The Swamp Colossus

"What a shame," Huang Zhuosi sighed. "She just up and left like that — why didn't the captain say a few more words to keep her around?" His mind was still lingering on a certain woman's deep, pale cleavage. He genuinely couldn't figure it out: how could a waist that slender support a chest that generous? Field work clearly had its perks.

"Is that seriously *all* that ever goes through your head? Can't you tell something's off around here?" Red Bird snapped.

"What's off?"

"Not a single Lizard-Skull Giant Demon!"

"Isn't that a good thing?" Huang Zhuosi said.

"What the hell is wrong with your brain? In a place like this, Lizard-Skull Giant Demon density can reach one per ten square meters. We've been walking for this long and haven't seen a single one — you know what that means? It means something far more dangerous lives here. Something that keeps those Servant-class Lizard-Skull Giant Demons from coming anywhere near this spot!" Red Bird fumed. *How did I end up stuck with such a bunch of blockheads?*

Only then did the rest of the group realize something was genuinely wrong. Their gazes swept across the pitch-black surroundings.

The center of the valley was occupied by a raised plateau. If the valley — seventy percent of which was swamp — were compared to a lake, then that central elevation was something like an island in the middle of it.

Following their carefully laid plan, they had made it here without serious incident, and were now moments away from stepping onto that plateau at the valley's heart. Reliable intelligence placed the Earth Element Spirit Seed, Flowing Marsh, right at the very center of this location.

The Earth Element presence was overwhelmingly strong here, further confirming that a Spirit Seed had to be gestating at the swamp's center.

They had endured every hardship for this Spirit Seed, which meant every danger in their path shrank down to a simple reminder: *just be careful.* It couldn't be helped — the allure of a Spirit Seed was simply too great.

"We're here. What's the next step?" asked squad leader Liang Dachui.

"Let me run a survey," Red Bird said.

By now the Big Hammer Hunting Squad had stepped onto the plateau at the swamp's center. Still not a single Lizard-Skull Giant Demon to disturb their treasure hunt — perhaps they had all crawled off elsewhere to nap.

Red Bird pulled a sleek aluminum case from his pack. As he fiddled with the specialized instrument, he explained: "This is an elemental Survey Device. Plant it in the ground and it quickly reads the elemental composition of the surrounding area within a one-kilometer radius. Since this plateau sits over the swamp, it should show a normal ratio of Earth Element brown and Water Element blue. But if the reading skews heavily toward brown, that means the Earth Element concentration is extremely high — which means there's a Spirit Seed somewhere within this kilometer."

"Alright, alright — we're Mages, not scientists. We don't need to know all this," Huang Zhuosi said, impatient.

Red Bird shot him a look of pure contempt. *Who says Mages don't need to use their heads? Who says Mages don't need to know how to operate a variety of equipment?*

"Hm? That's strange." The scan finished quickly. Red Bird stared at the Survey Device — it showed absolutely no response.

"What is it?" Squad leader Liang Dachui asked. The other members crowded in, all eager to be the first to know whether treasure was waiting here.

"Why is there no color at all? Didn't you say it should be brown and blue?" Huang Zhuosi pushed in as well, peering at the Survey Device, which displayed nothing whatsoever.

Red Bird was just as baffled. He gave the device a careful inspection.

*Why no color?*

This was supposed to be an ordinary piece of ground. Any patch of earth should show at least Earth Element brown. Yet the scan had come back completely blank — not a single elemental reading from the plateau at the valley's center. *This doesn't make sense… well, it's not "scientific" — it's not* magical *either!!*

"Did that thing break on you?" Huang Zhuosi laughed. He had never had much patience for gadgets like these, not since he was a kid.

"That's unlikely. Let me try again," Red Bird said.

*It's ground — there should be an Earth Element response.* Either the Survey Device was broken, or this piece of ground…

"Actually — does anyone else feel like we've risen a bit?" someone said.

Red Bird, just about to run another scan, went suddenly pale. The hands gripping the Survey Device began to tremble against his will.

The device wasn't broken. It simply couldn't detect any elemental reading from this ground.

Everything in the world was fundamentally composed of elemental matter. The only things in existence with no elemental signature were… living creatures.

**"MRAAAAAHHH!!!!"**

From beneath the swamp, a roar powerful enough to shake the entire valley detonated without warning.

The sound was so close it was practically an explosion in their ears — a thunderous blast that felt on the verge of shattering their eardrums and blowing their skulls clean apart.

Red Bird had been the first to understand, and terror flooded into his mind like a rising tide, so overwhelming that his body locked up and refused to move.

Then — after the roar — the plateau at the center of the swamp lake tore free from the earth and launched itself skyward.

The entire mass broke free from the surface and surged upward, and the far vaster body hidden beneath the deep mire was finally exposed — enormous enough to churn crashing waves across the dead-still swamp lake.

What they had called the central plateau began to tilt as the black creature rose. By the time it had fully reared upright, there was no plateau — only the back of a beast.

Mud and water exploded in all directions. The black body rose against the desolate night sky, and hazy moonlight fell across the creature's massive, powerful form, making everything that emerged above the muck a spectacle that struck them to their very core.

Atop this giant beast's back, the tiny humans were beyond terrified. None of them could have imagined that all this time they had been standing on the back of a colossal black creature. Every mind had gone completely blank.

Those who recovered slightly faster immediately cast whatever escape magic they could.

But the black monster had long since noticed these uninvited guests. A single shake of its massive body sent every last human tumbling from its back — like grasshoppers flicked into the air.

Its movements weren't particularly swift, but its sheer size made up for it — a single stride covered ground no less than a Wind Element Mage executing a Wind Track.

Liang Dachui, Red Bird, Huang Zhuosi — none of them had ever imagined they were walking straight through death's door. Falling from that height, even their magic was powerless to save them.

Everything happened in an instant, and silence returned just as fast. This squad of elite Hunter-mages had glimpsed nothing more than the towering black ridge of a spine — and then only darkness and death, without a single moment to fight back.

One moment the screams still rang out; the next, the creature's colossal form was already sinking slowly back into the swamp.

The marsh fell still again, as though nothing had ever happened.