"So that's where all the Magma Golems went."
It took another two hours for me and Myria to make our way to the suspicious volcano with the spirit arrays, but when we drew near, I spotted a column of Magma Golems standing sentry outside a huge cave at the foot of the volcano. Unlike the small cavern that we had explored earlier, this was looked a lot bigger, with the entrance alone being the size of a small building.
Even without peering inside, I could sense the blazing qi of a multitude of spirit beasts inside, as well as something dark and sinister deeper within.
Demonic cultivators. They had to be.
"What are we going to do?" Myria asked, staying close to me and watching from a distance. She drew her sword and grinned. "Frontal assault?"
"Sounds like a plan," I agreed. Seeing the spirit array, I knew there was no time for stealth and subterfuge. Whatever the demonic dudes were planning, it was going to come to fruition soon.
"Do you know how to destroy the spirit arrays?" Myria asked, staring at the massive formations floating around the volcano, their arcane runes flickering with power. I nodded, already taking note of the eye of the various spirit arrays. I could theoretically shoot them down with my azure arrows even from this range, but there was little point.
"Yeah, but we should defeat the people who set up the arrays first. Otherwise, they'll just set them up again if I destroy them right now. It's better to tackle the root cause of all this and eliminate the demonic cultivators before dismantling the spirit arrays."
"Good point."
"But let's launch the frontal assault immediately. We'll break through the Magma Golems and rush straight for the cave."
"Huh? But how?" Despite her question, Myria followed me when I leaped down from the ridge and landed in front of the cavern. The hundred or so Magma Golems turned to face me, their dome-shaped heads as stoic as ever. My comrade readied her sword, water lashing out in swirling geysers that cut down one of the lead Magma Golems just as it charged at us. Even so, there were more rushing toward us. "There's too many of them. We're facing an entire army of Magma Golems!"
"I have an armada of my own too," I reminded her with a grin. Raising my hand, I summoned my Lantern Fishes. Electricity and water crackled and spun around them as they launched hydro torrents immediately, the highly pressurized streams of water hosing the Magma Golems and knocking them over. despite their high physical defense and sturdy figures, the Magma Golems had a low special…ahem, I mean elemental defense and were vulnerable to the water type attacks from my armada of Lantern Fishes. I charged straight through a path that my marine spirit beasts had forcibly opened for us, past reeling Magma Golems before they could get back to their feet. Myria was hot on my heels, swinging her sword and sending out whips of water that sliced through the closest Magma Golems like laser blades. "Leave this place to my Lantern Fishes. We'll go straight in!"
"Roger that!" Myria cleaved a Magma Golem into pieces. Another three reared up to swing their fists down, but they were bowled over by another volley of hydro torrents from my Lantern Fishes. My aquatic armada was slowly advancing, covering each other as they sprayed forceful streams in one rank after the other.
They would win eventually, given their elemental advantage, but it would still take time. Time that we might not be able to afford. Pushing the chilling dread from my mind, I sprinted into the cave, only to skid to a stop when I almost ran straight into a nest of Volcanic Vipers.
"Damn. They really are pulling out all the stops for this location, huh?"
I raised my hand and watched the dozens of Volcanic Vipers rear up with wrathful hisses. Forked tongues darted out, accompanied by sparks, and long coils straightened as the vicious spirit beasts slithered toward us.
"I don't suppose you have more of your armada that you can summon?" Myria remarked, swinging her sword. More whips of water lashed out from her blade cutting down a couple of Volcanic Vipers and sending blood, heads and parts of tongues flying. The rest snarled and unleashed a torrent of lava in my direction, but Myria retracted her water whips to form a protective bubble around us. Boiling steam fogged our area as the bubble struggled to resist the tremendous heat.
"Actually, yes." I smirked. A flash of light filled the cavern, and five Colossal Crabs materialized, landing heavily upon the shrieking Volcanic Vipers. Massive pincers pulverized tangles of Volcanic Vipers, the Colossal Crab's signature Crab Hammer carving bloody craters into the heated rock and leaving scaly remains flattened against the ground.
Seeing the gigantic crustaceans in action, I couldn't help but feel vindicated in my choice to upgrade my dungeon. Sure, it was a lot of trouble to defend it against other invasive spirit beasts and conquering dungeon masters, but the benefits it gave me were worth it. Unlike the first summoning space I had, where my spirit beasts simply hung in stasis and stayed dormant indefinitely while waiting for me to summon them, my dungeon was a living, active summoning space where my spirit beasts could breed, train, strategize and evolve.
My aquatic armada had increased by twenty percent, and several of my Construction Crabs had evolved into Colossal Crabs. I had a feeling that Xiao Huo, Da Hai and Xiao Ke would continue to benefit and evolve soon as long as they kept up their training and served their duties of protecting our dungeon.
Speaking of which, Da Hai spun about and slashed a Volcanic Viper before striking it with pointblank bubble streams. Xiao Ke joined in, keeping his distance as he hosed the pit of Volcanic Vipers with a hydro torrent attack. Xiao Huo leaped from Volcanic Viper to Volcanic Viper, leaving angry scratches with her claws or ugly bruises from her three tails. Her fire attacks were not very effective against spirit beasts with the same elemental affinity as her, but her physical strikes remained lethal to those that had their guard down.
"I'll stay here and help your spirit beasts," Myria told me, already in the fray. Her blade glowed before extending into multiple water whips that struck fluidly, weaving and dancing around the ball of Volcanic Vipers and slicing them to shreds. She smiled at me encouragingly, tilting her head toward the deeper reaches of the cavern. "Even with the elemental advantage, they are still heavily outnumbered. And I don't think I'll be of much help against the higher ranked foes deeper inside anyway. I'll keep these small fries busy."
