Alex heard the robotic voice inside his head and stood up from the crater and dusted his armour which had been stained with soil.
"I just wanted to experience how it feels being dominated and overpowered. After all, it is not a hard and fast rule that I will always have an overwhelming victory. Moreover, I wanted to fight properly using techniques instead of using power moves."Alex spoke with an amusing smile.
[Host, I don't know what goes on in your head every day but please take it seriously otherwise you are going to be killed for real. This battle is too difficult for the current you and your carelessness is going to be costly.]
"Stop your nagging, I want to try something and see if this is worth the risk."
"I guess it all ends here, "Alex spoke with a deep sigh.
The moment Alex finished his words, Heron had already appeared before Alex and punched forward with strong momentum.
A punch whistling in the air carrying a terrific momentum hit Alex's chest.
Strangely, even though Alex was hit by Heron's strong force he wasn't blown away rather he just stumbled back a few steps.
" This!!!"Heron's eyes widened with horror as he felt a terrifying dreary sensation tingling from his back
Heron's senses heightened and raising his hands, he twirled his finger followed by his fiery energy started to condense around Alex.
As Alex was pushed back a few steps, flames encircled him from all around and wrapped him in a horrifying temperature.
The surrounding temperature rose greatly and everything around Alex started to burn while emitting black smoke.
The entire area was shined with a yellowish orange glow with black smoke covering the middle and Alex's eyesight was entirely covered with pitch dark.
The fire circled him and wrapped him up from inside, he could hear the sizzling sound of his skin and armour burning in fire.
Yet, the physical pain was the second while his willpower to resist made his soul tremble.
Alex didn't cast a healing spell but rather let the flames wrap him up and he took the blow head on and the armour started to glow emitting a faint reddish colour.
Sweat trickled down from Alex's body which instantly vaporized by heated armour.
Even though he had great tenacity and persistence, the intense pain coming from the scorching flames started to become unbearable and Alex felt his consciousness becoming blurry.
He could hear the sound of the system screaming in his head and cursing him about what the hell he was doing.
Alex bit his teeth while muttering to himself"I have to bear the pain, if I lose this chance, I am sure that it's gonna take a while."
Heron who stared at Alex suddenly sensed danger and had a bad premonition about it, his gut feeling was telling him to finish off the things quickly otherwise something bad might happen.
Alex, who was on his knees, suddenly stood up and his breathing seemed to cease for a moment while a white light was faintly growing out from his body which bound around him and started to form a cocoon.
Heron's eyeball contracted and he was frightened to see white light coming from Alex's body which started to shine brighter.
Heron raised his scythe and wrapped it in fiery hot energies which intertwined on his blade.
Channelizing strength into his legs, he propelled his body forward with a heavy stomp and leapt toward Alex with a frightening momentum and slashed the fiery scythe at Alex.
The ground cracked as he took a step forward, and a deep imprint of his foot was left behind which burnt the upper layer of the soil.
The fire on his scythe burst forth like a torrent and a pillar of flames appeared from his body.
The outburst of the energies suddenly ceased and red flames started shrinking back and the energies as hot as magma started to condense on the tip of his scythe and which hacked towards Alex carrying a huge momentum.
But before the tip of the blades could touch the white light that was emitting from the cocoon, the cocoon broke at a point and a hand emerged from it and held the tip of the scythe with the bare hand.
BOOOOOOOM!
A small explosion took place and flames which had been condensed on the blades, exploded outward lighting up the whole area.
The small sphere of flames started to enlarge and burst out radially, burning down everything in its path.
In the nick of time, the whole area was detonated with a terrifying noise and a deep crater covering a huge area appeared on the ground.
The crater was glowing with a reddish tint as the rocks and soils had heated up by a high margin to become lava but what was shocking for Heron was that the power of the flame had been completely nullified and disappeared.
Heron looked at the hand holding the tip of the scythe, a reddish layer of aura covered the knuckles while the gauntlet and shoulder blades of the arm had been broken and blown away by the impact while the body was still gleaming fiercely.
The white light dispersed suddenly and a crimson glow took its place.
The bursting crimson rays coming out from the body didn't disappear, rather they continued to expand. It continued for nearly 10 metres long while wrapping Alex's body with a crimson hue completely.
The crimson glow started to widen carrying a terrifying breath and with the glow as the centre, the surrounding ground shattered while the soil and rocks were devastated as if it was an explosion caused by a fallen meteorite.
Heron almost thought that he was hallucinating to feel mighty pressure dropping on him from the opponent.
The madly shining bright light gradually converged back to the body as its centre.
The glow on Alex's body finally subsided leaving a reddish flash in his eyes as he appeared out of the cocoon which burst into countless reddish light particles and dispersed into the air.
Alex appeared from the glow with a large grin on his face as he looked at Heron's shocked expression.
Seeing his sulky expression, he couldn't help but tease this man a little.
"Heron, my friend, thank you for this wonderful gift," Alex muttered while extending his hand outward as if he wanted to give his dear friend a gentle hug for helping him.
Alex's mockery woke up Heron from his slight stupor and he reevaluated Alex.
"This is truly amazing." Heron only hesitated for a moment, then his deep, heavy voice resounded again.
"You broke through to Master rank at the last moment of deadly crisis. This further proves that your existence will pose a threat to Amidon."
"I must eliminate you today irrespective of the cost. Otherwise, this small weed may be grown into a big tree someday."
"Pftttt!"
"Heron!! You are a funny man. You surely know how to jest "Alex spoke while laughing loudly.
"Death Crisis!! I don't remember being in such a situation." Alex smirked.
Without waiting for Alex to end his speech, Heron appeared before Alex and a powerful force was launched toward Alex's face.
Alex saw the punch coming toward him and could feel the difference compared to the moment ago.
Even with the stat points he got from the system and combined with his prowess, he was still a bit lower than Heroin after all there was a huge gap in the realm between them.
Moreover, with his pseudo Epic rank strengths along with burning his life force to gain great strength, Heron may even outlast peak Epic rank warriors and give them a hell of a run.
Heron's strength was enough to put pressure on Alex for making a forced breakthrough.
Alex moved sideways and distanced himself several metres away and dodged the punch.
Heron missed his attack but his figure disappeared quickly and he appeared behind Alex's back to attack again before Alex could steady himself trying to surprise him with his speed.
Alex twisted his body and tilted his toward the left to duck the blow while sweeping his elbow towards Heron and hitting his gut with a large force, making Heron fly away a few metres while the scythe in his hand fell.
BANG!!
Heron rotated his body in the mid-air and clenched his fist tightly.
The fiery energy in Heron's body converged onto his fist and he threw a fist at Alex which Alex countered by throwing a fist of his own.
BOOOOOOOM!
The ground shattered followed by a shockwave which erupted radially sweeping away the dust and debris.
Heron was about to attack again but before he could steady himself, his lower ribs were kicked making his body shake for a while.
Heron punched at Alex with an astonishing speed and Alex's figure that suddenly appeared before Heron flickered and disappeared, Heron's jaw was hit by a wide uppercut and his figure was sent flying towards the sky.
Alex teleported and appeared over Heron and interlacing his finger formed a double fist and hit Heron's chest.
Crackkkkkk!
