All out battle

This was the first time since Alex had bought his dagger that he got to put it to use, and it was against a beast a whole major level above him as well!

Due to his unique talent and the few soul orbs he had absorbed so far, although he was an F rank adventurer, he possessed physical strength near that of an F+ rank.

But it was unfortunate to say that it didn't make much difference whether he was F or F+ rank in front of the tyrant like E rank Flaming Lion.

The moment he neared the beast while it was distracted by the other 6 adventurers on his team, his dagger drew near to its hind, with the sizzling atmosphere surrounding the beast causing burns on the skin of his hand.

But he didn't let that stop him and with the full force of his entire body, slashed diagonally across the ankle of the lion's rear left leg. However the disparity in their strength was clear and Alex's full force attack barely left an inch deep mark, which compared to the size of the lion it was just a scratch.

"Keep attacking! Your attacks are wearing the lion down, if this keeps up long enough I might be able to slip in an attack strong enough to do some major damage!" Raymond shouted from the side lines. Alex gritted his teeth when he realised that Raymond and Joanne hadn't even joined in on the fight yet even though they were the two strongest combatants they had, with Joanne being the only F+ rank after Raymond murdered Brutus.

Moments after Raymond shouted his order, the lion lifted one of its huge paws and performed a slashing motion through the air towards an adventurer who slipped out of formation.

Instantly, the man was barely able to defend against the attack of a beast a whole major level above himself and when the flaming claw reached his sabre, it melted instantly before the fire continued through it with little interference and burned a deep gash through the man's thin layer of armor.

The man was sent flying when he took the full brunt of the attack, as he travelled through the air for quite a distance until the light of the lion no longer reached him. Whether he was dead or alive was unknown, with only a few pieces of unmoving molten metal lighting up the area where he had landed.

'This is an impossible fight, Raymond is just setting us up for death!'

After seeing what happened to the poor sod who just got hit, Alex increased his caution another level.

No way did he want to end up like that guy!

The lion, completely oblivious to the thoughts of the annoying humans surrounding it, continued to hound more and more attacks in their direction. It seemed performing such flaming slash attacks took quite a lot of energy out of it as it never launched another one.

It was only after 10 minutes passed of excruciating and exhausting guerrilla tactics against the lion that Raymond made his first move.

From seemingly nowhere, he brandished a sword with a faint white glow surrounding it as he leaped forwards with incredible speed nearly matching that of the lion and stabbed his sword into its side, penetrating so deep only the hilt of his sword remained visible. The blow instantly made the lion shift its focus to Raymond as it let out a miserable howl.

With a fast swipe of its head, it smashed its thick skull against Raymond and his silver shining armor, sending him flying a few metres before he landed with a dull thud back on his feet.

"Joanne!" Raymond called Joanne's name and as if everything was pre-planned, she equipped her bow and took out some ominous looking arrows.

These arrows had some sort of purple goo covering the tip, with a similarly faint white glow surrounding them just like Raymond's sword.

'It seems all awakened do in fact get an inventory.' Alex was more focused on the fact that both Raymond and Joanne summoned their weapons out of thin air, just like when he summoned his Soul orbs.

However if he spent more time gathering information in the city he would have known a rather interesting fact.

The concept of an inventory was completely unknown to everyone. Raymond and Joanne had artifacts that housed a separate space where they could store non-living objects.

Ignoring these side tracked thoughts, Alex turned his attention back to Joanne. She had already docked one of those new unknown arrows and aimed it at the lion, looking for the perfect timing to strike.

Boom!

Yet another adventurer was hit by the lion as the original formation had long broken down and everyone was just following their own instincts. This adventurer ended up getting crushed under the foot of the lion as it stamped down on the man when he tripped up and fell onto his back.

The fate of this man was certain.

However even while the lion was actively succeeding in hunting members of her team, Joanne's expression didn't even falter once and she kept her aim up, until finally the moment came where she let loose her arrow.

Fwoosh!

It flew through the air at even faster speeds than Raymond threw his dagger. In less than a second it reached the lion, specifically in the exact same spot Raymond had penetrated it with his sword less than 10 seconds prior.

The effects of her attack were immediate.

The arrow entered the still open wound and disappeared inside the lion's body, with the flesh around its organs and wound quickly taking on a blackish, purple colour.

This enraged the lion to a level it hadn't shown yet as it finally moved from its spot and started trampling in the direction of the 4 remaining adventurers.

With the speed the lion was barrelling towards them, they had no time to even react before they were trampled down and splattered across the cave floor like mince meat. They couldn't even put up a fight.

Alex, the lucky soul he was, was spared from this slaughter as from the beginning he kept his distance from the formation Raymond had set up for the F ranks to follow.

This instinctive decision to not follow Raymond's orders had spared his life.

But whether that still remained the case in a few moments would remain to be seen…