Kayn hovered in the air purely using his wings as opposed to Varion who was keeping himself aloft with jets of flame beneath his feet. Varion was Kayn's target, and the only reason he came to this area first was due the man's specialty given in the information Yelena gave him as well as some supplemental information he received from Talaro.
Just as Kayn guessed, Varion quickly declared that he would be burned to death in a very painful manner for what he had done. Kayn understood that the man would be mad to lose his subordinates in such a fashion, but he didn't expect this kind of anger directed towards him.
In response to Varion creating two large balls of fire which he looked ready to launch at any moment, Kayn thought of another idea to have a little bit of fun to test himself a bit. He knew it wasn't exactly appropriate to 'have fun' after he had just killed over 15,000 people with their own blood, but sometimes it was the little things that kept him going and distracted him from the reality of the things he had done or had to do.
Kayn created several small balls of the most destructive fire he could currently create which he gained insights into from the temples of fire and destruction he visited. However, rather than launch them towards Varion, he instead used them as focal points and created a fire barrier from them, which completely surrounded his figure.
"Heh, let's see whose fire is more powerful." Kayn spoke with an audible sneer in his voice.
Varion was furious at the bug's contempt for him and could only conclude that the person before him didn't know who he was facing. He laughed inwardly as he lowered the power of his own fire spells since he didn't want to kill this person that quickly. He wanted to bathe them in torturous flames until they were begging to die.
While Kayn waited for the attack to finally come, he became distracted thinking of a song which would be perfect for this situation, and he quickly started playing it inside of his head. How could there be a more appropriate song than one which hyped up fighting fire with fire?
The song began with a soothing bit of guitar before exploding into a fast-paced rhythm that Kayn couldn't help but start to bob his head to. Varion seeing the hood over the head of his enemy start to bob up and down quickly thought that maybe his enemy had already gone insane or was demented.
However, he was still going to torture this person, no matter how insane they were. Not to mention his enemy only spurred his anger further, even while he continued nodding his head up and down.
"Hey gramps, you gonna throw those balls of fire eventually? I don't have all day! If the end of this song comes before you throw those, I'm just gonna cheat!"
"I'm going to knock whatever ridiculous expression you have on your face right off when I burn you to cinders!" Varion declared as he launched the two fireball spells towards Kayn. They may have looked like simple tier 1 fireball spells, but they were both in fact tier 10 spells, which boasted incredible power despite him weakening them at the last moment.
However, to his surprise, the purple flames that surrounded the figure completely absorbed the tier 10 spells like they were food to be consumed before returning to their former state.
"You'll have to do better than that." Kayn spoke as he continued to taunt his enemy. If the exchange just now was any indication to how the rest of the fight would go, then this would be a boring and uneventful ordeal.
Kayn understood why Yelena would have issues getting through this man's fire shields, but Kayn would have no such issues due to one major factor. Even if his overall flames were weaker, which he didn't believe was true, he still had a trump card that he instinctively knew would work against this man.
His bloodline. The thing that boosted his father to the top ranks within the Carnet army despite the fact that he was only a 5th stage expert. He was both a fire mage and the enemy of all other fire mages at the same time. After all, how can a mage who only uses fire fight against someone that can take over their spells and send them right back at them?
Kayn decided to wait for the right moment to reveal this fact to Varion as he knew the arrogant man hadn't called for reinforcements yet and there was no one left to do it for him. For now, he wanted to test his own prowess against someone who had been using and gaining mastery over the fire element for centuries already.
Varion proceeded to launch spell after spell at Kayn and it was only after launching five consecutive tier 12 spells that he was able to get through Kayn's shield, or so he thought. Kayn on the other hand was just bored of constantly keeping his shield up and dismissed it after the latest round of attacks from Varion.
It seemed like Kayn was taking Varion lightly, but that was the opposite of what he was actually doing. He was constantly keeping his barrier at the highest defense it was capable of, which was draining his mana at an extraordinary rate, even if it was only 15% of his total, that 15% vanished within 30 minutes of the fight beginning.
Considering that when Kayn was weaker, he was able to go for days on end without running dry, this told Kayn that Varion was a very, very powerful fire mage and if he had to stay purely on the defensive, he would probably lose. However, that was if he stayed on the defensive.
