At the highlands between the twin mountains of Lunavond Viscounty, a company of adventurers were gathered behind a makeshift one meter tall wall made from dirt and rocks. A portion of the group were holing up inside the trench right behind the wall while the rest were standing by further back. They all had their weapons at the ready, looking out for any hostiles coming their way. However, the main focus of the group as a whole was the duo of golems coming from ahead of the wall.

The golems were still far away, but they were already within sight thanks to the uphill slope they were coming from. They seemed to notice the presence of the adventurers, and thus they hastened their walking pace, which was the expected behavior of a calamity beast. The fact that they were walking downhill probably helped their pacing as well.

Kurt, the leader of Fledglings team and the appointed overall leader of all adventurers participating in this Infested Area Extermination quest, stood upright between the trench and the group at the back. He had his sight on the advancing golems, trying to determine at what distance the golems would be within the effective range of the ballistas stationed at each end of the ten-meters long wall. Having to shoot uphill reduced their effective range, and that disadvantage could be a deciding factor.

“Sir Kurt.” Gregory, the heavily armored guy who was nearby, called while holding his weapons at the hip. At a glance, it looked like a massive gun which was nearly two meters long. What made it more impressive was the fact that he held one of that gun in each hand, which meant he dual-wielded a pair of massive guns. “I already have a clear shot. Do you want me to engage now?”

Kurt, along with Anna and Leon at his sides, didn’t immediately respond with words. However, their facial expressions subtly told everyone who noticed that they were impressed with the range of Gregory’s gun. Right now the golems were still way outside the effective range of the ballistas, which was among the weapons with the longest range. Seeing the fact that a personal gun, albeit a massive one, had a longer range than a siege weapon, made Kurt wonder about the technology of the foreigners’ homeland.

However, knowing that there was no time to be impressed for too long, Kurt nodded. “Please do so.”

“Roger that.” Gregory said, putting the gun on his right arm forward. “Engaging! Cover your ears!”

BLAM!

With a thunderous sound and fiery blast, Gregory’s gun shot out a projectile at a speed which was not perceivable by normal human eyes.

“Leader. The golem on the left lost its right arm just now.” Anna said while looking forward with her eyes glowing green. “The shot has blown the arm off.”

“Firing the second shot!” Gregory said, putting the other gun forward.

BLAM!

Another thunderous sound occurred, and everyone close enough could feel the massive wind gust resulting from the projectile passing through at inconceivable speed.

“Now its right leg has been blown off. It’s immobilized for now.” Anna said. Kurt himself noticed that the particular golem stopped moving but it was still not dead yet. Meanwhile, the other golem hastened its pace further and would enter the ballista’s range in a minute.

Kurt looked over to Gregory and noticed that both of his guns now had smokes coming out of it. “Are you alright, Gregory?” He asked.

“No worries. Just need a minute to cool down.” Gregory replied. “Did I get the enemy?”

“No, but at least we now know that the core of that golem is not at those parts. And you’ve bought us some time by blowing one of its legs off.” Kurt replied before looking forward and shouting a command. “Ballistas! Prepare to fire!”

Responses to Kurt’s command were immediately heard from both of the ballistas. “Ready to fire!”

“On my mark.” Kurt said, raising his right hand as the second golem came closer. “Aim, and....” He said before a couple seconds of silence which raised the tension felt by every adventurer around. Once he determined that the golem had entered the range of the ballistas, he lowered his raised hand forward and shouted at top of his lungs. “FIRE!”

Thwack!

Both of the ballistas fired their bolts at the same time, aiming towards the approaching golem. Unfortunately, the golem seemed to notice the incoming attack, and thus it made a defensive maneuver by lowering its body and bracing itself with its own left arm. As a result, one bolt hit the golem’s left shoulder while the other missed completely. The bolt that hit exploded on the spot and chipped a significant portion of the golem’s shoulder.

The damage it has taken didn’t faze the golem. In response, it grabbed a rock from the ground and began doing a posture which was obvious to anyone looking. It was going to throw the rock.

