The guardian unleashed

Hera was with Legan on top of Nimbus as the Sentinel ran across the dungeon. Unfortunately, he couldn't carry everyone and the corpse of the manticore while flying. But after the Empress used her crafting skill to create a sled and a harness, that problem was solved. After realizing how much food and materials she was leaving behind while hunting, she asked for blueprints like that while in Pinnacle Mountain. The elf that was her contact at the time was kind enough to give her an assortment of options, from simple ropes that could be made with few materials to a full-blown luxury carriage with spring-loaded suspension and rubber wheels. That one the Empress was never able to make, but she made a point of creating the simpler ones as she started to let go of the anger she felt because of Silah.

Another thing that added to the weight was a small bat Legan found. The creature came flying at them together with a large gust of wind, and the dwarf killed it by accident when trying to make a bone wall to cover them. Despite it looking somewhat weak, the Vortex Bat was able to sneak past Hera's senses or move fast enough so that she wasn't even able to sense it approaching. Just by that metric, they agreed this could be a worthy gift for Scryotra. They were already getting close to the red tree they used as a landmark. Unfortunately, they were a bit late. Everyone agreed to meet up after one hour of hunting, and the deadline was very close.

If things followed what Hera was expecting, that wouldn't have happened. The problem was the time it took her to gather enough wood and grass to create the sled and harness. Pure crafters would spend less mana when making something from a blueprint, but even they generally took the mana from a stone rather than from themselves. The reason for that was the sheer cost of creating an item out of nowhere. Even a simple wooden toothpick would be in the hundreds of thousands of mana, and several restrictions were attached to doing that. However, that cost would be lowered if you had the materials on hand, and those restrictions would be mostly gone. All the skill asked was that you already had created the item by hand once. When they finally got to the large tree with red leaves, they were the last to arrive.

"Are we late?" Hera asked when Nimbus finally stopped. The Sentinel jumped up while Daskka snapped the harness off to let the sled come to a stop underneath them.

Bonnie glanced at the clock on her tablet, "About five minutes. That's not too bad."

"I see your hunt went well. It does feel a bit unfair that you didn't have to drag the monster here yourself," Alex looked at the dog-sized manticore in the sled.

"Says the girl who can run in the air," Bonnie rolled her eyes, "Besides, Lena did the same thing."

Helena was sitting on the back of her Wasp Guard, with a couple of large bodies by her side, "I have skills that help me carry things. I don't see how it's unfair for me to use them. The same thing with Hera."

"Fine, fine. How about we show what we got?" Bonnie stepped forward and gestured to the bodies by her side. One was a green wildcat-looking monster. Its head was severed, but the neck seemed to have closed off, even if the creature was no longer moving, "This one is a Rejuvenating Feline. It has such a strong regeneration that even after I blasted its head off, the body still managed to close the wound. I was worried it would continue moving, so I fried the brain, too. Then we have this one," she pulled a small beetle from a pouch. Its carapace was completely covered in small thorns of different sizes, and its shell looked quite sturdy, "It can shoot out those thorns and make more of them rather quickly. I'm not sure if it's a regenerating thing or just man-made, but I figured that might be something good. The last one is, hang on," Bonnie had Ruby holding something behind her. It was an odd green ooze that almost looked like a mix of moss and slime, "This one is called Mossy Ooze. Despite its appearance, it is super corrosive. I had to ask Ruby to hold it; otherwise, it would melt anything it touched. When it was alive, it seemed to control that, but after I killed it, it just does that all the time."

"And Ruby doesn't get hurt?" Legan asked.

Bonnie shook her head, "No since she's a slime, she can be ok while touching this. She was the one who tested it, by the way. I didn't ask her to do it."

"Those are interesting. The beetle ends up being the less exciting," Alex gestured to the side where her own pile of prey was, "I'll make this quicker. We have a sprite, kind of like a fairy, that can reveal things in a wide area. Then, this snake with a clockwork pattern on its scales. It messes with time, I think. Or, like, the possibilities. When it came at me, it looked like it was in several places at once and could choose to appear in the one place I didn't cover. It would be hard to kill if I didn't go faster. Those are mine. The snake took a lot of time to find."

Hera pointed at the manticore and explained the monsters they found. The Granite Golem, the Chromatic Manticore, and the Vortex Bat. They all seemed good ideas, leaving only Helena for last.

"I kind of overlapped with Hera. I found this crab filled with ores in its shell, thinking it might be a good idea for defense. Then, this small lizard. It's called Lavaflame Drake, and it just breathes fire. The last one is this Frostburn Hog. His tusks are made out of ice, and I figured the ice and fire idea could be a good cover."

"Those all seem good. Let's take all of them. Maybe Dormina can pick the 'worst one,' or we can just feed it eleven instead of ten," Legan suggested.

"Yeah, that's a good call," Hera looked at the monsters they gathered. If it wasn't for the ones Helena brought, she wouldn't even need to make a new sled.

Seeing that the Empress was starting to measure sizes with her eyes, Helena said, "I can have my Wasp Guard carry the ones I got. Don't worry."

"Are you sure? We would only need to grab some wood and grass for me to make another sled and set it up."

"How many trees?" Alex asked.

"Just one. And like, 10 minutes."

