Danger

Alex turned in the direction of the crashing and banging near the carriages, many of the already restless commoners rose to their feet in shock — seeing the shards of wood and glass of what remained of the carriages raining down on them.

No matter the class of the villagers, they all panicked with their wails and screams soon accompanying the destruction occurring around them.

Chaos ensued as each and every villager didn't want to be one of the unlucky ones caught in the path of this unknown attacker. Some people even abandoned their own families to ensure they themselves could survive.

Alex was one of the few who kept his composure — somewhat, mostly because he had been prepared for something like this to happen the moment he was forced into the Primordial Expanse.

Calm and collected, he turned his gaze to his immediate vicinity, seeing that his two companions from his carriage were already long gone.

In the next second, a piece of splintered wood the size of a small child hit the ground only a few metres away from him, with an unfortunate fellow lying underneath it lifeless — his torso ripped away from the rest of his body.

Others panicked even more seeing this scene. More wood and even glass came showering down upon them, more were wounded, many already dead. Laboured groans and wails spread around the area.

"Run for the forest if you want to live!"

The head soldier shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to get his voice to reach as many ears as he could. However before the command could even make its way to the people's ears, a huge shadow made its way through the smoke and dust left behind by the carriages. Each step caused vague tremors through the earth beneath their feet. 

It arrived right between the debris of the carriage and the piles of bodies unfortunate enough to be closest to the attack.

Before the dust and smoke cleared, it was but a vague but towering figure. However once the creature gave out a deep and humming snort, the air surrounding it was cleared and its figure was revealed for all to see.

'I have never seen a creature so big…'

Alex was in shock when the 10 metre tall behemoth revealed itself.

The creature looked like an elephant, but with dried brown and flaky skin adorning its lower abdomen, and a green — grass like hair sitting on top. Its long and stumpy legs looked like it could smash any man into paste with a simple step. But the most striking feature of the beast were the burning red eyes practically bulging out of their sockets with rage. The thing as a whole looked like a hill on legs.

On its elongated head, those burning red eyes regarded the silent and mortified citizens with nothing but uncontrollable rage — like it wanted to rip every single person there to shreds.

What really startled Alex though was that long and sturdy snout that had faint green lines running through it, looking like it was about to launch some kind of sinister light show. 

'This is just too much for a Seeker…' He thought.

That was his last thought before the silence was broken by a deafening snarl coming right from the beast. Unfortunately for Alex, he was one of the unlucky ones standing closest to the behemoth. He could feel his eardrums bursting and blood pouring from every orifice in his face.

All hell broke loose when the roar finished. The creature moved from its position and appeared before the head soldier and the other higher officials among the soldiers. 

Shock and horror filled their faces as they were unable to even follow the speed of the monstrosity with their naked eyes.

The creature slashed its trunk horizontally towards the row of soldiers atop their horses. A wild and rapid wind formed instantaneously as a green line of light flashed through the air sweeping the area around the soldiers and everyone behind them.

One second they were sitting there, stupefied on their horses — in a rush to escape. The next second each and every person hit by the green light was split into two, no exceptions.

Alex was a step ahead and knew something bad was coming the moment he saw the green lines wriggling atop its trunk. Not wasting a single moment he dropped to the ground, into a prone position.

His quick reaction saved his life but the main problem still remained, the beast clearly wouldn't just stop at that.

Temporarily deafened, Alex witnessed a huge shadow passing over him with the earth quaking all around him soon after. He couldn't hear it, but deafening screams filled the firelit environment. Not wanting to look what was happening behind him, he tried to lift himself up from the ground, but was stopped by a heavy feeling weighing his legs and back down.

Lifting bloody arms up as hard as he could, he still failed to free himself. Looking around him, he saw that he was covered from head to toe in the mangled corpses of the soldiers and the helpless civilians.

'As if things couldn't get any worse… Now I can't even escape. This is how I die, right?' Alex thought as he dropped his head down in resignation.

'Of course, how could a nobody like me with no talents or skills expect to survive in a place like this…' 

Right as he was about to resign himself to death, something clicked in his mind.

"I can't give up like this!"

Alex clenched his teeth as he pushed with all his might, his muscles and veins bulging and adrenaline pumping through his veins.

As if through sheer willpower, Alex pushed the corpse atop him away and crawled out from the tiny gap it left — luckily for him there was only the top half of the corpse left, taking away the majority of the weight. Otherwise he would be stuck there for god knows how long.

He quickly glanced around at the slaughter fest and the distant figure of the elephant looking creature stomping and rampaging among the remainders of the screaming villagers.

'Something is not right with this.'

Alex grimaced, emptying his stomach shortly after.

Creatures of the Primordial Expanse had a hierarchy of their own, just like humans. Starting from the average beasts, which formed the majority of the population of the first trials. Next came Monsters — usually the leaders of a pack of beasts, followed by Magical beasts with powers resembling magic just like their title. Any higher level beast than that, Alex hadn't heard of but he was 100% certain there would be much more powerful creatures out there.

The first trial was always populated by Beasts with the rare Monster appearing occasionally. Alex had never heard of anything above that level appearing near first arrivals. Especially in the age of the intergalactic internet.

But considering how information about the Primordial Expanse are heavily restricted from the general public, it wouldn't be wrong of him to think this was just another one of those cases.

Perhaps such information was hidden to not terrify the populous, especially with how already nervous they were towards the Primordial Expanse.

But there was no time to think too much in a situation like this!

Whether he was right or not, his only ally was himself in this place.

The creature had just finished stomping the last surviving person to a paste when its gaze turned towards Alex.

'Fuck.'

He couldn't even blink before a huge whirlwind formed in front of the creature and started moving towards him at a rapid pace, sending every corpse flying, along with Alex.

After 10 straight seconds of air time, he felt his body hit something hard and solid and his vision faded.