“Take cover!” Kurt shouted. Immediately after, all the adventurers around the trench went into it and braced themselves, while some others at the back collectively put up a shield wall. Kurt himself took a tower shield which he had prepared beforehand lying on the ground next to him, so Anna and Leon could take cover behind him.

As expected, the golem threw the rock it picked up at the group of adventurers. The size of the rock was probably twice as big as a human head, large enough to cause lethal damage to anyone taking a direct hit.

Bang! Crash!

A gunshot sound was heard, and the rock shattered midair, reducing it to multiple pebbles which were still harmful to unprotected humans but much less dangerous and practically harmless to prepared adventurers. Seeing this, Kurt looked over to Gregory and saw that the one who had made the shot was Elana, using her own gun.

“I will intercept the rocks they throw at us.” Elana said. “Focus on your strategy.”

“Good work, and thank you.” Kurt said.

The golem threw another rock, and this time the first golem which had reassembled its arm and leg also threw one. The adventurers were already bracing for impact, but Elana intercepted both of the rocks again with her shots. Having probably noticed how fruitless their attempts had been, both golems resumed their advance.

“Archers! Magicians! Attack at will!” Kurt commanded.

Immediately, all adventurers right behind the wall who were capable of ranged attack unleashed everything they had. A barrage of arrows and magic projectiles were shot out in the blink of an eye, aimed at the position of the nearer golem.

Seeing the incoming attack, the golem braced itself by doing a similar posture like before. The brunt of the attack hit the golem’s head, left arm, and left leg. However, despite having been clearly damaged it didn’t seem to be fazed, immediately standing up and resuming its advance after the big barrage was over. Thanks to the defense move which momentarily stopped it in its tracks, the other golem caught up and now they were advancing together again like before.

“Keep firing! Focus on the same golem” Kurt commanded. The attacks continued, but this time in smaller continuous streams instead of one large burst due to the differing abilities of the adventurers on how quickly they could repeat their attacks. The targeted golem once again defended itself with its damaged left side, but this time it did so without stopping its advance, albeit slower. The other golem did the same defense posture but with its right side taking the hits.

“That golem’s core is definitely either at the right side or the center.” Kurt said.

Leon nodded. “And the left side or the center for the other golem, but the head is still possible.”

“Should we take on one, Leader?” Anna asked without taking her eyes off the advancing golems.

“Sir Kurt, I can shoot again.” Gregory said while Kurt was thinking about the next course of action. “Any particular target you want me to shoot?”

Without looking at Gregory, Kurt nodded and replied. “The same golem you shot before. Try to hit its head if possible.”

“Roger that.” Gregory said, moving the gun on his right hand forward. “Firing!”

BLAM!

Gregory’s massive gun fired, creating a wind shockwave and shooting out a shell at a speed no human eyes could normally perceive like before. Within an instant, one of the two golems was explosively beheaded by the shot. However, the now headless golem didn’t stop moving.

“Alright, we can scratch the head off the list for that one now.” Kurt said. “Gregory! Try to hit the center of its torso this time.”

“Roger that.” Gregory said with a grin while moving his left gun forward. “Firing!”

BLAM!

Unfortunately, this time Gregory’s shot didn’t hit the intended target. Instead, it hit the targeted golem’s left arm at the elbow, explosively amputating it. The golem still continued its advance while gradually reassembling its head and arm using dirts and pebbles around it.

“Sorry.” Gregory said as smokes were coming out of his guns once again.

“Don’t sweat it.” Kurt said. “We still got to scratch another part off the list.”

“Okay so..” Anna said. “For that one, the right arm, right leg, and torso.” She said, pointing at the golem still being attacked by adventurers.

“Yup.” Leon said. “And for the other, the left leg, torso, and left shoulder.”

“Let’s proceed according to plan.” Kurt said. “Melee fighters! Prepare to attack the golem on the right! The core is somewhere within the right arm, right leg, or torso! Leave the other golem to my team!” He commanded. “Archers and magicians! Hold your fire now and prepare to support the melee fighters!”

Elana, who was still watching out for incoming thrown rocks, asked Kurt. “What about us?”

“Stay put for the Rock and Iron ones behind.” Kurt replied. “We’ll be counting on you to keep them safe.”

