30

Thomas was burning in rage and kept on frantically attacking the barriers around him. Each one of his attacks destroyed tens of barriers, but those were replaced the very next second. He glanced outside and saw Alex killing the barrier hounds at the perimeter while instructing Lucas on how to fight.

It annoyed him so much that his entire body was shaking in rage.

Dirren was also getting furious looking at Alex who was casually swinging his sword while making idle chatters with Lucas, but he had more pressing matters on his hand. He was having difficulty in breathing as if the air was getting sucked out of the combined barrier.

Alex continued killing the barrier hounds one after another while keeping an eye on Sheri and Lucas. Their group had successfully drawn the attention of many nearby barrier hounds. Slowly, they were also getting surrounded, but it was nowhere near as serious as Thomas and Dirren.

" Dammit! Why am I not able to cut through their barriers like you? Alex, you really didn't teach me the wrong techniques, did you?" Lucas cried out. Each time he swung his sword, it hit a solid barrier and the rebound only made his hands ache.

"You're nearly there. Just use a bit more precision in your attacks." Alex said in a disinterested tone. It was the fifth time Lucas was asking him the same question.

Alex glanced at the seven barrier hounds lying dead in his wake, then looked at Sheri who had already killed two of them.

Alex was truly envious of Sheri's talents. After struggling with the first few hounds, she had already begun to cope up with them.

'She has both a near perfect mana core and high adaptability. How envious.' Alex muttered as he swung his sword which left a deep wound on the face of a barrier hound that pounced at him.

Hooowwwwlllll !!!

The barrier hound howled and charged at Alex once again. This time, Alex swung his sword vertically downwards.

Sllaassshhh.

A deep wound was left on its forehead and the barrier hound winced in pain. Blood oozed out of the wound, which enraged the beast further. It once again pounced towards Alex while maintaining its barriers, but Alex's sword cut through the barrier like it was empty air and slid through the back of the barrier hound from above.

With the sound of the sword ripping through flesh, the corpse of the mana beast fell on the ground.

Another barrier hound appeared before Alex, but Alex didn't attack it. Instead, he dashed towards Lucas who had also been trapped in an airtight barrier by the four barrier hounds who were encircling him. Alex swung his sword in a perfect circular arc while moving forward.

Two sides of the barriers surrounding Lucas were cut down, while one of the barrier hounds also received a small injury.

Alex looked around and saw a part of the large group had already shifted their attention on the three of them.

"Lucas, collect all the bodies of the dead mana beasts and start moving back towards the entrance. We will be leaving shortly." Alex commanded and covered Lucas while he picked up the dead mana beasts and dragged them with him.

Alex covered for Lucas until they were out of the range of the barrier hounds and returned back.

Sheri was still fighting two barrier hounds. Due to limiting her powers, she was being pushed back.

"Sheri, I will cover you. Use whirlpool and trap as many of them as you can. After that, we will retreat." Alex said as he arrived before Sheri and swung his sword at a barrier hound.

Sheri immediately retreated behind Alex and began preparing her spell. Alex stepped forward and cast a fireball that carried a tint of silver as it moved towards the two barrier hounds.

Sensing danger from the incoming attack, the barrier hounds immediately jumped out of its path towards opposite sides, but surprising everyone be it humans or beasts, the fireball split in two mid way and each half hit one of the two barrier hounds.

Alex's mastery of fire stream had already reached hundred percent so he could do this, but it wasn't without flaws either. His fireball had split in two, but more than half of the power and lethality had been radiated in splitting. The two fireballs had only one fourth of the original power and were highly unstable.

But before his two fireballs could hit them, the barrier hounds erected their barriers. Two small explosions ensued and the two barrier hounds were thrown some distance away with some burn marks on their coats.

Alex had expected as much because his fireball wasn't meant to pierce the barriers. Using reverse mana, he could blast away the barriers, but it couldn't deliver critical damage.

Alex used speed enhancement and appeared behind one of the barrier hounds. Before the mana beast could get back on its legs, a sword pierced its chest and blood spilled out. It struggled to get up, but it's struggle lasted only two seconds before the light in its eyes faded away.

Seeing what had happened to the dead barrier hound, all the other barrier hounds became cautious and began making distance from Alex. From the start, Alex had been the greatest threat to them. Their barriers were like paper in front of him and all his attacks were lethal.

Acknowledging the fact that they couldn't confront Alex, the barrier hounds moved away and began concentrating on Dirren and Thomas while keeping an eye on Alex.

Alex stood peacefully without showing any signs of moving. He was sure that if he charged in at this time, he would become the primary target instead of Thomas and Dirren. No matter how easily he could cut through the mana barriers, he was sure that if he was surrounded by even a fourth of barriers to that of Thomas, he wouldn't be able to break free. The sheer quantity of barriers could easily overshadow his ability to cut through them.

