A short distance away from Amon, another part of the battlefield was drenched in blood and chaos.
Scarlett stood alone there, surrounded by multiple monsters.
’More than thirty monsters,’ she thought as her eyes traveled over them.
More than thirty monsters had encircled her from all sides, their grotesque forms closing in with hunger and rage, their screeches overlapping into a deafening noise that echoed through the forest, where trees had fallen.
"Grrrraaahhh!"
"Skreeeeech!!"
But she did not step back from their numbers. Those numbers ant little to her.
She was not afraid, not even once. Her expression remained cold and indifferent.
As if the creatures before her were nothing more than insects.
Her crimson blade shimred in her hand, ford entirely from her own blood, yet it looked more solid and refined than any forged weapon.
Without hesitation, she moved. Her body blurred forward.
The sword in her hand sliced through the nearest monster in a clean, fluid motion, cutting its torso apart before it could even react, black blood bursting into the air as its body collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
Another lunged from her blind spot.
It was useless, since she had already sensed it.
Her arm moved without even turning her head, her blade curving backward and slicing through its neck in one smooth motion, severing it instantly.
"Ghhhaaaa—!!"
Her movents were precise, efficient, and purely deadly.
She never made any wasted motion, nor did she show any hesitation.
She stepped forward again, her long crimson hair flowing behind her like blood painting the air, as the wind from the battlefield whipped around her.
Then she raised her sword. A faint glow appeared in her blood-red eyes. The air around her shifted imdiately.
Blood gathered around her.From the fallen monsters. It was black blood.
From the droplets scattered across the ground.
From her own power, a few drops of blood ca out of her. They rose rapidly. They started to twist.
Shaping the black blood, forcing it out of the monsters.
Controlling it forcefully.
’Their blood... it’s sure hard to control compared to normal. What’s with the monsters of this island?’
Dozens of weapons ford in the air around her.
There were sharp swords, along with spears, axes, and sharp lances.
Blades of crimson and black.
Made up of her and the dead monsters’ blood.
They hovered for a brief mont, vibrating with deadly intent.
They were ant to kill multiple monsters at the sa ti.
Then, with a slight flick of her wrist—
They shot forward.
Like a storm descending upon them.
Each weapon pierced through a target with absolute precision.
One skewered a spider through its skull.
Another impaled a winged monster mid-air.
"Arghkkkkkl!"
"Gahhhhh!"
"Groooowwwllll!!"
Several tore through multiple enemies in a single line.
Those blood weapons only targeted their fatal points.
There was no rcy in her attack.
There was no resistance.
Only slaughter.
Screeches filled the air as bodies dropped one after another, collapsing into a growing pile of corpses around her.
Within seconds, all thirty monsters were dead.
The battlefield around her fell montarily quiet.
Scarlett stood still in the center of it.
Her chest rose and fell slightly as she exhaled softly.
The attack did take more of her mana compared to her other attacks.
Yet her expression remained unchanged.
She was, as always, calm, cold, and unshaken.
She looked like sothing beyond human.
Like a goddess of war standing amidst the remains of her enemies.
But the battle was far from over.
More monsters were already approaching.
From every direction.
"Skreeee!!"
"Grrrrrrhh!!"
Still, it felt easier now.
There was no problem.
Because Malphas had arrived.
His presence alone had shifted the battlefield.
’He ca at the perfect ti,’ Scarlett thought while running her left hand through her wavy hair.
Malphas’s lightning-fast strikes were cutting down large numbers of enemies, reducing the pressure on everyone else.
For the first ti since the battle began, Scarlett felt a slight sense of relief.
Knowing that with his presence, everything would go smoothly.
’Hope Amon is okay,’ her thought briefly turned to Amon.
But that feeling, that thought, lasted only for a mont.
Because suddenly her body tensed. Her eyes widened slightly. She felt it. An unknown presence from sowhere.
It was different from the others. Stronger than other monsters. Far stronger than the Rank Two and Rank Three monsters they had been fighting so far.
It wasn’t just strength.
It was the pressure. Heavy and oppressive. Like sothing far more dangerous had entered the battlefield.
Scarlett slowly turned her head toward the source.
Her crimson eyes sharpened. The wind shifted. The distant trees trembled. Sothing was coming.
"Sothing is coming... and it’s a lot stronger than normal..." she said with a serious expression.
