God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

At Pudding's crown broke through the ground's surface, Cain couldn't help but feel like something was off.

He had his guard completely down, so he had not noticed it before, but for some reason, the moment the soil came apart above him, he could smell it.

A smoldering curtain of suffocating killing intent aimed at his general direction.

He raised a brow,

'What the hell?!'

Time seemed to slow down for a moment...

The power of the {Beholder's Eye} stretched forth like a spider's web.

Cain's expression soured.

'This damned Alvi! Is he trying to get me killed?!'

With the {Beholder's Eye}, he could see that Alvi just stood there without telling his men to back off. He knew the damned snake had noticed him as he could feel his intense stare.

His face contorted into a grimace as he could feel the dwarves behind him tensing up.

'I guess I have no choice...'

The wall of death came falling down on him in just a moment.

Arrows came whistling, bullets cracking the air and fireballs blooming with shrill screeches of igniting mana.

Spells of ice, wind, and lightning screamed in their descent as they tore the air apart, weaving together into a chaos storm that could level a small city to cinder and gravel.

Pudding didn't seem to care about the deathly hostility either. The enormous worm-like beast covered with violet crystalline chitinlet out another reverberating groan that sent shivers right into the soul.

Layers of ground rose up into the sky like waves on the sea.

Without sufficient warning, the first volley came.

Luckily for him, Cain didn't need any warnings.

The sky lit up in a dozen colors. The air became lit with magic and chaos, blossoming into flowers that sought out death.

With a wave of his hand, Cain activated {Golden Halo}.

With his evolution, as well as the evolution of his understanding of magic and mana, his skills as well as his spells, specifically his spells in this case, had undergone gradual, yet significant changes...

Changes in their incantations, range, area of effect, and even nature of execution and effectiveness.

And for the most part, these changes were positive.

Above him, a magic circle blossomed into existence, stretching out and extending until it was large enough to span the entirety of Pudding's length and width.

From the magic circle was birthed a set of golden halos, divine and austere in their arcane magnificence...

There were three halos; the first one was the smallest, but also the most important, serving at the Nexus that contained most of the runes necessary for the magic circle's initiation.

The second was larger and contained a unique set of runes around its circumference.

The third rune was the largest and housed the remaining two.

These golden halos spun, the runes within them twisting and turning as well.

From the edges of the golden halos, a curtain of golden radiance poured down. As the attacks poured in from all around, the Golden curtain barely seemed to even register their existence.

The conjurer of this spell raised a brow,

'Since when did {Golden Halo} become so powerful? I can barely even feel the drop in my mama pool.'

The spells and projectiles continued to bounce off harmlessly.

The melee hunters that had rushed in slowed down their pace and turned their eyes up to the sky to bear witness to the near divine phenomenon.

They all froze in their tracks.

From the scrawny looking assassin types, to the huge bruisers with large great swords and war axes...

A ripple of disbelief ran through the hunters.

Very quickly, however, they sighted what they had all missed earlier.

There was a human, and a few smaller humans standing on the back of the enormous worm-like aberration.

On the Pudding's back, Grimdor bellowed with laughter, the sound booming through the silence,

"Hooman! Is that all you've got?! Our boy, Cain 'ere's barely broken a sweat!"

Beorstone nodded in approval,

"Very good, kid. Very good."

Even Gungir seemed stunned as well, his keep eyes analyzing the enormous golden halos overhead,

"Such neat spell structure. And all this without an audible incantation too."

Cain sighed.

Every remaining spell in that first barrage fizzled out as if the mana had been drunk from the air.

There was a faint ringing in the air as the silence stretched on.

Then came the murmurs...

"C-Cain? Isn't he the..."

"I thought he was buried alive with the first tremors! No one has seen him since then."

"Cain? Who is that?"

"Don't you know? He's—"

Cain's lips curved into a smile. A strange feeling spread through his body. One that was quite familiar, but also distant.

A second wave of attacks never came.

A few hunters, perhaps those with keener instincts, hesitated, lowering their weapons slightly. The rest stood frozen, eyes darting between the still-smoking beast and the figures perched atop it.

Cain raised a hand and signaled,

"Enough!" His voice carried unnaturally far, resonating with the ebbing tremble of the ground,

"They're with me."

Every human in the immediate vicinity was stumped. The air of confusion thickened.

One in particular—a wiry man with silver hair and a spear taller than himself—stepped forward, voice laced with suspicion,

"With you? Who exactly are you? What is that damned thing? And those dwarves?! Where the hell did you find dwarves?! If you don't give some answers now, you aren't taking a step forward!"

He said all this, his spearhead tilted toward the dwarves.

The Black-Hearth dwarves didn't seem pleased with that,

Beorstone, standing just behind Cain, leaned forward, his eyes narrowing into slits. "Careful with yer tone, lad, or I'll take that stick and plant it somewhere that'll make sure yer won't be walkin' straight ever again."

The silver-haired hunter tightened his grip on his spear and his legs trembled. Despite that, he didn't seem intent on backing down at all.

Cain was a bit impressed at the show.

Alvi, watching from the ledge, finally couldn't take it anymore and stepped forward.

With his voice sharp, he barked,

"Stand down!"

The sternness in his tone made the hunters shift uncomfortably. He was their employer after all. They had no choice but to listen.

Although still skeptical, the silver-haired hunter lowered his weapon.

Alvi sighed then turned his gaze Cain, "I assume," he said, every word almost pleading, "you have a damn good explanation for this."

Cain shrugged, as though riding into camp on the back of an unholy, nightmarish worm-like... entity, with a squad of strange, small creatures were the makings of a perfectly normal evening.

The corners of Cain's lips trembled as he decided to have a little fun.

He cleared his throat and his expression turned serious,

"I was mining."

The silence that followed was almost comical.

"Mining," Alvi repeated flatly, the wrinkles on his face becoming a tad bit more pronounced.

Cain nodded. "It was a productive trip."

Then he gestured vaguely to the dwarves. "I also met some new friends. Thought I'd bring them here so we all can have a little chat."

Alvi's eyes narrowed. Although right now, he was all kinds of confused, he knew how to handle pressure quite well. He cleared his throat then turned around.

Luckily, the tremors had completely stopped.

"Alright. The issue has been solved. You can all have a break for the rest of the day. You'll get your usual pay plus extra to keep everything that happened here today under wraps."