The Divine Wolf... or?

As the flames dissipated, Ark could see a creature with a large frame. The creature looked like a huge lizard, at least four or five meters tall. The lizard had thick and powerful legs and its lustrous red scales reflected the light from the sea of fire, looking quite beautiful. The face of the lizard was hideous, and its expression was even more so.

It looked at Ark with intense hatred, as if he had killed its children.

Ark had an idea about the kind of creature he was facing. As far as he knew, it was a type of Fire Salamander. The only thing that surprised him was the strength it showed. As far as he knew, Fire Salamanders didn't grow to be this strong. Perhaps it had a mutated bloodline? He wasn't completely sure, but he knew that if he wasn't a sovereign, he would have a tough time fighting against it.

The Fire Salamander didn't rush at Ark like all the other creatures that had come out from the sea of fire, instead, it opted to stay back and observe him a little. Whilst Ark was contemplating whether to initiate an attack, the salamander suddenly opened its mouth slightly. Ark could feel the fire mana in the surroundings growing restless, and he quickly stabbed out with his spear.

From the Salamander's mouth, a red beam of concentrated fire shot out in Ark's direction.

Ark's spear met the beam of fire head-on, and as they clashed, a large explosion took place. Ark had imbued his spear with ice magic, but his attack was barely as strong as the Fire Salamanders. Ark was a little surprised. Even if he didn't use any fusion magic, or a large amount of mana, his attacks were still really strong nonetheless.

From the looks of things, this Fire Salamander didn't go all out just now either. It was more of a probing attack.

The Salamander wasn't fazed about Ark stopping its attack, instead, it just opened its mouth again. This time, Ark could feel the surrounding fire mana growing restless again, but what really surprised him was the surrounding poison mana was growing restless too. Realising that this attack was different from before, Ark grew a little more serious.

After taking a deep breath, Ark thrust his spear forward again, this time inputting a lot more mana than before.

The tip of his spear glowed with a glittery cyan light, before a shining cyan beam of mana shot out in the direction of the Fire Salamander. The cyan beam had a golden centre since Ark had fused some light magic into the attack as well. The Fire Salamander had already completed its accumulation, and a green beam of concentrated fire shot out, facing Ark's magic head-on.

This was a pure contest of magic at this point, to see who had the stronger attacks.

The beams clashed in mid-air again, but this time, there was no explosion. Instead, the two beams tried to devour each other. The Fire Salamander's attack was imbued with poison magic, known for its corrosive properties. Normally, this would be able to melt and corrode the opponent's mana, but to counter this, Ark had fused his ice magic with light magic.

Light magic was very pure, and it counteracted the poison by purifying it.

After a while, Ark's magic seemed to have the upper hand. The Fire Salamander finally showed a reaction as it screeched in rage. Ark could feel his eardrums slightly hurting, and he looked at the Fire Salamander with an annoyed expression. The Fire Salamander was enraged by the way Ark looked at it, and it started attacking madly.

Its fiery breath filled the dungeon as it shot beam after beam of fire in Ark's direction, intent on destroying him as fast as possible.

To counteract this, Ark swung his spear a few times gently in the air, bringing massive gusts of wind to life in the process. These gusts of wind magic were further fused with ice magic, creating a large ice storm that disrupted the flow of all the fire mana in the vicinity.

As the Salamander's attacks came closer to Ark, they grew weaker and weaker to the point that he could basically disregard them.

The Fire Salamander didn't give up, and its red scales started glowing with a green light. Even the pupils in its eyes started changing colours, and Ark started to get serious. Although he could suppress this Salamander right now, it cost him a lot of mana. If the fight dragged on for too long, he might end up actually having to run away.

As green flames started dancing on the Fire Salamander's body, Ark thrust his spear out again.

This time, Ark's spear moved swifter than the wind itself, and it randomly disappeared into the void. The Salamander could feel danger coming and decisively moved out of the way as fast as it could. As a result, a spear suddenly appeared from the void, shattering space in its path. The two front legs of the Salamander were shattered, and a furious screech filled the dungeon.

Ark could feel the amount of mana gathering around the Salamander quickly growing out of control.

If he didn't put an end to this right now, he would probably have to spend all of his mana to resolve the aftermath. With a sigh, Ark pointed his hand at the Salamander's head, and the space mana around the salamander started moving around rapidly.

The Salamander could probably feel that something was off, and after a certain amount of mana had left Ark's body, it could suddenly feel the presence of death as well.

The space surrounding the Salamander suddenly locked down. No matter what it did it couldn't move an inch. It screeched in protest, but Ark suddenly clenched his hand. The space around the Fire Salamander's head suddenly collapsed onto itself, effectively creating a small spatial storm that ripped everything apart down to their very atoms.

The Salamander had no way of resisting, and it was completely and utterly decimated in a matter of seconds.

Ark looked at the creature disappearing into nothingness with some pity. He had originally planned on levelling up a little more, which was why he didn't want to use this attack. Since he had lost too much mana now, he would have no choice but to return to the camp. In the end, if he didn't kill off the Salamander quickly, he would need to take care of its last-ditch attack as well.

Since that would've cost him even more mana, Ark went with the easier option.

As he left the dungeon behind him, Ark failed to notice that the sea of fire was moving strangely. It didn't seem enraged even more, if anything, it seemed slightly gleeful.

The camp was peaceful and quiet when Ark returned. The moon was up and the night was dark. Everyone had already gone to sleep. Everyone except for Ephine. She had been waiting for Ark to return. Atar had already fallen asleep on the ground next to her.

As Ark watched her waiting for him underneath the moonlight, he felt a little better.