Free Web NovelChapter 249: Chapter 243: Occupying the Lava Lake
[Magic Power Fluctuation: 3500. Target ascending rapidly.]
"Hm?"
Inside the workshop’s command room, Allen set down his glass of chilled dewfruit juice, his eyes locked on the screen.
In the center of the lava lake, the churning, dark-red magma suddenly fell still.
Then, the surface of the lake caved violently inward, forming a massive vortex over a hundred meters in diameter.
BOOM!
A thick pillar of lava erupted toward the sky. frёewebηovel.cѳm
From within the pillar of fire, the upper torso of a thirty-meter-tall giant slowly emerged.
It had no physical body of flesh and blood; its entire form was composed of pure, flowing flames and blindingly white-hot molten rock. Its face had only three black, gaping holes for eyes and a mouth.
With its appearance, the lake’s surface level dropped visibly. A massive amount of Fire Elemental Magic Power was being forcibly drained from the lake and drawn into its body.
The Fire Elemental Monarch.
All around it, thousands upon thousands of flowing flame spirits emerged from the lava, their numbers so dense they obscured the surface of the lake.
"Interesting." Allen’s fingertips tapped lightly on the armrest. "When the Infernos were clearing out the Fire Elemental Creatures by the lake, it didn’t even make a peep. But as soon as the Two-headed Lizard Lord dies, it comes out in full force."
[Logical Deduction: Target possesses mid-level intelligence. The death of the Two-headed Lizard Lord has upset the ecological balance at the bottom of the lake, triggering its territorial defense mechanism.]
Allen scoffed. "What, is it afraid of being the next to fall? An Elemental Creature that understands the concept of mutual destruction?"
On the screen, the Fire Elemental Monarch let out a silent roar. Visible, crimson ripples spread outward.
Instantly, like a swarm of bees ordered to charge, countless flowing flame spirits descended upon the five Infernos. The mechs had just killed the Two-headed Lizard Lord, and their formation had yet to disperse.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A dense barrage of suicide impacts exploded against the Infernos’ armor.
These flowing flame spirits had an individual Magic Power of no more than two hundred, and the explosions from their impacts posed no threat to the molten-titanium crystal armor.
Instead, the high temperatures from the explosions were completely absorbed by the Conduction Runes, becoming backup energy for the Infernos.
"So hot! This feels great! Again, again!" A manic laugh echoed from the Soul Core inside Inferno One.
The Infernos were designed for high-temperature combat to begin with. The vast majority of the Fire Elemental Magic Power from the spirits’ suicide attacks was absorbed by the Conduction Runes on the armor’s surface and converted into power for their Volcano Engines.
For the spirits, it was a one-way trip. Their attacks were only feeding the enemy.
The five mechs’ energy reserves remained at a constant 100%.
"Ignore the minions," Allen ordered. "Lock onto that elemental leader. Execute a decapitation strike."
The five Infernos suddenly accelerated through the lava. Parting the boiling lake, they ignored the fiery explosions around them, shooting toward the center like five dark-red arrows.
The Fire Elemental Monarch sensed the intentions of these five steel monsters. A blinding white light erupted from its black, hollow eye sockets.
The next second, the Monarch’s enormous upper body completely left the lake’s surface.
It rose into the air.
Huge amounts of lava dripped from beneath it. It hovered fifty meters above the lake, looking down on the approaching Infernos.
The five Infernos stopped on the lake’s surface directly below the Monarch.
The mechs’ heads tilted up.
[Target is outside of attack range.]
The situation became a bit awkward.
"A hard counter. Nothing to be done," Allen said with a hint of resignation.
The Inferno’s design had sacrificed ranged weaponry and flight capabilities. Against an enemy with air superiority, they were sitting ducks. freewebnσvel.cøm
In mid-air, the Fire Elemental Monarch opened its massive maw.
The surrounding fire elements frantically compressed, forming a white-hot fireball over ten meters in diameter. The Magic Power inside the fireball was so condensed that even the space around it began to warp.
BOOM!
The fireball smashed down toward Inferno One like a meteor.
Inferno One’s AT Field deployed at full power.
The violent collision caused a deafening explosion. White-hot flames instantly engulfed Inferno One.
[Inferno One AT Field overload.]
[External instantaneous temperature exceeds 4000 degrees. Volcano Engine conversion rate at maximum. Energy overflow.]
[Armor surface showing signs of softening. Integrity: 91%.]
