Raelis subtly coated his daggers with the poison he'd acquired earlier, never breaking eye contact with Zeri.
He had a hunch she'd be here.
But having a hunch and seeing her in the flesh were two entirely different things.
"Why did you capture your friends?" Raelis asked, pointing a dagger at the tied-up king and queen. "I'm sure with their influence, they could've helped you."
Zeri tilted her head playfully. "Now why would I need their help in dealing with someone like you?"
She took one step closer.
"You've formed 2 Flame Rings. It's pretty impressive. I've also seen you're pretty handy with those daggers, but aside from that, what else do you have?"
Pink flames shot out of her palms, dancing around her like fairies.
"Wanna hear a little secret?" she asked.
Before he could even open his mouth, she continued.
"I'm a Jester," Zeri stated confidently, her gaze turning more serious by the second. "But you already knew. I'm sure you also figured that we Jesters have some special perks, yes?"
Raelis nodded slowly, then blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Of course. You need to capture the flags of other teams."
"Mhm. You deduced that much, as expected," Zeri said. "We need the four flags to win. But that's only one of the perks we've got."
She raised a single finger, then slowly brought it over to her lips.
"We can kill one person per game without consequence." Zeri tilted her head. "Want to take a guess who I chose that person to be?"
With her words hanging in the air, Raelis suddenly dashed to the side, narrowly avoiding a fiery pink bolt.
He immediately activated his Flame Body Technique, covering himself in orange flames as he launched all the fireballs he cast in Zeri's direction.
But they both knew it was futile to fight fire with fire, especially with their resistance so high.
Yet she didn't even need to enter her Flame Body form to deal with his attacks, simply brushing them off right as they hit.
Raelis, on the other hand, actually suffered burns from her attacks.
The Flame Body technique is useless against someone with higher mastery over fire... He let out a slight groan as he adjusted his posture.
After all, he had purposefully missed a majority of his fireballs.
Instead, he targeted every single light source he could find.
Because of the direction the sunlight was coming from, 90% of the throne room was blanketed in darkness.
And that was when Raelis finally undid his Flame Body transformation.
He gave her one final glance and dived into the shadows.
"Oh? I remember this one too," Zeri remarked, waving her hands around as she arranged several dozen fireballs in the air. "But how are you going to reach me... when there's not a single shadow near me?"
Raelis's brows furrowed as he rested on the chandelier.
Beside him was none other than Clea, who was now fully healed up.
"Any plans?" Clea asked, fixing her hair.
"She's still playing around with me. If she went serious, then this entire castle would melt in seconds," Raelis said plainly. "So no. I don't have much of a plan in mind."
He did have one, but it was too reckless to attempt.
Yet that very same plan was brought up by none other than Clea.
"You need shadows. So why don't I become a butterfly, and you travel in my shadow?" she suggested.
He shot her down right away. "I don't want you getting hurt. I have another idea, so just bear with me."
A faint frown appeared on her face. "I'll trust you. But if I see it's anything too dangerous, then I'll go ahead and kill that annoying girl myself."
"..."
He had not expected to hear those kinds of words from Clea, but even so, their discussion was cut short as the chandelier was lit on fire.
Clea transformed into her butterfly form and flew off.
As for Raelis, he dropped only a few meters away from Zeri.
"Hahaha! Playing tag really is fun, isn't it, Raelis?" Zeri said cheerfully.
All of a sudden, the flames halted as they condensed around her body.
She soon lit up in pink flames, and from that point on, she was completely out of his league.
But Raelis didn't give in just yet as he took a glance at his status screen.
Name: Raelis Varekan
Age: 16
Race: Human
—Flame Core: 2 Flame Rings (Ready to form the next Flame Ring)
Flame: ??? Primordial Flame (★★☆ — Mastery: 100%)
—Bloodline: Cinder Phoenix
Purity: 20% (Kindle)
Next Rank: 30% (Flame)
—Attributes:
Vitality: 102 → 122
Perception: 103 → 112
Willpower: 125 → 130
Magic Control: 106 → 107
—Abilities:
Expert Fireball (★★★☆ — Mastery: 19% → 20%)
Advanced Fire Manipulation (★★★☆ — Mastery: 4% → 5%)
Advanced Heat Control (★★☆ — Mastery: 14%)
Advanced Heat Resistance Barrier (★★☆ — Mastery: 40% → 42%)
Basic Flame Step (☆ — Mastery: 0%)
Passive Flame Sense (☆ — Mastery: 0% → 5%)
—Techniques:
Expert Dagger Combat Technique (★★★☆ — Mastery: 1% → 2%)
Advanced Stealth Technique (★★☆ — Mastery: 63% → 65%)
Flame Body Technique (☆ — Mastery: 1% → 2%)
There was one ability in particular that caught his eye.
Basic Flame Step.
He focused on it, and moments later, it felt like a flood of information entered his brain, explaining how the ability worked in great detail.
Instead of activating Flame Body around his entire body, he would focus it on his feet.
Then, in a burst of speed, he would propel himself forward.
Raelis leaned forward, and as Zeri began to wonder what he was trying to do, orange flames covered his feet.
But they remained orange for only a few moments as they soon turned golden-white, just like his Primordial Flame.
He felt a surge of power shoot through his legs, much more than he had ever felt while being transformed.
And then, once the flame was fully compressed in his heels, he released it all at once.
—BOOOOOOM!
He kicked off the ground like a rocket, arriving in front of Zeri in the blink of an eye.
Even she was surprised by his speed, as she only had enough time to raise a single hand and redirect him to the side, causing him to crash into the king's throne.
"That was an interesting technique," Zeri remarked, her smirk widening as she suddenly turned off her Flame Body technique.
She stretched her body, then kicked the floor a few times, almost as if she was trying to get into the rhythm.
Then she shot him one last sadistic glance as pink flames began to gather around her feet, concentrating on her heels.
She let out a giggle.
"I can do it too, you know?"
—BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!