Alex was slowly running out of cards to play in the Paragon Tournament.
First, he had lost his wristband, the one thing that could have allowed him to leave the tournament safely.
Then there was his Astral Body.
One of his strongest survival and combat techniques was now on cooldown and completely unavailable.
His axe had also been damaged in the previous fight. While it would eventually recover, it wasn't something he could rely on right now.
That left Alex with only a handful of options.
Not many.
And certainly not enough to waste carelessly.
Alex knew he had to be smart with what remained.
Creative too.
His Energy Reflection Effect was still active.
His Buster skill was also available, and he still had plenty of qi left to fuel it.
But even with those advantages, Alex wasn't arrogant enough to think he could simply overpower a member of the Pyre-Fang Clan.
'The best option isn't to fight him head-on,' Alex thought.
'At least not yet.'
Across from him, the Pyre-Fang member moved first.
Without warning, he thrust his hand forward.
Whoosh!
A stream of blazing fire erupted from his palm and shot directly toward Alex.
The heat alone made the air distort.
Alex immediately reacted.
Even though his Energy Reflection Effect was active, that didn't mean he intended to stand there and absorb every attack thrown at him.
That would be stupid.
The Reflection Effect had limits.
Alex pushed off the ground and sprinted across the wheelhouse.
The stream of fire chased after him immediately.
The Pyre-Fang member rotated his arm, guiding the flames toward Alex as if he were holding a giant flamethrower.
Fire swept across the floor.
Walls melted.
Metal supports glowed red.
Alex zigzagged through the ruined structure, using broken pillars and chunks of debris as cover whenever possible.
The fire followed relentlessly.
But Alex was fast.
Faster than the Pyre-Fang member expected.
His body blurred from one position to another as he kept moving.
"Argh!"
Suddenly, the Pyre-Fang member changed tactics.
A burst of fire exploded from beneath his feet.
Boom!
The flames acted like a thruster.
His body shot forward at incredible speed.
Instead of simply chasing Alex with the fire stream, he launched himself directly after him.
The distance between them rapidly closed.
Very rapidly.
And Alex immediately realized the situation had just become far more dangerous.
Alex was caught from behind and slammed into the ground.
Before he could fully recover, the Pyre-Fang member closed in. Both of his hands were engulfed in flames as he started throwing powerful punches down at Alex.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The attacks came one after another.
Meanwhile, Alex raised both arms and covered his face, using them to absorb the worst of the impacts.
The punches landed exactly as hard as Alex had expected.
Pain shot through his body with every hit.
However, despite the situation, Alex was satisfied about one thing.
Each punch carried a large amount of kinetic energy.
His Energy Reflection Effect continued absorbing it.
The energy piled up with every strike.
As more kinetic energy gathered inside him, Alex quickly redirected it toward his back and core muscles.
Then he suddenly exploded upward.
Alex's body snapped forward in a powerful sit-up motion.
Bang!
His forehead smashed directly into the Pyre-Fang member's face.
The unexpected headbutt connected cleanly.
The Pyre-Fang member was knocked off Alex and stumbled backward.
Alex immediately took the opportunity.
Quickly pushing off the ground, he started getting back to his feet.
However, the Pyre-Fang member reacted just as fast.
While still falling backward, he thrust one leg forward.
A ball of fire shot from his foot and raced toward Alex.
The attack came too quickly.
Alex couldn't dodge it.
But he had already made a different decision.
He brought both palms together in front of him.
Clap!
The moment the fireball reached him, Alex pulled his hands apart.
As he did, his palms moved through the center of the incoming attack.
The fireball split apart from the middle.
The divided flames rushed past both sides of his body and crashed into the surroundings behind him.
Boom!
The attack missed completely.
Alex remained standing where he was, completely unharmed.
The Pyre-Fang member stood stunned for a moment as he looked at Alex.
"Are you a fire mage?!" he asked.
Alex didn't bother responding.
Instead, he swung his fist at the wall beside him.
"Buster!"
Boom!
The wall shattered instantly.
Chunks of concrete and metal exploded outward as a hole was blasted through it.
The very next moment, Alex dashed through the opening and appeared on the street outside.
He immediately started running, putting distance between himself and the wheelhouse building he had just escaped from.
Boom!
Alex hadn't gone far when a figure suddenly burst through the top of the wheelhouse.
It was the Pyre-Fang member.
His entire body was covered in flames from head to toe.
He hovered in the air for a brief moment and quickly spotted Alex running through the ruined street below.
Without hesitation, he moved.
A burst of fire erupted from his body, and he shot downward like a rocket.
His hand stretched forward as he closed the distance between them at terrifying speed.
However, just before he could grab Alex, Alex reacted.
At the last possible moment, he leaped upward and performed a backward flip.
Boom!
The Pyre-Fang member missed completely.
Unable to stop his momentum, he continued forward and slammed heavily into the ground ahead.
The street cracked under the impact.
Meanwhile, Alex completed his flip and landed smoothly behind him.
Immediately, Alex rushed forward and activated the Buster skill on his feet.
Boom!
The ground cracked beneath him as he shot forward.
The Pyre-Fang member was still getting back up from the ground when Alex arrived in front of him.
Without hesitation, Alex threw a punch powered by Buster.
Punch!
His fist struck the Pyre-Fang member's cheek, snapping his head to the side.
