[Author's Note: Things are about to get nasty, be warned! Continue at your own risk.]

Asura was grimacing with pain, as the 'Fused Elemental Spell: Burning Gale' was too powerful for him to handle. "At least only the skin and a little flesh was burnt off, not the nerves and mana vessels..." Asura was relieved. When the abyssal flames poured out of his hand, he had almost pissed his pants from shock!

Sweats were pouring down his face, as he had to consume mana to maintain the 'Healing Water' spell while enduring the pain and smell of burnt flesh.

"Crricckk!" the sound of twigs breaking came from behind Asura. Fearing that a magical beast had snuck up onto him, Asura quickly condensed his mana all over his skin, making it as hard as steel. A split second later...

"Clang!"

If Asura had not reacted fast enough, his head would already be rolling on the floor! He could now feel a soreness on his neck. Turning his head around, he could see a black humanoid figure retreat into the darkness.

"Who are you?!" Asura shouted. He was starting to panic. Even though he had sparred often with Yong, both of them fought without the intent to kill. However, Asura could feel bloodlust radiating from the black figure!

"Whooooshhhhhhh" The black figure did not answer, and darted about in the darkness, as if it was a hunter waiting for its prey to show its weakness.

"Fireball!" Asura had already finished healing his right hand, and raised both palms facing his sides, and shot out Fireballs to light up the area.

"Whoooshhhhh!" The black figure retreated even further, as if it knew that Asura launched the fireballs to locate it.

All of this had happened in about five seconds. When the black figure first struck, Sanzu had already reacted, silently sweeping its wings and soared into the air, preparing to kill the black figure who was trying to kill Sanzu's dear friend.

Sanzu had to fly up slowly, so as to avoid alerting the black figure of Sanzu's presence. Finally reaching the peak of his ascension, Sanzu's made a U turn in the air, descending rapidly towards the black figure who had just gotten out of Asura's fireball range. The black figure was about to regain it's footing when it suddenly heard a screech coming from behind.

Almost reaching supersonic speed, Sanzu swooped down upon the black figure. Asura, who noticed what Sanzu was planning, was already converting his mana into two elements to use the 'Fused Elemental Spell: Burning Gale' in case Sanzu misses or if the black figure was too fast. He would only fire the spell right after Sanzu was out of its range.

Even though there were five white feathers on Sanzu, indicating that that he is currently a Variant magical beast of the fifth level, Asura was afraid that even Sanzu might not come out unharmed from the 'Burning Gale'.

"CLONG!" A sound as if two tough metals had clashed against each other rang out from between the black figure and Sanzu. Looking closer, Asura could see the black figure holding some sort of shield in one hand, and was raising his other hand, holding a shortsword....

"Sanzu, run!" Asura burst forth a wave of raw mana, pushing Sanzu out of the way. Now that Sanzu was out of range, Asura raised both his palms this time. "Double 'Fused Elemental Spell: Burning Gale'!!! BURRRNNNNNNN!!!" Asura laughed madly. He had recalled an internet meme from his former world while preparing this spell, and was prepaing to say it while using his spell.

Ever since Asura was born into this world, he had retained some sentiments. He felt that killing another human being was wrong, but now that he was fighting for his life, his personality had started to change.

"ROOOOOOAAAARRRRR!!!!!" The flames that had burst forth from each of his palms were several times bigger and hotter than what Asura had originally planned to release When he saw that the black figure actually had enough strength to block Sanzu's all out aerial attack, he converted his remaining mana into Wind and Fire elemental essences at the last second, thus increasing the attack power of 'Burning Gale' by ten times!

A 15 metres flame wall poured out from each of Asura's already melting palms, burning the entire marsh in the process. Even the waters were evaporating at a frightening speed.

"CAWWW!" Sanzu frantically flew out of the way, and was almost hit by the flame blast. As Asura had increased the power of the flame blast at the last second, he had completely forgotten that Sanzu was there, causing some of Sanzu's feathers to singe.

After the fire storm died down, Asura sluggishly walked towards the spot that the black figure had been at before he unleashed the 'Burning Gale'. Having spent almost all his mana, he barely had any energy left to move around. To make things worse, the fleshes around his arms had already been fried from the heat. Asura could no longer feel pain from his arms, except that the smell of burnt flesh almost made him vomit.

"I swear, I'm never ever gonna fucking use so much power for this spell again" Asura cursed to himself. He realized that the Fire element is the most destructive of the four elements, but it can also affect the user.

"This 'Burning Gale' technique, I will only use it as a last resort in the future..."

Finally reaching the spot where the black figure had been standing at, Asura could see chunks of flesh and organs strewn about. The air reeked of blood. It seemed that the air in the black figure's body had expanded too much, causing it's body to explode.

"Uuurreeghhhhh" Asura vomited at the sight. It was the first time he had seen body parts and organs strewn about. Large intestine, stomach, you name it.

"A-a-asu-ra-a-ah..."

The moan came from beside Asura. Finally calming down, Asura wiped his mouth with his sleeves and looked for the source of the voice. When he saw it, he had to resist with all of his willpower to prevent himself from throwing up again. At the source of the moan, was a legless body. Body parts and blood veins were slowly flowing out of the opening where the lower body had once been at.

Although most of the body was badly burnt, the face was still somewhat recognizable, and Asura gasped when he realized that the Black Figure was someone he knew....

Chapter 12: Confusion and Doubt