Both scouting puppets broke, and the way they shattered was preceded by a red screen.
This is definitely not a coincidence; it’s only possible that they encountered the same type of attack. And since they were flying at low altitude without any erupting flames from the Lava Lake, it must have been elemental life hidden within the Lava Lake that acted.
Angel wasn’t surprised by this situation. He was already prepared for the scouting puppets to be damaged; it’s just a pity that he couldn’t detect who or what exactly had acted.
Angel wasn’t affected by the puppets’ damage. He calmed his slightly disturbed mind and continued to control the scouting puppets to explore.
Thirty seconds later, three more low-flying scouting puppets’ screens simultaneously turned red.
Angel didn’t look away this time, but even so, he couldn’t discover what happened to the scouting puppets, or why their screens changed without any warning.
A few seconds later, the three red-screened scouting puppets shattered and were scrapped.
Still puzzled, Angel noticed another scouting puppet was under attack.
But this time, it wasn’t low-flying ones; it was the high-flying scouting puppets. Five high-altitude puppets were surrounded, and the appearance of the assailants entered Angel’s eyes.
A creature engulfed in green flames.
About two meters in length, the front half was like a Finks cat with a cat’s head and forepaws, and the rear half was entirely a segmented worm, dragging a long tail without hind legs or wings. Yet they could still fly in mid-air with incredible speed.
Moreover, these elemental creatures were gregarious. With just five scouting puppets, each one was surrounded by over thirty of these creatures, leaving no escape.
"They look much like Tazo worms, but a fire elemental version of Tazo worms," Angel thought silently.
Tazo worms are magical creatures living in dense forests, appearing as half-cat, half-worm, capable of flying in mid-air. They prey on eagles, using their cat-like claws and a lethal poisonous mist for attacks.
"Could this fire elemental version of Tazo worms be poisonous fire creatures since their entire bodies are enveloped in a greenish flame?"
As Angel pondered, a scouting puppet was sprayed all over its head with the green fire from a flame Tazo worm. The attacked scouting puppet blinked its eyes twice before completely shutting down.
Another scouting puppet was scrapped.
Through a nearby scouting puppet, Angel saw that the scouting puppet sprayed with green fire showed no signs of burning, but the green fire corroded it incessantly like a Tibial Maggot.
Although Angel couldn’t examine the truth behind the corrosion scars, given the current situation, these flame Tazo worms are most likely toxic fire creatures.
Toxic fire creatures are also a type of fire elemental being.
As the first scouting puppet was corroded by the toxic fire green flame, the four other encircled ones also followed suit.
Angel considered escaping, but these flame Tazo worms were too many, and their speed rivaled that of the scouting puppets. Even if Angel had superhuman reflexes, the scouting puppets’ limitations restricted their real speed, making escape impossible.
Angel resigned himself, abandoning these four and continued to observe the scouting puppets in other directions.
The deeper he ventured into the Lava Lake, the more dangerous it became.
Low-flying scouting puppets were once again targeted, just like before, their screens turned red without any warning, and two scouting puppets shattered.
No matter how much Angel ventured inward from different directions, as long as they flew low, they encountered the same outcome.
This indicates that the entire low altitude of the Lava Lake belongs to some unknown fire elemental creature’s hunting grounds.
Now, only two low-flying scouting puppets were left.
Angel still chose to let these two continue flying low, not because he was unwilling to ascend, but because the high altitude was no less dangerous than the low.
The danger at low altitude was invisible, while the danger at high altitude was stark—a swarming mass of fire elemental creatures chasing the four remaining high-altitude puppets, not just the flame Tazo worms, but other fire elemental birds as well.
You could say there was no place safe for the scouting puppets right now.
Angel could only try weaving through the smoke, hoping to obscure his path a bit, but it wasn’t very effective because fire elemental creatures also lived in the smoke, like the Darkflame Fish.
Even though the Darkflame Fish wasn’t highly offensive, with the increasing density and activity of fire elemental energy, even a casually blown bubble was beyond a scouting puppet’s capability to touch.
Two more minutes passed, and the four high-altitude puppets were each caught up by different fire elemental creatures. Seconds later, the pieces of the four puppets fell into the rolling magma, marking a complete failure for the high-altitude reconnaissance.
However, the remaining two low-altitude puppets had better luck, flying a much longer distance.
But in less than half a minute, one scouting puppet’s screen turned red, followed by its shattering.
Now, only one lone sapling was left struggling.
One minute later, it was fine.
Two minutes, three minutes... Five minutes later, it was still fine.
Angel originally thought this scouting attempt was about to end in failure, but did not expect this scouting puppet to have such good luck?
He couldn’t help but hope again.
However, the more one hopes, the more the hoped-for often cannot bear the hope’s weight.
Another half minute passed, and through the scouting puppet’s view, Angel saw a piece of dark land at the end of the rising smoke.
Angel was delighted, thinking he might have finally reached the scorched earth on the other side of the Lava Lake.
As long as the location of the scorched earth was confirmed, and an empty coordinate without elemental creatures was found nearby, he could open the Gate of Void to transport there.
However, just as Angel was imagining this, his expression darkened.
The screen blackened, and the last scouting puppet was also damaged.
This time, unlike before, wasn’t without warning; Angel saw the murderer of the scouting puppet... it was that dark scorched earth.
It wasn’t land at all but the shell of a gigantic turtle.
This giant turtle was also a fire elemental being, though like toxic fire creatures, it was considered a special type of fire elemental: a magma creature.