I Cook Limitlessly In a Fantasy World

Lilian and Yelvina saw the new blinking star beside Ainen's name on the leaderboard and started watching that spotlight as well.

Everyone had figured out that the Labyrinth's second floor had a duel mechanism from the spotlights they had watched so far.

"This…" The dark-circle woman's eyes narrowed when she saw that the spotlight was between Ainen and Elber.

"Elber lost?" The bald man was stunned. After all, the spotlight was from Ainen, not Elber. It meant Ainen won, not Elber!

The skin-changing girl perked up upon hearing that. "Really? That's interesting."

She also started watching the spotlight.

As everyone was watching the duel from start to finish, a look of shock was slowly taking over their faces.

Ainen was at complete leisure while fighting Elber!

"The spectate mode really is good." The skin-changing girl chuckled. "Looks like it won't be easy dealing with this brat inside. His firepower is insane."

"How?" the bald man muttered in confusion. "To think Elber isn't able to defend or breach Ainen's defence at all."

The duel ended when Elber used the Lightning Dragon slash a second time, but it faced a Blazing Phoenix Slash from Ainen and got obliterated.

Ainen didn't plan to let Elber leave alive since Elber said he wouldn't be affected by the command.

So after releasing Blazing Phoenix Slash, Ainen burst with Mach 10 using Jet Blaze Flight and arrived above Elber, his finger gleaming as it released a beam at Elber.

As Elber barely tried to dodge sensing danger, the beam still pierced through his shoulder, boring a hole through that also took out a part of his leg.

Ainen had already released an arrow since he expected the dodge, but before the arrow hit him, he had surrendered.

A barrier protected him since he surrendered.

'Oh shit.'

[ You have won the duel. ]

Both of them appeared outside.

Now it wasn't possible to kill him or duel him again in five minutes.

Elber's body flickered with Lightning as he vanished, escaping with all his might towards the steps.

Boom!

Ainen appeared right before him with a punching motion, his gauntlet that had transformed into a giant pan slammed Elber, embedding him into Earth.

No damage, but full impact.

"You aren't going there." Ainen's voice was cold. He couldn't afford to let this guy go.

So many people had already died, and only a few he was friends with were left.

If Elber escaped, he would likely kill others he encountered since he is strong enough to kill others easily.

The only one who could deal with Elber was he.

Elber was recovering Mana, and he looked up while being embedded into the ground, not moving.

'If only he didn't have such high physical stats.' Elber's fist clenched, his eyes swirling. 'But I must escape.'

'I have to reach the steps and inform Prisha about him. Only she can deal with him if she knows beforehand and lays traps. Duel will be bad, but if she moves to the next floor prepared, this guy will be done for.'

All of that…only if he managed to escape towards one of the four ascending step-pathways, the northeast step-pathway to be precise, which was closest.

'The distance is roughly 120 kilometers.' Elber's eyes tethered on despair briefly before returning to coldness, albeit fear was still present in them.

Looking at Ainen's face, Elber knew it wasn't going to be easy.

Usually, 120 kilometers could be crossed in a minute if he wished, but now, this distance felt unbearably long.

'Why is he so fast? What kind of skills does he have?!'

Elber's flying was terrifyingly fast thanks to his Lightning-based S-rank movement skill.

However, Ainen's Jet Blaze Flight was a bit superior since Ainen could explosively achieve a speed of Mach 12 (4.1 kilometers per second) at constant bursts, which he could maintain indefinitely with his current buffs, while Elber's maximum moving speed using his S-rank skill was Mach 9 (3 kilometers per second).

'I have to escape.'

In the next moment, Elber's body fluxed with lightning tendrils as an orb formed around him.

Ainen's pupils flickered as he moved, while Elber also moved…underground.

He tore through the ground, travelling forcefully under the ground as he moved.

But Ainen had an even easier time moving through underground as he moved while melting everything instantly, his orange barrier flickering hard as he soon slammed into Elber.

"You're not very smart, aren't you? Lightning is not that strong against Earth. Earth has higher conduct and dissipates lightning very fast, so you are losing more energy while moving slowly compared to air."

"I can move faster, though. My fire is very strong, and I move with bursts, so I destroy some resistance I face forcefully."

Ainen blasted Elber out of the ground before appearing above him and kicking him down.

No damage, full impact.

"This protection from the labyrinth is really annoying. You aren't even getting shockwave damage or anything." Ainen wryly smiled.

However, Elber couldn't be happy with that.

Time was running and he was too far from his destination.

He recovered Mana quickly using his Mana Cultivation Method's recovery style and zoomed towards the air again.

In the next second, Ainen's calf came like a literal rocket as a blaze burst was ongoing to its other side.

SMASH!

The surroundings burned from the flame waves that dispersed after the impact hit the labyrinth barrier that protected Elber.

Elber slammed down faster than he came up.

A kilometer from here, Tumalik and the three others were watching everything and sweating buckets.

"W-What the fuck is going on?!"

"Elber is trying to escape, and he can't even move much!"

"Aren't we fucked?"

Tumalik gulped and called out to his companions. "This guy called Ainen said he will let us live if we surrender. I think it's time to leave Cradle, don't you think?"

The trio flinched. They had just joined recently as well. They were young and thirsty for power, and they got the opportunity right on their faces.

Smash!

"Elber is losing the battle."

"…It's not a battle."

No. It wasn't a battle. It was a one-sided beatdown.

Elber continued to try, and Ainen continued to stop him.

Ainen's face was somber, not indifferent or mocking.

"You can continue to try your best to live. I have also done that to survive. And in respect to that, I will also give my all to stop you and kill you."

"I can't let you escape, or you will kill more. Life for a life. "

Elber roared with bloodshot eyes as he burst into Lightning and shot out of the ground.

Crackle! Zoom!

Smash!

Crackle! Zoom!

Smash!

…

"It's been almost five minutes since we watched the spotlight, so Elber must have escaped safely." The bald man said. "As long as he reaches the next floor and teams up with Prisha, it will be easy."

'Look at them. They are not certain anymore,' Yelvina's fists clenched, her eyes gleaming.

'Ainen…I just hope he exercises utmost caution and doesn't give mercy, or it will be him who will die.' Lilian was hopeful, but also worried.

'We don't have to worry about that. He has that air around him that tells me that he has experienced some shit. He may have a natural kind disposition, but there is ruthlessness in him that emerges when he is threatened.'

Suddenly, a name vanished from the leaderboard.

A second later, the skin-changing girl who was reading the book twitched as she felt the air shifting.

She turned her head towards the leaderboard directly.

"Oh, he died."

Elber's name had just vanished while a new star appeared next to Ainen's name.

"Now, this spotlight is going to be entertaining, don't you think, Mr. Bald man?" Yelvina chuckled.