Badge in Azure

Chapter 134: The Powers of the Behemoth (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The burning magic on the war puppet did not kill a single insect. It was only Grade 0 magic, and like the Fire Washing spell, its effects were best shown when dispersing toxins or heating up food.

The insects immediately pounced on the body of the puppet and began chewing on it, their razor-sharp teeth biting through the puppet's armor. The war puppet waved its sword around and started bashing them randomly with its shield, each strike killing dozens of insects. However, there had been at least hundreds of thousands of insects near the puddle, and it did not take long before an entire layer of armor had been gnawed off of the war puppet.

The burning magic stopped the corrosive toxins of the insects but could not stop the attacks from their teeth.

Amid the clanking sounds, a small square hole appeared in the chest of the war puppet, and from this hole a thick smoke began to spray out. The red insects that were sprayed fell to the ground. This smoke was poisonous and quickly killed thousands of insects.

Lex did not dare call back the war puppet, and once the smoke had been used up, the puppet's four legs were revealed to be in the puddle. More red insects pounced onto the puppet's body. By the time it crossed the puddle, the entire layer of metal armor had been chewed off from it, revealing the white, gel-like material within the armor.

This gel-like material was the muscle of the war puppet and served to reduce the impacts upon it as well. Even if its armor was dealt a huge impact, it would not cause any damage to the puppet's internal structure. Lex was prepared to abandon this puppet and only had it continue pushing forward, crossing the puddle. There was a lush patch of forest ground ahead and the war puppet carried the red insects on its body with it as it ran towards it.

So long as the core of the puppet was not destroyed, it would be able to continue fighting. The puppet continued rubbing its body on the branches and leaves of trees, intentionally running into them. Even though most of the red insects on its body had been crushed, even after it had squeezed its way deep into the forest, hundreds of red insects were still gnawing at its muscles.

The bones were showing on many parts of the bottom half of the puppet. These bones were the bones of the Grade 4 magic beasts that had been processed and were tougher than metal. As the number of red insects was reduced, the war puppet did not stop hacking at its body viciously as though it had gone crazy.

Lex was slightly taken aback. The war puppet had not been eaten away completely by the insects, and only its armor had been eaten away. If it was met with another enemy, its defensive abilities might have been reduced to less than half of their original amount, but it still had its offensive abilities.

The red insects seemed reluctant to be too far away from the puddle and allowed the puppet to move a distance away. No other insects attempted to attack it.

Lex was even more careful now. If she lost all thirteen war puppets, the team would be directly exposed to all the dangers in the forest. The puppet which had been attacked had helped drive away all of the red insects and took a long way around to regroup with the other two puppets. Lex lowered their speed and kept the distance between two puppets under one hundred meters.

"There is a magic beast following behind us." At the back of the team, Saleen became aware of their situation and lowered his voice as he reminded Lex.

"Master, they do not intend to attack," Nailisi said softly. She was not as nervous as the others. Dozens of magic beasts were following the team from the back, and they were those that had survived despite attacking the camp. Their leader had died and they had given up attacking the camp, instead slowly dispersing and retreating into the forest.

The dozens of magic beasts followed behind Lex's team from afar, patiently remaining at a distance of over five hundred meters. Saleen was not Lex and could not observe what was happening through a puppet. He instructed a puppet to turn around and stopped it. The magic beast following behind them stopped as well, and laid on the ground.

A war puppet certainly could not fight against a dozen magic beasts, and even though Saleen could not see exactly what was happening, he was able to recognize this difference in strength. Since his advancement, his senses had become equivalent to those of a grand mage. Seeing how the magic beasts were not attacking the puppet in the back, Saleen could only trust Nailisi and had the puppet continue with the team.

As the puppet in the back moved, the magic beasts moved along with it, staying about five hundred meters away.

The team's speed had dropped to roughly five kilometers an hour and Lex transferred the war puppet that was nearly destroyed to the front, leaving it in charge of clearing the way. It was fortunate that the road ahead was smooth and did not have many fallen leaves. They did not have a hard time walking and were able to preserve their physical strength.

After travelling for a few kilometers, the plants within the forest became less dense and there were even some clearings to be found. As they lifted their heads, they could now see the grey skies of god's hell.

"It's been a while since we have seen anything. Something is wrong," Sika began muttering to herself. From her experience, she knew that this could mean there was something around here that did not like to be disturbed, and it was strong.

Powerful magic beasts had different ideas of territory compared to low-grade magic beasts. They did not like to have much interaction with other magic beasts of the same type. The team had already advanced deep into the forest. By this point, they should have come across many magic beasts.

Even though Lex did not often leave her home, she was a mage and knew a lot about magic beasts from books. Hearing Sika's words, Lex grew a little unsettled as well. Just as she was about to stop and alter their course of movement, a loud growling sound emitted from the air in front of them.

Boom! Crack!

There was the sound of an enormous impact accompanied with the sound of breaking branches and the growl of a magic beast. A massive magic beast appeared in front of the war puppet that had been clearing the way. Its head alone was over three meters tall, and it had four eyes arranged in a trapezoidal formation. It had knocked aside a row of trees and was directly in front of the puppet. As it swiped its claw, the war puppet raised its shield to block.

