Crushing

"These two Earth Element Golems are the first I've seen you bring out. I didn't expect you, Taylor, to have done some research into Elemental Golems as well."

Standing beside Taylor, Taifas looked curiously at the warrior and dire wolf made of mud. He had not expected his Elemental Wizard friend to have such broad interests.

Hearing Taifas's praise, Taylor smiled happily. Anyone would be pleased to hear others praise the fruits of their labor.

The two chatted and laughed amid the encirclement of six magical beasts, showing not the slightest vigilance or tension in the face of danger, as though they had long grown accustomed to it.

Their behavior was perfectly normal. They had been on patrol for nearly a month, and they had encountered scenes like this seven or eight times already.

Taifas's nose twitched. He sensed that the six magical beasts had drawn several steps closer, and he said with a smile.

"The usual?"

Taylor snapped his fingers, and the two Elemental Golems pounced at the two tigers lying in ambush nearby. He answered firmly.

"The usual!"

Taylor drew upon the magic within him. Several Crescent Wind Blades shot from his fingertips, streaking toward the two snake-like magical beasts hanging from the trees. While the venomous snakes dodged, he fired several Fireballs in quick succession, smashing their heads apart.

Taifas instantly shifted into his combat form. Bulging crocodilian scales stretched his robe tight, his eyes turned vertical, his nostrils flared wildly, and his hands transformed entirely into tentacles as he crashed into a towering Earth Armor Bear.

The two hulking creatures collided and grappled wildly, making the ground tremble slightly. The surrounding forest rustled, leaves swirling around them. The Earth Armor Bear swung its massive paw and slammed it into the thick scales on Taifas's back, but Taifas was completely unaffected. His hands became tentacles, winding around the Earth Armor Bear's neck as he tried to break through via its facial features.

A faint yellow glow emerged from the Earth Armor Bear's body. Earth Elements condensed into clumps of soil, blocking the spreading tentacles. A stone spike suddenly thrust up from the ground. After retreating to evade it, Taifas immediately bent down to gather strength. The tentacles in his hands fused into a long whip, which lashed heavily across the Earth Armor Bear's belly and sent it flying.

The green-furred monkey swinging through the trees had already been dealt with by Taylor using a cloud of Black Fog and several Wind Blades.

After effortlessly resolving his own opponent, Taylor leisurely found a broken stump and sat down to watch his Elemental Golems battle the two tigers.

The Earth Element Dire Wolf, its body condensed from Earth Elements, had already begun fighting a fierce tiger with two tails. They battled in the most primal, blood-stirring manner possible, biting and clawing each other, using every available part of their bodies to tear at their enemy's flesh.

Each time the Earth Element Dire Wolf opened its jaws, it tore away a huge chunk of the tiger's flesh. The tiger roared madly, but every time it opened its bloody maw, all it tore off were tasteless clumps of soil that choked its throat.

After fighting for a while, the Earth Element Dire Wolf was still nothing more than a body formed from compacted earth. Its claws and teeth were made of sharp, solid stone blades. Yet its opponent, the two-tailed tiger, was now drenched in blood. One of its eyes had been clawed blind, and a huge bite mark had appeared beside its throat. Had it shifted a few inches to the left, it would have taken its life.

"Roooar..."

Looking at the monster before it—one that could not be killed, bitten apart, or shredded, and could constantly regenerate—the tiger's eyes flashed with fear. It had never seen such a monster before. This was both the first and last time it would encounter something so terrifying.

The two-tailed tiger could not help letting out a pleading roar, filled entirely with terror and fear.

But the Earth Element Dire Wolf could not understand the emotions or meaning carried in that roar. It was merely an emotionless Elemental Golem.

The Earth Element Dire Wolf pounced once more. In the tiger's despairing gaze, it finally tore apart the tiger's head, ripped its entire spine from the corpse, and laid it before Taylor, who was watching from the side.

"Hmm... a little bloody."

Taylor reached out and drew the Elemental Golem Core from the Earth Element Dire Wolf's body, holding it in his palm. He gave his assessment of the battle.

But it was truly practical.

Sensing the Elemental Golem Core in his palm slowly replenishing its stored magic, Taylor felt that Elemental Golems were quite useful after all.

Elemental Golems were exceptionally effective against mindless creatures or magical beasts with low intelligence. As long as the Elemental Golem Core was not destroyed, they could defeat enemies slightly above their own level.

If Elemental Golems were already this powerful, then what kind of unimaginable might did Golem Constructs possess? They were said to be something only wizards could fully create, built from hundreds of sorcery runes, with bodies forged from the strongest and sturdiest wizard-made alloys.

It truly made him both curious and eager.

Elsewhere, the armored warrior formed from Earth Elements had also defeated its opponent: a crippled tiger with three eyes, the one in the center of its brow having been gouged out.

The crippled tiger had been pierced through by the granite spear held by the Mud Armor Warrior. Taylor walked over, prodded the hollow in its brow where the eye had been removed, then even reached out and patted the crippled tiger's chubby face.

"I gave you a chance back then. I told you to get the hell out of here. I gave you a chance, but you were useless."

Hearing Taylor's words, the crippled tiger said nothing. Its breathing merely grew slower and slower. It was simply too weak.

After exhaling a long breath, the tiger's abdomen no longer rose and fell as it had before. It had breathed its last.

Seeing the light fade from the crippled tiger's eyes, Taylor had no interest in arguing with a tiger. He casually dug a transparent Magic Core out of its skull and left.

For magical beasts specializing in physical enhancement, their Magic Cores generally lacked any specific element. They tended to be transparent, attribute-less Magic Cores. Such cores were not especially useful and were generally used as fuel for certain sorcery tools.

Looking at the attribute-less Magic Core in his hand, as well as the many he had already collected in his laboratory, Taylor could not help feeling that they resembled the Zombie head Crystals he had collected in another plane.

After ordering the Mud Armor Warrior to dig out the venom sacs and Magic Cores of the two snake-like magical beasts nearby, Taylor discovered that one was fire-attributed, while the other was surprisingly a rare ice-attributed one.

A fiery-red shadow flashed across the sky. A little bird landed on Taylor's shoulder, its tiny eyes fixed tightly on the fire-attributed snake Magic Core, filled with immense longing.

Noticing Dom's pleading gaze, Taylor smiled slightly and held the red Magic Core out before him.

"Here you go, little guy."

Dom chirped happily and pecked the Magic Core from Taylor's palm into his belly.