"A Golden Giant — it's heading right for us!" The wizard on watch was pale, his words rushed and frantic. "One of my alert stone slabs has been completely devoured..."
"Damn it!"
The moment the words "Golden Giant" left his lips, Leilin quickly heard the wizards around him cursing.
Golden Giants were elemental creatures, their strength approaching that of fully-elementalized wizards. Combined with their innate racial abilities, only Second-rank Wizards could be confident of killing or driving one off permanently.
"Weren't the Golden Giants in the Golden Desert supposed to be extinct? How is there still one left? And of all places, it's right on our path?"
The old leader was grinding his teeth, his eyes emitting a faint green glow.
"Can we dodge it for now?" Lanse suggested. "The Golden Desert is enormous — it won't necessarily find us!"
"I'm afraid not!" Leilin was the first to speak. "Golden Giants possess an instinct to chase down high-energy life forms. The energy fluctuations radiating from us are like torches in the night to them — the more we move, the more we'll attract the Golden Giant's aggression!"
"Then what do we do?" Despair crept across Lanse's face. "Unless one of us is a Second-rank Wizard, there's no way we can escape a Golden Giant's pursuit..."
Every rank among formal wizards represented a vast gulf in power.
The six of them were only marginally stronger than newly-advanced First-rank Wizards — they'd barely hold their own against a half-elementalized wizard, let alone a fully-elementalized Golden Giant.
A half-elementalized wizard referred to one whose spiritual elementalization had exceeded fifty percent. At that stage, the boost to their spells was already significant, giving them an overwhelming advantage over newly-advanced wizards.
Back when Leilin was still an apprentice, he'd encountered a half-elementalized Storm Giant Elf while aboard an airship. If the numerous academy instructors on board hadn't been present, the airship would have been destroyed with everyone aboard.
And now, what Leilin and the others had to face was a dangerous creature even more formidable than that Storm Giant Elf.
"Maybe we should split up and scatter..." The big man hesitated before suggesting.
When they heard this, the wizards present fell silent, their eyes flickering uncertainly.
"Have you lost your minds?" The old leader angrily cut him off. "If we split up, can you guarantee you'll be lucky enough to dodge the Golden Giant? And more importantly, what are you going to use to break through the Grid Vultures' territory beyond that?"
These two sharp questions instantly pushed the situation into a different kind of silence.
After scattering, they could theoretically double back. If they were lucky enough, there was a slim chance of making it back to the Broken Axe Tavern. But that was a last resort when all else had failed — none of the wizards present could truly accept such an outcome.
"Hurry! Three more of my precious ones have died!" The night-watch wizard's breathing grew even heavier.
"Perhaps we could use his alert stone slabs and attach runes that continuously emit energy to draw the Golden Giant's attention away. Meanwhile, we suppress our energy fluctuations as much as possible and slip out quietly... And if that doesn't work, we can still go with the split-up plan we discussed earlier..."
In the silence, Leilin suddenly spoke up.
"While this plan isn't exactly foolproof, we clearly don't have anything better..."
The old leader let out a resigned sigh and pointed at Leilin. "We'll go with his plan! I happen to have a few sets of materials for cultivating alert stone slabs on me..."
Saying this, he pulled out several glass vials filled with grey powder and handed them to the night-watch wizard.
Looking at the materials the old man produced, the night-watch wizard still looked somewhat reluctant, but he reached out and took them. "Fine, I'll give it a try! But I can't guarantee it'll work!"
As incantations were chanted, several sand mounds rose from the sandy ground, revealing alert stone slabs identical to the previous ones.
At this point, everyone in the camp could clearly see a mass of golden light emerging to the east. The light was like the sun itself, dispelling the darkness and bringing a touch of warmth to the surroundings. And within that solar disc was the massive silhouette of a giant.
The giant's entire body radiated golden light. Its attire was rudimentary — the upper body wore only a leather chest strap with a single iron ring connecting two shoulder guards. Above the shoulders was the giant's face, its hard lines as if carved by blade and axe, with flame-orange hair that seemed to burn like living fire.
*Beep! High-energy life form detected — classified as Golden Giant. Recommend immediate evacuation!*
The Chip simultaneously flashed a red warning on his display.
"Hurry! Hurry!" The old leader's voice was so urgent it had become distorted.
"I know a few energy-gathering runes — let's hope they help!" Another apprentice who had been notably silent stepped forward and inscribed symbols onto the alert stone slabs — a chaotic arrangement of circles and triangles.
Once the runes were completed and began to emit a soft luminescence, a powerful energy fluctuation suddenly erupted from the alert stone slabs. The fluctuation was chaotic and immense. In the distance, the Golden Giant let out a roar and accelerated its pace.
"Good! It's got the Golden Giant's attention!" Lanse nodded excitedly.
"Add this!" Leilin opened a red test tube and dripped the potion onto the alert stone slabs.
As the potion seeped into the stone slabs, they all let out a roar and swelled to several times their original size, their limbs growing thicker and sturdier.
"Hopefully that'll help them hold out a little longer!"
Leilin casually tossed the test tube aside. The energy fluctuation from his body continued to shrink, gradually falling below the level of a formal wizard and approaching that of an ordinary person.