"Leader!" shouted one of the elven member.
I quickly turned my head towards the member who shouted and immediately heard a loud, deadly shriek that instinctively made me cover my ears. A bug had somehow found us and is probably warning the others. How— how did this bug even sneak its way up here? Did it use the underside of the cliff? But why didn't the elves hear it climbing up then?!
The elven members were affected worse than me since they were the closest and had more sensitive hearing.
"Fall back!" I shouted as loudly as I could to warn the other members.
Despite the effects of the shriek, they still had some sense of semblance in listening to orders, even though I wasn't their leader. The sound of loud rumbling footsteps approached us, and I knew full well what was coming.
"Ma'am, you need to wake Zen up right now. We can't afford to have a man down; we need him," I told Violet.
"Right. Zen, dear, wake up~ We need to get going," whispered Violet.
"Unn~ Not now, Lily. We're not married yet," answered Zen as he remained half asleep. The fuck is he dreaming about?!
"Wake him up properly, Violet! Now's not the time to fool around!" I shouted at her as I reached into my back pouch.
"Viking Lord, is— his pin supposed to change colour? It just turned black," asked Violet with a puzzled expression.
W— What? There's a demon here? Shit! A demon and a massive bug to deal with at the same time?! It's just not my lucky day today. Fuck.
I took out my one-handed gauntlet and wore it into my right hand. It was a metallic gauntlet that Zen had commissioned from Stein specifically for me. Not to mention, I had to part with my axe for a few weeks because of this. Glad I caved, because I'm certain that I can take on anything with all of these upgrades.
The gauntlet's initial orange glow changed to blue and it began to slot perfectly into my right hand with a satisfying click. Apparently, there is some mechanism to detect the user wearing this gauntlet and only I can wear this without it exploding or something. Thanks for making this gauntlet even more dangerous than it is, Zen.
I unsheathed my axe from my back and got ready. All the other four elven members stood behind me and readied their weapons despite still being disoriented by the earlier shriek. The loud rumblings grew ever closer, and a loud buzzing could be heard that sounded like it could have made a twister. The massive bug clung to the underside of the cliff with only its head staring at us. What an ugly ass motherfucker.
"Well, well, who do we have here? Some intruders somehow found their way here. I was certain the elves were foolish enough to bite my bait. No matter, dead man tells no tale. You will all die here," hissed the massive bug.
"Do your worst. I'll like to see you try," I shouted at the bug as I held my axe tightly.
"What's this? A human? Red hair and beard. Ah, the Viking Lord. Surprised to see you here. And that person at the back, Zen Hawthorn, a fearsome enemy of the Ruinous Gods. I shall personally see him dead!" said the massive bug as it started crawling up the cliff.
A couple of arrows flew towards the massive bug, but none of them pierced through its thick carapace. The bug continued to stride closer to us, towering over all of us with its massive size. Yet, I readied myself to throw my axe at this large being.
"The Colossal Axe, a feared weapon, but it was unable to deal enough damage to even the Dragon Lord. Pitiful that the wielder is such a weakling," said the massive bug as it stood before me.
"Seems like you've heard of me. I didn't realise I had a stalker. I always thought it'll be some young, pretty lady that'll be the one doing that," I chuckled.
"Don't you humans always say, it's the inside that counts? I assure you that I'm beautiful on the inside," said the massive bug.
Why— the fuck is a bug trying to flirt with me? What the hell is going on here?! Zen gets the hot mom while I get a freaking bug? Fuck that!
"NO, thanks. I'm not into bugs no matter what they looked like. Outside or inside!" I flatly refused.
"Shame, I had always found you attractive even when I was a tiny insect. You never noticed me even when I was always there for you," answered the bug.
"Can we stop with the flirting and get to the action? I am seriously not in the mood for some bug action right now," I readied my axe.
"If you think you're confident enough to break my carapace, then be my guest. Until then, Zen Hawthorn is as good as dead," laughed the bug as it approached closer to us.
"Wake him up or get him out of here, Violet!" I shouted as I took aim.
I threw my axe, aiming at the softer area where the leg and the carapace met but the hilt ended up bouncing off the carapace and flew further away.
"Are you planning to teleport to your axe? You'll be leaving the group exposed. I shall be the one who slay Zen Hawthorn once and for all then, proving that my God is better than the others!" shouted the bug as it lifted one of it's leg in an attempt to stomp on all of us.
I smirked. I quickly raised my right hand towards the bug in an attempt to reach for something, then I pulled my hand back, gripping it tightly into a fist. The sound of electricity erupted from my gauntlet and the sound of a rather large object could be heard flying towards my direction.
Whoosh— SLICE!!!
"GAHHHH!!" shouted the massive bug as my massive axe sliced through its leg that was about to stomp us. I quickly shrunk my axe as I reached out to grab it with my right hand and sheathed it. I needed to stop the massive mutilated leg that was about to squash all of us. Tossing it aside, the massive bug was still squirming about wondering how I was able to slice off its leg with ease. I unsheathed my axe once more and readied myself for another throw.
"H— how were you able to slice through my carapace?! Your axe wasn't even capable of doing much damage to the Dragon Lord in the first place!" shouted the bug as it retreated.
"Well, with some minor tweaks, it's safe to say that it works brilliantly now," I smirked as I got myself ready for its next move.
