The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

As time was limited, plus the purpose of this sortie was not to study the organizational structure of the corrupted army, so Hao Ren was not able to allocate more time to study those ‘summoning platforms’, but he managed to surmise the amount of these platforms along the equator based on the situation at the bottom of the canyon. Not surprisingly, the numbers were shockingly massive.

While unable to compare with the scale of the ‘mechanical apocalypse’ of the droid swarms across the universe, the rate of these corrupted monsters creating their troops was terrifying. Their tainted army was like an unassailable wave of despair before any mortal armies, and it was little wonder that Salaman and his guardian defenders were slowly being beaten back in this thousand-year war, and was reduced to relying on Agodal’s doomsday weapon and the core’s powerful shields to survive. Even that, if not for the Apocalypse Torrent to turn the tide of battle, and the remaining defensive power of the core itself, the defenders would have been destroyed a long time ago.

“Those brain monsters… they are linked to the summoning platforms, so they are also the commanders of the army as well?” Vivian wondered.

“More like they are the initiator of the summoning rites from what I see,” Y’zaks had a different opinion. “Those platforms are for collecting and amplifying the energies to empower the summoning rituals. I am a demon myself and I’m quite sensitive to the aura released by these rituals.

Y’lisabet then used her tiny horn to prod her dad on the leg, “Papa, this place is so different from ours your experience might not be all that useful you know.”

Y’zaks, his point sabotaged by his own daughter looked a little awkward before he continued, “Well, that’s just an idea, you can just see it as a reference.”

“I too think that those brain monsters are simply the initiators of the ritual,” Hao Ren supported Y’zaks’ idea, “Remember that brain monster we saw in the s earlier? If a part of the brain monsters is in charge of commands, then the one back there was more like a commander.”

Vivian turned to Hao Ren, “Based on?”

“I noticed the room had some display equipment, and on the display was the situation with the droid swarm in space,” Hao Ren explained. “Compared with those platforms at the bottom of the canyon, that room looked more like a command center.”

“Regardless of how these monsters replenish their numbers, that have little to do with our mission.” the MDT floated as it displayed a route map; from the land above the rift to beneath, the parts with missing information had been updated with new information, while a short red line was leading the crew towards an exit not too far from the platform. “Based on my calculation, we should go out from there, and from there we will enter the system again and will be on the right path again, after that we will be able to reach the container zone of Amantir’s crystal.”

Following the MDT’s guide, Hao Ren’s eyes were fixed on the cliff wall as he moved slowly and soon he saw that exit on the holographic display: It was diagonally beneath the platform that they were standing, about five hundred meters away, and was a pretty unremarkable platform itself.

And between these two platforms, there was only a precipice, and there was no place to land at all.

Jumping five hundred meters across the precipice was not a problem for anyone here, but the fact that this precipice was without any obstacles was a problem in itself, this was longer an unsupervised and unguarded conduit pipeline, but a vast outdoor space. There were newborn tainted beings flying out of the canyon every moment, and there were monsters and corrupted giants patrolling the canyon above, jumping over just like that bore a high risk of being discovered.

Yet, there were no other paths to take, the MDT’s radar had already run a scan of the local topography and there were no other usable pathways.

“Seems like we can only go from here.” After observing the movement pattern of the corrupted monsters, Hao Ren came to a decision. “The new monsters will fly up every three minutes, and the airborne patrol will have a short time-lag between rounds, plus Vivian’s Night Veil, if we are careful we should not be discovered.”

Considering that the dimensional fluctuations created by teleportation can be easily detected, the MDT’s teleportation ability could not be used, so was Nangong Sanba’s natural ability as a demon hunter, so every one of them had to find a way to make the five hundred meter leap, the lucky thing was that the platform was diagonally opposite of them, that reduced the difficult by somewhat.

Vivian first refreshed the duration of the Night Veil on everyone before dispersing into a swarm of bats and easily crossing that totally ‘insignificant’ distance. Next was Lily, she basically just leap over without even needing to do an approach run…

Rollie followed soon after and the catgirl nimbly ran along the cliff face to the opposite side as if she was on flat ground. Nangong Sanba, after being spun around a dozen times was successfully tossed by his sister to the opposite side while Wuyue liquefied herself and seeped through the cracks within the rocks before appearing on the other side…

Those buggers sure had their way of doing things and that amazed Hao Ren.

One by one, the team had managed to clear the gap, and Hao Ren was the second last to reach the opposite platform: He too had leap over like Lily, but needed a ten stride approach.

