Chapter Fifty Four.

Chapter Fifty Four: Run…

Take a rhino, give it the size of an elephant, and cover it with a layer of damn near unbreakable obsidian armor that juts out randomly into ridges strong and sharp enough to cut through the bark of a tree. This was the closest approximation of what Greg found himself looking at as he stood frozen like a statue in the middle of the forest. The heart of the mountain. The words fleeted through Greg's mind as they bubbled up from Roka's memories. Everyone in town had been warned of this creature, which was why even Niya had immediately recognized it and, like Greg, also stood frozen in abject terror. Only three of its abilities were known and that was enough for this earth-element beast to become one of the top menaces of the mountain.

The first and most unexpected ability of such a massive beast was its ability to move completely quietly. Whenever this beast either walks or runs, its feet don't fall to the ground like most other beasts. Instead, the ground will rise to meet its feet before leveling out once more, completely canceling out any noise that its footfalls might have otherwise made. Like a ghost, the beast's passage wouldn't even leave behind footprints, instead, the ground would go back to how it was before the beast passed through. Regardless of whether the ground under it was rock or soil, so long as it was earth, then you would never hear this beast moving. This means that if a hunter wasn't paying attention, this beast could easily walk up close till it was right behind them without the hunter ever knowing. The most insidious aspect of this ability was that, once the beast began chasing you, unless you kept looking back at the beast, then you'd have no way of telling where it was based on its footfalls.

The second ability that made this creature such a formidable foe, was its terrifying ability to track. So long as your foot touched the ground anywhere within a certain distance around it, a kilometer in Greg's estimation if his memory could be trusted, then this beast would know exactly where you are with pinpoint accuracy. It can even differentiate between the steps of different members of the same species. This means that if the beast was after you in particular, then even if you ran in a crowd, you would still be singled out. The only known way that a few both lucky and agile individuals managed to use to escape this beast, was to climb a tree and then jump from one to the other until you were far enough away from the beast that coming back down wouldn't immediately give you away. Climbing a single tree and then hoping that you would lose it that way wouldn't work as the beast would attack all the trees in the vicinity of where it last felt your feet come in contact with the ground. If you didn't manage to get far enough away by the time it reached the first tree you climbed, then chances are you'd end up trampled under its feet.

The final ability and the main reason this beast was such a terror was that soft movement wasn't the only thing that it could do. Using the ground like some sort of springboard under its feet, the beast very quickly picks up speed once it begins moving. It is said that if you are close enough to one to see it, then you only have ten breaths of time to get away from it. Past that, it will be moving so fast that no mundane human could hope to match it let alone surpass it, no matter how athletic they were. Even if one was generous and took one breath of time to be five or six seconds, then ten breaths would be around a minute. While it may seem like a decent window of time to make your escape, you have to keep in mind that this beast can sense your footsteps from close to a kilometer away. For you to cover that kind of distance in less than a minute, you'd have to be moving at about sixty kilometers per hour. Worse yet, it's not like the beast would be standing still for that one minute. In short, that one minute was best used to break the line of sight with the creature before quickly scampering up the closest tree that one could find.

Once it's been on the move for more than twenty breaths of time, then it becomes an unstoppable juggernaut of death. Weighing between five to seven tons and moving at anywhere from seventy to a hundred kilometers per hour, the beast obliterates anything in its path, be it man, beast, tree, or boulder. Only extremely large boulders, or the kinds of trees that would require ten men holding hands to encircle, had any hope of stopping this monster's charge. In fact, the aftermath of these charges has been known to create new paths through previously untraversable terrain. It's also how people figured out just how sharp the ridges on its obsidian armor were. The trees that it brushes against during its charge are usually left with deep grooves cutting into the bark, that is if it's not completely stripped off.

