The Forest Dragon(1)

The change was so fast that most people, including our three dumbass heroes, were unable to react.

Delirious and Moo's attention was focused completely on the four Master Realm enemies and Herald's group. They had to be wary about their intentions, and after Moo saw Donny take out an arrow, all his focus was in it.

Due to that, the two failed to notice the signs of the much greater danger underground.

Fortunately, their black friend Marcel was there to save them.

The three faces immediately changed. Seeing the giant monster bursting out from the ground and swallowing the Master Realm Mage as though it was nothing, they all felt a chill on their spines as they saw the monster's full appearance.

It was a serpent-like monster, with skin mixed with green and brown that seemed to be wood and plants, and spikes around its body. It has two large vine-like horns and numerous vines on its back that appear to be like tendrils.

Its size was about 100 meters but that height only showed its exposed body out of the ground which means 100 meters is not its real height and only a glance was enough to know that this monster was not normal.

The giant serpent roared. It chewed the meat of more than 10 people on its mouth in delight without caring for the people around it, one of the meat in its mouth was the Master Realm mage himself.

Just the pressure it was releasing froze all the people here.

But the Serpent did not attack them as the group was expecting. Instead, it roared once more and burrowed into the ground.

"What the hell is that…?!?" One of the black-dressed men that was once fighting Delirious stuttered.

Nobody replied. However, all the people here were pale. At this moment, nobody cared about the fight anymore.

Garold, the leader of the Scarlet Prince's party, realizes what monster they just saw, knowing what it is that gives a chill down to his spine.

"T-That's the Forest Dragon!" Garold yelled out in fear in order to let everyone hear him, and it did as many of them gave out a fearful expression.

"Forest Dragon?!? An <A-> rank monster... here!?"

"I-Impossible! What is the Forest Dragon doing on the edge of the forest!?" Herald shouted in fear at what he had just heard. "These bastards' nests are supposed to live deep within the Forest, none of them are supposed to leave their nest that far!"

"I-Is it gone?" One of Garold's party members, Ronald, asked his leader.

Meanwhile, Marcel frowned and focused on his senses. He could feel the ground below him trembling slightly.

Few moments later, he opened his eyes.

"It's still here."

His voice was soft, but everybody heard it.

"H-How do you know?" Herald asked, but Marcel ignored him. He just focused his senses on the ground.

An instant later, his expression changed...

"Shit! Delirious, get the fuck back!"

"Oh shit!"

Delirious did not hesitate. He instantly kicked the ground and jumped as high as he could. Unfortunately, the black-dressed men near him did not react as fast.

Less than one second later, a humongous mouth appeared on the ground, swallowing five black-dressed men whole.

But this time, the monster did not go away like the last time. Instead, after swallowing the five men, it jumped towards Karen's group.

"Young miss!" Stella reacted instantly. She grabbed Herald and Karen for their clothes and jumped away.

Garold did not fall behind. He reacted almost as quickly as Stella, jumping back like a frightened rabbit, including his other member Ronald.

But their other men were not so lucky, though.

The next second, the Forest Dragon swallowed the Archer and the man Delirious had punched before.

"Little brother! Donny!!"

When Harold saw it, his expression froze, then, his eyes turned bloodshot.

"Little brother!! Donny!!! Arrrghhh!" With a roar of pain, he raised his shield and charged towards the monster with furious eyes as he continued to charge at the monster without a care of his life.

But before he could take another step, he felt a strong pain in his chest.

Looking down, he saw a black claw filled with blood coming out of his heart.

Behind him, a small Tempest Fennec was looking at him with blood-red eyes.

"A-Another?"

"My name is Inigo Montoya... you killed my father... prepare to die."

And all of a sudden, the creature speaks.

'It... TALKS?!?!!'

"B-But, I didn't kill your..."

Those were his last words before his vision turned dark.

*Thud!*

After the corpse of Garold fell on the ground, the little Tempest Fennec roared to the sky.

"Meow!!!"

That was the signal.

In an instant, dozens upon dozens of shadows jumped from the forest. Wolves, Lions, rabbits, wild boars, tigers, and birds.

The beasts' eyes were filled with bloodthirstiness and violence. They looked at the people in the forest and roared in hunger.

They then rushed to devour them!

