Fissures and lava pools of various sizes were everywhere. The large-scale eruptions of underground volcanoes over the years had turned all the rocks here into magma, forever altering the geography of the land. The mighty volcanoes, shattered mountains, and jagged magma fields impressed all outsiders with the destructiveness of nature!
A massive volcano was still spitting out thick black smoke and volcanic ash in the distance at the very limits of the adepts' range of sight. Occasionally, some blazing piece of volcanic rock would fly out of the volcano and crash somewhere, leaving a trail of black smoke in the air.
A rolling river of lava meandered at the foot of the volcano, where many elementium creatures could be seen frolicking about.
Greem looked away from the volcano and returned his gaze to the earth beneath him.
His thick boots pressed against the ground and crushed the dirt. It could no longer be called earth. Not a single patch of moist soil could be seen. The only things present were crumbling pieces of rock and stone.
[Beep. Environment probe data completed.
[Main components of the air are as follows: 63% nitrogen, 23% oxygen, 12% carbon dioxide, 0.8%methane,...
[Air temperature: 46 degrees Celcius.
[The air contains large amounts of toxic and harmful substances that are hazardous to the human body.
[Host's Physique is compatible with the current environment. Body cell activity has increased, elementium sensitivity has increased, Spirit and stamina regeneration slightly increased.]
……
Greem couldn't help but let out a silent sigh as he looked at the data compiled by the Chip. This place was only the outer area of the Burning Plains, yet the temperature was already forty-six degrees. If they were to press on into the center of the Burning Plains, the temperature there would probably exceed the thermometer!
If Greem were an ordinary person, just the current environment would be enough to kill him a thousand times over. There was no need to even talk about dragonslaying. He would probably be long dead before he could see a single hair of the dragon.
However, Greem felt a sense of relaxation and freedom that permeated his body upon arriving in this place. Those hot winds and that maddening heat were not only any threat to him, but they were even rejuvenating his spirits and causing the blood in his body to become vigorous.
A light click rang out as the pebble by Greem's feet rolled away. A half-meter long miniature fire lizard emerged from beneath the ground and stared at the adepts briefly before scurrying away.
"Let's go. There are still two hundred kilometers from here to the fire dragon's den. We need to hurry up!" Greem quickly surveyed his surroundings and led his party toward the towering volcano in the distance.
Mary, Oliven, and Billis were all draped in thick black cloaks. Their physical features were well-hidden as they silently followed Greem into the distance.
A good half of Goblin Tigule's long robe dragged behind him due to his short stature, rustling as it scraped across the ground. Dragonborn Zacha's massive body couldn't be hidden either. He decided to toss away his cape and march at the end of the group in his shining armor of wind indurium. He held his lightning spear in one hand and the Frozen Mallet in the other.
Stealth was no longer useful now that they were here.
At any rate, their party was powerful enough to hold their own even in a frontal confrontation against that Second Grade fire dragon. Thus, no one expended any effort to hide and instead made a beeline straight for that impressively large volcano.
After all, the rendezvous point they had agreed upon with Vanlier was there!
The Burning Plains might have looked harsh and empty, but there were plenty of fire beasts and elementium creatures hiding all over.
When Greem and his party stepped on the sand and marched forward, greedy and burning gazes looked upon them through the cracks in the crimson rocks and shadows of massive magma boulders, locking onto the adepts and refusing to leave.
Instinctively, these creatures could sense a harsh and unforgiving aura around the adepts. They didn't dare to attack recklessly. That said, their instincts as bloodthirsty creatures wouldn't allow them to let such rare fresh meat slip away from their mouths.
As Greem's party slowly progressed, they could see signs of hordes of fire creatures around them.
Once Greem and the adepts entered the depths of the Burning Plains, they ran into the first group of ignorant fools that dared to stop them on their path.
It was a patrol group of ten Blackstone Orcs!
Blackstone Orcs were a small branch of the massive orc bloodline.
They were all muscular and bulky individuals with intimidating gaits and even more threatening looks.
Due to the lack of wood or any such produce in the Burning Plains, everything that the orcs wore on them was special leather armor that they had skinned from fire creatures. Their weapons were also varied and differed from individual to individual.
Some had crude stone sticks, and some had bone spikes they had snapped off the body of some other large creature. Of course, most of them were equipped with fearsome metal hammers or large clubs with exaggerated designs.
Every orc warrior stood at two meters tall, with broad chests, thick waists, and muscles that seemed forged from iron. They had large mouths, fangs, and had odd runes painted on their faces with red dye. Their massive nose rings jingled from their heavy breaths.
The leading orc smashed his massive warhammer in front of the adepts and blocked their path.
His fierce eyes swept across this unique party and finally fell upon the dragonborn at the rear.
"Hey, big one; which lord do you serve? Why'd you come to our place?"
This orc captain was speaking in traditional orcish, but a few odd Dragontongue pronunciations had been used, making for a bizarre-sounding sentence. However, Greem and the others didn't seem to care. Instead, they glared sinisterly at these orcs from underneath the shadows of their hoods, as if they were looking at dead people.
