The sun in Mythlorien could barely penetrate the dense canopy of trees in that part of the forest, leaving the area in a constant, faint gloom, perfect for ambushes.
Lohan, firmly attached to Lisa’s back in his bluish spherical form, kept his perception expanded 360 degrees, sensing every vibration rising from the ground.
After their conversation with Aeliana, the two had finally finished dealing with everything Astralis demanded of them, and they set out to hunt, this time not with the goal of hunting monsters that would yield the maximum amount of gold coins possible, but rather powerful monsters that could yield a lot of experience and improve their combat skills.
After all, even though they also gained experience by killing weak monsters, only the powerful monsters would be able to push them to their limits and force their instincts and battle skills to progress together.
Along the way, they had killed some weaker monsters, some below level 11, others even above that level, but with the combination of the two, nothing had really stood out.
With the partnership of a Mythic and a Legendary creature, few creatures of the same level posed a real threat to them.
So to deal with this, the pair headed toward the area of their old friends, friends who, after evolving, are able to awaken a powerful part of their ancestral bloodline.
"Up ahead, Lisa... I’m sensing eight signatures. They’re waiting for us as if it were a trap." Lohan transmitted through the mental link, his voice sounding calm and deep.
"Are they our friends?" Lisa replied, her fox ears twitching in alertness, but a small smile appearing at the corner of her mouth.
"I believe so." Lohan answered, also excited to finally fight for real after so much warm-up.
It didn’t take long for them to spot the group.
Before them, the Kobolds Lohan knew, once clumsy, purely instinctive creatures, now looked very different.
After crossing the Level 11 evolutionary barrier, the monsters had grown; now they stood more upright, with brown scales that gleamed with a metallic sheen and eyes that, though still brimming with aggression, showed a spark of intelligence.
In the center of the semicircle stood an Elite Kobold.
He was nearly 50% larger than the others, with scars crisscrossing his reptilian snout. What caught the eye most, however, was the gigantic human battleaxe, clearly looted from some caravan, which he held with frightening ease in just one hand.
Unlike the previous attacks they were used to, these evolved Kobolds didn’t scream or charge haphazardly. The leader simply slammed the axe’s handle into the ground, and the seven subordinates split into two groups to flank the pair.
"They’ve learned to coordinate... how cute," Lohan remarked with a note of irony. "Lisa, I’ll stabilize your position. Don’t let them close in."
Lisa dashed forward. At Level 11, her movement was a flash of white light that left trails of fire in its wake.
She appeared in front of one of the flanking Kobolds, but before she could deliver a kick, the monster used its own weight to roll backward, while two others leaped toward her.
Lohan reacted instantly.
He didn’t use long-range spells; instead, he split his consciousness into independent streams. While keeping the main body protecting Lisa’s back, he expelled four small fragments of himself that fell to the ground like neon-blue puddles.
The clones acted in perfect sync, extending strands of bluish energy that attached themselves to the tree roots, creating an invisible containment net in the Kobolds’ path.
"Now, kitty!"
Lisa blushed and snorted a small white flame.
"Shut up, Halon!" she shouted, feigning anger, but inside her heart had skipped a beat.
Noticing the net and using Lohan’s anchored threads as a pivot, she executed a sharp turn that defied inertia.
She leaped onto the nearest Kobold, and Lohan, taking advantage of the contact, injected a massive charge of golden vitality directly into her system.
’How I love using this Evolution again.’ Lohan thought excitedly, since at Level 10 he could no longer use it.
The fire on Lisa’s paws shifted from white to a glowing golden hue, and when she struck the Kobold, it wasn’t just a burn that appeared, the liquid spiritual energy melted the evolved scales as if they were wax.
However, the Elite didn’t just stand by and watch.
-- GWRROOOOOGHHH!
With a guttural screech, he leaped, covering a distance of ten meters in a single bound, completely surprising the pair who hadn’t thought such a large creature possessed such speed.
The human axe descended in a vertical arc charged with such heavy mana pressure that the air around it seemed to groan.
Lohan realized there wouldn’t be time for Lisa to dodge completely, so he expanded his biomass over the fox’s exposed flank, instantly forming dozens of rigid black hexagonal scales.
He hardened his membrane to the molecular limit, preparing for the kinetic shock he would normally ignore.
CRACK!!
The sound was like that of a mountain splitting apart.
The Elite’s axe, imbued with a qualitatively superior brute force, not only struck Lohan’s defense but pierced through it.
The obsidian scales shattered beneath the blade’s edge, and the metal sank a few centimeters into Lohan’s blue gelatin, even grazing Lisa’s skin from below.
"What?!" Lohan asked in shock, unable to believe that the defense he thought was invincible had been broken so easily by a monster they didn’t even consider worthy. "Shit!"
Lisa let out a yelp of pain and surprise, but Lohan, now enraged, began to radiate a red aura even more intensely.
"Tch, it was my fault, Lisa, increase your speed." Lohan transmitted, his mental voice now icy.
In the millisecond the blade became stuck in his mass, Lohan activated his forced digestion at maximum power.
The gelatin around the axe began to boil, shifting to a shade of incandescent obsidian.
He didn’t just try to expel the weapon; he began draining the mana imbued in the metal through biological threads that ran up the Elite’s arms.
But the Kobold wouldn’t just stand there letting him do whatever he wanted.