Noel had tracked the white figure by following its footprints, his speed steadily increasing as he closed the distance. In theory, he should have caught up soon.
But at a certain point, the footprints suddenly vanished, along with the white figure itself.
"Rooaaar…"
A cry like that of a gorilla echoed throughout the mountain valley.
Noel turned toward the sound and saw a white, monkey-like beast.
He remembered seeing the commission slip when Macao had accepted the mission—it had been when Noel himself had come to post a request. The creature before him matched the illustration on that slip perfectly.
This monkey-like beast was a Vulcan.
"Human, fun!"
The Vulcan clapped its hands as if in delight, letting out incomprehensible noises, perhaps as some form of greeting.
But Vulcans were far from friendly creatures. They were troublesome magical beasts.
"Well, it's convenient that I found my target so quickly."
The Vulcan began making provocative gestures, but to Noel, they were nothing but a clownish display, like something out of a circus.
The Vulcan even smacked its own rear, trying to provoke Noel's anger, but Noel remained unfazed.
How childish. Who would even get angry over such pathetic antics?
"What's wrong, human? Too scared to come at me?" the Vulcan taunted.
Noel was known for his calm. If this monkey thought it could provoke him, it was sorely mistaken.
"Humans like you are so cold," the Vulcan said, seeing that its provocations had failed. It lunged forward with a heavy punch.
"Swift Wind."
To Noel, the Vulcan's charge was painfully slow. With a light step, he dodged effortlessly. To the Vulcan, however, it was as if Noel had vanished, causing the beast to slam straight into the cliffside.
It ended up with a mouthful of snow, which it then swallowed in frustration.
"Human, damn you!" the Vulcan roared in anger. It rolled a massive snowball and hurled it toward Noel.
Because of the snowball's sheer size, dodging wasn't easy, and wind magic alone wouldn't be enough to deflect it.
"Wind Magic Exchange: Spreading Flames."
The wind around Noel began to swirl violently, turning into violet flames that grew rapidly in his hands.
The flames shot across the ground like arrows, rising high, almost sentient, and melted the massive snowball completely.
Seeing its attack neutralized, the Vulcan didn't panic. Instead, it began analyzing Noel's potential weaknesses.
But it had miscalculated. The violet flames didn't die out but instead slithered like fiery serpents across the snow, rapidly closing in.
Despite being a magical beast, the Vulcan was cunning—more so than some humans—and its instincts screamed that the flames were dangerous. But before it could react, the fire serpent struck, wrapping around the Vulcan's body.
The Vulcan thrashed in the snow, rolling desperately.
"Roar! Rooaaar!"
But the violet flames were inextinguishable, burning even hotter as it struggled.
The Vulcan glared at Noel with eyes full of hatred while frantically trying to pat out the flames.
Enduring the pain, the Vulcan charged forward with surprising speed, its large, flaming body lunging at Noel like a comet.
"Wind Magic Exchange: Ice Surface."
Noel raised his hands as a frigid wind swept down, freezing the ground beneath them solid.
The mountain was already cold, and at this altitude, the temperature was even lower. Even flames struggled to burn here, and the air itself seemed to freeze.
The ground transformed into slick ice, and the Vulcan, as expected, stepped onto it—slipping like it was on a skating rink.
Except… it didn't slip.
Noel had assumed that was all it would take to knock the Vulcan down, but to his surprise, the creature moved with even greater agility on the ice.
In reality, the sudden acceleration caught the Vulcan off guard, and its attack narrowly missed Noel.
Amidst the icy wasteland, violet flames erupted once more, melting the frozen surface back into solid ground.
The terrain shifted, and Noel realized he was at a disadvantage fighting on ice. On solid ground, he regained the upper hand.
The Vulcan, meanwhile, was confused. Wasn't the ground just frozen a moment ago? Why was it normal again?
Worse, the ground was now laced with violet flames, and the Vulcan accidentally stepped into them.
Its foot sizzled, glowing red from the heat, and it howled in pain, hopping and clutching its foot.
"Roaaar, rooaar!" it shrieked in agony.
Anger flared in the Vulcan's eyes. It was beginning to feel like this human was toying with it.
Noel unleashed several blades of wind. They struck the Vulcan's hide, leaving only faint marks, not even drawing blood.
"Damn, its hide is tough." Noel frowned. Low-level wind magic wasn't effective against this beast.
Yet he couldn't use high-level wind magic here. One wrong move could trigger an avalanche on the snow-covered mountain.
The Vulcan scratched the spots where the wind blades had struck, as if it were merely an itch.
"Human, your attacks are useless," the Vulcan sneered, making a mocking face.
Noel ignored it, sending a few modified wind blades its way. Unlike ordinary blades, these used a vibration principle, increasing their destructive power.
The Vulcan, thinking they were the same as before, struck a pose, ready to tank the attack.
But this time, three thin lines of blood appeared on its hide.
The modified wind blades worked, proving effective even against the Vulcan's tough hide.
"Rooaaar!"
The Vulcan clutched its wounds, roaring in fury.
Its eyes turned blood-red, and its muscles swelled grotesquely, growing in size.
Noel immediately grew wary. A berserk magical beast was far more dangerous, though they tended to lose rational thought in that state.
The Vulcan lunged with the ferocity of a starving beast, and for a brief moment, Noel felt like prey.
"So fast," Noel muttered.
Unable to dodge on the ground, he leaped into the air, using wind magic to support himself, hovering midair.
Seeing its prey out of reach, the Vulcan scooped up snow, hurling a barrage of snowballs upward.
The sky filled with snowballs, forming a dense net of projectiles. This time, they were much smaller than before.
"Again with this? Worthless. Gale."
A strong gust blew through, scattering the snowballs and sending them hurtling back down at the Vulcan.
Seeing the storm of snowballs falling on it, the Vulcan turned and fled.
Noel was momentarily puzzled by the sudden retreat, but after spending so long dealing with this creature, there was no way he'd let it get away now.
He needed to confirm whether this Vulcan was the one Macao had been after. Letting it escape before proving that wasn't an option.
Curiously, the Vulcan wasn't running uphill but heading toward the mountain's midsection.
The beast ran in a frenzy, while Noel, accelerating with wind magic, closed the distance quickly.
But when he reached the middle of the mountain, the Vulcan had vanished—no footprints, no sign of its presence.
Noel was baffled. Had he misread the Vulcan's movements? Was it a trick of the eyes? Had his calculations been wrong?
His reasoning was typically precise. This sort of basic mistake was unlike him. Confused but focused, Noel began scanning the surroundings. He had a hunch that the Vulcan couldn't have gone far.
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