Rebirth of the Phoenix God

Fen didn't have any trouble putting on a terrified look on his face. In fact, he didn't even have to act! Imprisoned in this unbreakable cage of fire, he was now entirely at the mercy of those monsters!

"What should we do with him?"

Pulling the young man closer, the fire spirit turned itself to its companion with the question. At the same time, the frame of its thicker flames that closely resembled the look of human's body seemed to turn even more detailed, as if the more the young man looked at it, the more humane this being became!

"With how he was hiding in that bush, I assume he had to hear at least a bit of our conversation. Do you really need to ask then?"

Waving his huge paw away as if it was swatting the question away like some kind of fly, the bear monster didn't even bother to look at the young man stuck in the cage of fires.

"I guess we just need to kill him…"

Clearly treating the matter as nothing more but an annoying disturbance of their stroll, the fire elemental seemed as if it raised its hand, before tightening his fist. Following this motion of the outline of its humanly body, the fire cage started to tighten, slowly limiting the space that was safe.

Yet, just from how this elemental picked this slow and terrifying way to kill him instead of just turning the insides of the prison it made into the same kind of fires that the barrier was made off in the first place, was enough of a hint for Fen to throw of his fear and start acting.

"Please! Don't kill me! I'm just a hunter!"

Sticking his hands as far as he could as if that could stop the sphere from getting any smaller, Fen exclaimed with a terrified voice. There was no acting in terms on the tone of his words, yet while he was doing everything he could to harness even the slightest bit of compassion from those monsters, his mind was already operating at the highest speed.

'There is no way I could produce such hot flames normally, I can���t increase my flow to be so rapid… Unless…'

Even though an idea appeared in his mind relatively quickly, the young man refrained from using it. As long as there was any chance that he could solve or at least prolong the current situation for even a short while longer, revealing his cards should be kept as the absolute last resort!

"If you are a hunter, then you should already make your peace with the situation. Just like you kill animals to eat, we need you to die for the sake of our own survival. Look, no hard feelings boy, but that's just how the world works."

Seeing how the fits of the elemental monster continued to tighten along with the young man's hands starting to feel the burn of the barrier's fire, Fen moved to another tactic. With his attempts to hold the barrier from shrinking obviously futile, he pointed at the token that the bear monster held in its hand.

"This thing proves that if I don't return by a specific time to a rallying point, an arcanist hired by the hunter's association will come running. So if anything happens to me, don't expect the city to not notice it!"

While adding the bit of how it would influence the mobilisation plans that Fen heard those two monsters talking about could reinforce the message, doing so would only serve to make those monsters sure that he actually did a heart that part.

"And you really think that those mighty arcanists will care about a single hunter dying? What makes you think that they would care at all?"

Even though this fire elemental didn't have a face that could show such a thing, it was clear that those words were said with a smirk.

"I HAVE THE PRICE!"

Shouting out in the last effort before he would be forced to turn to the desperate actions, Fen pulled out the fire pebble that he got from the spirit, showing it directly to the two monsters.

"I bought if off the market. I heard that by using it, you can still save the monster it originally belonged to. A life for a life, it's a fair trade, isn't it?"

There was no way this kind of excuse would work. With how the entire story of being able to save the monster from the pebble it had alone being nothing more than bullshit that Fen came up on the spot, at this point, it didn't really matter. All that the young man aimed for with this action, was to pull the attention of those beasts away from his other hand!

It was given that he was still way too inexperienced to be able to create a fire so strong that it would allow him to mix it into the walls of the barrier, he had to come up with something else. And while Fen was doing his absolute best to accelerate the flow of his fire within the confines of his body, he still waited for an opportune moment to let it surface.

"Save its life? By buying that core, you only supported the business of trading the corpses of our brothers!"

Suddenly flaring up, the aura of this fire elemental erupted. Turning from the size of an adult human, it suddenly reached all the way to the treetops, instantly turning them into ashes and igniting huge swaths of trees all at once.

At the same time, Fen finally felt that his time was running out. But rather than releasing his fire all at once in hopes that it would miraculously be strong enough to break the barrier, he converged it all up to the tip of his finger. After all, if one couldn't accelerate the general flow, then making the route through which it could travel smaller would bear the same effect! Even though the overall flow wouldn't change, its speed at this particular choke point would increase just as many times as much the size of its route was decreased!

"Now, let me show you how does it feel to be fucking absorbed!"

With the rage clearly taking over the fire elemental, a sudden change happened. While only minutely, it seemed as if the heat of the barrier decreased a bit, at the same time as it was suddenly pulled towards the fire elemental itself!

'Absorb? Does he wants to…'

In this state of great pressure, Fen's showed the one ace card that nearly all of the humans had. Under the right circumstances, one's mind would reach the heights that would be otherwise unachievable!

Even though it was only a guess, rather than using his insanely hot fire on the top of his finger to break the barrier, Fen saw the opening. With his face still covered in the expression of terror, the young man had to use all of his willpower to not move up prematurely.

In the very next moment, one side of the barrier merged with the fire body of the elemental, quickly turning a tad cooler.

It was this moment.

Pushing his hand forward, Fen stabbed his small fire right towards the elemental's core!

Just like back when he was unable to tune his fire to the aura of the spirits he was trying to absorb, due to the difference in the hotness, the elemental's body wavered, making way for Fen's hand to travel forth.

'Just a bit further!'

Putting all his chances at this one attempt, Fen ignored the insane pain of his hand instantly setting on fire, pressing it further and further into the elemental's body!

"NO!"

The scream of the bear-like monster only served as the hint that his actions were effective. To the young man's surprise, this monster didn't have its aura layered like the major spirit that Fen absorbed before. And with that said, his hand finally reached its core!

"Now, where were we at?"

Using the last bit of strength in his already charred fingers, Fen closed his fist around the elemental's pebble or using the nomenclature that this monster used, it's core. Leaving only the tines gap between his own fire and the delicate structure of the internal core of the monster, Fen made sure to infuse his entire arm with as much of his own fires as he could, making sure that if he were to die, this fire of his would be released right into the heart of the monster!

"I recall offering the life for a life kind of a deal, didn't I?"