The moment the massive creature appeared, it was as if an ancient behemoth had awakened. It shook the clods of earth from its body and stood up, its form—entirely covered in pitch-black scales—fully revealing itself.
Everyone present held their breath the instant they saw the monster. Not a soul dared to make a sound as they stared at the giant beast, watching for its next move. Meanwhile, the captured soldiers looked toward the LGD with faint, gloating expressions. They wanted to see what kind of "clever solution" these cops had for dealing with this thing.
"What... is that? Could it be one of those 'gods' from Yan's legends? This has already exceeded our scope of operations, hasn't it?" Swire looked at the creature and asked Ch'en with confusion. Although she had lived in Lungmen for many years, as a Victorian, she truly knew nothing about such classified Yan secrets. Thus, she turned to the Pink Sausage Dragon beside her, hoping her friend had heard some intel regarding such creatures from Chief Wei.
"Even if you ask me, I don't know what kind of creature this is! Besides, this city was Ursus territory decades ago; you'd need to find an Ursus person to ask for information on it." Seeing the thing, which stood two stories tall even while crouched, Ch'en couldn't help but tighten her grip on Chi Xiao. She hoped her weapon would be up to the task—or at least leave some significant wounds on it. Compared to the creature's size, the Chi Xiao in Ch'en's hand looked like a mere wooden stick. She felt that, at most, she could give the guy a manicure; trying to slay it seemed like asking for the impossible.
"Don't you guys feel like this monster has grown several sizes larger again? Do you think this thing has no growth limit?" The captured soldiers were currently the most relaxed ones among the crowd... aside from the Saint who was still pondering what had happened. After all, seeing a little fellow the size of a gecko grow into this was quite a challenge to her fragile worldview.
But following that soldier's words, the others snapped out of it and realized the same thing. When they had fought this creature earlier, its maximum recorded height was only about three meters. If they were ordered to fight a six-meter-tall, terrifying evil beast, their first thought would be that their boss wanted to silence them! They'd be damned if they didn't hack that "billionaire coward" to death first.
"ROAR!!!"
The massive creature looked down at the tiny beings beneath it. The ill-intentioned glares in their eyes stung it, leaving the mutated creature unsure of what to do. It was merely a juvenile dragon. Though its spirit was stronger than a human's, it still felt fear after such a drastic change—especially after being struck multiple times by a group of wicked people.
Its other kin were currently hiding beneath its belly. For some reason, despite being the same size originally, they hadn't grown to the same proportions. Perhaps it was because they hadn't eaten those glowing crystals? It was only after consuming those things that it had undergone such an abnormal mutation.
Despite possessing a gargantuan body, its young self didn't know what to do right now. It looked at these similar-looking little things; just a moment ago, they were hunting its kin. In the Earth Dragon's heart, an emotion called rage surged. It let out its first roar in this world toward the sky, spitting out a dragon breath over ten meters long. Fortunately, it only spat fire at the sky, intimidating these creatures with the scary eyes, telling them not to come near and not to use those strange things to hurt it...
"Didn't you just say you actually managed to hurt it once? How did you do it? Tell me clearly, right now!" Swire grabbed a soldier by the collar and began her interrogation. They had to know something about behemoths now. But they didn't have any "God-ologists"—those people only existed in the heartlands of Yan. Therefore, these people who had already clashed with it were the ones with first-hand data.
"If I confess everything, could you... based on my active cooperation, give me a slightly reduced sentence?" Seeing Swire holding her meteor hammer and grabbing his collar as if she'd bash his skull in if he didn't cooperate, the soldier got nervous and let his inner thoughts slip out! Realizing he'd misspoken, he looked at Swire nervously. In Ursus, the fate of someone like him would be to be beaten to death by military police to serve as a warning to the rest.
"Cut the crap! See this meteor hammer as big as your head? If you keep talking nonsense, it'll replace your head, and you can live the rest of your life with this ball on your shoulders!"
Hearing his words, Swire raised the meteor hammer to intimidate the soldier. Technically, she was violating regulations, but who would care at a time like this? Everyone would just turn a blind eye. Although the LGD had always been a model of following the rules, even a model has to see if their behavior is appropriate for the situation! Who had time to dither now?
"We don't know either! It was barely bigger than a Burdenbeast at first. We pierced its leg with a heavy crossbow! But when it reappeared, even a heavy crossbow couldn't pierce this guy..." Hearing Swire's threat, the soldier had no choice but to tell the truth. He had only been boasting about that experience earlier; who actually knew how to kill this thing? In any case, there probably wasn't a way in this city, unless they could call in a Landship and try using Originium cannons. Or... if they had specialized weapons. They had heard there were many people in Yan who researched such monsters; surely there were specialized weapons to counter them?
"You guys have heavy crossbows?" Swire's eyebrows shot up the moment she heard "heavy crossbow." She felt a lingering fear; if these guys had used heavy crossbows earlier, her heavy-armored operators might not have held out. Those were Ursus-standard heavy crossbows, and when paired with Originium Arts, they were a mainstay of the military. Such things were lethal weapons on a mobile city; if one wasn't careful, they could easily be taken out. Even if they were a public security force, Lungmen wouldn't equip them with the arsenal of a regular army. Heavy crossbows were usually mounted on vehicles, and they didn't possess any.
"Gone, gone, all gone! That beast holds a grudge! The second time it came out, it spat fire and melted the crossbowmen right along with the bows!" he hurriedly explained. Recalling the streak of fire that had whistled past his ear, it was as if he were back on the scene, feeling absolute despair. Back then, the flames were only two inches from his shoulder. If the monster's head had tilted just a bit, he would have been turned to ash with his brothers. No amount of good armor would have helped.
"Dammit, then what do we do?" Swire looked at the Earth Dragon spitting fire at the sky, her heart filled with extreme irritation. Right now, they truly didn't have the weapons to deal with such a creature; they could only watch.
"Ch'en, tell everyone not to attack it! I'll handle the rest." Jeanne keenly sensed the helplessness and fear within the Earth Dragon's heart. Perhaps it had been frightened by the hunt of those Ursus people today? After all, when all is said and done, it's still just a child!
Speaking of which, she felt she had wronged it by giving a child the task of scouting enemy intelligence. If you viewed an Earth Dragon as a human, she had sent a five-year-old into that kind of place... She would surely be condemned by humanity. Was this too insane? But what exactly happened to scare this little fellow into such a state?
Jeanne had indeed researched the habits of these Earth Dragons. These creatures had almost no infancy; or rather, their mental age grew along with their bodies. However... there was truly no precedent for growing this much in a single day. Combined with the fact that their intelligence could only reach the level of a teenager, the change in its own body had likely frightened it.
"Can you... handle it?" Ch'en looked at Jeanne with half-doubt. Everyone had seen how terrifying this thing was. If she got too close and the thing spat fire and roasted her, what then?
"Don't worry, I'm an expert at handling these kinds of problems!" With that, Jeanne walked toward the roaring behemoth alone, without even giving Ch'en a chance to argue.