Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

"COME GET ME IF YOU DARE, STUPID BEAST!"

Alex shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing throughout every nook and cranny of the town.

He really didn't like being hunted like this, especially by a predator he couldn't even see.

Instead, he'd much rather provoke it into revealing itself and as a result making the ensuing fight much easier without having to constantly stay on alert in case the beast decides to sneak attack him.

He knew it had to have at least a semblance of intelligence, as he had already found out from his encounter with the Divine white tiger that beasts can actually have intelligence on par with humans, the higher their classification is.

And just like Alex wanted, his plan seemed to have worked.

'I'll have to send a letter to the afterlife to thank Count Desmond for suppressing this thing, otherwise I'd have been dead meat already…'

Attracted by the sudden burst of insults originating from Alex's mouth, the Variant beast soon made its appearance in a storm of fury.

During its first appearance through the swirling vortex, Alex hadn't been able to get a good enough look at it before it disappeared somewhere into the town, hence he had only known that it was huge.

It looked like every depiction of a demon Alex had ever seen or imagined, only a little more overweight…

Its towering legs smashed through every building like they were made of paper, and every step shook the earth beneath them. Two deep yellow eyes focused on the shouting human, sending a cold chill down Alex's spine.

"Yeah that's what I thought you filthy mutt! Come and get me, fatty!" Alex shouted, all the while ignoring the pressure let off by the beast.

He knew this thing was suppressed all the way down to E+ rank, but that suppression didn't extend to the pressure its aura gave off.

That still oozed with the ferocity of a C+ rank beast, which made Alex nervous to even approach the thing.

'Get a hold of yourself Alex! You know this thing has been weakened, don't succumb to its tricks!'

The beast dashed toward Alex. Over twice as tall as the houses it was trampling on, it would be hard not to spot such a behemoth charging towards him.

Even the spectators outside of the barrier could see the behemoth rampaging through what used to be their livelihoods, their homes, their entire lives.

Which begged the question.

'How did this huge thing even hide from me in the first place?'

Alex soon got his answer to this question, as the thing quickly disappeared before his very eyes.

Poof!

He didn't even see any magical effects or anything to indicate it was planning such a disappearing act.

One second it was there, then he blinked, and it was gone.

Just as Alex was starting to get a little paranoid, he felt a terrifying presence appear behind him.

'Shit!'

With a swift dodge, Alex reacted with lightning speed, dodging an attack from one of the demon-lookalike's terrifying claws.

'So that's how!'

It was at this moment that Alex realised how the beast had managed to effectively fade from existence right before his eyes.

All over the beast, he could see the faint remains of a dark energy, which Alex could only presume to be the darkness element.

This, combined with the fact that the huge dome barrier surrounding the town blocked any sunlight from getting in, made for an incredibly deadly combination.

But it also meant that Alex was at a severe disadvantage.

'It's a variant beast, of course it has to have something unique about it!'

This dark elemental energy wasn't anything like that of Count Desmond or his son Lucian's dark energy.

Their energy just contained their sinister intent, which had most likely been built up over time by countless killings and brutal acts.

But the darkness element this Variant creature was controlling was the real deal.

Emphasis on the 'controlling' factor too.

The requirement to have a basic control over an element to pass into C tier wasn't just there for humans, but for beasts too.

While the creature might have the strength of an E+ rank Variant beast thanks to the suppression, that didn't mean it lost its abilities too.

Which meant that it was able to do much more with its darkness element than any actual E+ rank Variant beast could.

However there was one thing that Alex knew countered darkness…

And that was light.

He may not have access to the light element, which was the perfect counter to darkness, but he had the next best thing.

Fire!

Fire produced light, especially at extremely high temperatures, and Alex would use this to his advantage.

Guided by the loud sounds of the beast's movements, Alex knew its exact location, and he started his preparations for unleashing a flame so large that the beast wouldn't be able to put it out quick enough.

Things would have been a lot easier if he used his spatial perception, but that used up way too much energy, and in his current predicament, he needed to conserve every last drop of energy he had access to.

Thankfully, his job of creating a flame was made much easier by the flimsy craftsmanship of the houses in the Primordial Expanse.

Almost all of them, save for the more expensive and privileged housing, were made of wood.

Alex lit his hands alight with flames.

He started spinning in a helicopter motion as he let the flames shoot out from his hands in every direction, hitting any loose bit of wood they came into contact with.

Fireballs streaked through the air like meteors, and at one point one landed in a pile of broken houses.

In the next few seconds, the fire spread quickly and the whole town was lit up in a blaze, with the number of shadows and darkness reduced by over 95% of their original reach.

"Now we can have a fair fight."

His gaze had changed to one of confidence when the beast tried, and failed to repeat its disappearing act again.