Parallel Memory

As I got deeper and deeper, the temperature started to get higher and higher.

As I got closer to the cave, I planted Cryo Bomb around the place in case the Salamander ran away from me. It was also in case unwanted people entered the place.

It would be truly annoying if all my hard work was taken away from me by someone or if the monster ran away before I could kill it.

I could finally see something. It was red and shiny, it was lava that was surrounding the whole place.

I also saw Salamander spewing lava around. He looked like he was fighting someone, probably the teammates of the students that ran away earlier.

There were indeed some people there. I looked carefully at the person that the Salamander was fighting currently.

[ "MISHA!" ]

Misha was currently trapped in between the lavas and Salamander was about to release its skill. I darted toward Misha and gathered Ice energy in my left hand.

[ "Cryo Bomb" ]

I threw Cryo Bomb at the unaware Salamander, freezing the Salamander in its place temporarily.

[ "Need some help?" ]

Misha turned around in my direction and was staring dumbfoundedly at me. Jade and Jenna also looked at me with surprise.

Jade, Jenna, and Misha were surprised to find someone who is willing to help them. At first, they thought it might be Jareth or Bonnie but the Salamander was frozen which is not the Art of either Jareth or Bonnie.

-THUD! -THUD! -THUD! -CRRRRIIK!

The Salamander seems to be enraged and trying to escape from the frozen state.

The effect of the Cryo Bomb was about to be broken by the Salamander. I looked around the place inside the cave which was mostly covered in lava.

[ "Ground Freeze" ]

I used the Ground Freeze skill to freeze the area that was covered in lava. It was to make fighting the Salamander easier and also to make an exit path for the three of them.

[ "Hey, Misha and two of you! Get out of here quickly! Salamander is about to break away from my Ice." ]

They were still in a daze and everything that was happening seemed unreal to them. But they started to run after hearing Zero's words.

They still could not get over their astonishment at seeing a Rank-D boss monster be stopped by a fellow student.

Being able to freeze a Rank-D boss monster means that he is capable of freezing almost everyone in Rank-D and below.

Rank-D boss monsters were already the toughest monster that one could encounter in Rank-D.

[ "Quick!" ]

Zero shouted again seeing that Salamander was almost out of the Ice.

Jade, Jenna, and Misha quickly ran towards the exit of the cave.

[ "Thank You!" ]

[ "Thank you! I will repay you someday." ]

Jade and Jenna thanked Zero. They then quickly went out of the cave.

[ "Zero, What are you doing here?" ]

Misha asked Zero.

[ "Same as you guys. I came to take down this guy." ]

I answered as I pointed my finger at Salamander. Misha was stunned by what Zero said but quickly realized that Zero was powerful enough to freeze the Salamander.

It would be no surprise for her that Zero came to defeat a Rank-D boss monster alone. And also she has seen his power during the BloodyWolf incident.

It had been three months since that incident and she know that Zero would have surely grown tremendously during that period.

She wanted to stay and help him but seeing that she was injured, she thought she would be more of a burden than a help.

[ "You should escape quickly from here! Here, take this health potion." ]

Zero gave three potions to Misha. He didn't see any storage ring or any other storage object with them, which means they don't bring in any potion with them.

[ "Uhm. Thanks!" ]

[ "No problem!" ]

[ "Be careful!" ]

With that, Misha went out of the cave. Zero made his way towards the Salamander.

-HUFFF!

[ "Let's do it!" ]

There was already a chance of me beating the Salamander but now that he had a fight earlier with Misha's group, the probability of me beating the Salamander had increased to 100 percent.

The Salamander was also injured by the Cryo Bomb that I threw earlier.

-PUUUAAA!

The lava erupted from Salamander's body, completely melting the ice in his body.

-GUUOOOOOO!

The Salamander roared at me angrily while opening its mouth to attack.

The Salamander attack using the fire from its mouth.

[ "Ice Wall!" ]

I used Ice Wall to block the Salamander's attack. The fire kept on hitting the Ice Wall.

The Ice wall started to melt slowly but before the Ice Wall was completely melted, the fire stopped coming.

Just when I thought Salamander stopped attacking, it started spewing lava around.

