Chapter 2158 - 2158: Protos' First Battle

"Don't panic. Use your skills wisely."

Ajax calmly reminded Protos from the side.

"Yes, Summoning Master!"

Seeing the Flaming Monkey approaching, Protos immediately used his second skill.

[Flame Explosion]!

The incoming Flaming Monkey didn't expect such a low-level Elemental Spirit to have another skill, which caught it off guard.

'Boom!'

A concentrated flame exploded in front of the Flaming Monkey, sending it flying backwards.

A few more marks appeared on its crystalline body.

However, the Flaming Monkey was still far from being seriously injured.

'Keech! Keech!'

The Flaming Monkey shrieked repeatedly as though calling for help.

Unfortunately, with Ajax standing nearby, none of the other Flaming Monkeys dared to approach.

Realising that it was all alone and no help was coming, the Flaming Monkey suddenly turned around and tried to escape.

"Fight!"

Ajax instantly used his Celestial Void Steps to block its escape route and forced it to turn back towards Protos.

With no other choice, the Flaming Monkey could only fight.

Actually, if it focused entirely on fighting the Elemental Spirit Child, it was confident that it could kill him.

However, its attention had been divided between fighting Protos and escaping from Ajax.

Now that escape was impossible, the Flaming Monkey decided to fight to the death.

'Swoosh!'

With a sudden change in its behaviour, the Flaming Monkey lunged towards Protos again.

Protos immediately used [Flame Explosion].

However, this time, the Flaming Monkey easily dodged the attack and swiped its sharp claws towards him.

Protos didn't have enough time to dodge. Therefore, he could only raise his left hand to block the incoming claws.

'Slash!'

The sharp claws cleanly severed his left hand.

"AAARGH!"

Protos screamed in pain.

It was the first injury he had received since his birth.

Looking at his severed hand, the Elemental Spirit Child was momentarily stunned and groaned in pain.

Meanwhile, the Flaming Monkey shrieked excitedly, as it was fully confident that it could kill the Elemental Spirit Child in front of it.

'Keech! Keech!'

It mocked Protos as it prepared to attack again.

However, to its surprise, Protos stopped groaning in pain and suddenly smiled.

'What?'

Before the Flaming Monkey could understand what was happening, Protos's eyes flashed with determination.

[Flame Body]!

'Swiish!'

A blazing fire halo enveloped Protos's tiny body.

His remaining Essence of Nature was rapidly consumed as the Unique Skill activated.

Until then, Protos had used only about five to six percent of his Essence of Nature during the fight.

However, activating [Flame Body] consumed 90 percent of his remaining Essence of Nature, leaving him with only a tiny amount.

Soon, the aura surrounding Protos changed.

Although his body didn't grow larger, the flames covering him became much more intense, and the Fire Essence of Nature gathered around him became terrifyingly powerful.

The Flaming Monkey was confused by the change.

'Keech?'

It couldn't understand why the Elemental Spirit Child, who had just lost an arm, was suddenly smiling and looking extremely confident.

However, Protos didn't give it any time to think.

[Inferno Flame Arrow]!

It was not one but three this time.

Three blazing arrows appeared before Protos and shot towards the Flaming Monkey.

'Swiish!'

'Swiish!'

The Flaming Monkey easily dodged the first arrow, and it even dodged the second arrow as well.

'Puchi!'

However, the third arrow arrived too quickly for it to evade.

'Kacha!'

The arrow struck its crystalline body, and a huge crack appeared across the Flaming Monkey's body!

Both the Flaming Monkey and Ajax were shocked by the result.

'What?!'

Ajax's eyes widened slightly.

'So, this is the fivefold increase in the damage dealt by his fire skills during [Flame Body].'

The difference was astonishing.

Even though there were four major realms of difference between the Flaming Monkey and Protos, the latter had managed to inflict serious damage with a single attack.

'Interesting... I could let him fight an entire group of Flaming Monkeys next.'

The more Ajax watched the battle, the more ideas he came up with for Protos's training.

'As for his severed arm, it should heal in no time...'

Before Ajax could finish his thought, something unexpected happened.

Protos's body suddenly trembled.

The last traces of his Essence of Nature were consumed as he prepared another attack.

[The user's Essence of Nature has been completely depleted.]

[The Divine Effect of the Divine Skill, [Unyielding Flame], has been activated.]

'Swiish!'

A bright golden-red light enveloped Protos's entire body.

The remaining injuries on his body disappeared instantly, and his severed left arm began to regrow.

Within moments, his hand was completely restored.

At the same time, his depleted Essence of Nature was replenished, and the mental fatigue he had accumulated throughout the battle vanished.

Protos returned to his peak condition as though he had never been injured.

Ajax stared at the scene in amazement.

'The combination of [Flame Body] and [Unyielding Flame] sure is powerful!'

With the combination of [Flame Body] and [Unyielding Flame], Protos had nothing to worry about when dealing with multiple enemies at once.

One consumed 90 percent of his Essence of Nature, whereas the other one instantly replenished it to 100 percent.

[Flame Explosion]!

'Boom!'

Protos didn't waste any time and used his second skill to blast the Flaming Monkey into nothing.

[The host's Elemental Spirit, Protos, has killed an Elemental Beast.]

[The Elemental Spirit, Protos, has broken through to the Level 2 Elite Elemental Spirit Soldier Realm.]

.

.

.

As soon as Protos killed the Flaming Monkey, a series of system notifications resounded in Ajax's head, making him pleasantly surprised by the rewards this time.

Other than the usual Elemental Spirit Ascension Crystal that appeared in his hand, Protos had broken through to the Level 2 Elite Elemental Spirit Soldier Realm.

'But why only a single level?'

Among all the rewards, this was the only one that didn't excite him much; in fact, it disappointed him.

Forget about Protos; any Elemental Spirit could easily break through to the Level 2 Elite Elemental Spirit Soldier Realm by consuming 500–1,000 Low-Level Spirit Stones.

For Emperor Realm Cultivators, even one million Low-Level Spirit Stones was nothing, not to mention just 500–1,000 Spirit Stones.

'Forget it.'

Ajax shook his head. Instead, he focused on the other two rewards that made him excited.