Chapter 71 – Fire Against the Coil
Before the jungle swallowed them whole, before the mud anaconda lowered its head and marked them as prey, there was something important to understand about the Pyro Kingdom.
Their power wasn't random.
It wasn't magic borrowed from the sky.
It was earned.
Every flame user in Bega's kingdom started the same way: a spark. A basic fireball. Nothing elegant. Nothing impressive. Just a compressed burst of heat and ignition that could scorch skin and crack weak armor if aimed properly.
Every recruit was drilled on that skill until they could form it without thinking. Fireball. Again. Fireball. Again. Until muscle memory replaced fear.
But power didn't stay equal.
Ranking up wasn't about titles—it was about consumption.
Fire-type beasts carried embers in their cores. Meat from those beasts could be eaten slowly, over days or weeks, strengthening the flame inside a human body little by little. It was unpleasant. Tough. Bitter. Sometimes dangerous.
Crystals were different.
Crystals were concentrated fire.
Common and rare crystals could be absorbed in ten to thirty minutes if your body could handle the strain. Epic crystals took an hour. Legendary ones demanded half a day. Mythical crystals could put someone in a coma for three days straight while their body decided whether to accept the power—or burn itself from the inside out.
Beyond that?
No one knew.
No one had lived long enough to measure it.
And once someone reached S-Rank, something changed.
They awakened Focus.
An instinctual perception of aura. A glow around living beings that revealed rank by color and density. It wasn't something lower ranks could fake. It wasn't something you could hide from someone powerful enough to see.
Tèt Pikan wasn't S-Rank.
But he was close enough to know when something felt wrong.
And the mud anaconda coiling above them felt very wrong.
The jungle was no longer silent.
It creaked.
It shifted.
It breathed.
Lobo wiped mud from his cheek, flames rising higher around his fists.
"You're sure about this?"
Tèt didn't look back.
"You see a path out?"
Kemi swallowed, adjusting her stance.
"No."
"Then we burn forward."
The anaconda dropped first.
Not fully—just its head. A massive wall of scaled mud descending from the canopy, fangs exposed, breath hissing through narrow nostrils.
"Now!" Tèt barked.
Lobo launched the first fireball.
It streaked upward, exploding against the snake's lower jaw. Flames splashed across hardened mud scales, heat roaring outward.
The anaconda didn't even blink.
Kemi stepped forward next, her flames different—less explosive, more controlled. She drew both hands outward and then slammed them together, sending a crescent arc of fire slicing upward.
The attack struck the creature's neck.
Mud cracked.
Steam erupted.
The snake recoiled slightly.
Tèt grinned.
"That's more like it."
The body shifted again—fast.
The tail came first.
A blur of armored muscle swung from the left, tearing through trees like matchsticks.
"Down!" Tèt shouted.
All three dropped.
The tail passed inches above them, flattening the ground where they'd been standing.
Lobo rolled and came up firing, rapid bursts of flame hammering into the snake's underbelly.
The fire splashed and spread — but the scales absorbed most of the heat.
"Why do I feel like I'm not doing any damage?!" he shouted, panic creeping into his voice.
Kemi didn't look at him, sweat running down her temple.
"It's because your attack power is weak!"
"Wow. Thanks," Lobo snapped back breathlessly.
Tèt surged forward.
Both axes ignited fully as he leapt, bringing them down in a cross slash against the anaconda's side.
The impact was violent.
Mud exploded.
Scales cracked.
A thin line of blood seeped through the rupture.
The anaconda finally reacted.
Its body snapped sideways with terrifying speed, and Tèt barely twisted in time. The fangs grazed his shoulder instead of tearing through his throat.
Pain tore through him anyway.
He landed hard, sliding through mud.
Lobo saw the blood first.
"You're hit!"
"Still breathing," Tèt growled, pushing himself up.
The snake's body tightened around the clearing again.
It wasn't panicking.
It was adjusting.
"Focus!" Tèt barked. "Don't waste power!"
Kemi inhaled sharply and stepped forward, eyes narrowing.
"I've been training something."
Lobo glanced at her.
"Now would be a good time!"
She slammed her palms into the ground.
Flames burst outward in a circular wave, not upward this time—but downward. The mud beneath the anaconda began to bake, moisture evaporating violently.
Steam rose in thick clouds.
The ground hardened.
The snake's movement slowed slightly as its body lost the advantage of slick terrain.
"Nice!" Lobo shouted.
He followed her lead, channeling his fire downward in short bursts, cracking the swamp surface further.
Tèt saw the opportunity.
He ran straight toward the anaconda's exposed side.
"Keep it grounded!"
The snake lunged.
Tèt slid beneath the snapping jaws, heat trailing behind him as both axes carved upward into the softer flesh beneath the throat.
This time the snake screamed.
A guttural, ear-splitting hiss that shook the jungle.
The body convulsed violently.
Tèt was thrown backward as the anaconda twisted midair, smashing into him with the full weight of its coiling body.
He hit the ground and felt something in his ribs shift.
Lobo rushed forward again.
And then—
The jungle shook.
Not from the snake.
From something else.
A smaller mud rhino burst through the trees from the left .
It's the same one that stole the crystal and ran from Jean-Daniel's group. It slammed on the side face of the snake and fell the crystal flew from its mouth and fell on in the mud, it got up in a panic looking for the crystal.
Its eyes locked onto the purple crystal lying in the mud.
It ignored Tèt's group entirely.
The beast skidded forward and snapped its jaws around the glowing shard.
"What—?!" Lobo rasped.
The rhino turned instantly and sprinted.
The mud anaconda reacted in the same heartbeat.
Its massive body coiled and snapped forward with terrifying speed. Jaws clamped down on the rhino's hindquarters mid-charge.
The crack of bone echoed through the clearing.
The snake lifted the smaller beast and slammed it violently into the ground.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Mud exploded upward with each impact.
The rhino tried to hold onto the crystal — but the force tore it free from its mouth. The purple shard flew through the air again, landing several meters away.
The anaconda tightened its grip.
Then flung the rhino.
The beast hurtled through the trees, crashing deep into the jungle and disappearing from sight.
Silence fell.
Tèt didn't move.
Lobo lay breathing hard.
Kemi was on her knees.
The anaconda didn't even glance at them.
Its red eyes were locked on the purple crystal.
Slow.
Hungry.
Deliberate.
It began moving toward it.
Steam rose faintly around its mouth.
And for the first time since arriving in Cité Madeline—
Tèt Pikan wasn't sure this was a fight they were meant to win.
End of Chapter 71