Jareth tilted his head, the claws raking through his shoulder with a force that sent him stumbling back.
The hyena stamped its forelimbs and pivoted, dashing back at him.
'Shit! Nimble and fast!'
Barely regaining his footing, he thrust his free hand, and crimson flames erupted with a thought like a flamethrower.
The hyena recoiled and swiftly distanced itself from him.
Jareth's eyes narrowed at the cackling hyena in the distance, glaring at the spraying crimson flames warily but also searching for an opening with its cautious surveying movement.
'Stupid me! Go for range!'
Peeking out of the corner of his eye, he found the nearest alley.
Quickly deciding, he halted [Infernal Torrent] and dashed into a narrow alley beside him, stopping not too far from the entrance.
His left hand stretched forward as a crimson fire spear quickly formed in front of him.
A second later, Jareth shot the spear the instant he saw the blurry silhouette of the hyena in front of the alley.
The spear struck the hyena with a loud explosion that sent it flying. Jareth dashed forward with another spear weaving in front of him.
He launched it at the writhing hyena, which tried to quench the flames on its fur, slamming it with another loud explosion.
It roared in pain.
Halting at the entrance, Jareth created fire spear after fire spear, launching them in quick succession. Fire spear after fire spear struck the hyena with thunderous explosions.
Crimson flames flared wilder with each explosion. The hyena's whimpering roars echoed from within the blaze.
After the twentieth fire spear, a panel appeared in his vision.
[Elite Dread Cackler killed.]
"Dread cackler? There was nothing dreadful about it. Just a mistake and overconfidence killed it. But I've got to be careful too. Just one mistake might end me in this situation," Jareth mumbled, jogging up to the dead, charred beast with scorched holes on its body.
Not wanting to repeat his previous mistake that made him lose his kill, he stored it in his badge.
Taking a deep breath, he felt his core level.
"Just 40% of my core left," Jareth whispered to himself before dashing toward the last kill he had marked.
Sprinting through one alley after another, he quickly approached the last beast.
Just as he cut into the final alley toward the beast, his pupils constricted and zeroed in on the white lance streaking into the alley.
He twisted aside and pressed his body against the wall. The lance zipped past his chest and smashed into the wall behind with a powerful bang, shattering into flying shards. Quakes rocked the wall.
Jareth quickly scanned with his eyes.
Marred on the wall was a shallow hole with thin spiderweb cracks spreading from it. The chest of his tracksuit was covered in a thin layer of ice.
'Powerful penetrating power—more than my flame. A ranged spell.'
Snapping his head aside, he saw a white fox that would have been cute, if it were not spitting swirling frost that was rapidly sharpening.
'Another lance?'
Jareth's instinct to run and hide kicked in, but he suppressed the urge.
'Let's do what that robot did!'
Swinging his free hand forward, he sprinted at the white fox; crimson fire spurted and swirled into a crimson spear.
Midway out of the alley, his spear and the fox's lance formed at the same time.
Both of them launched them at the same time.
The white and crimson streaks wheezed side by side past each other toward their targets.
Jareth instantly rolled forward as the lance shot over him. The fox also darted out of the way, the fire spear striking the building behind.
A deafening explosion resounded.
Jareth sprinted forward, his free hand still stretched forward as crimson flames spurted out. They quickly swirled to form three spears successively, hovering vertically above him.
Crimson flames slithered down his other hand and wrapped his blade.
He was almost out of the alley, but he didn't see any sign of the fox.
'A trap ahead?' His eyes narrowed, but his footsteps didn't stop.
Just as he was a few steps from the alley, he swung his hand forward and sent two fire orbs rupturing in a wild flame at the entrance.
A white lance instantly shot through the flame, quenching it in a second.
'At my left!'
Jareth dashed out of the entrance at that moment, spotting the white fox already creating another spear.
He pivoted and bolted toward it. His sword pointed down, three spears aligned above him as he closed in.
The fox took quick steps back to distance itself, but Jareth launched a fire spear. The fox darted aside, but Jareth snapped the streaking fire spear.
The fire spear twisted and brushed past the fox as it detonated, sending the fox staggering.
Jareth launched the second.
To his shock, the staggering fox also shot its ice lance at him and quickly scampered aside with its unsteady footsteps.
Jareth screeched and swerved aside, releasing his hold on the launched fire spear that detonated.
The ice lance wheezed past his position. His focus locked onto the fox, which had already widened the distance from his brief slowing down and was already spitting frost to create another lance.
Narrowing his eyes, Jareth decided.
'Let's see how good my footwork is!'
He launched his final spear with a thought while stretching his hands.
With nimble steps, the fox dodged while slowing its action.
Crimson fire erupted, quickly forming five fire spears hung above him, arranging them high above him.
The white lance of the fox was also completed at that moment.
'Great! Let's review what we learned from the robot.'
Gripping his sword with both hands while his thoughts kept hold of the five fire spears, Jareth smirked at the fox and dashed toward it.
A snarl escaped the fox and it launched the ice lance.
Jareth did a flitting zig-zag movement, dodging the ice lance in two steps as he continued shooting forward.
Backstepping quickly, the fox tried to widen the distance while creating a new ice lance. But Jareth shot a fire spear at the space behind.
The fox sprinted forward to escape.
A loud explosion with flaring crimson flames washed over the area.
The fox swiftly shot the next ice lance at him.
Jareth danced zig-zag to dodge.
When the fox tried to distance itself, Jareth launched a fire spear behind, barricading the space with crimson flames.
Suddenly, the fox stopped moving back and created another ice lance.
However, to Jareth's shock, it angled its head and launched the spear at the hovering spears.
But Jareth regained his senses and moved the fire spears aside.
'My thoughts are faster than my body.'
Seeing the fox use that opportunity to sprint toward the alley beside it, he instantly launched a fire spear at the entrance of the alley.
'Smart. But…'
It blasted the entrance like a meteor and exploded in a crimson flare.
Squealing, the fox recoiled at the sight of blazing flame.
'My control is beyond a normal Awakened arcanist.'
Spinning around, the fox launched another ice lance.
Jareth danced left and right, quickly closing the distance.
The fox launched two more lances, but Jareth danced around them. When the fox tried to escape, Jareth sealed its path with a fire spear as he continued shrinking the distance.
He soon reached the attack range of the fox.
Just as he pounced on it, the fox spat a pillar of frost from its mouth.