Arrival of the survivors' convoy (3)

As the beast dashed at them, he didn't go for the center of the group, but charged at the wing of the group that had the most people in it.

From the rear of the group, a man covered with bandages took step forward and shouted in weak voice.

Earth wall!

As if the earth had answered his call, a four meter tall, five meters long, and two meters wide wall of solid mud rose from the ground right in front of the charging beast.

Roarr!!

Offended by such trick, the beast didn't go around such meager wall, as his pride didn't allow him to. But instead, he charged at the wall, wanting to smash right through it!

The one who casted this spell was exactly the compound's leader son.

His artifact was of the elemental path, and he had the innate spell earth manipulation. As such, his class was earth magician, with common rarity.

He was a rank-1 magician with Lv.4 artifact, which made him the highest level magician in the compound. And with an artifact of the forth level, he naturally had four spells, which were Earth spike, Earth wall, Earth hand, and Earth cage.

As for their types, they were offensive spell, defensive spell, supportive spell, and supportive spell, respectively.

Upon seeing the massive figure dashes at them, his heart was momentarily grabbed with fear, so, he immediately casted his defensive spell right in front of the beast to stop or at least interrupt the beast's seemingly unstoppable momentum.

Boom!

Bzzzzzztt!

It wasn't only him who casted a spell. On the same time, a fire ball and a lightening ball smashed against the beast's body and exploded at the same time into violent blasts of fire and sparks of short lightening strands.

To everyone's shock however, this didn't force the beast to stop… or even interrupt his momentum for that matter. The beast charged at the earth wall at an even stronger force.

"Be careful of the aftereffect!"

"Raise another wall!"

Immediately many urgent and loud shouts came from the other wing of the group, however, the compound's leader son was in a pathetic state, due to yesterday's battle. He was severely injured, and was weak to the point of barely supporting his own weight. He was unable to react in time.

Only when the beast was upon the wall did he understood the implication behind these words.

'Wait… the earth wall is less than 7 meters away. So if this thing blasts through it, wouldn't that send the debris right at us…?'

His heart sank at the thought, and he wanted to act, but… it was too late…

BOOOMM!!!!

Similar to the wooden barrier, the wall was obliterated apart, with a rumbling explosion that tremored the entire compound. It as if a high grade military missile landed there.

At the same, the debris and the pieces of the wall flew at the people behind it.

Suddenly, a dome shaped barrier came to existence right behind the wall, and right in the path of the debris and shrapnel.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The flying trajectories bombarded the dome, causing it to flicker at its limit, as it withstood the force. Luckily, the shield held, and did not break.

From the far side, Reem lowered her hand.

This dome shaped shield, was exactly her defensive spell. And she had casted it at the very last moment to block the possible aftereffect of the beast's attack.

Luckily, and given that this spell was of the rare grade, its defensive properties were much better than the common grade Earth wall spell of the compound's leader son.

Although the leader's son artifact was higher than hers by a level, but, to magicians, only the ranks, the spells, and magic energy can determine their strength.

All of the magicians in the compound were rank-1 magicians. This meant that regardless of their Artifacts levels, all of their spells were rank-1 spells. So, this left the grade of the spell and its type to say which is more useful.

The beast picked up its speed and charged at the dome shaped shield, also smashing it into flashy sparks.

At this moment, the beast appeared as though he was indestructible mythical creature that was unstoppable by any mean.

With even the attack of Reem's azure gazelle king having no damage on this beast, the rest of the magicians' spells thus became useless against this thing.

This wasn't weird, considering that even the leader's javelin, which had penetrating power higher than any magician's spell here in the compound, had failed to even penetrate the skin of this beast.

Right now, it became quite clear that this beast's specialty was strength and defense, unlike the flying beast yesterday, which had the ability to command other beasts.

By shattering Reem's shield, the last layer of defense that the group has was destroyed easily, leaving nothing else between them and the beast.

Seeing the looks of terror and defeat on these preys, the beast could no longer hold back its primal urges, and his savage intent to tear apart and devour soared. Thus, he charged excitedly at them.

At this moment, the compound leader pushed his life energy to its max, and his physical abilities were pushed to their limits.