“Acknowledged.” Elana said. “Godspeed.”

“Leave this to us.” Kurt said with a determined smile towards Elana before looking forward. After a couple seconds of silence, Kurt picked up his tower shield and readied his trusty spear right before shouting command loud and clear. “Chaaarge!”

“Oooohh!” The war cry of many adventurers echoed throughout the highland. The melee fighters bravely charged at one golem while Kurt along with Anna and Leon charged at the other golem.

The adventurers and the golems clashed, starting an intense melee combat. Both of the golems were five meters tall, dwarfing any humans trying to challenge them. Their massive weight for being basically lumps of solid rocks made taking any hit from them definitely fatal for humans. That same fact also made them resistant to physical attacks.

However, that was basically it. Their fighting method was basically the same as a human without weapons. Despite being classified as a Platinum tier beast, a sufficiently prepared and coordinated Gold rank adventurer team could take on a rock golem with a good chance of victory.

Kurt flanked the golem his team was targeting and made noises by hitting his tower shield with his spear, along with a shout. “Come at me, you big pile of rocks!”

The golem, which at this time had already regenerated its head and left arm, turned its head towards Kurt and changed its walking direction to him.

“That’s right! Come here and try me!” Kurt said, taunting the golem and leading it away from the other golem which other adventurers were intensely fighting. “Let’s go!” He said to Anna and Leon, quickly glancing at them both.

Smash!

The golem did a ground pound with its right arm, from which Kurt evaded by jumping back while covering himself from the explosive shockwave with his shield. The golem then followed up with a quick left hook coming straight at Kurt.

“No you don’t! Augment: Force!” Anna shouted while simultaneously shooting an arrow at the golem’s left elbow. The arrow flew in an abnormally fast speed and struck the golem’s elbow with a massive force, causing the punch to miss Kurt and instead made the golem hit its own face.

“Don’t forget me!” Leon said as he jumped high and struck the golem’s left shoulder from behind with his sword. At the last second the golem swayed to the right for some reason and fell down to the ground, causing Leon’s attack to miss completely. However, despite having missed his attack, he smirked. Kurt and Anna also cracked similar smirks seeing what had just happened.

“It’s the left shoulder for this one!” Kurt announced loud and clear for everyone within earshot to hear.

In response, someone among the adventurers fighting the other golem shouted. “Not found yet here!”

The golem stood up quickly in contrast to its massive bulky body. Its featureless head seemed to be glaring at Leon, but Kurt quickly moved his right hand in a certain pattern and activated a spell.

“Provoking Presence!” Kurt shouted, and his entire body emitted a dark red aura which instantly made the golem look at him instead. “Come here you pebble!”

The golem immediately walked towards Kurt with its right arm ready to smash at him, but he was already more than prepared to defend. At the same time, Anna reached her right hand out to Leon and cast a spell.

“Augment: Sharpen!” Anna said, and Leon’s short sword began glowing in yellow. Leon then immediately jumped high once again with clear intention to strike the golem’s left shoulder. At the same time, Anna drew her bow and aimed at the same spot. “Augment: Smash!”

Thwack!

Anna’s arrow was shot straight to the golem’s left shoulder at an abnormally fast speed like before. The shot was precise, and the golem had no time to react. The arrow hit the target and chipped away the rocks which had previously been the golem’s left shoulder just a second before, revealing a glowing red orb beneath.

“Ha!” Within the blink of an eye, Leon slashed at the glowing red orb, cleanly splitting it in two. The golem stopped moving, and a couple seconds later its body crumbled to small pieces which could no longer be recognized as a golem. The rock golem has been slain.

“Good work, everyone!” Kurt said to Anna and Leon, and the three did a combined fist bump with smiles on their faces.

However, their celebration was short-lived because soon a loud banging noise was suddenly heard along with screams of people. All the sounds came from the backline, and that turned Kurt’s face grim as he looked towards the direction.

“Oh shit! Go back!” Kurt immediately said upon seeing what he saw.