Fireballs fell one after another. The Monarch, hovering in the air, had turned into a stationary turret with infinite ammunition.
It didn’t use any fancy attacks, only crushing its foes with the purest heat and Magic Power.
The five Infernos were forced into a passive defense, constantly maneuvering across the lake’s surface to evade and occasionally blocking fireballs with their powered gauntlets.
’They’re fire-resistant and tough, but they’re not invincible.’ Allen did not order the Infernos to retreat.
"Jarvis, connect me to the combat squadron in War Zone 19."
[Connection established.]
"Leave the rest of this mess for Victor to clean up."
"All squadrons, redeploy. Target the lava lake. ETA three and a half minutes."
[Command confirmed.]
「Dozens of kilometers away.」
Two Freedom Gundams, covered in pterosaur blood, turned around, followed closely by twelve Storm Falcons.
Sonic boom clouds erupted above the volcano’s crater.
The squadron turned into fourteen streaks of light, tearing through the clouds as they sped north.
Seconds ticked by.
「Lava Lake Battlefield.」
The five Infernos’ armor integrity had already dropped to 80%. The continuous, ultra-high-temperature attacks were causing their movements to slow, and for the first time, overheat warnings began to appear.
The Fire Elemental Monarch seemed to tire of this monotonous bombardment.
It raised both hands high, and the lava across the entire lake began to boil violently. Hundreds of lava pillars shot into the sky, weaving together and solidifying in mid-air to form a giant molten warhammer.
The Monarch grasped the warhammer, aimed at the five Infernos below, and prepared to deliver a devastating, thunderous blow.
Just as the warhammer was about to crash down...
A dull thunderclap echoed from the far horizon.
It wasn’t thunder. It was a sonic boom.
Two azure streaks of light tore through the thick clouds of volcanic ash above the lava lake.
"Trying to play whack-a-mole with my Infernos? Light it up," Allen ordered, leaning back in his chair.
While still flying at supersonic speeds, the two Freedom Gundams shifted directly into combat mode.
The massive "Titan’s Roar" cannon on Unit Two’s shoulder had already finished charging during its flight. The Magic Power at the muzzle glowed with extreme intensity.
BOOM—!
A pillar of destructive light crossed five kilometers in an instant, piercing through the void.
The Fire Elemental Monarch had just begun to swing its great hammer and had no time to react.
The pillar of light accurately struck half its chest.
The Monarch’s body, composed of high-density fire elements, was directly pierced by this burst of destructive energy!
A huge, five-meter-diameter hole appeared in its chest.
"ROAR—!"
The Monarch let out a horrifying shriek. The core Magic Power circuit maintaining its body was severed. The molten hammer in its hands instantly disintegrated, falling as a rain of fire.
It could no longer maintain its levitation. Its massive body lost its balance and fell toward the lava lake below.
KERSPLASH!
Lava splashed high into the air.
A cold smirk curved Allen’s lips.
’So, it fell down?’
"Infernos, greet your guest."
The moment it crashed into the lava, the Fire Elemental Monarch tried to draw on the molten rock to repair the massive hole in its chest.
But five steel behemoths, simmering with pent-up fury, had already surrounded it.
Now, the lava lake was the Infernos’ home turf.
The five Infernos raised their spears in unison. On the five eighteen-meter-long piercing spears, "Dissolving Runes," specifically designed to counter energy bodies, erupted with an eerie blue light.
The Monarch conjured several whips of white-hot fire, lashing them viciously against the Infernos’ AT Fields. The blows sent ripples across the barriers but failed to halt their advance.
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
The five piercing spears, covered in Dissolving Runes, simultaneously impaled the Fire Elemental Monarch’s high-density core from five different angles.
The eerie blue dissolving power raged within it, destroying its magical structure.
The Monarch’s massive body trembled violently, then, like a punctured balloon, it exploded with a deafening roar!
A furious shockwave of energy kicked up a tsunami-like undercurrent at the bottom of the lake.
The flowing flames that composed its body lost their cohesion, dispersing into ordinary lava and merging back into the lake.
Losing their linchpin, the frenzied flowing flame spirits around it all dove back into the lava lake.
[Target eliminated.]
[Magic Power concentration in the surrounding area is decreasing.]
With the dissipation of the Fire Elemental Monarch, the lava at the bottom of the lake gradually returned to calm.
[Acquired: One high-tier, fire-attribute magic core.]
