Crushing

"These two earth elemental puppets are the first time I've seen you bring them out. I never expected you, Taylor, to have some knowledge of elemental puppets too."

Standing beside Taylor, Taifas stared curiously at the warrior and giant wolf formed from mud. He had not expected his Elemental Wizard friend to dabble in such a wide range of fields.

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

The two chatted and laughed while surrounded by six magical beasts, showing not the slightest vigilance or tension despite the danger, as though they were long used to such situations.

Their behavior was perfectly normal. The patrol mission had been underway 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 moved a few steps closer, and he said with a smile.

"The usual?"

Taylor snapped his fingers. The two elemental puppets pounced toward the two tigers lying in ambush nearby as he answered decisively.

"The usual!"

Taylor drew on the magic within him. Several Crescent Wind Blades flew from his fingertips, shooting straight toward the two snake-like magical beasts hanging from the trees. While the venomous snakes dodged, he fired several fireballs in quick succession, shattering their heads.

Taifas instantly assumed his combat form. Bulging crocodile scales stretched his robe taut, his eyes turned into vertical pupils, and his nose flared wildly. Both his hands transformed into tentacles as he crashed into a towering Earth Armor Bear.

The two massive creatures slammed into each other and wrestled madly, making the ground tremble faintly. The surrounding woods rustled, leaves swirling around them. The Earth Armor Bear swung its enormous paw and smashed it against the thick scales on Taifas's back. Taifas remained completely unaffected. His hands became tentacles, winding around the Earth Armor Bear's neck as he tried to exploit its facial features.

A faint yellow glow emerged from the Earth Armor Bear's body. Earth elements condensed into clumps of soil, blocking the advancing tentacles. An earth spike suddenly thrust up from below. 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 between the tree trunks had already been dealt with by Taylor using a mass of black fog and several wind blades.

After effortlessly taking care of his own opponent, Taylor leisurely found a broken stump, sat down, and watched his elemental puppets fight the two tigers.

The earth elemental giant wolf, its body condensed from earth elements, had already begun battling a fierce tiger with two tails. They fought in the most primal, blood-stirring manner possible, biting, clawing, and using every part of their bodies to tear at their enemy's flesh.

Every time the earth elemental giant wolf opened its jaws, it tore away a large chunk of the tiger's flesh. The tiger roared madly, but whenever it opened its bloody maw, all it tore off were tasteless clods of earth that caught in its throat.

After fighting for a while, the earth elemental giant wolf was still nothing more than a body formed from clumps of earth. Its claws and fangs were made of sharp, sturdy 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 wound had appeared beside its throat. Had it shifted a few inches to the left, it would have taken its life.

"Rrroar..."

Looking at the monster before it—one that could not be killed, bitten apart, or clawed to pieces, and could constantly regenerate—the tiger's eyes flashed with fear. It had never seen such a creature 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, its cry filled with terror and fear.

But the earth elemental giant wolf could not understand the emotions or meaning contained in that roar. It was merely an emotionless elemental puppet.

The earth elemental giant wolf pounced again. In the tiger's despairing gaze, it tore apart its head and forcibly ripped the entire spine out of the corpse, then placed it before Taylor, who had been watching from the side.

"Mm... a little bloody."

Taylor reached out, drew the elemental puppet core from the earth elemental giant wolf's body, and held it in his palm. He gave his assessment of the battle.

But it was really practical.

Sensing the elemental puppet core in his palm slowly restoring its magical energy reserves, Taylor felt that elemental puppets were still quite useful.

Elemental puppets were especially effective against mindless creatures or magical beasts with low intelligence. So long as the elemental puppet core was not damaged, they could defeat enemies a little above their own level.

If elemental puppets were already this powerful, then what unimaginable might did puppet constructs possess—those said to be something only Wizards could fully create, built from hundreds of witchcraft runes and given bodies forged from the strongest, 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 wielded by the Mud Armor Warrior. Taylor walked over, pried at the empty hole in its brow, 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 didn't know how to use it."

Hearing Taylor's words, the crippled tiger remained silent. Only its breathing gradually slowed. It was simply too weak.

After letting out a long breath, the tiger's belly no longer rose as it had moments before. It had exhaled its final breath.

Seeing the light fade from the crippled tiger's eyes, Taylor had no interest in holding a grudge against it. He casually dug a transparent magical core from its skull and left.

For magical beasts that specialized in physical enhancement, their magical cores generally did not possess a specific element. They tended to be transparent, non-elemental magical cores. Such cores had limited uses and were usually used as fuel for certain witchcraft tools.

Looking at the non-elemental magical cores in his hand and the many he had already collected in the laboratory, Taylor could not help feeling that they resembled the zombie skull crystals he had gathered in another plane.

After ordering the Mud Armor Warrior to extract the venom sacs and magical cores from the two snake-like magical beasts nearby, Taylor discovered that one was fire-elemental, while the other was unexpectedly a rare ice-elemental beast.

A fiery red shadow streaked through the sky. A little bird landed on Taylor's shoulder, its tiny eyes fixed tightly on the fire-elemental snake's magical core, filled with immense longing.

Noticing Dom's pleading gaze, Taylor smiled faintly and held the red magical core out before him.

"Here you go, little guy."

Dom chirped happily and swallowed the magical core in his beak.