"Hey, hey, wait for me!"
Seeing Zeng Tian and the Scarlet King leave, the Auspicious Beast stamped her feet, then turned into a streak of golden light and followed them.
In the air, Zeng Tian beat the wings on his back hard. As he watched the scenery race backward around him, a smile crept onto his lips.
"Flying really is different. I don't have to worry about the terrain. My speed now is at least twice what it was before I evolved."
Zeng Tian had only stacked Flame Charge once, yet his speed was already close to his previous maximum. He still had plenty of room to spare, too, without any of the loss of control he had experienced before.
"I wonder if I can break the sound barrier now."
At that thought, Zeng Tian beat his wings faster, and the streak of red light he had become abruptly accelerated.
A moment later, with a sonic boom ringing through the air, Zeng Tian caught up to the Scarlet King running ahead at incredible speed.
Noticing the disturbance, the Scarlet King glanced to the side. When he saw Zeng Tian almost level with him, his pupils jolted.
"Holy crap, seriously?"
Towering waves surged through the Scarlet King's heart. Though speed was not his specialty, he was still a three-hundred-thousand-year ferocious beast.
Yet a mere thousand-year soul beast had actually caught up to him. What kind of joke was this?
Meanwhile, after catching up to the Scarlet King, Zeng Tian stopped accelerating and simply followed quietly behind him.
He could certainly go faster, but there was no need.
"Looks like my current speed wouldn't be considered slow even among hundred-thousand-year soul beasts."
Zeng Tian was very pleased with his speed after evolving.
With speed like this, combined with his ability to fly, there were few creatures in this world that could stop him if he wanted to escape.
Soon, Zeng Tian followed the Scarlet King to a vast desert.
The Scarlet King turned and said to Zeng Tian beside him, "This is the battlefield we picked for you. Fight however you like. We won't mind."
"A desert? The Star Dou Great Forest even has terrain like this?"
Zeng Tian stared at the endless yellow sand before him, his expression somewhat stunned.
Just what kind of place is the Star Dou Great Forest? Isn't its ecosystem a little too complicated?
Not long after Zeng Tian and the Scarlet King stopped, a streak of golden light came from afar and halted between them. It was the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.
"Hey, you two, why didn't you wait for me?"
The Auspicious Beast looked from one to the other, her cheeks puffed out. Clearly, she was furious that they had left her behind.
Seeing the Auspicious Beast arrive, Zeng Tian gave her a faint smile. "Looks like I have a slight edge in speed."
"Hmph! Don't get cocky. Speed isn't my specialty."
At his words, the young Auspicious Beast gave an indignant huff and pursed her lips.
At the same time, she was secretly shocked. Not long ago, Zeng Tian had been slower than her, yet now he was so much faster.
No, if this keeps up, won't all my authority as his big sister go up in smoke?
I have to knock him down a peg.
Her mind made up, she immediately declared, "Watch out. I won't hold back this time."
As she spoke, her golden body blazed with light, dazzling like a little sun.
"What a powerful aura."
Sensing the formidable aura radiating from her, Zeng Tian was slightly startled.
If she had fought him like this before, she might have killed him in an instant. Fortunately, he was no longer the same as he had been.
"Roar!!"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion roared furiously. A golden phantom of an Auspicious Beast appeared in midair, and as she swiped a claw, an enormous golden dragon phantom hurtled toward Zeng Tian with a roar.
Zeng Tian's strength was now far beyond what it had been, and with the Scarlet King watching nearby, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion had no fear of hurting him. Naturally, she went all out.
"Bring it on!"
At the sight, Zeng Tian's eyes flashed. His throat shifted slightly, and an enormous pillar of red fire erupted from his mouth to meet the golden dragon phantom.
"Roooar~"
A dragon's roar rang out. Without dodging or retreating, the golden dragon phantom crashed straight into the pillar of fire Zeng Tian had unleashed.
Boom-
A violent explosion erupted where the two special moves clashed, producing billowing black smoke.
"This power..."
Watching the two special moves destroy each other, Zeng Tian froze for a moment.
Could it be because we're in a desert, where fire energy is more abundant?
This Flamethrower was far more powerful than he had expected. It had actually matched the Auspicious Beast's all-out strike.
"This... this is impossible."
Zeng Tian was not the only one stunned. The young Auspicious Beast was equally dumbfounded.
Only the Scarlet King grew excited at the sight. Is this the might of ultimate fire?
Compared to ordinary flames, it was indeed far stronger.
"No, a desert environment alone can't explain power like this. My body must have undergone some change I don't know about."
With a thought, Zeng Tian pulled up the panel he had not checked in a long time.
[Name: Zeng Tian Species: Charizard (mutated) Ability: Deep Crimson Blaze Level: 39 Known special moves: Flamethrower lv9, Heat Wave lv9, Flame Charge lv8, Fire Spin lv8, Fire Fang lv10, Fire Punch lv7, Ember lv10, Scratch lv10, Smokescreen lv8, Dragon Breath lv9, Dragon Tail lv9, Growl lv9, Scary Face lv1 Self-created moves: Fire Claw, Flame Slash, Counter Punch Shield]
Thanks to his evolution and the effects of the Ten-Thousand-Year Dragon Blood Grass, Zeng Tian's skill proficiency had risen considerably. He had even learned a new special move, Scary Face.
But none of that was the main point. What mattered was the "mutated" that had appeared after his species, along with Deep Crimson Blaze, which he had never heard of before.
Deep Crimson Blaze? What is that?
With a thought, Zeng Tian opened the description for Deep Crimson Blaze and immediately sucked in a breath of cold air.
[Deep Crimson Blaze: Your normal state is the Blaze state. When you approach your limits, Blaze turns into Deep Crimson Blaze, increasing the power of your flames by 200% and adding a burn effect.]
No wonder the power of his moves had felt off. It had been the effect of Deep Crimson Blaze all along.
His normal state was the Blaze state. That meant the power of his Fire-type moves would gain a free fifty-percent increase.
Under normal circumstances, a thirty-percent difference in combat strength was already substantial, enough to decide the outcome of a battle.
A fifty-percent increase in power could allow him to completely overwhelm his opponent.
And the most terrifying thing about Blaze was that its calculation was not additive, but multiplicative!
Suppose he learned Dragon Dance in the future and used it to raise his attack to its maximum-four hundred percent of its original value.
Then, when he attacked with a Fire-type special move, its power would not be 450% of the original. Instead, it would be 400% multiplied by 1.5, or 600% of the original.
And that was without even mentioning the Deep Crimson Blaze state that followed. If its 200% power increase were stacked with the 400% boost, his power would reach twelve times its original value.
All he could say was that Deep Crimson Blaze was terrifying indeed!