The Lava Brute spewed flames from its mouth in an action that resembled the opening of a folding fan.

Everyone except Luna was within melee range, however, only Izroth and Azalea managed to react in time due to the early warning signs of the attack. The two of them swiftly positioned themselves behind the back of the Lava Brute where the flames did not yet reach. ​​

As for Mirage, she moved a bit slower and barely got caught by the flames, dropping her HP by around 20% in one hit, even with the 10% Fire Resistance stat from skill Protection of The Fire Spirit active.

Fortunately for Luna, she was still able to easily maintain a distance of around twenty meters away from the Lava Brute and so she did not have to avoid the flames like the others.

-1,763

-270

+1,325

-270

7,664/8,642 HP Remaining! (Mirage)

Luna cast Cure on Mirage and restored a good portion of her HP. However, there was a 300 damage tick per second that continued to affect Mirage for ten seconds even after the flames had already subsided.

As the seconds slipped by, the circle began to shrink and it was beginning to become clearly noticeable to even the most untrained eyes. It started at thirty meters, but after only ten seconds it had already shrunk to around twenty-three meters in diameter. Every few meters would cause Luna to move closer towards the battle.

70%...

60%...

50%...

Azalea avoided the flaming hand of the Lava Brute that reached for her and crashed into the spot where she had just stood moments ago. Due to a tank not being present, the aggro of the Lava Brute was all over the place and it attacked whoever it pleased. Although most of the aggro was focused onto Izroth because of his high damage, Azalea was not that far off and Mirage was not bad as well.

Luna who was a healer would increase her own aggro every time she healed someone, therefore, she tried to limit her healing to strict necessity only as she grew closer to the Lava Brute.

Azalea spun the daggers in her hands as she swept them across the body of the Lava Brute, striking at its body rapidly and trying to locate a vital point. However, it was difficult to locate the vital points of monsters like the Lava Brute because they were creatures made purely from magic and nature within RML.

After slashing the Lava Brute four times with her daggers, a violet aura appeared around the weapons. There was a small build-up of energy that was released from her last attack from the use of a skill.

-225

«Critical Hit»

-865

-225

«Critical Hit»

-865

-1,392

Azalea's attacks were fast and she could strike five to six times within one second if she could attack without interruption. Even though she was unable to locate vital points on the Lava Brute, she was still capable of landing critical hits due to the critical hit percentage attached to her weapons. It allowed for Azalea's attacks to count as a critical hit even if she did not strike a vital point.

At the moment, each of her daggers only provided 2.5% critical hit. Therefore, Azalea had a 5% chance for any of her physical attacks to critically hit.

Mirage clenched her right fist as small currents of electricity gathered around her right arm. She punched outward and slammed her fist into the torso area of the Lava Brute. There was a crackling sound released from her fist when it made contact as the lightning seemed to shoot from her arm into the body of the Lava Brute, paralyzing its movements in the process.

-2,502

The electricity that was around Mirage's arms just moments ago could be seen jumping and sparking from the Lava Brute as it stood there motionless. Everyone took the opportunity to rain down attacks upon the Lava Brute, further shaving away at its HP in the process.

35%...

25%...

10%...

Thirty seconds had already passed and the circle was now around 7.5 meters in diameter. This did not leave much room for Izroth and his party to maneuver around. As for Luna, she was already within the range of attack of the Lava Brute.

The Lava Brute swung its molten lava arm at Izroth, however, he evaded the attack by circling around its body at a greater speed than its arm moved.

After failing in its attack, the upper body of the Lava Brute expanded once again as flames gathered at its mouth. However, the Lava Brute did not aim for the party this time, but rather at the ground within the circle. This made it so that everyone was affected by the attack, no matter where they were located inside of the circle.

-1,763

-300

-2,592

-300

-1,455

...

The attack was able to damage everyone within the party and damage numbers were popping up all over the place. To make matters even worse, the party was also affected by a burning aftereffect. However, Luna was prepared for a situation such as this. Around 0.5 seconds later, a light green list appeared within the surrounding ten meters.

The source of the mist came from Luna's spell Healing Mist. As soon as it touched the body of the party members, they began to regain some of their lost HP every second.

+530

...

Skill Name: Healing Mist

Skill Level: 1/4

Skill Rank: A

Mana Cost: 650

Cast Time: 0.5 seconds

Active: Releases a mist in the surrounding 10 meters of the user or an ally of their choice. This mist heals the user and all allies who remain within the mist for 40% of the user's 'Healing Factor' every 1 second for 10 seconds.

Cooldown: 2 Minutes 30 Seconds

Thanks to Luna's Healing Mist spell, she was able to offset the damage dealt by the burning effect while also healing back some of her party's additionally lost HP. She also used the opportunity to cast Cure on everyone and in an instant, everyone's HP was back to its full amount. However, this massive amount of healing caused Luna's aggro to soar and moved her threat level to the top of the list.