The one that they had come across had probably been resting in the shade before they came along. Greg could easily deduce this since it was still on its belly, its massive head turned towards them, its beady eyes fixed on them… no, not on them, but on him! Greg didn't know why, but the beast was looking directly at him with an inordinate amount of intensity. The beast was known for both being easily irritable and highly territorial. The focus with which it was regarding him, however, left Greg with the inexplicable feeling that there was more to this beast's interest in him than simple annoyance at someone intruding on its territory. Given the migration, one might be tempted to argue that this wasn't the beast's territory. Unfortunately for them, the beast isn't that amenable to logic.

"We'll run in different directions," Greg spoke up only loud enough to be heard by Niya. Like any normal person, Greg had been terrified when he stumbled upon the behemoth. Months of dungeon delving and repeatedly putting himself in deadly situations, however, had taught him how to take hold of his fear and push past it when the situation called for it. He was already crouched down and taking off his mundane shoes. "There is only one of it. It can't pursue us both at the same time," Greg quickly whispered the logic behind his recommendation even as he pulled on the shoes of haste from his storage ring and pulled them on. Given the way its eyes hadn't shifted from him since he caught sight of it, Greg got the feeling he would be the one needing the extra speed more than Niya. "Whoever it chases, will have to do their best to guide it as far away from town as possible. Meanwhile, the other one will run as fast as they can towards town," he laid out.

One might be tempted to think that Greg was trying to be a hero by saying this, knowing he was most likely the one who'd be chased. This, however, was the understanding among all hunters in town. If you caught the attention of a beast that you can't kill by yourself but other hunters can help in killing without great loss of life, then you were allowed to run back to town. If, on the other hand, you drew the attention of a beast that would require the loss of too many lives to either kill or drive away, then you were expected to do everything in your power to lead it away from town. Cruel as it may sound, it was believed that, better the one die than many do so. If one ignored this rule and still led the dangerous beast towards town and people died because of it, then even if he somehow survived the encounter, he would be killed by the other hunters because of it. This was done so that no hunter harbored any hope of survival by thinking they could run towards town to get others to help them. To add to the resolve was the knowledge that if any other hunters lost their family members because of his actions then those hunters could demand the lives of his family members. In this town, there was no such thing as the sins of the father not being visited upon the son. You don't get to kill other people's families and somehow expect yours to live. That was the principle they lived by in this town.

This was the reason why there wasn't any objection from Niya when he suggested this. At least with Greg's plan, one of them would be saved. If they both ran in the same direction, then they'd both be expected to run as far away from town as they possibly could. Greg knew that even as he nodded, Niya was hoping that he'd be the one that the beast would spare which meant that Greg would be the one it chased. He, however, didn't hold it against the Valla scion. Who in this situation wouldn't be hoping to be the lucky one? The instinct to survive is one of the most primal drives that any living being has. He wasn't expecting Niya to turn into a self-sacrificial saint at this moment. If anything, though he wasn't obvious about it, he had one eye on the Valla scion, on guard for any treachery. It wasn't too far out of the realm of possibility that someone might be tempted to hamper the escape of the person next to them so that they could get away. If Niya tried any such thing, he would be dead before he even understood what had happened. Greg could forgive the boy hoping that he lived, any attempts to tip the scales, however, would be immediately terminated with extreme prejudice.

Of course, Greg could remember the tokens that the healer had given him to protect himself. And while he was planning to use three of them if he needed to, it hadn't even crossed his mind to use the token that would summon the healer into this situation. Against others in the town, the healer was no different from a deity that could snuff out their lives with the wave of a hand. Given this, it would be all too easy to forget just how damaged her mana core and pathways were. If she overexerted herself and pushed her core just a bit too far, there was a very real chance that even her life could be forfeited as a result. Greg wasn't willing to risk it.

Besides, Greg himself was a walking armory. His plan didn't end with running away. While in this town the beast was known as the heart of the mountain, Olivia had immediately identified it by the name it was known by out in the wider world, Obsidian earthmover. The thing was usually a tier-two beast that could in rare circumstances reach tier-three in power if it managed to develop something called a beast core. Taking no chances, Greg had asked his familiar to find him the tools he'd need to defeat a tier three version of the beast. He'd much rather use something and find it to be overkill rather than be optimistic and find that he'd underestimated the creature. This wasn't the dungeon, there was no coming back from stupid mistakes. He still had the last tier-three contained-alchemical-bomb that the clone he'd sent back to town had failed to use. Still, he wouldn't mind having other backups if the single bomb didn't do the job.

