Ed raised his arms in preparation of the fight ahead of him. It was at that moment that he noticed the hundreds of eyes shifting simultaneously. 'Hmm?' He furrowed his brow in confusion. He moved his arms again and the hundreds of eyes followed his left hand. 'They want the purple mana-core I took from the ice giant?' He hesitated a moment before slowly placing it down on the ground in front of him. He backed away cautiously, ready to defend himself at a moment's notice.

One of the mutants exited the shadows, revealing a hyena that was barely a meter tall. Like everything within the cage, it was completely purple. 'Why are there so many mutants resembling Africa animals down here?' Ed wondered. 'Maybe they escaped from local zoos or something in the past? But that still wouldn't explain how they got here... Just how expansive is the underground maze anyways? Hell, it could link to other continents for all I know.'

Suddenly, the hyena lunged forward, ready to devour the purple mana-core. Ed didn't hesitate as he rushed forward and punted the hyena like a football, sending it flying back into the shadows. This seemed to enrage the other hyenas, causing several more of them to move towards him. Behind them was a hyena that was different from the rest. It stood nearly three meters tall and was covered in wisps of purple flame.

Ed's eyes shone with interest as he saw the strange hyena. It was his first time seeing an elemental power being used externally within the cage. The ice giant might have qualified, but it was hard to say for certain since its entire body was made up of the water element. He rubbed his chin. 'The hyena uses fire. The lions I faced were rather ordinary. The ice giant can be considered to be of the water element. I also travelled through those strange areas of lightning... but everything is purple. How does it connect with the seven elements? Is it an eighth element? Or perhaps an auxiliary force like gold faith energy?'

Motivated to find the answers, he no longer hesitated as he charged forward. This seemed to enrage the pack as hundreds of them rushed out from the shadows. Four more strange hyenas were amongst them. However, their bodies were all different. One was covered in stone, another in ice, and two in lightning.

Ed grew even more excited as a light purple glow covered his chimera body. The ordinary hyenas were mere cannon fodder, crushed if they dared bar his path. A sympathy of cracking bones and whimpering screams echoed throughout the cavern as Ed soaked in the blood of the weaklings. Surprisingly, the five strange hyenas ignored him as they charged towards the purple mana-core he left on the ground.

'Hmm. That's convenient.' He smiled as he continued killing the weak hyenas. He kept an eye on the purple mana-core, which the five strange hyenas now fought over. If any of the hyenas had a chance to devour the core, he would be able to interfere at the last moment.

The two lightning hyenas seemed to be friends or family, as they worked together. The fire and ice hyenas also joined forces, though they appeared to do so begrudgingly. Most interesting of all was the stone hyena. The other four were all attacking it, but the lightning, flames, and ice barely left a scratch on its rocky skin. The only silver lining was that the stone hyena was as slow as a turtle. By the time it was able to reach the original location of the purple mana-core, the other hyenas had managed to kick the mana-core far away.

The ice hyena created a wall of purple ice, blocking purple streaks of lightning being fired at it. The fire hyena jumped atop the ice wall and shot purple flames from its mouth. Unfortunately, the two lightning hyenas excelled in speed and were easily able to dodge. They split up as one ran towards the purple mana-core and the other distracted the remaining hyenas.

'Can't have that.' Ed whipped an ordinary hyena with his tail, sending it straight towards the purple mana-core. He succeeded in knocking the mana-core across the room, far away from the lightning hyenas. Then he went back to his killing spree. '97, 98, 99, 100!' He cheerfully counted as he went.

Suddenly, the horde of hyenas fell backwards like a receding tide. They did their best to hide within the shadows, terrified of the crocodile in front of them. 'Ah, that's boring.' Ed frowned as he turned towards the five strange hyenas. They seemed to have put a temporary stop to their fighting, uniting together to face a common enemy.

'Well, this has dragged on long enough.' Ed thought as he ran towards them. A stream of purple fire shot towards him. He hurriedly deflected it with his arm. However, the purple light he used was far too weak. The fire instantly broke through his defenses and easily penetrated his scales, causing severe burns to his arm. 'Ugh!' He winced in pain but continued charging forward.

Two streaks of lightning shot towards him next. Not daring to take an attack head on again, Ed used his tail to leap high over the attacks. The purple lightning crackled against the cavern floor briefly before disappearing. When he landed, a wall of ice blocked his path and was further spreading to his sides. The fire and lightning hyenas appeared atop the wall, seemingly prepared to encircle him from the high ground. As for the stone hyena? It still hadn't caught up yet.

'If only they were as stupid as the ice giant.' Ed sighed as he quickly retreated, refusing to allow the wall of ice to completely encircle him. Suddenly, he felt something bite his tail. Instinctively, he swatted down hard, crushing whatever had dared bite him into meat paste. Glancing backwards, he saw the horde of ordinary hyenas were once again pressing the attack. There were barely a hundred of them left. They were far too weak to actually hurt him, but they could become a deadly hindrance during the real fight.

'Damn it! I want to burn them all to ash!' Ed felt his rage growing as his eyes turned sharper. This wasn't what he needed during such a deadly fight, but the heightened emotions of a chimera were not easily dismissed. He struggled to suppress the rage as he began steamrolling through the ordinary hyenas once again, avoiding the elemental attacks of the strange hyenas at the same time.

