WHOOOOM!

Even though the peacock had a human's intelligence, that didn't mean that it wouldn't attack Shang.

After all, all the different Mages also always directly attacked Shang without waiting.

The peacock's majestic tail unfurled, and the tips of its feathers began to shine with red and green light.

Shang had already started to charge forward, but the peacock's speed was still far greater than his.

The next moment, the space around the peacock seemed to warp, very similar to how the space around Shang's Addum warped.

Shang's instincts screamed at him, and he put his Addum in front of him.

BANG!

An insanely powerful heatwave hit Shang's Addum, which started to glow.

The heatwave had arrived in less than an instant, and if it had hit Shang without preparation, he would have immediately died.

Thankfully, his Addum protected him from the heatwave.

Additionally, Shang could now tell how hot the heatwave was, which gave him some valuable information.

The peacock didn't seem surprised, and its tail moved slightly.

WHOOOOM!

The heatwave hitting Shang's Addum spun and created a tornado, hitting Shang from all sides.

SSSSSS!

But since Shang could feel how hot the heatwave was, he released just enough Fire Mana to keep his body at a temperature that wouldn't immediately kill him.

Nevertheless, Shang's body was still burning in several places, and he was receiving injuries.

The omnipresent nature of the Blaze made it impossible for Shang to avoid it.

Even more, the invisible Blaze in the surroundings had the peacock's will imprinted on it, making it impossible to absorb it via Void Break.

This meant that Shang was surrounded by extreme heat, and if he used Void Break, he would absorb the Blaze with the peacock's will on it, which would result in Shang turning into ash.

This was the first time that Shang's Void Break had been countered.

He wondered if the peacock had done that on purpose or not.

In the sweltering heat, Shang shot forward directly at the peacock.

Shang's body was currently on fire, and his clothes were already burning away.

Shang reached the peacock, which only looked at him in interest.

Apparently, Shang still didn't look like a danger to it.

The next instant, Shang's Addum began to shine even more, and its edge seemingly started to melt under the insane amount of Fire Mana stored inside it.

Shang readied his attack.

Suddenly, the shine on the peacock's tail vanished.

CRKSH!

Shang seemingly exploded into a shower of blood!

What had the peacock done?

It simply stopped releasing its Blaze.

That was it.

Shang hadn't been able to react quickly enough to the sudden change in temperature, which meant that he was still releasing enough Fire Mana to counteract the Blaze's temperature.

So, when the Blaze suddenly stopped, Shang's overheated body froze in an instant, and due to the rapid change in temperature, a huge part of Shang's skin and muscles exploded.

The next moment, the peacock released more of its Blaze again, which reached the bloody mist in an instant.

Suddenly, something shot out of the bloody mist.

In an instant, it reached the peacock's head.

The peacock's eyes widened in fear, and it even released a frightened squeak like a chicken.

SHING!

Some Wind Mana appeared around its head, and its head moved to the side at insane speeds.

Shang's attack missed the peacock's head.

The peacock's body was already quite a couple of levels above Shang's, and with the addition of the fast Wind Affinity, it was even faster.

At that moment, the peacock could see the attack that Shang had just released.

It was a brightly shining object which looked a bit like a shooting star.

Surprisingly, the peacock couldn't feel any heat or cold coming from it.

There were also no absorption properties.

It wasn't even that heavy.

It didn't look dangerous at all.

Yet, the peacock felt danger emanating from the shining object.

The shining object passed by the peacock's head without touching it.

Then, it passed by the peacock's body.

It had missed its target.

But that wasn't so bad.

It didn't necessarily need to hit the head.

BOOOOOOM!

The shining object hit the peacock's extravagant tail!

As soon as it did, an impossibly bright light appeared, consuming the peacock's body.

The peacock felt the approaching danger, but as some time passed, it noticed that nothing was happening to it.

A bit later, all the light vanished again.

The peacock was still fine.

It was like nothing had changed.

The next moment, it noticed the heavily injured Shang.

The heat and cold had injured him to a devastating degree, making him resemble a burned corpse.

The peacock grew annoyed and summoned more Blaze, but this time, it would mix normal wind with it, creating pockets of colder air between layers of hot air.

And then, it shot the wave of mixed air toward Shang.

Shang immediately pointed his Subsis upward.

WHOOOOM!

The entire world turned dark as the saved-up Darkness Mana in the Subsis reached the extreme of darkness without the absorption qualities.

Surprisingly, the peacock's senses still worked in the world of darkness. After all, without the interrupting effect of void, the darkness had no effect on someone's Spirit Sense.

After that, the peacock suddenly saw Shang's body vanish and reappear behind it.

This surprised the peacock quite a bit.

This was far faster than it had expected its opponent to be.

Even more, its prepared attack shot past Shang since he had just vanished, which also surprised it.

Earlier, its opponent hadn't been able to react to the speed of its attack without blocking beforehand, but this time, its opponent had managed to evade its attack.

Physical speed was one thing, but the speed of someone's thoughts and reactions was something different.

Something had changed, but it couldn't tell what.

Meanwhile, Shang readied his Subsis and stabbed at the peacock's body.

An instant later, a long blade of ice appeared on the Subsis' tip, essentially speeding up its attack even more.