The magic armor was badly dented, caved inward at the chest. Several ribs had shattered, piercing straight through his lungs.
"Arrhhhggg—eeehhhgggg—ah—hah—hha—eeeeeggghhh..." Vorin wheezed incoherently, his face pale, saliva and snot spilling freely from his mouth and nose.
"B-brother! What happened?! Who did this to you?!" Karen cried, panic flooding her voice.
Inside the plateau, Bigfoot snorted softly and picked up the fallen Swiftroot Berry Vorin had dropped. Without hesitation, he popped it into his mouth.
"Ohh... guggugu..." he muttered possessively, as if declaring ownership. Then he vanished once more into hiding.
Outside, Vorin’s followers rushed toward him. The other group had also regrouped—but their numbers were reduced from 10 to just 4. The golems had taken 6 of them. Altogether, only 22 remained.
"Leader! Who did this to you?!"
"Leader, who was it?! Say the name!"
"We’ll get revenge for you!"
"Eennnhhhggg—aaahhhh..." Vorin continued gasping. With trembling hands, he reached into a pouch and pulled out a potion shimmering green.
They had no healer so they utilized healing potions
He gulped it down.
As his ribs slowly shifted back into place, his thoughts raced in terror.
F-fuck... who was that? I didn’t even get a proper look!
The group watched closely, beasts summoned and guarding the perimeter as another wave of golems appeared out of nowhere. If Vorin had been injured this badly, the attacker had to be monstrously strong.
"Kaahhh!" Vorin finally sucked in a full breath, relief flooding his face.
But before he could relax—
A sense of overwhelming danger washed over everyone.
Every head snapped upward.
In the sky, a group approached, riding atop a massive eagle. But that wasn’t the real threat.
The real threat was the 2 white beams, tinted faintly gold, crashing straight toward them.
HUUUUUMMMMMMMMMM!
Leo sat in the front seat of Eagle, even leaving Brok behind, holding 2 massive spheres of condensed solar light in his hands, the beams tearing downward with apocalyptic force.
"J-JumA!" Vorin screamed, his voice cracking as he summoned his beast.
But—
The beams didn’t target him.
HUMMMMM! THUM! SEEEEEZZZZZZ!
Like twin death rays from the heavens, they swept through his remaining 22 members and their beast—clean, merciless. Before any of them could even scream, their bodies vanished, teleported back to the temple one by one.
By then, Juma had fully manifested.
A 6-meter-tall bipedal rhinoceros beast, its entire body forged from metal instead of flesh or shell. It was even 3 meters tall horizontally, a real bulky beast.
Since the rays ignored it, the beast stood stunned, rolling its head left and right in frantic confusion, checking the sky and its surroundings.
Then—
A new sense of danger descended from above.
[Magic Stinger]!