The first phase of scouting has been completed. 1000 skeleton soldiers were sent out for this expedition and all 1000 had successfully made landfall…intelligence reports indicate…the soldiers managed to land in one of the human cities. The humans of this world are exceptionally frail, not advisable as a replenishment source. Modification is required. The humans of the new world possess a variety of strange weapons. They are able to fly by wearing a full suit of armor and possess a high degree of long ranged firepower. The expedition only survived for five minutes before they were completely wiped out. The mana in this world is limited…unable to discern the weapon type employed by the humans…initial reports indicate that they aren’t magical weapons, energy source…unknown…
The second phase is currently being prepared but the dimensional walls of the new world are repelling us. We beseech Your Highness to send more warlocks to reinforce us…
—–A report from an invader of the new world
“…” Bearing with the pain coursing through my body, I reached out in order to pat Mo Na on the head. However, just as I tried to lift a finger, my muscles seized up in pain and my hand instinctively jerked in response. In my current state, I wasn’t even able to talk, let alone raise a hand.
“Mama…what’s the matter? Why aren’t you talking…*weep*…” Mo Na saw the pained look I had on right now and it left her completely at a loss as to what to do. All she could think of was to hug me and weep.
“*cough…it’s…okay…Pa…pa…is fine…” Seeing her so upset tore my heart apart. Compared to the physical pain I felt then, the emotional pain I felt was much worse. I truly didn’t wish for her to be frightened so badly. Thus, while bearing with the scorching pain in my body, I did my best to force out that response and assure her that my condition wasn’t as bad as she thought.
Hearing my voice calmed her down somewhat and she began to wipe away her tears with her little hands before giving me a silly smile: “Mama is alright…”
Naturally, a full recovery wasn’t possible in the short term, but speaking was still barely manageable for me.
“Master, it’s her…” Having just returned to my side with Big 4, No.3 pointed at the red monster tangling with the golem and exclaimed: “It’s that salamander!”
I saw it as well. Someone of that size and stature…with such a timely arrival as well…was there anyone else but her who could have done so? Still, it wasn’t like everything was alright now. While she was a fully fledged Six-stars, as compared to the golem being at the level of Five-stars offensively and Six-stars defensively, she wasn’t at an overwhelming advantage either. Having just given birth, her strength wasn’t at its peak yet so she still had some issues fighting with that golem.
Unfortunately, that golem’s defenses were simply too strong for us to break through and without Shadowfang to help us…none of us were of any use right now.
The giant salamander first clawed at the golem with her two front limbs, restraining it in the process. With how large her claws were, almost half of the golem’s upper body was covered in her palms. The salamander then opened her reptilian mouth and breathed a roaring pillar of fire at the golem. Flames raging, the powerful attack collided with the rocky hide of the golem in a blinding fireworks show that ultimately did nothing to the golem.
The golem immediately reacted by lifting up its leg and gave a solid front kick to the salamander’s throat, forcing her to sputter violently while tiny motes of flames escaped her throat unnaturally.
‘That must’ve really hurt…having to choke on fire like that…’
Not paying attention to the pain in her throat, she took this opportunity to launch a counter attack at the golem’s face using her tail. *CRACK* The golem’s head was sent flying, just like that!
‘Woah…exactly how powerful is she anyway…’
Not only were we shocked, that salamander was as well, judging from the dumbfounded look she had on right now.
Still, now wasn’t the time for us to let our guard down; just because the golem was now headless, that didn’t mean the battle was over either. Golems were magical constructs and did not necessarily require a head to function. For all we knew, that head was just added on because the creator liked the look of it…after all, these golems were created with the humanoid form in mind so not having a head was a little…odd.
Not to say that the head was completely unnecessary either; there was no such thing as a meaningless part when designing a golem. Thus, while the head might not function in the same way as our brains did, losing it was still a massive blow to the golem.
The golem immediately flailed its arm about, clearly unable to see or hear now that it had lost its head. It desperately tried to claw at the salamander’s position but unfortunately for it, the salamander was no fool either.
