Chapter 495: Bestial Fusion

As Joshua prepared to charge over and begin the process of ending this match before it could draw on for too long, he noticed that Thomas's demeanor changed. Although his opponent had put away his weapons it was clear to Joshua that Thomas was up to a new trick that was likely to be something Joshua hadn't seen him do yet or even in his previous matches. Joshua decided to proceed cautiously just in case one of Thomas's pets could use traps in a way that he hadn't realized up to this point, but Joshua knew that something different was going on when he saw Thomas step back and unsummon his squirrel beast companion.

The current situation seemed to leave Thomas wide open for any types of attacks since he no longer had his weapons at the ready and the beast companion that was boosting his stats, to the point where he could fight decently in close combat, was gone. Joshua took notice of the fact that Thomas didn't unsummon his other beast companion and instead the large fox had stepped up next to his partner preparing to strike at Joshua the moment he tried to go on the attack. Thomas then leaped up onto the back of the giant fox and held onto his fur preparing for a bumpy ride.

Joshua didn't understand why Thomas was planning on basically letting his beast companion fight Joshua on its own, but it didn't take long for Joshua to notice a shift in the fox that the crowd eventually picked up on as well. The fox's fur started to grow out and stand on end as its body grew slightly in size with its muscles growing larger and more dense based off of the cracks in the arena floor that were occurring beneath the giant fox's claws. The fur of the fox started to change into a crimson red with bright orange steaks throughout that created unique patterns. The amount of aura and mana that was pouring off the creature at the moment was palpable as it eyes glowed brightly and it glared down at Joshua.

The original flames that Joshua occasionally saw appear around the creatures tails was now all over its lower body as well with only the fur up on its back currently not lit aflame. The fox then smashed its foot in to the ground and pieces of the arena floated up into the air and started to form a make shift armor around the beast, The high heat of the intense flames from the fox melted the stone and twisted it to form armor all along the creatures body in key spots that would have given Joshua an easy opportunity to take it down. Even so Joshua doubted the creature had lost much of its speed based off of the muscle it had gained to carry around the new weight in its sudden transformation.

When the creature had finished its show of evolution Joshua could only wonder why the fox would hold back its form all this time. If this were something that Thomas could have had his beast companion do from the start then why would he wait until now after his beast had been slightly injured and Joshua had seen most of its abilities? It was also odd that Thomas put away his other beast companion when it could have likely boosted the fox to be even more powerful if it was still on the battlefield. The only answer Joshua could think of was that all of this must have had something to do with Thomas's soul beast in some way. He was utilizing an ability to power up his strongest beast companion, but it looked like he had to maintain all of his focus on keeping his fox at the height of combat instead of having multiple beast companions out at the same time.

Joshua wasn't given much more time to think of such things as the large fox sprinted over towards him at a much higher speed than before. Each step it took on the arena seemed to leave the stone floor crumbled and melted from the weight of the creature and the high heat of its flames. Joshua quickly raised his scale blade as the large fox tried to smash him into the ground with its new strength, but Joshua was easily able to take the blow and hold its arm up off the ground. The heat that was constantly pouring off the beast causing Joshua to sweat and he could fill that if he stayed in close contact with it for long it would start to burn him without even touching him. If Joshua was using his aura cloak he wouldn't have to worry about such things, but without it Joshua couldn't spend too much time clashing with the beast like this before taking on unnecessary risk.

Joshua knocked the large beast's claw aside and was prepared for the follow up attack as the fox started to breathe fire down directly towards him. He quickly spun his blade in front of himself at high speeds knocking aside all of the flames before leaping away and avoiding another large claw that tried to slam him into the ground. After landing Joshua charged towards the beast's side and slashed across the molten rock that was covering its body to test and see how strong it was. His scale blade was able to break off large chunks of the molten rock, but with a casual swing Joshua wasn't able to hit the creature's actual body. He was going to have to get time for a more powerful hit and the fact that the fox was already creating space between them only allowed him time to get in the one swipe, Joshua wasn't sure he'd have an easy time getting in the clean hit he was looking for.

The fox opened its mouth wide as a large fireball was sent flying towards Joshua who responded with an energy slash that cut it in half and sent the two parts off course. The fireball didn't seem to get all that much stronger after the fox had changed, but it was able to create them extremely quickly instead of having to charge them up. The fox kept shooting out more of the large fireballs trying to keep Joshua at a distance, but he was easily able to either avoid them or cut them down. The fox seemed weary of Joshua getting to close after seeing him easily break through a portion of its armor, so it planned on using its ranged advantage to try to take him down or at least injure him.

Thomas and his beast companion's plan seemed to be fairly simple and wouldn't work for much longer if that was all they were currently doing, but Joshua highly doubted that was the case after seeing how crafty the young beast tamer could occasionally be. After cutting down another fireball Joshua sensed something off with the arena. It was as if something was moving through the ground in his direction and it was getting closer and closer. Joshua kept his aura senses up to keep an eye on that while he turned to look at the fox to see what was going on. The beast was still creating large fireballs with its mouth to send over in his direction, but its two tails were currently drilled into the arena instead of swaying in the air like usual.

From what Joshua had seen throughout the match it was clear that the fox's tails were able to create far more powerful flames than the rest of its body, so Joshua knew whatever the tails were doing underground were the fox's real attack strategy. After dodging another fireball Joshua could feel whatever was happening underground finally coming to fruition. The entire time Joshua had slowly gotten closer to the fox even with the barrage of fireballs, but he wasn't close enough to do really any damage to the fox or Thomas without using a skill that he didn't want to show off at this point. The moment Joshua stepped onto the arena after leaping out of the way of a fireball he could feel the surge of mana shooting up out of the ground and he kicked off the ground just as a large explosion of molten rock and flames shot out of the arena floor directly where Joshua would have been if he didn't react quickly.

It looked as if a small volcano had erupted out of the ground and from what Joshua could sense it wasn't the only trap lying in wait for him. Joshua grinned a bit and looked over to the fox that continued to shoot fireballs at him, but Joshua didn't want to waste any more time in this match. He still had four more matches to get through and that was just for the day. Instead of letting Thomas and his beast companion to continue to dictate the pace Joshua let out a wave of killing intent that used the glaring difference in level to his advantage. In that instant the fox's body froze up for a second, but that was all Joshua needed to throw off its pacing. In that second Joshua started to dash forward while using his aura sense to feel out any of the pockets of energy coming from underneath the arena.

The fox regathered itself as its fur started to bristle and it started to send more fireballs in Joshua's direction, but Joshua had already gotten on the move and recognized the fox's patterns of attack. Joshua would run close to one of the lava traps in the ground only to dodge around it at the last second. Occasionally he'd trigger one of the lava plumes just to block a fireball as he got closer to the fox and that seemed to cause the creature to get even more aggressive with combinations of large and small fireballs hurled in Joshua's direction constantly. None of them mattered as Joshua picked up speed and closed in on the fox, the second he got close the fox pulled its tails out of the ground and tried to swipe them towards him with fanning flames, but Joshua leaped over all of that and ignored the fox entirely.

While up in the air Joshua quickly sent an energy slash towards the concentrating Thomas who had his eyes closed and watched as he was cut down and the fox vanished from the arena. Whatever the ability Thomas had been using was powerful to strengthen his beast companion by so much, but it was also a double edged sword leaving him wide open for obvious attacks. The crowd grew loud after seeing such an entertaining fight early in the day and Joshua gave them all a short wave and smile before he was taken away from the arena and had to wait for his next match.