"Neil, throw your fire ball at the thing, Now!!!" preparing to launch his attack, the leader shouted out his order.

The first time he ordered the magicians to cast their spell, his intention was that to let the magicians overwhelm the beast with their destructive offensive spells to distract the thing, thus creating a chance for him to deliver the killing blow.

Unlike the throwing javelin, this time he intended to use his primary spear that was completely made of bones and was larger and longer with thicker shaft, thus allowing him to thrust the spear with all of his power without snapping it in two halves.

His intention was not to injure the beast, but to kill it with one strike to a vital point! After all, unlike the flaying beast from yesterday, this one was alone.

Actually, the leader intended to attack the moment the fire ball and the lightening ball landed on the beast. As although these two spells had less penetrating power than his javelin, but these two spells had something his javelin lacked – the explosive effect!

In his eyes, even if the beast had thick layer of skin that was capable of blocking his javelin, the fire ball and the lightening spells had an explosive effects. So, even if the skin of the beast resisted these spells, the explosive effect should still inflict an internal injury to the beast.

Afterward, the beast's momentum would be interrupted, leaving an opening in his defense. And that is when he would sweep at the beast, and deliver the killing blow.

Unfortunately, the two spells didn't seem to inflict any injury whatsoever to the beast.

Still, he had to do something. He shouted for Neil to cast a fire ball at the beast before attacking, to create a distraction, even if it was for a second.

Rotating his life energy to its max output, a massive volume of power that only life energy of Lv.2 warrior can produce streamed like a flooding river to every muscle fiber, and to every corner in his body, completely submerging him in a lake of radiating power.

His body greedily absorbed the rich energy like a dry sponge inside a puddle of fresh water. In no time, his body started to overflow with throbbing power, giving him the illusion that nothing in this world could withstand even one punch from him.

He however knew better than to believe as such.

The pure monstrosity ahead was the best example that this false feeling was an empty sensation that only a small frog in small puddle of water would have, not knowing that any random creature in the nearby ocean can swallow it with a mere gulp.

Right now, the beast had already reached the group, and turned three warriors into mingled masses of meat and bone with a mere swing of its massive, clawed paw. One warrior was even snapped in half, with each part of his body flying in a different direction, due to the sheer force behind the swing.

Everyone on that side scattered and started running away like a scurrying chickens, without even the slightest fighting spirit.

As the beast was about to swing his paw at an escaping warrior, a flying fire ball landed right at the beast's side, exploding into a mass of fire.

"It's now or never…!"

Seeing the fire ball explode, the leader lunged himself forth with the full power of Lv.2 warrior. He traversed the entire distance between him and the beast before the fire of the explosion even dissipates.

Getting close to the beast, his muscles bulged with an overwhelming power. He then kicked off the ground and increased his momentum, wanting to channel the full force of the charge into the spear, to output the strongest attack he could muster ever since breaking through to the second level.

If this attack did not work, then nothing else would! As such, he put his all in it.

Reaching right next to the beast, he moved his body in a manner to transfer the kinetic energy of the charge and force it behind the thrust, to penetrate the thick layer of the beast's skin.

"Ah!! Die!!!!!"

Out-bursting his strength, and using his both hands, he thrust the spear at the side of the abdominal area of the beast…

The exceedingly sharp head of the spear pressed and caused the fur of the beast to cave in, giving the impression that it was about to stab through with just a little additional force.

However…!

Instead of penetrating the skin, the head of the spear bended to the side, strained to its limits. However, still, it was unable to force its way in, even despite the massive pushing power.

Crack!!

The spear snapped under the massive force, and was rebounded backward, unable to preach the skin at all!

The compound leader stared, stupefied. He was shocked at the sight.

This attack was literally the best he could offer, yet…

If even his strongest attack failed, and his strongest spear was broken, then… what else could he do?

Suddenly, his heart shuddered, and his hair stood on end as a deathly cold chill ran down his spine.

From above, two small pupils that oozed with death, menace and unmatchable savagery locked on him.

ROARRR!!

Hearing the loud roar, the compound leader eyes widened in shock and horror as he realized the terrible situation he was in.

