The Crimson Sky Wyrm circled once above the wilderness before lowering itself toward the entrance of the Crawling Serpent Tribe.
Its massive wings stirred the air in slow, heavy beats, scattering loose dust and ash across the stone flats below.
Isaac leaned forward on the wyrm’s back, eyes narrowed.
The first thing he noticed wasn’t the mud domes or the winding tunnels carved into the earth.
It was the absence.
The ogres were gone.
These were the same ogres Emily and the Ashfang Tribe left here to ’guard’ this place.
They were supposed to be standing in plain sight, and make sure the Crawling Serpent tribe wouldn’t do anything unless Isaac arrived.
Vale noticed it too.
He prepared his weapon, ready to fight as soon as Sword Empress gave signal.
The wyrm lowered itself and landed with a dull, ground-shaking thud.
Isaac and Vale flew down from its back.
The Sword Empress looked at their exaggerated actions.
She snorted, and vanished in a flash of blue lightning bolt. The bolt struck the ground, and transformed back into her.
Isaac and Vale both stared at her, as if asking, you could do something like that?
The Sword Empress smirked, clearly enjoying their reaction.
Before they could say anything, movement rippled through the entrance to the tribe.
Figures began to emerge from the tunnels.
They had long snake like bodes and they lifted their upper half into air. Two short arms were present in front, and four legs were present below.
The one in front lifted himself higher than the rest.
"Greetings, Players. I am Sathraxis Ven’Kael, the Grand Elder of the Crawling Serpent Tribe," he said.
Behind him, dozens more Crawling Serpents gathered. They varied in size, but their shapes were similar.
To Isaac, they looked like the eastern dragons from his old world’s folklore, just a lot smaller.
"I’m Isaac Hargraves," Isaac said, stepping forward.
Introductions were exchanged quickly, without warmth on either side. After a brief pause, the Grand Elder gestured with one of his small hands.
"Come. We will speak inside."
The Crawling Serpent Tribe didn’t build in the way Isaac was used to.
Their homes were underground, tunnels and chambers carved deep into the soil and stone.
Above ground, what passed for their structures were mud domes, each with a narrow chimney poking out of the top. These mud domes were laboratories.
Small garden patches were scattered between them. Strange flowers and herbs grew there.
As Isaac walked, Morbus spread.
The plague colony moved through secretly, riding the air, the soil, the contact between bodies.
The Crawling Serpents wouldn’t feel anything.
Isaac walked while talking with the Grand Elder.
Apparently, there was no single leader in the Crawling Serpent Tribe.
Each Overlord of the tribe was an ’Elder’ and all members of the tribe needed to follow one Elder.
The Elder with the largest following was called the Grand Elder, and held the most sway in the tribe.
The group entered a crude building near the center of the tribe. It was clearly made in rush. The walls were still uneven, and the smell of wet earth was strong inside.
"We apologize for the lack of hospitality. We had no need for such places until now. This was made for you, only hours ago," the Grand Elder said as he coiled in on himself and settled into a resting position.
Isaac, Vale, and the Sword Empress sat on roughly shaped chairs.
A Crawling Serpent brought over cups filled with a steaming, dark liquid and placed them carefully on the table.
None of them touched it.
Isaac leaned forward slightly. "I’ll be straightforward. Your people attacked my wife. They intended to harm her. That’s why I’m here. Although we’ve crushed the attackers, we still need compensation."
The Grand Elder tilted his head. "The army we sent was defeated. Everything they carried was looted. Is that not enough compensation?"
"What do you think?" Isaac asked back.
The silence stretched.
Finally, the Grand Elder asked, "Then what do you want?"
Isaac pointed to Vale. "He’s good with curses. He will place one on every member of your tribe. It will make sure none of you ever plot against my people again. After that, I’ll take some additional monetary compensation. If you cooperate, I won’t harm your tribe."
The Grand Elder’s tail shifted. "And if we choose to serve under you instead? Will we still be marked with a curse?"
"Yes," Isaac said.
The Grand Elder hummed softly.
Both of them knew where this was going.
The missing ogres weren’t a mystery.
The Crawling Serpents had killed them.
The only reason Isaac hadn’t started a fight was because Professor Catherine was moving through the tribe, trying to figure out what the Grand Elder was stalling for.
She was also looking for Elders who might be opposed to him, and could be used by Isaac.
"We will not accept the curse," the Grand Elder said at last.
"If you refuse, then I will have no choice but to—"
The words died in his throat.