Sheri opened her eyes after her spell was completely built and immediately cast it at a group of twenty or so barrier hounds that were still eying Alex.

Due to increased pressure on their end, Thomas and Dirren couldn't see Sheri casting a tier three spell, otherwise they would have been taken aback.

Alex and Sheri stepped back a bit. Inside the whirlpool, all the barrier hounds were being carried around in circles by the water and would be hit by strong beams of water every now and then. Their barriers should have been enough to protect them against the beams of water which had the same attack power as level 2 spells, but they were surrounded by water and a beam could emerge from any random point.

The barrier hounds couldn't last very long and within ten minutes, most of them were fatally wounded if not dead.

Alex stepped forward and finished all that remained to be done and gathered all the dead bodies, tied them with a rope he was carrying and immediately retreated with Sheri.

The large number of casualties within their ranks finally drew the attention of the remaining barrier hounds and most of them turned around, only to see the perpetrators already out of the range of their barrier creation.

Booooooommmmmmm!!!

Crrraackkkk!!

Exactly when the barrier hounds turned back, a sound of a large explosion followed by the sound of something like glass shattering echoed. Every other sound was drowned in the sound of the explosion and one could hear complete silence for the following few seconds.

Alex heard the sound, but didn't even bother to give a look. He had already reached the gateway to the portal, so he jumped through it without turning back. Sheri followed his suit and jumped.

Passing through the dazzling white light, both of them were out of the portal.

----------------------------------------

Thomas and Dirren were attacking the barriers surrounding them while gritting their teeth. They could see Alex cutting through those barriers like they were nothing. Seeing Alex kill one mana beast after another worked only to add fuel to the rage and hatred in their hearts.

They had realized that Alex had used those two as decoys who were meant to distract the barrier hounds while he himself chipped their numbers away slowly when the mana beasts were focused on them two.

They were having trouble breathing as the barrier shrunk towards them and it seemed to be getting worse every passing second. Both of them continued attacking the barriers frantically, but it was no use as the barriers that they destroyed were replaced by new barriers in a matter of milliseconds.

"You bastard!" Dirren cried out loud while attacking the barriers. For a moment Thomas thought that something had happened to Dirren. He turned around to see that Dirren was alright, just that he was staring in one direction with an enraged expression.

Thomas followed his gaze only to see that Alex and Lucas were retreating with the few mana beasts that they had killed. Turning around, he noted that Sheri was still fighting.

The flames raging in his heart mellowed a little. Now that Sheri had been abandoned by her two companions, he could play the hero and save her. He could get out of this encirclement any time, just that he and Dirren would also suffer collateral damage. He was trying to break the barrier without resorting to that, but if he felt that situation was getting worse, he wouldn't hesitate to use it, or so he thought.....

Just when he was deciding what to say to coerce Sheri after saving her, Alex returned and walked towards Sheri.

Thomas clenched his fist in frustration as he cursed Alex under his breath. His resolve to kill Alex was only getting stronger every passing second since the morning.

Thomas's expression became vicious and a sinister smile appeared on his face. He couldn't do anything about it now, it was that guy's fault for angering him and bringing the darkness within him out.

"Dammit. The barriers are becoming more concentrated. Even the dogs at the perimeter have begun targeting us because of that guy. He'd better hope that he doesn't meet me again, or I guarantee that even his mother won't recognize his corpse." Dirren roared and began attacking the barriers, ignoring Alex and Sheri.

Thomas and Dirren were once again attacking the barriers when suddenly they felt the pressure of the barrier reducing significantly.

Dirren smirked and looked at where Alex and Sheri were, only to see that Alex was escaping once again and this time, he was taking Sheri who had already become Thomas's property in his mind away with him.

Thomas couldn't control his rage any longer and a reddish fume began seeping out of his nostrils and mouth.

"Thomas no! The barrier has already wea....." Dirren cried out, but before he could finish his words, he felt a powerful shockwave hit his chest.

Dirren coughed out a mouthful of blood as his back hit a barrier. Enduring his pain, he stood up.

All the barriers surrounding them were already cracked and completely fell apart when Dirren rested his hand against it to stand up.

He looked at Thomas and immediately a sense of fear gripped his heart.

A slight streak of blood was flowing through Thomas's lips, but that was not what scared Dirren. Instead it was the expression.

He could see a frown on Thomas's face, but one end of his lips was curved upwards, making his expression look like a twisted smile of some demon.

Sensing the intense bloodlust radiating from Thomas, Dirren knew that Thomas was out for blood. Last time he had seen this expression, Dirren had killed a mid stage Tier 3 while he himself had just entered Tier 3.

It was impossible for a group of three tier 2's to even resist Thomas's onslaught now that Alex had enraged him.