"Now!" Greg's voice went from barely above a whisper to a normal speaking volume as he called out the one word. It, however, was like a gunshot in their ears. Turning their backs to one another the two of them shot off in opposite directions. Greg had delayed turning by a second, just to see if Niya would try anything. The Valla scion, however, forgot Greg's very existence the moment the signal was given. Greg got to see him launch into what was probably the fastest sprint of his life. Following his lead, Greg turned around and began running too. Greg had spent so much time sitting inside the sigil in his teacher's cave exposed to mana that he had grown sensitive to its fluctuations. That's the only reason he was able to swerve in time and avoid the earthen spike that suddenly shot from the earth aiming right at his midsection.

'Shit, it's third-tier!' Olivia's voice resounded in his mind even as Greg pressed his hand to his side to staunch the bleeding.

On the one hand, the shoes of haste were the only reason Greg had any confidence in outrunning, or at the very least, staying ahead of the beast. The speed they granted him, however, rendered it damn near impossible to turn on a dime. While he had done his best to jump to the side when he sensed the attack, he hadn't managed to fully get out of the way, and so the spike had left a nasty wound on his side. Still, he had managed to keep himself from being skewered like a shish kebab, so despite the pain, Greg counted it as a win. From the wail of pain that Greg heard behind him, it didn't sound like Niya had been as lucky. Greg didn't turn back to find out what was his fate.

If he'd had the time to put on the subtlety pants, then navigating the forest at the speeds that he was moving at would have been far easier. Unfortunately for Greg, he hadn't put those pants on in close to four months now. Greg had to employ what little he could remember of what the pants had taught him even as the trees turned into a blur all around him. Twigs, branches, vines, thick roots, and even other creatures. Greg had to dedicate a hundred and ten percent of his mind to ensuring that he didn't run into any of these things. The simple act of tripping, right at this moment could prove deadly. Pushed to the extreme, the shoes of haste could have him running at quadruple his usual speed. And given that Roka had been a young and fit hunter, this was no small increment. Greg, however, kept his pace at triple his usual running speed. That last increment was used as his method of evasion. Having been almost skewered once, Greg wasn't looking for a repeat performance. Anytime he sensed an attack from the beast, he'd use that last burst of speed to allow him to jump far enough out of the way before resuming his run at triple his usual speed.

Usually, this beast knew not to run into everything in its path, that way not only would it not slow down, but it would also capitalize on its silent pursuit ability. Whether it had attacked humans before or not, Greg didn't know. He, however, got the feeling that the beast hadn't expected its quarry to be as fast as Greg was. Given enough time to accelerate, the beast could probably match his top speed with ease. Unfortunately for the beast and fortunately for Greg, however, the chase had only started like five seconds ago. It still hadn't had the chance to gather any momentum and pick up the requisite speed it would require to keep up with him. The gap between them was growing far too wide, far too quickly, and whatever it was that had gotten the beast so fixated on him, it seemed that it wasn't willing to let it go so easily. As such it didn't bother trying to go around anything or to minimize the noise of its pursuit. It simply ran through and obliterated anything in its path.

This worked out in Greg's favor as it spared him the necessity of having to look back at the beast to know where it was relative to him. This allowed Greg to keep his cool and not be paranoid that the beast was right behind him. It also allowed him to more easily guide the beast away from town and towards a more favorable battleground. While Greg was moving incredibly fast, he also knew that it wasn't sustainable. Sure, running at three or four times one's usual speed sounded exciting until one actually paused and thought about what that kind of strain would do to one's body. Through a mix of adrenaline and magic, he was overtaxing his body. And in a little over a minute, perhaps even two if he really pushed it, his body would have accrued too much damage to keep on going as he currently was. Torn muscles and ligaments, perhaps even fractured bones were certain to be the end result of this sprint.