Kayn watched as Varion smiled gleefully when his barrier was dismissed, but before he could finish casting his next round of spells, Kayn's voice rang loud in his ears.
"My turn!" Kayn declared before creating a tiny ball of flame, no larger than a marble. He then launched it at an underwhelming speed towards Varion who watched the tiny ball of flame coming towards him no faster than an elderly person walked.
"Ha? Is this a joke?" Varion asked himself, but regardless he still cast a barrier around himself that would easily block any attacks from a 4th stage mage. His first mistake was not moving out of the way of the slow-moving fire marble, the second mistake was underestimating it and only casting what he classified as a low-rank barrier.
When the small ball of flame collided with his barrier, an explosion larger than any he could create with even his strongest tier 12 spell erupted, sending him plummeting towards the ground faster than lightning. One second, he was in the air laughing at a small ball of fire, the next he was implanted deep into the earth with severe burns coating his entire body that was now practically naked.
"Oh, I may have put a bit too much into that." The figure still flapping their wings to keep aloft spoke to themselves with a surprised tone. Varion's eyes couldn't help but widen as if what he heard through the ringing in his ears was correct, this individual, this measly 4th stage individual, could launch something even more powerful than he just had!
For the first time since he watched his son die in front of him, was his mind clear enough to examine the situation rationally. This person, this monster, had just slain over 15,000 troops including two 5th stage warriors within seconds, using their blood! Not only that, he left the captured people alive, fully free of injury.
Varion himself could kill 15,000 in one spell easily too, but only if they were all in one area and he wouldn't be able to pick and choose who died and who didn't.
Just what was this person in front of him? How was someone with only a 4th stage core so powerful? How could they use another's blood as a weapon to kill them within seconds?
As these questions darted across his mind, he came to a simple conclusion, he needed help! He quickly pulled out his emergency distress beacon, but before he could activate it by sending mana into it, the hand that was holding it was severed and began to fly towards the individual in the sky looking down on him.
"Can't have that now can we. I didn't say anyone else could be invited."
Even as the person spoke, Varion launched the quickest spell he could think of in order to try and destroy the crystal which was firmly grasped in his severed hand.
Sweat was dripping from the unburnt parts of his skin into his burn wounds and causing him immense pain. What felt like hours as he watched his fire spear fly towards his hand was truthfully less than a second, but right before the fire spear hit, it stopped and floated mid-air as the hand fell silently into his attacker's grasp.
"You know what my father once told me? He said that all fire mages within the Carnet Empire feared him, and that even the Carnet Emperor said he was glad he wasn't a fire mage. Are you one of the people who feared him? A 6th stager fearing a mere 5th stage? If I remember correctly, he once bragged about throwing every single spell a 6th stage fire mage, who was famous for being a sleezy womanizer, launched at him. Was that you by chance?"
Time seemed to have stopped for Varion as he stared at the spear of fire slowly turning in his direction and growing larger as time went by. He could only think of one person who fit the description that this man was talking about, but that was…
"Impossible! Ezekiel and his entire family are dead! There were no survivors! He died a traitor's death and so did his family! I don't believe anyone from his lineage survived unless he had children we didn't know of!" Varion angrily yelled out. He assumed that this figure was just trying to rile him up with one of his most embarrassing moments since he became a 6th stage mage.
Little did he know, his words wouldn't work in the way he assumed. "Don't say his name with your disgusting mouth. Because of people like you, I watched as my family's heads were rolled on the floor at my feet. If only my father's supposed allies had seen the emperor's corrupt nature and helped him, they might all be alive today.
"But no, you all ignored it and even went along with his plans. Wiping out entire populations and taking what was left as slaves. You're all no better than he is, and you will all die a dog's death. Once I force him to watch his empire crumble to dust, I'll put him in the ground just the same."
"HAHAHA, YOU'RE INSANE! YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL THE EM-" Varion screamed out, but before he could finish his sentence, the spear he was watching moved faster than lightning and impaled him into the ground before exploding. Varion's body parts were either turned to ash or scattered off into the distance.
Kayn watched as two particular items flew off in different directions before he went to fetch them. After gathering both, he departed the area in order to recover his mana before heading to the next target.
"One down, three to go." Kayn smiled to himself as he looked at the blackened dimensional ring in one hand and the red 6th stage mana core in the other.