Chapter 156 - Lava Beast

Cyril couldn't help but be impressed at the sight of the courageous Frogmen Deity. Though he saw him activating some kind of Artifact to protect himself from the extreme heat, it was still quite a daring act knowing that a Lava Beast is lurking down there.

Luckily, there seems to be only one beast living down there and it was first attracted to the Snake King…

"Come at me!"

King Theramas shouted as his crown lit up his surroundings before he was covered by green energy.

The Lava Beasts obliged as it angrily jumped out of the lava and attempted to bite the King who seemed to have gotten small after comparing their size.

This time, Cyril can now clearly see the beast and shock him!

"It's a Frilled Shark?!"

Cyril noticed the similarities of the Lava Beasts to a Deep-Sea Creature called Frilled Shark in the human world. They are considered living fossils with quite a scary appearance.

However, this black lava beast is similar to the size of a blue whale!

"Poison Cloud!"

The Snake King doesn't seem to be afraid as he sends out a cloud of poison to either kill this beast or perhaps, hide his own movements.

However, whatever its purpose, the Frogmen Deity benefited from it as well. He safely dipped at the Lava before resurfacing again as he swim through the lava.

He wanted to take the Conqueror Staff as quick as possible!

Boom!

The Lava Beast failed to catch the Snake King as he crash on the wall of rocks.

It shook the ground for a while making most of the beastmen watching anxious. It is now up to their leaders to take the Ancient Artifact and they could only pray silently at the side.

However, all of them seemed to have forgotten someone.

***

Cyril assessed the situation carefully and took out several things from his storage space to take the Conqueror Staff for himself.

First, he uncapped the bottle of Berserk Potion and without hesitation, swallowed its content without tasting it. Well, he knows that it wouldn't taste good…

Blergh~

'It's awful!'

After feeling a bit uncomfortable in his stomach, he suddenly felt a surge of power coming from his body.

"Ugh, this is it!"

With his overwhelming Aura, he's confident that he'll be capable of activating multiple Artifacts at once.

He then brought out three Giant Wraith Swords and used the Wraith Summons!

Gigigi! Gigigi!

Soon, more than 50 Wraiths appeared around him alerting the beastmen!

"W-what's that?!"

"Specters!"

"N-no way!"

They unconsciously backed off after seeing the numerous wraiths that came out from the swords. They weren't in a good spot after all. If they accidentally fell off from here, not even their bones would survive from that heat.

However, some of them still wanted to attack Cyril.

On the other hand, Cyril was excited after seeing the result of his work.

'Oh? I only lost a small amount of Aura? I can do more!'

Cyril then quickly brought out a couple more Wraith Swords and activated them as well.

Soon, over 80 Wraiths surrounded him scaring the Beastmen who were previously thinking of attacking him.

"Good, I'm not getting exhausted… Hehe!"

Cyril clenched his fist as he finally ordered the wraiths to attack the Conqueror Staff!

That's right! Instead of stopping the Frogmen Deity, the Lava Beast, or the Snake King, he decided to just take that Artifact faster…

As soon as the Wraiths acted, Cyril jumped up and decided to ride one of the Iron Bear Wraiths to move faster!

Unfortunately, he can only give one type of command to these Wraiths, and that is to Attack.

He can't order them to take the Staff by themselves. He can only use this method to reach the Ancient Artifact!

Nevertheless, this method seems to be very effective as his movement phase was a lot faster than the other two.

Of course, his huge movement with the wraiths didn't go unnoticed. The two leaders of their respective clans realized that Cyril is indeed a huge threat as they immediately sent several Magical Attacks to stop his advance.

"Poison Cloud!"

"Acid Arrow!"

The two probed the wraiths around Cyril and sent their attacks. However, it only managed to destroy a single wraith in that attack!

Cyril is surrounded by so many!

They would waste a lot more time if they wanted to kill those wraiths covering him! Aside from that, the Lava Beast already recovered after smashing itself on the solid wall of rocks.