What was even worse was that Greg knew that he wouldn't be able to get away in the one to two minutes of sprint time that he had. The gap might be growing right now, but the beast wasn't a feared foe for nothing. By the time the first minute was ending, it'd probably have started closing the gap between them. As such, Greg was only running for one reason and one reason only. To create as much distance between himself and the town as possible. This wasn't born out of any heroic or self-sacrificial impulses on Greg's part. Greg's thinking was far more practical than that. The simple reality was that Greg wanted to protect his secrets.

Firstly, just killing this beast all by his lonesome was enough of a feat that every hunter in town would want to know how he did it. And while he may be able to weave a lie, if they had access to the body, any lies he told would quickly fall apart. Secondly, Greg suspected that the only reason the three families plus the Town-head hadn't been as aggressive in trying to win him over to their side was because it was the healer they were interested in, they only thought of him as the cherry on top of the cake that was the healer. If he took an obsidian earthmover on his own, a feat that even the Town-head couldn't replicate, their perception of him would change, and the competition to win him over would begin in earnest. Given that two of the three families were almost certain to turn into his enemies if he was won over by one of the houses, he wasn't exactly dying to show them his true capabilities. An enemy that underestimates you is nothing short of a blessing as far as Greg is concerned.

The final reason that Greg was doing his best to get far away from town, was the healer. Even if he somehow managed to pull the wool over all the townspeople's eyes, there was no way he would be able to get away with any lies, especially about magic, when the healer was involved. As things were, Greg fully trusted the healer. So far, she had done right by him at every turn. But just because things were one way in the present, didn't mean they couldn't change. It would be extremely foolish of him to think that people couldn't be tempted to do things that they otherwise wouldn't have done. He, of all people, knew this. A cynical part of him couldn't help but wonder if the healer seemed trustworthy only because she hadn't been presented with the right temptation. An almost infinite source of magical resources and materials was one such temptation and Greg wasn't about to tempt her with it. It didn't feel good to impugn the honor of his teacher. Wisdom, however, required that he remain open to all possibilities. If he closed his eyes to certain possible outcomes simply because he didn't like them, then if a knife struck from the dark, he wouldn't know where to even begin in seeking out the traitor. And that, only if he survived the traitor's first move.

DO YOU WISH TO BUY A LOW-GRADE TIER-THREE WEEPING FLOWER TINCTURE FOR 147,000 MAGIC POINTS?

YES/NO

DO YOU WISH TO BUY THE HIGH-GRADE TIER-TWO HIVE MAGIC SCROLL FOR 140,000 MAGIC POINTS?

YES/NO

DO YOU WISH TO BUY A HIGH-GRADE TIER-THREE OBFUSCATION AMULET FOR 210,000 MAGIC POINTS?

YES/NO

DO YOU WISH TO BUY A HIGH-GRADE TIER-THREE EARTH-LOCK FORMATION FOR 340,000 MAGIC POINTS?

YES/NO

DO YOU WISH TO BUY A HIGH-GRADE TIER-THREE IMMOBILIZATION FORMATION FOR 280,000 MAGIC POINTS?

YES/NO

DO YOU WISH TO BUY A MID-GRADE TIER-THREE EARTH'S BANE PHIAL FOR 170,000 MAGIC POINTS?

YES/NO

DO YOU WISH TO BUY A HIGH-GRADE TIER-THREE IMMOVABLE RAMPART FOR 295,000 MAGIC POINTS?

YES/NO

Greg kept running for about one and a half minutes before he caught sight of a clearing that would be perfect for his counterattack. From the faint sound of destruction that was following him in the distance, Greg estimated that he had bought himself anywhere between thirty and forty seconds before the beast caught up to him. The clearing was god-sent as his body had already started flagging from the strain. Another ten or so seconds more of running was all that he would have managed before it completely gave out. Despite this, Greg had to start trying to stop from more than ten meters out as a result of his speed. By the time he came to a complete stop, he was already in the middle of the clearing.

