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Chapter 013: Teleported Again

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[Lapis Lazulis, sir. Three of them!]

S-Ranked Monsters are very territorial creatures.

Because they are so big and they are so strong, it can be considered that within a certain region, just one S-Ranked Monster is already plenty enough.

Yet three of them at the same time, and they even looked like they were allies...? This doesn't sound something natural at all.

Since Siva was already aware of where he was in just a single glance, there was no stopping him on recalling the very thing that he both dreaded and also needed in this place.

"These monsters are that one's soldiers."

[An Elemental Dragon, sir?]

"Yes."

Of course, Cortana had already read his mind.

"To be precise, it's the highest and noblest kind of Elemental Dragon possible... a Vajra!"

Within the echelon of the Eight Elements, there is the highest element in the rankings.

Lightning...

It can rend the Lands, cancel flowing Waters, split the Wind, create true Fire, nullify Poisons, melt the Metals, and destroy Nature.

In terms of energy, Lightning is maybe the purest form of Mana next to the Mana Stone and Crystals.

Since the Dragons are already the highest and the strongest "forms" of existences next to the Gods, if a Dragon had absorbed an essence of Lightning and became an Elemental Dragon of Lightning, a Vajra, then it can be said that amongst Dragons, it was of the highest existence as well.

It was no wonder it can enslave S-Rank Monsters.

"The entire Anazon Forest is already its territory. A foreign individual like me suddenly appearing like that is greatly considered a trespassing!"

[Sir, it seems that you're the only one that's been teleported to this place. Not one Liberty Drone or BM-Puppet was included in the transfer.]

Siva clicked his tongue.

He didn't even get the time to gather his wits and think over what had happened in Alexandria before he was forcefully teleported to this place again.

"Gabriel must really hate me a lot. He didn't dare to kill me because of Janus but he still wanted to make it hard on me."

[Contact in twenty seconds sir.]

'There are still Liberty Drones being made in the Task Palette so it's not an issue. And all the BM-Puppets have basic defensive protocols on their memory cores. They should be standing by with the Liberty Drones in midair once they lost contact with me.'

[I've also sent a command to standby just before I escaped outside of the game, earlier, sir.]

Siva was secretly glad that he had given Cortana a slight heads up of eventual things and told her of what she should do when those things happen. Of course.... Cortana already read his mind.

[Fifteen seconds to contact.]

'Up! Let's check for directions first.'

With a single jump, Siva pierced through the thick canopy of the trees and hovered 30m above the tree line. He saw the dusky sky of the twilight hour and the Sky Wyverns and other flying monsters in the air, constantly looking down at the forest for an eventual dinner to mistakenly jump too highly.

A few sharp-eyed ones spotted Siva and although he was too small for their needs, he was still food and picky eaters won't survive in the kind of place such as Anazon Forest.

With a sharp screech followed by the sound of the wind splitting from a dive, a Sky Wyvern went on for a killing dive.

Siva noticed the monster and turned to look at the three Lapis Lazuli closing in on him. after recording his direction, he flew towards the West to escape the forest as soon as possible.

The Sky Wyvern was fast but those three Lapis Lazulis aren't that much slower.

Following after him, although he wasn't caught considering the improvement to his speed from a mere Flight Armor from last time, it was still a fact that these monsters are not only big but every flap of their wings propels them a huge distance —with the Sky Wyvern being used to tireless hunts that solely relied on speed.

After charging the BMA and focusing all his Energy Reserves to speed functionality, Siva maintained his distance and continuously flew West.

But then, [Multiple hostiles detected!]

His vision was filled with the entirety of the forest but with the help of the BMA's Absolute Domain's [scan], red silhouettes of an entire horde of monsters appeared on his vision beneath the cover of the trees' leaves and branches.

[543 bio signatures detected. Energy Levels reads them to be C-Ranked Monsters... they're Herons!]

The lower the ranking of the monster, the more likely they herd. But of all the herding monsters, the "Herons" are a bit special.

