Our group followed the riverbank and toward the waterfall, treading a cautious route along the coast. While the fairy sisters were correct that there were only Trumpet Lizards and Thunder Lizards nearby, that turned out to be only for the moment.
"Whoa! What's going on?"
"A stampede?"
"Watch out!"
We had to dive away and avoid an oncoming rush of saurian spirit beasts. Apparently, the herd of Trumpet Lizards had detected a threat and were running away as a group, their huge bulks sending clouds of dirt and dust into the air with each weighty step. We might have our strengths and cultivation powers, but our tinier sizes meant that we might get squashed if we were to be trampled underfoot.
Well, we would survive, if I were to be honest, but why the hell would we allow ourselves to get injured if we could avoid it? This wasn't some comedy skit, this was reality. Pain wasn't something for people to laugh at.
So we dodged.
The Thunder Lizards also lumbered out of the water, waves cascading from their damp hides and massive figures to crash down on the shore like mini waterfalls. Even the gargantuan spirit beasts had to be wary of something in the water.
"They're running…" Sylvie said. "But from what?"
"Predatory saurian spirit beasts?" Silvia suggested.
"I'm not sure what kind of saurian spirit beasts can threaten a Thunder Lizard of that size," Jun Hai remarked as he thought hard. "Hmm, a mosasaur type, maybe? Or supersized crocodiles. But the Thunder Lizards should be able to defend themselves…"
As my brother and the fairy sisters debated, Long Wang remained silent and glanced at me.
"Do you sense that, my lord?"
I nodded, having already picked up the presence of something…wrong. Something foul. Activating my Eye of Odin, I spotted demonic energies swirling about in the river, each vortex being emanated from something. Surprisingly, they were small, but the sheer numbers were overwhelming. It was a swarm of hundreds, perhaps thousands, each of them capable of Swift Swim…ahem. Each of them swimming swiftly against the raging currents.
That alone spoke of their power, though it wasn't surprising. I mean, normal salmon could swim against the rapids and up a waterfall, so yeah. Nature had a lot of ways to circumvent, uh, physics or whatever.
They were accompanied by larger forms that also came in huge numbers, though much less. What concerned me the most, though, was the demonic energies that they were emitting. And they were all heading for the waterfall.
"You have any idea what they are?" I asked. Long Wang frowned and shook his head.
"Corrupted spirit beasts…tainted by demonic energies and morphed into demonic monsters."
"That can't be good." Relying on my Eye of Odin, I could vaguely make out their forms and identify them. "Prickly Piranhas and Corrupted Crocodiles. There's so many of them. Where did they come from?"
"No idea."
"Perhaps we should check out the waterfall," Jun Hai suggested, turning his gaze to the cascading curtain of water. "They're all swimming toward there. Maybe there's something up there?"
"Yeah, you're right." I realized that my brother had a point. I could sense something enormous up there – not in terms of size, but through the output of demonic energies. "The source of corruption seems to be located above the waterfall."
Long Wang clenched his fists, his expression furious. "How dare they taint a monument raised for dragons."
"Agreed." I nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go find out who they are…and stop them once and for all."
We took care to avoid the river, though a couple of Prickly Piranhas jumped out to attack us, having scented prey on the shore. Jun Hai reacted quickly, raising his hand and firing highly pressurized jets of water that cut through them. I was impressed. He was really getting better with his spells and control.
"Spending so much time studying marine biology has made me sensitive to things in the water," he explained when he caught me watching him. I nodded and grinned.
"That's great!"
It also explained Jun Hai's affinity with the water element. That might prove to be a boon for the upcoming fight. Right now, he was only at Yellow rank, probably peak Yellow rank at most, but I was sure he would improve tremendously once he accumulated enough combat experience.
My job was to keep him safe until then. Also, that applied to my other spirit beasts. I realized I couldn't keep relying on my heavy hitters and strongest spirit beasts forever. The others in my dungeon also needed a chance to grow.
We came to a stop at the bottom of the waterfall, craning our necks to look up. There was a gate-like monument above, an archway made entirely of stone and sculpted with oriental dragons coiling around the pillars. There were words sketched into the top, but even though I magnified my vision with my enchanted glasses, I still couldn't read them.
They weren't Chinese, despite the dragons that were carved into the structure. Interesting.
"How are we going to climb up there?" Jun Hai wondered. He raised a hand and started conjuring a whirlpool of water, but that seemed like it required quite a lot of qi, so I shook my head.
"Allow me."
With a flick of my hand, I summoned the Sylphs and protected them from the corruptive energies with my own qi. They helped create a gust of wind that bore me, Jun Hai and Xiao Huo aloft, expending much less mana that Jun Hai would have with qi.
"Oh, that's convenient."
Sylvie and Silvia didn't need the wind spell to fly. They were already flapping their wings and ascending. Similarly, Long Wang transformed into a dragon and flew up. Even though he didn't have wings, he was a dragon. So apparently, dragons could fly even without wings. I mean, we all know that blue and yellow serpentine pocket monster was a water and flying type even though it didn't have wings.
We reached the top of the waterfall without any further incident, only to find someone waiting there for us. Well, not just someone, but a group of four.
"Who…?"
"We should be asking you that," the leader of the group snarled. He was a tall, thin man with a demonic visage, sharp eyes and long, black hair. For some reason, he was wearing green and black robes with a yellow trim, and even had scaly armor over his waist.
"Demonic Dragon," Long Wang said. I gaped at him.
"You know him?"
