“Mo Na doesn’t need Mama’s protection!” While she was still rather peeved, she calmed down somewhat after my placating.
“Master, there are too many of them, please leave with the little Master, Big 4 and I will hold them off here.”
As he said that, I could feel the steely resolve within his words; he suggested that knowing full well that he would die! At the side, Big 4 nodded his head without any hesitation at all: “Master, please leave without us, we’ll cover the rear.”
“There’s no need for that, if anyone is going to leave, it will be together.” Their utter loyalty to me had been fully made clear to me. In the face of such devotion, there was simply no way I would ever think of sacrificing them unless the situation was truly dire.
“But the fire elementals…”
“No buts!” I interrupted No.3’s anxious explanation and turned my attention to the fire elementals, eyes locked onto them unblinkingly. If they made a move, I would know immediately, and be there ready to exploit it. “These creatures spend their entire lives in the Rage Flames Lake, I doubt they would leave it easily. As long as we withdraw out of range of the lake, they will most likely give up on chasing us. Besides, if I left you two behind…won’t you two be dead then?”
“Master…”
The two of them, nearly moved to tears, exchanged a resolute gaze with each other and nodded their heads. “Even if it means dying, we’ll protect the Master’s safety.” They said in unison.
“Now’s not the time for dying.” I smiled faintly. “How many obstacles have we overcome already? Do you really think that I will lose to these bunch of firemen?”
Naturally, those were mere words of bravado, but at least they served as encouragement for No.3 and Big 4. Truth be told, I was terrified. After all they had over a thousand troops on their side. Looking at us, we only had four; such a disparity wasn’t something we could overcome at all.
No.3 and Big 4 were both equipped with Fire Devouring Fish weapons so their killing power was top-notch against these elementals. As for me, I had Shadowfang…till now, this Epic-grade weapon of mine had never let me down; I doubt it would do so now.
Just as we finished preparing for battle, that elemental who spoke to us at the start, turned around and whispered something to his companions after which they all charged at us, fiery feet a blur and ripples spread throughout the entire lake.
‘D*mnit, that a&&hole actually lied to us, wasn’t this supposed to be a solo fight!?’
‘With so many of them rushing at us, there’s hardly anything we can do now. But then, just running away isn’t a solution either…let’s give it a shot for now.’
“Master, run!” Big 4 and No.3 strode forward to shield Mo Na and I, before hurriedly calling for us to run. They then charged at the oncoming horde without turning back.
‘Blast it! Even if I’m coward, there’s no way I can leave those two to die like that!’
“Mo Na, Papa is going now, if…and I mean if…just remember to run, okay?” Having said that, I rushed after my two subordinates without waiting for her reply.
By now, No.3 and Big 4 were already in the midst of a fight with the fire elementals. While their numbers were numerous, their levels weren’t actually that high at all. The highest was probably that moron that talked to us; he was probably a Four-stars. However, since Mo Na injured him, he refrained from entering the battle for now.
For the most part, the rest of them were around One to Two-stars. At times, we would encounter a few Three-stars. Moreover, being fire elementals, their attacks were all flame attacks with a limited range that was almost melee.
Having evolved to Flame Demon Childes not too long ago, No.3 and Big 4’s control over fire couldn’t be any better. Adding on their innate devil resistances to fire, the barrage of flame attacks might as well have been mosquito bites. Not only that, their Fire Devouring Fish weapons were innately resistant to fire as well.
Thus, the two who heroically charged into a battle thinking that would be their last, found themselves in an unexpected, one-sided massacre; it wasn’t even us to boot!
The attacks of the fire elementals simply weren’t enough to restrain the two Flame Demon Childes. In contrast, their weapons countered their the elementals’ fiery nature completely. Thanks to that disparity, the battle ended up lasting longer than I had initially expected. As time grew, a fear grew in the hearts of the elementals; one of an undefeatable enemy.
By now, the two had thoroughly trounced the thousand man army in front of them to a tragic degree.
Ironically, because the elementals were permanently in an ethereal state, they couldn’t use any physical attacks at all so they had no choice but to rely completely on their ineffective fire attacks. In light of that, was it any surprise that the battle proceeded in such a one-sided fashion?