Because they are large monsters that can grow up to a size of 10 meters in height, once they herd and stick together, their overall might was even enough to make ten or so S-Ranked Lapis Lazulis to cower in fear and not invade their territory.

And just now, there are at least 500+ of them in a single herd...... and they have already discovered his presence.

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...!!!

GRAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

GRAAAAAAA..!!

GRAAAAAAA....... GRAAAAAAAWRR......!!

One after another, the Herons —the T-Rex looking monsters with thick legs and crocodile backs— all roared simultaneously, deterring the monsters that are following behind Siva, before they themselves launched towards his direction... and even to the Lapis Lazulis at the far back.

With their thick legs, they ran at full speeds, only taking a few seconds before reaching Siva who had switched directions to the Southwest to avoid them... to no avail.

[You're surrounded.]

"Thanks for pointing the obvious." Siva voiced his mind and looked around him... and above. If he chose to fly upwards, he can only go up to 450m or so since he doesn't have a Liberty Drone yet.

But then again, if he went higher than his current height, it wasn't impossible to invite more trouble to his direction because the Sky Wyverns will never allow a food to escape their mouths unless it was really a useless hunt for them.

What more, would they really, if fever? There are 500+ Herons here and there are also tens of them above there... adding in the Lapis Lazulis at the far back, even if they're the Dragon's soldiers, these are still foods so it wasn't hard to get an answer.

"Then I fight."

Siva had no choice so summoned what's left of his blades and was stunned.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BLADES?!!"

[It seems they were destroyed, sir, or are still left in Alexandria... in Billion's office..... or they could have been destroyed by the Hell Fire... or stolen by Gabriel... or.....]

"Okay, just stop right there. I'm feeling worse."

Siva felt his heart clench. When he blacked out, he didn't even get to summon back his blades. There was only a meager 50 of them left with him... even the 'parts' he had used to lock the other guy were included on the ones he didn't manage to recover.

"I just hope they aren't destroyed. I only have one Mega Crate of Black Ironwood Alloy left in me. It wasn't even enough to create another BMA."

[I doubt it. Next time, sir, don't be a spendthrift.]

Siva didn't comment. He couldn't even think of any comment to think about at that statement.

Not only was [Siva] am impulsive Immortal, he was also a Prodigal God guilty of his crime even back at the old times.

—since when did she learn to be doubtful?

At least he was still shameless to himself enough to change the focus of the topic just like that.

Brushing the thought aside, he mentally controlled the 50 surviving blades in his arsenal into a small areal domain of swirling blades around him.

Then, he also summoned the rest of the 'parts' of the BMA, and omni-formed them into a set of arms the same size and length as his own, but were all attached to his back externally like wings, with their hands open... grasping weapons from his arsenal.

Looking at Siva, it would seem that he had eight arms in total —including his two real arms.

Then, he also switched the appearance of his BMA into that of the defense-oriented Black Knight Set.

Naiki's Scepter of Divinity...

Hand of Midas...

The Magnum Revolver...

Black Dragon Blade of Triune...

Mjolnir...

Lancet Imperious...

And then a tiny oblique globe of a transparent ball of Mana that looked as if its edges were blended directly to the very fabrics of space.

Siva's real two hands were vacant but the artificial BMA arms and hands held the weapons.

Seen from afar, Siva's grotesqueness is appalling but it also carried with it a savage attractiveness.

The dark blue color and nigh-realistic contours of the armor hands and arms looked like wings at his back; when they move, they move with precision, and for some reason... Siva's awareness of them is not at the least 'foreign' nor were they awkwardly hindering his two real arms' movements.

Perhaps taken by mere instincts, Siva moved both of his real arms and his hands joined together in a [seal] —it was the zodiac hand seal for "Dragon".

But... nothing happened.

Yet even then, Siva's eyes showed surprise and its glints showed his emotions.

"Why do I know the Zodiac Seals Magic?"

There are so many Magic Legacies in the universe and Siva only knew the few he had encountered.

