In less than ten minutes, the mercenary group, which had been hired by the three Apprentice Mages, was almost entirely exterminated.
The last four were covered in blood from head to toe. They stood back to back, barely managing to defend themselves against the attacks from the demons surrounding them.
On the other side, their employers, the three Apprentice Mages, stood casually by, watching the mercenaries being killed with cold indifference. Unless they were attacked by the demons, they did not interfere in the battle between the demons and the mercenaries. It was as if the deaths of these mercenaries meant nothing to them.
While the last four mercenaries fought for their lives, the three Apprentice Mages chatted slowly among themselves.
"The Elementium aura we sense now must have belonged to one of the local Apprentices. Why didn't you let me capture them?" The cute, chubby girl complained to her big, muscular companion.
"What's the point of capturing them?" The man shook his head and continued, "Clearly this place has a well-built Magical Formation. We've been wandering around here for three days and still haven't found the way in. Without one of them leading us there, I fear we wouldn't be able to find that Tower of Mages even if we spent another three days searching."
"That's exactly why we should have captured them!" The little girl exclaimed angrily. Perhaps because her opinion had not been accepted, she began to unleash her frustration on the creature she had captured in the cage.
As she murmured something softly, the space inside the cage began to shrink, compressing.
The compression of the space soon reached the body of the Demon Baby, and some cracking noises started emanating from its body.
"No..."
"Please..."
Hearing the high-pitched, painful screams from the Demon Baby, the smile on the girl's face turned to pure joy.
"SMASSHHH~~~"
When the poor Demon Baby finally imploded and collapsed into a pile of meat paste, the girl immediately waved her arms in the air and stomped her feet in joy, a look of extreme excitement lighting up her little face.
Seeing that the girl had relieved her anger with her 'toy', the other two Apprentice Mages let out sighs of relief.
The Snake-Headed Apprentice shook his head and approached the muscular leader, asking, "Are you sure it's okay to let that bastard escape? I'm sure he'll bring more mages here!"
"Mages?" The muscular leader laughed darkly. "This swamp is just an ordinary resource spot. Do you really think the Sarubo Family would waste an official Mage to guard it? In my opinion, aside from Mage Eclivel, all that's left here are Apprentice Mages. Do you really think we should be afraid of the Apprentice Mages we might encounter here?"
The Snake-Headed Apprentice laughed horrifically, his forked tongue flicking in and out of his lips, creating a chilling sound.
"This place has a bunch of rare materials I need. Anyway, it will take a while for those guards to get here. I think I'll take a look while I wait."
After saying this, the Snake-Headed Apprentice simply walked toward another distant marshy area.
Something really strange was happening. Although the rocky trail wasn't far from him, he didn't notice it and passed right by. This was, after all, one of the many defensive mechanisms of the Tower of Mages. Only those inner Apprentice Mages who used a Magical Talisman could see the rocky path, while to the eyes of any outsider, the path was just another part of the swamp, nothing out of the ordinary.
Watching one of his partners disappear into the mist, the muscular leader hesitated for a moment, then just turned around and went in another direction. It was a rare opportunity to be in a private resource location of a Mage family. If he didn't manage to get something good before finishing his official business here, it would be a huge waste.
As for that bizarre little girl, whether intentionally or not, they left her in the midst of those violent, bloody demons. Would she get hurt? That question never crossed the minds of those two Apprentices. Honestly, perhaps the biggest and most brutal demon in this swampy land was the little girl.
Therefore, when Leon brought Brandon and the 'Three Strongest' here, what they saw in front of them was a cute little girl with a golden cage, standing right in the middle of a crowd of blood-covered demons.
At that moment, there was not a single member of the entire mercenary company who had not been torn to shreds and scattered all over the place. While their broken corpses were being devoured by an army of Demon Babies, the girl was right in the center of those demons. Strangely, no demon dared to come within ten steps of the little girl.
Not only that, but when the little girl ran and jumped from place to place, those Demon Babies, who were busy eating, roared at her in anger, then moved aside and made way for her, not daring to actually get in her path.
A mercenary, who had bloodied legs and a single broken arm, was being gnawed at by dozens of Demon Babies. Almost lifeless, he raised his bloodied and broken arm, waving to the little girl who was approaching him, and said, "Save me... Save... Me..."
With a sweet smile on her face, the little girl crouched in front of him and asked in a gentle voice, "I can save your soul from these demons. Are you willing to let me save your soul?"