Those who were injured by Big 4 and No.3 soon found out for themselves the terror of their fishy weapons. Their wounds refused to close up and as time passed, they began to weaken and perish. Seeing that, the rest of the elementals grew even more afraid. Before long, the army was routed; these elementals probably hadn’t been in a fight since the day they were born…
“Fiendish devils and your diabolic weapons…just you all wait…we’ll be back…” Throwing behind those last words of promised revenge, the moronic commander of the fire elementals dove into the lake without ever looking back. With his departure, the rest of the fire elementals followed suit and soon there was none to be found anywhere.
Looking at the calm crimson lake before us, I was suddenly struck with the surrealness of the situation: were those elementals ever here at all?
‘How dare they! What exactly are they trying to pull here, leaving just like that after all that nonsense!?’
‘Bah, forget it. Let bygones be bygones and all that. Besides, it’s not like I can chase after them anyway.’
“Mama, are the bad people gone?” Not only was I confused, my precious little baby was dumbstruck by what she had just witnessed. “After all that bragging, they weren’t even that tough at all…”
“Err…I guess it’s a matter of our weapons countering them.”
To be honest, the only way they could’ve harmed No.3 and Big 4 was by attacking with at least a Four-stars’s fire attack. Anything less than that would simply be resisted by their frightening resistances. Unfortunately for them, the only person who had such strength had already been defeated.
Truly, the decision to craft those Fire Devouring Fish weapons was a serendipitous decision on my part. I never expected to encounter such a foe so soon; such a rousing victory could only be chalked up to a string of fortunate, or perhaps unfortunate, depending on who you asked, coincidences.
After all, when faced with weapons that could inflict an unclosable wound on you, would anyone be able stave off that fear? It was as if someone had their artery cut and was told that it wasn’t treatable…anyone would panic in such a situation.
(TL: A bit of disclosure of here. I shortened three whole paragraphs here because the author was simply repeating the fact that their weapons countered the elementals and etc. Non-repeated points were still kept so don’t worry.)
Thus, this battle was one we honestly had no way of losing at all. A wise man once said, “equipment, equipment, equipment.” Just like in a game, how else could you have an easy BOSS fight without equipping yourself well?
‘Now that this whole fiasco is over, what should we do now?’ I peered around the ripple-less Raging Flames Lake for a moment before deciding to leave in the end. After all, it wasn’t really fleeing if you already won the battle.
Just as I was wondering if we should turn around or circle around the giant pond, a certain Demon Fire Salamander popped up in a not too distant spot behind us…
‘That salamander looks rather familiar…’
The salamander crawled up to us, neither too hurriedly nor too slowly, and called out in its unique language. Even though I couldn’t understand what it said, I could tell that it had no hostile intent. However, just as I was caught slightly surprised by the salamander’s appearance, the Raging Flames Lake stirred. A fiery pillar gushed out of the lava surface and a fire elemental sprouted from within.
The fire elemental had comparatively more distinct facial features and his belly had a noticeable hole…it was that potato who Mo Na injured not too long ago. ‘Didn’t he run away already? What’s he doing back here? Is he looking for a fight?’
“Why haven’t you guys left yet?” Seeing that we were still here, the fire elemental was visibly stunned. However, he immediately hid his flustered emotions and acted as if that never happened. “Didn’t you say that you had no motives in coming here? You mentioned you were going to leave, didn’t you? So what are you still doing here then, are you still looking for another fight?”
“…”
‘Shameless, truly shameless! How thick skinned can this guy be? He just had his butt handed to him by No.3 and Big 4 not too long ago and he had already forgotten about it? I swear some people just deserve to be beaten up.’
Towards such a person who didn’t know the meaning of shame, I said, without any mercy whatsoever: “Honestly, even if we fought again, I wouldn’t be afraid of you guys at all. All I want to ask is, are you really not scared of us?”
Having said that, I took a look at my two subordinates before them giving a sweep of my finger: “Those two over there, I’ll allow you to choose either one of them. As long as you can defeat one of them, I’ll leave right away without saying a word.”