But Alex didn't stop there.
He followed up immediately with an uppercut.
Bang!
The second punch connected with the jaw and threw the Pyre-Fang member's head upward.
Then Alex took a quick step forward and drove his other fist into the man's stomach.
Boom!
The impact sent the Pyre-Fang member tumbling backward across the street.
Alex lowered his fists and watched him.
'You might be a mage at a higher stage, but your martial arts are nowhere close to what they teach in the Pendragon Faction,' Alex thought.
Meanwhile, the Pyre-Fang member didn't waste any time staying on the ground.
Flames erupted beneath him.
Whoosh!
He shot upward into the air once more.
Now hovering above the street with Alex fully exposed below, he thrust out a hand.
A stream of fire burst forward and raced toward Alex.
"Buster!"
Boom!
Alex vanished from where he stood.
The flames passed through empty space.
The Pyre-Fang member frowned.
His eyes darted around as he searched for Alex.
For a brief moment, he couldn't find him.
Then—
Boom!
The sound of Buster exploded from directly behind him.
As Alex moved out of the path of the fire, he immediately crouched and leaped off the ground while activating the Buster skill.
Boom!
His body shot upward.
The height wasn't enough to reach the Pyre-Fang member directly, but Alex had never intended to do that.
He landed against the side of a nearby building.
"Buster!"
Before gravity could even begin pulling him down, he activated the technique again.
Boom!
The wall cracked beneath his foot.
Fragments of concrete broke away as Alex launched himself forward.
"Ahhh!"
Alex yelled as he flew through the air at tremendous speed.
The Pyre-Fang member had barely begun turning around when Alex was already upon him.
Alex's second jump had carried him much higher than before.
Now he was directly above the Pyre-Fang member.
Without hesitation, Alex twisted his body and swung his leg downward.
The kick cut through the air in a crescent motion.
With Buster enhancing it, the attack carried tremendous force.
The Pyre-Fang member reacted quickly.
He raised both arms and crossed them in front of his face to block.
But the moment the kick connected, it became obvious that blocking wasn't enough.
Boom!
The impact exploded through his guard.
The force was so great that the Pyre-Fang member was driven straight out of the air.
He crashed into the ground below instantly.
Boom!
The street shattered beneath him.
A wave of fire burst outward from the point of impact and spread across the ground in all directions.
But Alex wasn't done yet. He was already descending toward the Pyre-Fang member.
He raised both fists above his head and brought them crashing down with all his weight behind them.
The Pyre-Fang member saw the attack coming. As Alex dropped toward him, a ball of fire quickly gathered in the center of his chest. It expanded rapidly, growing larger with each passing second.
But Alex didn't stop.
He didn't pull back.
He slammed down anyway.
Boom!
His fists struck first.
Then the fireball exploded.
Boom!
The blast spread outward, shaking the street and kicking up dust, smoke, and burning debris.
A moment later, the smoke began to clear.
Standing over a fallen body was Alex.
The Pyre-Fang member lay on the ground, weak and barely moving. A deep indentation could be seen on his chest where Alex's attack had landed.
Alex immediately glanced down at himself and checked his clothes.
He let out a small sigh of relief.
The outfit had survived.
There were several scorched marks across the fabric, and thin trails of smoke still rose from parts of it, but overall it remained intact.
That was good enough for him.
His gaze returned to the Pyre-Fang member.
The man's condition was obvious.
He was in critical condition.
Alex stood over him for a moment before speaking.
"I don't kill unless it's proven necessary," Alex said.
The Pyre-Fang member stared back at him but said nothing.
"Don't bother trying to fight back," Alex continued. "You're already in critical condition. Just let the wristband do its job."
The Pyre-Fang member continued looking at Alex.
He understood exactly why Alex wasn't finishing him off.
Earlier, he had already explained what would happen.
If Alex attempted to kill him, his mana core would overload before death and trigger a massive explosion, just like the one that had happened before.
An explosion powerful enough to drag both of them down together.
Alex clearly understood that risk.
So instead of going for the kill, he had beaten him to the point where the tournament wristband should activate on its own and remove him from the battlefield.
At least, that was what Alex was counting on.
"This... this is not over!" the Pyre-Fang member forced out as he stared deeply into Alex's eyes, showing no sign of gratitude.
After those words left his mouth, a bright light covered his body.
The next moment, he disappeared from the tournament.
Seeing the scene, Alex let out a sigh.
'I wish that was me getting out of this tournament,' Alex thought.
Still, he was relieved that the problem was gone for now.
At the very least, he no longer had to worry about fighting the Pyre-Fang member.
'Now I can go back to finding where the exit door is,' Alex thought.
He brought up the map and checked it again.
A direction was immediately highlighted for him.
Without wasting any more time, Alex started moving toward it.
However, after only a short distance, he suddenly came to a stop.
There was a reason for that.
From the direction he was heading, he could hear faint rumbles.
A moment later, another explosion echoed through the ruined city.
Boom!
Alex narrowed his eyes.
The sounds were clear enough for him to recognize.
A fight was taking place ahead.
More explosions followed, shaking parts of the surrounding buildings.
Boom!
Boom!
"Well..." Alex muttered as he listened to the distant battle.
"They did say I would have to face a dangerous beast before reaching the exit door."