Free Web NovelChapter 275: Chapter 269: A Magical Beast’s Journey
It had no name.
Its kind had no custom of naming. In the western deserts of the Molten Iron Mountain Range, a young scorpion didn’t need a name. All it needed was a shell hard enough, a pair of pincers fast enough, and the instinct to turn and run when it met something bigger.
Its kin had told it that it was seven years old.
In those seven years, it had eaten countless sand lizards, dodged more than a dozen fire-elemental storms, and once fought its own nest-brother for a fat rock rat. It won that fight, but at the cost of a crack in its third left leg that had never fully healed.
Life wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad, either.
Its greatest wish was to grow as big as the clan’s chieftain.
The chieftain’s shell was ten times bigger than its own. Its pincers could snap a rock when they closed. Every time the chieftain crawled out of its burrow and stood on high ground, all kin within a hundred meters would lower their bodies.
’I want that feeling.’
So it ate with abandon, molted desperately, and endured the searing pain of shedding its shell. With every hunt, every clash of pincers, it made itself more precise. It could feel the Magic Power slowly gathering inside its body. In a few more years, maybe a dozen, it would become a true powerhouse.
Until that day came.
There was no warning.
It was sprawled on a piece of volcanic rock, still warm, digesting its lunch—an unlucky sand lizard whose tail still dangled from the corner of its mouth.
Suddenly, a voice echoed in the depths of its mind. freewёbnoνel.com
An irresistible force surged from a distant direction, filling its every nerve. It was gentle yet absolute, like the warm, safe pulse from the depths of a mother-nest.
Something was calling it.
Intimate.
Stern.
"Go east. Go now."
The lizard tail in its mouth suddenly tasted of nothing. It chewed twice and spat it out.
It wasn’t hungry anymore.
The summons was like an invisible thread that passed through its body, tethering it to some existence in the east. It tried to resist for a moment—then gave up.
Because that direction made it feel at ease. ’Go there, and everything will be alright.’ It couldn’t say how things would be alright, but it believed it without a doubt.
It left its territory.
Only after it started on its way did it realize it wasn’t alone.
All across the surrounding desert, more and more of its kind were emerging from rock crevices, sand pits, and dark holes, all moving in the same direction.
Some were neighbors it recognized, others were strangers. There were even a few sand lizards—creatures that should have been its food.
Strangely, it felt no appetite looking at the lizards. It even had a vague feeling that they were its companions now.
They were all going together.
Many days passed on the journey.
The procession grew larger and larger. There weren’t just rock-shelled scorpions, but also Molten Core Lizards and bats flying overhead... Species that normally tore each other apart now marched side by side, maintaining a subtle, orderly distance from one another.
It didn’t understand why, but that didn’t matter.
On the tenth day, it saw the presence.
At first, it was just a silhouette rising on the horizon. It thought it was a mountain. Then the mountain moved.
It raised its head and saw a moving wall, a wall so tall it couldn’t see the top. It took a long time to realize it wasn’t a wall, but a leg. Just a single leg.
Every time the behemoth took a step, the bedrock beneath it would rumble deeply. The blackstone ground, which its own pincers couldn’t even scratch, crumbled like a cracker underfoot. Each of its scales was as large as a burrow.
A Rock Armor Earth Dragon. A chieftain among chieftains.
’No, higher than a chieftain. This is a King.’
Behind it, the torrent of Magical Beasts streamed like a wake, stretching to the end of the horizon.
At that moment, its steps became even more resolute. ’Even the King is walking. How could I stop?’
But the good times didn’t last.
The enormous King started fighting an Iron Stone Giant.
The sky tore open. Lightning and rock fragments rained down, and the very earth was ripped up and slammed back down.
Terrified, it ran for its life.
Its brothers and sisters around it were running too. They scattered in every direction like frightened sand rats, but all of them instinctively skirted the battlefield and continued east. The call from ahead was growing stronger, clearer.
So it didn’t look back.
Later, it regrouped with a few hundred surviving kin and marched for several more days. Sometimes they found small insects to eat; most of the time, they went hungry. But that didn’t matter.
’Almost there. We’re almost there.’
Then fire fell from the sky.