Without prompting, Olivia had already come out from between his brows and caught Greg's falling body even as he collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. Despite the bone-deep fatigue that was threatening to sap away Greg's consciousness, a whole slew of system prompts crowded his vision. As soon as Greg had asked Olivia to find all the items from the shop that would help him beat this foe, she'd been ready to present him with a long list of options. Understanding the urgency of the situation and the fact that Greg couldn't afford to have his vision obscured, however, she had held off on bombarding him with it. If they'd had more time, Olivia would probably have conferred with him before coming up with a plan of action. The familiar preferred to be hands-off and let Greg learn and grow on his own. When the situation called for it, however, she wouldn't hesitate to help him. As such, while he was running, the familiar had taken it upon herself to come up with the plan and boil down the number of items they'd need to the seven windows before him

In the state he was in, barely clinging to consciousness, Greg didn't try to understand, let alone second guess whatever plan Olivia had come up with. Without even knowing what half of what he was buying was, he just clicked yes on every window that appeared before him. It was a good thing that when Greg had bought the storage ring from the magic shop, he'd used Olivia's mana to bind it. This made it so that, she could bypass him in accessing the contents of his storage ring. Otherwise, given his rapidly darkening vision, Greg was certain he would have passed out and whatever plan Olivia had come up with would have been moot. A second or two after he'd clicked 'YES' on the last window, however, Greg felt a vial pressed up against his lips.

Olivia tipped the vial up and then back down so fast that only a drop of whatever liquid was inside the vial made it inside his mouth. A second later, Greg understood why. That single drop had been more than enough. If the concept of vitality could be condensed into something tangible, then it was probably this, the weeping flower tincture. Even before Greg could make the motion to swallow, it had already dissolved into his tongue. Greg, who only a second ago had been about to pass out from overexertion, was suddenly so alert that it felt like his previous state had been an illusion. Not even a shot of caffeine straight into his veins would have had the mind-clearing effect that the white flower tincture did. Greg could feel it as the effects of that single drop spread throughout his body.

While Greg had managed to keep himself from having any major accidents while running, his body was crisscrossed with various scratches and wounds that he'd accrued in his escape. He even had a nasty cut along his left forearm from a tree that had low-hanging branches with hooked thorns. His clothes had helped to some degree in staving off the worst of it, but given their rugged and tattered state, they hadn't managed to hold on all the way. A fact that wasn't that shocking seeing as they weren't designed to handle the kind of ordeal he'd put them through. But while his clothes remained tattered, Greg watched as the wounds all across his body closed one by one, from the minor scratches to the cut in his left arm, to the wound on his side left by the earth spike from.

The healing, however, didn't just stop at the superficial level, his legs had been shaking, the muscles in them aching terribly even as they involuntarily twitched from time to time. Barely three seconds after the potion had begun its work, not only had all the pain vanished and his legs stilled, but even the fatigue that seemed to have sunk into his very bones was purged. Barely five seconds after the drop had landed on his tongue, Greg wasn't just healed, he felt like he was bursting with enough energy that it was almost uncomfortable. Greg suddenly understood why the familiar had only allowed a single drop of the potion to enter his mouth. With this level of potency, Greg was certain that the potency of the potion would have overwhelmed and killed him rather than restoring him to health.

"There are weaker potions that would have done just as good a job in healing you. They, however, would have taken far longer, and right now we don't have that time," Olivia who had noticed the look of dread that Greg was sending the vial in her hand, explained her choice.

The items that Greg had bought were materializing in his storage ring in the order that he'd bought them. The next thing that Olivia pulled out of the storage ring was the hive scroll. Already familiar with this one, Greg reached out for it ready to activate it. He, however, was shocked, his hand freezing in midair when Olivia used the scroll. Suddenly, ten different copies of the familiar were standing around Greg and the true Olivia. "Put this on," Olivia instructed him, never having paused in her actions. In her hands was an amulet with a black gemstone attached to it that, for some reason, reminded Greg of the dark of night.