But even then, he only "knew" of their existences and wasn't aware of how their magic really worked.

Siva had encountered the Zodiac Magic before. At that time, he was already aware that the real Zodiac Sisters —all twelve members of them— have been reduced to a mere four.

As Siva was an aloof and detached Immortal, he is not welcomed by the proud Zodiac Sisters, with Elvira the only one with high enough tolerance to his presence that chose to interact with him for a few sets of pleasant words.

It was their first and last meeting. But...

As far as he can remember, Siva had never even tried to study Magic back then, much less learn the [Zodiac Hand Seals] which were the key to learning the original magic legacy of the Zodiac Sisters.

It was their defining legacy and as such, they will not dare to teach it to others who they do not trust, much less to a person they didn't get along with.

But even though nothing happened when Siva did the [seal], his body somewhat "did" and it baffled him greatly.

[Five seconds to contact.]

Cortana's voice broke his train of thought. He then pinned the idea of investigating it into the back of his mind and saw that the first ones to come to his location was the Sky Wyvern in the air.

[Three...]

[Two...]

Siva made his move. As the Sky Wyvern was on a steep flight path on a terrifying speed, it only took a moment's instance for the 15m large Sky Wyvern to cross 150m of distance.

But as soon as it did enter Siva's 50m distance, he already had his wooden gun's barrel directed at the flying monster.

Siva's robotic hand pulled the trigger, controlled by Cortana's functions and his instincts to calculate its precision and accuracy, the Hand of Midas's gold-fire bullet that ignored air resistance up to a 1km distance pierced the Sky Wyvern's left eye.

The monster howled in pain, its direction shifted and it passed by Siva by a great margin, heading straight towards the herd of Herons behind him.

In but an instant, tens of Herons pounced on the Sky Wyvern, biting off its wings and neck, body, and tail... it was eaten with less resistance.

After that, simultaneous roars were heard in the same direction the Sky Wyvern came from and on that direction were three Lapis Lazulis that came in flying using their large green-yellow scaled wings layered with sharp spikes and clawed hands.

Little Blacky was a Dragonkin, a child of perhaps a stray Wind Dragon to an adult female Lapis Lazuli.

Originally there are two of them but Siva killed the other and enslaved Little Blacky through the innate bloodline ability of the Apollo Race.

These two aren't as big as Little Blacky, but when compared to the typical Lapis Lazuli on the other parts of the world, these three measured at around 25m —which is bigger than the average 20m size of and adult Lapis Lazuli.

"This is going to be troublesome."

Even with the blades and the weapons in his hands right now, Siva wasn't confident that he'd be able to win against these three uninjured.

But, winning wasn't his goal right now. It was to be able to escape their encirclement... and beating them up will have to come after he escaped their encirclement.

Siva was really thankful that he picked up Naiki's Scepter of Divinity back then when he last visited this place... after he trashed that Emperor in that Secret Mission, he received the Blade of Triune and as well as the Naiki's Scepter of Divinity.

But who Naiki exactly is doesn't matter. What was important is that his scepter really has a very useful ability that had a very large impact when escaping.

«Attention»

Within the range of the sight of its light, anything that has a mind that gets to see it will be dazed for the next five seconds.

Five seconds may be a small amount of time but in a battle, and especially when escaping, that small gap created in five seconds is an opening enough to decide whether one will live or die.

{Ack... this is troublesome... children, you just ate one of the sky guards of Her Excellency during an official duty... how am I going to explain this to the three hardheaded fellows in there?}

At the middle of his thoughts, just as he was about to launch release «Attention» and escape, he then heard a growling voice coming from behind him.

The voice was so large and so... growly... that Siva was sure the one who spoke was a monster and not an actual person.

When Siva processed what he had just heard, he also let slip the chance to get away and as such, the three Lapis Lazulis already caught up with him.

"Shit." That momentary distraction caused him the opening he created earlier and now, he was back to square one. he was surrounded once again.

