Blood, bone, and viscera part as I take my Royal wyvern form. In my aggression, I spread my wings and roar into the sky in challenge. The serpents accept that challenge, rising from the ground all around me. They swarm towards me, confident in their numbers to overpower… but far too slow to make that happen.

With my recent fight against the Alpha Fenrimorph, I'd realized that wyverns are incredibly agile for their size. Shifting out of the way, I avoid a nearby lunge while raking my claws on a serpent's armored skin. My claws slice through like butter, but that alone isn't enough to end the beast. It squirms and turns, but I'm already moving to the side, avoiding another lunge. Like a swarm of snakes, they slither towards me, their mouths open and ready to rip into me.

Damn, there are a lot of them. I can see why the other team just left the corpses of their friends.

I glance at my team to find them surviving. Unlike me, they only need to deal with three of them - one of them seemingly spliced in half by Yuto. The other two are chasing Boriss who avoids them by hopping on their backs and scraping his weapon in the meantime.

I swerve left to narrowly avoid another lunge while raking my claws. My instincts tell me to stop and fight, but I suppress those. As strong as my current form is, I doubt engaging several dozen serpents half as large as me would be a good idea.

"Quasi! Be ready!"

I look to the voice above to find Auranta hovering in the sky. Her hands hold tightly a glowing staff while a sphere of wind manifests in front of her.

Alright, that can work.

I shift my movement from avoidance to convergence. Instead of trying to separate them, I converge the swarm into something of a pile. Once I've got them amassed closely in a pile, I roar at the [Wind Mage].

Auranta reacts appropriately. She releases her sphere towards my current location. Just as the sphere breaks to release its payload, I spread my wings and jump. A second later, I hear the sounds of flesh getting ripped apart.

Flapping my wings, I hover near Auranta, watching the carnage until the spell ceases, leaving a gory mess.

Auranta hovers next to my head and point towards the lava. "We should move."

Following her finger, I watch as serpents converge from the lava, ones even larger than the ones just slaughter.

I growl in recognition. I dive down towards Boriss and Yuto, landing violently atop the final serpent.

"Comrade!" Boriss exclaims happily.

I growl and grasp him by the waist with my claws.

"Vhat?"

Ignoring his surprise, I grasp Yuto with my tail. Then I jump and take to the air, ascending just as more serpents swarm the island.

"Oh!" Boriss says in recognition. "Is a lot of worms!"

Feeling that my mana is about empty, I flap across the island, over a bridge, and then land on the next island just as my mana empties. My body shifts back to my Fenrimorph form.

Once I have my bearings, I turn around to watch as the previous island gets swarmed by hundreds of serpents.

I guess collecting those weapons isn't going to be possible.

"These tests are quite dangerous," Yuto comments while staring at the swarm. "If you'd not flown me and Boriss out, we'd probably be dead."

I nod slowly. "Yeah, I find myself getting outnumbered in nearly every tower. It's quite annoying," I comment with a deep vibration.

"We should be fine here," Auranta taps her staff on the stone. "They seem to avoid traveling over rocks."

At her words, I realise that this next island is almost exclusively made of rock, whereas the previous one was the opposite. Staring at the swarm, I note that the serpents steer clear of any rock formations.

"Good to know. Now let's keep moving."

The current island is quite empty except for several bird nests. Nearing them causes the birds to land and caw warningly towards us while a flock circles above.

"Vhy they no attack?" Boriss asks. "Is many big birds."

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I nod to the Russians' words. Their size ranges from a small dog to a few as large as my wyvern form. They should see us as food, not threats.

"They're blind." Auranta says. "Those aren't eyes, they're mana sensory organs. They probably think we're much larger threats."

Frowning, I focus on the bird's head. What at first I thought were eyeballs is actually an odd circular sensory organ.

"How do you know that?" I ask her.

Auranta pauses for a moment before explaining. "My mother has a similar organ that looks incredibly similar."

Well, that's interesting.

"Good to know. We'll avoid them then to avoid agitation. No need to turn everything against us."

As we travel through more and more islands, we find the signs of conflict. Cuts into stone, another dead body, corpses of velociraptor type monsters.

Eight hours of island hopping and a quick break leads us to a final circular island with a tower jutting up from the center.

As we travel over the last bridge, it sways violently from distant vibrations. An explosion of light emanates near the tower followed by more and more violent rumbles.

Realizing my weight is causing the bridge to sway more aggressively, I transform into a cat before running down the bridge. Auranta realizes the same thing and takes to the sky. With less weight, the bridge sways less, allowing Boriss and Yuto to travel across.

Once everyone is across, we rush towards the sound.