The Lava Brute turned its attention towards Luna as a stream of lava flowed from its hands that was aimed towards her.

Izroth moved swiftly and positioned himself right in between the Lava Brute and Luna. This made it so that the attack would be aimed at him instead of Luna. But unexpectedly, Izroth moved out of the way and evaded the attack as it continued on its path towards Luna.

At first, everyone was confused by Izroth's actions. Why did he just rush towards an attack as if he were going to block it only to move out of the way? Did he just feel like dodging something?

Fortunately, Izroth was not in the habit of performing such a wasteful action. Just as he successfully evaded the stream of fire, he instantly lifted his sword and stabbed it into the flames itself. Next, the strangest thing occurred. The stream of fire that was rushing to devour Luna had completely vanished.

However, Izroth's Sword of The Storm was now an orangish red color. It resembled the flames that it was just stabbed into. The next moment, the same stream of fire that was aimed at Luna, gushed out of Izroth's sword and roared fiercely as it traveled back towards the Lava Brute.

-4,595

The skill Izroth used to send the Lava Brute's attack right back at it was Sword Return from the Second Sword Form: Returning Wave. He infused it with some of his Essence to boost the overall effectiveness of the attack. After that, the Lava Brute's HP had dropped down to 10,963 points which was only around 7% of its total HP.

Immediately after completing the Sword Return, an oppressive and overbearing aura formed around Izroth's Sword of The Storm. The aura seemed even more aggressive than usual as faint essence energy formed around it.

Izroth followed up with his assault just as the Lava Brute's upper body inflated once again, however, before it could get its attack off, Izroth's blade sliced its body in half right down the middle.

Woosh!

-11,554

Izroth's First Baneful Sword: Destruction infused with sixteen points of his essence made it a devastating attack to stand against! He had dealt the finishing blow to the Lava Brute as it lost the heat of its body as the Fire Spirit could be seen diving back into the circle of melted together rocks.

The circle that was already down to only five meters in diameter had stopped decreasing as soon as the Fire Spirit entered inside. Then, it began to expand until it returned to being thirty meters in diameter.

"That last move when you gave that monster a taste of its own medicine was amazing! Is that another ability you created as a combat master?" Mirage spoke in a voice full of excitement. To be honest, she was just like most other players when it came to her opinion of combat masters. There was just no way anyone could be useful in the long term with such a class.

However, Izroth had converted her into a huge fan of the combat master class! Now, she even had regrets about not choosing it as her own class at the start. After all, the level of strength Izroth had shown so far was terrifying. Trash class? Useless? What did those players know?! This was the true power of a combat master! Not to even mention that final attack he used to finish the battle.

"Just something I've come across by chance." Izroth said in a carefree manner as he returned his Sword of The Storm to its sheath. He was not lying when he said he came across it by chance. In fact, he only learned the ten sword forms by chance back within the Seven Realms due to being at the right place at the right time on his cultivation journey.

"You must have good luck!" Mirage said jokingly. She believed that Izroth was simply being modest and did not want to come off as bragging.

〈System Alert: Congratulations, you have defeated the Spirit Possessed Lava Brute!〉

〈System Alert: Congratulations, you completed the hidden quest «Prove Your Worth!»〉

〈System Alert: You have been awarded 13,510 EXP!〉

'It's actually a hidden quest.'

Izroth was surprised. He figured that this was just the regular course of events for those who entered into the Blazing Temple. He had no idea that it was something as rare as a hidden quest!

Hidden quests were just as its name described it, quests that were hidden from the players and did not show up within their quest logs. There was no pattern or known way to discover that something was a hidden quest and the difficulty levels often varied. However, the rewards for completing a hidden quest were always amazing.

The salamander fire spirit suddenly reappeared before Izroth and his party.

"You are worthy! Worthy to enter into the halls!" The salamander spirit said as ten chests appeared before Izroth his and party.

"Choose one! One chance! This is your only chance, there will be none in the future." The salamander spirit said almost as if it were a demand.

"Choose? Wait a second, these are...!" Mirage was shocked when she saw the items residing within the chests.

"A 30% chance to grab a useful item, those are much better than looting odds." Luna commented.

The chests were crimson red in color with gold trimmings running along its sides. However, it was not the chests themselves that were important, but rather the items sitting inside the chest!

Seven of the chests were completely empty with nothing inside. One of the chests had a Fire Spirit inside of a Confinement Orb. It would be sure to fetch a nice price in the auction house since it would save players a lot of trouble. Another one of the chests actually contained a fire inscription stone!

With an inscription stone, players could grant their weapons or armor bonus effects depending on how powerful the inscription itself was. It was definitely a tempting offer, however, Izroth's eyes were focused onto a small orb the size of a fist with green flames dancing around inside of it.

'It's a fire core..!'