Chapter 249: Display of power.

During the following days Elred’s group kept together, watching each other’s backs. While form the safety reasons and camaraderie perspective it was a good choice, Lee hated it to his bones. Them staying close meant lady Panello had an easy time monitoring them.Of course, it was surprisingly warm to experience how Elred and the rest took care of him, but Lee even considered the option to stay behind in the camp to get away from her. Unfortunately, he had no idea when he would get a chance to hunt or even see another old god, thus there was no other option but to depart with the rest.

The army of over three and a half hundred hunters stormed through jungle, hills and savannas, mercilessly slaughtering everything on its path. If looked from above, the humans resembled a swarm of insects, that kept rushing forth, leaving behind piles of dead bodies.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the desert, and Dain turned out to be right – they needed large amounts of water to not die from dehydration in half a day. The place was worse than sauna. It was not only unbearably hot – it was as humid as in any other place in Skalara, be it jungle or savanna.

It was a strange phenomenon how no plant grew in the golden sand, despite the air carrying so much moisture. Of course, because of it, the desert was covered in a thick mist and running through it made one feel they had been dropped in a pot of boiling water.

Lady Panello was the only who who didn’t shed a droplet of sweat. She leisurely followed the crowd, coldly looking at everyone, but at the same time giving the impression she wasn’t really there.

Many hunters would’ve loved to joke that her staying comfortably cool was due to her heart of ice, but no one would ever dare to voice such suicidal thought. Obviously, the reason for her comfort was her robe, a high quality artifact, and Lee noted to himself that he had to get one of those as well.

***

It was baffling how Alwin and Dain could tell the directions in the thick mist. They expertly led to the likely place the old god was slumbering at, an elevated plateau in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately this was where the quick advancement of the expedition ended.

No matter how desperate the humans were to deal with the old god to get back sooner, to a place where their asses weren’t constantly cooked, they had to deal with the creatures inhabiting the place first.

Around the bubbling lava pools rushed ants, in a size of an average dog. They were dark brown in color, incredibly quick, and because of their numbers – annoying to deal with.

Apparently these were called crater ants and their main food were scrochbeetles – armored beetle-like insects that lie next to lava pools resembling carriage-sized rocks. According to Elred’s explanation, the beetles grew by absorbing the elemental energy from lava pools, although it was hard to imagine how exactly they were reproducing.

Upon arrival, hunters began to slaughter both ants and the beetles, except the second part turned out to be rather challenging. While the insects weren’t very mobile, their carapaces were made of material harder than rock, and it took the effort of several elemental masters to break through. And the worst part was that despite the size, none of the beetles had elemental sparks.

Since killing the ants wasn’t that hard, Lee mostly focused on that. While their numbers seemed endless, he patiently kept cutting them in halves, with the corner of his eye watching the main crowd.

But that was when the real challenge began.

Hunters finally managed to pierce through the carapaces of three beetles at the same time, and the things died releasing a piercing wail. It didn’t alarm their kin, but worked as a rallying cry for the ants. Not only they began to rush over from all over the place, they began to crawl out from the cool lava crusts that worked as the solid ground on the plateau.

There were thousands of them, probably tens, if not hundreds, of thousands. It was clear that if the hunting party was somewhere in the middle of it, probably only lady Panello would survive, if lucky.

Only now Lee realized why the hunters didn’t charge straight in, like they had done on any other occasion up until now. In fact, they did exactly the opposite – the moment the three beetles died, Alwin gave the command to retreat.

Turns out, the timing of the kills had been well coordinated and this was when the hunters began to go all out. Starting from a side of plateau, the human army methodically slaughtered the ants that kept arriving from the other parts of it and crawling out from underground.

Once again, the biggest problem was the futility of the exercise. Neither the crater ants nor scorchbeetles had sparks, and the killing was done in the name of a greater good. Before awakening the old god, hunters were set to make sure there was nothing that would threaten their safety.

This way the hunters performed genocide on the insects for two days, only having a short rest during the night. When before the sunset of the second day the area was mostly clear, humans had to acknowledge that the endeavor had been more challenging than they initially thought – most didn’t have that much water left.

Despite the exhaustion, it was decided to get through with the plan. People were already fed up with the place and didn’t want to cross the desert two more times by going after water and coming back.

Either they actually needed help or it was only a polite gesture, Alwin and Dain gave hunters a command to have a short rest, and came over to lady Panello.

"Your Lordship, we have pointed out three likely locations where the old god could be hibernating." Alwin said, "Would you mind taking a look? And maybe share your opinion?"

"You want me to wake it up?" The elemental lord asked in a dry voice.

"If you don’t mind, Lady Panello." Alwin said.

What followed was a pure display of power.

She was clearly showing off, when using two gravity step artifacts Panello climbed around fifteen, maybe twenty feet above the ground. Then, without much preparation, she raised her fist above her head first, gathering large amounts of fire elemental energy, and plunged down, slamming the ground.

The seemingly simple move instilled lasting fear into the hearts of the hunters. Under her punch, the ground that was formed of dark, cooled lava, instantly melted into a pool of liquid fire. It splashed in all directions, fortunately not reaching the hunters, who stood in the distance, holding their breaths.

Not a speck of dust, to not speak of a droplet of lava fell on Panello’s robe, though. When she stood back up, from her nonchalant expression one couldn’t tell whether the earlier move had taken any effort at all. She wasn’t blushed and her hair was still neatly tied in a bun. The only change was the curiosity in her eyes as she observed the lava pool, seemingly expecting the old god to crawl out from underneath it.

Lee had seen elemental lords use their skills, but he had never seen anything like this. If during the Blackwater incident any of the junior elders had hit the fortress’s wall or gate this way, there wouldn’t have been anything left to fight against. This was an elemental lord of a whole another level.

Obviously, it was due to the elemental laws she had comprehended. Be it the quantity or the complexity of the particular elemental law utilized, the effect was terrifying.

Lee’s first impulse was to immediately flee, and it took him a lot of willpower to continue to stay and watch. Likely, large part of the hunters felt the same way, but what helped was Elred’s reaction.