Vol[2]Chapter#17 Retreat

Looking at all the collapsed buildings in the surrounding area, the terrain had now warped into unstable land where structures of stone and wood could fall at any moment. With the number of dead unknown and soldier after soldier becoming lost in confusion, Tolm could only order a hasty retreat.

"Retreat, Retreat! Fall back!"

Many of the soldiers heard this call for retreat and felt relief but their struggles were only just starting. As each of them tried to fall back, they all soon noticed the difficulty in it. Covered head to toe in full suits of armor weighing over 100 lbs, plus the unstable landscape around them, their movement was reduced by at least 80%. On top of that, their best weapon at the moment was nowhere to be seen. After that last attack, Lowen had seemingly disappeared, who knew whether he was alive or dead.

The Mantha didn't care about any of that and its movements which were originally sluggish on regular flat terrain were in fact exactly the same on this now unstable rubble filled town. Compared to the soldiers now, it was the Mantha that held the advantage in speed. Seeing its small opponents moving slower than it, the snake hissed in joy before slithering over to a slow soldier.

"No, get away, get away from me."

The Mantha didn't raise up this time, instead, it opened its mouth wide and before the soldier could make a move, the Mantha swallowed him whole with ease.

The remaining soldiers looked on with horror as a cold sweat ran down their back. This wasn't the end of it though. As the town was filled with silence, a terrified muffled scream could be heard coming from within the Mantha's stomach. The soldier was actually still alive but after only a few seconds the screaming came to an abrupt stop. A soldier looking on could barely say a few words as his body was trembling too badly from fear.

"Is he, is he dead?"

His words weren't loud in the slightest yet everyone had heard them as clear as a bell. Those simple words suddenly resounded within every one of their minds growing louder and louder. A few soldiers made eye contact with one another and they shared the same look of dread.

"No, not me!"

While people were frozen in place the Mantha had again moved and was just about to devour another person.

"Move you fool!"

Glen leaped forward and grabbed the man up before quickly leaping away. Although his speed had also been lowered, with him being a battle mage, both his strength and speed were easily 3-4 times that of a powerful man if not more.

Glen set the man down and grabbed a spear from the ground.

"Men you heard the commander, everyone retreat while I slow this beast down."

The men were still frozen place so Glen shouted at them in anger.

"Did you not hear me! Leave now or die!"

Glen's shout was like a slap on the back and the soldiers responded in a hurry. They started to retreat at their fastest speed possible while some were even seen abandoning their armor as to flee even quicker. The Mantha saw this and wanted to stop them but there were no more buildings around it which it could use, it could only give chase but with so many small creatures fleeing in every direction, the Mantha became slightly confused and could only watch as its enemies began to escape its reach.

Still, some were too slow and the Mantha took advantage of that. Coming upon another soldier, it was just about to gobble up this little snack when Glen again jumped in for the rescue.

*Swoosh Crack*

The tail came like lightning and smashed both Glen and the soldier into the ground. The Mantha had seen Glen rush to save a soldier just before and figured he might just be dumb enough to try the same rescue twice. When the Mantha arrived by the soldier with its mouth agape and it witnessed Glen once more rush forward, that's when it whipped its tail.

Tolm saw Glen's body being smashed into the ground and roared.

"NO! GETUP GLEN! GET THE HELL UP!"

Glen though couldn't even think properly. Being smashed into the ground like that, he could tell that many of his bones were broken. The fact that he was still alive was in of itself a miracle. Turning his head, he wanted to see if the soldier like him had miraculously survived but with the slightest of movement he could feel a sharp pain in his neck and hear an audible crack, causing a feeling of excruciating agony to shoot through his entire body. Still what he saw beside him left him petrified. The soldier had been turned into meat paste. The body itself couldn't be considered human or even whole. It looked like someone had left some meat out to rot under the sun.

Seeing this made Glen suck in a deep breath. This, in turn, caused him to cough up mouthful after mouthful of blood before his vision blurred and his consciousness slipped away, filling his mind with darkness.

Tolm and the other soldiers couldn't tell whether he was alive or dead and b lost hope. With the colossal snake unhinging its jaws, everyone knew what came next and were powerless to stop it. The Mantha, with its mouth open to its widest, was just about to swallow Glen.

*Boom*

The ground a hundred or so feet away suddenly exploded throwing rocks and stone flying toward the sky. A small figure landed on the ground and rushed toward the Mantha and before the snake knew what was what, this small figure grabbed hold of its tail and held on with his entirety. With a loud booming shout, Lowen roared at a few of the soldiers who had still yet to flee from the battle.

"I've got this ugly worm, now get Glen outta here!"

Everyone stood there in awe at Lowen, even commander Tolm was completely at a loss for words.

