“What’s going on?” Asked Sinmosa as she took a few steps forward, braving through the curtain of falling lava in the process. While it might have seemed like she was about to jump into the lava lake as well, she didn’t. Jumping in right now would be extremely foolish and she at least knew that much.
Thus, she chose to quietly wait by the side of the lake till the skies finally quietened down.
Seeing that the danger had passed, I took down my Nether Flames shield as well, before scooping up the two little scamps into my arms. My eyes quickly swept over the two of them to check for any signs of burns of cuts. Thankfully, there were none and it was only then that I had the presence of mind to check out what was happening at the river.
As of right now, Nola was engaged in a heated battle with a giant Flame Devouring Fish. The fish itself was about the size of Nola and yet its attacks were so fearsome, they seemed to pierce through Nola’s thick hide with ease.
Nola’s left front claw was completely stuck in its jaws while the fish itself thrashed about violently in a sawing motion. As it flipped and flopped about, it would stir up a mini lava wave that forced me to swiftly retreat backwards with the two kids. At the same time, I commanded one of the Winged Abyssal Golems to step forward and block the incoming lava.
Throughout all that, Nola’s regenerative abilities were halted thanks to the fish’s unique trait. Still, she wasn’t one to just take such an attack lying down even with such a handicap. She chose the most straightforward, and also the most violent method of fighting claw with claw, fangs with fangs. Thus, the two of them wrestled furiously in a deadly stalemate that last quite a while.
Finally, Nola started to show signs of being worn down. Her left claw had now been bent at an odd angle –most likely a result of the Flame Devouring Fish’s monstrous strength. In contrast to that, the fish had no visible wound whatsoever since her teeth weren’t even able to penetrate its scaly hide!
“This won’t do at all, we need to help Nola.” Declared Sinmosa. However, she didn’t dare to recklessly jump into this fight as she was a Hellhound and not some kind of aquatic species. As a canine, her fighting prowess would drop drastically in the lava lake, resulting in her just being a burden.
The situation, being as dire as it was, warranted immediate action so I did just that. Without thinking too much about the plan itself, I ordered my Winged Abyssal Golems to aid Nola. Yet in my anxious haste, I completely forgot that the Winged Abyssal Golems were magical constructs and thus couldn’t exert any of their powers in the lava lake. That and the fact that they didn’t have a swimming function designed into them…
The moment the first WInged Abyssal Golem set foot into the lava lake, it sank right to the bottom with a resounding *flop*, closely followed by a second…
“Stop…quick, stop…”
Just as I said that, the third Winged Abyssal Golem’s knees came to a grinding halt just as it was about to take that fateful step into the lake, body completely frozen halfway through its motion.
Because the golems weren’t living creatures, they weren’t all that intelligent to begin with; all they could do was blindly listen to commands. Regardless of what obstacles stood in their way, they would mechanically follow the command till another was given. Had I been even a second slower, I would have probably caused a third golem to fall to its watery death.
The loss of those two Winged Abyssal Golems were truly a stab right through my heart. I wouldn’t have minded as much if the both of them were merely ordinary Abyssal Golems since Mo Na could reproduce them. The winged ones on the other hand…their skeleton cores probably wasn’t something she could easily reproduce. The materials required would definitely be of the rare kind, the kind where you stumbled upon by pure luck. For me to lose two just like that…I was truly devastated. The best I could hope for was that they were still salvageable.
‘Hopefully they will still be working then…at the very least, don’t turn into Nautilus, Titan of the Depths…twins no less…I guess they should be called Titan of the Lava then, since it’s a lava lake.
‘Either way, what’s important is that there’s no way to help Nola now! Blast it, if only No.3 was here. As a Flame Devil Infant, that lava lake would not only not lower his strength, but even boost it.’
‘Sh*t, sh*t. The rest of us can’t step into that lake too, or we would just end up as burdens. What’s even worse is that our strongest weapon, those Winged Abyssal Golems are basically useless as well…but if we don’t do anything to help her, she might just lose…’
“There’s no need to help me, I’ll take care of this fellow myself…”
Most likely a result of that huge ruckus caused by my WInged Abyssal Golems taking a dip, Nola’s attention was briefly drawn to our side as she retreated away from the giant Flame Devouring Fish temporarily. Afraid of messing up her own movements, she did not even cast us a glance as she said thusly: “You guys need to be careful yourselves, I can sense some Demonic Fire Sprites nearby, very close by in fact!”
“Demonic Fire Sprites?!” Sinmosa’s first reaction was to pause in shock for a second before sputtering out: “What are they doing here?!”
‘Demonic Fire Sprite? I know I’ve heard that name before…aren’t they elemental lifeforms like those Fire Elementals?’
The difference between the two was that they had a Darkness Element on top of being of the Fire Element. Their behavior was said to be more extreme. For example, even though they are Elementals, they weren’t too fond of staying at one spot like their sedentary cousins. Instead, they prefer roaming about and stirring trouble. It would be fair to even consider them nomadic.
Because the conditions required to birth a Demonic Fire Spirit were stringent, their numbers tended to be on the low side. Still, their presence was definitely felt in Purgatory, though not to the extent that they were a threat. Strictly speaking, every member was strong individually, but as race, they were considered one of the weaker ones.
“Demonic Fire Sprites are extremely fond of murder and destruction. And even though they are technically Fire Elementals as well, they aren’t afraid of the Flame Devouring Fishes thanks to their darkness element…” Seeing me a little confused, Sinmosa took the effort to explain as such as she trotted up to me. “In a sense, their races actually click very well with each other since they had a common nemesis in the form of the Fire Elementals…”
“Nemesis? Fire Elementals? Demonic Fire Sprites?” Having listened to her entire explanation, I paused in surprise for a second before a spark of inspiration seemed to flash across my mind and eyes. “So you’re saying that they might be in cahoots to try and take down the Fire Elementals since the fishes are immune to fire attacks?”
“That’s right, I clearly remember those fishes organizing a raid against the Fire Elementals every so often. During those times, the Fire Elementals would seek out the Demon Fire Salamanders to aid them in their fight against the Flame Devouring Fishes since they are enemies as well…”
Before Sinmosa could even finish her explanation, a couple of black silhouettes flashed into existence over at the other side of the lake. Their forms were blurry but it was still possible to make out their vaguely human shape. As they flew over the crimson lake, their speeds could only be described as lightning fast, and in the blink of an eye, they managed to close in on Nola and the Flame Devouring Fish.
