Seth craned his head up, his eyes slowly trailing up the thick, fur covered leg that took his punch like it was just the slap of a paper bag blowing in the wind. Even while looking at its head, it took him a second to realise that it wasn't fur covering this Goliath, but hair.

Thick, matted and unwashed hair that reeked of sweat, but hair nonetheless. The reason it took him a second to come to this conclusion, was the massive head of shaggy, unkempt hair and the great big bushy beard that draped down his chest that mixed in with his chest hair. A beard that was still smouldering in places, as if he had just lit it on fire moments before.

Seth had no idea where the beard ended and the body hair started. But beneath all of that hair was the hints of human skin, hidden in the forest of hair by its coating of dirt.

This beast, was no beast. It was a man. One giant of a man. This man easily stood over 9 feet tall. Not only was he taller than even Alexandra, but he was wider than her too, even in her armoured golem form.

Honestly, Seth didn't think that there was anyone that represented the phrase 'built like a brick shithouse' more than this man right here. He was wider than Seth was tall, with fingers as thick as his arms and arms like stone pillars.

Honestly, just by looking at him. Seth felt that if he were a third of his size, he would definitely be able to pass as some kind of Dwarf. But as he was, there was no way this man was going to fit into a mine nor have the dexterity in those fat sausage fingers to craft the masterpiece weapons dwarves were usually known for.

This beastly behemoth was not alone in his arrival, stepping through the gateway behind him was something that was undoubtedly a beast. However unlike the other beasts, who charged out or appeared confused, this beast stood tall and proud, strutting out as it overflowed with confidence as if every inch of the ground it stepped on rightfully belonged to it, simply because it had been touched by its paws.

Not only was his companion easy to identify as a beast, but what beast it was was also plain as day, at least to the likes of Seth.

With the large body of a black furred lion, which stood just a few centimetres taller than the Giant Dwarf. The creature's head, underneath the regal, golden haired lions mane which billowed in the wind, was a face that was not quite that of a lion, but wasn't quite human either.

It seemed to be a blend of the two. It had distinctly human eyes that glimmered with intelligence and a mouth that was currently twisted into a condescending sneer, giving Seth a perfect look at the flesh ripping teeth hidden within.

At the base of its mane, travelling the length of its spine from neck to its rump, was chitinous plated armour. Like the exoskeleton of an insect, that blended in seamlessly with its wiry fur. Positioned either side of this chitinous armour was a pair of large, leathery wings with a wing span twice that of the beast itself. Wings that were definitely not for show.

At the end of this chitinous spine covering, where the lion's tail should be, was instead a tail which was almost as long as the lion's body. Much like the beast's spine, the tail was covered in the same chitinous armour.

It wasn't unlike the tail of a scorpion, only much more prehensile and instead of being tipped with a single curved stinger this tail ended in a plethora of long, needle-like spikes. Although these 'needles' were in actuality around 20 inches long and 3 inches thick. The type of 'needle' that would send any child, and many adults, running out of the doctors office screaming in terror.

It was yet another monster that had leapt straight from the annuals of myth and history. The name of this beast? Manticore. The Manticore, alongside its gigantic companion, exuded the energy of a true transcendent, and they were undoubtedly powerful ones at that.

It wouldn't be too much of an assumption to think that they were at the peak of the transcendent level, just touching upon the cusp of the level above, whatever that might be.

As the arrogant Manticore stepped through the portal, observing the world around it with contempt and disdain, the Giant Dwarf glanced down at Seth with mild annoyance. That was all Seth's punch was to this behemoth, a mild annoyance.

Of course, Seth didn't use all of his power in this punch, merely a trickle of mana as he mainly relied on his blood armour to protect his fist at this point. But even still, Seth's raw physical strength was nothing to sneeze at. At this point he could probably punch a hole through the armour of a tank with his bare hand.

Yet this Giant Dwarf took it like it was absolutely nothing, which was decidedly not a good sign of things to come.

Before Seth could throw another punch, this time powered with mana, a colossal hand swung through the air and smacked him in the face. Quickly crossed his arms infront of him, taking the blow on his black blood covered guard instead of his handsome, unprotected face, but even though the impact was softened, the follow through from the hand was more than enough to send Seth tumbling through the air.

"Move out of the way boy, I don't have time to deal with the likes of you."

Seth couldn't understand the words being spoken to him, since they were being spoken in a language that definitely was not of Earth or any civilisation that he knew of. If he had to give it a comparison to earthly languages, it sounded like German and Swedish had a very ugly baby. Not that such a comparison even made much sense, but it just felt right.

Although he couldn't understand these words, it seemed that tone of voice was universal, and these alien words were dripping with condescension. He was being looked down upon, in more than just a physical sense.

Who would the Lord be if he let such an offense slide? Busting into his city unannounced and treating him like he was the lowest of the low in the pecking order, below even the worms in the dirt. That wasn't going to happen.

Seth quickly flipped over as he flew through the air from the powerful smack, landing on his feet and skidding across the ground, digging in his heels to force himself to stop.

Not resting for a second, Seth poured mana into his legs until his calves were bulging and his thighs were tearing apart his trousers, the black blood straining itself to expand quick enough to keep his expanding legs covered and ensure his decency wasn't exposed.

Uncaring of the outcome of his muscle expansion, Seth forced himself forward. His powerful legs pushing deep into the dirt as he blasted forward, a thunderous boom echoing out as the stone where he had once stood shattered into gravel.

Seth shot through the air like a blur, appearing in front of the Giant Dwarf's face faster than he could blink and immediately lashing out with a full powered, mana enhanced punch. The force from that punch stopped him dead in the air, the second skin covering his knuckles tearing apart as it seemed to be more than it could handle and even his true skin underneath was shredded from the impact.

It was a punch that would shatter buildings, crumple tanks like paper and turn most tier 0 people into a fine, red mist. But for this colossal Dwarven figure? It snapped his head to the side, as he stumbled back a step from the force of the impact.

One. Single. Step.

"Ha ha ha... HA HA HA! So that's how it's going to be?"

The dwarf slowly turned his head back to face Seth, who had landed back on the ground and immediately leapt backwards, to avoid any retaliatory strikes. Yet no such strikes came, at least not at the moment. All he did was laugh, brushing his long unkempt hair out of his face.

Behind the bushy beard, the Dwarf flashed Seth the red toothed smile of a madman, before spitting a few blood covered teeth onto the ground in front of him. He wiped the blood from his lips, and his beard, with the back of his hand and laughed that deep, rumbling laugh once more and began to speak once again. Even still, the words were lost on Seth.

"You want to fight Boy? Fine. I'll play with you until I get bored. Until then, you can find us some real prey. I want my components."

The last line was not directed at Seth, but at the Manticore by his side which had still not moved despite his companion, or should that be his master, being attacked. It was only at the sound of its masters orders that the Manticore spread its leathery wings and took off into the skies, leaving the Giant Dwarf to his plaything.