( Trying to entrap me. Nice Try! )

[ "Ground Freeze" ]

I can't let the Salamander trap me like Misha. Having the mobility and space to dodge taken from you could be detrimental to your life when fighting against monsters with high attack power.

Unlike the Salamander who could endure an attack from me, I would be killed by the Salamander if he hit me a couple of times with his attack.

[ "Shadow Style: Shadow Slash" ]

I attacked Salamander but the attack was negated by the protective shield around him.

Unlike when I caught him off guard when he was attacking Misha, this time he used a protection skill on his body to defend.

-GUOOOOO!

-THUD! -THUD! -THUD!

The Salamander roared angrily and made its way toward me and swung his tail at me. I jumped and avoided the attack.

[ "Ice Shard" ]

I fired Ice Shard in mid-air.

The Salamander blocked it with his fire. I continued to press on and attack with all my long-distance skill but the Salamander defended against them with his protection barrier and his fire.

My attack seem to work little by little but it was not dealing big damage to the Salamander. If it continued like this, we would stay in a stalemate forever.

[ "Time to test out my new skill on him. Ice Embodiment" ]

Ice Embodiment skill increases my attack power and also increases my defense.

I had also the option of using Dual Art but I want to first try using the Ice Embodiment skill. And my body is under extreme stress when using Dual Art.

My whole body started to be covered in Ice. It was like wearing an amour that is made of ice but the ice could be controlled by me.

The Salamander opened its mouth to attack me. However, this time instead of dodging or blocking his attack I straight away went to attack him.

-KHAAAAKKK

The Salamander started to attack me using its fire. I kept on sprinting towards the Salamander without paying attention to the fire.

The fire kept on hitting my body but due to the Ice armor, my body was not hurt by the fire.

When I was two meters away from the Salamander, I jumped toward his head.

I made the Ice around my arms into sharp ice, like a spearhead but 10 times bigger. While the Salamander was still breathing fire, I thrust my hand on his head.

-GUOOOOO!

The Salamander roared in pain. Blood started gushing out of the Salamander's head. The Salamander shook his head to get me off his head.

I started thrusting more on his head before finally jumping off his head.

The Salamander's head was fully covered in blood. It was only a matter of time before the Salamander dies.

The once ferocious Salamander looked like a frightened kitten. He started trembling at the sight of me.

The Salamander stepped back and started running away from me. The Salamander was heading towards the exit. However, the Salamander was walking straight into the trap I set up earlier.

I activated the Cryo Bomb that I implanted on the entrance previously.

The Salamander was caught off-guard and froze on the spot. The Salamander would have been able to defend against such an attack if he had used a protective barrier on his body.

But the Salamander was so terrified that he ran without paying attention to his surrounding. Without any defensive skill, the Salamander was easy for the Cryo Bomb to freeze.

I dash towards the Salamander position. Though frozen, I couldn't tell for how long the Salamander will remain frozen. I took this chance to slash and behead the frozen Salamander.

[ "Hah...Hah... " ]

The fight was not that dangerous but it could have been impossible to kill the Salamander if the Salamander was not weak to Ice-type attacks.

After confirming that the Salamander died, I went outside the cave.

When I was about to exit the cave, there was lots of noise outside.

-THUD! -THUD! -WHOOSH!

I came out of the cave to see students and many monsters running away. The monster didn't even pay attention to the students and was running away.

Even a Rank-D monster was running away with a terrified expression.

( How can a Rank-D monster be terrified in this place? )

Rank-D was the highest rank in this dungeon, to be able to frighten these monsters would mean that something terrific was chasing them.

I looked in the opposite direction of where the monsters and students were running.

[ "Hey, You! What are you doing?" ]

A running student who saw me yelled at me.

[ "Me? I just came out of the cave. What happened? Why are you all running?" ]

[ "In a cave?" ]

The student looked at the place behind me.

[ "Were you hiding in the cave all along? Anyway, that's not important, you need to escape from this place immediately. There is a group of terrifying monsters approaching this place." ]

He pointed in the direction in which the monster was running away.

In the distance, I could see something approaching like a black cloud or something from the sky. It was approaching at a fast speed.

I concentrated and looked carefully at what it was. I was shocked by the revelation of what that black cloud was.

[ "Really, Ace Academy! Did you really need to do this?" ]