Chapter 803: The Humbled Dark Wyrms
"Oh?" Leon uttered with surprise.
Nevertheless, after hearing Tak-si's information, shrouds of darkness quickly surged out of Leon's body and rose to towering heights, causing the dark wyrm to pause in its tracks with a change of expression abruptly.
If the information were false, he would have attacked immediately.
However, it appears that the Tak-si had indeed spoken truthfully regarding the dark wyrm's timid nature.
"Interesting…" Leon muttered with a thoughtful look.
Seeing how the dark wyrm abruptly stopped its attack, Aria and the others were also surprised by the situation.
"Why did it suddenly stop attacking?" Darlene uttered with doubt.
"According to Tak-si, dark wyrms are 'timid' creatures; but more accurately speaking, it is only timid in front of stronger opponents," Leon explained.
From what he could see, the dark wyrm is not afraid of beings smaller than itself unless they were higher lifeforms—it was a typical case of bullying the weak and fearing the strong.
Given how other demons view him as a noble existence, the dark wyrm indeed regarded him as a higher lifeform.
As a creature of darkness, the dark wyrm was sensitive to the power of darkness like other demons, and Leon's quality of dark power was no different from making him look like a behemoth in its eyes.
"Stay back for a moment; I want to check something out."
Leon instructed everyone before approaching the dark wyrm with his body suffused in towering dark power.
A colossal pressure weighed down on the dark wyrm, causing it to be stricken with fear and froze on the spot, unable to flee.
"Can you understand my words?" Leon asked.
The dark wyrm responded by nodding a few times before lowering its head on the ground in front of him, expressing its submission.
"So you can. Hahaha, good boy," Leon chuckled while rubbing the dark wyrm's head like an owner that just got a new pet.
However, from the dark wyrm's perspective, it was prey that had been caught by its predator and entirely at its predator's mercy—like a lion resting its paws on an antelope's neck, not in a hurry to kill it.
After Leon retracted his dark power, the dark wyrm remained subservient without the slightest retaliation; it had already registered him as someone above it.
He studied the dark wyrm's ability to listen to orders before he patted its head with satisfaction.
"Aiyo, we just ourselves a ride," he called the others over.
Aria, Darlene, and the dark faes all expressed their surprises before making their way over nonetheless.
Then, not long after, they all saddled on the dark wyrm's back before Leon called the realm spirit for a quick inquiry.
'How far are we from the Demon Lord-level Tomb, Tak-si?' Leon asked.
'You should be able to see it from here, Master. Roughly 800 yards to the west from here, there's a giant whirlpool of quicksand; that's where the dark faes fell.'
'I see.' Leon acknowledged.
Shortly after, he ordered the dark wyrm to move in the direction pointed out by the realm spirit while everyone else enjoyed the short ride.
Although they could simply fly over the black sand region, riding the dark wyrm gave them a refreshing feeling.
They could relax and enjoy the cool desert breeze.
As the dark wyrm brought the group 600 yards closer to the quicksand whirlpool, two mountains of black sand erupted near it, revealing another two equally giant dark wyrms.
Evidently, the dark wyrms guarded the Demon Lord-level Tomb's entrance.
However, Leon found it surprising that the stranded dark faes made it through the dark wyrms without getting eaten, but then, he quickly found his answers by studying the vicinity of the quicksand whirlpool.
Blood and broken pieces of equipment lay scattered across the area.
'Seems like a big battle occurred in this area… Considering the dark faes are one of the bottom feeders in the demon hierarchy, the stronger demons most likely used them as trailblazers…' Leon mused.
In a sense, the dark faes are quite lucky to have fallen into quicksand while the rest of the demons got caught up in battle.
Roar!
(How dare you let puny creatures ride on your back, and there's even humans among them! Have you lost all your pride?!)
(Pah! You're a complete disgrace to our kind and the dragon blood running in your veins!)
(Hmph! You two know nothing! It's my honor to serve a higher being! You can stay proud for now, but you'll be humbled in a moment if you keep up your hostilities!)
The dark wyrms growled at each other.
Roar!
(What higher being? I think you've lost your mind!)
(Yeah, yeah, whatever you say)
Roar!
Shortly after, the two hostile dark wyrms rushed at Leon's group.
"Although I don't understand what they were saying, negotiations failed, I presumed," Leon commented before stirring the dark power within him.
"Down, boy!"
(A higher being!)
Dark power quickly surged out of Leon's body, causing the two dark wyrms' expression to change drastically.
They abruptly halted their charge but ended up tumbling and kicking up a storm of black sand that flew towards Leon's group.
However, Leon casually waved at it and cleared the flying black sand from the area before seeing the two dark wyrms groveling on the ground.
Even their own dark wyrm had its head lowered while trembling in fear, causing a few dark faes to almost fall off its back.
"Why are you also down? I was talking to the other two dark wyrms!" Leon said as he patted the dark wyrm's head.
Shortly after, the dark wyrm raised its head back up before giving the other two dark wyrms a smug grunt.
(I told you so! Kek, where's your pride now, hm?)
(S-shut up! Quickly plead for us!)
The dark wyrms growled back.
Nevertheless, Leon did not care too much about the dark wyrms for the time being and brought everyone to fly over to the quicksand whirlpool that leads to the Demon Lord-level Tomb.
"Is the Demon Lord-level Tomb down here?" Aria glanced down at the quicksand whirlpool with a bit of reluctance. "Do we have to go through here?"
"Yep," Leon simply answered.