Trying to ease his mind by thinking that he could remain close to the tortoise that was in fact the Kinra Island, Jason felt much better.
It was odd, but he couldn't help but feel reassured by this thought.
He was still hoping that nothing serious would happen and that he would face no issues in leaving the dungeon once he was done.
However, that was also something he could think of later once he had conquered the dungeon.
Right now, he had many other things to pay attention to, like defeating the five puppets.
Even if it was not his task, he wanted to defeat all five of the puppets.
Earlier he hadn't been confident of this but now owing to his higher average strength without the use of one's cultivation energy, aura or unique techniques, he felt that his victory was certain.
It might take a while until he would actually emerge victorious as he hadn't fought for six months.
But, he believed that adjusting to his increase in strength wouldn't take as long as he was under tremendous pressure.
With that in mind, he chose the fiery puppet as his opponent because he wanted to make use of the fact that it would attack him with its fire affinity and physical strength.
Fire was Jason's forte, and he would never accept anyone being stronger than him in a competition whose fire affinity was the strongest.
He had Solaris, the strongest flame Jason had seen until now, after all!
Even a technique that would enhance the fiery puppet's fire affinity shouldn't be able to make up for the huge difference between the black origin flame and the fiery puppet's fire affinity's strength!
That being said, Jason didn't hide his confidence in defeating the fiery puppet, as he allowed Solaris to enter his mana core who swiftly did as asked.
This wouldn't increase his physical strength, but with the shared mana core, he had more mana and a much lower mana consumption the moment he wanted to use Solaris' flame.
Unfortunately, they were still unable to fuse together, which was bothersome.
It restricted the strength Jason was able to reach with Solaris in his mana core, but that was something he had to reluctantly accept.
Despite the restriction, he didn't seem to be all that bothered by the temporary inability.
Instead, Jason smiled at the fiery puppet, and the moment the fight started, he transmuted his entire mana with the moonlight affinity.
Through this, he was able to increase his mana's strength by almost a third.
Following that, Jason circulated it through his body, exerting the Floating Sky movement technique at the perfect mastery.
This enabled him to envelop his entire body in a tight layer of black flames that had faint silver strands within them.
They were transmuted by the moonlight affinity, strengthening their lethality and the effect Solaris' flames harbored
However, that was not all because Solaris' flames turned into a fiery inferno as his entire back released tremendous flames, pushing him further ahead.
By carefully controlling them, he was able to reach a shocking speed without sacrificing his balance.
Yet, instead of being bothered by the being clad in black flames that shot towards it with a shocking speed, the fiery puppet seemed calm and composed. It simply manifested the same flame warrior on its back like before.
Slashing at Jason with its main body, the flame warrior followed suit, doing the same with the flame broad sword that manifested in its hand.
Unfortunately, that was something Jason had already expected because it was the exact same attack the fiery puppet had initiated in their previous battles.
The only difference was the amount of used energy to initiate the attacks.
If the puppet used more mana to summon the flame warrior, it would naturally be much stronger.
Meanwhile, using more primordial energy, allowed the fiery puppet to increase its strength to a much higher extent.
Simultaneously, its aura began to envelop the entire combat arena, overwhelming every being in the surroundings.
This was owing to the searing flames that burned through everything.
To the fiery puppet's misfortune, this would happen under normal circumstances, but the black origin flame, Solaris, was by no means ordinary.
That was something the puppet began to realize when Jason released his own aura which he forcefully intertwined with Solaris' flames.
Right now, he might not be able to fuse with Solaris or create a customized aura, but what he could do was to merge Solaris' flames with his Celestia aura!
The Celestia aura alone was already more than enough to fend off the fiery aura of the fiery puppet.
But, Jason wasn't going to be satisfied with just 'enough.'
He wanted to have a glorious victory hence he fused Solaris' flames with the Celestia aura.
Upon fusing, it began to release faint flames that reached every nook and cranny.
Due to this, the Celestia aura, and Solaris' flame clashed with the fiery aura that was slowly being pushed backward.
However, that was not only owing to the Celestia aura that had become strong enough to face the other auras without being overwhelmed, but also because Solaris' instincts had suddenly begun to act up.
Through this, it began to instinctively spread further, and move towards the fiery aura.
Upon contact, his aura began to slowly devour and annex it!
Jason would have never expected that Solaris could devour the aura of other beings, and, in fact, that was something an origin flame should never be able to do.
Nevertheless, there were many things Solaris was not supposed to be able to do, but somehow, still did it, defying all known norms pertaining to a flame.
As such, Jason had always thought that Solaris was something unique, and most likely was a mutation amongst the origin flames.
This fact made it even more exotic than the black origin flame already was.
Yet, that was not something he could pay anymore attention to because he felt something change in his mana core.
This feeling increased the further Solaris was annexing and devouring the fiery aura.
Solaris was trying its best to retaliate and fight against the Celestia aura that began to transform Solaris' flames in a white color.
Each time Jason witnessed how easily Solaris' flames were changing their color, he wondered how that was possible, and if the change in color had a special meaning.
Unfortunately, he had yet to come up with a logical explanation for anything Solaris could do.
Thus, instead of being too bothered about it, Jason supplied even more mana to the Celestia aura and Solaris' flames.
While they were greedily absorbing the supplied mana, neither Jason nor the fiery puppet had remained idle and witnessed the face-off between their auras in order to see who would be stronger.
Instead, they were currently fighting against each other in a close combat battle in which the fiery puppet's primordial energy was the biggest hurdle Jason had to overcome.
Not only did it increase the fiery puppet's strength to exceed Jason's, but it also had an armor-piercing property that was far more dangerous to face when their swords were colliding.
That was the case because the primordial energy used by the fiery puppet was capable of changing its properties to adjust to the weapons it was used with.
Following that, there were many issues Jason had to face.
Yet, that did little to deter Jason who came up with another plan instantly; a plan that would allow him to exceed his opponent's strength.
And this plan was something his Celestia aura and Solaris' flames were currently executing.
Working in perfect coordination, they were slowly wearing out the fiery aura, followed by strengthening themselves with the aura Solaris devoured and annexed!
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