"Weird, why is it Emperor instead of a Queen?" Tang Shaoyang muttered in a low voice.
—Pervert! You don't even spare your spirit!
Zowen immediately called out. Of course, she was misunderstanding the meaning behind his words as she just instantly jumped to a conclusion by himself.
—He is right, based on the Ant hierarchy, the highest rank should be Ant Queen and the lowest one is the ant worker. You are the one who had a dirty mind, Lightning Bitch.
Karan immediately talked back. He was not going to miss the chance to mock Zowen at any chance. Only then the Lightning Magus shut her mouth. She could not talk back when she was in the wrong.
There was another thing that bothered him off. Rumru was titled the Beast King while the spirit he just summoned was an Emperor. One was a Black Dragon but this one was a Fire Ant. He was someone who regarded the Emperor as a higher rank than a King, so he felt weird about that.
The crimson particles soon disappeared and revealed the figure behind the smoke. It was not the same Ant to Scorched Ant. Malki had two legs and four arms. A pair of hands were blade-like hands while the other pair was a normal hand but with a scary claw.
The dark flaming eyes moved around, scanning the surroundings while the bright crimson carapace released out hot air. Two jet-black horns protruded backward while there was a pair of antennas made of fire next to the horn.
The Fire Ant Emperor's flaming glanced at Zaneos below before locking its gaze on Tang Shaoyang. The ant and the human exchanged glances for a few seconds before the blade-like mandible opened and a high pitch screech resounded.
"You can't talk?" Tang Shaoyang furrowed his brows. The screech was unpleasant to the ears.
Instead of talking like the other spirits, the Fire Ant Emperor kept screeching at him. It seemed to say something, but the language barrier caused the two not to be able to communicate.
"It's B+ Tier Spirit, it's disappointing that it could not talk," Tang Shaoyang shook his head. He loved to negotiate to sign the contract instead of battling against the spirit. He had been doing this four times, and he was well aware that the spirit had a regret they could not fulfill in their life. He wanted to use this to sign the contract with the spirit.
"Then let's fight," Tang Shaoyang motioned his hand toward the Fire Ant Emperor to come at him. It could not understand his words, but the ant understood his gesture.
Malki flapped his fire wing and his figure flashed toward Tang Shaoyang. It was fast, but he could still see its movement perfectly. He moved the side, dodging the incoming blade from above, and sent a kick to Malki's back.
The Fire Ant Emperor's figure shot toward the ground. But it managed to regain the balance before he could touch the ground. It flipped around and looked toward Tang Shaoyang.
Malki flapped the fire wings, but his body did not move. The ant stayed still in the air even though it flapped its wing fiercely. But the moment it stopped flapping, his figure flashed toward Tang Shaoyang at a frightening speed.
Tang Shaoyang noticed that even the blade-like hands were covered in the fire too. Instead of dodging the attack, he cast [Flame Shield] and [Mana Shroud]. After casting the two skills, he cast another defensive skill, [Dragon Scales].
Black scales started to cover his skin, from the bottom up to his neck covered in the black scales.
Malki's blades struck the crimson sphere, and it instantly broke. Flame burst out and rushed toward the Fire Ant Emperor. However, the fire could not have the Fire Ant Emperor. The claw came out of the fire, aiming at his face.
The claw was about to reach his face, but he ducked back, and the claw struck his chest instead. Even though the claw managed to hit his chest, it failed to break [Mana Shroud] as the claw bounced back.
Tang Shaoyang's hand reached toward the flame, but he failed to grab Malki. The Fire Ant Emperor flew around to his back quickly as soon as the claw failed to penetrate his [Mana Shroud].
Instead of attacking him, Malki grabbed his shoulder tightly and used the blade arm to strike his neck. The blade tore the [Mana Shroud] but it quickly met hard resistance from the black scales.
Malki did not give as he kept attacking the same spot with his blade.
"Go help him!" Li Na was anxious as soon as she noticed Tang Shaoyang was caught by the Fire Ant Emperor. He was talking to Zaneos who stood next to her.
"You don't need to worry about him, he should be fine," Zaneos replied with his cold voice, "He has to do this alone to make the contract with the spirit."
