Noah didn't hesitate to spit his flames. His fire spread through the underground area and covered its walls. Painful screams followed his attack, but his eyes didn't leave the cloud.
His flames burned part of that dense breeding ground, but that didn't help his situation. More shadowy moles came out of the cloud and transformed into actual magical beasts before shooting toward him.
Noah limited himself to spit more flames. Those creatures couldn't cross past his innate ability while his ambition empowered his centers of power. They could only die inside that destructive, fiery sea.
However, the moles never stopped trying to leap past the flames. They even suppressed their transformation into actual beasts to continue flying.
Even that turned out to be pointless against Noah's innate ability. Rank 7 magical beasts couldn't do anything against the flames fueled by his ambition. The upper tier specimens could survive for a few seconds, but they eventually transformed back into shadows.
The flames also burned the shadows and prevented them from rejoining the cloud. The breeding ground began to shrink while that process continued. It seemed that Noah's actions were slowly destroying it.
The focus of the rank 8 mole was still on Noah, but the creature didn't show up in that underground area. The beast was fighting the other leaders, so it couldn't crawl toward Noah to defend its home.
Noah had the chance to leave the area, but his curiosity didn't let him move. He had every intention to turn the mole into a Blood Companion, so he wanted to learn more about that species.
The breeding ground started to condense at that point. It couldn't fight Noah's flames, so it resorted to a different approach. Its gas took the shape of a large mole, and its shadow slowly crawled out of the cloud.
The new shadow soon radiated a rank 8 aura. Its power spread through the underground aura and triggered Noah's survival instincts. The cloud had decided to give birth to a new leader to fend off that threat.
Noah quickly retreated. Part of him wanted to test his new power against a rank 8 magical beasts, but his instincts suppressed those thoughts. Noah felt that even his new prowess wouldn't be enough to defeat creatures at that level.
Noah transformed into a black blade that released dark matter as he pierced the walls to fly toward the surface. His little experiment was over.
Noah's innate awareness suddenly warned him that something big was about to crash on his position. He had yet to come out of the underground world, so he deployed the unstable substance to face that new threat.
The rocky walls around Noah crumbled when that threat reached him. Three large figures appeared in his view. The three leaders had moved their battle next to him, but the rank 8 mole didn't seem interested in that fight.
The creature had eyes only for Noah. It even suffered injuries since its attention wasn't on its two opponents.
Noah did his best to leave the area, but the rank 8 monkey launched an attack before he could fly away. Its chest inflated before a dense soundwave shot out of its mouth.
The attack targeted the rank 8 mole, but the shockwaves that it released reached Noah and flung him away. That force interrupted his movement technique and slammed him into a wall, making him spit a few mouthfuls of blood.
'Dammit!' Noah cursed in his mind as Snore covered his figure.
Noah didn't want to attack the three leaders. The creatures could decide to take care of him first if he made them aware of his existence.
Snore launched a dark beam in the opposite direction of the three leaders, and the rocks on his path shattered. A tunnel formed in less than an instant and Noah quickly flew inside it.
The rank 8 mole continued to lead the battle toward Noah, and the newborn leader did the same. Yet, the rank 8 wolf and monkey didn't let the two creatures do as they wished, so Noah eventually managed to resurface.
When Noah pierced the surface, he noticed that the environment had transformed. A sea of flames covered the ground, and the painful cries of the three packs filled the sky.
A fireball suddenly flew toward Noah, but he destroyed it with a simple punch. That attack carried a familiar power. It was part of Fergie's spell.
"What are you even doing?" Noah shouted as he shot upward.
The entirety of the battlefield appeared in his eyes at that point. Noah could finally notice that three sun-like structures floated above the surface and launched fireballs toward anything that could move among the sea of flames.
A second fireball shot toward Noah, but a figure appeared on its path and endured the might of the blow. Fergie had intercepted the attack as soon as he noticed his leader. An annoyed expression appeared on his fuming face after he turned to look at Noah.
"I have yet to learn how to control it fully," Fergie said. "It's powerful, but it doesn't like when I try to suppress it."
"We have to run," Noah said, cutting short Fergie's excuses.
Noah could sense the four rank 8 magical beasts quickly nearing his position. The two moles didn't stop focusing on him even after he resurfaced. They could even control their battle better now that there were two of them.
Fergie eventually sensed the four rank 8 magical beasts and shot toward the sky. Noah transformed into a black blade and followed him, but two large figures imitated him.
The two rank 8 moles had managed to reach the spot under Noah after he set off. They instantly jumped and spread their claws toward his figure, and one of them touched him.
The impact with the claw interrupted the movement technique and flung Noah away. He crashed on the ground and noticed that a long cut had appeared on his torso. That short clash with a rank 8 creature had caused injuries that an entire pack of moles didn't manage to inflict.
The two moles leaped toward Noah once they touched the ground. A frenzy filled their expression, and anger seeped out of their eyes. They even trampled some of the moles that had survived Fergie's flames to reach Noah faster.
Noah glanced at the long cut on his torso before moving his eyes back on the two rank 8 moles. Determination appeared on his face, and bloodlust filled his surroundings. The white blade also returned inside the separate space before a black handle came out of his chest.
Noah drew the cursed sword and crossed his arms. The blades cut his robe as they slid over his sides to launch a piercing attack.
The blades drew a cross in the air, and an invisible beam shot out of them. The two rank 8 moles didn't let the power released by Noah's figure scare them, but they couldn't ignore the force that slammed on their heads.
The attack forced the two moles to stop. It even tried to push them back, but those creatures stabbed their claws on the ground to endure the blow.
Noah didn't remain there to watch the outcome of his attack. His chest had exploded when the singularity landed on the moles. His rib cage was in the open, and a river of blood flowed out of it.
Once Noah reached Fergie, he turned to inspect the two rank 8 moles. A white mark had appeared on their heads, but their skin was fine. The attack didn't manage to pierce their bodies.