If a fly were to incessantly buzz around you, you would undoubtedly be irritated. However, what if you weren’t able to swat it away despite your best efforts, what would you do then? In all likelihood, anger would be the answer. For the Demonic Fire Igneous Giants, No.3 and Big 4 were just such flies.
Perhaps their constant pestering had finally gotten to the giants, but just as the pair were done with their usual poking, the smallest giant stirred. It opened its mouth with a roaring howl and then, just a split second later, a strange red light seemed to emit from its inky depths that rapidly blasted forth in a rain of red substance.
Naturally, that substance was lava but by the time I realized that, it was too late.
With a blanket of lava raining down from the sky, there was basically no hope of escape for my two subordinates who, as expected, were drenched in the scorching substance. Thankfully, devils were born with an innately high level of fire resistance so while it ate at their flesh, they were still able to bear with the pain and not fall to the ground.
Teeth gritted, the two of them hurriedly distanced themselves from the Demonic Fire Igneous Giant, all the while making sure to fly away from us so as not to cause us trouble…
Realizing that the annoying flies who had been plaguing them all this while had been injured, they immediately chased after the two of them with a blood-induced frenzy.
“No.3, Big 4!” I yelled. Unfortunately, neither of them had any intention of turning around and merely flew ever further away from us.
‘Damn it…” I turned around and glared at the elder watching us from the shadows, eyes blazing with hatred.
‘If anything were to happen to No.3 and Big 4, I swear I won’t forgive him no matter what!’
In response to my burning gaze, the elder merely snorted before throwing us a disdainful, cold smile. While he never said a word, his eyes told us all we needed to know and that was the most infuriating part about this whole debacle.
Even though I really hated him, I couldn’t do a thing to him at all. Moreover, he even treated us like ants, which was only to be expected after all. Whether it was strength or prestige, he was clearly superior to us and shouldn’t even be mentioned in the sentence as us.
Was there a point in caring about an ant’s revenge? Clearly not, who would bother about such a laughably small matter?
That was why the elder had no qualms, whatsoever, about forcing us to help him. Our reward was most likely not being killed by him…perhaps not even that.
Still, there was no choice but to obey or all that would await us was a swift and violent death.
Truth be told, our current situation could be said to be the best case scenario. As long as No.3 and Big 4 kept those giants busy, we could simply wait out the mission in safety, assuming of course, that the elder didn’t intend to go back on his words.
However, the two of them were my loyal subordinates who would die for me at the drop of a hat…as long as I was still human, could I ever be so heartless as to abandon them? No matter what, I had to try and save them…for me, while there were things that I couldn’t be bothered to do, there were also things that I had to do.
With that, we chased after No.3 and Big 4’s distancing figures under the surprised look of that Warhorse elder. He must have been shocked by our choice, given that we were safe as long as we stood there; there was simply no need to take this risk at all.
As for the lives of No.3 and Big 4…all that had to be said was that living creatures were all selfish at heart. Take for example that elder, in order to save his kin, he needed someone to draw the attention of the giants. Naturally, he wouldn’t allow his own clanhorses to take such a risk so he dumped that task onto us instead. After all, he couldn’t just risk the lives of the majority for the minority. However, the lives of strangers were an entirely different matter altogether.
That was selfishness on a more macro level. Still, it was only to be expected of someone with his position. After all, if an accidental death were happen everyday, who wouldn’t want for it to happen on someone they didn’t know, instead of a close friend or relative?
Being injured, there were limits to how far they could fly and that limit was fast approaching. Moreover, the lava was still eating into their flesh with its fiery embrace. Thankfully, No.3 and Big 4’s innate resistance allowed them to maintain some degree of agility despite the pain they had to endure, and thus they managed to avoid all the blows thrown at them up till now.
The scene of them performing rolls after rolls, and swerves after swerves, was unimaginable for me had I not seen it myself. It was as if I was watching a smoking plane weave in and out of a withering barrage of anti-air fire…despite its unsteady flight path, it somehow managed to stay airbound…truly a miraculous sight.
Seeing that the both of them were fine for now, I had Sinmosa maintain a cautious distance from the giants, one where we could respond at a moment’s notice while not putting ourselves in too much danger.
Behind us, the Warhorse elder continued his cold vigil, clearly not intending to interfere at all.
Time ticked slowly by. Going by my calculations, roughly half an hour had passed thus I turned around to face that horse skulking in the shadows: “Time’s up, can we retreat?”
“Not yet, just a little more.” The horse flatly refused me while coldly ordering me to continue on with this dance with death.
“Time’s up.”
“I know, but I haven’t received any news from my kin yet. I don’t know if they’ve finished the task so you all will just have to keep on stalling for time.”
“Well then, how long is that going to take?” I was on the verge of exploding any second, my words dripping with barbs. “My devils can’t hold on for much longer…”
“Then just let them die.” The Warhorse snapped without any sense of pity or remorse whatsoever. “If you can’t bear to watch them die, you can jump into the fray yourself.”
“…” There was no way I could do that, I had no wings after all. Neither was my speed up to mark so charging in was nothing but a death sentence. As for Mo Na…how could I even consider asking my daughter to risk herself!?
‘Blast it…that scum, once I become powerful, I swear I’ll turn him into horse sashimi!’
While our little back and forth was ongoing, No.3 and Big 4 were still caught up in their desperate struggle with the giants. By now, their flying had become more erratic and strained. Even from this far away, I could tell how enormous the pressure they had to face was. At this rate, I might just end up losing two loyal subordinates.
With no time to spare, I knew that now wasn’t the time for hesitation. Thankfully, just as I was about to recklessly charge into battle myself, Sinmosa provided a more sensible out for me.
“Sasani can take over the shift for them, while the giants are busy with him, we can rescue your subordinates.”
“That…is it really alright…” ‘For him to take on all those giants alone…wasn’t that just a little too difficult?’
“It’s fine, I’ve observed them enough myself. With their speed, they shouldn’t pose a threat to Sasani. The most problematic ability would probably be that lava spit. However, as long as he maintains a certain distance, he should be fine.”
“But how is he going to grab their attention?”
“Those giants aren’t the smartest rocks in the mountain, as long as Sasani does something threatening, they should notice him.” Having said that, she then turned to her husband standing beside her and nodded. Sasani nodded back in response before galloping off into the distance, reaching the striking range of the giants in a mere instant. As his galloping figure slowly turned into a speedy blur, his body suddenly burst in flames.
Raging Flame Charge!
At the same time as that, Sasani turned into a beam of crimson light that rammed right into the right calf of the rearmost giant. With just the power of a Four-stars, it was instantly staggered by Sasani’s powerful charge.
The giant immediately let forth a strained howl, indicating that it had probably been enraged. The other two giants then turned around, attracted by the howl of their companion, and then swiped at the offending Cerberus.
In all likelihood, they probably saw Sasani as the real threat here unlike those two staggering flies in front of them. Thus, they instantly locked onto the speeding Hellhound.
Having accomplished what he set out to do, Sasani immediately turned tail and ran. While the Hellhounds weren’t as nimble as the Purgatory Shadowcats, their speed in a straight charge was more than enough to make up for that shortcoming. Punch after punch, spit after spit, Earthspike after Earthspike, no matter what was thrown at Sasani, he merely dodged them all by galloping ever faster ahead.
Taking advantage of this respite, Sinmosa brought us around the giants towards No.3 and Big 4 who promptly landed upon noticing that giants were off their backs as well. Unfortunately for them, their bodies no longer had the stamina to finish this move so just as I saw their shaky figures descend, they suddenly plummeted into the ground with a resounding crash…