Graahhh!!

It noticed the huge army of wraiths coming for the Conqueror Staff and immediately used a Fire Breath!

Whoosshhh!

Like a huge flamethrower, it burned many Elven Wraiths but it didn't stop them from approaching the central part of the lake of lava.

Seeing this, the Frilled Shark Lava Beast jumped out of the lava and started chomping off a huge part of the Wraith Army…

Thud!

Finally, Cyril managed to land on the black stone. Contrary to his expectations, the stone wasn't that hot!

He immediately lessened the Aura he placed on his feet due to this. He can't waste too many of them after all.

He just retained enough Aura to wrap his body in case of emergy…

"Attack those three!"

Cyril then gave a new order to his army of Wraiths. Right now, only a bit more than half is remaining from them but he didn't mind it all.

These wraiths are expendables and he can just collect more if he finds a good Arcane World to harvest them.

He looked at the three for a bit and noticed that the Snake King can actually jump from the lava by using a cloud of poison as a quick cushion.

As for the Frogmen Deity, he appears to be more steady as he remained swimming from the lava!

Lastly, the Frilled Shark no longer bothered attacking him as soon as he reached the black stone. Instead, it released an angry cry and decided to devour the Elven Wraiths in its outburst of anger.

'Alright… let's hurry, let's hurry…'

Cyril then quickly approached the Conqueror Staff. He noticed that he could no longer feel the intense pressure from his position so he felt that it would be a lot easier for him to take it.

However, as soon as he grasp and try pulling it, he realized that it wouldn't even budge at all!

"What now?!" Cyril doesn't have plenty of time so he has to think quickly. He concentrated his Aura on his hands and decided to take it by force.

Umph!

'It's not working! Does it only respond to a Beastman?!' Cyril thought as he started getting nervous… Perhaps, he only has a couple of minutes here before all his Wraiths get destroyed…

'Eh?'

Cyril suddenly noticed that all the wraiths he sent to the Frilled Shark had all been killed and now, instead of heading here, it actually headed to the Snake King first!

'Wait, is it possible that it can't attack me while I'm here?' Cyril suddenly had an idea.

He already felt that dome-like energy is protecting the black stone where the Conqueror Staff is located. He thought that it's only protecting them from heat but it seems that it's also a protection against the Lava Beasts!

If that is the case, it means he might have a lot more time than he expected!

With this in mind, he quickly started looking for a way to deal with the stuck Conqueror Staff.

'Tsk… Since I can't pull it out normally, should I be taking the stone as well?'

Cyril mused as he knocked that black stone where he's standing at.

Thud! Thud!

Cyril frowned before pulling out his Goblin's Pickaxe. He wrapped it with his Aura before he started breaking the stone… if possible.

Dink! Dink! Crack!

Crash!

Three times! It only took three times before the pickaxe's durability was gone destroying the goblin artifact!

However, perhaps thanks to his S-Rank Aura, he managed to take out a handful of rock!

He kept it inside his storage space before taking out another Pickaxe. He took a total of 10 of these from the Red Goblin Tribe so he still has 9 of them.

Soon, Cyril started mining or maybe destroying, the stones around the Conqueror Staff hoping that it would loosen for a bit. Well, he no longer had an idea what to do aside from this so he no longer hesitated and did everything he can.

Dink! Dink!

Crack!

It actually didn't last that long before he used up all of his Pickaxes. He also noticed that the Artifact has indeed loosened a lot!

'I did it!'

Cyril wanted to celebrate but he was suddenly interrupted by the Frilled Shark Lava Beast.

Bam!

The barrier around the stone stopped the Lava Beast.

Crack!

Unfortunately, the previous tough barrier weakened a lot perhaps due to Cyril messing with the black stone!

A small hole was created by that smash and a concentrated ball of red energy hit Cyril's face leaving him in pain!

"Ahhh!"