A wave of exhaustion slammed into him. His head spun, and something wet ran down his face. He raised a hand and saw blood on his fingers.
Vale cursed under his breath. The Sword Empress swayed, her hand tightening around her sword.
"How about we change the terms? If you return everything you took and give additional compensation, we will not kill you, the ogres under your command, or your city," the Grand Elder said calmly.
"So, you were buying time for this," Isaac coughed, blood splattering against the floor. "What kind of poison is this?"
"Our tribe’s secret. It’s as blend of countless toxins. We are immune to it. But outsiders like you who stays here without the antidote will die as their insides melt. You can try to leave, but it won’t—"
He stopped.
The air shifted.
Isaac straightened. The dizziness vanished. The blood on his face dried and faded. Vale and the Sword Empress stood up, perfectly fine.
The glow of Alice’s skill—Miracle of Grace—disappeared from Isaac’s hand.
The skill had erased the poison and healed all injuries, though it ate a lot of mana of Isaac since the poison was strong.
The Grand Elder froze for half a second. Then he moved, slamming his small hand against a relic embedded in the table.
The walls exploded outward.
Dozens of Crawling Serpents burst into the room, skills already forming in their hands and mouths. Fire, acid, shadow, and crackling energy rushed forward in a storm.
Even Isaac wouldn’t be able to tank them, let alone Vale and Sword Empress.
But...
"Stop," Isaac said.
The Voice of Seraphim, another of Alice’s skill, rolled through the space like a command carved into reality itself.
All aggressive actions were frozen for a fraction of second.
Isaac didn’t waste it.
He used Spirit Weave, a skill of Emily, and fused Ragnarok and Morbus.
Morbus was a plague colony of millions of microscopic viruses while Ragnarok was an unknown monster that could create lightning.
What would happen if two were fused together?
Around him, hundreds of red lightning orbs formed in the air, each one pulsing like a living heart.
The Crawling Serpents tried to use defensive skills. But they were too slow.
The orbs exploded.
Thunder tore through the tribe. The sound rolled across the land, like a continuous roar that drowned out everything else.
When it ended, the attackers were gone, reduced to ashes.
Isaac looked at his hand that was trembling. The skill had consumed a lot of mana. But the effect was worth it.
’I think I can use it only once before I need to recover my mana.’
’But a single attack is enough to destroy a monster tribe on par with Crawling Serpents and Ashfang tribe.’
The power was tremendous.
And even better was the fact that the chains of hundreds of explosions were created by hundreds of orbs. Since Isaac could command each orb, he could control the area of damage.
This was why Isaac, Vale, Sword Empress, and the Grand Elder were perfectly fine even though the area around them, including several buildings, were erased from the map.
"So..." Isaac raised his brow, "what did you mean when you said you wouldn’t kill the Ashfang Tribe and my city if I surrendered?"
"D-Don’t step closer!"
The Grand Elder recoiled, hissing.
He was frightened out of his mind.
The Catastrophe hadn’t even attacked yet. It was currently infected by a poison that put it under temporary illusion.
That’s why Grand Elder and his fellow Elders had thought they could win if they quickly killed Isaac’s group before the Catastrophe woke up.
But... this human killed all of them without using the Catastrophe?
"I asked you a question."
An enormous pressure erupted from Isaac as he used his Colossus Will Title. It allowed him to exert a ’pressure’ relative to his strength. Since his strength stat was maxed for his rank, the pressure created by it was enormous.
The Grand Elder felt as if he was about to be crushed to death.
"We have poisoned the Ashfang Tribe! If you kill me, they will die. Only I know the antidote. And I’ve sent Overlords to your city! They’ll breach your ba-barrier and use poison explosions. If you surrender now, I won’t kill your people!"
Isaac was silent.
Even if the Crawling Serpent Overlords attacked, unless they entered the City Wall and Sky Dome or destroyed them, they could not use poison on their city.
Since they were going to use poison bombs, it meant they would move in secret.
In other words, instead of attacking to destroy the barrier, they would infiltrate secretly.
’My and Professor Catherine’s clones are in the city. We can defend it.’
’Besides, my Abyss Monster, Qlippoth, the White Parasitic Tree, can defend the entire city if everything else fails. It was grown from the corpse of the Catastrophe, so a few Overlords of low rank monster species are nothing for it.’
’But...’
’The Ashfang Tribe is a problem.’
Seeing Isaac’s silence, the Grand Elder believed he had gained a weakness of Isaac.
"Th-That’s right! Surrender now, and apologize! Or else—"