Chapter 55 Cooperation

"I just wanted to check up on your progress, have you made any blueprints that would benefit the territory." I ask Delta in response to her question.

Instead of saying anything Delta just hands me a blueprint.

[Basic 9mm]

[Allows a dedicated gunsmith to learn how to produce a basic 9mm and the ammo needed to fire it]

I hand the blueprint back to delta as we don't have anyone that could make these at the moment.

"Can you train one of the humans in gunsmithing?" I ask Delta.

"If they can keep up with me" Delta replies before quickly heading back to her work.

"I'll have Melia send over the most intelligent among them then." Delta just nods in confirmation, never taking her eyes off of her work.

…

It seemed as if Delta was just humoring my request so instead of directly heading to Melia to have her send over her best subordinate to learn under Delta I instead was going to wait until after I had killed my 3rd realm protector.

The Aethon was still on my shoulder, I raised my arm and gestured for him to get off and lead us toward the swamps realm protector.

Instantly he spread his wings and flew off. I dashed forth matching the Aethons speed in the air, Tama and Aoif both following my lead.

Of course the Aethon wasn't going full speed else we might not have been able to catch up and would be lost. However we still made good time. By the time we made it to the boundary of the forest that led into the swamp. It was here that I decided that we would rest for a bit while the Aethon would go and scout the exact location of the realm protector.

…

After about a half hour of waiting the Aethon was back, he perched on my shoulder as if to just laze around. However he wasn't completely useless there, with his wing he pointed out which direction I should be going to get to the realm protector the fastest.

When we got there I again saw the sight of thousands of beasts, however the difference here was that they were all in the open just like the ones in the forest were.

These beasts looked like crocodiles. The only thing different about them was that they had long legs like those of a horse. I could see them running around at speeds that looked like it was at least 25 or 30 miles per hour.

They seemed playful though as about ten of them in the middle were hunting down another that was taunting them.

"Let me fight with you" Aoif took the moment that I was observing them to demand that she fight with me and who was I to deny her.

I nod in confirmation and she immediately dashes out.

…

*PIERCE*

By the time that I had caught up to her she had already taken her long dagger out and pierced the snout of one of the crocodiles, turning it to dust as she killed the soul of it.

The other crocodiles had seen Aoif's approach but had thought that the one that she had killed would have been able to at least defend.

Seeing the death of their comrade they were enraged though they didn't howl, nor did they roar, they charged at Aoif with speed comparable to a car.

In an instant I was already beside Aoif and ready to defend her. I quickly reinforced my spear, though I noticed that with the aether flowing much easier it would allow me to not only reinforce my spear but in the time that it took the crocodiles to dash to us, I would be able to reinforce my arms and body allowing me to deal more damage.

By the time that the first few had appeared I had already reinforced myself to the fullest and with a flick of my wrist the crocodile in front of me had its head split in half.

Though because I had split the crocodile's head in half my spear tip was high in the air. To fix that I pivot my foot, then rotate the spear ever so slightly so it is angled to cut the crocodile to the left of me. With the dropping of my body to a crouch my spear hurls downwards with my momentum to decapitate the other crocodile.

Quickly glancing to my right where the other crocodiles had approached from I see Aofi weaving between the attacks with the grace of some warrior goddess. Each time she passed one they would disintegrate into dust, her dagger having pierced their snout and killing their souls.

It was a stunning display however I couldn't just stand there and ogle her beautiful slaughter.

After I had killed the crocodiles near me I dashed towards Aoif intent on backing her up.

The realm protector had not shown its face yet, just like the other ones the realm protector was probably watching, waiting for the right time to strike at us.

When I got near Aoif I couldn't help but be swept up in her rhythm.

When Aoif attacked I was right beside her to cripple the beast so that she could easily kill it. Every time that one grew close either I or Aoif would cripple it and the other would finish it off. There was an implicit trust between us that allowed us to fight like one.

No matter the situation, no matter the number that attacked us we would always be able to watch the others back, the crocodiles were unable to ever get even one hit off on one of us.

…

By the time the realm protector had shown itself we were already sitting upon a massive pile of corpses.

Of course the ones that Aoif had killed left no body and that spoke to the amount of crocodiles that we had killed before the realm protector had shown.

Looking up from where we were sitting, I looked the realm protector down in the eye. He was massive, perhaps the biggest of the three I had seen so far, looking like a cross between a velociraptor and a crocodile he stood towering above us, a snarl upon his face.

By the time that I had analyzed him, he was already upon us.