His rage continued to grow. 'Burn them! Melt them! Explode them! Don't even leave ash behind!' His desire for explosive arson continued to grow. It had always been his preferred combat method from when he had first created his mana-battery limbs. Perhaps he had a natural affinity to flames. Or maybe the nightmare attack that awakened his powers influenced him somehow. It was hard to say, but regardless, the desire continued to grow.

Suddenly, it was as if an illusory chain binding Ed had broken. He could feel a familiar sensation that also felt different. It was like reuniting with an old friend, only to find out that it was actually your friend's twin brother whom you had never met. So familiar, yet so different. The purple light covering Ed's body transitioned into flames. 'Amazing.' Ed stupidly stopped in the middle of the battle, staring in wonderment at the flames covering his body. He had never felt so close and connected with fire before. In the past, he always relied on external power to use fire. Despite having all seven elements in his mana-core, he had truly never wielded any of them. At best, he had an instinctive ability to wield his powers, but he didn't really understand his powers at all.

Suddenly, a blast of ice shot into Ed's shoulder, knocking him off balance. Though he was now covered in purple flames, the amount of purple mana he wielded was just as limited as it had always been. With a huge chunk of his shoulder frozen, and his other arm scorched, he was now unable to use either arm. He chuckled to himself. 'It's like I have an affinity for crippling my arms during fights.' Feeling excited at testing his new powers, he ignored the pain and rushed forward. Fortunately, the horde of ordinary chimeras had retreated again, seemingly fearing the purple flames on an instinctive level.

The purple flames covering Ed's body receded, concentrating into a small flame on end of his tail. A streak of lightning shot towards him and he successfully blocked it with the tip of his tail. It seemed that the purple mana was far more useful in a small concentrated area when fighting. Feeling his confidence soar, he went on the offensive. The ice hyena was closest to him and was currently building a new curved wall of ice. He leapt towards the left portion of the wall, his clawed feet sinking into the ice. Then he jumped off towards the right curve of the wall, once again holding on with his feet. Back-and-forth, he continued to jump higher and higher until he reached the top.

The ice hyena seemed shocked by Ed's display of parkour. It prepared to shoot shards of ice towards him, but it was too late. Ed's tail penetrated its skull, killing it instantly. Not wasting any time, he dived down from the wall, heading towards the nearby fire hyena.

The fire hyena shot a blast of flames into the air towards Ed. Normally, he shouldn't have been able to dodge in midair. However, he was still close enough to the ice wall to use it as leverage. His tail pushed against it, launching him forward past the flames. He whipped his tail down towards the fire hyena's head as he landed, crushing it into the ground. 'Damn, that burns!' He grimaced as the flames covering the fire hyena's body burnt his tail. Fortunately, the power wasn't concentrated, so he was still able to use his tail without issue.

The two lightning hyenas split up and surrounded Ed on his left and right side. 'This is going to be a pain.' He frowned as he watched them carefully. These hyenas were superior to him in both offense and speed. Only their defense was relatively weak, but that hardly mattered if he couldn't land a blow. Suddenly, his eyes lit up with an idea. He kept running forward, ignoring the two lightning hyenas chasing behind him. Soon, he reached the stone hyena.

'Will they be able to dodge?' He wondered as his tail hoisted the stone hyena into the air. He catapulted it forward, sending it shooting straight towards the two charging lightning hyenas. 'Strike!' He grinned as the stone hyena slammed into the two lightning hyenas, crushing both their bodies in the process.

Ed walked over and saw that the stone hyena was still alive, completely unharmed by the attack. Concentrating the flame on the tip of his tail, he stabbed down towards the head of the hyena. He frowned as he barely left a scratch. He repeated the attack over and over again while aiming for the eyes. Finally, after over a thousand attacks, he penetrated the hyena's eyelid and killed it.

'Finally finished.' He sighed in relief as he collected the purple mana-cores. Now he had a total of six. He used his claws to rip the purple fur from the fire hyena, using it to make a pouch and some makeshift clothes. He stopped concentrating the purple flames on his tail, allowing them to once again cover his whole body. Satisfied that the clothes he made could withstand the flames, he placed the mana-cores in his pouch and continued his journey.

Traveling through dozens of rooms, Ed saw ordinary purple lava lakes and rivers. Occasionally, he ran into a mutant. However, they all ran away when spotting the purple flames. The trip became rather leisurely without much to fear. In one room, purple lava rain started falling from the ceiling, rapidly flooding the room. Any other prisoner would have died, but the lava was completely unable to penetrate his protective flames.

After walking for several days, Ed finally entered a room he recognized. It was one of the last caverns on the original map that John had given him before he had gotten lost. By now, the map was long gone, likely destroyed by lava at some point. Fortunately, he had memorized the map almost as soon as he had gotten it.

Ed followed the path for nearly a week before he returned close to the maze's exit. 'I wonder how much time has passed?' As tempted as he was, he didn't enter the settlement. His new powers would give him an edge over most prisoners, but who knew what tricks the Warden and guards had up their sleeves? Besides, everyone likely thought he was dead, and it might be best to keep it that way. So instead, he set up a temporary camp. He sat down to rest, a smile covering his face. 'Tomorrow, I'll kidnap some espers. Maybe I can find those bastards that worked with the guard. They'll make for good test subjects. I'll figure out how these purple mana-cores work no matter how difficult it is!'