*Sssssshh* *Sssssshh* *Sssssshh* *Sssssshh*
*BOOOM!*
The arrows splitting the air with little sound, competing each other to hit their target faster. Yet, the Dragonoid’s
Seeing this, Hazard roared, instilling fear to his opponents and nailing them at their place. Afterward, he charged towards the nearest elf. Although the elf was able to recover from the roar’s effect, it was still too late for him.
Hazard’s body had grown so big since he had returned from [Firzoa], reflecting his growth of power. His hand alone was bigger than his opponent’s head. Thus, when he smashed the poor long-ear race, the impact made the slender body half-buried and became unrecognizable. The elf died instantly.
Oh? I guess… they’re not invincible at all. Did I overestimate them too much?
Finished with his first victim, Hazard turned to the next closest elf. Unlike her comrade, she was better prepared. Her bow swiftly released no less than five consecutive arrows in an instance. Though, they were unable to pass the hard scales defense, let alone harming the dragonoid demon.
Haz came in front of her soon and his slashed his claw diagonally. It missed, nonetheless. With a somersault, the elf managed to escape while shooting another arrow, which was aimed at the part that wasn’t covered by hard scale - the eye. At such a short distance, it would be difficult to avoid. For a normal man, that is.
Unfortunately for her, Haz was far from a normal man. His wing blocked the projectile with ease. Contrary to whatever she might have expected when she shot the arrow, her act had put herself in a difficult situation. Her position in the mid-air made her vulnerable, a chance which Haz didn’t waste. He grabbed the female’s leg and slammed her hard to the ground.
Understood that she didn’t have time to relax, the female elf quickly opened her eyes to get ready, only to find a pointed tail covered in hard scales raised before her pretty face. She could do nothing but staring with widened-eyes when it thrusted down and pierced her neck. A small choking cough was heard. Actually, it was all that could be heard from her last moment.
Two down, three more to go.
It seemed the battle would keep going smoothly until the end. At least, I was hoping so. Reality wasn’t so kind, however. Almost at the same time at when Haz killed the female elf, his head exploded. The surprise was enough to make me jump from my throne - the VIP seat in my dungeon where I had been watching the ongoing battle through the s-flies shared vision.
Like a puppet with broken string, the headless Hazard fell on the dead female elf. He didn’t die, though, as his core was still intact. Nevertheless, he lost consciousness and his presence disappeared from our link. It would take time for him to recover from his current state.
“You… Did you see that?” I asked the other two demons at my sides.
“… It was so fast. If not for the multi-color light, I’d probably miss it,” Queen replied.
“Keek, what’s that, master?” Ken asked.
“… I’m not too sure,” I said. “My guess, it’s probably a unique magic that belongs only to the elves.”
More importantly, it can KO Haz in one hit. The damage is ridiculous. And the one who shot it… should be the woman whom I feel a familiar vibe from. She looks really upset. No, wait, it’s not the time for analyzing, I need to recover Haz’s core.
“Come, golem!”
Channeling my mana to the battlefield via the transceiver orbs net, four golems emerged at between the woman and Haz’s body. I continued to pour mana, creating more of the two and half meters height earth-elemental guardians. Until each of the remaining elves had three to four golems accompanying them.
The shock was short, the elves recovered soon and quickly slaughtered my golems. Well, slaughter mightn’t be the right word, as they weren’t living beings. Anyway, with the abundant supply of my mana in the area, the damaged golems would be restored immediately. In addition, more and more new golems were joining the fray.
I ignored the amount of mana I had to trade in this exhibit, they were insignificant compared to Haz’s core value, after all. Even though the golems were nowhere near a match for the elves, I compensated the quality with quantity. I just needed them to stall time, anyway. Therefore, by the time everyone there was occupied, I enveloped both Haz and the dead female elf with a big round coffin made of earth.
Realizing that I was trying to steal her prey, the particular woman who gave me the familiar vibe shouted some words in elvish language. It was melodious, made me wonder if it was another characteristic of their race. The result of the shout was clear, as the other elves began to shoot the round coffin every now and then while working with their shares of golems.
Soon, the coffin was full with arrows and cracks. I didn’t do nothing, of course. I coated the beneath and above the cracks with solid layers, smoothing and strengthening the surface. At the same time, I had the bodies inside the big ball sink underground.
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My primary objective was to retrieve Haz, but it would be good to get my hands on the dead elf as well. If I could revive her the same way I had done to father, elf would be recorded in my monster list. After that, I could spawn more elves. Pretty sure their cost would be exorbitant, but I believed having some elite elven warriors as subordinate would be worth it.
Once I finished hiding the bodies deep under the ground surface, I catapulted the round coffin to the sky towards my dungeon as a decoy. The particular woman yelled melodiously again. Then, the arrowheads of an elf started radiating the same multi-color light from before while the others were moving to cover him.
It took a minute or so to charge the multi-color light, before he finally released the pulled bowstrings. I could only catch a glimpse of flashes before a loud explosion came from the destroyed coffin ball. Following the result, the woman gave an order and the previous elf quickly ran into the forest, towards the explosion’s direction. Not that he would find anything there.
