The Innkeeper

On a battlefield of giants, every step they take would be like an earthquake to the mortals living down below. Their battlecry would be the sonic boom that threatened to tear the eardrums of lesser beings, each of their clashes a biblical armageddon for those suffering the misfortune of being nearby.

So when Lex, a mere Qi training cultivator, was caught in the middle of an ambush, with flaming, razor sharp leaves slicing through the air threatening to cut the world in half, and batons of tree branches beat down on them to crush their backs, it was a testament to Regal Embrace that he remained unharmed.

One moment he was looking Ptolemy in the eyes, about to warn him about danger, the next moment his pupils constricted when he saw the canopy alight with flames. The array character for ice on his hand shone with a silverish blue light, and an armor made of ice suddenly covered not only Lex, but his lizard as well.

The raining bullets made of leaves could not melt his armor, for unbeknownst even to Lex himself, the ice was that of the Frio birds themselves. But, while he was saved from the temperature, he doubted he would be safe from the branches that came crashing down on him.

After such a long time of riding Fenrir, Lex was long accustomed to controlling his mount effortlessly and so it was with finesse undeserving of its race that the lizard dodged all attacks.

He had been saved from the rising temperature, and avoided the direct clashes, but there was nothing that could protect him from the shockwaves that traveled through the air. The weakest of these attacks was in the Golden core realm, while most were in the Nascent realm. How could Lex expect to survive such shockwaves traveling through his body?

The answer was with a straight back, eyes full of unyielding determination and a will to challenge the heavens! Also, he still had the talisman to protect him from Nascent level attacks that automatically turned on when he was threatened.

So, when death rained down on the expedition and the forest tried to beat them like drums, the weakest of the expedition, Lex, was the most unhurt. But though they had been taken by surprise, if a simple, extremely lethal ambush was all it took to eliminate the students of the academy, then as the holy land of the human race, its reputation was undeserved.

The moment Lex's armor had appeared, Ptolemy already reacted and launched a counterattack! Unlike the orange flames produced by the forest, Ptolemy produced green flames that spread around as if he was someone who vaped, competing with a smoke machine! The green flames consumed the orange ones, and clashed as if the two were solid entities.

Around them, while the other students did not respond as fast, many of them were able to quickly retaliate. Especially the 30 students trained as soldiers. Lex could not understand exactly what they had done, because he was busy trying not to die, but they all looked very cool whenever he saw them.

The fight was not short, but for Lex it only involved controlling his lizard to stay out of everyone's way. An hour later, or maybe it was several hours later, the fight ended just as abruptly as it had begun. While initially they had been surrounded by a dense forest, they now appeared to be in a burnt down clearing.

As Lex saw green flames spreading in the distance, eating at the trees, Lex suddenly understood what Ptolemy meant when he said he threatened a forest fire. Maybe Goli would not be afraid of normal flames, as it appeared Goli himself was adept at controlling fire, but the green, malevolent flames produced by Ptolemy was anything but normal.

Suddenly, the armor around Lex receded, and the character on his right hand reformed, although much dimmer now. While Lex was analyzing their situation, suddenly it occurred to him that the whole expedition was staring at him.

Over a 100 soot-covered, bruised and beaten students looked at the neat and clean Lex, seated comfortably upon his uninjured noble lizard. It was like a scene out of a story and, unbeknownst to Lex, the few members of the expedition who had heard rumors about him, suddenly recalled the latest one.

It was said that even immortal Kravens could not injure a hair from his head, and though he had been born from 'that' family, he had forsaken his family name so that any prestige he built, it would be of his own design.

Reverence flashed in a few eyes, before it quickly disappeared. They were still in danger, and now was not the time to dwell on such things.

Ptolemy did a quick check, and though there were a dozen injured, no one had died. No longer bothering to be gentle, the expedition bulldozed through the forest to the camp site one of the scouts had picked for them and immediately began laying down defense.

For the first time, Lex saw formation masters at work as they erected protective formations around their new campsite. Others chopped down all nearby trees, while others still used their techniques to level the ground.

In a few hours, the expedition managed to monopolize a sizable pond with fresh running water from multiple small streams, put up formation reinforced, wooden fences and built watch towers. The efficiency with which they worked was only matched by the nonchalance of the students. None of them were at all bothered by the ambush, and even the injured had conveniently taken sedatives and gone to sleep so as to accelerate their healing process.

Lex was only just beginning to comprehend the mentality of humans who had been raised knowing they would die at war when one of the watchtowers sounded an alarm.

Their camp, which they had not even finished setting up, was facing its first attack already. As if that wasn't enough the enemy this time even managed to scare Lex. It was snakes. Tens of thousands of snakes.