"I've heard rumors while spending time in the bar in your dungeon, my lord. I didn't think I would encounter him in the surface."
"Hah!" Demonic Dragon sneered. "It doesn't matter if you know me or not. Now that you've seen me, I can't let you live. Celestial Avian, Demonic Bat, Muscular Beast, kill them!"
The other members of his group obeyed immediately, lunging forward without any hesitation. I could roughly guess who was who. Celestial Avian was a short tomboyish girl with shoulder-length red hair and dressed in red and black robes. Her speed was superb, and she dashed about, avoiding Long Wang because she was aware of the discrepancy in strength.
Instead, she headed straight for Sylvie and Silvia, but at my mental command, Xiao Huo intercepted her. Her nine tails ignited with fire and she caught Celestial Avian's punch before hurling her back in an explosive blast. The enemy flipped about agilely and landed gracefully on her feet, but her hand trembled from the impact, scorched.
"Oh? I didn't think there will be somebody as powerful as you here."
Demonic Bat was a short guy with weird black hair styled to look like…you guess it, bat ears. He summoned a pair of swords and glided low on the ground to slash at us, only for me to keep him at bay with my volley of arrows. While I was firing at him, Muscular Beast pounced. He was, like his name suggested, muscular. A burly man who was wearing a yellow sleeveless vest and black trousers, he had black stripes tattooed into his tanned chest for some reason, and his blond hair was a messy mane. With a roar, he slashed at us with his claws.
However, Long Wang transformed back into his human form and dropped right between us, intercepting Muscular Beast's attack. He raised his own claws and parried before kicking the big guy away.
"Oh?" He sounded amused as he studied his opponent. "You use the same weapon as me."
"You will pay dearly for that!" Muscular Beast snarled and lunged at him once more. I left him to the confident Long Wang and focused on Demonic Bat, but Jun Hai was already moving to fight him. I watched in shock when two spirit beasts appeared next to him.
"What the?! A Swamp Stomper and a Steel Tri-horn? When did you…?!"
The Swamp Stomper was the third evolved stage of my Mud Fishes, having evolved from the secondary Marsh Striders. He was massive, an amphibious titan with a great blue bulk and four thick limbs. He was usually bipedal, able to stand on his shorter hind legs while wielding his muscular front arms to great effect. Huge fins protruded as a tail and a pair from his head, while orange gills stretched across his cheeks. Over five meters tall, he resembled a titan as he pounded the ground where Demonic Bat was gliding over, almost crushing the poor guy.
The Steel Tri-horn was a saurian spirit beast that resembled a triceratops, but one made out of metal. He looked like a cross between a triceratops and a rhino, with three horns protruding from his armored head, but for some reason he was standing on two legs like a humanoid beast, with metallic claws gleaming from his front hands. Steel plates shone all over his body, making him near impervious to physical attacks, while a long tail whipped out with enough force to crush boulders.
"You're not the only one who can summon, big bro," Jun Hai replied with a grin. "I've been working and nurturing my spirit beasts all this while."
I wondered if he had the same summoning system as I did, but I supposed he wanted to keep that a secret, so I didn't ask. If he wanted to share it with me, he would, but the fact that he kept his spirit beasts a secret meant that he had a reason.
I could guess what it was. He wanted to surprise me, and so he decided to hide his spirit beasts until he had finally evolved them to their strongest forms. I would later learn that he had only just achieved their evolutions on the day before we left for this particular expedition, and it was thanks to the help from Sylvie and Silvia. He had asked them to keep it a secret because he wanted to surprise me.
Why, I have no idea. Well, he's a teenager, so…you know how teenagers are. They are the types who thought it was cool to hide their strength and suddenly show off during a time of crisis for some dramatic reveal.
"Leave this half-blind dude to me. Take care of their leader, big bro."
"You do know I'm half-blind too, right? That's why I'm wearing glasses."
"C'mon, you know what I mean."
"Sure, sure." I hopped away and aimed an arrow at Demonic Dragon, but he summoned a massive saber that resembled a dragon's jaws, with a golden sharp blade underneath a green one. He cleaved the arrows apart before glaring at me.
"Insolent. How dare you attack this lordship and disrupt my plans?!"
"…dude." I was speechless. Who the fuck called themselves "this lordship" these days? Was he also suffering from middle school second year syndrome?
"Don't think you have the advantage!" Demonic Dragon sneered as he chopped the ground with a devastating blow from his spirit saber, creating a fissure that forced me to jump away before I could fall inside. "All the creatures here are under my control! Come to me, my minions!"
There was a titanic splash of water, and the thousands-strong swarm of Prickly Piranhas burst out of the river that poured down into the waterfall. They were accompanied by Corrupted Crocodiles, but that wasn't all. I watched in amazement as Spine Lizards and Sail Lizards crawled out too, bellowing in fury and hunger.
Spine Lizards were massive creatures about the same size as the Giga Rexes when they walked on two feet, but their eye-catching feature was the gigantic sail-like fin that stretched along their backs. The Sail Lizards were their pre-evolved form, being half the size of the Spine Lizards, but walked on four legs. They were both carnivorous, their jaws filled with dagger-like fangs, and there were quite a few of them.
Bellowing, they surged ahead, just behind the Prickly Piranhas that threatened to overwhelm us with their numbers. Demonic Dragon cackled wildly as he plunged his spirit saber in the ground, already believing that he had won.
"You'll become food for my demonic monsters!"
"Oh?" I couldn't help but smirk. Shaking my head, I snapped my fingers. "Sorry to disappoint you, dude, but you're not the only one with an army."