Hmm. I still don’t understand this familiarity I feel from that woman. The strange thing is, she acts like their leader. I always thought the one being called the Dungeon Hunter is a male elf, was I mistaken?
Ah, right, I better move Haz while they’re being distracted.
However, before I did anything, the female leader’s lips curled up, giving me a goosebump. She gave a hand signal to the only elf left to come with her. They walked to where Haz and the second elf had been buried underneath. Using the
Wha…! How did she discover them?
I tried to stop her, but her control over the soil area was simply too dominating. I then sent an earth spike, but her comrade spent no effort to disperse it. Thus, I turned back to brute force with the golems, including some higher level fighter golems mixed in among them.
Of course, I understood it wouldn’t be enough. One of the sky fighter - the aircraft golem, had started its engine at the moment, preparing to take off. In the meantime, I had been trying to connect to Haz’s core. If I managed, I would be able to hasten his recovery, allowing him to fight again. Alternatively, I could revert the big body back to its core form, making it easier to slip it away from the woman.
However, without a direct contact and with it being located outside the dungeon territory, I found completing the simple task wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Before I knew, both bodies had been presented in front of the female elf. Although the sky fighter had been on the way, it mightn’t be able to make it in time. The golems were also being kept out by the other elf’s barrier.
Uh, hurry up.
“Aren’t you being too work up, my lord?”
I glared to queen gi-ant who had made the sudden statement. “What do you mean?”
“Fuu~ don’t be mad, dear master,” she smiled, trying to easen my mood. “Our cores are different than your heart in many ways. What I want to say is,” she explained, “even for the extreme dungeon hater group like them, there’s a high chance they won’t destroy a high quality core like Haz’s. You would have another chance to retrieve it back even if you pull back now.”
I considered what the demoness had just said. Still, it was merely her speculation and the SF golem was about to reach the place either way. Therefore, I dismissed her idea and decided it was too soon to give up the core just yet.
The thunderous sound approached the battlefield. As soon as the two elves in the open entered the firing range, I commanded the SF to launch a missile.
Seeing this, the other elf expanded her barrier to block the missile. It made me smile. The missiles were, after all, designed to absorb mana to fuel its afterward explosion. The strong barrier would only make it deadlier.
While expecting the collision, another scene hit my vision, though. In front of the leader elf, both Hazard and the dead elf bodies turned into light particles and flew into the woman.
“! This…!!” Queen exclaimed in surprise, she was obviously saw the event as well.
Recovering from the dumbfoundedness, I stole a glance towards my other demon. Although Ken didn’t say anything, he too seemed restless. They, of course, knew what the light particles thingy were.
As of now, the missile had hit the barrier and broke, starting the absorption process. I then had the flying golem launch another missile for insurance, right before the first one exploded fantastically.
*BOOOOM!*
It blasted all my golem force on the spot together with the elves. Not. When it subsided, it turned out only the companion elf died while protecting the leader with her own flesh. The leader herself wasn’t left uninjured, but it didn’t hinder her to jump backward when she saw my incoming second missile. Moreover, her serious wounds were healing at unbelievable speed as she jumped.
As the missile changed its course to chase her, the seasoned warrior calmly drew an arrow and shot it down. Boom. The explosion was much smaller than the first, the wave only managed to flutter her beautiful silver hair.
Then, the third explosion occurred. This time, it was in the sky. A multi-color lighted arrow had been shot from within the forest and destroyed my sky fighter. It had to be the elf who had gone to the forest earlier.
I gritted my teeth, it was our total lost. As if it wasn’t enough blow already, I watched the female elf leader revived both dead elves on the battlefield; the one who had died protecting her and Hazard’s first victim. Even more, while I was still fixated on her, the other elf from the forest came to check the destroyed SF and found the cores of jet engines from the wreckage, and ate them.
“Master, what’s your order, keek,” Ken broke the silence, pulling me back to reality.
I took a deep breath and sorted my thought.
Now it’s clear. The familiarity I feel this whole time… it can only mean one thing. She’s a dungeon lord.
But, to think a group of dungeon hunters becomes a group of dungeon creatures, it’s just… Was it just my assumption? From the start, was it a different group?
Well, it doesn’t matter.
“We’ll stick to the original plan,” I finally replied. “We’ll welcome them with all of our might here, in our home. However, since we’ll be fighting another dungeon this time, expect it to be different than the usual raids from adventurers,” I added.
The question is, how will it differ? What should I prepare?
Taking a look at the battlefield one more time, it seemed a group of knights had been dispatched from [Jowsar]. Indeed, since the battle took place not too far from the town, all of the explosions had to have attracted their attention. Meanwhile, the elves had long gone from the location, disappeared in the thickness of the forest. Not from my ‘eyes’, though. They were covering the entire forest, after all.
Normally, it would take a whole day without rest to reach here. Even for the elves, it should at least take a half day, right? It’s my time limit then. Let’s… start working on… what?