There was no warning—a sharp whistle screamed from overhead, and then the whole world turned into Hell.
It watched with its own eyes as a kinsman ahead was swallowed by a ball of fire. Its shell turned black and charred in the intense heat. Explosions went off one after another, tossing a mixture of shattered rock and flesh into the air.
It ran.
It ran for its life.
The screams behind it lasted for a long time. It didn’t dare look back. When the explosions finally stopped, it was hiding under a collapsed rock face.
All was quiet.
It poked its antennae out from a crack and scanned its surroundings.
There were no kin left.
As far as it could see, the ground had been plowed over, littered with scorched craters and scattered remains. One of its nest-brothers that it recognized had only half its body left, pinned beneath the rubble.
It squatted there, stunned, for a long time.
The call from ahead sounded again. Gently, stubbornly, it pulled it forward.
It set out again.
Alone.
Along the way, it saw from a distance a pack of spider-like monsters attacking a small herd of about twenty beasts. The spiders were short, but incredibly fast, their bodies gleaming with a metallic sheen. The beams they fired could punch a hole through the head of a wolf beast twice its size.
It quickened its pace, desperately trying to shrink its presence, hugging the ground as it detoured in the opposite direction.
The spiders didn’t give chase.
It breathed a sigh of relief.
The rest of the journey was surprisingly smooth. No fire fell from the sky, there were no spider monsters, and even the wind died down. The ground underfoot gradually changed from rough volcanic rock to a flat, gravelly desert road.
The frequency of the call was quickening. It was almost like a beating heart.
’Just a little further now.’
Then it saw them.
Six iron-skinned figures stood in the middle of the road.
Not the three-hundred-meter-tall behemoths from before. These were much smaller, made entirely of black stone. They stood in a line, their red eyes glowing, perfectly still.
They were blocking the way.
A sudden rage surged from the depths of its chest. The call was so close; the warm, comforting destination was just behind these iron figures.
’Who are you to block my way?’
It opened its pincers and let out a hoarse, threatening hiss. The Magic Power under its shell instinctively radiated outward. It wasn’t big now; in the entire beast tide, it wasn’t even a foot soldier. But anger made it forget its fear.
It charged.
The iron figure in the middle of the opposing line raised its forelimb.
A flash of white light.
It pierced its left pincer.
It shrieked and retreated, but a second beam struck its back. Its shell cracked. Bodily fluids gushed out, hot and foreign.
It collapsed onto the gravel, its vision blurring.
The call from ahead was still there. But the voice was fading, like a receding tide.
Further and further away.
Softer and softer.
Its last conscious thought dissolved into a muddled confusion—
’Where... where was I going?’
---
Workshop Main Control Room.
On the holographic sand table, the blue light points marking the western defensive line of Zone 18 were densely packed. Yellow markers were being extinguished one by one.
"First-wave Magical Beast engagement has concluded."
Jarvis was reporting on the battle. "A total of one thousand seven hundred sixty-three Magical Beasts in the vanguard force entered the zone’s border. Eighty-seven percent were stragglers or in small groups of five or fewer. Most bore pre-existing injuries. The ground defenses of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Legions have intercepted them all."
"Our losses."
"Eleven PX-1B units damaged. Seven Spider Slayer Mk. II units destroyed. Ammunition consumption is within projected parameters."
The losses were lower than expected. Not a single Magical Beast had managed to break through the first line of defense.
This wave of Magical Beasts had already endured a frontal interception by the Iron Star 16th Legion, beyond-visual-range hunting by Storm Falcons, and guerilla mop-up by the Spider Slayers. Any that made it to the defensive line alive were either extremely lucky or so weak they weren’t worth the ammunition.
But this was only the first wave.
On the sand table, more Magical Beasts were pouring in endlessly from the west, with orange and even red high-tier targets mixed among them.
"Sort the damaged Golems by damage level."
Allen issued the command. "Lightly damaged units are to be repaired on-site. Moderate and above are to be sent to the Magma Lake Workshop. Fifth Thread, follow up on the combat loss data and research tactical improvements after each engagement."
"Clear the battlefield quickly. Collect all usable materials, and confirm if there are any abnormal implants."
"Yes, Commander," Jarvis replied.
