Laz looked around and spread his spiritual sense outward, trying to find the dragon. But he was surprised that there was nothing around him. He had been told by Hera that the beast could hide in the shadows as it had done things like that when they fought in the forests of the north. Still, when it happened, even Laz was a little surprised.

Scanning his senses around Laz could notice where the shadows were but didn’t sense the beast anywhere.

"Hmm? Well this is interesting..." Laz said, slightly amused. He hadn’t predicted that the shadow dragon would go hiding so quickly or that it could. The beast itself was massive compared to Laz. But even then, the beast was still limited by it’s realm and it’s strength was something Laz’s could come close to. If it came to a direct arm wrestling match, Laz probably couldn’t beat the beast, but that was about it. The reason he had been able to launch the beast into the ground with a kick was because it was unprepared and Laz had targeted it with a strong attack at such a time. It didn’t mean Laz was stronger, but he was just strong enough to pose a problem for it.

And the dragon knew that and had taken to it’s safe place to figure out what to do next as it’s fire breath hadn’t worked, nor had a direct attack.

’Not that it’s my strong point,’ the beast admitted to itself. It was a fast beast that used shadows to attack quickly and quietly, going for the sure one hit kill as opposed to a long, drawn out battle. The problem it was currently facing was that it hadn’t been challenged since it had been in this dimension and had gotten careless due to that. Thinking it’s power couldn’t be riveled especially by a human it had almost killed the last time it had encountered it made the best lower it’s guard.

But it wasn’t stupid and had a lot of experience in killing under it’s master. As such, it quickly changed tactics and began looking at Laz like an opponent and not just prey.

There wasn’t much it could do in the shadows to get close. Thanks it it’s arrogance, the open landscape in the middle of the day didn’t allow a lot of shadows to be used. And the shadows had to be of a certain size to hide it’s body and of a certain level of dark. It couldn’t just hide in the shadow of a flower in the field as there were limits to it’s abilities.

What it could do was to hide in the shadows of the fortress that Laz had brought along with him and in the shadows of the beasts and humans on the field. As for the shadow it was in right now, it was one of the walls of the of the floating black castle that just so happened to have been next to where it had landed.

Now it couldn’t just jump from shadow to shadow without being seen as it’s body had to move above the ground to do so. There was no jumping into one shadow and out another. But that also meant that unless it made it move, it couldn’t be detected. Since it had the key to the door, it was in no hurry to reveal itself, instead waiting for the time when everyone would let their guards down so it could attack. It had used this strategy many times before with a lot of success.

It had no clue what kind of mistake it was making though.

Laz didn’t hesitate in the slightest as he quickly figured out the beasts plans. While he didn’t know the extent of it’s ability, he figured there had to be some kind of limit and waiting around wasn’t going to help.

"KILL THEM ALL!" Laz shouted from the air as he dove, head first, into the surrounding beasts gods, determined to use this time to reduce their opponents. Seeing Laz take action first, Hera and her daughters, along with Pooja and her clan and all of the gathered troops react immediately, charging for the beasts who had retreated back.

There weren’t a lot of them, the shadow dragon having only brought the strong heads of clans. But they were the most powerful beings in the dimension and they quickly responded.

Unfortunately for them, while they had no trouble holding their own before, that was when Laz was busy facing the dragon. Now that he was no longer restrained, he tore into them like a tornado.

Beasts at the same level as humans were many times stronger physically, but humans had always had an advantage in terms of tactics and weapons. Each one of the god level fighters on Laz’s side had been given whatever weapon they could use from the armory that Hera had brought along, weapons with a long history dating back to what they collected before the fall of the Asura Empire. These types of weapons had been locked up as they were too strong to be used and the now dead emperor had feared they would fall into the hands of those who wished to rebel against him. But since they no longer had those concerns, the weapons were given out without hesitation to whoever could wield them. They just hadn’t used these earlier as it hadn’t been the right time to reveal this trump card.

Thanks to this and to Laz, the beast gods were being torn apart, one by one. Surrounded by human and demon gods with fully armored troops to take the hits, the beasts couldn’t hang on for long.

"SAVE US!" They yelled, focusing on the shadow that stood alone in the field, cast there by the floating black castle. While Laz night not have known where the shadow dragon was, it’s subordinates would be able to sense it not matter what.

The shadow dragon couldn’t swear in it’s current form as it didn’t have a mouth, but it thought many bad thoughts one after another. Even if it didn’t want to, it knew Laz wouldn’t have missed it’s now exposed hiding spot.

Laz, turning his head towards where they were calling, grinned that way briefly before turning back towards to slaughter of the beasts in front of him.

He had no intention of attacking now that he knew where he was.

’Fuck that. If I kill these guys first it just means I only have to focus on smoking that lizard bitch out,’ Laz thought.

And the shadow dragon recognized that it was being ignored immediately. Then it took another moment for it to figure out why that was.

’DAMN IT!’ It yelled in it’s head as it jumped out, striking out at the nearest humans and cutting down ten of them before Laz could jump back and react.

With Laz engaging the dragon, the pressure on the beasts was now far less, but several of them had already been slain while it had waited so they could no longer hold an advantage against the human gods.

"Looks like the little turtle got sick of hiding in it’s shell?" Laz mocked facing the beast.

"YOU’LL BURN FOR YOUR INSULTS WORM!" The dragon yelled, making Laz laugh.

"I would understand you calling me an ant because... well... yeah. But worm? I mean... Aren’t you far more worm like than I?"

"YOU PIECE OF..."

"Wow. Easy there lizard. There are ladies present... which brings me to a question? Do you have a name? I mean... Not that I really care but... it’s kind of awkward for me not to know what to call you considering you can talk and all?" Laz said, not in a hurry to fight. He knew of his sides strength and the more time he gave them without their battle interfering with everyone else, the more beasts would be slain. Of course this only worked now since there were only around a dozen of these massive beasts left. Had their whole army been here, they would have stood no chance.

Laz waited for a moment before realizing something as he stared at the massive lizard...

It was looking away as though embarrassed.

Now Laz couldn’t be sure that it was actually doing that. It was a lizard with a face that couldn’t show expression in it’s current form. It was just bones, skin and scales. The skin didn’t redden, the face didn’t change in anyway, it was more about the body language the beast was giving off.

For a moment, Laz was shocked. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

’What the fuck? I just wanted to know what it was called and now this... wait... wait wait wait...’

"Hold the fuck up.... Tell me your name isn’t... worm... right?" Laz said, everything clicking all at once.

The beast shot it’s head back and roared,

"MY NAME ISN’T WORM.... YOU...." But it seemed to stop there.

"Holy fuck man... assuming you’re a man. I’m sorry...." Laz apologized. He was still going to kill it, but he didn’t think he would feel second hand embarrassment for it before doing so.

"It’s... not worm.... it.... Black Worm.... or so my master calls me...."

Laz "..."