The beasts' flock attack (4)

In blink of an eye, a week passed by.

For the first time ever since the disaster, no nightly beast assault has happened during this entire week, at least not on a scale that required an all out effort to fend off the assault, which was a welcomed occurrence to the inhabitants.

During this week, and finally, a magical beast sneaked into the compound during the night. Of course, the azure gazelle king, which was still a peak tier-1 beast, took out the unlucky thing in one attack. Thus, the group finally obtained a magical core.

Given that absorbing this magical core that came from low tier-1 beast wasn't enough for Reem or Ramie to increase their artifact's level in one go, the decision was made to give it to Neil.

Finally, and after absorbing the core, Neil was able to level up his artifact to the second level, successfully becoming Rank-1 magician with Lv.2 artifact, which was equivalent to warrior with life energy ignition percent between 25% and 50%, or mid tier-1 beast.

Neil was so elated, that his entire face was flushed with excitement. And considering the spell he got, he certainly had the right to be this content. Ramie and the rest were happy for him, as after his injury setback, his mood was in steady slump, with a dark expression and air of depression looming over him almost all the time.

The spell he unlocked was Fire Ball spell!

This spell contained much more destructive power than Fire Burst spell. Basically, this spell allowed him to form a ball of blazing fire and shoot it out. The moment the fire ball hits something, it detonates in a violent explosion that was enough to destroy a car.

If one wanted to compare this spell to his fire burst spell… then, it could be said that if fire burst spell was comparable to a bullet in damage and effect, then fire ball spell was similar to a grenade, and a very powerful one at that!

However, it wasn't as if it didn't have its own flaws.

For starters, unleashing one fire ball requires 5 magic energy points, a price that was simply way too high, especially considering that after leveling up his artifact, his magic energy pool was now a meager 10 magic energy points!

This meant that Neil could use this spell only twice before completely running out of magic energy.

As for the other flaw, it was that this spell required a full 5 seconds to prepare.

This was simply way too long! It gives the enemy way too much time to react. In life and death battles, every second was critical, not to mention whole five of them.

If Neil was alone in a fight, then his death is nothing but assured. Luckily, this wasn't the case. And with Lance and the summoned beast around, buying him five seconds wasn't too out of reach. Beside, the destructive power of the fire ball spell was simply too good. And it was great addition to their group's arsenal of attacks, as it granted them a killer move. Not to mention that with 10 magic energy points, even if there wasn't enough time to cast a fire ball spell, the alternative, which was fire burst spell being casted 5 times in a row, wasn't too bad, considering that it costs only 2 magic energy points for each cast.

So far, neither Ramie nor Reem had any offensive spells… while Neil had two. This made both of them looks forward unlocking offensive spells.

During this week, the azure gazelle king also hunted few sneaking beast, bringing them few life energy cores. Unfortunately, these cores came from low tier-1 beasts, which made them useless to Lance, whom his life energy ignition percent was 62%, making him equivalent to high tier-1 beast!

This meant that only cores from high or peak beasts are useful to him at this point.

So, and since the locals didn't want to exchange magic cores for their life energy cores, they gave the cores to Etta, to ignite her life energy. After all, she was now part of their group, and increasing her power benefits them as a whole.

It took all the cores for her to ignite her life energy, which was disappointingly only at 17%. This made them understand that people had different aptitude for the life energy. Some needs one core from low tire-1 beast to ignite their own energy, while others require several cores from stronger beasts.

However, even though her ignition percent was merely at 17%, this still made her stronger than everyone in the group other than lance, physically wise of course.

During this week, ramie spent a lot of time training and experimenting with the green vines spell. He wanted to familiarize himself with the spell, and use it more efficiently. He even sparred with lance in many occasions.

These training sessions gave him new insight in regard to his fight with the demonic brothers.

In that fight, he had made many mistakes. So, he started processing them one by one, in order not to repeat them in the future.

Against the invisible mage, he had no choice, as he was the only one that could perceive his presence. However, against the wind mage, he could have done better.

For starters, his spell, green vine, was supportive spell. Its main use was to restrict the movement of the target, which is why the best feature of the vine was its durability. Yet, he actually used it as an offensive spell.

His second mistake – was directly confronting the wind magician, even despite his lack of a defensive spell.

He was a mage! His role was not to fight in the front line, at least not against a superior enemy. He realized that at the time, he should have retreated behind either lance or the beast, and used his spell to try and restrict the enemy, not to attack him.

The result of the training sessions was that the group was forced to change ramie's role in the fighting strategies. They assigned him to a supportive role instead of an offensive one. In his fight with the wind mage, he had almost died. He was only alive till now thanks to his ability to perceive intention aimed at him and his bloodline vitality.

Although his green vine spell wasn't bad, but it only shines in a group fight, not individual ones!

This made the group even more certain about the decision they made. And after sharing it with Ramie, he agreed to it without hesitation.

Their decision was – to stay within the compound until the azure gazelle king levels up his tier, and becomes tier-2 beast. Afterward, they'll send him out to bring them life energy cores to increase the ignition level of Lance and Etta, and magical cores advance the artifacts of Reem, Ramie, and Neil.

Also, they decided to try convincing others within the compound into joining their group, and us the cores that the azure gazelle king brings to ignite their life energy, thus improving their chances of survival when they finally leave the compound and go to the capital. However, after an extensive discussion, they decided not act on this plan now, to avoid falling out with of the compound leader. They decided to take that step only when the azure gazelle king advances his tier.

Anyway, to them, it was merely a matter of time before they embark on a very risky trip to the outside. So, it was of utmost importance that they become as strong as possible.

…

As the sun descended, the light disappeared behind the horizon, announcing the end of yet another day.

As per usual, ramie and the rest gathered in the kitchen to devour the delicious stew of the buffalo's beast meat. Even though Ramie has been eating this same meal twice a day for the past week, it still tasted to him as delicious as ever. Apparently, the apocalypse did have its up sides as well.

These days, things were simply going too well. And for the first time ever since the disaster's descent, no one had died in the span of more than six days, which was a precedent, a one that people hoped for it to last.

As ramie was about to finish his meal, all of sudden, Reem's expression underwent drastic change, her face became as pale as a sheet of paper.

Screech! Screech! Screech! Screech! Screech!

Countless bestial screeches' sounds came faintly from afar. They were continuously getting louder and louder.

At the same time…

Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!

"WAKE UPPPPP!!! WAKE UPPPP!!"

"BEASTS' ATAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!"

Shouts of alarm and panic, as well as the ringing sounds of multiple bells sounded in a quick succession, from many directions.

At once, the faces of the entire group fell. They knew….

The temporary period of peace had just come to an end.

…