The average level of these orcs was no more than pseudo-adept level. That said, each and every one of them had the bodily strength of a First Grade body-refining adept. Moreover, staying inside the Burning Plains for an extended period of time had also caused their bodies to develop fire resistance far stronger than ordinary creatures.
However, this 'meager' strength was entirely insignificant before Greem's party!
"Who's going?" Greem looked at these pathetic pseudo-adept level fools strutting in front of him. He smiled chillingly and secretly sent mental messages to everyone.
Oliven remained unmoving.
Tigule gripped the crystal golem talisman dangling on his chest, wondering if he should let out the Goblin Shredder now. Dragonborn Zacha had yet to take a step or speak before Mary laughed and struck.
Red shadows flashed all over the place.
Mary took off her hood and revealed her pretty face. A large and steaming heart pulsed in the right hand she had extended from under her cloak.
The orc captain's eyes were wide open, staring unbelievably at the still-beating heart the opponent was holding in her hand. It was a long time later before he remembered to look down and examine his chest, only to see a massive hole and a fountain of blood where it once was.
That heart was his.
This thought hadn't entirely formed in his mind when the orc captain roared, dropped his weapon, and collapsed heavily to the ground.
Mary lifted the orc heart and raised her hand as if to down an entire glass of wine in a single go. She immediately started spitting out the blood and tossed the heart away as far as she could.
"These orcs' blood is foul. Dammit! They deserve to die!" A stern look flashed in her crimson eyes, "Billis, I'll leave these fellows all to you! "
The cloaked bug adept acknowledged Mary's words and stepped forward. He waved his loose sleeve as a massive swarm of insects surged outward, turning into ten black arrows and shooting toward ever
y single orc.
The orc warriors roared upon seeing this and raised their weapons to cut these black arrows into pieces. However, the arrows immediately scattered and turned into swarms of black insects, lunging at the orcs faces and bodies.
In the blink of an eye, all nine orc warriors and the fallen orc captain were completely covered in a layer of squirming black insects.
The orc warriors tossed away their weapons and used their large fists and palms to swat away at the insects on their bodies. They smashed several of the insects into pungent blood and pulp, but even more of them crawled into the orcs' bodies through their orifices or simply dug inside through the wounds they had inflicted.
The orc warriors roared and howled in agony. These swarm of black insects had actually devoured them alive!
Though everyone had seen this scene play out many times before, they still couldn't completely get used to it.
Slaughter was natural to adepts, and they weren't opposed to it. However, not every adept could accept making slaughter such a bloody and cruel affair. In particular, Tigule felt his stomach roll, and he frowned.
He would probably be gagging if he wasn't trying his best to hold it back!
Chapter 728 Besieged
With the extermination of the orc squad, the fire creatures that had been walking around the area instantly vanished without a trace.
They might not have been the most intelligent of creatures, but their instinct for danger was exceptionally sharp.
They scattered the moment they realized that Greem and his party were dangerous characters and went straight back to their nests to hide.
The adepts couldn't be bothered to deal with these unintelligent creatures either. They continued down the mountain after putting on a good show of force.
Sprinting fifty kilometers in a single breath was nothing difficult with the Physique of the adepts.
Greem's party arrived at the foot of the towering volcano by sunset.
The air had reached shockingly high temperatures here. The adepts had no choice but to radiate the elementium particles within their bodies to neutralize the vigorous fire elementium around them. Otherwise, even the cloth robes and capes that they were wearing would burst into flames from the heat.
The stifling smell of sulfur in the air beneath the mountain was so pungent that it caused headaches for everyone. Apart from Greem, who was able to endure the experience easily, the adepts had no choice but to erect elementium barriers to maintain the circulation of their life systems.
While the adepts could use their magic to protect themselves, Dragonborn Zacha and Goblin Tigule couldn't do so.
Zacha was in better condition. His twenty-four points of Physique allowed him to endure environments even ten times worse than this. Other than a bit of annoyance at the baking heat, this tiny 'obstacle' couldn't even faze the Second Grade dragonborn.
However, Tigule was almost at his limits.
The Goblin Shredder he piloted might have the might of a Second Grade, but he was only at intermediate First Grade. The adepts could use their magic to sustain themselves in this environment while the dragonborn could endure the punishment with his extreme Physique. Meanwhile, Tigule, a mere First Grade goblin, could only pant in short and hurried bursts.
There was no way to lock the moisture in your body in this place. Just sweating itself would kill you!
The part of Tigule's robe that had been dragging against the ground was starting to show signs of scorching as well.
However, in the next second a flame barrier surrounded the goblin, pushing away the burning air around him.
Tigule immediately felt much more comfortable.
He was First Grade, after all. His Physique was several times stronger compared to an ordinary human. It was his lack of fire resistance that made him so weak in this environment.
The Un'Goro Volcano was a relatively famous active volcano in the Burning Plains. It was perpetually shrouded in smoke and heat waves that radiated continuously from the place. Standing at the foot of the mountain, they could hear the roiling and rumbling inside the belly of the volcano through the thick stone structure of the mountain itself.
