The elemental's body roared to life, flames leaping and twisting until the very air shimmered. The heat was suffocating—stone walls blackened, torches sputtered, and sweat streamed down their faces within seconds.
"Spread out!" Lucien barked, already circling to the left with his daggers drawn.
The fire-being surged forward, swinging an arm that stretched into a whip of molten flame. Ino leapt aside, his thin black blade flashing as he deflected a strike that would have incinerated him whole. Sparks cascaded across the floor.
Matteo loosed a flurry of arrows, each shaft tipped with blessed oil. They streaked through the chamber, bursting into sputtering flashes against the elemental's fiery torso. The creature barely flinched, reforming itself with every shot.
"It's not enough!" Matteo shouted.
Lucien darted in, his blood-soaked daggers slicing a crimson net that lashed at the elemental's legs. The fire writhed, momentarily restrained—but only momentarily. With a furious shriek, the elemental exploded outward, the blast hurling Lucien across the stone floor.
And then Juan stepped forward.
His sabre gleamed with a sheen of water, droplets cascading down the blade like a stream caught in eternal flow. He steadied his breath, the reflection of the flames dancing across his eyes.
Lucien charged his attack with two big crimson explosions.
The elemental roared and lunged. Juan answered with a wide arc, his sabre singing as it unleashed a crescent wave of pressurized water. Steam erupted where water clashed with fire, filling the hall with blinding mist.
"Now!" Lucien shouted through the haze.
Ino dove from one side, Matteo from another, distracting the elemental with strikes and arrows. Juan pressed forward, blade glowing brighter as he poured everything into one final swing. With a cry, he carved upward, his sabre unleashing a torrent like a river bursting its banks.
The wave swallowed the elemental whole. For a heartbeat, the chamber was silent but for the hiss of steam. Then—an explosion of light.
The fire-being collapsed inward, shrinking, condensing, until all that remained was a pulsing ember of golden flame, hovering in the air like a captured star.
The dragon's eyes lit with hunger.
"Ahhh… delicious."
It opened its colossal jaws, inhaling once. The golden flame drifted to its mouth and vanished between its fangs. The beast shivered, scales glinting.
"Rich. Potent. I am satisfied."
The great wyrm lowered its head, its molten gaze sweeping over the four battered hunters.
"You may pass."
The massive tail uncoiled, revealing the path deeper into the catacombs. The Grandmaster's smirk widened in the shadows.