"I'm guessing that this is the obfuscation amulet?" Greg posed, taking the amulet from her hand.

Olivia nodded in confirmation. "Unless they have extraordinarily keen senses, it'll hide you from the perception of any creature or person in the third tier or below," She explained.

Greg who was about to put it on, paused in his actions. "Wait, aren't you at the second tier? Won't this thing hide me from your perception?" He questioned.

A small smile crossed Olivia's lips. "On practically anyone else, that would probably be the case. I, however, am your familiar. You and I are connected at the level of the soul. Unless someone has the resources to obfuscate any soul links, then something as simple as this won't be enough to hide you from my senses," She explained, assuaging his fears. As soon as she was done speaking, Olivia reached forward and withdrew seven round, metallic discs the size of dinner plates, each an inch thick. There wasn't a single inch on any of the discs that wasn't covered in runes. One by one, her copies wordlessly reached forward, picked a plate from her, and shot off in a blur to the edge of the clearing.

As he watched them work, it clicked in Greg's mind why Olivia had used the hive scroll as opposed to having him use it. Each of Olivia's clones seemed to wordlessly understand what it was they were doing. Greg didn't even know what the discs were, let alone why they needed to be buried at specific points at the edge of the clearing. They only had about twenty seconds before almost seven tons of fury in the form of the obsidian earthmover barreled down on them. They didn't have any time to spare for him to learn all that he needed to know to make the plan work. Even as her clones continued to come for a few more discs from her, the real Olivia explained the basic outline of what she was planning.

"The obsidian earthmover poses two main threats to you. The first, as it's already demonstrated, is its ability to use the earth below your feet as a weapon. To counter that, we'll be using the Earth-lock formation," She explained as she pulled out a final plate from the storage ring. Unlike the others, the clone that took this plate placed it above the surface right at the center of the clearing, next to where they stood. "As soon as I supply mana to the control plate," She said, placing a foot on this last plate. "Then even a fourth-tier earth mage will have a hard time controlling the earth within the boundaries of the formation. Mages in the third tier and below won't be able to so much as move a mote of dust within the formation boundaries with their magic," She explained.

Olivia didn't pause in her motions even as she continued to lay out her plan. While she spoke, she had produced another five discs, only these seemed to be different from the first ones. Like the first set, these discs were covered in runic inscription. Unlike the first ones, however, these weren't metallic. Instead, they seemed to be made from some kind of white stone. Some of the clones that had returned from burying the first set of discs picked the five stone plates and placed them in a V formation with the fifth plate right next to the control plate for the earth-lock formation, allowing Olivia to place her other foot on it. This second formation was far smaller than the first. From the first plate close to the center that Olivia was stepping on, it extended in a ninety-degree cone toward the edge of the clearing.

"The second danger that the beast poses to you, as one might easily guess, is physical. Even inside the earth-lock formation, should it catch hold of you, your fate would be sealed. This second formation will address that. Given its name, I don't think that it requires that much explanation. As soon as I activate it and for as long as it's supplied with mana, anything tier three and below caught within the formation will be stopped dead in its tracks," She informed him, causing Greg to notice that the formation was indeed placed in the direction of the fast approaching beast if the sounds of destruction were anything to go by. "The obsidian earthmover won't be able to move a muscle once it's inside the formation. Which is where this comes in," The familiar continued to lay out her plan as she held out a round glass orb full of a muddy-brown liquid to him.

Greg didn't know why, but even just looking at the vial filled him with so much revulsion that he almost knocked it out of the familiar's hand. From the way Olivia sharply withdrew her hand, it seems that she too had expected Greg to try and knock it out of her hand. There was a look of surprise when it turned out that her caution was unnecessary and Greg hadn't lashed out at the orb in her hands. Greg suspected that without his willpower training under the familiar, then he would probably have given in to the impulse. He, however, had gotten so used to fighting off sudden strong urges as a result of his training that, even without having to think about it, he immediately resisted the sudden urge as soon as it had hit him. "What's that?" Greg asked, fighting to keep his expression straight and not show the deep revulsion he felt towards it. He wasn't succeeding.

