Baal is a prodigy who was raised to become another demon noble on par with the 8 strongest demon nobles. He was destined to be great. He has an innate talent for mana manipulation that enabled him to master the fusion of sin energy and mana when he was just a mid-rank demon. He was already a high-rank demon when Infernox was a mid-rank demon. And he wasn't some ordinary high-rank demon either.
He believes he should be superior to Infernox in the ranking since he has the advantage of age, talent, and most importantly, strength. It is nothing personal. It is simply in his nature to lust after good things regardless of whether he deserves it or not. So they will duke it out and see who gets to be the head and who gets to be the tail. Strength should be the determinant of the rank in the house instead of the time you joined the house.
Fire came out of Infernox's body like a liquid and spread over the metal axe head in his hand. The metal heated up quickly and became a crystal with the same reddish-orange color as the flame. Infernox roared and flapped his giant wings. His giant figure shot towards Baal like a burning meteor with his axe raised and primed for decapitation.
Baal responded quickly. He muttered some words and threw one of the ice cards that the pages of his grimoire had transferred into. The ice cared transformed into a thick slab of ice that stood in Infernox's path. Infernox axe fell with impunity and cut into the obstruction. The ice slab shattered but there was another one waiting for Infernox.
Infernox shattered the next one easily, and the next one, then the next one. Meanwhile, the ice slabs that he shattered reformed into their original shape. They look intact and ready to be shattered again. They would have looked completely identical to their previous state except that they are smaller. Apparently, they didn't come out unscathed from the previous shattering. But they are ready to go again for another round of smashing.
Infernox became boggled down by 10 slabs of ice that rotated the duty of being shattered. It gave Baal time to form a bigger ice construct. He muttered for 10 seconds into an ice card and infused it with a lot of energy, then he transformed it into a giant ice gate. The ice gate flew towards Infernox and entered the rotation.
Infernox struck the gate with his full power but he could only cut out chunks of the gate instead of shattering it with one blow as he did for the ice slabs. He aimed for a second blow but an ice slab tried to smash into his side. He waved one arm to shatter the distraction but it reduced the power of his strike on the gate. He tried again to bring down the ice gate but more and more distractions tried to prevent him from doing just that. Meanwhile, Baal is siphoning his stamina.
He can feel himself growing weary due to Baal's unique ability The Lust For Power. It made him frustrated and he roared. Flames poured out of his skin into his surroundings like some leaking furnace. A domain of flames appeared around him to form a sphere of fire. He became the core of a large ball of fire.
The ice slabs around him were melted easily by the flames so he could concentrate on the giant ice wall. He succeeded in shattering it and he found another giant ice wall behind it. He wasn't surprised, but he became angrier. The flames around him grew hotter the angrier he became. His emotions acted as fuel to his flames.
He set to work on the gate while Baal tried to slow him down with more ice slabs but it was all futile. The ice slabs were like lambs sent to their slaughter. They entered the domain of flames never to return again. Even the ice gate couldn't show its full strength within the flames. It is already taxing for the ice gate to survive the flames. Weathering the onslaught of Infernox's blows is a little too much for it to cope with. So Infernox was able to destroy the second ice gate in record time.
He found another gate waiting for him but he grinned this time around. He has come close to Baal. He just has to overcome this last barrier quickly enough then he will finally be able to crush Baal's weak body. Unfortunately, he couldn't be happy for long because Baal increased the distance between them. He flapped his wings and flew back while he continued to create more ice gates. He was able to create two more ice gates that entered the rotation to stall Infernox.
Baal had to stay close to Infernox or the Ice gates will be useless. If he is too far away from Infernox, infernox can just avoid the giant ice gates to reach him. But by being close to the fiery minotaur, infernox has to pass through the ice gates to reach him. Baal continued to use the tactic to stall his opponent.
Infernox roared again and pursued but he couldn't reach his target without going through the ice gates. Still, he was getting stronger and stronger. So he was destroying them faster and faster. Baal was still sending the ineffective ice slabs to their deaths. It became a race of cat vs mouse until Infernox became strong enough to destroy the ice gate with a single strike. It happened just in time too because Baal's ability to siphon his stamina is about to tire him out. The fight had taken a long time but he doesn't have anything to show for it. That will change now with his newfound strength.
He positioned himself and raised his axe for a strike to the ice gate. Then the gate suddenly exploded. It exploded without being hit. It sent out ice flakes that doused Infernox's flame domain. The two other gates exploded too after the first explosion. The full power of their explosion struck Infernox without his flame domain to protect him.