Life After Reaching The Pinnacle
Chapter 27 - 27: Penetrating Flames

Chapter 27: Penetrating Flames

Aurora withdrew the profound energy that was covering her whole body. Since her physical strength wasn't enough, she decided not to take a direct hit from the Big Red Horned Rat and attack while dodging. She poured her Profound energy into Flamingo even more as red flames began to dance around her arms.

The Red Horned Rat wasn't unharmed from that clash; its paw had some burn marks, and its fur turned black. Normal flames couldn't have achieved this; Red Horned Rat's defenses were high, but these flames originated from Flamingo.

Flamingo, in its sealed state, provided two skills for the wielder. This was the first one: Penetrating Flames. As long as the wielder provided Profound energy, Flamingo could produce these flames, which held the power to penetrate almost anything. The more Profound energy the wielder infused into Flamingo, the more powerful the flames would become.

The Red Horned Rat saw this and was annoyed that it was hurt by an ant. It turned toward Aurora and launched itself towards her with its sharp claw high, clearly intending to tear her apart.

"Well, it looks like I riled it up. Looks like I've to use my movement technique now, 'Friction steps,'" Aurora mumbled and dashed towards the aggrieved Red Horned Rat.

Friction Steps - A technique that allows the user to control the friction around its body.

In just a moment, the Red Horned Rat and Aurora were face to face. The Red Horned Rat slashed its claw at Aurora's chest with full force. Aurora also raised Flamingo and attacked the incoming claw; she planned to take the claw head-on as she wanted to test something.

As soon as the attacks collided, the ground behind Aurora shattered from the force, and her knees bent a little, but she held the daggers tightly and smiled.

She increased the Profound energy in Flamingo, and the flames erupted from the daggers, burning the whole paw of the Red Horned Rat.

The Red Horned Rat felt immense pain and attacked Aurora with its second claw. Aurora saw this coming and ducked by lowering her body, going behind the Red Horned Rat, and slashed her daggers at its back. But she immediately jumped and backed away from her position as her instincts were tingling.

And her instincts were right, as always, as the ground where Aurora was shattered by the Red Horned Rat's thick tail.

"I completely forgot about its tail," Aurora steadied herself and played with her daggers before launching herself towards the Red Horned Rat again.

This time the rat was more aggressive as it attacked with both of its claws rapidly. The rat even used its powerful bite.

The rat didn't stop its relentless attack against Aurora. It darted towards her to slash through her chest with its claws but was stopped by a dagger. A clash of dagger and claws ensued, and as Aurora fought, she was also mindful of the rat's second weapon: its deadly tail.

Aurora didn't fight head-on this time and was just dodging its claws. As a claw came once again, she jumped mid-air using the paw as support and gave a roundhouse kick to the Rat's jaw and immediately backed away.

"Hmm, so let's see our replaceings. First, with my physical strength, I could go toe-to-toe with early-grade Earth Profound Stage Beasts, and if I just use my flames, then mid-grade Earth Profound Stage Beasts, and by going all out, I can definitely defeat High-grade Earth Profound Stage Beasts. As for Heaven Profound Stage…" As Aurora was contemplating, she saw three small Red Horned Rats coming towards her.

All of them were at Mid-grade Origin Profound Stage, probably slipped by others' defenses. She turned towards everyone and saw that many had suffered serious injuries.

She then raised one of the daggers high up and did a vertical slash; a flaming slash emerged and shot at the three Red Horned Rats. The slash was very fast and cut the three Rats in half, like a knife cutting bread, and went past them, colliding with a boulder and destroying it.

A silence reigned in the cave as even the Rats stopped and looked towards Aurora and the dead bodies of three Rats. Everyone had their jaws almost dropped to the ground.

Cutting three Mid-grade Origin Profound Stage Beasts, just like that. Was she even at Spirit Profound Stage?

This was a technique she developed herself after knowing the effects of Flamingo's Penetrating Flames. A long-ranged attack that cut through the defenses.

Aurora noticed surrounding Profound energy gathering and turned to look at the source and found the big Red Horned Rat's horn glowing.

"So this is how you want to end, huh? With a big move. Well, honestly, you wasted your potential; you couldn't even use your body to the fullest. Anyways, since you want a big move, I'll give you that." Aurora smiled and stored her daggers into her and began controlling the lingering flames of Flamingo with both of her hands.

She condensed all the flames into a ball and stretched that ball with her fingers to make it look like a red flaming arrow. She even infused her Profound energy in it, making it even more dazzling and deadly.

By now, the Red Horned Rat had also charged its horn with intense Profound energy; the horn was now bright red and shining.

The Red Horned Rat launched its attack first, as a thick and dense red beam of Profound energy shot out from its horn.

Aurora also shot out her flaming arrow as it traveled rapidly towards the Red beam of the Red Horned Rat.

A deep, thunderous sound reverberated in the air, making everything around it seem to vibrate as soon as the arrow and beam collided.

A massive explosion occurred from the collision. The impact was felt as much as it was seen. A combination of intense heat, bright flames, and a shockwave that radiated outward from the epicenter slammed everyone.

Surrounding rocks and boulders were turned into dust by the shockwave.

After the explosion, the immediate area was in ruins, with charred and mangled remains of rocks.

Aurora was watching everything with a smile and was thinking, 'This should be enough for luring out the final boss.'"