The reason Angel left them was to test an elemental creature.
Earlier, when scouting the edge of the Lava Lake, Angel noticed a creature walking upright at one of the shores of the Lava Lake.
This was a werewolf-shaped Fire Element creature with bony spines along its back, its entire body burning with black and purple dark flames like well-groomed hair. Its hands were extremely long, reaching down to its knees, and its back was hunched as it walked slowly.
However, Angel knew very well that this slow walking was just a façade.
The evolved form of an Elemental Sprite couldn’t afford such a large flaw. The Darkflame Werewolf seemed sluggish, but Angel believed that once it was on all fours, it would definitely be fast.
The Fire Element creature Angel wanted to test was this Darkflame Werewolf.
Angel maneuvered the Scouting Puppets to approach it slowly from two completely different directions.
One of these Scouting Puppets was solely operating in stealth mode, while the other was concealed by Angel using a Nightmare Illusion Shield.
The one flying slightly faster was the Scouting Puppet simply in stealth mode.
In stealth mode, its energy fluctuations were minimized and blended with the environment, making it hard to detect without very keen observation.
This Scouting Puppet soon arrived near the Darkflame Werewolf.
When it was within a hundred meters, Angel noticed the Darkflame Werewolf glance in the direction of the Scouting Puppet.
At that moment, Angel’s perspective was aligned with the Scouting Puppet, so in Angel’s view, he and the Darkflame Werewolf engaged in direct eye contact.
The Darkflame Werewolf’s eyes were dark green; however, it was just an Elemental Life form with no actual organ structure—the so-called green eyes were actually burning ghostly green flames.
It was hard for Angel to read emotions from the ghostly green flames, but the Darkflame Werewolf, which had been keeping its head down, looked up for the first time and gazed in the direction of the Scouting Puppet. This was indeed a signal indicating it might have sensed the Scouting Puppet.
Angel thought for a moment and decided to let the Scouting Puppet continue approaching.
The Darkflame Werewolf didn’t pay further attention to the Scouting Puppet until it came within fifty meters, at which point its eyes locked onto it.
At this point, whether Angel moved the Scouting Puppet forward or backward, the Darkflame Werewolf’s gaze remained fixed on it.
Without a doubt, this was not just about "possibly being detected," but really being locked onto.
Angel thought that since it had been detected, he might as well continue approaching. But just as this thought crossed his mind, a dark shadow suddenly appeared in front of the Scouting Puppet.
The next scene, also the final one transmitted by the Scouting Puppet, was a pair of claws enveloped in black and purple dark flames reaching towards it.
Then came a cracking sound.
The Scouting Puppet was crushed.
Angel had prepared for the possibility that the Scouting Puppet might be damaged, so he wasn’t upset about its demise. All his thoughts were now focused on the speed of the Darkflame Werewolf.
Clearly, it had been fifty meters away just a second ago, but in the blink of an eye—not even a second later—the Darkflame Werewolf appeared beside the Scouting Puppet. Such terrifying speed was truly frightening.
"As expected, the slow walking was just an appearance."
After expressing his awe, Angel began maneuvering the second Scouting Puppet to approach the Darkflame Werewolf.
Angel had higher expectations for this Scouting Puppet, as it employed the Nightmare Illusion for concealment. This was a chance to test whether the Fire Element creature could detect the power of the Nightmare Illusion.
As Angel was contemplating this, an unexpected event occurred.
A dark purple ghostly flame suddenly rose from the ground, striking directly at the Scouting Puppet.
Thanks to Angel’s quick reflexes in control, he managed to slightly shift its position at the moment the ghostly flame struck, dodging the attack.
However, it was just barely dodged, and the dark purple ghostly flame still slightly touched the wing of the Scouting Puppet.
Just with that touch, signs of melting appeared whether it was the heat-resistant skin or the most heat-resistant metal wing structure, and it was unstoppable.
Then, a second ghostly flame rose from the ground, again targeting the Scouting Puppet.
With one wing already damaged, even with Angel’s rapid reactions, the hardware limitations meant sacrificing itself was inevitable.
Fortunately, before the Scouting Puppet valiantly sacrificed, Angel spotted the culprit behind the ghostly flames—
Two hundred meters away, the Darkflame Werewolf’s long arms had merged into the Scorched Earth, and its head was raised, eyes straight on the distant Scouting Puppet.
The screen went black as the Scouting Puppet was scrapped under the impact of the ghostly flames.
Angel stood on the edge of the cliff, frowning tightly.
The outcome was now clear; the Darkflame Werewolf undoubtedly detected the Scouting Puppet shielded by Nightmare Illusion.
Both the Fire Butterfly before and this Darkflame Werewolf were able to see through the concealment of the Nightmare Illusion. Angel didn’t believe it was such a coincidence that these two creatures had insight abilities.
There seemed to be only one possibility: elemental creatures here were not affected by illusion concealment.
This means that the elemental creatures he encountered before, like the Six-Tailed Fox and the Fire Salamander, had indeed detected him.
Angel now felt a headache; his best concealment method was the illusion technique, and now that it was ineffective, even the optical stealth was proven detectable by the Darkflame Werewolf.
It seemed that trying to stealthily gather intelligence was unlikely to work.
Angel sighed in resignation and refocused his attention on the Scouting Puppets’ perspective. As for the Darkflame Werewolf, Angel decided to temporarily leave it aside.
Reconnecting to the Scouting Puppets’ perspective, Angel immediately noticed two of the Scouting Puppets’ screens filled with a crimson hue.
These two Scouting Puppets were set to fly at low altitudes.
Just as Angel was pondering what had happened, the crimson in the perspective disappeared, and with a gurgling sound, the screen turned pitch black.