"Earth's bane," she answered concisely. "An insidious potion that turns any mana tinged with the earth element against the user. We don't have the time for me to give an in-depth explanation of how it works. Suffice to say, however, that the results aren't pretty. To any earth element mage or beast, the very sight of it will cause an instinctual revulsion and desire to be rid of it. Fight it," She said, once again holding it out to him. A shudder of revulsion coursed through Greg's body, goosebumps rising on his skin even as his fingers closed around the glass orb.

"Now, listen to me closely," Olivia's grave tone of voice mercifully turned Greg's attention away from the orb in his hand and back to her. "We have a very small window to make this work. As you pointed out before, I am only at the second tier and these are tier three formations, and high-grade ones at that. They will drain me dry of mana in a matter of two to three breaths. After that, we'll have no way of restraining the beast anymore. Your part in this is rather simple. As soon as the beast is immobilized, I'll need you to throw the earth's bane at it hard enough to break the glass. Whether against its body or on the ground, doesn't matter, the potion will explode into a brown cloud that will engulf the beast," She explained.

"Once you've done that, you turn around and run away as fast as you can. Earth's bane is fast-acting. Within ten breaths of being exposed to it, the beast will be dead. In that time, however, it'll go on a mindless rampage as a result of the excruciating pain it'll be subjected to," She informed him. "With the obfuscation amulet on, it shouldn't be able to pick up on your presence let alone target you. But should you be unlucky and the beast comes in your direction, then there is still the last item inside your storage ring," Olivia said, causing Greg to become aware of the thick tower shield that had materialized inside his storage ring. "So long as its lower edge is planted on the ground, then not even a full-speed charge by the obsidian earthmover will be enough to move it," She relayed.

He knew that they were cutting it real close, but Greg had to ask. "Can't we just blow it to smithereens?" He questioned, producing the last contained alchemical bomb he still had in his storage ring.

Olivia shook her head. "A rule to always keep in mind, master, is that the higher the tier of the creature or monster, the smarter it is. With few exceptions, most creatures start to gain some measure of sentience at tier five and up. It, however, isn't something that happens all at once but has been building up from the lower tiers. At tier three, most creatures as smart enough to sense danger of the magical kind and avoid it. If you try to throw the bomb from afar while it's outside the formation, the beast will probably use the earth to knock it as far away as it can manage. If it's within the formation, then I'll be within the blast radius of the bomb. If one of my clones tries to run towards the creature while it's outside the formation with the contained alchemical bomb in hand, the creature will probably turtle up, covering itself with layer upon layer of hardened earth to protect itself. If it's inside the formation, then once again the issue of my proximity comes into play," She relayed.

"But…"

"The only reason it worked with the dark crawlers was because they had a weak link, their summoner," Olivia replied, anticipating his objection. "Woven into most summoning contracts of most creatures is the compulsion to protect their summoner at all costs. This, however, is often the last resort. Summoners aren't blind to the fact that they are most often the weakest link among the creatures they summon. Most of them will often have several ways of protecting themselves from direct attack. Luckily for us, your uncle was a mundane human before he became a tier-zero mage. He hadn't developed any strategies to deal with direct attacks, compelling the dark crawlers to come to his rescue time and again," She explained.

"Now go," Olivia spoke up before Greg could ask any other questions. "I want you at the edge of the formation. As soon as you throw the earth's bane, don't wait to see if it hits or not, just turn around and run," She instructed.

Understanding that the time for questions was up, Greg quickly moved to the edge of the clearing ready to carry out the agreed-upon plan. As it happens, this was none too soon as barely three seconds after he'd reached the edge of the clearing, the obsidian earthmover burst through the bushes at the edge of the clearing, running straight at the familiar.

A small burst of light came from the plates below her feet as Olivia activated the two formation plates. "NOW!" She shouted.

And that's when everything went wrong…