The last of them was Y’zaks, Hao Ren nervously monitored the movements of the patrolling monsters and was counting in his heart the time to the next wave of monsters. Only when he heard the loud thud of Y’zaks landing that he let out a sigh of relief.

The timing was just right.

“We made it.” Lily’s bristled fur on her ears had softened again, she was saying it with much relief. While Vivian’s Night Veil was a potent tool, it could only hide one’s aura and provide a partial visual obscuration, but if they were to run into the monsters at a close distance, it would not help. “Quickly! The gate is opened and there’s no on….”

As she said she looked about cautiously, and just as she turned her head towards the direction of the canyon, a red, bloated brain with at least a dozen tentacles suddenly appeared from beneath the platform!

A brain monster was almost face-to-face with Lily. The distance between them was a mere three meters.

The werehusky’s tail bristled immediately and her voice even changed as she panicked! “Mr. Landlord! The brain monster!”

Everyone on the platform by then had also noticed the floating brain monster and Hao Ren felt his nerves stiffen, but his experience from facing such emergencies had him re-actively pulled out his inspector’s pistol, trained his sights and fired without much thought.

The monster seemed to also be startled by the scene before it, and its floating tentacles were even sluggish, but as Hao Ren drew his weapon, the monster reacted with supernatural speed, and blinked away just before Hao Ren pulled the trigger and dashed towards everyone on the platform!”

“Take it down, quick!” Y’zaks rumbled as scorching glow formed in his fist as he charged forward like a humanoid battle tank, following behind was Nangong Sanba who let loose a holy silver bolt, as Vivian’s thunderbolt and Y’lisabet’s Felfire Pyroclasm blasted out. The myriad attacks blocked all escape avenues of the brain monster and the platform was engulfed by a heatwave from the explosive energies.

“Watch out for its tentacles! They can cut through space!” Hao Ren recalled the first encounter he had with the brain monsters back in Holletta, and as he attacked he warned the inexperienced Rollie, “Vivian, watch the dimension around the platform, don’t let it escape!”

The brain monster seemed to have underestimated the intruders who had appeared out of nowhere, or perhaps it did not even know who these unknown intruders of the holy grounds were, and after engaging in combat it quickly fell into a disadvantage. Being surrounded and pummeled ceaselessly by this group of mortal beings enraged the ancient and powerful monster, it let out a piercing roar and immediately everyone around it started feeling dizzy.

As the dizziness struck, all sorts of negative emotions and hallucinations swarmed in as well.

These were the brain monster’s most difficult ability to defend against—mental attacks!

However, Hao Ren was prepared for this. His mind had already undergone Raven 12345’s special strengthening regime and had also fended off Lockmarton’s Nightmare assault, so the brain monster’s mind shock only dazed him for a little. Clenching his teeth he refocused himself and took another shot at the monster the moment it had completed its attack.

This time, the monster could not evade the shot.

A bright blue beam struck one of the bloated cysts on its surface and massive crystals started forming from the cyst throughout the monster’s entire body. It was no longer able to maintain its levitation, and after a furious shriek, it held uncontrollably to the ground.

At the very same moment, Hao Ren saw a semi-translucent ripple spreading from the monster’s tentacles, and he realized what these ripples were and froze: They were going to be exposed!

Yet, before he could act, the ripples seemed to have run into an invisible barrier and become a garbled mess in the air before dispersing.

Hao Ren was stunned but he did not have the luxury to think further as he felt something powerful snagging him from behind: Lily had grabbed him by the arm as she dashed towards the gate. “Hot potato; to the hills!”

Everyone made their way into the new ventilation pipeline, and after they were sure that they were quite some distance way only did they stop.

Hiding behind a bend, Lily poked her head out to check the direction that they had come from and after a few deep breaths only did she calmed down. “Huh… huh… Looks like no one followed us.”

“That was scary!” Nangong Wuyue lay on the ground like a dried fish, “I thought we were discovered and doomed earlier!”

“Did you saw what happened there?” Hao Ren asked Vivian, “The brain monster was trying to let out a signal…”

“But it was intercepted.” Vivian nodded, “I saw it too.”

“What was that?” Hao Ren frowned.

Y’zaks too had seen that scene and was curious about it himself. “I’m not sure, but there was clearly a type of energy field and… it is a different kind of energy field than the monsters.”

The three then looked at each other, with Hao Ren murmuring, “There’s another force on this planet aside from us?”