Chapter 101: Ancient Spaceship and the Fox Cub

Taking advantage of the moment when the golems had fallen back, Shirley raised her voice in chant. Between her uplifted hands, a vast snowball howled and whirled, twisting above her head into the shape of an abstract giant serpent that roared with solemn majesty.

“Summoning: Icebound King Serpent,” Shirley murmured. “Breath of snow and dust, freezing all things in place—praise be to you... King of Snow!”

The serpent opened its enormous maw, revealing a white, gleaming mouth and a long, sinuous blue tongue. Coiling tight, it suddenly snapped straight.

Like a colossal dragon lance, it plunged downward. With a deafening crash of splintering ice, it shattered into countless shards that swept four obsidian golems up toward the cave ceiling, slammed them hard against it, and hurled them back to the ground with a thunderous impact that shook the earth.

The golems that were not caught in the ice dragon’s sweep fared no better. The immense overflowing snow-and-ice magic disrupted the flow of their own power, and the frost giant, unaffected by it at all, simply extended its long arms, seized them one by one, and smashed them into the floor.

Shirley let out a soft cry, clutching her chest as she stepped back, then collapsed bonelessly to the ground. Honey hurried over and stuffed a blue candy into her mouth.

“A high-grade mental recovery potion,” Venigo explained when Shirley looked up. “Honestly, if I fed it to you myself, it would work better.”

Shirley swallowed the candy, clicked her tongue, and gave Venigo a glare.

One of the obsidian golems suddenly sprang up from the ground and lunged at Venigo. He did not even lower his head, as though he had not seen it at all. But in midair, the big cat leaped, clamping its jaws around the golem’s waist and slamming it headfirst into the earth with brutal force.

“Nice work. I’ll get you fish tonight,” Venigo said.

The big cat, just like Shirley, rolled its eyes and casually trotted over to Honey, flopping down into a furry ball beside her.

“This section looks safe enough. Let’s speed up, everyone,” Venigo said, glancing deeper into the ruins. “We still haven’t reached the real body of the site yet. As for these fragments... Sophie, give us a hand and sweep them aside. We can collect them when we come back.”

After walking a long time through the narrow passage, Venigo and the others finally reached the true core of the ruins.

“This is... a crashed spaceship?” Venigo thought. Calmly gazing at the giant shattered metal monstrosity before him, he could not help feeling awed.

No one knew how many years it had slept there. Yet lights were still flashing clearly across its surface. It seemed its power core was still active, maintaining some extremely low-consumption mode of operation.

“I suspect there’s still something moving in...” Venigo had barely spoken before several flying things shot suddenly out of the massive wreckage, sweeping toward them with long, whiplike tendrils.

These things were clearly from an entirely different system than the obsidian golems outside. The golems leaned toward magic, while this was unmistakably packed with the flavor of science.

Even so, this technology was different from the kind of electronic machinery Venigo knew; it should be some science fused with magical principles. It reminded him of the Kreegans. They were experts at plundering resources and technologies from every plane and every world, pursuing a path of development that absorbed everything and rejected nothing.

Venigo drew and loosed an arrow in one smooth motion. With a faint clink, the shaft was easily deflected by the tendril.

The Shak ranger had no skill in reinforcing arrows, and his own strength did not lie in attack power. Seeing that he had little to contribute, Venigo shook his head and stepped back.

Sophie was the real main force.

She stepped forward, and the Arena Blade hummed with a sharp vibration, as though it had become excited.

The sword flashed like lightning. Though heavy, the Arena Blade felt light as a dinner knife in Sophie’s hands. Its dull edge sliced through the air, yet the sheer cutting force was still enough to sever the mechanical octopus’s tentacles with ease.

One slash rose into an upward cut, and amid scattering sparks, one octopus was split clean in two.

Sophie lowered her body slightly, as if shrinking into herself, then suddenly exploded upward like a spring packed with force, soaring high into the air. Her sword light carved a huge J in midair.

Beneath that light, two mechanical octopuses were instantly reduced to fragments.

At that moment the little wolf princess and the big cat also charged out. One dog and one cat extended their claws and crossed paths in the air, carving a massive X. Working together, they fully unleashed their terrifying attack power and exceptional speed, destroying their enemies even more efficiently than Sophie.

“Looks like I’m the only one not pulling my weight,” Venigo sighed.

“And me,” little Honey said, blinking. “Those things don’t seem affected by mind miracles, do they?”

Venigo gave a low sound of assent, then sighed again. “Honey, why is it you just can’t learn the body sect’s miracles?”

“I don’t know,” Honey said, shaking her head. Her golden hair swayed wildly with the motion.

