Leave a comment

With the aid of the three Nightmare Steeds, the rest of the Warhorses finally succeeded in breaking golems’ formation. Still, while the battlefield might have seemed chaotic right now, my golems were all inanimate objects, meaning morale wasn’t even an issue for them. As long as the command was given, they would never hesitate, even unto death. This was especially true for my Seven-stars who fearlessly charged at the Warhorses instead.

The greatest weakness of the Warhorses laid in their disparate strengths. Those at the lead were Seven-stars who numbered a dozen or so. Then came the fifty or so Six-stars, of which included my old friend, Warwraith. Other than these core fighters, the rest were Five-stars and Four-stars, numbering roughly two thousand or so.

Naturally, the Warhorses vastly outnumbered my golems. But my golems were magical constructs specifically made for one purpose only: defense. Not only that, their battle strength was leagues above that of a normal Warhorse. Even when faced with a Warhorse of the same level as them, they would at most come out of that engagement with a scratch. In short, there was no way a bunch of horses would ever even scratch my golems!

Thus, in our first large-scale clash with the normal Warhorses, they lost completely!

These horses were all much bigger than even a battle horse. For example, a Four-stars, when standing completely on two of its hooves, would measure up to over two meters in height. Yet even such an impressive stature was nothing before golems.

One of the opposing Five-star Warhorses tried leading a charge against one of my normal golems. The end result was that my golem simply smacked him away with a slap, like how a kid would when he wasn’t happy with a toy

This same scene repeated itself countless times. Unless the Warhorse involved was a Six-star or a Seven-star, else they were simply fodder for my golems.

Even with the aid of three Nightmare Steeds, the difference in our strengths was too large.

“Blast! Why are these golems all so sturdy…” Warsight tried stomping down on a spot she had previously attacked. Finally, after several attempts, a crack was formed, though it was one so small that it was easy to miss unless one looked carefully.

“We should have the juniors retreat first…they aren’t even able to break through their defenses…” Shade knocked over another Winged Abyssal Golem before suggesting that to Shadowfall beside him. “The casualties are mounting…”

“Yes, this has been a huge misstep on our part… we should have determined their strength before launching this attack…” Shadowfall agreed without hesitation, turning his head soon after towards the raging battlefield. “Retreat!”

Upon receiving that command, and also because their morale had been severely battered by now, the Warhorses promptly gathered together and began backing away.

The situation now was that these horses were basically entangled within a giant army of my golems. But rather than fighting the golems, they were simply getting smacked around.

Ever the smart one, Mo Na immediately discovered what the Warhorses were planning. She quickly gave the command to stop the horses, but they were just too quick for the lumbering golems. If they were to focus entirely on escaping, there was no way the golems could catch up with them.

Naturally, that didn’t mean that the Warhorses were completely unscated either. With so many golems and so many Warhorses involved, there were bound to be a few unlucky Warhorses who couldn’t escape my golems. All that was needed was one good smack and these Warhorses were left incapacitated.

The golems’ renewed counterattack was a huge impediment to the Warhorse’s retreat. Because of Mo Na’s command, Shadowfall had finally noticed her existence.

“That little Lust Demon over there seems to be commanding the golems, I’ll take care of her first, you two keep covering our retreat.”

Just as that last word left his mouth, Shadowfall sped off without even giving the other two a chance to reply. His intention was clear: kill off my precious daughter as soon as possible.

Seeing that mass of killing intent gallop towards her, Mo Na tried to scramble to safety from her perch atop a Winged Abyssal Golem. Yet, it was too late. Like a flaming comet, Shadowfall crashed into the golem, sending it toppling over with a deafening boom. One could only imagine how much force was put into that strike.

However, Mo Na had still managed to hop behind another Winged Abyssal Golem thanks to her sharp eyes. All that attack accomplished was cause one of my golems to crash into another of my decidedly sturdy golems.

“Mama…”

Mo Na stuck her head out from behind that golem to call out to me. Yet she only managed that single word before she had to duck once more because that Nightmare Steed had just breathed a jet of black flames at her.

With just the merest of touches, that black flame immediately stuck to the golem. Although it caused no direct damage to the golem, it was able to stop Mo Na from using that golem as cover. After all, her flame resistance wasn’t to the extent that she could ignore these strange flames.

