Actually, from the moment Atish had shown up at the scene, the probability of failure in dealing with the monster had decreased by a large degree. Unfortunately, however, the odds were still in the Plant Kraken's favor.

Swish~

Charging directly at it, Virus instantly reached the vicinity of the monster.

'Eh, how is he gonna bypass the flames by the way? I'm not yet that good at controlling my fire as of-'

'Oh, no! He's running straight into the fire! He'll burn himself! I need to warn him!!!' Her eyes went wide open in distress as she opened her mouth, about to scream at him in a warning.

But before she could pronounce anything from her vocal cords, Virus was already within the raging flames much to the stupefaction of Atish!

"Nooo!" She yelled in anguish and fear, already despondent at the unimaginable outcome of his careless charge into the wall of fire.

'I need to extinguish it at once!' Just as this line appeared in her mind, a new startling scene displayed itself in front of her.

She witnessed Virus standing totally fine within the fire itself as he jumped high into the sky, to the same height as the Plant Kraken itself.

"He… he's okay? How?" She was immediately perturbed out of her mind since she had yet to witness any human being who could directly withstand her flames up to this day.

Meanwhile, from the very instant Virus dashed into the blaze, he was experiencing rather excruciating affliction all across his body over his skin, yet still, he didn't even bat an eyelid as he continued his path into the firestorm without any intentions of wanting to stop whatsoever.

Moreover, his clothes and caped hoodie were burning as they soon turned into ash itself. To be honest, the notion of his cover being blown occupied Virus' mind more compared to the burning sensation all over his skin at the moment.

Therefore, connecting to his ring, he commanded once more.

'Divide Initial Configuration – Garments'

And it was followed by another, 'Duplication!'

Immediately afterward, parts of the scales covering his other hand were retracted as they transformed into a thin set of clothes that covered his body at once.

And since he had added the command 'duplication', the style of this new set of garments was the same as that of his previous wear. Everything was copied to the very last detail.

Although it had taken just a single second before his body was covered once more, unfortunately, at that very moment, Atish had still laid her eyes upon Virus' bare hair.

'Eh, how did the clothes reappear over his body? I'm sure they'd just burned to a crisp… and why was his hair darkish-silver in color? I remember clearly it was dark the last time I saw him on the television… did he dye them perhaps?'

Luckily yet, she didn't suspect it much. Instead, she was more alarmed by the clothes that had appeared out of nowhere. Not only that, but she was also even more disturbed by the fact that his clothes were no longer burning within her flames!

Simultaneously, within the blaze, Virus jumped as he was soon on the same level as the plant beast. And noticing that the Plant Kraken was still distracted by the pain of fire, quickly grabbing the rare chance, he hacked down with his dark longsword!

Swish~

At once, one of the green tentacles of the Kraken was chopped off as it fell on the ground much to the startlement of the beast itself.

ROAAAR!

The detachment of the tentacle from its body was followed by a howl of agony and a great deal of green blood gushing from the location of the separation itself!

Witnessing this scene and watching how beautiful Virus had attacked and injured the beast, Atish's eyes were burning with fervor. The same reaction applied to anyone who still happened to be watching the scene from afar.

Anyway, now that his attack had succeeded, without any hesitation whatsoever, Virus retreated.

He retreated because he noticed that the beast's attention was now on him completely.

Leaving the flame domain at once, Virus looked at Atish and praised, "Good job. Keep doing that and we might have a chance. I'll attack again when that monster forgets about me or gets careless again."

"Argh… o-ohkay… in the meantime, can I ask you something?"

"What is it? Be quick." Not wanting to waste time, totally expressionless, Virus permitted her to threw her question before him. At the same time, the Plant Kraken's wound closed up. Fortunately, this time, since the tentacle was chopped off from its very root, it didn't grow back as the injury only closed itself in order to stop the bleeding.

"Why did you show up here today? Did the Chinese Abnormals Association summon you? Could it be that you're a member of the Chinese Abnormal Association?!"

Actually, Atish was here right now because due to her being in very close proximity to the rift, the Chinese Abnormals Association had immediately contacted her and had requested her help in return for a certain price.

They couldn't summon her directly since she didn't belong to the Chinese Abnormals Association. Thus, the only option they were left with was to request her assistance for a fixed price which would tempt the red-head beauty.

"The Chinese Abnormals Association? Nope, I'm here for another reason." Was Virus's sole yet frigid response. Simultaneously, his head turned in the direction of a certain debris.

"I see… can you please tell me which guild you belong to? Shadows? Dominators? Perhaps Hunters? Or another guild entirely?" By now, her eyes were about to burst in respect and high approval.

"A Guild?" Murmured Virus. However, it was at this time when he suddenly realized the Plant Kraken's attention was once again on the blaze rather than him. Therefore, he rushed at it with no further words.

Very quickly, he was already within the diameter of the fire before he flew up again.

Then, just as he was just about to slash at another tentacle of the monster with his [The Darkest Night, The Shining Moon], all of sudden, the Plant Kraken's eyes were fixed on his figure!

'Shit! It was a trap indeed.' Was the only notion that went through Virus's mind as three tentacles promptly attacked him from three different directions.

Bang~