Chapter 204

Chapter 204

Our first battle in the Dark Continent is getting started.

The hard sand-covered ground feels like it's rumbling beneath my feet. The cloud of golden brown dust in front of us grows larger and larger until one of the monsters finally shows itself...

My gaze lifts upwards as Abby and Maria charge at the beast that finally reveals its form.

A pair of dark orange glowing eyes is the first thing that I see appear through the cloud of sand, then a 2-meter-thick arm of stone reaches out to hit the ground by the two girls' feet with a ground-cracking thud.

Unlike the armor of the Behemoth I fought recently, the stone covering this beast's body is part of its being. I watch the rest of the monster come out from its veil of sand.

A massive stone humanoid figure comes stomping out.

The sound of stones scraping together fills my ears while I watch the 6-meter-tall monster let out a roar. It lunges forward.

Glowing lines of dark orange energy begin to shine brightly around its chest.

They look like pulsing veins of mana that spread all throughout its body. Their energy frequency gets lighter and lighter the further from its midsection they travel.

I whisper under my breath as I watch Abby create floating stone stairs upwards gripping her daggers. The summoned rocks disintegrate the moment her feet leave them.

My eyes are locked on the orange light within the golem.

"That must be its core..."

Maria runs around its left side and her sword begins to glow a much darker blue.

The orange eyes of this monster track both of the girls at once. Its face shows a gruesome beast-like expression made out of sand and stone.

It's an imitation of a human's face, but distorted and constantly shifting as it moves around the battlefield with slow yet powerful thrusts of its arms and legs.

Abby jumps up at the monster with her black blades now glowing green, while Maria starts swinging her sword upwards from below.

My eyes open wide as I watch 3 crescents of energy erupt from their weapons.

Two green beams of light come shooting from Abby's daggers while a thick blue blade of ice comes from Maria's sword.

I grin, letting out an impressed laugh as the attacks hit the monster's shoulder and lower leg.

An explosion of rock and ice fills my vision, then the sound of a familiar metallic clang fills my ears.

Arie and I jump backward while watching the dust clouds erupt upwards, then slowly settle.

The attacks they let loose were powerful, but far from refined at all... It seems Maria and Abby are in their brute force phase of mana control training.

The roar of the first golem sounds out and I see the orange glow of its eyes shine brighter. The sand and rock residue in the air starts to fall back into the monster's injured arm and leg.

[Shattered Golem's Core]

Its mental strength boosting stat is gone, along with the [Enchanted] tag and its [Sand] description.

Without a dungeon for the mana material to absorb back into, I wonder how drops will work out here. They may just completely dissolve once the break is cleared... Or maybe a percentage of them will stay in solid form.

In time, I'll find out.

Looking back up to the action, I see Maria and Abby both finish up their last golem and join us on our run toward the final two.

Each of us glows green, blue, white, and dark red as we charge at the monsters.

Once within range, the orange eyes of the final two golems give us a clear target to strike. With wind in my hair and the excitement of a new adventure ahead, I let an attack fly.

All of my teammates do the same.

Releasing a wave of mana at the two approaching golems, we all celebrate early, knowing these beasts never stood a chance.

A moment later, after a flash of blue and green light, both of the golems are torn to shreds, then finished off by a thin white arrow and a dark crescent of flames.

Before the monsters are even within full view, they crumble to the floor and the dust of our first team battle settles.

I slow my run down to a light jog, then even more into a slow walk. Eventually, we all come to a halt and the swirling dust around us clears to reveal the wide open desert.

Arie stops right beside me and throws his bow back into his item box. I do the same with my sword after sending out an enemy detection pulse to make sure we're all in the clear.

There's not a single being within over 500 meters of us, we're safe for a while.

I let out a sigh and take in the empty desert view as Abby and Maria approach. The blond-haired ice magic user yells out in an excited tone.

"That was awesome!!! More, more! Let's go find that break!"

I smile, responding as both of them slow down and come to a stop.

"I agree, moving onto the break next is a good plan. We've all improved a lot... but this is just the beginning."

Abby nods firmly and chimes in, pulling out the roughly drawn map.

"You're right. This break is labeled number 1, the weakest of all 6. Let's collect these broken cores, then head out to clear the boss room."

We all reply with a firm nod, then Arie points to the map.

"It looks like there's a small settlement we can visit afterward too, it's not far. I know this portion of desert like the back of my hand. We'll be entering The Sun Scorched Flats over the next few days. Our last break looks like it's near a city named Solara."

He stares out into the rolling sandy hills.

"I guess all of you will get to see my hometown sooner than I thought."