Jurgen slowly entered the giant dungeon door full of flaming monsters that he, probably, knew nothing about. As soon as he stepped inside, he was greeted by a giant arm that came slamming from above him that was luckily evaded by him through sheer luck after jumping right at the moment.
He was startled and awed for a moment on how fast he managed to react, before a flaming sharp object came towards his head. A flaming sword ready to cut him in half.
He could clearly see it so he quickly raised his sword to parry the attack while also constantly imbuing mana into its blade to strengthen it.
He then looked at the creature who dared to wound him and saw a lava monster that looks exactly like an emberman but slightly smaller and have visible eyes that resembles a burning inferno. It also possessed a giant crown-like object that was attached to its head like some kind of high ranked warrior.
At that moment, Jurgen realized that the monsters he was about to face weren't the ones he thought they were. 'These aren't embermans.' He knew for sure from the appearance, and the fact that those creatures are in that place brought confusion and surprise to him.
Those monsters are known as High Embermans, a much superior species than regular embermans. They are much smaller and lighter which is the reason for their high mobility. In addition to their speed, their flames are hotter and much denser than embermans while their skin are much softer because of their extremely hot flames that almost melts their bodies. They also seemed to possess a higher intelligence than other lava and fire type monsters which is the main reason that those creatures are at the top of A-rank beasts.
Seeing those monsters was really a surprise for Jurgen as they are often found in the deeper tunnels of Beast continent.
'Why the hell are these type of monsters are here?' He asked himself, looking up and gritting his teeth.
He felt rather annoyed after knowing how bothersome was the situation he was in. "I should recalculate my plans." He whispered, before jumping away from the monsters. As he moved away, he could see a roughly hundreds of those monsters, slowly lighting up the dim dungeon with their faint flames that began to burn after the commotion caused by Jurgen has seemingly awakened them.
After Jurgen hopped a few feet away, a high emberman immediately followed him and jumped with a roaring sound of flames. It seemed like they wouldn't let Jurgen have his plans accomplished and constantly assaulted him with its burning hands, swinging it, trying to catch Jurgen who's casually jumping and ducking to evade the gigantic hands that could crush him if he got caught by it.
'Currently, I have three more of that potion inside my pockets and each could last atleast 15 minutes.' The old geezer pondered intensely while dodging the high embermans attacks.' Consuming it continuously would sum up all the drawbacks though, so I have to slow it down and take the battle a little bit easy.'
"Well, it's not that easy against opponents like this." Jurgen grinned. He lowered himself and kicked onto the ground with the balls of his feet, propelling himself towards the enemy that first came at his sight. Tightly grasping the hilt of his sword, he quickly swung it towards the burning lava creature, aiming at its left arm that was extended due to its attempt to block Jurgen. He estimated the hardness of its skin and poured the right amount of mana enough to cut its thick outermost part of its molten body. He chanted as he swung, "Freeze and cut, Ice magic: Frozen blade!"
His sword turned into a cold, thin ice blade, that quickly bitten the high emberman's molten flesh. After causing a shallow cut, Jurgen saw the cut bled with lava as he moved to another direction to target a different part of its body. But this time, he already has a plan in mind and was looking for the right opportunity to do it.
Jurgen got his sword revert back from its frozen state and once again, he jumped and hovered in the air to attack directly from above its head. He's ready to swing his sword when suddenly, the monster raised its hands and clasped it together, trying to cath Jurgen. But luckily, he flew and dodged it while maintaining the right distance. And when he was at the correct spot, he took his left hand out with a grasping motion, followed by intense focus of mana in his palm, visualizing a rotating ball of highly compressed wind, slowly activating the 'Calamitous wind'
"Ugh!" He grunted upon swinging his arm in a throwing motion, firing the ball of compressed wind at the lava creature's head and successfully landing a clean hit that caused the high emberman's head to be thrown backwards.
The impact left a small spherical dent at the monster's face that caused the monster to scream in agony while holding its head, violently shaking it.
Jurgen took this as an opportunity. He didn't stop and immediately followed another spell of the same kind, firing it towards the monster's legs and knees.
The moment the spell made contact, it exploded with extreme pressure that completely destroyed the lava monster's joints. A few more balls of wind was thrown at it until it finally lost one of its legs.
And just when the monster was about to get over the pain from losing a limb. Jurgen pulled his sword and did a diagonal swing, sending a powerful sharp and highly condensed mana from its blade.
"Mana art 07: Crescent moon!" Jurgen followed a late chant while menacingly watching the monster die in its misery after getting its body severed from head to bottom.
The stubborn old man did that in front of every monster present in that room. And after awhile, he could finally feel their angry gazes piercing through him and finds it interesting. So, he turned his head and stared back at them.
"You better come at me with all you've got." He provocatively said, even though he knew that they wouldn't understand his words, he knew that those monsters would get what he was trying to say with his fierce glare.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
In a few seconds, the warm air was filled with silence as the monsters stopped moving gor a second. And then suddenly, they came rushing towards Jurgen from every direction, letting out a deafening screams of anger. With their enhanced mobility and lightweight body, some of them jumped right at Jurgen, leaving him no choice but to fight them head on using his sword.
First, he successfully dodged the monster's feet that almost crushed him by jumping out of the way. Then, in one wave of his hand, he froze the lava humanoid's feet and legs, hindering its movements. Before the ice slowly melts, the old man did a long upward horizontal slash and once again firing the "Mana art 07: Crescent moon" to completely finish the monster off.
After that, he found himself surrounded by high embermans, carrying swords made out of highly concentrated flames, ready to cut him. Jurgen was surprised to see them all armed but he managed to react and thrusted his sword on the ground just before when the flamy creatures swung their swords, followed by a whispered chant: "Freeze and pierce from below."
