Jekyll roared and opened its mouth wide. Right now, he was in his true form. A Chimaera that looked like a Half-Dragon and Half-Lion with green scales covering its entire body. He was a Taotie. One of the Four Evils that had made the Southern Continent his home.
The Blademasters immediately unleashed their Sword Aura to keep their footing firm on the ground. One of the Archmages cast Entangling Roots on their own forces to prevent them from being sucked up by the Taotie’s vacuum that was similar to a blackhole that would devour anything.
This was not the first time they had seen Jekyll’s true form, because they were also there when the Human Hero repelled the Demons, while standing on top of this very same beast.
The remaining Archmage wasn’t idle either. He threw a Golden Crystal at the Teleportation Gate. There was no way that they could fight against a Beast that was as powerful as Jekyll so they decided to activate the gate prematurely to call for help.
A Giant Golden Portal appeared at the center of the gate, which signaled that it was currently active.
Jekyll unleashed a breath of black flames at the Teleportation Gate to destroy it once and for all. He saw what the Archmage did and decided to just destroy the gate first, before dealing with the Elven Defenders.
“Not on my watch!” The Archmage who casted the Entangling Roots Earlier activated the runes surrounding the teleportation gate and created a barrier.
The underground cavern shook as Jekyll’s flames collided with the barrier protecting the gate.
Celine stabbed the blunt end of her Deathscythe into the ground and created a Dark Sphere to protect herself from the aftermath of Jekyll’s strong attack.
“I’m Rolling!”
Kasogonaga disregarded the black flames and charged towards the barrier. It planned to destroy it, so that Jekyll’s flames could annihilate the hateful Elves whom it wanted to kill so badly.
A cracking sound echoed within the cavern as several cracks formed in the defensive barrier after Kasogonaga’s attack. The Rainbow-Colored Anteater pressed on with determination.
“Die!”
With a hateful shout, the barrier broke apart and Jekyll’s Black Flames advanced towards the Elves whose faces had turned pale.
Suddenly, a resounding clap reverberated from within the Teleportation Gate. Several massive lightning bolts erupted from the center of the gate, negating Jekyll’s black flames, and pushing back Kasogonaga at the same time.
“We meet again, you damned Taotie,” an arrogant voice said. “It’s time to settle our differences once and for all!”
A beautiful creature emerged from the Giant Golden Portal and landed in front of the Elves. Lightning snaked along his silver body as he glared hatefully at the Taotie in front of him.
He had a long single horn protruding from his head that glowed brightly within the Cavern. He was a creature of Myth and Legends. He was none other than a Qilin. A Half Unicorn, Half Dragon Beast that was hailed as one of the protectors of the Silvermoon Continent.
He was only five-meters tall and yet, he gave off a presence that wouldn’t lose to Jekyll.
“Your Excellency, Eneru, thank you for hearing our call!” the Archmage that threw the golden crystal at the Gate bowed respectfully.
The Qilin gave the Elf a side-long glance before returning his attention to the Taotie.
“Ah, the most Hypocritical Being among the Myriad Beasts of the Silvermoon Continent has arrived,” Jekyll sneered. “I regret not eating you back then.”
“That was your mistake,” Eneru replied. “You will no longer have that opportunity.”
“We’ll see about that, you little Lightning Horse.”
“Shut up, you disgusting Abomination.”
Jekyll and the Eneru charged at each other, making the ground tremble.
The Qilin had covered itself with the power of lightning, turning himself into a lightning bolt. Jekyll, on the other hand, unleashed the Evil Energy within his body and turned into a dark ray of light.
Light and Dark collided causing sparks of deadly elements to rain down on the spectators around them.
Kasogonaga took this opportunity to attack the Elves. It was only pushed back by the lightning bolt earlier and received no damage from the Qilin’s attack. The two Blademasters immediately repelled it because the Anteater targeted the teenage Elves who didn’t have the strength to resist its attack.
“Dark Pestilence!” Celine shouted and hundreds of Blood Bats materialized in front of her. These bats shrieked in unison before descending upon the congregation of Elves that was protecting the Teleportation gate.
“Ahhh!”
“Noooo! Get away!”