A terrifying river of lava several dozens of meters wide wound about the foot of the mountain. Hundreds of lava lakes and pools of various sizes had formed beside this river.
This place naturally became the place where fire elementals gathered in the highest numbers!
These fire elementals were mostly unintelligent low-grade elementium creatures that could only instinctively gather around areas where fire elementium was most concentrated. They had lived here for a long time and treated the volcano as their own home, fervently keeping outsiders from entering.
That was why a dozen human-sized blazing fire spirits jumped out of the nearest lava pool the moment Greem's party approached the volcano. These fire spirits started yelling and cursing something at the adepts the moment they emerged from the lava pool.
However, no one here could understand the strange language of the fire elementals.
Seeing that Greem and the others did not intend to back away, the fire spirits raised their blazing arms in anger, and several elementium fireballs crashed toward the adepts like meteors.
"You started this!"
A fireball landed in front of Mary, the resultant heatwave lifting a corner of Mary's robe and causing her long red hair to billow in the wind.
This act of intimidation undoubtedly infuriated Mary!
A red silhouette flashed across the place.
After Mary returned to her original spot, the fire spirits exploded into piles of charcoal and ash despite being thirty meters away. Mary had just relied on her extreme Agility and imperceptible speed to pierce the fire cores within their bodies, resulting in the scene before them.
However, just as these fire spirits exploded like fireworks, Mary let out a sudden cry.
She held her right hand with her left and screamed angrily.
"I want to kill these bastards. I want to kill these bastards. They…they actually scorched the nail polish I had just applied!"
Greem couldn't help but let out a sigh when he heard this.
These fire spirits might only have the power of an advanced apprentice, but they were made of the purest concentrated essence of fire elementium. In particular, their fire cores were basically elementium flames whose temperatures went up to two to three thousand degrees. Mary's claw might be protected with her blood energy, but not sustaining any damage after piercing a dozen clusters of elementium fire in a row was simply looking down upon these fire spirits.
"Tigule, I'll leave these fellows to you!" Greem instructed softly.
"Understood!"
Tigule, who had been troubled by the harsh environment all this while, finally received an order from Greem. He raised his arm and summoned the towering four-meter Goblin Shredder from within the golem talisman. He quickly scampered into the pilot's seat and shut the opening. This towering magical machine warrior finally started moving, clanging with every move it made.
The appearance of this massive object naturally attracted the attention of all elementium creatures that had been roaming the area.
Unlike the fire creatures, elementium creatures had no natural human-like emotions. That included things such as fear and reluctance. There was no need to incite them or draw them into conflict. These elementium creatures all emerged from the lava river or the magma lakes upon discovering an outsider breaking into their homes. They gathered together and charged at the adepts.
Fire spirits, fire crows, magma hounds, fire serpents, fire deities, fire elemental elders.
For a moment, it was as if every single fire elementium creatures recorded in the Adepts' Handbook had been enchanted with a spell as they emerged from ancient legends and started assaulting this tiny group of adepts.
Their numbers were many, and their powers ranged from beginner apprentice to advanced First Grade, almost including every single grade in betwee
n. Moreover, their means of attacks were mostly similar. They were either elemental fireballs, flame shockwaves, or lava splashes.
When accumulated, such attacks were terrifying, even for a fire adept like Greem, let alone Tigule.
Dammit, we just stabbed a hornet's nest.
Greem roared and tossed out that Second Grade elementium golem of his.
An earthshaking roar rang out as the seven-meter-tall body of the Flame Fiend of Terror stood up in front of the party. Blazing fires shrouded it, and surging lava and scalding magma covered its body.
"Battle! Destroy!"
The Flame Fiend of Terror shouted wicked and malicious battlecries as it strode toward the volcano with its thick magma legs.
The elemental fireballs that had been shot at it exploded continuously upon its giant body, but they couldn't do any damage to it. Only the Magma Fireballs or flame spears that contained a bit of earth elementium could deal a little damage to it.
However, compound magic of this kind could only be used by high-grade fire elemental elders or fire deities.
The Flame Fiend of Terror strode forward to the very front, using its massive body to attract the enemy's firepower. Meanwhile, the Goblin Shredder followed behind, occasionally using the propellers on its back to accelerate into the midst of the fire elementium creatures and execute the more threatening high-grade enemies.
Though these fire elemental elders were of a pretty high grade, they did not have tough, impenetrable bodies. That was why their large bodies of flames would self-destruct from the backflow of elementium after their fire core had been slashed in half by the Shredder's metal chainsaw.
One had to admit that the ultra magical alloys that Greem had exhausted to forge this Second Grade magical machine warrior were well worth the money. Even the iron-hard bodies of the magma hounds couldn't stop the wild slashing power of the metal chainsaw. The fire cores of the elementium creatures couldn't resist the piercing power of the metal drill.
Unless it was seven or eight high-grade fire elementals self-destructing at the same time, the explosions had no hope of damaging Tigule who was hiding inside the Goblin Shredder.
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