The heavily injured Level Six Sovereign, propping himself up on the rocks, summoned his final beast – a Bronze Level Five Giant Mammoth.
Its long tusks and mountain-like body made it an entity capable of sweeping across battlefields.
Yet, standing before the berserk Eddie, even this colossal creature felt deep fear. Observers noticed the mammoth trembling slightly, its small eyes filled with terror.
With Eddie advancing, the mammoth instinctively stepped back. The Sovereign urgently focused his mind, commanding it to charge at Eddie, intending to crush the enemy with its pillar-like legs.
Caught between the master's orders and its own fear, the mammoth hesitated, lifting its feet as if to advance or retreat, but ultimately remained rooted, causing the ground to tremble with its indecision.
Meanwhile, the other Level Six Sovereign, an elemental master, frantically summoned a 'meteor.'
A fiery radiance flashed, summoning a bird-like creature that soared into the sky, expanding into a blaze.
The sky turned blood-red, with clouds seeming to bleed, and ripples spread like wind over water.
Soon, several burning meteors plummeted down.
Two targeted the top of the rocky outcrop, two aimed at Eddie's head, and another fell towards the mercenaries' position, heralding an apocalyptic spectacle.
The mercenaries panicked, realizing there was no survival under the meteor's onslaught.
Strangely, Eddie didn't intervene, seemingly allowing the elemental master to summon the meteors.
While the ordinary mercenaries feared imminent death, the six masters and two sovereigns were puzzled – why wasn't the berserk man trying to stop them?
As they prepared to retreat into a crevice in the rock wall, hoping Eddie would be crushed by the meteors while saving others, the giant mammoth suddenly fled.
Its seemingly cumbersome body was surprisingly agile, quickly rushing towards the crevice, leaving only its rear exposed.
To their astonishment, a Gold Level Blood Queen appeared in front of them, darting forward faster than lightning.
No one could stop her. As the masters raised their weapons, a piercing shriek erupted, stunning all six masters.
The Sovereign, already battered by Eddie's assault, suffered ruptured eardrums, losing his balance and tumbling onto the rocky ground.
However, the one who suffered the most from the Blood Queen's banshee shriek wasn't him; it was the other Level Six Sovereign who was controlling the falling meteorites with his mind...
Had Eddie not attended the academy and listened to Mrs. Birdvine's lectures, he would have rushed in with brute force to solve the problem, preventing the enemy from deploying elemental beasts.
Now, he had learned a simpler method from Mrs. Birdvine: 'disruption.' When an enemy summons an elemental beast, it requires mental control, especially for more powerful ones.
Loss of control leads to backlash from the elemental beast, similar to the disconnection from enhancement-type or beast-type creatures.
Moreover, backlash from an elemental beast is the most terrifying of all. Elemental beasts often possess destructive powers, and their backlash can be devastating.
Eddie could have killed the fire crow before it summoned the meteors, causing an initial 'disruption' that would give the master a splitting headache.
Once the meteors were successfully summoned and controlled by the master, disrupting them at this stage would...
The five meteors suddenly changed direction, making a sharp turn towards the Level Six Sovereign of the elemental beast, plummeting down towards him.
"No, no!" The Sovereign, regaining consciousness from his dizziness, saw the meteors above his head and let out a scream of despair.
Eddie tossed the ugly behemoth onto Yehken and the Li brothers, covering them, then stood on top, cradling Eddie in his arms while raising a protective shield.
The Blood Queen shot in like an arrow, tightly embracing Eddie.
Grey Wolf, finding no room for itself, ducked under the behemoth's belly, its tail still sticking out. A tremendous explosion had already erupted.
The five flaming meteors struck the valley almost simultaneously.
Mountains shook, and flames surged. Shockwaves and fire obliterated every living creature beneath the ant nest.
The earth-shattering noise and vibrations, as if the sky was collapsing and the earth was splitting, caused the walls of the mountains to burst and collapse. Huge rocks flew chaotically.
The giant mammoth hiding in the crevice was also thrown high into the air by the mushroom-shaped flames.
One of the conical peaks was severed by the shock.
Half the mountain collapsed, countless boulders tumbled down, and a large section of the rocky mountain gradually toppled over. It picked up speed and thunderously plunged into the canyon, just twenty meters in front of Eddie, bending towards the valley floor. The ground trembled again.
Eddie broke into a cold sweat. While the meteor's fall was within his calculations, this segment of the pillar-shaped mountain collapsing was unexpected.