“Don’t come near me!”
The Young Elves tried their best to attack the Blood Bats, but they were too fast, and too agile to hit. These bats mercilessly bit their targets, drawing blood from their bodies. Immediately, those bitten by them suffered several status ailments like blindness, paralysis, lethargy, berserk, and confusion.
“Don’t panic! They are just made up of Dark Energy. Use your Wind Magic to repel them!”
The two Archamages worked in unison to use a powerful gust of wind to repel the Blood Bats, but Celine had already anticipated this reaction.
She then snapped her fingers and stared at the Elves in disdain.
“Detonate!”
The hundreds of bats detonated at the same time, showering the Elves with a blood rain that was highly acidic. Screams of pain resounded within the cavern as wisps of smoke rose up from the bodies of the Elves that were hit by Celine’s attacks that were filled with anger and hate.
“You traitorous bitch!” one of the Archmage roared in anger as he summoned a giant fireball to turn Celine into ashes.
Celine merely chuckled as she disappeared from where she stood. The fireball missed its target and exploded, making the inside of the cavern tremble.
Pieces of rock and soil started to rain down on the heads of the Elven Defenders as Jekyll and the Qilin wrestled with one another. That and the fact that the Elves had no choice but to fight inside the cavern made things worse.
Soon, the cavern showed signs of collapse as more rocks and dirt started falling from above.
“This was your plan all along!” Eneru finally realized that Jekyll was purposely hitting the areas around the cavern to cause a cave-in, in order to bury the Teleportation Gate as well as the Elves defending it.
Celine was helping with the same as she allowed the Elves to cast powerful spells at her, and dodging at the last minute.
When Kasogonaga also realized that this was a good plan, it began slamming itself against the cavern walls to help speed up its collapse.
“Bastards!” Eneru gave Jekyll a powerful kick, sending him several meters away from the Teleportation Gate.
He didn’t dare to unleash a strong attack because it might trigger the cave’s collapse. The Golden Portal of the Elves glowed once more and a two-meter Earth Golem jumped out of it.
“That was one difficult journey,” the Earth Golem muttered as it glanced at Jekyll.
‘Sh*t!’ Jekyll cursed internally because an Ancient Earth Golem had appeared to assist the Elves.
He recognized the small Earth Golem because it was one of the Guardians of the Silvermoon Continent that he didn’t want to face the most. He would rather fight a dozen Qilins than face this single Earth Golem that was known for its cheat-like ability.
Jekyll’s tail lashed at the Qilin and sent him flying towards the Teleportation Gate. He then opened his mouth to suck up Celine and Kasogonaga, who were still attacking the cavern, unaware of the current peril that they were facing.
The two were immediately sucked up inside Jekyll’s mouth and the latter ran away without looking back.
‘What’s wrong?’ Celine inquired.
‘Why did you stop us?’ Kasogonaga chimed in to ask a question.
Jekyll’s stomach was like a special domain where he could choose to store anything he swallowed. Currently, he placed Celine, and Kasogonaga in a safe place that allowed them to communicate with him.
‘Drauum arrived,’ Jekyll replied as he ran through the passage leading to the cavern’s exit. He needed to save the members of William’s Legion as well as the Freedom Fighters who accompanied them to destroy the Teleportation Gate.
Celine’s face immediately went pale when she heard Jekyll’s words. Among the Guardians of the Silvermoon Continent, Drauum was considered a Pseudo-Demigod. It was so strong that many grudgingly acknowledged that it was something that they wouldn’t want to face in battle.
Jekyll was one of them, so the moment he saw Drauum, he immediately chose to flee rather than stay and fight against the Ancient Golem.
The Alliance had already considered the possibility of the gate being able to bring forth reinforcements from the Silvermoon Continent in its incomplete state. However, none of them expected that it would be able to summon a Myriad Beast, and a Pseudo-Demigod at the same time.
‘This mission is a failure,’ Celine muttered in helplessness.
Now that she was fully aware of their current situation, she felt thankful for Jekyll’s quick-wittedness. Perhaps, if they had stayed inside the cavern for a minute longer, all of them would now be buried deep within the Earth, unable to free themselves from a rocky prison.