***
There was nothing minor at all regarding to the upgrade of my axe. First of all, I tried seeking out the weapon-smith who made this axe. It was not a genuine legendary weapon as I thought it was; it was actually a manmade item that was powerful enough to be called a legendary weapon. Similar to Rose's legendary rapier which was made out of the materials from a meteor, we don't have any Celestial Beings residing in our weapons.
It was a long trip, but I finally found the person who made it, or half a person. He said that he was a Viking himself, but he was extremely short, like ridiculously short; even shorter than Zen. He mentioned that he had dedicated his life to becoming a weapon-smith after he had sustained an injury to his leg.
"Upgrade my axe so that it's worthy for even Thor to wield," I told the weapon-smith.
He laughed as he responded that it was not possible. While he can make the axe sharper where it could cut through steel, it was up to me to discover its hidden secrets. I agreed and allowed the weapon-smith to sharpen the axe, which he obliged. He started sharpening the bladed portion with the use of another chipped scale belonging to the same sea serpent that made this axe: Jörmungandr, the World Serpent of Midgard that belonged to the Norse realm. This weapon-smith had managed to retrieve one perfect scale belonging to that serpent and somehow managed to carry it all the way to this realm, where he forged the Colossal Axe; worthy of the name in my opinion. With his smithing skills, he had found a way to shrink the axe at will; otherwise, it would have been a nightmare to forge such a massive scale. And I thought I was using its full size fighting against the Dragon Lord. Would I be strong enough to use its full potential one day? Definitely a stretch.
With my axe sharpened, I seek to search for the secrets of Jörmungandr's power. There were very few books about it in the library as it belonged to another realm. There was one that mentioned him having the power of Eitr, which was strong enough to even kill Thor, but that would have been its fangs rather than the scales. I was close to giving up on searching for the secrets about my axe until Zen approached me with a proposal.
"Do you want to feel like being Thor?" he smirked as he asked me. I will forever remember that damn smirk of his.
With the genius of Stein and Zen, they had enveloped the hilt of my axe with some sort of special metal that only reacts to this gauntlet that I'm wearing, making full use of magnetic properties for me to summon or control my axe at will. Now I make my opponents even more confused as to whether I'll recall my axe or teleport towards it.
***
I checked the blade of my axe; blood had definitely been drawn from the massive bug. Now my axe will— yup, it's flashing red now. And— it's absorbing the blood. I had never told anyone about this, not even to my wife, but I've actually managed to figure out one of the secrets of this axe.
Any blood that I draw while I'm using it, even if it's from me, it will absorb the life-force of the blood to empower me. So even if I'm in a losing battle, my axe will keep empowering me to be stronger with my own blood, but will probably shave off a couple of decades from my lifespan. This is why, I need to win. In continuously doing so, I can prolong my life further with the blood of my enemies.
It was actually my wife who brought this up when I came back from a bloody battle one day. She told me I looked so much more dashing and handsome when I just came out from a bath. I thought she was just flirting with me for someaction, but after checking it out myself, I do realised that I somehow looked younger. Perhaps my wife had already suspected something by now but decided to keep quiet about it. Never underestimate a woman's intuition is what Zen had taught me. He might not be the only human that's gonna live longer than what a normal human should. Alright, that's enough of self talk, time to focus on my enemies.
"Weren't you extremely confident earlier about your carapace? Let's see whether that proud carapace of yours can withstand more of my axe," I grinned.
"Hmph, jest all you want, you only have a single axe while I have thousands of my soldiers ready to pounce on all of you. It's only a matter of time before all of you are dead," laughed the massive bug before it shrieked loudly, signalling all the bugs to begin the attack.
Arrows started flying across my visions as the four members of the elves started shooting with pinpoint accuracy. I even saw throwing needles among the arrows, which meant that Violet is finally fighting with us.
There were so many of the bugs surrounding us, constantly swarming around trying to flank us from all directions, and I thought of a stupid idea to use Taunt so as to attract all of them into attacking me while allowing the other members to attack safely. The scream of one of our elven members triggered me to cast the spell on impulse, roaring as hard as I could to attract all of the bugs' attention.
It worked, but a stupid idea IS a stupid idea. With so many pincers and spikes heading towards my direction, even my axe's life-stealing force is not going to help me. Will I be leaving my wife and my daughter so soon? I tossed my axe towards the massive crowd of bugs and recalled it, but it did very little to diminish their total numbers. I'm fucked if hedoesn't—
A blinding flash of light erupted nearby, followed by the sound of thunder. In an instant, lightning began arching throughout all of the bugs, roasting them as their bodies were unable to withstand the power of his lightning spell.
"Damn it, when did I even fall asleep? And to have my future mother-in-law smack me in the face just to wake me up. Damn crispy critters, what an embarrassment," sighed Zen as he walked to my side. There was a reddish handprint directly on his face, alright.
"Finally decided to join us, sleeping beauty? How's that headache of yours? Take care, as there might be a demon in our midst," I warned him as he took a glance at his pin.
"Better. You're going to need to tell me what happened when I was asleep," he summoned his signature blade with a snap of his right fingers.
"Just know that we were caught off guard. Now we have to face this giant bug and its armies," I gave him the short version.
"Hmph, what makes you think I'm interested in committing to this fight with a small scouting party? As soon as I take flight, none of you will be able to warn the elves of their impending doom. Which is exactly what I'm going to do!" screamed the massive bug as it shrieked while taking flight, bringing along all of the bugs with it.
Fuck! We won't be able to chase it even if we ran with all of our might! This is exactly like that time at the Demon Continent. It's déjà vu all over again.