Chapter 209 An Emergency

"Are you joking me?" Satoshi hissed, his pupils darting as he glanced towards Emma, and then to the Alpha Red Salamander loafing around the place. Fortunately, the salamander didn't have heightened senses or it'd have detected them by now. Or maybe, it just didn't care at all since Satoshi and Emma were small fries in its eyes.

"No, I'm serious... " Emma trailed off. "I mean... there's nothing else I could give you except a powerful familiar, right? And I must admit, that one's pretty powerful for a familiar."

"You bet it is... but can we defeat it?" Satoshi asked himself.

"What do you mean? I've seen how your superpower works, you just need to um... touch it with that flame of yours, right?" Emma confirmed.

"Yeah, but it's got to hit. Also... there's been a change in my superpower so I'm not sure if it would work this time around or not. In the off chance that it didn't work... can you get us out of here in an instant?"

Emma gasped. She certainly wasn't expecting Satoshi's superpower to not work. All this time, she thought that Satoshi's unique ability had one hundred percent accuracy but such wasn't probably the case. She just assumed wrong.

It took all of Emma's energy to transport them to their world. Even if she tried her best, there was no way they'd be able to return... not anytime soon.

Shaking her head, Emma's face was drained with color as she realized what she had just done. It was stupid of her, almost laughable, to bring Satoshi in such a dangerously life-threatening place without even telling him a single word about it. And now, with no way out, she ultimately trapped the two of them in a place abundant with beasts that could stomp a human effortlessly.

"Sigh~ don't worry," Satoshi brushed off the problem as if it were nothing serious. With a wave of his hand, he summoned Sera, the white 'teru teru bozu' with halos on her head. She chirped cheerfully, glad that she was summoned once again.

And as soon as she got out, she immediately extended her hand in the air as shining light shone down on her. She giggled, then proceeded to hum such a calming song. In an instant, Emma's energy was replenished— no, she felt more energetic as ever. As for Satoshi, she expected that much from Sera, who had been upgraded as well.

Nothing much changed on her appearance, except for the twelve halos on her head which had different sizes and rotated at different intervals. Her halos resembled that of cogwheels, and the way they moved in a rigid manner is totally befitting of one.

"Dex, can you pull up her information real quick?" Satoshi called out, fully confident that Dex would be nearby.

? No one answered.

"..."

"That's weird... Dex? Can you pull up Sera's information real quick?" Satoshi was getting rather worried. This was the first time Dex didn't respond to him. Why is it that he's gone now when he was always beside him? Where did he go?

All this time, Satoshi got used to Dex's presence that he would always call out to him as if he were his personal assistant. But right now, it's as if Dex was having the last laugh. 'Let's see how long he'll last without my help'— something like that.

"Is something wrong?" Emma asked. While she doesn't know what the problem really is, she could tell that it's got something to do with one of Satoshi's familiars. She hasn't seen Dex that much... nevertheless, she could tell that the familiar meant much to Satoshi since his face seemed more troubled than usual.

"I think so... let's not think about that for now. Let's capture the Alpha Red Salamander and go home."

Satoshi clenched his teeth, wondering what went wrong. It was unusual for Dex to not follow him, especially now that he's found himself in another dimension. There's just no way that Dex would overlook that risk, he was better than that.

"Sure," Emma nodded.

Because of Dex's absence, Satoshi didn't know how to gauge the power of the Alpha Red Salamander and how he'd go about attacking it. In the end, he decided to brute-force his way through it by summoning the Ice Empress.

A gust of cold wind suddenly hit Emma and Satoshi in the face as a bone-chilling snowstorm appeared in front of them.

Of course, the snowstorm didn't go unnoticed and the Alpha Red Salamander was already on the loose, shrieking a cute shriek as it ran with its stubby legs towards the snowstorm. Whatever it was, the Alpha Red Salamander wouldn't allow it to run free over its territory. It simply won't allow it.

Kiiaaahhhk~!!!

"Eek!" Emma ducked, putting her arms above her head as the fright got the better of her. She did watch the Alpha Red Salamander go on a rampage and slaughter half the population of their shelter— her reaction was understandable, to say the least.

"All right, let's do this." With his Nailgun familiar, Satoshi flew in the air, shooting nails imbued with the element of water at the Alpha Red Salamander.

Kiieheuehuekk~!!!

The Alpha Red Salamander groaned in pain, its body started heating up.

With ice spikes shooting in all directions, Ice Empress floated as she directed Alez and Pelez (the two ice bears) to attack the Alpha Red Salamander. However, the heat that the salamander emitted was too much for the ice bears and they melted in an instant.

"It seems like I underestimated this Alpha Red Salamander." Satoshi clicked his tongue.

Meanwhile, the Alpha Red Salamander continued getting hotter and hotter, engulfing the area in flames as the earth cracked in its might. Lava streamed down the salamander's back and the ground started spewing lava as well. Pretty soon, the entire area was covered in hellish flames.

"Droplet!" Satoshi screamed. "Ice Empress, produce as much ice as you can and feed it to Droplet!"

Ice Empress nodded, this time backing out as she commanded the half-melted Alez and Pelez to retreat. As if on cue, Satoshi stepped forward, shielding the Ice Empress and the Droplet and buying some time for them while they charged up one forceful attack. With the Nailgun still summoned, Satoshi continued to fire off volley after volley of elemental nails, pushing the Alpha Red Salamander back.

[That's Magma Field, an area of effect buff that powers up fire attacks and terraforms the area suitable for fire types. Sorry for the late response, Satoshi, there was an emergency.]

"Oh, Dex! You came at the right time! I thought I lose you. Can you give me information on the Alpha Red Salamander?" Satoshi heaved a sigh of relief. Forget the emergency, at least Dex is beside him once again.

[As you wish, here's the information for the Alpha Red Salamander.]

"Thanks!"

[Master, I know it is impertinent of me to ask this to you but please hurry... you have to go back.]

"What do you— "

[Earth... Earth is in danger.]