"We can arrive there by then. Let's just go," Helena replied and jumped off her Wasp Guard. With Nimbus pulling the sled, they gathered all the monsters and moved towards the hidden Naga village once more.

Nothing happened as they returned, and Dormina barely acknowledged their presence when they got there. She was in the same room that she was before, but it had changed. Now, instead of just a regular room, it was a large circular arena with Scryotra resting in a pit in the center. The cultist leader moved closer to the monsters the group brought and analyzed each one before tossing them into the pit for the future guardian beast to eat. One by one, the creatures were flung inside, with the only one who was left behind being the beetle that Bonnie found. Dormina mumbled something about it not working well with the rest. Seeing Scryotra eat the monsters was terrifying, to say the least. The creature was able to chow down the entire manticore in less than a minute. The rest looked like just simple snacks instead of a full meal. With each monster the future guardian beast ate, it would change a little bit. The golem's core made its shell a bit more dull, and the geode crab turned it into obsidian. The Lavaflame Drake allowed it to puff small embers from the mantis' mouth. When it was all over, Dormina walked forward with a black box and dropped one last monster for Scryotra to eat. A Stealth Spirit.

The moment it ate the spirit, the future guardian beast vanished from sight. It didn't use any skills or spells. Instead, its signature ability was triggered. Now, no one would be able to see it from the front, only from the sides or from the back. The body of the monster also changed; the pincers became more pronounced, and the line where the scorpion part would meet the mantis part blended more seamlessly.

"That's the one you saw in your vision. Isn't it?" Bonnie turned to Hera.

"Yeah, the size is wrong, and some of the details around the claws and tail are different. But it's the one I saw," Hera nodded.

"Good, good!" Dormina smiled, her fangs peeking out from her mouth, "Now it's time to move," she brandished a whip, hitting Scryotra's back, "Go!"

The guardian beast flinched and pushed a part of the wall in the pit, vanishing in a hidden tunnel behind it.

"Warn the others. Today, their precious city will fall. And tomorrow, the rest of their empire," Dormina entered a room by the side of the arena. The moment the door closed, it instantly opened again with the cult leader dressed in full battle armor. It was a mix of leather with some exoskeletons from large bugs in different shades of black and green. She also had a crown that showed the cult's symbol, the two claws spinning around each other and a toothy maw in the center. Another difference was that she looked significantly older. Her scales had lost their luster, and one of her eyes was glazed over.

Hera and her friends didn't even have time to rest after this. Dormina started walking towards the exit of the hidden village, and the rest of the cult followed along. Every single Naga here was already wearing their full sets of armor. Some even had small spikes attached to the ends of their tails. Seeing that, Hera walked over to who seemed to be the arms masters and asked if there was a spare. Luckily, he had one. It was almost like a nail for her tail and had no actual attributes. In essence, it would be just a chunk of metal with leather straps. Either way, the Empress' interest was more on how the blade was made than its scaling or potential skills. Especially since its notification explicitly said that the item couldn't be taken out of the dungeon. Using a small loophole in her legacy, Hera ordered her court to remember all the details of the tail spike. Doing that would make sure they would remember when she asked about it. Lurize, Nimbus, or Livy might even be able to draw it properly later.

Focusing on what was happening, the Empress flowed along the rest of the Naga together with the rest of her party. They marched up to the exit of the village, but instead of leaving in the same location, they were coming from a hole in the ground near a large city. It had stone walls around it and a mesa in the center that was carved out and is currently being used as a castle. The people who lived there were already aware of the cult, and a small army was forming just outside of the wall.

Dormina watched the Naga gather, including someone with an adorned armor and several spikes on his shoulder pad, "There he is. General Grostha. The man who killed my son. For those who don't know. Each spike in his armor represents a victory in battle. He is the best they have to offer," a low rumbling started to spread, making all the Naga, both from the cultist's side and not to look around. Yet, Dormina didn't seem to care. She raised her arms, "Now, you shall all see our guardian beast in action. The true guardian of the Naga. SCRYOTRA, BRING DEATH TO THESE HERETICS!"

As she finished yelling, the mesa started to shake, and with a blast, a giant creature appeared, bursting through the base. The stone castle toppled forward, forcing the army to run away. The guardian beast dug under the city and brought the main structure of the city down like a tree. Even more impressive was the speed in which it sidestepped from the incoming rubble. Only after it moved did the cultists see the beast since it was able to hide from anything directly in front of it. Scryotra was still a far cry from the mountain it would one day become, but now it could already tower over that city's walls. The Naga roared and started attacking the monster, but its shell was too strong. Even the general wasn't able to scratch the exoskeleton of the cultist guardian beast. The monster roared, the scorpion mouth spewing out acid that melted everything it touched while the claws ripped apart anyone unlucky enough to get in the way. Spells were flung around, but most missed. Even the ones that hit only brushed off against the obsidian carapace.

The rest of the cultists didn't even move from their place. All watched in fear and awe as their guardian beast decimated an entire city in a matter of minutes. Scryotra ended his rampage while covering every single Naga, man, woman, or child in acid, be it liquid or in steam form. It was methodical as if it was something trained to do. Not even the bodies of the ones already killed by it were spared.

As that scene raged on and some of the cultists realized what they had done, Dormina let out a maniac laugh, "Burn! Die! You all will pay! Every single one of you! Every single Naga shall perish. The new age has come. The age of Scryotra!"