The Goddess' Champion

It took a while for the realisation of Nia's age to settle in, it allowed Constantine to know that age is not a synonym for experience and wisdom.

They continued, the forest was quiet and there weren't as many creatures as they expected, perhaps the packs of werewolves the days prior drove most of them away back to their caves and nests.

"This Goddess that you mentioned, Is she a newly ascended Goddess or something? or perhaps she comes from the Sacred Lands?" Nia inquired while they moved some branches aside to pass to what seemed to be a clearing.

"You know a lot, don't you?" He frowned, the terminologies she had been using, and even the casualty with which she approached these topics, she was knowledgable.

"Each time mother wakes up she teaches me something different hoping that I will succeed her in the subsequent centuries, my mother has lived for more than three hundred years and there have been at least a thousand generations of priestesses before her, even before the Wolf Empire or the previous Golden Lion Dynasty ever existed... but that story is long gone." Nia explained with a voice that indicated thrill and emotion, she liked what she was talking about and to become this 'priestess' that objective was rutted in her being.

'That goddess has been existing for a long time.' That's what he deduced it was then that he began to think... how long had Aurelianne been living for, how much exactly, the knowledge she had about Sandoria was quite scarce as well...

"My goddess is beloved and merciful, she makes sure that the myriad beasts leave in peace with one another after they had been long slaved thousands of years ago by humans and other races... what does your goddess have?~" Nia asked challengingly, convinced that this 'Aurelianne' couldn't possibly match Samya.

"A big pair." He said nonchalantly, even Zamira had to stop herself from spitting out some saliva, she looked down at her own chest and nodded in approval, big indeed.

"Ah?" Nia didn't get it and he wasn't about to explain her either.

Zamira saw something that caught her interest and moved ahead of them with shining eyes.

"Forget it, are you sure this is the correct path?" His eyes settled on this clearing, it was a long terrain with scarcer trees and he saw something that attracted his attention, there was some sort of massive rocks that had some stalactites or minerals attached to them, there were several different sizes.

"Yes, if we follow along this path we should find one of those caves..." Nia continued while trying to decipher what was the right path forward, when she saw those mineral rocks it was as if she recalled something.

"No matter what you do, if you see some big rocks that look valuable, don't tou-" Her words hadn't ended because she sought Constantine with her gaze and found him beside her, then the two of them searched for the purple bush of hair... and they found it.

Zamira was standing in front of one of those rocks, with her back towards them, not only that but there were at least a dozen more rocks behind.

"Zamira..." Constantine deadpanned while Nia got on guard and exhaled reassuringly.

"Don't worry, it is not all hopeless... those are sleeping creatures if you didn't take the red one-" Nia tried to explain, but it was then that the teary Zamira moved aside, her hand was tightly grasping and pulling the red crystal that looked like a valuable mineral.

"Well, that's what they use to reproduce." Nia gulped audibly.

*CHYAAAAAA!!!*

!!!

A high-pitched chill emanated from the creature, clearly, it wasn't happy that some human was tightly grasping its 'reproductive system' as if it was an ice cream cone.

'Sorry mate, If you clutched my balls like that I'd be crying as well.' Constantine couldn't even blame the creature...

One by one the yells spread and all of the creatures were waking up one by one. Zamira sidestepped away from it only for tentacles to start to appear beneath it, resembling an octopus of sorts.

"There are too many of them, we can't fight!" Nia yelled and prepared to retreat, only to see the greedy gaze portrayed in both Constantine and Zamira -who was now wielding her sword.

"Are those things valuable?" He asked, licking his lips even.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? THOSE THINGS ARE STRONG! MOREOVER, THERE ARE MORE THAN A DOZEN OF THEM, NEVER HAD I SEEN SO MANY OF THEM!"

"... is it bad?" Zamira asked, if they happened to be too strong he'd just retreat and keep in their way, they didn't look as if they were particularly strong.

"We have to be quite unlucky to meet so many of them at the same time." Nia prepared to fight since this reckless bunch obviously was not thinking about retreating.

[I wonder who is the unlucky bastard...]

"Sorry, I have a horse that represents a bad omen with me, that's why..." Constantine growled and lunged at the first creature for a contest of strength.

[And you blame me!]

This time he used a simple Earth spell, wind slash.