And whatever it was... It was not like the others. Just before Scarlett felt that unknown dangerous presence.
In one corner of the forest, far from the towering structures and the raging battlefield, everything seed unnaturally still.
The sounds of battle did not reach here clearly.
Only faint echoes of distant roars and clashing steel lingered in the air.
Amidst that eerie silence, sothing massive lay half-buried in the earth.
At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a strange formation of stone.
A long, uneven ridge stretched across the ground, covered in patches of moss and dark green vines that had grown freely over its surface.
Thick roots crawled along it like veins, digging deep into the soil as if anchoring it to the land itself.
Small shrubs had sprouted across its length, making it seem like it had always been part of the forest.
Like a natural formation. Made by ti, naturally. It was lifeless. Just normal. Yet it felt ancient.
It was sothing that had been buried here for so long. But then it finally trembled. At first, it was subtle.
A faint vibration beneath the soil. A shift so slight it could have been mistaken for the wind.
But then it grew stronger.
The ground around it began to shake. Loose dirt rolled down its surface. The vines quivered. And then sothing happened.
A crack, or say a thin fracture, appeared along the ridge. But it didn’t stop there. After that, there was another. And then another.
The cracks spread rapidly, branching out like a web across its entire surface.
The sound grew louder. It was sharp and sothing like breaking. As if sothing from within was forcing its way out. Sothing had awakened.
"Crraaaack...!"
"Rrrrmmmmbbble...!"
The stone or earthen part... it was not what everyone might have thought.
It was a shell. A covering of sothing. And it was breaking.
Chunks of hardened earth began to fall away, revealing sothing beneath.
Sothing alive was beneath it. At one end of the massive structure, a large section split open.
The crack widened. Then it broke apart completely. What erged from within was not stone. It was an eye.
A massive, vertical slit-like eye.
It was a yellow-colored eye with a black vertical pupil. It moved left... then right. Then blinked. As if telling it was alive.
"Hssssssssss..."
The pupil narrowed slightly as it adjusted to the light, the surface of the eye glistening with a wet, unnatural sheen.
Its movents were slow. The ground trembled harder.
More of the outer layer shattered and fell away. The entire structure began to rise. The truth revealed itself. It was not a ridge.
It was not a place which all villagers thought was just uneven ground.
A small ridge. It was a body. A colossal serpent. With a deafening rumble, the creature tore itself free from the earth, sending chunks of soil, roots, and stone flying in all directions.
"Grrrrrrrraaaaaaahhhhhsssss!!!"
Its body erged piece by piece, massive coils sliding out from beneath the ground like an endless nightmare.
Forty ters long. Thick as a massive tree trunk. Maybe its diater was around five to six ters.
Its scales were dark and uneven, resembling cracked obsidian mixed with hardened earth, as if it had been sleeping beneath the soil for centuries.
Fragnts of rock still clung to its body before falling away, revealing the horrifying form beneath.
Its head rose slowly. It was truly towering and dominating. Its eyes glowed faintly with a sickening, predatory light, the vertical pupils narrowing as it focused on sothing in the distance.
Its mouth opened slightly.
Rows of jagged, uneven fangs lined its maw, each one dripping with a thick, dark fluid that hissed faintly as it touched the ground.
"Chssssssssss..."
Its tongue flicked out. The tongue had two tips like any normal snake.
Long, thin, and sensing. The air around it grew heavy and oppressive.
Its very presence distorted the stillness of the forest. Finally, it moved. With terrifying speed for sothing of its size, the massive serpent lunged forward.
Its body crashed through the forest, uprooting trees as if they were nothing more than twigs.
"BOOOOMMM!!"
"CRRRAAASSSHHH!!"
The ground shook violently beneath its weight as it surged in one direction.
It was moving towards the tower. Its destination was clear. It had awakened for a purpose. And it was not alone.
Far away, on the other sides of the forest, similar disturbances began to occur. More unique and different structures cracked open.
More hidden forms broke free from them.
Massive, unknown creatures erged from what had once looked like nothing more than stone formations or earthen mounds.
They were all ancient, powerful, and terrifying.
They rose one after another.
"ROOOAAARRR!!"
"SKREEEEEE!!"
All of them turning toward the towers.
They might be true guardians that had awakened. Or maybe there were still more hidden. And they all were coming.
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