CHAPTER 41: FIRST FLAME

Alex’s flame guttered and nearly died as the growl reverberated through the cave, a sound so deep and primal it seemed to emanate from the stone itself. His heart hammered against his ribs, but his face remained impassive as he forced his breathing to remain steady, drawing on every survival instinct he’d developed since arriving in this rift.

The growl came again, closer this time, accompanied by the scrape of claws against stone. Alex’s vision picked up movement in the shadows ahead. Something massive shifting in the darkness beyond the reach of his flame’s light. His Adept Eyes activated automatically, straining to penetrate the gloom.

**[Void Stalker]**

**[Rank: S-Class Beast]**

**[Ability: Shadow manipulation]**

Alex’s expression sharpened with cold interest rather than fear. S-Rank. Dangerous, certainly, and worthy of respect. His astronomical essence reserves and SS-ranked Fire Manipulation gave him options most Adepts wouldn’t have, but he knew better than to underestimate an S-rank creature. This would be a real test of his abilities.

’Finally, time to see what an SS-rank fire manipulator can do.’

The system’s identification sent a thrill of anticipation down his spine. Whatever was down there represented the first real test he’d encountered since his awakening. Alex took a measured step forward, his movements controlled and predatory. His free hand moved to rest casually at his side, ready to channel the massive reservoir of essence flowing through his core.

Another growl, and this time Alex caught a glimpse of eyes in the darkness. Not the usual predatory glow of most beasts, but something else entirely. Pools of absolute darkness that seemed to drink in the light from his flame rather than reflect it. The creature knew he was there.

The cave passage behind him stretched back toward the entrance, but Alex had no intention of retreating. Whatever apex predators had won that massive war outside would have to wait their turn. Right now, he had a more pressing experiment to conduct.

The decision crystallized when the growling suddenly stopped.

Silence filled the cave like a held breath. Alex’s flame flickered in his palm, but now he let it grow brighter, feeding it with a fraction of his vast essence reserves. The orange light pushed back the shadows with newfound intensity, revealing more of the cave system around him. The sudden quiet didn’t unnerve him—it focused his attention.

’Silence means it’s positioning for an attack. Good. I prefer direct confrontation to extended stalking.’

Then he heard it. The soft pad of massive paws moving through the darkness, circling around to his left. The creature was hunting him, using standard predator tactics. Alex turned slowly, but instead of defensively tracking the sound, he was calculating angles of attack.

’Classic stalking behavior. Predictable. It’s treating me like ordinary prey.’

The padding stopped.

For a long moment, the only sound was Alex’s controlled breathing and that distant drip of water. His flame burned steady and bright, no longer wavering from fear but blazing with focused intent. He drew deeper on his essence reserves, feeling the familiar warmth of his SS-ranked ability responding to his will—and the first hint of something else. A subtle burning sensation along his essence channels, like heated wire threaded through his veins.

Then, from directly behind him, came a sound that made him smile coldly. A low, satisfied rumble that spoke of a predator that had successfully cornered its prey.

Alex turned around deliberately, flame blazing brighter as controlled anticipation surged through his system. His face remained a mask of cold calculation. Standing in the passage he’d just walked through, blocking what it assumed was his escape route, was something that made his analytical mind race with possibilities—and his instincts scream warnings.

It was wolf-like in basic shape, but that’s where any resemblance to earthly creatures ended. Its shoulder height easily matched Alex’s own, and its length filled the cave passage from wall to wall. The creature’s fur wasn’t fur at all, but what looked like living shadow that shifted and writhed across its form like liquid darkness given substance. But as Alex watched, additional limbs of pure shadow began sprouting from its sides—not permanently, but flickering in and out of existence as if the creature couldn’t decide how many appendages it needed.

Its eyes were pools of absolute void, twin black holes that seemed to absorb light. When it opened its maw, Alex felt his breath catch. The jaw unhinged like a serpent’s, dropping down almost to the creature’s chest to reveal a throat lined with rings of crystallized darkness teeth—not just fangs, but spiraling rows that disappeared into the black depths of its gullet.

’Intelligent. Experienced. Dangerous. And definitively not natural. Perfect test subject.’

The Void Stalker’s head turned toward him with liquid grace, and those shadow-limbs began to solidify into clawed appendages that scraped against the cave walls. The creature didn’t roar or snarl. It simply began to move forward with predatory precision, each step bringing waves of oppressive dark energy that tried to make Alex’s flame flicker and dim.

But his flame didn’t waver. If anything, it burned brighter as Alex fed more essence into it, his SS-ranked ability easily overwhelming the creature’s shadow-based suppression attempts. The burning in his channels intensified, and he tasted copper at the back of his throat.

’Interesting. It’s trying to suppress my fire with darkness. Time to show it the difference between S-rank and SS-rank power.’

Alex raised his free hand, and white-hot flames began to dance around his fingers. Not the small, controlled fire he’d been using for light, but the true manifestation of his copied ability. The temperature in the cave began to rise noticeably as he drew on his vast essence reserves, and his essence channels felt like molten metal coursing through his body.

The cave became a battlefield. Where Alex’s flames touched the walls, they seared away encroaching shadows, leaving scorch marks on the stone. But the darkness fought back—creeping along every crevice, pooling in corners, advancing and retreating like a living tide. Each flicker of shadow that his fire burned away was replaced by two more, until the entire cavern writhed with their elemental war.

