Because of the fact that he was moving slower now that he was worried about a potential ambush by a powerful monster, the crimson flame knight ended up giving the branch guild leader the opportunity to safely land on one of the smaller mountains in the mountain range. Allowing him to charge towards the deeper regions of the mountain range where the more powerful monsters resided. Understanding that those powerful monsters would be his only way of shaking off the crimson flame knight chasing after him.
Even knowing that this was what the branch guild leader was planning to do before he had even landed on the ground, the crimson flame knight didn’t dare to neglect his surroundings.
Understanding that he would need to be ready to act quickly in case of an ambush. Intending to either kill of the ambushing monster instantaneously or scare it away in case he couldn’t kill, as only then would he be able to continue chasing after the branch guild leader.
More importantly, even if his speed had slowed down significantly, he was still getting closer to the branch guild leader and should catch up to him in less than half a minute at his current speed.
So, with that in mind, he wasn’t too worried about the branch guild leader escaping from him. The main thing he worried about was the appearance of A Rank Monster.
Rooar!
And as if to answer his worries, one such monster soon jumped down from a nearby mountain. Blocking the path forward for the branch guild leader, who now had nowhere to go, as an A Rank Monster in the shape of a giant mountain lion standing in front of him filled with killing intent.
He should give up trying to escape with this. After all, he should know that he won’t be able to deal with such a powerful monster on his own before I catch up...
Narrowing both of his eyes as he thought about this to himself while observing the precarious situation of the branch guild leader, the crimson flame knight slightly increased his speed so he could show up in time to save the branch guild leader from the giant mountain lion.
After all, his main intention wasn’t to kill the branch guild leader, but instead just to capture him alive for questioning.
If he had really wanted to kill the other party, there would have been no way for him to still have remained alive, as he could have long since used some of his longer ranged fire-based attacks to kill him before he had a chance to reach the fourth floor of the dungeon.
"Damnit!" Cursing to himself as he saw the giant mountain lion leap down from the mountain next to him and land perfectly in front of him to block his path, the branch guild leader also understood that his current situation wasn’t looking good, as he only had seconds left before the crimson flame knight managed to catch up to him.
However, with the giant mountain lion blocking his path forward, he had pretty much been rendered helpless, as he had nowhere to go with two towering mountains each blocking his left and right side, while the giant mountain lion stood a few dozen meters in front of him, and the crimson flame knight was rapidly closing in on him from behind.
Out of everything that could have happened, this was a worst-case scenario, as he had absolutely no way out of his current situation.
Whoosh-!
And so, knowing this, the branch guild leader pulled out a small transparent vial with a strange green liquid inside of it that had been hidden inside his clothes before throwing it towards the ground in front of the mountain lion-
Crack!
Fwoosh~
Roar?
Causing a confused expression to appear on the face of the mountain lion, as it watched the green liquid inside the vial mix together with the air to create a rapidly expanding green fog that soon enveloped the mountain lion before spreading to cover the base of the two nearby mountains.
"Hm? Green- Ah! corrosive bone mist! So, he was from one of those three places!" Watching all of this play out from a relatively safe distance, the crimson flame knight almost instantly identified the green mist that had started to spread following the vial thrown out by the branch guild leader shattering. After which he wasted no time turning around to avoid the green mist, while at the same time keeping an eye on the giant mountain lion inside the green mist together with the branch guild leader.
Roooar-!
In the end, what he saw was the powerful A Rank Monster, the giant mountain lion slowly dissolving inside the green mist. Showing just how terrifying this corrosive bone mist truly was, as even a powerful A Rank Monster had almost instantly been killed off by it.
More surprisingly, the branch guild leader who was standing in the middle of the green mist was completely unaffected as he just waited for the mountain lion to die before continuing forward without wasting any time now that the crimson flame knight couldn’t follow him without going around the two mountain, something that would take far too long and would give him more than enough time to find somewhere to hide inside of the expansive mountain range.
Unfortunately, while the branch guild leader did manage to create a barrier that the crimson flame knight couldn’t follow him through, he also ended up exposing the fact that he was part of an organization that were enemies with the adventurer’s guild. Giving the crimson flame knight a justifiable reason for killing him.
"Hmph! Think I will just allow you to run away like that? Now that I know that you are from one of those places, I won’t be held accountable for killing you and will even be rewarded!"
RUUUMBLE-!
As a result, the crimson flame knight didn’t hold back as he directly gathered his burning mana inside of his sword, causing a violent tremor to spread through the surrounding mountains, while the ground beneath him started to show signs of melting under the extreme heat of the now more than ten-meter-tall flames engulfing his body-
"HAAAAA-!"
WHOOOSH-!
It was in this kind of state, that the crimson flame knight slashed down towards the escaping branch guild leader without the slightest bit of mercy, causing the ten-meter-tall flame engulfing his body to concentrate around his sword before flying out in the shape of a burning arc towards the escaping branch guild leader. Carrying with it a terrifying power that directly melted the sides of the path cutting through the two mountains.
"Huh...?"
At the same time, the branch guild leader who was about to reach the end of the path between the two mountains sensed the terrifying heat behind him, as he turned around just in time to see the burning arc appearing directly in front of him-
BOOOOM-!
And without any time to react to the terrifying attack, he was directly reduced to ash before being scattered by the explosion that occurred when the burning arc landed on the ground, he had been standing moments earlier.
When faced with the killing intent and power of an A Rank Adventurer considered to be strong even among A Rank Adventurers, the branch guild leader simply stood no chance to fight back at all, as he died without even having the chance to fight back.
Although his speed was impressive for someone in the B Rank and could even contend with an A Rank adventurer due to his class, he stood no chance when it came to strength. Especially someone like the crimson flame knight who was also known for his strong attack power, making up for his relatively slow speed.
"How unfortunate, I hoped that I would be able to catch him and find out what it was he might have been up to, but things ended up turning out like this in the end... Hah... Hopefully the old man won’t blame me too much considering that this fellow was from one of those three places..." Muttering this to himself with a hint of pity in his voice as he surveyed the destruction that had been left behind by his attack, the crimson flame knight waited a few minutes for the green mist to clear up before going over to survey the place where the branch guild leader had been standing when he was hit.
Only after searching through the area for another few minutes and making sure that nothing had managed to survive the attack, did he turn around and start making his way back in the direction of the newly constructed spiral staircase leading back up to the third floor of the dungeon.
Different from before, he didn’t slow down his speed this time around, as he felt certain that any monster that might have planned to ambush him earlier should have been scared off by the attack just now.