When we arrive, I'm met with an ongoing battle. A golem made of stone stands thirty feet tall with molten lava like veins traveling between multiple eyeballs throughout its body. Many of the eyeballs are destroyed, but the ones that aren't are glowing and shooting projectiles of mana at humanoid targets.

The targets either dodge or block with barriers of mana. They aim for the golems' eyes, but the monster moves erratically, violently, and with unexpected finesse.

While its eyes release projectiles, it crashes into the humanoids with its body. They counter with swords and spells, but the golem regenerates the damage. The only thing that seems to not regenerate quickly is the damage to its eyes.

"Auranta, any idea what that thing is?"

"It's a golem."

I snort. "Yeah, I figured that out already. Anything else you can tell me? Like, how do you kill it?"

"Golemancy isn't my field of research, but I know they have an internal crystal core that needs to be destroyed."

I watch as a [Mage] releases a potent firespear that destroys another eye. The damage around the eye regenerates but the eye itself seems to struggle to do so.

"Right. And where might such a core be?" I ask.

Before she answers, I watch as a [Mages] barrier fails, killing him instantly.

Aurantas eyes begin to glow as she stares at it.

"Oh. It has several. That shouldn't be possible."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"It has a core in its chest and then another one at each eye. Multiple cores generally interfere with each other, but somehow they are working together."

Another eye is penetrated by a spear as it prepares to fire. The magic fizzles out and the man tries to retrieve his weapon, but finds it stuck. He pulls again and retrieves his weapon, only to get crushed by the golems fist.

Screams and shouts emanate from the attackers. I hear both the words retreat and keep at it.

This confusion causes another death as multiple eyes blast a [Mage] and overwhelm his barrier.

"Should we help?" Yuto asks. "At this rate, they're going to die."

"Not yet," I say. "I need their numbers thinned a bit more.

"There is no honor in that."

"You misunderstand. They are enemies, not allies. The moment we kill the golem, they will turn on us."

"I still dislike this." He says.

I sigh. "Yuto, they chose to fight the golem. If they fail, it is on them, not us. We are not obligated to assist them but we can always capitalize on their failure."

The wolven crosses his arms with a grimace but obliges to wait and watch.

As the battle continues, more eyes are destroyed and more [Mercenaries] die. Eventually, three [Mercenaries] are left standing. Two men and a female [Mage]. All three look exhausted and barely holding on. As for the golem, it only has five eyes remaining.

"Alright, it's time to move. Boriss, Yuto, and I will distract the thing. Auranta, take out its remaining eye."

Transforming in a Fenrimorph, I rush towards the golem. The golems eyes shift at me. Several projectile blasts towards me, but I dodge with ease. As I reach the golem, it raises its foot to crush me, but once again I dodge. It's arms move to intercept, but I'm already shifting to the side. Boriss and Yuto arrive, the Russian hopping on its head while the [Samurai] slices into its leg.

The golem reacts appropriately to crush Yuto and brush Boriss off, but both dodge.

Auranta takes the opportunity to flutter nearby and blast an eye. As soon as an eye is destroyed, the remaining ones turn towards the [Wind Mage]. Auranta dodges with erratic movements, easily avoiding the projectiles.

With the eyes distracted, Boriss takes the opportunity to cut into another eye, shifting the focus to him. Before the golem can react, I raise my fist and punch the eye on it's leg with enough force to shift the limb away. The golem falls forward, catching itself with its arms. Yuto takes the opportunity to cut into another eye. As the golem rises again, Auranta blasts the final eye on its back.

Now to deal with the golem itself.

"Boriss, distract it. Yuto, Auranta, get ready!" I yell.

Boriss obliges by hopping on its shoulders. The golem tries to swat him, but the [Skirmisher] dodges narrowly.

I take a breath and focus my mana into my legs and arm..

I really need to stop doing this.

Bending my legs and pulling back my arm, I form the internal runes.

"Boriss, jump!" I yell.

The Russian hops off the golem at the same time as I extend my legs. Simultaneously, I release a wind spell to accelerate my jump even further. I crash into the golems chest, my fist entering into its chest, followed up by a fiery payload that explodes and knocks the golem back. The golem falls on its back. Before it can recover, Yuto jumps on its regenerating chest, blade raised.

"Severing Vortex!" Yuto screams

His skill activates, ripping even deeper into the golems chest with innumerable blades.

The moment his skill ends, Yuto rushes out of the way.

Above the golem, the wind howls dangerously, twisting and turning to the tune of Aurantas mana. She raises her staff, and then lowers it down. A vortex of wind, a cyclone of innumerable wind blades descend like a drill into the golems chest, grinding and burrowing deeper and deeper until it reaches its center.

I grin as I hear something shatter.

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