The Void Stalker paused, and for the first time, Alex saw something that wasn’t predatory confidence in those void-black eyes. Fear. The creature could sense the power radiating from him now, could feel the heat beginning to push back its cold shadow energy.

"You made a mistake," Alex said conversationally, his voice carrying clearly through the cave. A warm trickle ran from his left nostril—blood, he realized distantly. "You assumed I was prey."

He unleashed a controlled burst of flame that illuminated the entire cave system in brilliant white light. The shadows didn’t just recoil—they *screamed*, high-pitched sounds like tearing silk as they were burned from existence. The Void Stalker actually took a step backward, its shadow-fur rippling with agitation, those extra limbs dissolving and reforming frantically.

’Confirmed. My SS-rank fire is effective against its shadow manipulation. Elemental advantage established. But gods, this burns.’

The effort sent lightning through his essence channels, and Alex felt something tear deep in his core. Not physically—something more fundamental. He was pushing his newly awakened abilities beyond what his body could safely handle.

The creature’s response was swift and vicious. It phased through the solid rock wall, attempting to flank him from an unexpected angle, its jaw unhinging further until it looked like a living cavern of teeth. But Alex’s Combat Echo skill was already activating, his body instinctively reading the creature’s movement patterns and attack rhythms.

As the Void Stalker materialized beside him, multiple shadow-claws and that nightmare maw slashing toward his throat, Alex was already moving. Phantom Step activated, draining fifteen points of stamina as his body flickered from the visible spectrum just long enough to leave an afterimage where the claws struck empty air.

He reappeared three feet to the left, but the sudden stamina drain combined with his burning essence channels left him gasping. Blood now flowed freely from his nose, and he could feel his hands trembling as flames roared to life around both of them. Each flicker of fire felt like acid in his veins.

’Phase shifting has a cooldown period. Movement patterns are predictable once mapped. Vulnerability window identified. But I can’t keep this up much longer.’

The fireball he launched wasn’t the desperate attack of a cornered victim—it was a precisely calculated strike aimed not at the creature’s center mass, but at the point where he predicted it would be when it tried to phase again. Around them, flame and shadow warred for dominance, turning the cave into a hellscape of opposing forces.

The Void Stalker began its dimensional shift just as Alex had anticipated, but the fireball was already there, superheated flame meeting shadow-flesh at the exact moment of materialization. The creature’s howl of pain and surprise echoed through the cave system as it staggered backward, actual damage marking its shadow-form, several of its extra limbs severed by the blast.

But the effort nearly dropped Alex to his knees. His essence channels felt like they were melting from the inside, and he could taste blood coating his teeth. Dark spots danced at the edges of his vision. His body wasn’t just unused to this level of power—it was actively being damaged by it.

’SS-rank fire can damage it even through partial phasing. But every attack is burning me from the inside. I need to end this before I burn myself out—literally.’

Alex didn’t press the attack immediately. Instead, he stood with labored breathing, flames still dancing around his form like a living aura, but he was now carefully throttling his essence output to avoid complete system failure. His stamina was depleted from the Phantom Step, and he could feel his channels developing hairline fractures with each sustained burst of power.

The Void Stalker crouched low, its nightmare maw still hanging open, regenerating its lost shadow-limbs with visible effort. Those void-black eyes now held the wariness of a predator that had suddenly realized its prey could not only bite back—it could incinerate everything in its path.

"You phase through walls?" Alex said, blood spattering from his lips as he smiled coldly. "I burn worlds. Let’s compare notes."

The creature’s response was a snarl of rage and shadow-energy that made the cave walls tremble, but Alex could see the calculation behind those void eyes now. It had felt his power, felt the searing heat that could unmake shadow itself.

The hunt was no longer a game—it was a battle between equals, and both combatants knew only one would walk away.

The Void Stalker’s form began to shift and expand, its shadow-fur writhing with increased intensity as dark energy coalesced around its reforming claws. Additional limbs sprouted in clusters now—not just two or three, but half a dozen writhing appendages of living darkness. Alex could feel the temperature dropping as the creature drew more heavily on its abilities, shadows deepening throughout the cave despite his blazing flames. The elemental war intensified, flame and darkness locked in a dance of mutual annihilation across every surface.

Alex flexed his fingers, feeling the network of burning fractures spreading through his essence channels like spider webs of agony. His Combat Echo skill was already analyzing the Stalker’s new stance—lower, more aggressive, with weight distributed across multiple shadow-limbs for an explosive multi-directional assault. The beast’s void-black eyes had narrowed to slits, all pretense of casual predation abandoned.

But as he prepared for the creature’s next assault, a cold certainty settled in Alex’s mind. Win or lose, this fight was teaching him a brutal lesson about the cost of his stolen power. His channels were developing damage that wouldn’t heal quickly—perhaps not completely. If he survived this encounter, he’d need to find ways to strengthen his body before attempting anything like this again.

The realization didn’t diminish his anticipation. If anything, it sharpened his focus to a razor’s edge.

This was exactly what he’d been waiting for. A real test of power against power, technique against technique—even if it might leave him permanently changed.

’Time to see which burns brighter: my fire, or my ambition.’