The dying mercenary was surprised to hear this and immediately nodded his head. However, he didn't realize that the girl had said the word 'save' in a vague and strange tone. If he had known the other languages the girl knew, he would have discovered that when those strange tones came together, she actually said a word meaning 'Consume', which came from the language of the Ancient Andes on the Mage Continent.
After receiving the mercenary's approval, the girl's smile grew even sweeter. She quickly took a milky-white crystal ball from her pocket and placed it against the mercenary's forehead. With a short and simple spell, the mercenary's body trembled, and then the small flame of hope that had just appeared in his eyes went out.
A white shadow emerged from his forehead and disappeared into the crystal ball.
The mercenary's life force evaporated, and his bloodied arm fell to the ground, never to rise again.
The Apprentices of the Tower watched all this unfold, standing there horrified by what they had just seen.
Their arrival caught the little girl's attention. She walked straight over to Leon's group, lifted her head, and gently asked, "Hi! I'm the lovely Lucy! Are you from around here?"
Leon and the others looked at this little Lolita, who seemed to be trying to get familiar with them, and they were not fooled by her disguise. Among the population of Apprentice Mages, friendship, love, and humanity were just pretty words that had long been thrown away. All that remained within them was the desire for knowledge, resources, and power.
Those Apprentices who were naïve would die before even reaching the level of an intermediate Apprentice. The idea of such a person reaching the level of an Advanced Apprentice was simply too impossible to conceive.
Noticing that they were looking at her crystal ball and cage, Lucy quickly hid both behind her, twisting her lips and saying, "All these things belong to Lucy. You're not thinking about taking them away from me, are you?"
Brandon looked around and then whispered harshly to Leon, "I thought you said there were three Apprentice Mages? Where are the other two?"
"Kerry went that way... He's a big guy and good at fighting... If he runs into that big sister, I'm sure something exciting will happen..." the little girl pointed east and spoke innocently. Clearly, she was referring to the Super girl, who also carried a huge sword on her back. "Jeffrey went that way... I think he said he wanted to look for some materials..."
What she said shocked the five of them, and their eyes went wide.
No matter how many demons were killed, none of them would feel the slightest pity for that, but if those secret herb plantations and gardens were discovered by these outsiders, perhaps all the Apprentices of the Tower would be punished by Mage Eclivel.
The loud, hoarse voice of the Super girl exploded instantly.
"I'm going that way to stop that guy!"
After saying this, the Super girl's bulky body began to run toward the east. As she ran, she crushed the few Demon Babies that got in her way under her feet, making the others scream in anger, though none dared to approach her.
"I'm going this way!" Deadshot said coldly, tipping his hat and running west.
For some unknown reason, the cawing of the Carrion Crows was heard from the sky, though they were hidden by the thick mist. The noise followed immediately behind Deadshot. The Leader Apprentice Brandon rolled his eyes and murmured, "I'll help him!" After saying this, he simply followed behind Deadshot and left.
In the end, only the Worm Controller, Leon, and the strange and unpredictable little girl remained at the scene.
"Are you going to fight me?" The little girl tilted her head and looked at the two remaining men. "Before we fight, don't you want to know where we came from?"
"There's no reason to ask you anything. You've caused chaos here, and you will be punished for it. If I capture you, you'll have to tell me everything. If I can't defeat you, I will bear all the consequences here. Now, show me what you can do!"
It was quite rare to hear the Worm Controller talk so much.
But as soon as he finished speaking, the black earth beneath the little girl's feet exploded, and a huge number of black scorpions burst out of the ground.
"Bang~~"
Each of these scorpions was the size of a human palm, had a black body and a pair of claws, and on its back was a tail with a poisoned stinger. The foul smell of poison filled the air around these scorpions.
Although there was a distance of twenty meters between them, it was impossible to tell when the Worm Controller had sent these scorpions, sneaking underground to hide near the little girl.
This little girl shouldn't have a strong physique. Therefore, as long as she was poisoned, she would quickly lose the ability to cast any of her bizarre spells.
Before coming here, Leon had emphasized the strange abilities of this little girl, so the Worm Controller had no plans to test them. He just wanted to knock her out as quickly as possible.
But what happened next likely made Worm Controller's mouth twitch.
An invisible barrier was created between the girl's feet and those scorpions. No matter how much they hit it or jabbed it with their tails, there was no way for them to get through. Slowly, as more and more scorpions gathered, a wall of insects was built against the invisible barrier.
"Boom!"
"Thud!"
"Clang!"
One after another, the scorpions stacked on top of each other attacked the invisible barrier in front of them frantically, but no matter how hard they tried, they simply could not break through.
...
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