26 Battle with Centicoal

On the way towards a certain volcano, the brothers were walking on a rocky path filled with glistening black stones in various shapes and sizes.

"Are we close, brother? It's getting kinda hot here!" Arie hardly spoke as he drank a mouthful of water, while his sweat was dripping profusely from his forehead.

"We need to climb up the mouth of this volcano!" Urie replied as he passed Eop towards Arie.

"Damn this cape! Why isn't it working?" Arie cursed as he kept on flapping the cape to fan himself.

"Where did you equip the cape?" Urie stopped, looked at his brother, and asked.

"Of course! I equipped it at Torso Accessory! Shouldn't I put it there?" Arie asked as Urie facepalmed because of his younger brother's stupidity.

"Why not equip it in the Back slot?"

"Because the Aura of the Elves was already there!"

"Exchange the two items! You dummy! Of course the effects of the cape won't work because it was only placed in an accessory slot! They are there for display purposes!" Urie helplessly shook his head as they continued their trip towards the volcano.

Arie immediately heed his brother's instructions as he finally felt the cooling effect of the cape and kept the glowing effect of the Elves.

"Damn! Why didn't I think of that?" Arie exclaimed as he ran and walked side by side with his brother.

"Because you are dumb!" Urie shrugged and continued walking as Arie walked with him while wearing an annoyed pout on his face.

A few minutes passed when they reached the top of the Volcano which was the absolute opposite of the temperature below.

The air was cold and dense and there were a few caves around the mouth where Eop and its evolutions built their nests, since volcanoes with low temperature at the top were the natural habitats of these beasts.

There were a few of them and some Fire Class beasts seldomly flying over the crater or crawling under the ground.

"Where are we really going, brother? We don't have anywhere to go further from here?" Arie asked, but his brother pointed towards the mouth of the volcano.

"There! We're going there!" Urie smiled as he looked at his brother with a pair of eager eyes.

"WHAT?! Are you out of your mind? Do you really want to die that much?" Arie angrily scolded his brother, but he only received a smack on his head.

"Dummy! Can you see that? There's a pathway down the mouth of the volcano! That's probably the way towards the place where the quest item is!" Urie said with an annoyed expression as he was about to walk down the path when he received a hard smack to his head.

"You are the dummy one! You know it will get hotter and hotter the deeper we walk in, right? Do you think that our equipment can bear the temperature?"

"Hahaha! Dummy! Have you seen any durability stats in our temperature adjusting items?" Urie snickered as he walked down the path towards the heart of the volcano.

The two walked down silently as the temperature of the surroundings was rising, but their equipment took care of the deadly temperature regulating the heat of their body.

As they walked deeper inside the volcano, strange things were happening around them. Hissing sounds could be heard as the walls were vibrating from something that was crawling underneath it.

"What's that, bro?" Arie worriedly asked as he vigilantly looked around, guarding his own from whatever that thing was.

"Probably a burying beast? Let's just guard ourselves from whatever that is!" Urie also vigilantly looked around, tracing the way where that thing was.

Vibrations kept on shaking the ground, giving difficulties to the two.

"What could it be?" Arie anxiously said, which was immediately answered by the rumbling of the opposite wall, and a large centipede-like beast emerged from it.

"What kind of beast is that?" Arie frightfully asked.

"Centicoal! A Fire-Earth Class beast specializing in burrowing underground!" Urie read the description of the beast as it appeared in front of them.

"Why is it so big? I thought Centicoals can only grow at around 5 meters but this one seems like it's around 20 meters!" Arie was shocked to see the enormous beast in front of them.

"So that's why!" Urie nodded as he kept on examining the beast.

"What's that, brother? Is that thing a mutated beast?"

"Yes! That Centicoal is a mutated beast, though it didn't achieve an elemental boost, it gained a physical boost that's why it got as large as it is right now!"

"What should we do? Should we fight it?"

"We don't necessarily need to defeat it! We just need to fend it away from the path so that it won't destroy or block our way down!" Urie replied.

He seriously looked at the Centicoal which was clinging to the side of the walls while baring its fangs at the two.

"Arie! Be prepared! Don't let that thing hit you even once or you'll be doomed!" Urie warned his little brother as he summoned Angin and rode the bird.

"Isn't it a good reason to just defeat it?" Arie retorted while summoning Phansy.

"No! If you accidentally killed that beast, there will be no more beast that will guard whatever it was guarding below!" Urie scolded.

Centicoal looked at the flying bird beast as it shot a large burning coal from its mouth.

"Angin! Use Paralytic Dust!"

Yellow dust covered the air above the Centicoal as it rained upon the beast which was trying to burrow itself in the walls of the crater but Eop hindered it by shooting the walls with its icy blue flame that immediately turned a part of the wall into ice.

Arie issued an order to Phansy as the beast attacked Centicoal with a burst of water that produced steam when it hit the blazing part.

"Arie! What are you doing? Why did you do that?" Urie angrily shouted as he flew higher and avoided the burning coal that Centicoal randomly shot.

"What did I do wrong?" Arie angrily retorted as Phansy shot another burst of water towards the burning beast.