The Black Necromancer

Fenrir let out a deep breath as he stalked through the dark cave system. He had yet to come across a single monster after splitting with Leon, but he knew it was only a matter of time. In fact, he already felt them stalking all around him, and although he could not do anything against them at this time, the moment they exposed themselves, he would never let them have the opportunity to escape.

"Stop the dignified hunter act... It's cringeworthy." Ignis snorted as he walked past Fenrir.

"Shut your mouth, horse!" Fenrir growled angrily. He flicked his tail with irritation and slipped back into his concentrated state of mind. His ears flicked and his tail twitched with each shift of mana in the air around him.

'There it is!' He exclaimed mentally as he felt the mana shift in certain parts of the tunnel. It was as if a sudden whirlpool had manifested and began to gather the mana in specific regions. Ignis also paused for a split second before carrying on as if he did not notice anything. He did not want to alert these smart foes.

From the darkness, strange beings emerged, although they were well hidden by a high level skill that allowed them to hide within the darkness and shadows.

The moment the flow of enemies ceased under Fenrir's powerful senses, he sprung into action.

Awoooo!

An ear piercing howl shook the stone walls that surrounded them. Ice sprung up all around, not just from underneath Fenrir, but even from the walls that were far from him. The ice he spawned had special isolating effects that prevented the shadowy monsters from slipping back into the pocket space that they had been dwelling in.

"Good pup, I'll take care of it from here." Ignis smirked in a horsy way and stepped forward, his mane flaring with red fire. Indeed, he was not too wrong. Fire was one of the worst banes of anything shadow. However, that did not mean that Fenrir lacked his own means.

"You are too slow." Fenrir opened his mouth wide and a suction force was instantly formed.

Whoosh!

Several shadowy monsters were pulled into his mouth, instantly dissolving into nothing as he willed them to be destroyed within his bottomless belly.

[Level 78 Shadow Tentacle Beast killed. You have leveled up!]

"What?! Since when have you been able to do that?" Ignis was so stunned that he forgot to launch his attack. Several fiery whips swayed over his head as they awaited his command on what to do.

"Heh, do you think I've been laying on my belly and doing nothing ever since I started following our new master? I thought of a new move that I could have used to defeat him back then when we fought. This is what I came up with. A skill called Devourer." Fenrir explained smugly.

This skill that he had painstakingly developed had the potential to become something so feared that anyone who heard the name Fenrir would tremble under their sheets. If he was able to grow it into the powerful finisher that he had envisioned, then he would be basically unstoppable! He would be able to devour any spell or attack that was hurled his way, along with the caster of any such attacks!

"You're not the only one who developed a new skill!" Ignis felt that he would be overshadowed and quickly revealed something that he had also been working on by himself.

The whips of fire suddenly condensed together as he cancelled that skill and activated another. One. The red flames burned hotter as it collapsed on itself, turning into something molten that burned the air and mana itself.

"Huh? Anyone with a high enough skill level can condense fire. Are you pulling my tail?!" Fenrir was so shocked by how bland Ignis' skill looked, but the Flaming Steed King ignored him and focused on what he was doing.

The air suddenly burned hotter all at once as the condensed flames that had turned into molten lava sprayed forward in a jet of magma that burned into the walls and floor all around. Fenrir opened his mouth to mock Ignis, but before he could, the final part of Ignis' grand skill finally activated.

Beings made out of the molten magma that had been sprayed all around, as well as created as the magma broke down the earth all around, suddenly rose up.

"What?! You can summon elementals to fight for you?!" Fenrir was completely stunned.

Indeed, it was just as he said. Ignis had summoned high level flame elementals that had changed into a higher form to fight for him! He had summoned about a dozen of them, and they were already mowing through the shadowy monsters even though they had only just been summoned!

"The master's style inspired me to do something similar." Fenrir boasted a bit, but still praised Leon as he did so.

Although this skill was very strong, one thing that he needed to be careful about was the fact that he needed a lot of mana to activate the spell at full power, which he had just done. Unlike Leon, whose mana never seemed to run out, Ignis' mana reserves were not so exaggerated. Just this activation had nearly eaten up half of his mana reserves! Not only that, but also sustaining the continuous activation of the spell was quite taxing.

Ignis glanced at Fenrir covertly to see if the Ice Wolf King had noticed anything off with his mana flow. He did not want Fenrir to mock him. Pride was one thing that Ignis took very seriously.

Fortunately for him, Fenrir did not pay anymore attention to him. Instead, he was busy thinking of how he could advance his skill and make it even stronger. Maybe one day he could swallow an entire kingdom on Leon's behalf!

Right now, the two summons had only just revealed their skills to someone else. They would keep on refining the skill and raising its level, so when they finally showed Leon, they could receive the praise that they wanted.