The Record of Unusual Creatures

Sometimes things happened faster than could be described. As Hao Ren came before the lift on the platform, the Twilight Guards saw him and shivered in fear. After that, the first shot was fired accidentally.

The Twilight Guards formed a human wall, the pressure gauge on their chests was hissing with steam, and their armors were pressurized and used as firing platforms. The flamethrowers and steam-propelled grenades were fired simultaneously, bullets pierced through the air raining down on the enemies, leaving behind heat trails in the air.

Behind them, snap-on cannons and self-propelled artilleries were raised. The robotic eyes on the barrels were turning, lighting up in red one after another. Then the guns and artilleries began to fire continuously.

To stop a small group of people, the Twilight Guards used what they deemed ridiculously powerful firepower.

When the first shot was fired, Y’zaks erected his Demonic Barrier. Behind the barrier, he slowly straightened up and began to glow in red as his body temperature rose. In the face of the threat of the firepower of the human army, he felt he needed to take them seriously.

The Demonic Barrier gradually expanded as Y’zaks transformed, slowly forming a green light curtain and shielding half of the square. Shells rained down on the light curtain and exploded, obscuring their vision. The commander of the Twilight Guards saw a flash of green light in the smoke, and he ordered, “Activate the runes!”

The guards on the first row immediately ducked, their armors squeaking and hissing as pressurized steam spurted. Some of their armor plates opened, revealing the lining made of sterling silver.

The lining of sterling silver was densely engraved with runes. As these ancient runes were activated, a translucent energy barrier rose in front of the Twilight Guards. Almost immediately, two massive fireballs were fired from the other side.

There was a bow, formed by the flame, on one of the fireballs.

*Boom! Boom!*

The fireballs landed on the ground in front of the Twilight Guards and exploded. The two fireballs had missed their target – it was intentional as Y’zaks and Y’lisabet did not want to kill those guards. The shockwave of the explosion still hit the Demonic Barrier, which shook violently but not broken.

“They are really enthusiastic,” Hao Ren yelled behind the barrier. Y’zaks, Y’lisabet, and Anthony Alfonso jointly maintained the powerful Demonic Barrier to fence off the attacks of the Twilight Guards. But the violent explosions on the barrier were terrifying. “Looks like they really hate us. We must find a way to secure this square.”

“I have more than twenty ways to secure this square,” Y’zaks said with a loud voice. “But I can’t do it without killing them all.”

“Crap. I have more ways than you could ever imagine.” Hao Ren said. “Do you know how many tons of explosives I have brought for this mission?”

A bitchy voice suddenly sounded in their minds. “We could make it simpler.”

Hao Ren froze for a while before he took out the MDT from his pocket. “I have almost forgotten you are in my pocket.”

“I have served you wholeheartedly all these years, yet you only think of me like a coaster and your daughter’s nanny?” The MDT suddenly burst out in anger, its body was so bright as if it was going to explode. “Look at the mess you have created! Where’s your professionalism, code of conduct, and improvisation?”

Hao Ren ignored the PDA. He knew what was in the PDA’s mind the moment it came out of his pocket. “I know your plan. You think that you may be able to sneak past the blockade and teleport us out of this place.”

While the MDT was still trying to make itself look important, Hao Ren had read its mind. “Can’t you let me say it myself?”

Galazur and Anthony Alfonso looked at Hao Ren sideways, thinking to themselves that the inspector who argued with his PDA was holy-effing interesting.

Wendell had no idea what that PDA was, but he roughly knew what it was going to do as others had explained to him. “The lower city is like a maze. I am afraid you would get lost.”

“I have an excellent mapping tool, but I agree with you.” The MDT flew up to Wendell. “So I am not going into the maze. I just need to go into the lift.”

“In that case, I have an idea,” Hao Ren said. “Some of us will stay back here on the platform to divert the enemy’s attention. That way, they would not be able to divert their attention to come after us even if they later find out that we have gone to the lower city.”

Y’zaks said with a rumble, “I think I can do that alone.”

“But you can’t make the illusion of a thousand troops alone. We need to decide now who is going to stay back here.”

“I will stay.” Galazur suddenly stepped forward. The vertical pupils of a dragon had appeared in her eyes, and when she spoke, her mouth spewed fire. “I should be able to block off the entire platform after I shapeshift.”

An image came to mind, Hao Ren had remembered that golden dragon was the original form of Galazur.

He could not help but remind Galazur, “Take it easy. Your power is not so controllable.”

Galazur grinned, looking confident. “I just need to sprawl there and covered my head. As long as their armor-piercing projectiles do not exceed 30 pounds, I don’t even need to wax my scales after that.”

Though the artillery used by the Twilight Guards contained various kinds of incredible dark techniques, such as robotic eyeballs for aiming and steam-powered robotic legs, their firepower was not as advanced, not even environmentally friendly. After a few rounds of shelling, the entire platform would be shrouded in thick smoke and visibility would be zero.

A Twilight Commander opened his face armor, half of his face was covered with steel. A set of lenses that constantly telescopically adjusted itself was mounted on his left eye. The lens moved as it tried to find its targets in the smoke.

It seemed that after the explosion of two fireballs, the opposite side seemed to be quiet.

The cannons had stopped.

“Is target eliminated?” an adjutant muttered.

The commander of Twilight raised his hand to interrupt the adjutant. “Something is not right. If these people could easily break through the encirclement of Steam6, things would not be that easy.”

There was a strange silence. The armored guards were uneasy. They waited for new orders while they prayed for the weird mission to end now. The wizards floating in the rear had not intervened all this while; they were conserving their energy. They would only act when the first line of defense was down. Their mission priority was not to engage the enemy but to blow up the lift platform.

As nervousness rose, a few guards in front suddenly screamed. “Oh, my ancestor! There is something! Something is in the smoke! What the hell is that?”

“Calm down! Hold your position! Hold your position!” The Twilight Commander yelled, but when he looked into the smog, he could not help but exclaim, “In the name of the ancestors and the blood! That’s a giant! Flame Giant!”

A gust of hot air hit their face as smoke was blown away by the wind. The opponent, which had been hidden behind the smoke, finally revealed itself. A humanoid creature, over five meters tall, with magma flowing down his body as he strode forward. The ground melt under his feet with every step he took. The soldiers in front were quaking in their boots as the flame giant was even scarier than the five-meter white wolf. Though Lily was equally significant in size, Y’zaks looked so much more badass after his transformation.

The ugly face of Y’zaks alone would be frightening enough without needing transformation.

As the flame giant strode forward, the white dog followed by baring its fangs and roaring at the guards. The roar was terrifying after being amplified a dozen times though still sounded like a husky.

The guards started to flinch, but the commander shouted. “Don’t run! Valkyries of Valhalla will bless us! Only cowards die with their backs facing the enemy!”

But before his voice trailed off, another weird roar came from high above.

The commander looked up and saw a golden dragon slowly flying over his head.

Just when everyone’s attention was drawn away, a blue light quietly swept past them from a distance.