His body emitted mana and conjured several ice spikes from the ground that emerged to pierce the lava monsters surrounding him. But even his strongest ice spell wasn't enough to overwhelm the monster as they were able to just melt the ice with the flames and lava that covers their skin. The heat from their body also radiates intensely that even after just casting the ice spell, it immediately melted, and evaporated after a few seconds.
And after the failed attempt, the flamy monsters stomped onto the ground and lifted their flame swords before vigorously swinging it downwards, aiming to split Jurgen's head in half without mercy.
Sensing the danger, Jurgen acted accordingly and jumped off of his feet aimlessly just to get out of the way. With sheer luck, he managed to barely dodge the burning sword. But seems like luck itself could carry misfortune as the old man saw another monsters ready to swing their swords at the direction he was just about to land.
At that moment, he knew that he completely messed up. "Oh crap, that was a cheap trick. And I fell for it."
Just when the flaming sword was about to slice through him and Jurgen was halfway through accepting his fate, suddenly, a scream went off somewhere above the monsters before a blinding light with golden color struck the ground several feet away from him, pushing the monsters away with overwhelming force and shockwave.
Then, Jurgen's eyes widened as he saw a familiar figure of a man's back in front of him, wearing a golden cloak of mana and a menacing golden aura. And he could only let out a few words upon recognizing the person.
"... the heck?... you still alive?" Jurgen chuckled as his expression changed considerably to a relieved one.
The man only clicked his tongue as a response and said, "I don't want to bring shame to the royal wizards for letting an old man fight this weak monsters on my behalf."
Jurgen could only managed to grin. "Heh, I could've fight them at full power though." he said.
The man slowly faced Jurgen and finally proved the old man's theories and assumptions. The man standing in front of him was indeed the royal military first division lieutenant, Johan Clarksville. And from the looks of his attire, it seemed like he has already activated and released his spirit form.
"Getting cocky aren't we? Enjoying the party for yourself?" Johan smirked with interest blooming in his golden eyes.
****
"Hmmm, the surrounding is awfully peaceful that it became deafening to hear." Grey whispered to himself as his worried eyes gazed at the towering Mt. Vermont.
It's been two hours since the volcano violently erupted, leaving traces of molten rocks and boiling lava at its base. Almost half of the village was completely destroyed, including Jurgen's house, yet Grey seemed to be worried about something else as he stared at the far away east where the boundary between Beast continent and Green continent was supposed to be located.
'I have a bad feeling about this, but I hope my feelings are wrong just like how it goes sometimes.' Grey thought before looking at his mom and dad and then glancing at the other people who survived the lavas. 'We wouldn't survive another attack if ever...'
His mind was seemingly filled with anxiety after seeing those Boundarian trees got destroyed by the lava earlier. Those trees are said to be protecting the Hotstone village from external monster invasion according to his uncle Reynold and now it's gone. He wanted to tell everyone but he was afraid that it would only cause another commotion among everyone. So, keeping it to himself would be the best choice or he could atleast inform his family, especially his uncle, about this crucial information.
"Uncle, I wanted to—"
"SWISH!... BAANG!"
A few words escaped his mouth and caught his uncle's attention, just before a deafening explosion occured right in front of him that forcibly thrown him off of his feet and came flying several meters away from everyone. He came down crashing to someone else' home, going through a wooden wall.
"What is that?" Grey was thrown into confusion as he slowly got up, still feeling the pain on his back all the way down his spine. His breathing became labored and from his position, looking upward, he could vaguely see a red smoke coming from the location he's at just a moment ago.
Soon after, he was startled after a furry creature suddenly jumped right at him, attempting to bury its claws into his face. But it was quickly avoided after Grey vigorously kicked the unknown creature away from him. It landed a few feet away from him and finally able to see what kind of being it was.
Standing in four limbs with claws that are as large as his own hands; silver colored fur; and wild brown eyes that are staring at him while gritting its sharp teeth that has four large fangs that are probably as long as Grey's index finger; wagging its tail while fiercely walking towards him. Grey was sure what it was. It was one of those creature that he saw in historical books and could definitely recognize it at firs glace. That monster was a "Wolfkin", a monster that looked very smililar to a wolf but extremely larger and was said to have the ability to devour their prey alive.
After he saw the monster, a question occured to his mind, 'What is a Wolfkin doing here?'
Although he was trying to deny it, Grey already expected this to happen. The Boundarian tree that protected the village were destroyed and obviously, what comes next are those monsters that was being kept out by those trees.
The Hotstone village was located at a hotspot near the border of Beast continent and as a result, monster from the said continent would come rushing at them whenever they had the chance, and unluckily, today is "that" chance.
Grey didn't waste any time. He swiftly pulled his sword and gave the furry beast a taste of his quick draw maneuver, dissecting it from mouth to stomach and was quickly followed by bloods and organs flying all over the place. The wild wolfkin was killed in an instant.
Just to make sure that his assumptions were right, Grey sent wind waves all around him, indicating the activation of [Wind pulse] to detect any nearby creatures. And as expected, he detected several moving creatures coming from the east at a higher rate, swarming near the main town of Hotstone village. He could also hear several screams and crashing sounds that could probably meant that the monsters have reached the town.
"This is a big trouble." Grey said to himself, before his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by an unknown presence that suddenly appeared behind him. A presence that made him recall an uncomfortable sensation from his past.
'What the hell?' The chills down his spine froze him in place as his eyes grew wider. Then, he heard tapping sounds of footsteps behind him, slowly approaching him.
"Do you feel fear?" A cold male voice whispered through his right ear and left him staring in space before a man entered suddenly his vision. The pressure he could feel couldn't even compare to the ones he have fought before. "Hehe, you're going to die here, Grey."