25: Stalemate

The ground trembled violently, and the Flame Lord's legs bent slightly. He exerted force, leaping high into the air, leaving only a deep crater on the ground.

Enveloped in raging flames, he shot out like an arrow from a bowstring, charging towards Apollo.

The intense flames erupting from his feet provided powerful propulsion for his charge.

Apollo, seeing a "skyrocket" heading towards him, naturally wouldn't sit idly by.

He nimbly dodged the "skyrocket's" path, not forgetting to mock it as he moved.

"Hey, brother, your flying style is quite unique."

The Flame Lord acted as if he hadn't heard, his body's Fire Element power surging wildly, coalescing into a pair of massive flame wings behind him.

Apollo's pupils constricted sharply at the sight, and he was greatly alarmed.

This guy can form wings, why didn't he use them earlier? Is he playing weak to ambush me?

But upon closer inspection, he felt something was off.

The Flame Lord struggled to spread his wings, slightly slowing his momentum.

Then he clumsily flapped in mid-air, laboriously adjusting his direction, before flames erupted from his feet again, and he charged towards Apollo once more.

Apollo nearly burst out laughing at the comical sight.

"Seriously, brother, if you can't fly, don't go into the sky. Who are you trying to scare with those wings?"

It turned out that these flame wings were merely for show, formed by the Flame Lord's exquisite control over Fire Element power.

While they could barely be used for gliding and turning, they couldn't support actual flight at all.

Seeing the Flame Lord's disheveled appearance, Apollo finally relaxed.

He then manipulated the storm, attempting to completely eradicate the remaining Fire Elements.

The Flame Lord was enraged by this and continued to charge towards Apollo.

At the same time, he constantly waved his hands, shooting arrows of flame at Apollo.

Apollo easily and leisurely dodged the arrows, then, feeling playful, he flicked his fingertips, and several grotesque Fear Tentacles instantly materialized in the void.

With a crisp "smack," a tentacle struck the Flame Lord hard, sending him flying.

Before he could steady himself, another illusory tentacle struck like a venomous snake, knocking him away again.

Under Apollo's control, the Flame Lord was like a ball being toyed with, repeatedly struck and left in a sorry state.

The remaining Fire Elements on the ground, witnessing their Lord's humiliation, were both shocked and enraged, frantically quickening their escape.

Soon, they rendezvoused with their companions guarding the portal.

Facing the approaching storm, the remaining Fire Elements stood ready, concentrating their power and spewing out a thick pillar of fire.

The pillar of fire was like a burning spear, thrusting directly into the storm, attempting to counteract it.

Blazing flames spread within the storm.

The storm, originally filled with fear power, gradually transformed into a fiery tornado under the erosion of the flames.

The fiery tornado roared into the Fire Element's position but caused little damage.

Ye Chen, observing from a distance, immediately ordered the Harpies and Worms to attack.

In an instant, the earth trembled, and a large swarm of Worms surged from underground like a black tide, rushing relentlessly towards the Fire Elements.

These Worms could revive infinitely, so their deaths were not painful.

However, Ye Chen did not send out his most powerful Champion Worms.

After all, it would be too wasteful to use these elites, cultivated through multiple rounds of desperate battles, as cannon fodder.

Currently, the Worms on the battlefield were all below three stars in level, and cultivating them again required relatively less time and effort.

As for Gluttony, Ye Chen also did not let it participate in the battle.

Its combat power mainly relied on flies, and those fist-sized flies were completely helpless against the Fire Elements.

After all, Ye Chen had only given the Worms Elemental Resistance, the flies had not been strengthened.

As the Worms attacked fearlessly, the Fire Elements gradually felt the strain.

The dense, seemingly endless Worm Army was like a nightmare.

And the Fire Elements' own condition, due to continuous energy loss and the erosion of negative aura, grew worse and worse.

At this moment, Zhou Mingjie, who had been observing from the sky, finally broke his silence.

Previously, out of trust in his hero and to avoid chaos in the army, he had never interfered with the Flame Lord's command.

But now, with the Flame Lord completely entangled and the army leaderless, he had no choice but to take over command:

"All Fire Elements, withdraw from the portal and block the enemy in the Flame Divine Domain!"

The Fire Elements, hearing the divine decree, felt as if they had received a great amnesty and fled towards the portal.

The Worm Army pursued relentlessly, also surging into the portal.

However, upon entering the Flame Divine Domain, the Worms immediately felt an unbearable heat.

Looking up, the entire Divine Domain was a fiery red.

Magma churned on the ground, fire clouds rolled in the sky, and scorching heat assailed them.

This was a paradise for Fire Elements and a purgatory for other creatures.

In this Flame Divine Domain, the Fire Elements seemed to have been injected with a stimulant.

Not only did their energy recovery speed greatly increase, but the power of their various skills also greatly improved.

The remaining one hundred and eighty-plus Fire Elements quickly regrouped their defenses, forming a battle formation in front of the portal, firmly blocking the pursuing Worm Army.

Seeing this, Ye Chen ordered the Worm Army to burrow underground.

But the high temperature underground was equally terrifying; as soon as the Worms burrowed in, they lost their lives in the scorching heat.

This made Ye Chen feel immediately troublesome.

The Flame Divine Domain was truly the bane of the Worms.

Fighting here, his side's disadvantages were fully exposed.

He dared not continue to sacrifice lives, as it was someone else's Divine Domain, and souls could not be recovered.

Unless he had absolute certainty of conquering the Divine Domain and absorbing it as part of the Abyss, the souls would not return.

If he exhausted his forces and failed to conquer the Divine Domain, the losses would be immense.

Just then, Zhou Mingjie's voice sounded:

"Ye Chen, I've lost this time. How about we both take a step back and call it quits?"

This sudden offer of peace surprised Ye Chen; he hadn't expected the usually arrogant Zhou Mingjie to be the first to back down.

With the battlefield in a stalemate, calling it quits was not a bad option, so Ye Chen spoke:

"Calling it quits isn't impossible, but how will my losses be accounted for?"

Zhou Mingjie paused slightly at his words. Did this guy not understand the situation?

My side clearly suffered more severe losses, yet he still dared to demand compensation?

Zhou Mingjie fell silent and did not reply.

Ye Chen was not in a hurry either. He held three hundred and fifty flame seeds and the hero, Flame Lord, in his hand, feeling confident.

Seeing that, apart from Apollo still toying with the Flame Lord, all other battlefields had quieted down, he took out a flame seed and began to study it carefully.

When these Fire Elements suffered fatal damage, their souls and energy would condense into flame seeds, awaiting revival.

That's why the Abyss Will had not been able to capture any Fire Element souls in the previous battles.

Ye Chen tried to destroy the flame seed and release the soul within.