The Record of Unusual Creatures

Chapter 1403: They Were Flooding In

The violent release of the current created a regional magnetic storm while the force of magic magnified the magnetic storm by hundreds of times. Thousands of bats formed a ma.s.sive array of super-powerful electromagnets in the air. The magnetic field generated by their rotation was like countless invisible arrows sweeping through the corridor of the temple. At that moment, everyone felt a strong sense of dizziness.

The strong magnetic field even formed a large abnormal black block in the corridor. It was a sign that s.p.a.ce was warped.

In the sweep of magnetic fields and electric currents, tiny sparks of electricity exploded from the bodies of the colossi, which then vibrated and collapsed. The fall of the heavy stone statues caused the whole pyramid to shake. Hao Ren squinted and tried to confirm the situation in the wild electromagnetic storm. He vaguely saw the dimming of the fallen colossi’s faces as well as the dying of their runes and lines.

Faint, translucent shadows rose from within the colossi. They were connected to the “heart” of the statue on one end with another end extending into nothingness. Swept by the electromagnetic field, these shadows receded from the corridor like the tentacles of some invisible creature.

Hao Ren blinked, wondering if what he had seen was just an illusion.

The storm lasted only a few minutes, then subsided, leaving only a pile of stone guards which was still shaking and a husky who got an electric shock.

Lily threw herself at Vivian, and her half-burned tail standing angrily behind her. “Did that Oersted tell you that magnetism generates electricity? And did he tell you that too much electricity can kill!!”

Hessiana rushed up to block Lily. “Lord Vivian, stand back! Let me stop this mad dog!”

“Hessiana, calm down. It’s normal for them to fight. Lily, calm down, too. Oersted was working on electromagnetism, and magnetoelectricity was discovered by Faraday. And the lightning Vivian just released is not made of magnetoelectricity…” Hao Ren tried to explain.

Y’lisabet whispered in Y’zaks’ ear, “I’m not sure what Uncle Ren was talking about…”

But for a furious husky, it did not help much. Lily then quieted down, muttering while fixing her hair, “I graduated from Peking University four times and of course I know this… I was angry with Battie because she hasn’t learned how to control her lightning storm…”

Vivian stared at Lily and yelled, “I did control it! Also, Landlord already put up a barrier to protect everyone. Who told you to get so close to me! Fortunately, this time I released mainly magnetic shocks. If it were pure lightning, your head would be cooked!”

Lily, “…”

At this moment, Rollie carefully came out from behind Hao Ren. In the beginning, the silly cat was brave enough to go up and fight the colossus and removed the head of one of the colossi with her fangs and claws, but as soon as she saw the number of enemies in the corridor she retreated and hid away. She scratched Hao Ren’s sleeve and asked, “Big cat, is it safe now?”

“At least the enemies in the temple must be dead. Vivian’s magnetic field is enough to cover the whole area of the pyramid,” said Hao Ren, frowning and striding forward. “Anyway, let’s get out of here. I have a bad feeling.”

Now, they were close to the exit of the pyramid temple and there was no colossus to stop them. Soon, they came to the square in front of the pyramid and saw a dozen statues lying on the ground.

These statues were a size larger than the ones inside the temple and were clearly the guards who had flanked the pyramid walkway. In fact, some of these statues had broken into the temple and fallen into the corridor from which Hao Ren and his gang had broken through, and the guards who stayed in the square might be there to ambush them. Although Hao Ren wondered if the colossi had this level of intelligence, it’s likely that the maker of the guards left a similar defense program in their stone heads.

However, the power of Vivian’s magnetic storm was beyond imagination. Not only the guards inside the temple were solved in an instant, but these colossi in the square outside had also fallen to the ground.

At the very edge of the square, a stone statue of a wolf’s head had yet to be completely destroyed. Its rocky sh.e.l.l had peeled off all over its body, revealing a pitch-black inner sh.e.l.l, and the runes and lines flickering on its surface, leaving the colossus trying to maintain a half-kneeling posture. Noting that the intruders had emerged intact from the temple, the colossus soldier raised his head and arm in the direction of Hao Ren.

Lily was full of anger and had no place to vent. She roared and rushed to the colossus soldier, leaving a series of holes on the flagstone road. The colossus soldier was turned upside down and fell to the ground. Lily then raised her fist and rained it down on the colossus soldier’s chest.

After a while, the statue stopped moving.

Vivian looked a little awkward and said, “She does seem angry.”

“Of course, she treasures her tail the most. Look what it looks like now.”

“Do I owe her an apology?”

“No, Huskies have a bad memory. She’ll forget it in a minute.”

Vivian, “…”

“These statues are very strange,” said Y’zaks. “I have a feeling that they have a unified command, which can be seen from their coordination — very few autonomous statues can do that, and I have not found any high degree of independent thinking in them during the battle.”

Hao Ren nodded, and just as he was about to say something, he suddenly felt the ground tremble under his feet.

“Now what?!”

Hessiana’s expression changed immediately. She had been quite nervous in the battle just now, and the tremor she felt at the moment gave her a sudden bad feeling.

“Meow?” Rollie looked up and quickly climbed onto a nearby pillar, holding the pillar tightly and stretching her neck to look out into the distance. “Big cat! More stone people are coming from all directions!”

Hao Ren immediately sent the MDT to investigate in the air, and the pictures sent back made everyone stop breathing:

Smoke and dust filled the lost city. Swirls of dust rose from every path. Countless figures of black colossi strode between temples and palaces, and every path in sight was filled with them!

They were definitely coming this way!

Hao Ren was a little surprised, then glanced at everyone around him:

Their divine s.h.i.+elds were still s.h.i.+ning brightly. This s.h.i.+eld protected them from the ubiquitous red moonlight of the ancient city and provided an additional layer of defense, but the main function of the s.h.i.+eld was to resist negative energy. In other words, it was an anti-magic s.h.i.+eld rather than a physical s.h.i.+eld, and it did not work as well against the statues as you might think.

Vivian’s electromagnetic storm had a deadly effect on the colossi. Y’zaks and Lily were also strong enough to fight against more than ten statues at the same time. It was not a big problem for Hao Ren’s lance to cope with one or two stone troops. As for the rest, even Rollie, the worst of them all, could stand alone against a statue…

If, however, a whole city of statues were flooding in, they would have to consider a retreat.

Even Vivian’s electromagnetic storm would consume lots of magic power!

Lily knew what was happening, too. She ran to Hao Ren and asked, “What shall we do? Keep fighting? They’re too many for us!!”

“Let’s get out of here!” Hao Ren made a quick decision. “The statues don’t move fast, but once we’re surrounded by them, we’re in big trouble. And Vivian’s electromagnetic storm is not infinite.”

Vivian nodded and said, “It’ll take me at least 30 minutes to create the next electromagnetic storm.”

Hao Ren had put away the plasma lance and replaced it with his psionic gun and Magnetic Concussion Bombs. The bombs worked well against these statues without magnetic s.h.i.+elding while the gun could kill an enemy of this size. He could not find a chance to use the psionic gun while fighting in the temple because of the battlefield conditions, but here in the open streets, he did not have to worry about hurting his teammates.

“MDT! Provide navigation!” He looked up at the MDT and shouted.

“Where?”

“The grand temple at the center of the city!”

“What? The statues are the guards of the temple. Shouldn’t the grand temple at the center of the city be their base?” asked Lily.

“No, quite the contrary I guess…”