The backline, where the Rock and Iron rank adventurers were staying put, was being attacked by another golem. To make things worse, this particular golem was not a regular rock golem like the other two. It took the form of a huge snake instead of a humanoid one, and the entirety of its body was pretty much jet-black.

“Tch! Obsidian golem!?” Leon said right before dashing. “This is bad!”

***

At the backline, just a couple minutes in the past, Elana was standing guard near the group of Rock and Iron adventurers who were staying out of the battle against the two rock golems ahead. Lillie and the rest of the Mountain Squad were ahead, standing closer to the line of archers and attack magicians supporting the melee frontliners from right behind the wall. Gregory had put away one of his heavy AP cannons and replaced it with a Tower Shield. Lillie was now equipped with two Blaze Guns while Ulysses was equipped with Blaster Spear and Tower Shield like the time they had fought the rock golem at the mines area.

Without moving from her position, Elana took a quick glance up, seeing the person who had been floating high up there; Sedhoust Grasmord. He was supposedly one of the heroes of the kingdom, yet right now he was just there floating around doing nothing other than watching the adventurers having an intense fight against the rock golems. Kurt’s team of three seemed to be winning against the golem they were fighting, but the bunch of adventurers attacking the other golem seemed to have a hard time despite having significantly more numbers. There were no casualties yet, but it was clear that they had taken hits.

I can understand his point, but I don’t think I can agree with it. Is growth more important than staying alive for this planet’s natives?

Elana didn’t ponder about it any further. She turned around and looked at the bunch of Rock and Iron adventurers, among whom Doctor Kai was sitting cross-legged on the ground with two Crisis Squad members: Randy Christon and Albert Charlemagne, standing by next to him.

Elana let out a silent sigh, noticing that a number of adventurers threw suspicious gazes at Doctor Kai, especially that young boy from before who basically was staring daggers at him. Elana knew that despite what Sedhoust had said, suspicions against Doctor Kai wouldn’t just magically clear up within minutes. Therefore she was prepared to step in and defend Doctor Kai if someone brought it up again.

“Warning. Unnatural vibrations detected underneath.” Suddenly Elana’s nanomachines transmitted a warning message along with some visual graphs projected into her vision. The numbers indicated that the vibration was too small to be noticed naturally by humans, but it seemed to grow over time.

“Commence thorough seismic scan towards the direction of the source.” Elana said.

“Affirmative. Beginning scan procedures. Please stay still and keep both feet on the ground.” The nanom replied.

While the scan was ongoing, Elana called all of her crews around through the nanomachine link. “Mountain Squad, Crisis Squad, Doctor Kai. We may have a situation. Get ready.”

“Roger that, mo- ma’am.” Albert was the first one to respond.

“The vibrations, right?” Lillie said.

“Yes.” Elana replied. “I hope it is just a minor earthquake, but if the nanoms said the vibration is unnatural, it is possibly a monster capable of burrowing.”

“Scan completed.” The nanoms transmitted. “The source is inbound, arriving on the surface in approximately one minute.”

While at it, the nanoms also marked the estimated location of where the source of the vibrations would emerge on the surface. Elana immediately clicked her tongue and gritted her teeth the moment she realized that it was right in the middle of the Rock and Iron adventurer crowd.

Without hesitation, Elana walked towards the spot with hastened pace. Some adventurers who were sitting among each of their own group stared at her when she passed. Once she was right at the exact spot, she pulled out her handgun and aimed it straight up.

BANG!

The loud sound of the gun naturally startled all the adventurers around, and they all immediately looked at her, some stood up with weapons brandished. Nevertheless, now that she had the attention of all the people around, Elana shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Get away from this spot! NOW!”

Unfortunately, nobody seemed to comply. Instead, the people all stared at Elana with suspicion.

“Hey, what’s the big idea there?” One male Iron adventurer asked in an audibly upset tone.

“Tch!” Elana clicked her tongue seeing the negative outcome. “A burrowing monster is coming right here, so get OUT OF THIS SPOT!”

BANG!

Elana shot upwards once more, but there was no sign of immediate compliance to her warning. It was at this point that Elana realized that she had made a mistake in her approach.

Bwoosh!

