The Dawn of the New World

The four-legged creature that roughly resembled a charging rhinoceros judging from its body shape tried its best to slow its advance but there wasn't enough time.

The ground in front of its skeletal face cracked and not a moment later a pillar of black flame erupted forth.

*Whooosh*

It shot into the air, bringing with it a temperature that could evaporate iron almost instantly as it did to the creature's face.

If the creature was actually alive it would have probably died or at least received a life-threatening wound from this one attack. With a light pop, the entire left side of its skull had simply vanished without a trace.

It steered its massive 13-meter long body to the side with the help of the threadworms in the hopes of avoiding the pillar but barely a second later, the ground in the direction it was headed to also cracked open.

*Whoosh*

*Whoosh*

*Whoosh*

*Whoosh*

*Whoosh*

In front of Isak in an area of twenty meters, dozens of flame pillars erupted from the ground with much the same lethality. It all happened so quickly that none of the charging creatures had the time to react. They ran headfirst into the flame pillars and got evaporated without even putting up a fight.

This lasted for four seconds after which the pillars retracted back into the ground as if someone had turned off the stove. Isak pulled out his swords that now looked as ordinary as before while panting silently.

The area within 180 degrees in front of him had been scorched black, leaving nothing but a few piles of ashes from some of the larger creatures.

Hao Xuan looked at Isak's heaving back in astonishment. That looked like magic, summoning fire at a moment's notice with so much destructive ability. But it did not come without a cost. He could tell Isak had used up at least half of whatever kind of energy he was using to summon those flame pillars.

He was noticeably weak, both physically and spiritually which was evident from his paler complexion and beads of sweat rolling down his picturesque visage.

"Woah, nice," Hao Xuan mumbled out loud without realizing it.

Burak threw him a pensive glance. Even though he didn't understand what Hao Xuan said exactly, it wasn't hard to tell that it was some sort of a remark expressing his amazement and surprise.

"Tch, pretty but useless in real fight. Burak is much stronger!" he seemingly muttered to himself but it was just loud enough that Hao Xuan could pick up on it. For some reason, his sentence structure also became a lot simpler all of a sudden.

But Hao Xuan pretended not to hear him and kept staring down at the battle.

Each of the barbarians were using some sort of melee weapons to fight against the creatures. They kept a distance of at least 2 meters between themselves and the creatures, focusing all their attention on cutting off the threadworms that were spilling out of the corpses.

Some of the barbarians, barely 2 to 4 out of the total 15 here were using a strange type of attack that caught Hao Xuan's attention. Every now and then they would thrust out their palms and a circular shockwave would be generated that greatly affected the worms.

Even though they would quickly go back to their host bodies, after some time even that slowed down. The creature's movements became lethargic and the worms became sluggish to the point of not even being able to crawl as before after being cut down.

Once they reached this stage Isak stepped forward. He had not attacked after creating the flame pillars and had been using that time to recover his internal energy.

Following his orders, the Barbarians herded the creatures together and Isak created a few black fireballs and fired them into the nest one after another, setting them alight.

High-pitched shrieks came from their mouths, coarsely mimicking human speech asking for help. Cries and shrieks of pain echoed in the valley for a few minutes until the flames died down, leaving mounds of ash in its wake.

From start to finish it had taken roughly half an hour for the fight to conclude. And Hao Xuan was quite impressed by the end of it.

One would think a group of meaty individuals like this that called themselves the "Barbarians" would be more unpredictable and adventurous during battle but these guys were far too reserved and calculating for their own frames.

None of them broke the initial battle formations no matter how outnumbered they were and kept calm until the end.

When it was all over they gathered near the entrance, far away from the pyramid.

Burak reached into his shirt and pulled out a black stone with twinkling dots on it. He stared at it for a few seconds before storing it back inside.

He stood up with a grunt, gathering the attention from everyone below.

"Alright, once you have recovered we will head inside. The vermin have been cleared for now and the next ones won't appear for at least two more days."

"Our goal this time is to find a way into the second section and mark anything new we find. If we come across any of the 'demons' like last time, you are to retreat at once while Isak and I engage it!"