The Divine Wolf... or?

With some interest, Ark decided to try out a few more magic combinations to see if he could find any with especially good effects. For now, spatial and wind magic seemed like it could be very devastating depending on the circumstances. Through some quick thinking, Ark also realised that wind and fire magic would probably make a good combination since the wind could fan the flames so to speak.

As for how good it would be and the specific effects, he would have to test it some other time. Using fire magic against monsters born from the Inferno seemed quite stupid.

One combination that Ark decided to start with was ice and spatial magic. Both of them could be used to restrain enemies in different ways, and Ark figured that if he combined them, the effect would be enhanced even more. After waiting for a while and recovering some mana, the sea of fire in front of Ark moved again, and a long snake slithered out of it.

To Ark's surprise, this snake didn't look like it had any prominent fire attribute just from looking at its body, but Ark didn't let that fool him.

A creature that had nothing to do with fire wouldn't live in a sea of fire, it was pretty obvious that there was something more to this snake than met the eye. Before it could start approaching him, Ark stretched out his arm and pointed at the snake. The snake could instinctively feel danger, but when it tried to move, nothing happened. It was frozen in place.

In the next second, freezing energy seemed to freeze the snake from the inside out, and it turned into an ice sculpture in less than two seconds.

Ark watched this scene with some interest. It seemed like there were two benefits to this magic fusion. First of all, the ice magic could appear in the space inside of the opponent, effectively bypassing the opponent's magic defences to some degree and freezing them from the inside.

It would also save mana in comparison to if Ark would just stun them in place using space magic, since he would need to hold them there, effectively expending a lot of mana for every second he held them.

To Ark's astonishment, the snake didn't die and just seemed to enter some sort of hibernation to protect itself from the cold. Ark didn't want to waste much more time though and simply waved his hand. The ice sculpture ruptured into pieces, and the snake was no more than a few pieces on the ground. The sea of fire reacted to the snake's apparent death and surged over.

Ark was ready to fight, but to his surprise, the sea of fire swept over the pieces of the snake as if consuming them, and the pieces vanished.

The sea of fire went back to its original position, and after a few minutes, it started moving again. As he watched the fire's strange movement, Ark was fascinated. The more he watched it, the more it seemed like a living being. Was this fire being controlled by the boss of the dungeon? It seemed likely, but Ark wasn't entirely sure yet.

Without getting too distracted by the fire, Ark refocused his attention back on the creature that had just appeared in front of him.

Unlike the previous creatures, this one was a little special. Unlike some of the other creatures' ferocious appearances and apparent strength, this one just looked like a small and cute cat. However, Ark could see the sparkle of intelligence in its eyes, and just because it was small and cute didn't mean it was any less dangerous than anything else he had faced so far.

Just as he was about to move, he noticed the fluctuation of mana around the cat, and he blinked away from where he was standing.

The dirt ground suddenly exploded as two balls of fire scorched the earth. Ark could see that the cat seemed surprised that he had suddenly disappeared, but before he could observe it further, he felt the mana around it fluctuating again. Once again, Ark blinked away, but this time, he appeared behind the cat with his spear ready to lunge.

To his astonishment, the cat seemed to have predicted his move, and hurled fire at the spot he had just appeared.

Ark could feel the heat of the fire as it moved closer, but he didn't feel any sense of danger, so out of curiosity, he let the attack hit him. The torrent of flames hit him like a truck, and a small explosion hit his chest. The cat looked delighted upon seeing that its attack had landed, and it had an arrogant expression in its small eyes.

However, as the commotion died down, it was shocked to find Ark still standing in his original spot.

The clothes he was wearing were ruined, almost exposing his nude body to the world, but that same body was pretty much unscathed. His skin was only slightly red as if he had gotten a sunburn, and he had a small bruise from the explosion. Ark was a sovereign, so normal attacks didn't have much of an effect on him, and now he knew exactly what kind of resistance he had at the moment.

With a disdainful smirk on his face, Ark looked at the cat provocatively. The cat was naturally enraged when it saw his smug expression and got ready to attack with everything it had.

Just as it was about to make a move, it saw Ark raise his spear, and it instantly turned vigilant. Ark smiled with some interest, and instead of stabbing out with his spear, he swung it effortlessly like it was a normal stick. The cat watched on as Ark's powerless attack hit empty air with a confounded expression before a gust of wind was suddenly swept up.

The gust of wind quickly grew into a horizontal tornado that faced the small cat.

The tornado flashed with arcs of lightning, and as it moved closer to the cat, the force of the wind started pulling the cat in. The cat had a hard time moving and had no way to dodge in time, since that was the case, it could only face the attack head-on. Its body which was originally the same size as a house cat suddenly grew several times over and became over a meter and a half tall.

With a serious expression, it gathered up all the mana it had left in its body, as well as the surroundings.

Ark could sense what it was doing, and simply watched on with a curious expression. The cat accumulated all its mana in an instant, and suddenly discharged it all in the form of massive scarlet flames. As the flames came in contact with the tornado, a large explosion blasted away the surrounding dirt, and the world turned white for a small moment.

If any normal person had looked at this, they would've damaged their eyesight, but Ark just watched with interest. He wondered if the cat would survive the attack, and just what kind of tricks it had yet to show him.