Creating a blade of wind he slashed towards one of the tentacles and once it impacted, it wasn't directly able to pierce through the entire tentacle, but it did cut a big chunk of it.

*BAAAANGGGG!!!*

The tentacle crashed down together with the creature's pained yells, but he managed to evade it comfortably, there were at least a dozen of them but they didn't seem to be that hard to defeat.

"I think we can do it, Zamira, kill them and let's take the crystals."

"..." Upon seeing him so easily handle of the creatures, Nia thought that it might be possible, she charged toward one of them and used her claws to repeat the same.

​ *SLASH!!*

She slashed forward, but unlike Constantine, she did cut one of the tentacles easily, risking her position and going too close she found herself in the creature's attack range, but just as nimbly as she approached, she sidestepped.

*BAANGG!*

"They're fun! I thought they were harder than this."  She smiled and saw how Zamira was having her way against one of the creatures in a rather outrageous manner, Zamira slashed the Nodachi Sword, impacting heavily against the creature's carcass and almost slicing through!

!!!

Both Constantine and Nia were shocked with the former thinking that he needed a sword that was good, little did they know, Zamira's physical strength had a lot to do with the effect produced as well.

Zamira herself felt stronger and faster, she smirked and continued to rampage around the creatures while noticing that her chest wasn't giving her as many issues as she thought it would.

The 'peaceful' skirmish wasn't fated to last.

Because right at the entrace of this clearing, two figures appeared after hearing the commotion, a dozen of those creatures fighting and growling were still rather noisy.

"Look, it's the princess!"

One of them uttered with a grumpy voice, earing Constantine's attention.

"Fuck..." That word came out of his mouth when he saw two werewolves standing side to side eyeing the fighting Nia as if she was some sort of treasure.

Without even wasting a second, those two bastards jumped and arrived beside Nia!

!!!

She noticed them to late, but thankfully for her, Constantine wasn't any slowpoke.

"Zamira!"

"Yes!"

<Gale!>

He used yet another spell one that consistent in a strong gust of wind, he used to of his ether cores at full throttle and the two werewolves felt as if their bodies stopped abruptly before Zamira ran by and picked Nia, forsaking the monster that she had been fighting.

Chaos ensued to quickly and unrestrained, twelve of those monsters protruded tentacles and yelled as if they were in front of a buffet; they started to attack in a different pattern, opening their big mouths and spitting some sort of liquid that even a kid would be able to tell was poisonous.

"Who are these two bastards?!"

"Two humans, one of them is a magus even!"

Both werewolves growled after being taken back several steps by Constantine's gale spell, he noticed those two were quite rough, werebeasts are no joke.

"Zamira, protect her!" He knew that in this junction, it would be difficult to escape, they moved quite fast and the three of them won't be able to outrun them.

"Yes!" Zamira answered and focused in one of the werewolves whose sight was placed straight in Nia while Constantine faced the other, everything while the carcass creatures approached seamlessly as if awaiting them to kill one another before they went into the offensive.

'I have to stall them or kill them here...'

AZamira brandished her sword and charged towards one of the werewolves, but with the first strike she received from it, she realised how much the difference in physical strength was.

The difference was abysmal.

*BAAANGGG!!*

"UGH!" Constantine received a kick from the wolf who then lunged seeking to bite the neck, only to meet air, but at that moment, the mantle that had been covering his head was discarded and his ears and hair were shown to the world.

"Why is an elf taking care of the princess?!" The werewolf growled in contemplation, this just turned more complicated, if they were just humans there would be no problem, but this is a hybrid elf... a hundred percent of the times they belong to a noble elf family.

On the other hand, the other werewolf didn't seem to pay too much attention to this detail, his eyes filled with greed and perhaps even lust towards Nia who was standing by Zamira, awaiting the next strike.

"It doesn't matter, take her and go, I'll deal with these nuisances."

"Where should I take her?"

"You know where~"

"How about you take this instead!" If something the Conqueror didn't like was to be underestimated, regardless of how convenient it was to face such an ignorant foe.

Constantine took something out of his ring and without thinking twice, threw it!

*BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!*

The explosion shook the clearing and chaos ensued once more when he took three more and threw them as well!

*BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!*

*BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!*

*BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!*

While the entire weight of the creatures pressed on the ground, the explosions shook it as well... all of them failed to see how cracks started to spread beneath them, slowly... but unimpeded.