Chapter 104: Life and Death After walking through the entrance, Grey saw a flight of stairs that led further down the volcano. Observing carefully, he slowly stepped on the stairs and started his descent. Although the text said the last challenge would appear close to the treasure, he didn’t want to recklessly charge straight down. What if the text was wrong? Or maybe it wanted to test how prudent he was? He slowly started going downwards, the stairs were carved out of the side of the volcano, given how hard it was, Grey couldn’t even start to imagine the strength of the expert. Although the light entering the volcano wasn’t much, he could still unexpectedly see properly. The inside of the volcano wasn’t as wide as he expected, given how big the volcano was outside, he expected to see a huge space inside. At the entrance, the wideness was about ten meters, it only started increasing as he went deeper. Thirty minutes later… Grey stared downwards from where he was standing, and he still couldn’t see where he was headed. All he saw was unending darkness. Without any options, he continued on his way. From all the points, the only way he could get out of here is by reaching where the so-called treasure was. He still didn’t know what to expect, also, he was thinking about the Elemental Warrior he would have to face. This wasn’t the first time he was hearing about Elemental Warriors, he knew they were a higher grade of summons. But he still wasn’t aware of Reynolds being able to summon an Elemental Warrior yet, because the time he met up with them, they were about to walk towards the door and Klaus was talking about his tales. ‘I wonder how they are doing’, he thought. One hour later… Grey stood in front of a passage. After getting to the ground, he was faced with a single passage that was opened through the volcano walls. He couldn’t see the inside of the cave as it was dark. He warily walked towards the passage, this was his only ticket back to where he came from, there was no way he could miss it. After getting into the passage, some stones embedded in the walls of the passage suddenly lit up, showing him what was ahead. “What a strange stone”, Grey muttered under his breath as he walked closer to inspect it. Even after inspecting for almost a minute, he couldn’t figure out why the stones lit up only after he entered the passage. With no other choice, he brought out his trusted blades and tried removing one. “This is something precious, I’m not going to leave without acquiring any”, he chuckled lightly. Although he still didn’t know what it was, he was not leaving without acquiring some. The path was long, and he couldn’t see the end of it. So he once again started walking cautiously, after removing some stones, that is. He was told he would face one more opponent, so he had to be ready in case of a sneak attack. The Elemental Warrior is stronger than the last golem he fought, well, the last golem that beat him up. If he were to be attacked unaware by this opponent, he might die. Five minutes later, he walked out of the passage and was greeted by a huge room that spanned over three hundred meters wide and over five hundred meters long. At the center of the room was a pool of lava, and at the middle of the lava pool was a floating blue lotus. The lotus was closed. “Well, there’s the treasure”, Grey looked at the floating lotus curiously. “Now, where’s the guardian?”, he asked as he stared around. He stood at the passage for some time, he looked around if he might find what might likely take him back to the valley. If he could find it, then he knew he had the opportunity of escaping with his life even if he didn’t acquire the treasure. Although he wanted this treasure, his life mattered more to him. He wouldn’t risk his life for a treasure, unless, maybe it was a life-saving treasure that someone very close to him needed. As Grey was looking around, all his hairs suddenly stood on end. ‘An attack’, his heart raced. He quickly moved to the side and set up an earth wall. Bang! The earth wall exploded and a fire arrow shot towards Grey. Seeing his defensive wall was destroyed, he quickly retreated to the side. Boom! The arrow struck the ground and exploded, sending bits of fire in all directions. Grey used his water element to stop the fire coming towards him. Staring in the direction of the arrow, he saw a Fire Elemental Warrior floating twenty meters above the ground. “Well, there it is”, Grey’s face turned sour. He looked back at the passage he used in coming here, and just as he was about to retreat towards him. Bam! A wall dropped from the top of it and closed it. He was stuck, there was no way he could destroy the wall since it was made from the volcano itself. He remembered how his elemental fusion blast didn’t even damage it outside. “This is bad” When he was walking through the passage, his initial plan was to first find the Elemental Warrior, head back to the passage, use elemental fusion, come out, and toss it at it. But now, his plan was totally ruined. Due to not spotting the Elemental Warrior sooner, he is caught in a tough predicament. He couldn’t even beat the golem that was in the Third stage of the Origin Plane. Even if he broke through to the First stage of the Origin Plane right now, his chances of victory were still very low, thirty percent max. All his hopes were previously placed on elemental fusion, now that opportunity was gone. He tried thinking of what to do, while also creating an inscription. Even if he couldn’t beat the warrior, it didn’t mean he’ll not attempt to fight back. Only cowards wait for death. Even though the Elemental Warrior was stronger, he will not be intimidated! The Elemental Warrior didn’t give him much time to think, it shot out three fire arrows towards Grey. With no other option, Grey started battling the warrior. Three minutes later… Bang! Grey slammed the wall heavily, the attack he received from the warrior was too fierce for his defenses to take. After it destroyed his defenses, it sent him flying, luckily, the strength of the attack was halved by his defenses. Fresh blood could be seen dripping from the side of his mouth, his clothes were in tatters, and for the first time in a while, his bag was on the floor, one of his blades was damaged, and he wasn’t sure if it could be fixed. Now, he was left with only one. The Elemental Warrior only gave him a few seconds, before it once again attacked him. He wiped the blood off the side of his mouth and once again started battling with the Elemental Warrior. The Elemental Warrior switches between close-range combat and long-range combat perfectly. Since it was equipped with a sword, it didn’t have any problems with fighting against Grey who was using his blades, if Grey retreated, it would use its bow and send out multiple arrows. Another two minutes went by and Grey was currently on his knees, supporting his body with his bloodstained hands. Drip! Drip! The blood dripping from his mouth slammed the ground and the sound echoed out. There was a long slash that ran through his back which was also gushing out blood. He was struggling for breaths, panting heavily. He managed to raise his head and looked at the Elemental Warrior, and for the first time in his life, he felt true despair. This thing had only one thing in its mind, and that was to kill any intruders. He couldn’t escape, there was no hope in beating his opponent, no one was going to appear and save him. ‘I can’t die here’. He clenched his aching fists, the blood flowing from his head had already gotten into his eyes, and it was currently dampening his vision. Given his current defenseless state, another attack from the Elemental Warrior would be fatal. Swoosh! An arrow shot towards Grey at a breakneck speed, he wanted to crawl out of the way, but his body didn’t allow him. He tried using his inscription to send out an attack to block the attack, but his consciousness was almost at the brink of fading, and he missed it. Pu-Chi The arrow pierced right through Grey’s back and came out just below his chest. Splat! He coughed up a mouthful of blood once again. His vision was starting to fade, the only thing keeping him awake was his willpower. He didn’t want to die here. Thinking back to everything he went through, from not being able to awaken his element, his three years of loneliness, his mother, his father, his friends. He still wanted to see them. Swoosh! Another arrow was sent towards him. It was able to once again able easily pierce through the defenseless Grey. The hands he was using to support himself couldn’t hold him up anymore and gave way. Thud! He fell head first, and the side of his face slammed into the ground before the rest of his body followed along. His inscription which was still in the air slowly started flickering before it finally faded away. The Elemental Warrior which was about to send out another attack paused on seeing the motionless Grey. Grey was currently lying on the ground without any movements, his consciousness was slowly fading away. ‘I can’t give up’, he thought. Just as this thought flashed through his head, an unfamiliar technique appeared in his mind.