She was about to nag the Demon Swordsman to help Tang Shaoyang, but she noticed Tang Shaoyang easily broke out from the grips.
"You are quick, but your reaction is faster. It's not easy to catch you," Tang Shaoyang remarked as he caught the blade-like hand. He pulled Malki with a motion of slamming the Fire Ant Emperor down. At the same time, he deactivated his [Sky Walk].
The two figures fell down quickly. The Fire Ant Emperor tried to flip their position but Tang Shaoyang was stronger. It failed to switch their position.
"Just give up and sign the contract!" Tang Shaoyang grinned at the ant. Just as they were about to crash down, the fire wing dispersed. The fire covered the whole body.
Boom!
A crater formed on the ground, but the fire shielded Malki from the crash, minimizing the damage it received.
The black scale around Tang Shaoyang's hands started to heat up because of the fire as it turned red. He could feel the heat on his skin, indicating the Fire Ant Emperor's fire was fierce.
Tang Shaoyang opened his mouth, he wanted to try which fire was stronger. Malki's fire or Dragon's fire, he was about to cast [Fire Breath]. However, he stopped halfway, hesitating to do that.
'What if the [Fire Breath] kill Malki? Can spirit be killed?' Those two questions immediately resurfaced in his mind.
Malki did not know what Tang Shaoyang's thoughts were. But it did use this chance to kick Tang Shaoyang in the belly. The Fire Ant Emperor managed to break free from his grasp and moved to the distance.
"Screeeechhhh!!!" The Fire Ant Emperor started to screech again at Tang Shaoyang. It annoyed him for sure, but his mind was somewhere else. Could the spirit be killed?
—I don't know!
Karan and Zowen gave the same answer. They truly did not know. Zowen was a newbie spirit while Karan never thought that deeply about the existence of a spirit.
"Let's not take the risk," Tang Shaoyang did not want to take the risk of killing the spirit. Malki was Tier B+ Spirit, it was a pity that if he accidentally killed it, though its screech was annoying.
[Dragon Transformation]
He would just overwhelm the Fire Ant Emperor with this skill. And if this was not enough, he could use [Advance Spirit Integration] with Karan.
Noticing the change on Tang Shaoyang, the Fire Ant Emperor stopped screeching. Instead of trying to interrupt Tang Shaoyang, Malki watched the transformation from a distance.
Li Na who did not know his new skill was shocked to see the man she loved transformed into something similar to a monster, "Is that his new skill too?" Her voice wavered a little bit. It was a bit scary since she was not used to seeing the sight of a man turned into a half-dragon like that.
"Yes, that is the new skill he got from the Dragon Bloodline!" Zaneos who heard her voice replying.
"Hahaha! Come! Let's finish the battle already!" Tang Shaoyang let out laughter. The laughter reverberated to the air as his fierce aura spread out on the scorched land.
Zaneos took a breath after sensing the strong aura. It was completely different than watching his attributes that kept growing at an insane rate to feel it directly.
However, the Fire Ant Emperor did not attack Tang Shaoyang. The flaming eyes were examining him while it walked toward him. Slowly, Malki shortened the distance between the two. The Fire Ant Emperor only stopped when the distance between them was two meters.
The fire that became the armor now had turned back into the wing. It stopped there, looking at Tang Shaoyang while tilting its head to the side.
Tang Shaoyang looked back at Malki, wondering what happened to this spirit. He lowered his guard as the opponent was not in a fighting stance. The Fire Ant Emperor was standing there for like twenty seconds before it dropped on its knees and lowered its head toward him.
Tang Shaoyang was baffled that the spirit suddenly knelt toward him. He had not done anything yet, the fight was not over. He would think the Fire Ant Emperor might trick him to lower his guard before launching a sneak attack on him. However, he threw the thoughts as soon as the notification appeared in front of his eyes.
[Malki the Fire Ant Emperor is willing to be your contracted spirit! Accept/Decline?]
If not for the notification, he would think this spirit was playing a trick against him. But with the notification from the system, meaning Malki truly surrendered by his own volition.
He was not that stupid enough to choose decline to continue the fight. Since Malki submitted himself, he gladly accepted the Fire Ant Emperor to be his contracted spirit.