{BALUGA!!!}

Siva heard a roaring call from up front. It was filled with a furious intent that befitted the arrogance of a monster that stood at the top of the food chain.

{I heard you, Narking... you don't have to shout so loud like that...}

The same loud growling voice came behind Siva.

At this time, the three Lapis Lazuli simultaneously landed 40m away from Siva and within this short a distance, many things might happen. If he was to be careful, he still can get a chance to survive and run away from their encirclement.

From Siva's vantage point, and with the help of the [Scan] of the BMA, he discovered what made this Lapis Lazuli in the middle different from the other two on his sides.

It had thicker and longer neck and a pair of extra spikes at the elbow joint of its wing arms.

So in short, it looked really intimidating and scarier than the other two. Perhaps that is how monsters differentiate power levels amongst themselves? If he didn't have the [scan] function of the BMA, Siva would have only judged this 'leader' type monster from his peers as merely being in the middle.

{Baluga, a Terran had entered our kingdom thru a teleportation portal. He is demanded by the Queen and will not be a dinner of one of your children.}

When 'Narking' spoke, its voice sounded externally like just a low growl, nothing more different from a purring of a cat or the growl of a hungry stomach.

But Siva had heard this sound before, many times, in fact... and the most notable was his fight against a Forest Dragon back in Hagonoy.

—so when they growl like that, they're actually trying to talk something? Too bad I didn't have the Beast Blood Pendant back then.

Siva was surprised by the effectiveness of the 'gift' he received from Janus. It was better not to reveal the fact that they can understand what they were talking about so as to be able to use it to its full advantage when he bid his escape.

{I know.} the growling sound came again. Then, a series of loud thumping sounds rung behind Siva.

He turned his head and saw a giant monster walk from the crowds of the Herons —it had the same scale-or-skin coloration as Siva's Black Knight Set and actually externally looked just like a differently colored Heron aside from the fact that its eyes are fiery red, with multiple spikes on its back to its tail, and a few extra pointy scales on its face.

—no, its tail was different.

At a single glance, it looked like an arrowana's tail but is actually shiny and frighteningly scary-looking swordtail. Siva's mind worked and Cortana's report responded with his train of thought.

[Swordtail Heron. S-Ranked Monster. Rarity is put to Ancient and Legendary. It's even rarer than any Dragon in a normal forest in the other parts of the planet, sir.]

A living fossil... a legendary monster thought to have been extinct due to unknown reasons, were actually walking towards Siva.

He stared at the monster with a meaningful gaze of both admiration and fear. According to records, the Swordtail Herons are Fire-type "Dragonkin".

This monster in front of Siva right now is a real and authentic Dragonkin... and it was standing in front of him with all its might and glory.

Siva couldn't help but swallow. His eyes filled with a sense of greed to possess this monster as a pet.

Unconsciously, he decided to abandon escaping and began to formulate a plan to subdue the beast so that it would follow him.

Although just like the Heron lineage, Swordtails are wingless land-based monsters. But although they can't fly, they run really fast and their powerful legs and bodies are actually perfect for ramming against fortified walls and defenses.

What more, their swordtails are, just by their very names, weapons of absolute destruction. It can cut through warship alloys as easily as hot knife to a chunk of butter.

{I just wish that you wouldn't tell about that little accident earlier. These kids are really hungry. Ever since Her Excellency established her Kingdom, the food wars we've been maintaining were broken. In addition to the fact that the cursed king had also vanished which opened a large territory good for the taking, the sudden seizure of that territory just like that had destroyed the balance. It's really hard to fight for food these days ever since we were given the order to increase our strengths while minimizing internal conflicts... and you also know that it is affecting our overall constitution.}

Although the loud growling of 'Baluga' contained a set of words that gratified "Her Excellency" and the three Lapis Lazulis, it was still clear to Siva that he was really dissatisfied with the current set up of the power system in Anazon Forest.

'So it turns out that that Vajra had forcefully seized this forest as her Kingdom, huh?'