The Unkaras were ripped into pieces and devoured by the monster that suddenly appeared through the ground. Sian examined the monster.

  Thick clawed pincers.

  Antennae on its head.

  Dark colored armor.

  Sian thought it resembled a certain creature.

  ‘.……lobster?’

  It looked similar but it wasn’t a lobster. It was much larger and had other differing details.

  The Unkaras measured at least fifty to a hundred feet long, but the monster that just appeared was much larger. It only stuck out its head so he wasn’t certain, but he was able to make out that the monster was much larger. The pincer destroyed the Unkaras’ armor, which could withstand the pressure and the heat of the lava underground, like a biscuit.

  The monster destroyed the armor of Unkara and picked the soft flesh within to eat. It then finished up by licking through the armor to eat everything in it.

  Sian became pale. It wasn’t because the monster seemed vicious or he felt sorry for the Unkaras.

  The monster was just too powerful.

  ‘I didn’t notice it until it came up here.’

  It was probably stronger, at least almost as strong as Sian. Sian then realized why the Unkaras released the smog. This was the reason why they hid themselves in the smog.

  Sian did speculate as much. The race that released smoke meant that it had to hide from something else. However, Sian believed in Aksarai. He thought that Aksarai would not have let a predator of the Unkaras live if he considered the Unkaras to be important for his magic.

  But Sian’s guess was wrong.

  The monster seemed to notice Sian, so it hid into the ground. Sian then moved to kill the other Unkaras.

  However, there was one thing Sian did not know.

  \r \r \r

  When Aksarai came here, he was glad to find the Unkaras race. But he also found their predator race, the Geshtal. No, it wasn’t even a race because there was only one. It seemed like it was some kind of a mutant. Aksarai thought about killing it but decided not to.

  He needed the Unkaras that created the smoke, not the Unkaras that would live in peace.

  Aksarai knew why the Unkaras made the smoke. It was to hide from that monster. If he killed Geshtal, the Unkaras would be freed from that danger and they would stop making the smoke to protect themselves.

  That was why Aksarai did not kill Geshtal. And that was only the first reason.

  There was another reason.

  The Geshtal had evolved to see through the smoke and devour the Unkaras. Its sense to find the Unkaras within the smoke was nothing compared to its strength, but its sense within the network of caves was incredible. It was on a larger scale than any similar-powered Alpha.

  If Geshtal wanted, it could have wiped out the Unkaras in hours. But he needed a constant supply of food so it did not do that. He kept the numbers of Unkara constant by consuming the others.

  Geshtal hated other creatures besides the Unkaras invading its territory. It considered the entire cave network as his food pen. This monster was why Aksarai did not bring the other Drakuns here when he needed to work on the Unkaras.

  Aksarai thought that Geshtal would work well as a guardian for these Unkaras. He did not have any extra Drakuns to send to protect them when they were busy fighting the Lukras.

  Sian thought that he had not been detected by Geshtal, but it already knew as soon as Sian entered the cave. There were only two reasons why Geshtal didn’t attack Sian.

  One was because Sian did not kill any Unkaras, meaning he wasn’t here to destroy its food supply.

  The other was that Sian was strong enough to be irritating for it to fight.

  But if he were to kill any Unkara, Geshtal wasn’t going to let it slide. After Sian disappeared, Geshtal came back out of the hole. It looked toward where Sian had disappeared for a long while and then disappeared back into the tunnels.

  “Hmm……”

  Sian felt like he was getting used to this place. His senses were heightened so he could now feel what was changing the smoke into the barrier. Powerful magic had been secretly placed above a certain height, which changed the smoke into something else and the barrier was written over it.

  It seemed like there was something placed by Aksarai in the middle of the island that allowed this to happen.

  ‘What did he leave there?’

  Sian became curious and wanted to pay a visit to see what it was. He was amazed by the power that was left by such a being would still have an effect after thousands of years.

  ‘I should pay a visit when I’m done here.’

  It didn’t seem dangerous. He would have to run if something unexpected happened, but it seemed that the monster didn’t care about him and it didn’t seem dangerous to kill the Unkaras.

  Sian then moved to a place where he sensed the Unkaras.

  ‘That monster…… isn’t around.’

  Sian checked around carefully as a fight against such a monster might mean death. He sighed in relief after not seeing that monster anywhere.

  ‘I guess he won’t hunt down all of them.’

  Sian guessed that there were about hundreds to thousands of Unkaras. It was a lot, but if that monster kept on hunting them, they would have been wiped out a long time ago.

  The fact that there were Unkaras left meant it didn’t hunt frequently. Sian speculated that the monster that just finished its meal would not be interested in the other Unkaras.

  ‘Let’s hope it’s not interested.’

  Sian carefully approached an Unkara and placed his hand on its head.

  ‘Good-bye.’

  Sian quickly decapitated the Unkara. Unkaras could survive even with their heads cut off, so its head wailed while its body twisted to attack Sian. However, Sian just looked upon it without doing anything. The body thrashed around and destroyed a bit of the ground and began sinking into the lava. Sian looked at it sympathetically and shook his head,

  ‘It’s a must.’

  As he headed for another Unkara, his face became grim. Something was charging towards Sian at an enormous speed. He knew right away what it was. It was that lobster-like monster.

  Sian started pouring energy into his ring.

  The problem wasn’t the monster. If he were to fight the monster here, he would need to unleash his full power and the Drakuns would notice him, which would draw them here instantly.

  Sian was then swallowed by the bright light.

  ‘It worked!’

  He was worried that the ring would not work as intended but it was working. Sian felt his body being teleported and sighed in relief.

  ‘What should I do now……’

  Sian thought about what to next but realized in a second that he did not need to think about that.

  “Why am I still here?!”

  Sian froze in shock as he re-appeared about ten steps away from where he had been and was struck by a giant pincer.