Suddenly, a strong radial gust of wind occurred around Elana, making her close her eyes and brace herself. A couple seconds later, she opened her eyes and what she immediately saw was the fact that all adventurers around her had been blown at least ten meters away from her, creating an empty circular area with her at the dead center. The adventurers were all seemingly surprised but not hurt.

“Is this what you want?” A familiar voice spoke from above, and right after that Sedhoust landed next to Elana.

Elana quickly composed herself before replying to Sedhoust. “Yes, thank you for the help.”

“Your approach back there was mistaken.” Sedhoust said. “Scaring them off with a gun would have only worked if they were regular citizens.”

“Apologies..” Elana said with her head slightly down.

“Don’t worry. I know you meant well.” Sedhoust said. “But we need to get away from here as well.” He then, without warning, picked Elana up in a princess carry.

“Eh, what?” Elana said in bewilderment as Sedhoust flew away from the center of the empty area and landed right outside of it, putting Elana down just as quickly.

Drrrrd!

Immediately, a significant portion of the empty area crumbled and something came out from the ground. What the people immediately saw was the figure of a giant snake head with glowing yellow eyes and jet-black shiny body. There was no telling how long the rest of its body which was still underground was. One thing for sure, it could swallow a human whole without effort.

“It’s an obsidian golem!” An adventurer shouted, followed by collective screams of all other adventurers within earshot. Within seconds, all who saw the so-called obsidian golem began running away in panic.

BLAM!

A loud sound was heard, and the golem took a hit at the side of its head, which chipped off a notable portion of it. Elana recognized what the sound was, and she immediately looked over to the source.

“Look over here you oversized rock snake!” Gregory shouted as he jumped towards the golem with the thrusters of his exoskeleton suit. While still in the air, he put away his heavy AP cannon and replaced it with a Blaster Spear. Both Lillie and Ulysses followed right behind him, engaging the golem together.

“Sir Sedhoust!” Elana called to Sedhoust next to her, looking at him with a sharp glare. “That thing is more dangerous than the rock golems, isn’t it? I hope you will actually help this time.”

“Yes, that’s my plan.” Sedhoust said. “Less talk, more fight.” He then flew up and approached the snake golem while keeping his distance.

“Captain!” Randy called while hurrying to Elana’s side. Albert and Doctor Kai were right behind him. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. What about you three?” Elana said.

“We’re all unharmed, Captain.” Randy replied. “What are your orders?”

“Remain on standby and treat the wounded if there’s any. Deploy barrier units at your discretion.”

“Affirmative.”

“Doctor Kai.” Elana said, approaching Doctor Kai.

“Yes?” Doctor Kai responded, looking a little confused from the sudden call.

Elana put her right hand on Doctor Kai’s shoulder. “Despite what recently happened, don’t be afraid to save lives.” She put up a determined smile while saying it.

“Well, you don’t need to tell me.” Doctor Kai replied while folding his arms. Elana only had time to respond with a nod before Kurt’s team came over in a hurry.

“Is everybody okay?” Kurt asked.

“The ones running away seem to be fine.” Elana replied while looking around. “Thanks to Sedhoust blowing them away from that area.”

“Great!” Kurt said with a relieved sigh. “We’ll join the fray then.”

“I’m coming too.” Elana said, pulling out her rifle.

Soon, Elana and the Fledglings team dashed towards the spot where Mountain Squad and Sedhoust were fighting against the obsidian golem. The attacks of the golem so far were pretty basic, consisting of only head lunges and bites, all of which had never scored a hit yet because despite their heavy armaments, the members of Mountain Squad were experts in utilizing the thrusters in their suit, making them much more agile that they looked.

“Provoking Presence!” Kurt shouted, and his body radiated a dark red aura. “Look over here, ugly black snake!” He made noises by banging the side of his spear against his shield, and the obsidian golem looked his way as expected. “Attack while it’s distracted on me!”

Without saying a word, Elana along with Leon and Anna dashed away from Kurt. Once she got a clear shot, Elana shot out a barrage of bullets aimed at the golem’s eyes. Some of her shots hit, but none seemed to deal any meaningful damage.