Marcel's eyes opened wide. He instantly realized what was happening.

"This is..."

"Guys, more monsters are coming!"

Hearing Moo's warnings, Delirious in the distant expressions turned grave. "Damn it! Marcel, Brock, we need to get fuck out of here!"

The two nodded. Marcel then ordered Xavier to go to the front and got ready to face the horde.

*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*

Numerous bullets were shot from the three, shooting at the two Magic Beasts coming towards them before they fell down and died in the next five seconds. However, the third is a D-rank Magic Beast and has withstood most of the bullets fired by the group's guns, and was able to close its distance towards them in what seemed like an instant.

Only in the same instant when Xavier grabbed the approaching Magic Beast, stopping it before it could devour his masters. The Magic Beast gave a look of surprised dread as the Iron Golem crushed him towards the ground at his full might.

*Bam!*

A loud boom from the magic beast hitting the ground resonated throughout the forest, killing it instantly.

At the same time, screams of pain and despair was sounded in the forest.

Everybody could see the black-dressed men being killed. In less than five seconds, the remaining Advanced Beginner and Intermediate Realm black-dressed men were killed. Besides them, the last member of Garold's party was killed too.

The three black-dressed men remaining were struggling with all their power, trying to escape. At the same time, Stella, Karen, and Herald were being chased by a group of monsters.

But none of the three was not in the mood to pay attention to them. They all hurriedly jumped onto Xavier's shoulders while Delirious jumped on Xavier's back the same way as Hiro and Baymax from Big Hero 6.

As soon as the three of them were on it, Xavier kicked the ground and started to run.

However, the Golem's enormous body quickly attracted the monsters' attention.

Before the group could escape the monsters' wave, an enormous sense of danger assaulted them.

"Watch out!" Brock cried out. He extended his hand, materializing a magic barrier around the group.

To the surprise of his friends, Marcel shouted, "Holy crap, Brock! You can use magic??" 

"Nope, I stole the necklace from Karen without her knowledge and I have no clue what I am doing!!"

As they were about to escape, but before that—

*Boom!*

Then, a giant blue bear crashed against the barrier.

The three's expressions turned solemn. Feeling the power of the monster, Brock was forced to use more of his strength, which it's not enough. Each second, he started to get tired, because using the necklace will weaken the person, using it will cost the person's mana and Brock however has a very low amount.

"Guys! I need more power!!"

Without wasting any time they all took out every Potion of Strengths in their inventory, and Basically also took out a mana and stamina potions he got from the market, just to make sure if there is some problem.

Next second, they all throw potions at Brock, empowering him more.

With enough strength and mana to keep the barrier hold, he then clenched his fist and struck it with all of his might.

"Begone, Baloo in rabies!"

*Boom!*

With a powerful punch, the blue monster bear was sent flying away!

The monster then fell with little injuries in its body, also landed a few meters away from Stella and the others.

Instantly, Herald and Karen's expressions turned white except for Stella.

The monster bear roared in pain and rage. Blood flowed out of its mouth, and its body twisted on the ground.

When it detected the three humans near it, or two humans to be exact, it then opened its mouth to devour them.

"Tch!" Stella clicks her tongue in annoyance. She hurriedly jumped away while carrying Herald and Karen with her, evading the monster bear's attack by a hairbreadth.

After evading the bear's attack, while in midair, Stella effortlessly threw one dagger towards the bear at deadly speed, piercing through the bear's chest towards the other side within an instant, easily killing the bear as if it wasn't even there.

But when she thought it was safe, she saw numerous vines from the Forest Dragon coming towards her.

"Damn it!"

That was the only thought in Stella's mind. The Forest Dragon was over <A–> rank, the speed of the Forest Dragon's vines were so fast that even the fastest Rank-8 in the Warrior or Assassin path couldn't dodge it in time, for Stella, even though she is a Rank-8 and close to Rank-9 probably in the next couple of years, she is still in a worse case scenario while carrying two people.

A second later, though, an ear peircing noise was heard, and it hurts her cat ears so fucking much, but then she knew the reason, a man suddenly appeared in front of her and cut all of the vines at hypersonic speed.

"What do you think you are doing to my children!?"

With a roar of anger, Count Liam raised his two meter long broadsword and slashed towards the monster.