"Careful! Something's coming up from underground!"
Gauss had barely finished speaking.
The trembling beneath their feet grew violent.
Cracks in the ground widened at a visible pace, as though some creature below was struggling to break free of the earth.
Albenna shielded Gauss as she backed away with him.
"Rumble!!!"
A loud crash followed.
The earth at the center of the fissure suddenly blasted upward.
The head of an insect with a hard shell burst out of the ground.
Before them were several enormous, many-legged insect monsters with sharp mouthparts made for digging.
Gauss instantly recognized their species.
"Ankhegs."
Of course, that hardly mattered. Ankhegs were mostly just Challenge Level 2 monsters. Aside from their Talent for digging, they were nothing special in a fight.
More importantly, Gauss could feel a wave of scorching heat surging from the enormous hole the ankhegs had dug.
"Boom!!!"
A blast of fire-aspected breath energy erupted from underground like a volcano.
At the same time, a fearsome crimson figure tore through the earth and shot into the sky with overwhelming force.
Its powerful Dragon Wings spread fully, beating heavily as it hovered above them, stirring up waves of scorching air.
Its crimson scales glinted in the blazing midday sun.
It was like a flying, living volcano.
It was the Red Dragon Beast!
Gauss realized that seeing the beast in person was far more shocking than observing it through the shared vision of Clay Magic.
So this was a dragon?
At least in appearance, its body shouldn't be much different from the red dragons born among its kin.
The moment it appeared, its molten-gold slit pupils locked onto Gauss Squad on the ground.
Gauss in particular. A familiar yet strange aura emanated from his small body.
That aura made it vaguely uneasy.
But the being