“Augment: Smash!” Anna said before firing an arrow, which hit the golem at its figurative neck and chipped some parts off. Right after, Gregory and Ulysses jumped high towards the head and struck the same part with their Blaster Spears, chipping even more parts off.

“Eat flames!” Lillie shouted right before spouting raging flames with her Blaze Guns from close range at the spot where the golem’s partly-burrowing body came out from the ground.

“No! Stop that!” Leon shouted, noticing what Lillie was doing. He dashed towards Lillie with fear and worry written over his face.

“H-Huh?” Lillie heard Leon’s shout, stopped shooting, and jumped backwards away from the golem. However...

Crackle! Crack!

The part she had been spouting flames at made cracking noises. Within an instant, hot and sharp pieces of the golem flew straight to Lillie at high speed, which was unavoidable for Lillie because she was still in midair.

Bwoosh!

Suddenly a strong downward wind gust occurred, pushing the pieces down and making them hit the ground right in front of Lillie instead of herself. She landed safely right after.

“Lillie! You alright?” Elana asked, hurrying over to Lillie after quickly making sure that the golem was still focused on Kurt despite what happened. Leon was already there when she got there.

“Y-Yeah. I’m fine, Captain.” Lillie replied.

“That was dangerous.” Leon said. “Thankfully Master Sedhoust saved you.”

Elana briefly glanced up, and then she looked at Leon. “Leon, can we talk a bit while others are distracting the golem?”

“If it’s important.” Leon replied, taking a quick glance at the others fighting the golem before looking back at Elana in the eyes.

“What exactly is that? How do we defeat it?”

“Obsidian golem. An advanced automaton calamity beast. Like the rock golem and any other automaton, you defeat it by destroying the core.” Leon replied before letting out a sigh. “However, this one isn’t classified as advanced for nothing.”

“And why is that?”

“It can move its core around. Also, about what happened recently, its body is basically a bunch of glass shards. Exposing it to extreme heat will result in hot and sharp shards flying to you.”

“So we chip its body little by little until the core has nowhere else to move, and then we finish it off. Is that how we defeat it?”

“Not exactly as simple as that, but yes. That’s basically it.”

“Alright, got it.” Elana said before turning her head to Lillie. “You heard him. Switch your armaments at your discretion.”

“Yes, Captain!” Lillie said, switching her Blaze Guns out and replacing them with a Jackhammer and a Tower Shield. She then jumped forward and joined Ulysses and Gregory.

“Anything else?” Leon asked Elana.

“Well,” Elana responded with her arms folded. “Sedhoust doesn’t seem to have done anything outside saving Lillie. Do you know what he might be planning?”

“If you ask me,” Leon replied. “Master Sedhoust is sadly at an elemental disadvantage. Obsidian golem is physically less durable than rock golem, but they have higher magic resistance and striking it with lightning magic is no different than fire, so his options are limited.” Leon let out a minor sigh after saying that.

“Can’t be helped then.” Elana said. “Let’s join the battle.”

Leon nodded. “Let’s go!”

Leon and Elana dashed towards the ongoing battle where the snake-shaped golem was still relentlessly attacking Kurt, who has been skillfully blocking, parrying, or evading the attacks while occasionally sneaking in a counter attack. Anna and the Mountain Squad had a free reign over the golem thanks to Kurt’s provoking magic, and as the result the ground around the location was now littered with black shards chipped off from the golem.

The golem reared its crumbling head, preparing to attack Kurt again. For Elana, this was a chance to make her move.

“Firing an explosive!” Elana shouted right before firing the underslung grenade launcher of her rifle. The distance was short, so the projectile flew straight to the golem’s head and hit it before gravity could make any significant impact on its trajectory.

Boom! Crash!

A violent explosion occurred at the golem’s head, and a number of shards flew all around. The golem’s head was basically mangled now with nearly unrecognizable shape, but its core was definitely still intact somewhere because it was still moving.

After letting out a roar of unintelligible sound, the golem jumped out of the ground it was burrowing from and dived back in. Its body was massively long to the point that by the time its head entered the ground, the tail end of its body still hadn't surfaced yet, which resulted in what looked like a huge flowing arch structure.