Fortunately, it didn't hit the flat rock where they were; otherwise, he might have had to kick Yehken and the others into the opposite deep chasm and have the Blood Queen rescue them before they became pancakes.
That would have been quite challenging, especially considering Hessian's transformation and his weight...
The mercenaries in the canyon were definitely finished. Not just them, but also the two Sovereigns and six Masters were doomed.
First the meteors, then a mountain on top. Even if they were cockroach ancestors, they wouldn't have survived.
The flat rock was slightly tilted after two massive shocks, but luckily, it was sturdy enough not to collapse.
Grey Wolf, disoriented, crawled out and peered over the edge of the flat rock, only to find the meat below gone, buried under shattered rocks.
After the shock, the exhausted Yehken struggled out from beneath the behemoth's belly. Wobbly and dazed, he wiped the blood and mud from his face with his massive, muddy hand and weakly asked Eddie, "What happened? I thought I was dreaming about someone setting off firecrackers..."
"Pretty much like that," Eddie replied, feeling his rage subsiding and a hint of exhaustion setting in.
"And who's this monster on top of me?" Yehken noticed an extremely ugly and snoring behemoth pressing him down, making it hard for him to breathe.
"Don't you recognize his snoring?" Eddie thought anyone who had heard Hessian snore would never mistake it.
"Is that Hessian?" Yehken's jaw dropped in shock.
"Who else do you think could sleep so soundly after being so badly injured?"
Eddie felt that Hessian's ability to sleep was a tremendous talent, regardless of the circumstances.
Leaf Sky remained dumbfounded for a while before finally nodding in affirmation that the ugly monster was indeed Hessian's transformation. However, he was puzzled.
This wasn't an enhancement-type, elemental-type, or beast-type creature.
What kind of beast had Hessian summoned that even transformed him into a monster?
And there was no such beast in Hessian's bronze grimoire!
Leaf Sky was utterly baffled by this.
Eddie had long recognized Hessian's unique potential but respected his privacy and never mentioned it.
After being treated with the healing stone for a while, Hessian's body gradually reverted from his monstrous form. However, as he transformed back, he let out an incredibly foul fart, releasing a long-lasting yellow fog that scared Blood Queen and Grey Wolf into fleeing. Eddie, holding Eddie Junior, had teleported a hundred meters away much earlier.
Surprisingly, Eddie's teleportation was very accurate while in his berserk state.
When he returned to normal, his teleportation target was far off, and he nearly crashed into the opposite mountain wall. If he hadn't reacted quickly, he might have fallen into the valley.
Yehken, intending to help Hessian, got a faceful of the colossal fart.
He suffocated in the yellow fog, foaming at the mouth and twitching like a bug sprayed with insecticide.
Luckily, the winds in the Abyss of Despair were strong, quickly dispersing the sticky, yellow fog.
The naked Hessian suddenly woke up, mumbling, "I think I smell roast meat…"
"Get off me now, or I'll kill you!" Yehken, pinned under Hessian, angrily grabbed a weapon from the ground.
"Huh? You're still alive, monkey? I thought you were dead. I was sad for nothing!"
Hessian looked at Yehken innocently, unaware that his massive buttocks were the real culprit trying to murder Yehken.
"I'm not dead, but you're about to crush me to death!" Yehken's spine groaned under the pressure, unable to escape Hessian's crushing weight as he raged.
"Brother…" Eddie Junior weakly woke up to see Eddie holding her. She hugged him excitedly, her tears of joy finally falling.
"I knew you'd come back safely…"
Eddie comforted her softly, stroking her hair and wiping away her tears.
In the distant sky, several large flying beasts carrying men dressed as mercenaries observed the valley.
Eventually, at the command of a middle-aged man who appeared to be their leader, the creatures silently obeyed and swiftly departed, as if they had never been there.
Before leaving, the middle-aged man gave Eddie a complex look, filled with hatred, surprise, and fear.
He glanced at the gold-level Blood Queen, then hurriedly urged his mount to catch up with the main group, quickly leaving the canyon.
"This is definitely not simple!" Eddie memorized the man's appearance with his sharp eyes. He planned to ask the Lady of Fallen Flowers about it later. If this incident was related to him, he vowed to investigate thoroughly. Whoever was behind this, he was determined to track down the culprit.
"Brother, there are a lot of fire ants crawling out down there!" Eddie Junior, still weakly nestled in Eddie's arms, suddenly noticed something stirring in the valley.
"Could the golden ant eggs still be there?" Eddie looked down, his heart stirring with curiosity.