She was just a Four-star Primal Lust Demon. While her methods were many, none of them worked against an Eight-star Nightmare Steed. The only reason she was able to last up till now was because she was in the middle of a golem army -of course, her keen instincts also played a part in detecting danger early.

All that changed when that Nightmare Steed attacked with his flames. With no cover to hide behind, it meant she was now open to his attacks…

Sinmosa and Sasani noticed her predicament as well. They wanted to rush right over to help her, but they were merely Five-stars; they couldn’t stand up to those black flames either. Thus, they were completely useless at this time. Even when little Cinderel kept yelping at their side, there was nothing they could do.

“Mama… Mama…”

My precious daughter had no choice but to constantly hop from golem to golem, her panicked crying stabbing into my heart each time she called out to me. It was as if there was a hand gripping my heart right now, clutching down on it with every syllable she spoke.

‘B*stard!’ All it took was an instant for me to lose my cool. Yet just as I was about to rush off to save my daughter, a pair of soft hands held me back.

“Don’t go… those two Nightmare Steeds are still watching you…”

The one who stopped me was Jeerah. This had to be the first time she had ever seen me angry as well. While I had no way of knowing how terrifying I must have looked, judging from the way she shrank back immediately, I could tell how bad it must have been.

Still, her reminder had worked. My exploding temper began to slowly cool down.

Like what she said, Warsight and Shade were still eyeing me from a corner of their eyes. Their target wasn’t just Mo Na. It was me as well.

‘I should’ve expected nothing less from these Nightmare Steeds -they can even coordinate so well with each other without saying a word. They probably communicated their strategies through telepathy.’

Shadowfall’s deliberate attack on Mo Na wasn’t just to help the Warhorses. What he really wanted was to lure me away from my golems, else Mo Na would have been dead in that first attack already. A Eight-star ambushing a Four-star… clearly, there was no way that Four-star could ever survive.

However, there was still one thing I didn’t understand -that black flame which even I wasn’t confident about surviving against. If he could use that flame to force Mo Na to dodge around like that, why didn’t he just do that from the beginning?

That answer would soon become apparent.

After spitting out a field’s worth of black flames, his speed had noticeably dropped. Not only did his flame-spitting slow down, even his movement speed had decreased. When faced with my golems’ attacks, he barely avoided them, even coming close to getting hit at times. Each time that happened, the bulky fingers of my golems would barely graze the once deft Nightmare Steed, painting a stark contrast to when he could nimbly weave in between multiple golems.

‘So breathing those flames caused some sort of feedback onto them? That has to be it… wait, if that was the case, it still wouldn’t explain why they didn’t just do that from the start against me. Why go through the trouble of chasing Mo Na around just to force my hand?’

‘Are they afraid of something else?’

‘Forget it. What’s more important now is rescuing Mo Na.’

“Alright, alright. I get it. I won’t act rashly.” Having figured out the nuances, I turned my worried head towards Jeerah and nodded, completely ignoring the lost look she had on right now. I grabbed the Gem of Authority hanging around my neck with my right hand. With my left, I grabbed Jeerah’s waist and drew her closer towards me. As her body came tumbling in, her strong scent only got stronger, leaving me lightly muddle headed in the process. My left hand instinctively grabbed her harder.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!?”

Her reaction was visibly agitated. She wanted to push me away but my strength was too much for her.

“Stop messing around, I’m just trying to protect you.”

“Protect me? When did protecting me include hugging me? You said you were a male, right… let go!”

‘Was she always this pure…’

“Hey, don’t forget you’re still a Lust Demon. A little skinship won’t kill you.”

“But you just said you are a male! Even though I don’t see anything male about you…”

‘Did you have to add in that last bit… we could’ve been friends….’

However, I had no time for jibes right now. Explaining my actions would only waste more time, and time was something I didn’t have right now. Thus, I turned my single arm hug into a double armed one. My left hand was still wrapped around her waist, but my right had gone around her neck before grabbing onto the Gem of Authority.

“There’s no time for explanations. Hop on!”

“I just said not to hug me… And what does hop on even mean?”

“Whatever the word means, of course.”

She still had burning questions to ask, but the very next second later, she couldn’t ask them anymore. That was because the dimensional shift had treated us less than kindly…

Shameless Self-promotion

If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.