were not fire-based to try and deal damage but the phoenix's were flying so fast in the skies that it was impossible for him to lock-onto their location and accurately direct a spell under such circumstances.
The only option left for him was to try and out-wrestle the beasts which was precisely what he did when one of them attacked him.
With a fierce growl, Max lunged forward, trying to grab the phoenix by its neck after it swooped in to grab Max in its talons.
The bird was literally on fire and it's body felt like a pot of boiling water, but despite the physical discomfort that Max was feeling he clinged onto the beasts neck which was terrified from this experience of a creature hanging by its neck and not burning to a crisp.
Nobody had ever managed to touch the phoenix and live to tell the tale as even as a newborn, the flames on its body were powerful enough to deter every beast except its own kind which could touch it without taking damage.
Today however, an unknown vampire which was neither it's master nor a member of the phoenix clan managed to touch it and not die from the experience.
After hanging onto the beasts neck, Max tried to mobilise his mana and conjure a [ Thunderblast ] but for some odd reason he was not able to mobilise his mana to conjure any spell whatsoever while hanging onto the phoenix's neck.
' What's going on grandpa Drax? ' Max questioned as he tried to withdraw his sword but once again failed to access his own inventory.
' It's the bloodline magic of the Nirvana Phoenix, it's called Magic Cancellation.
Anything that comes into contact with its body can no longer cast any magic ' Drax explained as Max's frustration reached a boiling point hearing that the beast had such a broken ability.
The phoenix tried to shake Max off, taking a vertical flight and shooting straight towards the upper atmosphere like a rocket as Max desperately hanged on for dear life.
With no other means to attack and the phoenix's brother harassing him non-stop as the three of them ascended thousands of metres in the air, Max chose to use the only weapon in his arsenal that the bird could not negate as he bared his fangs and plunged them straight into the birds neck.
