Bull Charge, that's what Shen Zuo named the new Phantom after testing it out for a few days, taken by its sudden burst of power and the push it gave him in critical moments.
A few more weeks passed as he finished off what remained of his Level Two beast quota, advancing steadily toward the end with every passing day, his skills and resilience growing stronger each time.
And finally... the last week arrived.
The day he'd decided to face the lion.
He woke up earlier than ever before, his body alert, his mind silent.
He turned his eyes toward the bird and said calmly, as though the matter were nothing worth getting worked up over:
"You know what you need to do today."
The hawk didn't answer, just flapped its wings, and the two of them took off together... without hesitation, toward the battle.
A few hours later, Shen Zuo and the hawk reached the location. Shen Zuo stayed back, about a hundred meters away, watching in silence as he waited for the fight to begin.
The hawk wasted no time, striking straight from above, its sharp feathers and exploding fireballs raining down toward the ground.
The target was there... the lion.
A beast standing like a mountain of flame and fury. Its massive body was coated in dark red fur fading to black at the edges, as though fire had eaten through its hide and then frozen along its boundaries. Its muscles bulged unnaturally; every step it took left a deep crater in the ground. Its head was at least twice the size of an ordinary lion's, and its eyes glowed a dark orange holding absolutely no mercy. The fangs protruding from its mouth were long as blades, with an ominous aura surrounding it, as though the air itself was slowly burning around it.
It stood firm, unmoving despite the barrage of attacks, as though it didn't even acknowledge the existence of an opponent worth any caution. Its silence was more terrifying than any other beast's roar.
The battle began with crushing force.
Red flame erupted from the lion's mouth like long arms stretching toward the sky, claws of living fire trying to seize the flying hawk. The heat alone was enough to scorch the air around it, and yet, the hawk maneuvered skillfully, its feathers gleaming under the glow of the flames, dodging those fiery arms that nearly caught it more than once.
The lion wasn't just some giant beast; it was a walking volcano. Every roar sent ripples through the ground, every step dug a deep crater.
The hawk countered with relentless attacks: sharp feathers and fiery stones that exploded on approach to the lion.
But the red flame kept up the chase, pursuing the hawk without mercy, as though the lion's will accepted nothing less than the total incineration of everything flying before it.
The lion wasn't relying on flame alone... something strange began changing within its body.
Suddenly, its deep red color began gradually shifting to an even darker shade of black, as though charcoal was coating its fur from the inside.
Its eyes ignited with a faded crimson, and the air around it grew heavier... then suddenly, the ground beneath it burst open with narrow cracks, hot smoke rising from them.
Small columns of flame emerged from these cracks, burning circles exploding around its body. The angrier it grew, the more these cracks spread, until it looked like the center of a volcano.
A new ability had emerged...
"Magma Core": an ability that turned the ground itself into a weapon fighting alongside it. The flame didn't just come from its mouth; it erupted randomly from every crack in the ground within its control, creating an entire death zone under its command.
As for the hawk, after nearly getting caught in one of the flame's grips, it let out a piercing cry unlike any it had made before.
At that moment... the air around its wings began shimmering with a pure blue, then it flapped its wings at an unbelievable speed, and spectral wings of pure energy appeared behind it, tripling its speed.
The ability's name: "Mirage Wing," an ability that let it move at maximum speed and appear at different points in the air, leaving behind a mirage that was nearly impossible to track.
Shen Zuo watched everything from a distance.
The bird was finally taking this seriously.
The lion was focused entirely on killing everything in front of it... and the ground itself seemed to be bending to its will.
This fight was no longer just a fight...
It was a full display of Level Three power, in every sense of the word.
Shen Zuo took a step back, feeling the heat of the air sting his skin despite the distance.
The heat kept climbing steadily, as though the entire ground was turning into an open furnace. Even the rocks he stood on began heating up beneath his feet.
Damn it.
Shen Zuo whispered, gripping his axe tightly.
He watched the bird circle rapidly above the lion, using its Mirage Wing for cover, while the ground kept exploding nonstop around the massive beast's body.
Shen Zuo pulled back further, behind a dead tree, knowing full well that getting any closer right now would bring him nothing but death.
Alright... let's let this idiot wear the lion down enough first.
Shen Zuo thought, watching with sharp focus, waiting for the right opportunity.
The lion's roar echoed through the forest like some legendary creature torn straight out of hell itself. Its massive paws slammed the ground, shaking the soil, cracking the stones beneath its glowing claws. Its red flame stretched out like near-living tongues of fire, bursting from its mouth, its eyes, and between its massive fangs, as though it were a moving volcano.
In the sky, the hawk wasn't its usual calm self this time. Its wings now glowed with a burning blue, and it let out a sharp cry that tore through the air before launching its attack.