(The boy, he's actually still alive.)

The Mantha, feeling this insect on its tail grew enraged and tried to whip its tail to smash Lowen but Lowen wasn't having that. With the net still attached to the snakes tail, Lowen took his sword and stabbed it through a small opening on the net and into the ground, nailing the net in place. With a bit of energy, Lowen made his sword, with its flexibility, tie itself up in a knot as though it were the weirdest tree root. This made the net even more difficult to remove from the ground. Lowen then switched energies and filled his body with ki and held on tight to the Mantha's tail. With his strength, he could hold around 4-5 thousand pounds and combined with the metallic net, the holding power only went up.

The Mantha feeling its tail becoming stuck again started to grow frantic. Its tail was its greatest weapon and if the enemy took it away then who knew what could happen. It had already been wounded on its stomach, it couldn't afford more wounds like that. The Mantha began to struggle with all its might but Lowen was firmly holding it in place. The Mantha was clearly stronger but because of both Lowen and the net, the two were in a stalemate of sorts.

The onlookers couldn't believe it. For a child to actually be capable of holding this colossal Mantha. The surrounding soldiers didn't know between the two who the actual monster was, the one that devours people or the one that holds the devourer in its place.

Tolm's loud shouting snapped the men back.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU IDIOTS WAITING FOR! GET GLEN BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!"

A few soldiers quickly yet cautiously ran forward without thought and pulled Glen away. At the same time, Lowen could feel his grip starting to loosen. When he was buried underground by all the rubble earlier he had just managed to not be crushed but the weight on top of him was thousands upon thousands of pounds. Lowen had used a single Rock Snake Fist and managed to escape an early tomb but it had cost him a lot of energy and damaged his arm greatly. Right now his left arm was bleeding and had many muscle tears all across it. Lowen had no time to heal it though as he had to use every bit of strength he had to keep the Mantha at bay. Just as Glen was taken away, The Mantha's struggle grew fiercer.

With its massive body, it rose up high before slamming its body down hard trying to crush Lowen beneath it. Lowen had no choice but leap away. Even him with his tremendous strength and his incredibly tough body, with the Mantha weighing 6-7 thousand pounds easy, there was just no way he could take that weight moving with such momentum and escape unscathed.

With Lowen leaping away, the Mantha saw this as an opportunity and with its falling momentum, it began to roll its long body, causing the net on its tail to tangle up further. The soldiers seeing this thought the snake was making a futile effort but the more it rolled the further the net tangled and the tension on the net became too great.

*Chink Clink Clank*

The metal net broke into several pieces and the Mantha was free. Looking around though, the Mantha was surprised to see that everyone was now gone. The Mantha rose up and flicked its tongue a few times trying to find its enemies but to no avail. With anger that few could match, it whipped its tail, destroying part of the ground leaving a huge ditch in its wake. With no enemies to be found, the Mantha tunneled its way back into the ground, disappearing out of sight.

Everyone, including Lowen, had retreated and hidden themselves inside a building at the edge of the ruined town. After the Mantha had left for quite a while, Lowen and the other soldiers began a rescue operation trying to dig out as many people as they could. As long as they weren't causing any explosions, it seemed the Mantha wasn't aware of their presence allowing them to go unharassed in their efforts. With Lowen's ability to sense auras, he was easily able to locate those that were alive and together with the help of the soldiers, 26 of the nearly 153 that had been buried had been rescued alive. Not including Lowen, the ghoul Gale, and the commander Tolm and Glen, In total, there were 173 survivors. 30 of that number were injured and could no longer fight. Seeing the report his man gave him, Tolm felt a trace of bitterness in his chest.

Lowen sat beside an unconscious Glen and using his energy, he was quickly healing him, repairing the damage that would normally require an expensive potion to treat. Tolm again was left in awe but he quickly got over it trying to think of another plan. There was one thing he knew for sure though and Lowen knew it as well.

"Lowen, the Mantha's now devoured a human. Although that person was alive when he was consumed and normally there should be no way for the Mantha to become a magic beast after consuming a human alive, this Mantha is clearly different. Not only that, even if it doesn't become a magical beast from that first person, there is still at least 100 bodies still buried over there. If it eats even one of them, it will become a magic beast. At that point...."

Tolm's words trailed off but Lowen already knew what he meant. The consequences of a powerful monster becoming even stronger.

(If this Mantha really does grow even stronger then there's no way of beating it.)

*Cough Cough Cough*

Suddenly a fit of coughing erupted from Glen as his eyes slowly opened.

Tolm rushed over.

"Glen, rest easy, you haven't died just yet haha."

Glen shook his head painfully and barely managed to speak.

"No time to rest, not when I know how we can beat that monster."