"Thanks. I'll be counting on you." I took a deep breath and bowed my head slightly. Turning my back on the furiously fighting Myria, who gave out a battle cry of delight, I sprinted toward the far end of the cave. My footsteps echoed, growing louder and louder as they bounced off the claustrophobic confines of the cave walls while I left the thunderous din of combat behind. For several long minutes, after I could no longer hear the fierce battle, it seemed like I was the only one inside the cave, isolated from the rest of the world and running for what seemed like forever.
Perhaps it was that sense of alienation, being cut off from the outside, that saved me.
"Whoa!"
I dove to the side reflexively the moment I felt the air shift. Despite the shimmering heat, the air within the cave was still. Very still, almost as if this was the lair of the dead. That turned out to be a liability to those lurking in the shadows, for even the smallest movement caused the otherwise static air to rustle. Picking upon that, I was able to prevent myself from getting ripped into shreds when a blazing claw slashed through the air and past the space I formerly occupied.
As I hit the ground and rolled, I felt an enormous backwash of heat as flames filled the area. Throwing myself to the side, I barely avoided getting incinerated. Once the air cooled slightly, I sprang back to my feet to confront my new foes, my bow already in my hand.
Three Lava Drakes stalked out of the shadows, their crimson scales gleaming in the fiery light of the flames they breathed. I exhaled and watched them warily, aware of how outnumbered and outmatched I was. Three Mystic ranked spirit beasts, and I had basically summoned almost all of my spirit beasts to fight against the army of Magma Golems and nest of Volcanic Vipers earlier.
Fortunately, I still had one card left to play. Pushing my glasses up my nose, I smiled.
"I'll let you rampage here, Hei Ba. Since there are no allies around, feel free to go wild all you want."
The Abyssal Serpent manifested in the vast cavernous, hissing menacingly. The three Lava Drakes instinctively spread their wings and took off, understanding the danger that the newcomer posed. And just in time too, for a hydro torrent – more powerful than anything my Lantern Fishes and Xiao Ke were capable of – pulverized the heated rock, fabricating a curtain of steam that buffeted one of the screeching Lava Drakes. A black tail lashed out, and there was a blur of ruby before the Lava Drake slammed into the far side of the cave wall with a bone crunching thud.
Hei Ba snarled a challenge, rearing up and striking at the other two Lava Drakes, who panicked and tried to fly out of reach. The first victim rose to its feet groggily and limped, its wing too crooked to allow it flight.
"I'll leave this place to you," I told Hei Ba, and then I forged forward.
I was close now, after the cavern with the Lava Drakes. I could sense the presences of the demonic cultivators nearby, almost hear their chanting. Their foul auras sent a chill down my spine, making me feel uneasy as I approached, but I ignored the prickling sensation. I only had one task, and it was to put a halt to whatever insidious schemes they were cooking up.
"There!"
I could almost see them now, hooded figures in the distance, gathered over a bubbling pool of molten lava. They were murmuring among themselves and carving runes into the heated bedrock, probably to set up more arrays. I was surprised to see a collection of spirit stones piled up, used to power the current formations. As I tapped my glasses and magnified the image, my blood ran cold when I saw what exactly they were.
Spirit diamonds.
I ran a few calculations in my head. If I could defeat those dudes and grab the spirit diamonds, I could upgrade my dungeon further, as Long Wang had suggested. Of course, that was assuming I could defeat the bunch of demonic cultivators in the cavern in the first place. To my relief, there were no Earth ranked demons among them, or I would be screwed.
Not that I didn't anticipate there to be one. If there was one present, I would immediately call a retreat, regroup with Myria, and escape to Huo Yan Valley City to inform the blacksmiths. But if there wasn't one among their number, then there was a chance I could resolve this crisis on my own.
As I pulled up in the cavern, the demonic cultivators turned to stare at me, their grotesque features barely visible beneath their hoods. Horns, spikes or other protrusions grew from desiccated or wrinkled faces, their flesh turning green, brown, gray or sickly colors.
Having read about demonic cultivators, I wasn't surprised. Having accumulated demonic qi within their bodies in an attempt to increase their strength within the shortest time possible, they were unable to control the esoteric energies and thus their bodies mutated hideously. To supplement their demonic powers, they often resorted to devouring human bodies or sucking qi from other people, thus further swelling the highly unstable energies inside their bloated physiques.
Only the truly powerful demons were able to obtain control over the demonic qi running rampant in their bodies and control their mutations. Many were happy with growing claws and horns, making use of their grotesque transformations to further strike dread in normal people's hearts, but the higher ranked demons often refined their demonic qi to make themselves return to ideal human appearances, even beautifying themselves. A good number of female demonic cultivators would make use of their new beauty to seduce unsuspecting cultivators to drain them of their vitality to further improve their own cultivation.
Given that I didn't see any of the beautiful or handsome demonic cultivators lurking around, it was safe to say that I had dodged a bullet. Of course, there were always exceptions, and there were also many demonic cultivators who embraced their new monstrous forms to the extreme, inciting worship from idolizing followers.
Conjuring my azure arrows, I prepared to shoot the demonic cultivators down before they could react, but a sudden massive movement from above almost pulverized me to the ground. Jumping to the side, I rolled back to my feet and watched in dreadful awe as an entire section of the cave collapsed, the ceiling crumbling into debris that rained down and sealed me away from the demonic cultivators. I saw them laughing before their figures were concealed behind a cloud of dust and a barrier of rock.
Worse, I saw titanic silhouettes stalking through the fog of cloud to crush me. Glancing up at the humanoid spirit beasts made entirely of magma, I recognized the evolved forms of Magma Golems.
Mystic ranked Guardian Golems. And there were eight of them converging upon my position right now.