With a swooshing sound, the war puppet was flung into the air by the giant claw and crashed directly into a tree, its entire body being embedded into it. The armor of this puppet had been entirely stripped away by the insects earlier, and with this swipe, the bone structure of the puppet was broken. Only now did the behemoth show its true colors as it dashed directly towards Lex and the others.

Despite posessing superhuman strength, seeing the beast charging from afar, Sika did not dare step forward and try to defend against its attack.

The three war puppets came forward under the control of Lex and took the spears from their backs, throwing them with all their might. With a splash, the three spears pierced right into the behemoth's body. The puppets had thrown the spears with a great deal of strength, and it was enough to even pierce through rock. However, the scales on the behemoth's body had shifted, and the spears had pierced barely half an inch in before they had stopped.

The behemoth was shocked and started growling angrily. Its tail, which was over ten meters long, lashed forward, and one of the war puppets did not have the time to dodge before it was struck by it. The puppet was chopped into two halves. The sharp blades on the beats's tail were prominent and were even sharper than the curved knives of the puppets.

Sika had been at the back of the team, and yet she was the first to attack. She threw her boomerang out in an attempt to gouge out the behemoth's eyes. It opened its mouth, and with a curl of its tongue, it swallowed Sika's boomerang whole.

Sika's boomerang was unusually sharp, but swallowing it down seemed to have no effect on the beast whatsoever. It cocked its large head and growled proudly, almost as though it were showing off to Lex and the others.

They were barely more than ten meters apart from each other. Lex immediately released a Windspeed spell onto everyone.

"Don't confront it!"

Even without Lex's words, no one would have dared to fight it head on anyways. In front of this behemoth, humans were as weak as ants. One stomp of the beast's claws was enough to turn Baimeng into mincemeat. So what if one had trained their sword aura? Could it overcome the pressure that came from hundreds of tons of weight? A tree as thick as two to three humans had easily been felled by an impact from the huge beast, and the processed bone structure of the war puppet had also been destroyed in a single flick. There would only be one result if they confronted it. The behemoth would be like a meteor, destroying everything that stood in its way.

Lex flew up and stood on top of a giant tree. She had decided that this tree was sturdy enough, being wider than the behemoth by a few times and making it more likely to be able to withstand any force from the beast. Being able to release magic from high ground was an advantage of mages, and those on the ground had to find ways to avoid it.

Holzer and Baimeng took out their swords and jumped, finding branches from a tall tree to stand on. These jumps from them had at least been over ten meters, and they had been counting on the fact that since this beast had such scary defenses, it would not be able to release any long-range magic. Otherwise, they would be most vulnerable when they jumped.

An extra layer of mist appeared around the surface of Saleen's body, and with the activation of the water shield, a giant bubble enclosed him entirely. His movements became quicker and with a burst of energy from beneath his feet, he jumped straight up and landed high up in the tree. At this height, even if the giant tree was damaged, it would not hurt Saleen.

Sika gave up on attacking and escaped to the side. She was no match for the behemoth at all and did not know any magic, rendering her useless at this point in time.

Nailisi had disappeared. No one had any idea when she had fled the scene, but Saleen could feel vaguely sense that she was approaching the behemoth even though he could not pinpoint her location.

Boom!

The behemoth lowered its head and struck the tree that Baimeng was hiding on. Baimeng was horrified as the behemoth's tongue curled towards him and he unconsciously used the end of his sword to help him escape. However, the behemoth released a nauseating smell at that moment, causing Baimeng's body to go soft and dissipating his sword aura. He let go of his sword as he fell straight towards the ground.

Lex could see everything clearly from the tree, and seeing that the beast was about to stomp on Baimeng with its claw, she could not care less about harming the wrong targets on accident as she released a Grade 6 scroll. An eight-meter long red fire serpent appeared from thin air and wrapped itself around the behemoth's neck. If it had been on another creature, the fire serpent would have been long enough to wrap around its opponent many times.

This behemoth had a neck that was horrifyingly thick and the fire serpent could not wrap itself around the neck whatsoever. Moreover, the beast was unbelievably tall and as the Grade 6 fire serpent burned its scales with a sizzling sound, the scales on the beast's neck only turned a shade darker.

The sword aura within Baimeng's body surged and he coughed out the nauseating gas. The behemoth's claw was already stomping down and he had no time to dodge. In that moment of life and death, Baimeng instantly released all of the energy inside of him and a silver dagger appeared in his hands. The sword aura from the dagger shot out upwards viciously and in this moment, he had activated all of his life energy, jumping two grades and releasing an attack equivalent to that of a bronze grand swordmaster.

Swoosh!

As the behemoth's claw landed, Baimeng's sword aura was shattered completely and blood and flesh spewed out everywhere from the gaps between the claws of the beast. With a single stomp, it had killed a swordsman who had just become a bronze grand swordmaster.