21 The Nightmare Cobra

The roar shook the surroundings, all the birds of the valley flocked together and went south. The skies and grounds produced great fissures that had disoriented everything in its surroundings.

"What was that?!"

Bai Li and the rest had awoken from their slumber, being alerted by the distant cries of the vultures.

They had just amounted up to 10 vultures and needed 40 more to succeed in the mission, one step closer in being a B-grade mercenary party.

"Stay on alert, pack anything essential and lets go back to the shelter."

They knew it would be futile in fighting the beast who scares even the quantities of birds here, they managed four to five birds at best and were happy with the harvest brought by such.

Everyone had dark and gloom expressions as Bai Li scurried across his set up of his tent and brought his rope, emergency rations, and his canteen of water. There was many more things that couldn't be packed at the moment but time was of the essence.

He rushed back to the site and once they saw him, they began going south.

But the cries of the beast could be heard getting louder, more birds that were heading south were killed and the beast began eating them at haphazardly rates, eating anything in its path.

"Hurry guys!"

Bai Li caught up with them and ran with them until they heard the cracking of stones and the movement of sand on their rear.

The movement was made easily and an imposing strike by the beast occurred. It attacked Ju Dun first but his shield was on his back, taking the brunt force of the strike.

The shield supposedly made by a carapace of a Primordial beast was but a small obstacle to the strike, a huge dent appeared and Ju Dun was knocked forward but managed to secure his footing to continue running.

Whatever this monster was, it was definitely a Saint Grade, everyone grew fearful and went at a more quicker pace. But the slithering of the beast was always behind, as if playing with them.

The speed of the beast was indeed to powerful, they couldn't run from their problems anymore.

Ju Dun was the first to react, the dented shield he held braced for impact as he stood his ground.

The beast struck his shield and even took a portion of the shield along with it, as if it were being scrapped.

With the momentary pause, they had gotten a brief look of the beast.

A large cobra, the scales of the beast were of pure black with a few sand shades of it. Its pronged tongue lit out a terrifying hiss as it prepared another strike, coiling to increase its power. The slits of the reptillian's eyes were terrifying as they stared into hell as it had a red hue.

Ju Dun, who used the shield for many years and had experience using such positioned his shield to at a small diagonal angle. The strike went in and a large bang of the shield collapsing could be heard. But the original trajectory of the beast went off course, which was meant to penetrate the shield and hit the wielder directly. Hitting the ground at an angle as Ju Dun flew up, he loosened his foundation so that the shield would take most of the impact.

He rose up, the impact was so strong that he flew once more by several feat.

Though his shield was broken, he was still alive with minimal injuries of the fight.

Tomahawk took the chance, whenever they met a strong monster in the Buried Sands Region, they were usually territorial and they would avoid such areas. But meeting the strong monsters in person was a different matter where they couldn't run from the situation. Even the most weakest of monsters will strike at its foe if cornered.

Ju Dun let out a small groan in pain but when he saw Tomahawk went in, his eyes were widened.

Bai Li didn't know why but he knew it wasn't good, he looked in devastation.

The cobra used its long and girthy body to strike, the force of impact could be heard as the sound of a cracking whip was heard. Tomahawk was out of the battle and unconscious from impact.

"Yue Su!"

Fire Axe was heading to help Tomahawk but the attack was much of a surprised and his heart ached.

"Grmmmm."

Fire Axe gritted his teeth and ordered Ju Dun.

"Pick Yue Su up and take him to a small cave."

Ju DUn took the orders seriously and began heading over, his hands were in no condition to wield anything so he carried him like a bag over his shoulder.

The snake hissed once more, but in small intervals to which made it sound like a chuckle. The slits of the snake closed a little bit, accompanied by its laughter. Fire Axe grew infuriated and began charging his attack.

The beast took little care of the charged strike, watching with its eyes watching the rats do everything they can to strike, but it would be meaningless the cobra thought.

The Fire Axe trembled from the power of the strike. Tomahawk emphasized that his brother was the strongest in the world with a strike that deafened even the heavens! Thought as an empty praise, Fire Axe thought nothing of it and Bai Li agreed with Tomahawk. Fire Axe had also learned a Art of the Axe which concentrated all of its power, a third generation modified Body Art focused on strength.

Sky Splitter.

The strike registered and began descending at the snake, as it was just gonna counter attack after being struck by the axe. But what came next was morbid to the snake, the surprise left it stun as it cried in agony and pain.

The axe lodged deeply in the crevice of its neck, close to the head. The strike made a deafening roar to its surrounding as it went in, the flame it emitted charred the flesh of the snake as it entered even more. But before reaching the half way mark, it failed to do so as it lodged itself into the neck of the beast.

Fire Axe gritted his teeth, he could feel the force of impact reached near bottom as he let go of the axe handle. The axe was still lodged deeply into the snake.

"Quick! Find a small cave and lets hide!"

Bai Li and Ju Dun took all orders seriously and tried to find a cave with an entrance that could only fit humans. The vast size of the snake would definitely try to enter as its height was similar but the length was not, if the snake moves in, the movement of the snake would be heavily restricted making it stuck. The sly nature of the cobra took notice and backed off, but kept a distance, watching over the cave menacingly.

Fire Axe joined with the rest of the group after announcing his order.

There was nothing they can do but wait.