Chapter 185 184. How Unsightly For A Fire.

".....Be on guard, if you don't want to die, that is." Max mumbled as he glanced at Seo Hana and Elise Ryan.

'This man....' Sep Hana frowned in confusion, since she felt like Max was the one who changed the trajectory of the fireball. No! She was sure he was the one who changed it, because she felt the mana in the dungeon concentrate on Max's gloved left hand, which was in his pocket! It was only for a moment, but she was sure she felt the mana in the air concentrate around him! She was a rank-SS hero, so of course she is mana sensitive, and that kind of weird and abrupt change in mana would definitely alter her, but...

'How did he do it?' Seo Hana thought, since manipulating mana in the air 'is' 'impossible!'

She, too, had gained a trait.... No, more like a physic, Seo Hana had been through a 'body reformation' after she reached Rank-SS. Even though it was hard, she still managed to meet heroes of the same rank and confirm that, after getting into Rank-SS, the person will go through a 'body reformation' process and gain 'mana physic,' which had only two useful abilities: first, mana sensitivity increased by a lot, and the second is that 'mana protects the user!'

So none of the people know what kind of ability they would gain if they reached Rank-SSS, but everybody who has reached Rank-SS claims that at the next rank maybe they would have the ability to freely control the mana in the world! And.....that absurdity had happened right in front of her right now!!

"You..." Hana walked towards Max to ask about it; even if she had to use force, she would learn about it right now, and her determination and her desire started to manifest in her appearance; her killing intent, which was controlled in her body, started to seep out of it since she was unable to hold back her 'DESIRE' for power.

BOOM

Suddenly, a massive king cobra with pitch-black, abyss-like eyes and bright golden slits appeared out of nowhere. It had black, light blue, and crimson-red coloured shades on its scales, with a thin layer of a dark purple hue covering them all independently. And it zoomed towards Hana with its mouth wide open and its fangs looking like broad swords that could cut through everything, and before she could even react to the majestic being in front of her, it devoured her whole, and her whole world turned white.

THUMP

Seo Hana fell butt first to the ground while trembling in fear and sweating profusely as soon as everything around her returned to normal.

"Haa...haa...haa..." Seo Hana breathed heavily.

""Hana!?"" Elise and Alex rushed towards Hana, who was trembling like a wet puppy in the rain.

"What happened? Are you alright?" Elise asked while holding Hana's hands to support her.

'What.... just happened?' Seo Hana thought while trembling.

"....Are you alright?" Max's worried voice sounded in front of her; Hana instinctively flinched and gripped Elise's hands slightly. Because even though she was scared, she was still sane and knew that if she clenched Elise's hands tightly, they would break.

SWISH

Seo Hana saw a big gloved hand appear in front of her face; she flinched again, but she didn't get scared like a moment ago; however, that king cobra was still too vivid to recover completely. She slowly raised her head and looked at a handsome black-haired man's concerned face, which slightly warmed her heart; she opened her mouth to speak but was cut short by Alex Turner.

"You have nothing to worry about, you can go back and do your thing....." Alex Turner seemed pissed off about something as he glared at Max.

"Stop." Seo Hana 'ordered' Alex and before anybody could say anything, she continued.

"Thank you." Seo Hana ignored the gazes she was getting and took Max's hand, then stood back up with a bashful smile on her face.

"You're welcome, then." Max replied with a charming smile and turned around before walking towards Faye, and after Max was a few steps away from them....

"You. You are making a big scene of someone trying to help." Seo Hana turned to face Alex and scolded him because she was pissed off about how he behaved even though he was supposed to be a professional, but suddenly she noticed a bright green flame die down on Alex's shoulder. She thought she was seeing things because of the fear from whatever that king cobra from before was.

"N-no, I? Huh?" Alex abruptly started to act weird and looked around with a genuinely perplexed look on his face.

'Huh? What's with him?' Seo Hana frowned, inwardly.

"What's wrong?" Elise asked with a weird look on her face.

"Huh? N-no, nothing." Alex said and shook his head.

"Faye! Incoming." Max's roar was heard from the front, and everybody snapped out of their daze and started to take a battle position.

"We'll participate too!" Seo Hana commanded Elise and Alex before rushing towards Max as a strong heatwave began to emit from her back.

'Phoenix Wings!' Seo Hana muttered in her mind, and two metres of long, flaming wings protruded out of her back and lit all the nearby trees on fire, which instead of burning down started to create a beautiful fire show.

*

"Oh! Hahaha, it's warm; how unsightly for a fire." Max laughed at Seo Hana's flames, which seemed to dance on trees instead of burning them down.

"Hm? What's wrong with my fire?" Hana appeared next to Faye in an instant and asked with a smile on her face.

'This woman....has fallen for Max!' Faye realized as she felt a warm sensation from Hana's flame which engulfed her.

THUD (6x)

The sound of heavy footsteps sounded as ground trembled and trees were seen to be shaking in front of them, and soon they were able to see the huge feet of monsters whom they recognised as Orcs, and in front of them were small goblins that were rushing towards them with a crazed expression on their faces, and they assumed it would be the same with the Orcs whose faces they weren't able to see yet. The scene seemed like the goblins were running away from the Orcs if not for their expression.

"They have gone berserk." Max mumbled and continued.

"Anyway, let me show you what a real fire is." Max said with smirk on his face.

WHOOSH

A 'hot' fist-sized fireball of reddish orange with black tips materialised above his gloved left index finger, which produced thick black smoke as it continued to 'burn.' Max took a left-handed baseball throwing stance and threw the fireball towards the hoard of monsters. The weird thing was that the fireball left behind black, circular wind pressure as it flew forward without dying down.

BOOM

The fireball hit a goblin's face and exploded out, approximately 5 feet wide in all directions, and incinerated everything, leaving behind only a 7-foot-wide black, burned-out area; everything Max's fireball engulfed was incinerated.

"See? Now that's what a fire should be like!"