Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

“What is that?!”

“A new golem?”

“No, the meteor flew horizontally, not straight down. It streaked parallelly through the atmosphere!”

In the distance, elves who were watching the scene from a screen descended into chaos. They simply could not comprehend the bizarre sight, and the command room turned rowdy all at once.

But silence came again as they saw what happened next; was that an elf appearing from the epicenter of the meteor’s impact zone?

No, it wasn’t an elf. The being—whose face was inscrutable—was equipped with armor that appeared elvish, but the markings on it were starkly different. Furthermore, his hair was black, his eyes red and his ears not pointy; he wasn’t an elf though he resembles one.

Amazement, horror, shock and many other expressions interchanged on their faces. Most of them were unable to wrap their heads around all that had happened at once, while the minds of their analysts crashed—they stared emptily at the screen while their minds went blank.

This, what’s all this? What is actually happening?

Outside the command room, Professor Nielsen, who had been applying strengthening spells on every elven warrior defending the wall could distinctly hear the words that echoed through the skies. He stayed frozen on the spot from the sound for a long time.

—That voice just now… it’s the language of the Plain Dwellers! What was he saying? Who was bullying his horse? What horse? Where did it come from?

An infinite number of questions welled into his mind in his instant, confusing him. But soon, the elderly white-haired elf felt relief in his heart.

Volcanic dragons could learn the language of the Pain Dwellers.

According to zoological experts, the volcanic dragons had features that resemble horses.

Volcanic dragons could bond with sentient creatures, and this one obviously was a tamed creature.

And now, as the volcanic dragon battled against the infinite army of golems outside the city, a powerful being, whose voice could stifle thunders, had arrived—and angrily questioned who was bullying his horse…

No further explanation or guessing was needed; though he had despaired earlier but decided to give his best anyway, the professor now exclaimed excitedly, “It’s HIM! He’s here, the master of the volcanic dragon!”

—He finally came, looking for his mount!

The other elves beside him glanced perplexedly at the suddenly-thrilled elderly scholar. Still, it wasn’t time for them to think about such things; they still had important things to do, and many of the elven warriors within the fortress needed their help. Even Nielsen himself—who collected himself after his brief euphoria, started to raise their stats.

Nonetheless, the elderly elf’s troubled expression was washed away—his face was now filled with hope.

If that was indeed the dragon’s master, perhaps… No, definitely!

Meanwhile.

Joshua slowly walked out of the crater caused by his landing. Black pillars of smoke wafted from the depths of the hole where a reddish-gold lava rock resided, spreading a burnt smell from hell.

He quickly entered the fray.

Facing innumerable golems which paused where they stood, the warrior took one step up forward. With his right foot on the ground he unleashed a violent force that surged through and cracked the earth. Each of the rock puppets could not get a foothold due to the tremors; unable to maintain their balance.

Afterwards, a flash of silvery-white light shone in a myriad with the black-red, turning into a luminous belt that was almost invisible to the naked eye. Every golem that stood nearby was split waist-up. The black aura flew out, forming a semi-circle that pushed afar, tearing many of the monsters in two.

It was then that the golems finally reacted and moved to meet their new opponent. The halo in the brain of the silver human silhouette also whirled urgently, ironically intent on another tremendous psychic attack against the monster that was much more horrendous than the half-dragon.

However, both the golem and the Interface could not get a bearing on the warrior’s location. All they could hear was the wind blazing past them, and many of the golems would be blasted into smithereens by the streams of light.

Running at explosive speed, Joshua danced and sliced through the golem army. He would be cutting down the puppet masters at the north one moment and dicing an adamantium golem with his greataxe in the next.

Within seconds the golem ranks were obviously being shaved off. The puppets did not even manage to make out the face of their adversary and were turning towards every corner blindly. They simply could not catch up and was only able to watch as their comrades being cut down by the hundreds.

Even tons of elven artillery could not replicate such glorious results.

At a side, Black, who by now was completely neglected, was also unable to catch Joshua’s shadow. However, that did not matter for the half-dragon, which let out a low grumble in overwhelming emotion.

–Master has arrived!

Joshua’s offensive was akin to a natural disaster on a massive scale, never slowing for anything. The warrior looked inexhaustible as he maintained an assault that would have fatigued any ordinary fighter in seconds.