Fireballs tinged with dark blue and black exploded from its wings, crashing into the ground around the lion and detonating with a deafening sound, but the beast didn't retreat. The lion spun at a speed unfitting for its size, its four legs tracing fiery circles as it leapt toward the hawk with unexpected force.
Shen Zuo, from his distant spot, felt an unbearable wave of heat hit him despite the massive distance, forcing him to retreat even further.
"Damn it... this isn't just some Level Three lion..."
He felt his body breaking out in heavy sweat, his hands gripping the axe until his knuckles turned white.
The lion suddenly used a new ability. Red flame formed around its claws, taking the shape of curved blades, each strike leaving a scorched trail in the air, fiery lines igniting behind it.
The hawk tried to dodge, but took a gash across its left wing, burnt feathers scattering along with the sharp cry it let out.
It didn't stop.
The hawk answered with another attack, unleashing something like a miniature storm of hardened feathers wrapped in blue flame. This time, the feathers were faster, sharp enough to split stone, and several exploded against the lion's body, its hide beginning to crack and catch fire more and more.
Shen Zuo watched the scene, teeth grinding against each other:
"If I take even one hit from that thing... I'd turn to ash. No room for error."
But he noticed something... the lion, despite its strength, was gradually slowing down. Its flame wasn't as powerful as it had been at the start. Its breathing had grown heavy, every roar scorching its own throat a little more.
"It's burning itself out."
Shen Zuo thought, narrowing his eyes.
"But the question is... will it fall before it crushes the both of us first?"
The lion's growl rumbled out again, the ground beneath its feet cracking as though a miniature earthquake had erupted. A faint-colored vortex of flame exploded from its body, not just red, but mixed with blue and violet, an energy that seemed to be draining everything around it. The air itself caught fire; distant trees burned even from a significant distance away.
But the hawk was no less dangerous.
Its eyes suddenly shifted to a bright turquoise, and its wings began pulsing as though pumping in new strength. The feathers around it grew longer and sturdier... then began to transform.
A transparent spherical aura appeared around the hawk, a small power field that reflected the flame attacks whenever they got close. In the next instant, the hawk released a shockwave of energy from its wings, as though the air itself had exploded outward.
But it staggered, its claws plowing into the ground as it retreated for the first time.
Then, the lion took a new step forward, its hide darkening even further, nearly a reddish black, its claws extending even longer, their tips igniting with a faint flame. Suddenly, it let out a roar...
A fiery spear shot out from its mouth, a straight line of concentrated flame, surging toward the hawk at insane speed.
The lion held firm...
The hawk couldn't fully dodge it; one of its wings partially burned, but it kept its balance.
It countered with another volley of feathers... but this time, the feathers twisted around each other, forming shapes resembling giant arrowheads, and when they struck the lion, they didn't explode on impact, but embedded themselves deep inside... and a few seconds later, detonated all at once from within.
The lion howled in pain, its body's flame scattering for a moment, but it didn't fall.
Instead, it unleashed a new ability: rings of fire formed around it like burning chains circling its body. Anything that got close would set these rings off, exploding instantly.
The hawk changed its approach once again, unleashing a windstorm mixed with burnt feathers from its wings. It wasn't just attacking anymore; it had begun controlling the wind itself... redirecting the air, bending the flame's path, turning it partially back against the lion.
Shen Zuo watched the scene, mouth half-open.
"...what kind of fight even is this?"
The lion, despite everything, began slowly tiring. The flame around it grew lighter in color, its breathing ragged.
But the lion wasn't the only one showing the toll of this long battle... even the hawk, despite its agility and unreal speed, had started breathing a little faster, the glow of its blue eyes dimming by a barely noticeable degree.
The lion still stood tall, its body's flame dancing with fury, its muscles contracting and swelling with every breath, but it too wasn't the same as when it started. The molten drip from its fangs and fiery claws had grown less intense, but its power... its power was still a raging hell in its own right.
The hawk didn't stop. It raised its wings upward and let out a strange cry from its beak that tore through the air... and instead of ordinary feathers, several glossy black feathers shot out, each one carrying an energy different from before, a cold, sharp energy, as though it could shatter the air itself.
The lion didn't retreat, leaping high instead, its four limbs wrapped in flame. This time, its body generated shockwaves of fire that surged out with every leap, as though it were a living bomb in motion. The ground shook more than once, burning fragments scattering in every direction.
The battle kept escalating further and further.
Collision... dodge... explosions.
Every time the lion tried to catch the hawk between its claws or its blazing jaw, the hawk survived by some miracle... but not without a cost.
Signs of exhaustion began to show, nothing more. Slightly slower movement. Faint breathing, barely audible.
But the two of them... were still beasts, in the full strength of their
power.
From a distance, Shen Zuo raised his hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead, saying to himself:
"This is... a completely different level entirely..."