“Get behind cover!” Kurt shouted, raising his shield. Anna and Leon immediately went behind Kurt, while all three Mountain Squad members jumped to Elana and raised their shields, covering her and themselves.

One second later, the tail end of the golem finally came out to the surface. Once the tail was at the highest point of the arch it shot out shards in all directions, resulting in a rain of sharp black shards in the area. At the same time, a strong downward wind gust occurred, which was probably Sedhoust’s doing. The wind gust helped in narrowing down the danger zone by hindering the shards from flying far, but also made the zone more dangerous.

“You’re under our cover, Captain!” Lillie said. “Don’t worry! You’re safe!”

“You have my gratitude.” Elana said with a slight smile.

However, when the rain of shards stopped and Elana stood up to look around, she realized that there were little to no shards on the ground around her group. She looked over to Kurt’s group and the same thing applied. Seeing that, Elana wondered if Sedhoust had manipulated the wind in such a meticulous way that the amount of shards falling directly on the groups was minimized.

Nevertheless, Elana looked around again and saw no sign of the obsidian golem’s presence. There were countless black shards of various sizes littered all over, but the calamity beast itself was nowhere to be seen. What made Elana, and probably Mountain Squad too, even more bewildered was the fact that there was no hole on the spot where the golem had either entered or exited. The soil at both spots were visibly disturbed, but they were clearly still solid and sturdy enough for humans to stand on.

“Why is there no hole!?” Lillie asked in her bewilderment. “That golem came out from there and burrowed there, right?” She pointed at the two spots of disturbed ground in sequence.

Everybody soon got their answer from Sedhoust who landed nearby. “Because the way it burrows is not conventional. It telekinetically manipulates the ground around its body to make way for it and close up right behind it, and it does that as naturally as us humans breathing.”

“Like a fish in the water, but the ground is the water.” Elana said.

“Yes, basically. Now, I believe you can somehow locate its position while it is underground. Can you keep doing that?” Sedhoust said.

“Yes, I can.” Elana said, glancing at the projected interface at the corner of her sight. “It is now swimming in circles deep underground with no sign of resurfacing. Approximately 50 meters below.”

“That’s impressive.” Sedhoust said. “Whatever your method of detection is, it can rival Keith’s.”

“You mean Guildmaster Keith?” Lillie asked.

“Yes, of course.” Sedhoust replied with one hand on his hip. “With the help of magic, he feels the vibrations beneath his feet.”

“That is basically what I am doing now.” Elana said. “But with our homeland technology instead of magic.”

“Hmm, as expected.” Sedhoust said, folding his arms. “In any case, as long as the wretched golem is still not resurfacing, we should regroup the adventurers.”

“Yes, you would be correct.” Elana said, turning her head to the group of adventurers at the far distance. It seemed that the other rock golem over there had been slain while Elana and Kurt had been busy fighting the obsidian golem alongside their respective partners. She then made a call through the nanomachine link and spoke. “Randy. How’s your group doing over there?”

“We’re currently helping the healers in treating the injured ones, Captain.” Randy replied. “We’re doing fine enough.”

“Good. Stay alert because that snake golem is still lurking down there. Be prepared to evacuate again at any second.” Elana said.

“Roger that, Captain.” Randy replied, and the call ended.

“Mind you,” Sedhoust said. “While we do have a magic for long distance communication, it is not commonly used. You may look weird in the eyes of common people doing what you just did.”

“Thank you for the warning.” Elana said without looking at Sedhoust. She looked at the interface briefly, and then to Kurt’s team who was already working hard to regroup the scattered Rock and Iron adventurers. After that she folded her arms, lowered her head, and let out a minor sigh with her eyes glaring at the ground below.

This monster is highly dangerous, and Storm Squad isn’t here. Should I pull out the Conflagrator?

Elana briefly considered her options, and ultimately decided against it. There were too many people around, and she didn’t want to risk the collateral damage. But one thing for sure, a difficult battle would resume at any second and she absolutely had to stay vigilant.

***