By now, she had already retreated several paces back and circled around it entirely. Sweeping out with her left front limb, she grabbed ahold of the golem’s legs and toppled it before pressing down on its back with her right limb. Restraining it entirely like that, she prevented any chance of a comeback from it. The golem made one last bid attempt at knocking her off with its arm but was swiftly stopped by a bite from the salamander. Finally, after a period of biting and sawing from the salamander, its last remaining arm was torn off!
With that, the battle was basically over. Without a head or hand, and with its body completely restrained, the golem was no longer a threat. In this state, it merely took a minute for the salamander to smash it into pieces.
“How did its head get smacked away like that…” The fact that the golem was rendered headless so easily still shocked me even more. No.3, Big 4, Sinmosa and Sasani had all attacked it countless times but its rock hard body refused to budge an inch and yet all it took was one whack from that salamander… ‘that’s just wrong…’
“Because your slash just so happened to land on its neck. If your strength was just a little stronger…you could have lopped it off then.” Having had a front row seat to that, Sinmosa naturally knew what happened just before I was flung off her back.
‘Like she said, if I had just been a little stronger…all this wouldn’t have happened…the falling off twice, Mo Na’s crying…in the end, I’m just too weak…if I was just a little stronger, I wouldn’t be lying on the ground like a dead dog. If I was stronger, I could’ve just used Shadowfang to sliced that golem up into pieces and feed it to the dogs…not that Sasani or Sinmosa would eat it…’
The Demonic Fire Salamander picked up the head of the golem and carried it up to me. It reared itself backwards slightly, bringing its height to roughly that of the golem’s. Given how she had just taken out an enemy which we all failed to, her pressure seemed even more domineering than usual.
Lowering her head, she gently dumped the head before me and gave me a complicated look. Because of her approaching us, No.3 and Big 4 became slightly anxious and hurriedly rushed to my side, separating me away from the salamander. Even Sinmosa and Sasani didn’t know what to make of her now and took up a wary stance as well.
Even though all that was really just useless before this salamander…
Still lying on the floor, I peered into its eyes and saw no killing intent whatsoever. However, that didn’t necessarily mean that it wasn’t out for revenge either, not that I felt that she had any reason to do so.
“I’ve already learnt…about what happened then….” Because she was so huge and so near to me as well, her voice reverberated through my ears like thunder, causing my severely injured self to feel a little lightheaded :”Thanks…”
“No problem…I have to thank you as well. Had it not been for you, I might have already been…in that sense, we’re even.” I forced out a smile from my aching face before asking something that had bothered me since her appearance: “Was that why you followed us for so long?”
“No…” The salamander shook her head: “I just wanted to know why a devil would help me without any reward. Not only did you not ask for anything for helping me, you did so even though we just had a fight…”
“*cough* You were pregnant then, how could I just ignore a pregnant mother in need of help?”
“I…don’t understand.”
“Oh right, let’s not talk about these unnecessary matters for now, how are your children? Is it alright for you to be here like this?”
“The children are safe, they don’t need my care.”
Hearing her say that, I was reminded of that hardening phenomenon I witnessed when the eggs were born: “Is it because they became as hard as rocks after absorbing the surrounding igneous rocks?”
“That’s right, that layer is extremely sturdy, even a Flame Devouring Fish’s teeth couldn’t hope to saw through that.”
But if it’s that hard, how are they going to break out?”
“…” Her lips curled into a rather human smile then. “Once the children are ready to come out, that layer will automatically fall apart.
“…” Sometimes, I truly felt that I was really stupid. “Then they will all be Demon Fire Worms?”
“That’s right, our entire race all started out as Demon Fire Worms before evolving into what we are now.”
“Your race’s method of survival is just so special, I swear…”
“Special? How so? Because we eat the split off section of a Demon Fire Worm?”
“That’s right, most people wouldn’t think of jumping into someone’s mouth to be eaten.”
“That’s just how we survive. Besides, every Demon Fire Worm has the ability to split itself up. As long as they do not split themselves up too much in a short period of time, there won’t be a problem at all.”
After that short chat, I decided that it was roughly about time so I went straight to the point: “Then where are you headed to now?”
“Let’s put that aside for now, what about you guys? Where are you all heading to?”