Just as the Azurite gleamed hazily on his chest, his axe would tear golems’ formation apart, spraying chunks of stone all over the place. It mattered not what class of golem it was either; against Joshua, they were no tougher than chips of rocks on the ground.

Despite fighting in breakneck velocity, the warrior could still sense and make out his enemy’s weakness; a flash from his axe tore off an adamantium golem’s right arm, while the greatsword stabbed into the wound, getting rid of a difficult adversary in a second.

That was not all.

Joshua’s aura turned black as he stayed on the offensive, spreading ripples of murderous fighting spirit to the distance. The mysterious power was even capable of ‘killing’ ordinary and weaker golems; it warded off the magic imbued into the them, breaking the circuits within. Tens of thousands stopped moving instantly in that manner, turning into the pieces of rock once more.

Now, there were two to three golems of the iron classes and above that kept fighting on. But what could they do when they couldn’t even manage to get a glimpse of the fighter’s shadow? All that they were capable of right now was being shredded into chips and corpses by the swinging greataxe and greatsword, the occasional full-power slash wouldn’t grant them that and blow them into dust.

In the air, the silvery silhouette still could not lock on to Joshua’s position.

After countless fruitless attempts, it mustered every ounce of power it had and bombarded the entire battlefield with a psychic disturbance. A prickling noise illusion caught Black and was also hitting Babel with slight aftershocks.

Many elves with weaker spiritual powers quickly fell to the ground and fainted without struggling. Even the half-dragon groaned softly in pain; its brain felt minced and mushy, incapable of thought.

On the other hand, the warrior did not even react. Just as before, he kept massacring the golems, and in seconds numerous adamantium golems and others were chopped into pieces.

The silhouette maintained its psychotic attacks again and again but was met with complete failure on every turn, as if there no effect to be had.

“STOP BOTHERING ME! OR IT’S DEATH!”

While the shadow kept up its invisible assault, a voice that sounded as if it came from the depths of hell rang in its head—bringing with it unending horror and despair.

After taking such a blow, the lights that enveloped the silver silhouette kept flashing before dulling largely. The halo in its head also slowed down—Joshua’s single retaliating thought had utterly crumbled its psychic attacks, blowing it back.

–Bzzt!

The silver silhouette finally appeared to understand something as it kept its gaze on the black flash that was wantonly decimating the ranks of the golems. It issued an order, and every remaining golem in Babel turned instantly and swarmed to the battlefield outside of the town.

Elven warriors who were weathering the spiritual offensive while they fought hard against the abominations were left befuddled, not quite understanding what was going on.

Like a gray tidal wave, endless torrents of golems filed out of the city. They had one target—Joshua’s shadow.

As per their superior’s orders, they removed the loads on their rocky body. Traces of magic lines floated on their gray bodies—it was the power they gained after suppressing their magical circuits. Now, they had up to two or three times their original capabilities, although the price was self-destruction after an hour.

They looked unstoppable as they put everything on the line; the irrepressible torrent of stones was prepared to completely drown the enemy ahead.

A head-on encounter was their choice, and that was why they were going to be wiped out to the last golem.

“How nice of all of you to come–”

The voice from within the red-black aura said blurrily, and Joshua’s turned the air surrounding him into a jet-black aura with little maroon thunderbolts.

In that brief moment the world went dark as if it was a starless night sky—and then a ray of light blazed out, breaking the heavy silence.

His axe and blade moved ceaselessly, shaping up into a storm of blades, accompanied by a shockwave and sharp noise that seemed to go on forever.

The storm moved like a black flash in a straight line that sprayed molten lava along the way. As the aura touched the ground it vaporized everything in its wake, while the black light left no corpses. Those further away were shredded, huge chunks of the rock puppets were churned into powder by violent blows.

In seconds, the world returned to its original state.

There was only a single man left standing in the barren wastelands outside Babel.

Standing atop chips of limbs in the middle of huge molten fires, the shadow wafted ink-black Combat Aura that spread murderous intent in the air. As the black miniature bolts of lightning freed unending malice, it illuminated the face of the man who held the greataxe.

Joshua.

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