Rotating his life energy frantically, he dashed backward, to avoid the retaliation of the beast, while holding his arms in a defensive posture in front of his chest.

Unfortunately, his reaction was a bit to late…

A massive paw of destruction smashed at him before he manages to distant himself in time.

Thud!

A crushing force landed on him, causing a violent surge of wind, and sending him flying in a sorry state.

The compound leader flew away like a cannon ball, and then crushed far in the distance with a heavy thud. His body rolled over many times while sliding on the ground for several meters before coming to stop.

From the distant, his left arm could be seen twisted in many weird angels.

Although both this bear and the flying beast from yesterday were mid tier-2 beast, however, there was one major difference between the two.

Each type of beast had his own advantages and disadvantage. The flying beast had the advantage of commanding other beast of its type as an advantage, and its weak defense as flaw, while this bear has his defense and strength as advantage, and speed as flaw.

Yesterday, the compound leader used the numbers as an advantage to counter and eventually nullify the flying beasts' commanding ability, while continually inflict damage on it, taking advantage of its weak defense. Hence, they weren't completely annihilated in the fight.

Whilst against this beast… numbers meant nothing! And with the beast strong defense, the other magicians and warriors became useless to fight the beast.

So, the only hope was that the leader would defeat this thing, but now…

Seeing the compound leader being sent flying like a rag doll, everyone's eyes widened in shock and horror as their mouths gaped open.

The worst nightmare had come to pass, and the strongest individual in the compound was thrashed.

This was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Following which, chaos broke out all around.

If the strongest among them went down in one swing, then what about the others?

The only warrior that could have made difference was taken out so miserably, and with him, the last hope.

Following that was absolute chaos. Some were not willing to resign to this result and stayed to fight the beast… others ran away in fright, wanting to put as much distance between them and the beast as possible. One man headed to the destroyed gate, and fled away, completely abandoning the compound.

The beast ran amok, excitedly killing everything that moves in sight. He was like a meat grinder, grinding nonstop.

One of the newly awakened warriors was so frightened, that he didn't have the power to even move his legs. He thus froze in his place as the beast came at him with blood thirsty-eyes, to deliver the killing blow.

Tears and mucus mixed together in his face, as he muffled his cries, hoping that this meaningless action would make the best go away, or make him invisible or something. Falling to the ground, his urine flowed beneath him, creating small puddle of stench.

As the beast was upon him, opening his large maw that was filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth, to bit off his head… All of the sudden; the beast's eyes lost its luster, with the glow of life fading, as if his soul was being sucked away.

The massive figure froze right in its place, as if he had lost conscious right here and then.

With the beast towering over him like that, the warrior was so frightened, that his soul almost left his body.

Slowly, he forced himself to turn around, and crawl away from the motionless towering figure.

As he started crawling, his eyesight was drawn to two very small, glowing orbs to the side, in the distance.

The two orbs shone with a mysterious yellow glint of light like a pair of small moons in a very pitch black night, promising a path for the lost souls.

Even though there were many things happening within this warrior's field of vision… like people running away with haste, others shouting for him to get away from the beast... But… everything seemed to happen in the background, as if it was something unimportant, something trivial, something that had nothing to do with him.

All what he wanted to do, was to keep staring at those little orbs forever and ever, as if they were the only thing interesting in this world, the only thing worth looking at.

It was as if the light emanated from those orbs was offering him something beyond what this world could ever match… something otherworldly… like the answers to all of his questions… the reason behind his existence…

Completely surrendering to these two mysterious orbs, he wanted to reach out to them, to just leave his own body and fly to them…

These two orbs seemed to be attached to something like a face, but… in front of the allure of the orbs, the face looked only blurry… it was unimportant…

In the background, a shouting voice could be faintly heard, and it seems to be coming from the mouth in that blurry face…

"Attack the eyes! Attack the beast's eyes! Before the spell wears off! SOMEBODY, ATTACKS, THE DAMN, EYES!!!!!!!!!!"

However, and like everything else in the background other than the mystical orbs… to this warrior, this voice was simply unworthy of his attention…

…