Perfected

"Would you like to advance to Beginning Perfected?" Pyra asked.

Emile didn't answer immediately. He didn't need to catch his breath, but he wanted to mentally review the battle with the snake before moving on.

Comparatively, his match against the python utilized far more resources than any of his other bouts. He used Nimbus multiple times and for multiple purposes: he used it to evade attacks, to charge into attacks, and to strengthen his own attacks.

Of course, it was a proper and successful use of his charm, the issue lies in its drain on his essence. In a controlled space such as Hell's Training, Emile can use every last ounce of his essence to defeat his opponent.

After all, they're all one against one. And although Pyra hasn't mentioned it, Emile suspected Pyra would stop the beasts from killing him in the first place. This was a place made for training.

Killing her masters' successors while they accumulated strength made no sense for the longevity of the clan, or whatever system the first king had implemented.

That being said, Emile was encouraged to push himself and drain his essence. The finest levels of growth manifest during times of exorbitant stress, Emile understood that.

But right now he was testing his ability on the fly, so to speak. He wants to know how well he'll perform given no preparations.

If he's ambushed somewhere or finds himself in an unexpected, perilous situation, how well can he perform with only his natural reflexes and instincts?

So to utilize so much of his ability on one Enlightened foe, although Late Enlightened, Emile is disappointed in himself.

He thought he would do better.

Returning from his brainstorm, Emile asked Pyra to summon the python once more. Knowing what he knows how, how simple could the fight have been?

The oversized snake slithered out of the lava and onto the stone. Like before, it hugged the edge of the arena and coiled itself in a defensive position.

It hissed hysterically at Emile and swung its tail around, conjuring the fireball already. Emile stood still, watching the snake's movements, reading the flow of the beast.

The fireball soared and Emile activated Nimbus. He flew past the fireball and arrived in front of the snake.

It skipped the hissing and immediately lunged for Emile, its jaw stretched wide open and its fangs excessively protruded.

Emile didn't retreat, instead he leaned into the snake's strike and narrowly leaned to the right, moving his head out of the snake's strike zone.

At the same time, Emile gripped his sword with his left hand and met the snake's strike. His sword plunged into the snake's gaping maw, piercing through the roof of its mouth and penetrating its brain.

Unfortunately, one of the beast's fangs also sunk into Emile's shoulder, but Emile's attack managed to slay the beast.

[Enlightened Infernas Python Slain]

The python evaporated and Emile's sword dropped from its lodging in the creature's skull. Meanwhile, a gaping hole over an inch in diameter splurged blood from Emile's shoulder.

It burned incessantly, sending striking pains through the course of his body. It felt as though lava itself invaded his blood stream and was melting his blood vessels as it was pushed around his body.

After a minute or so of excruciating pain, the familiar cooling sensation of his healing washed over him. And after another minute, Emile felt back to normal.

Even though Emile suffered an injury from that bout, he felt a lot better about it than the first one. He could have used Nimbus a couple more times to evade the pythons strike, launching him to the right and once the beast's strike concluded he could have flashed once more above the creature and pierced its eye like before; but the point of the second match was to see how little essence Emile could expel while defeating the snake as fast as possible.

In that regard, Emile did quite well.

After waiting a bit for his essence to fully recover, Emile accepted Pyra's offer to advance to the Beginning Perfected stage. Before the creature spawned, Emile preemptively entered a defensive position.

He's seen Perfected beasts out in the world, even King class beasts, but he knows Perfected is the start to qualitative changes. It's the stage that marks the beginning of ascension, as expressed via one's Gift undergoing an evolution.

With that being said, Perfected creatures offer a considerable jump in difficulty so Emile couldn't afford to be careless.

Meanwhile, Pyra stepped off the stone arena and walked into the lava. Instead of sinking into the inferno, however, she walked along the surface of the lava and continued to walk further out into the sea.

Eventually she stopped and knelt down. She placed her small palms on the surface of the lava and began pulling the lava higher.

The arena shook. The walls surrounding the sea of flames crumbled and small rocks fell from the ceiling.

Out in the sea of lava, tons of smaller stone platforms began to surface like lily pads in a pond. The new stone platforms were smaller than the arena, but were still large enough to hold multiple bodies.

The shaking subsided and Pyra stood up. She turned around to face Emile, a smile spread across her cheeks, and spoke:

"This is the new stage you'll be training in! I encourage you to take advantage of the smaller rock islands as you may need them in the upcoming battles! Anyway, good luck!"

The lava flow suddenly picked up, it sloshed around the islands and bubbled over in multiple places. From those places, stone arms poked out of the sea and gripped the stone floor.

Pulling themselves from the depths, three stone men clad in samurai armor emerged onto the stone islands. Each one stood atop their own little island and each one occupied a different direction.

Together, they perfectly surrounded Emile. In order to look at one, he had to look away from the other two.

The three stone warriors simultaneously pulled a bow from their back and knocked an arrow in their bowstring. They each took aim, pointing the arrow directly towards Emile's head.

Emile watched as all of this happened, momentarily at a loss for words.

'Three?'

'Why are there three of them?!'