~TWANG~
The illusory centaur shot another arrow into the sky which then rained down hundreds of arrows around Lin Mu. The Lava beasts that he had ignored in favor of getting the iron key from the Lava Squirrel were killed, allowing him to move forward freely.
"Thanks!" Lin Mu said as he made his way to the next Lava beast that had the iron key.
~HISS~HISS~
A black and white ribbon joined along his side, as they ripped through the Lava beasts that were trying to get close to Lin Mu. It was as if two walls were created beside him, that prevented anything from stopping him.
~SHUA~
Lin Mu quickly reached the next lava beast that held the key, it was a butterfly.
It was about the size of a man's arm and was smaller than most lava beasts. But the Iron Key stuck in its chest was rather prominent.
~FLAP~
But just as Lin Mu was about to grasp it, the butterfly flapped its wings in the air hard, propelling it into another direction at a great speed allowing it to dodge Lin Mu's grasp narrowly.
"Huh, gonna make it hard for me, aren't you?" Lin Mu chuckled before directly teleporting next to the lava butterfly.
~GROWL~
The lava beasts around the Lava butterfly cried out in anger as they rushed towards Lin Mu. They were supposedly guarding the butterfly, but their effort was for naught.
~SPLAT~
Lin Mu hand closed around the butterfly's torso as it were were a vise and ended its life. His hands that contained the raw might of the Two Legged Tyrant Bull wasn't something that could be endured by most beasts.
The soft Lava Butterfly was nothing when Lin Mu's hands could crumple iron sheets that were a few inches thick with ease.
Still that didn't mean that Lin Mu overexerted his strength. As when his fingers reached the Iron Key inside the lava butterfly they quickly slowed down and gently held onto it.
It was as if a ten ton rock had suddenly turned into a gentle feather.
"There we go," Lin Mu muttered and quickly stored it away.
~HISS~
And just when the lava beasts were closing on him, the twins pierced through them, devouring their energy at the same time.
"Time to hunt more," Lin Mu's immortal sense spread and quickly searched for the next target.
~CHIRP~ "There's one running on the walls!" Ashy informed him from the sky.
"Oh?" Lin Mu quickly found it under her guidance and saw that there was a Lava Lizard running on the walls of the valley!
It was as long as an adults arm and had a key embedded in its body too. Though it was running quite fast and was already a kilometer away from Lin Mu.
~TWANG~
Another barrage of arrows rained down from the sky, as Lady Kang caught up.
Lin Mu glanced back and saw that no lava beasts were left alive.
Their group was working perfectly in tandem and had their roles.
Lady Kang cleared out beasts in a bulk, while Little Shrubby carried her and guarded her at the same time. The Twins escorted Lin Mu, so that he wouldn't be disturbed by the other Lava beasts, while Ashy monitored everything from the sky.
With such a collaboration Lin Mu had no issue in reaching the next target.
~SPLAT~
Lin Mu slammed into the Lava Lizard, turning it into a burning stain on the wall before grabbing the fifth Iron Key.
'No reaction… Need to get more keys.' Lin Mu had hoped that five keys could have been enough, but the trial was not going to let it be easy for them. "Do you see anymore, Ashy?" Lin Mu questioned.
"None in sight. I'll go on ahead!" The small bird answered before soaring forward.
Lin Mu continued onwards as well, while the others accompanied him doing their duties.
The twins were having a feast and left no Lava beast alive.
The group traveled for about an hour before they finally found another lava beast with an iron key. It was a large lava beast in the shape of an elephant but Lin Mu didn't need to use much effort to kill it.
But the sixth key didn't seem to be enough either and the journey continued.
Finding the keys was getting harder the more time passed as the lava beasts became sparse.
To find the seventh key it took them over five hours, while the eighth key took twelve hours!
And yet there was no end in sight.
After another day had passed and no more lava beasts appeared, Lin Mu reckoned they had to move on from the region.
"We'll have to go deeper." Lin Mu spoke.
"This seems to be the core area of this trial, I don't think finding the next key is going to be simple." Lady Kang replied.
"That does seem likely." Lin Mu said as he looked up at the sky ahead of them. "Its now raining lava too." There was a red hue above them that gave an illusion of sky during sunset. But with Lin Mu's vision he could accurately see that it wasn't actually sky, but fine drops of lava raining down. From the distance, they all melded together making it look quite blurry.
But as they got closer they saw the hellish scene.
~CHIRP~
It was at this moment that Ashy let out a panicked cry.
"Ashy are you fine?" Lin Mu asked, his eyes narrowing in concern.
He quickly tracked her down and saw that she was already in the area with the lava rain.
"I'm okay…"Ashy said after a couple of seconds.
"Did you get injured?" Lin Mu asked, just in case even if he knew that the talismans could protect the bird.
"Okay," Lin Mu took a breath of relief. "The lava is a bit heavy though." Ashy replied, "it's sticking to me." She added.
Hearing that Lin Mu guessed what must have happened.