“What a pity,” Venigo said with another sigh. “Still, it doesn’t matter. We’re a purely fast-strike team anyway, so healing doesn’t play that big a role. Potions are expensive, but we can manage.”

“Mm-hm, mm-hm,” Honey nodded, though she clearly did not really understand.

“Now that Shirley’s with us, she’ll handle high-intensity spell attacks,” Venigo said. “Sophie, as our knight, will be the backbone of the team. Little Wolf Princess and the big cat are excellent scouts and killers. Honey, you control the pace of the entire battlefield. As for me... I’ll fill in whatever’s missing.”

“Then you can do the healing,” Honey said offhandedly.

“I can heal... but I really don’t want to be the party nurse!” Venigo grumbled.

While they were talking, Shirley had closed her eyes and fallen into meditation, hoping to use the potion’s aid to restore her magic quickly. She suddenly opened her eyes and looked around.

“What is it?” Venigo asked in confusion.

“An assassin,” Shirley said shortly.

“Which personality was that again? The one good with daggers?” Venigo asked Honey. “Can you get used to her?”

“Shirley is amazing!” Honey said, her eyes shining.

Shirley’s arm moved lightly, and two thin sheets of ice formed rapidly in her hands. With a hidden, swift motion, she shot them out.

Clink, clink. From the shadow behind Honey, a creature entirely black, its shape seeming to shift at every moment, sprang out with two ice daggers embedded in its body.

“Shadowstep swift dragon. That kind of wound shouldn’t be fatal to it. Be careful,” Venigo warned. “Honey, stun it.”

Honey gave an “oh” and unleashed the mind miracle she was best at. Mental shock fell soundlessly upon the shadowstep swift dragon’s head.

The ever-changing lizard seemed to tilt its head, then pounced at Shirley as if nothing had happened.

Shirley moved with lightning speed, and in an instant she had circled behind the shadowstep swift dragon. Spreading both hands, she loosed six ice daggers in rapid succession.

“Stun!” Honey’s attention was wholly focused as she kept casting her miracle on the monster’s head. If it failed once or twice, it would succeed eventually.

When Honey finally succeeded, the shadowstep swift dragon immediately shook its head and froze in place. Only then did its outline become less blurred, allowing its true form to be seen clearly.

Slender, long, powerful. A wide mouth packed with long, blade-like white teeth. This creature was born with an exceptional ability to hide in shadows, and its favorite method of combat was to spring from an enemy’s shadow and use those sharp teeth to bite through its throat.

“I want its teeth,” Venigo said, drawing and loosing an arrow that, with complete sincerity, struck the beast in the chest.

At that range, the pulley bow’s tremendous draw sent the specially made long steel arrow through with excellent penetrating force, splashing blood across the shadowstep swift dragon’s chest.

“Ice daggers don’t have enough killing power. Give it something bigger,” Venigo said.

Shirley’s gaze changed. She lifted both hands high, then slashed them downward. At once, a radiant giant sword appeared in the air, plunging straight down into the shadowstep swift dragon’s back and piercing the monster through before it could evade.

The shadowstep swift dragon’s life force was extraordinarily strong, but after Shirley had grievously wounded it, there was no chance for escape.

As it was pinned to the ground by the ice sword, Honey had already begun preparing. Six successive light-arrow miracles struck the shadowstep swift dragon’s head, chest, and limbs. Clearly, miracles of light dealt extraordinary damage to a monster from a shadow realm; the wounds showed obvious effects, as though corroded by strong acid.

“Go die, damn you!” Shirley roared, swinging both hands. Another massive icebound sword appeared in her grip, and she hacked madly into the shadowstep swift dragon again and again, striking repeatedly at the same point on its neck. Like chopping firewood, she actually forced its neck clean through.

So brutal.

Venigo stepped forward and knocked each of the creature’s long teeth loose one by one, putting them into his bag. Then he raised his head to look toward the spaceship wreckage. Sophie, covering the little wolf princess and the big cat, had already reached the entrance. At their feet lay roughly twenty mechanical octopus carcasses. Clearly, those three were no less destructive than Shirley.

Venigo had been right: his team excelled in sheer offensive power. As for defense and endurance, they were merely average.

“There’s a breach here. We’ll enter through this opening,” Venigo said. “Oh, the interior here probably has no traps left. Wait while I change clothes.”

To “change clothes” meant to dismiss the current build and reconstruct a new one. Venigo had always prepared thoroughly, and Raman, because of his enormous size, could carry a very generous pack capacity. Bringing seven or eight sets of equipment for different possible situations was easy enough.

As Venigo moved, Raman cheerfully swam out of the void, rubbed affectionately against him, and, just as expected, knocked him flat on the ground again.

Venigo was too lazy to say anything about it anymore.