On small hill, 30 kilometers away from the compound, stood Ramie.
Beside him, stood Lance, Neil, Gregory's son, and other 11 warrior. All of whom, had ignition percents above 50%.
Ahead of them, stood the two leaders, Brian and Gregory; they were holding scoops and looking through them at a certain direction.
Behind the group; were the 5 armored vehicles that had brought them here, and an empty loading truck.
Right now, everyone was staring ahead, at a certain direction. Their hearts were tense, and they maintained a tight grip over their inscribed weapons, preparing themselves to engage in a heated battle that could decide the future of the compound.
If they manage to succeed, then the tier-2 core would bring the power of one of the leader's to a higher level, thus increasing the compound chances in the face of futuristic threats.
But if they fail, then how long will they have to wait to come across such a golden opportunity.
It was obvious that this chance was a stroke of luck that might never come again. As such, this beast has to die, and his core has to be obtained…
In the distance, up in the sky, was Nora. She was flaying at a safe altitude, and was currently dropping Molotov bottles at a certain location, one after another.
Every time one bottle falls, it explodes and spreads fire on the ground.
"I SAW IT!! It's moving to an opened ground!"
All of the sudden, Gregory spoke, excitedly.
Nora wasn't throwing these fuel bottles for nothing. Instead, she was dropping them on the beast that was hiding in an area filled with boulders.
The injury this beast had was on one of his legs. And it crippled his movement to a large extent.
As such, the hunting team wanted to push the creature outside the rocky area and into an open ground. This beast was after all, a mid tier-2 beast. As such, they wanted to confront him in an open ground so that they have an open field to use their ranged attacks of bows, spells, and Gregory's thrown javelins at an appropriate distance, and not have to get close too to him.
They wanted to use them from a distance, as the area this beast was hiding in was filled with large boulders that provided a perfect hiding place for the beast, and would also hinder their group fight.
If they wanted to attack this thing in the rocky area, then they'd have to get dangerously close to it, which was a very risky move. As even though this beast was severely injured, he was still tier-2 beast.
Also, in the open ground, even if the beast chases after them, they'd still be able to take precaution, and maintain a distance. But in the rocky area, it was like a maze, with a beast in it. So, they decided that they'd only attack if the beast was forced out to an area where they can have a clear view on it.
Luckily, with Nora's ability to fly, and using the fuel bombs… the beast was finally forced out with fire.
Having seen the beast limb out from the rock area, Gregory shouted out his orders.
"We're attacking, now! Get into the vehicles!"
Following which, everyone jumped into the armored vehicles. And with roaring engines, the vehicles descended the hill, and headed for the creature.
Five vehicles moved in one line toward the beast. As for the loading truck, it remained unmoving. This loading truck was brought to carry the beast corpse in case they win. So, there was no point in involving this truck in the battle, as it would turn into scrap with one attack from the beast.
"Halt!"
Reaching a certain distance away from the beast, Gregory shouted out.
Even though the beast was severely injured in his leg, but they were still unwilling to get too close.
Immediately, everyone disembarked off the vehicles, carrying their spears and bows.
Brian, Gregory, and the rest of the warriors went into a battle formation and moved toward the beast.
As for ramie, Neil and lance, they stood in the back, not moving with them, and watching instead.
It wasn't that they weren't willing to take part in this battle, but rather, they were asked to not to.
A day ago, a disagreement broke between Gregory and Brian as to who gets the core from this beast. It had almost developed into a conflict.
However, before it gets to that point, they came to lance and ramie, and wanted to alter a specific condition in the agreement with their team.
Apparently, they wanted the core from this mission and the next one. They wanted to give Ramie and his team the core from the third beast they hunt.
Naturally, the group was not very happy with this change, as these two obviously wanted to resolve their conflict at their group's expense.
After some back and forth discussions, Ramie and lance agreed to the change, however, not wanting to be taken advantage of, the put forth another condition.
It was that if the compound group managed to kill this beast on their own, without needing their help, then they'll accept the proposed alteration. However, if they were asked to interfere, then the old agreement remains unchanged.
The two leaders agreed to this condition immediately, and didn't complicate things any further.
Of course, the other reason why they agreed to the two leader's condition was that because it was in their own team's best interest that the compound stay's united and no conflict breaks out, least until the azure gazelle king advances his tier.
Any conflict before they're able to well protect themselves would make things more dangerous for them, and for the compound itself. As such, they compromised.
Anyway, as the warriors moved toward the beast, Ramie's eyes fell on the beast.
Tssssss!!
Seeing the heavily armored creature, Ramie sucked in a deep cold breath of air.
He could sense the towering aura of the beast, which was oppressive enough to even affect his heartbeats pattern. It was as powerful as the aura of the bear beast that he had faced in the compound.
After calming his heart, Ramie started feeling assured. As if his ghost glare could affect that bear beast, then it should be enough to influence this one as well.
Standing at fours limbs, with a height that reaches 3 meters, the massive figure of the beast glared at the advancing force with caution. The beast had a general structure that was a mix of a lizard and the extinct armored-dinosaur.
With color that looked just like the rocks', the beast was covered with variant-sized, oval-shaped, protruding plates of bones that were aligned in a horizontal rows along its head, back, and the tail, making him look even more formidable than a tank.
The beast was so heavily armored that made ramie think that nothing in this world could inflict any injury on him.
The creature's head was covered with a thick exoskeleton that protected his head, making him seem as though he was wearing a helmet.
However, looking at one of the hind legs, a large chunk of it was missing, as if it was bitten off in one bite.
'Just what kind of creature can cause such injury on this armored beast…?'
As Gregory and Brian took the lead and faced the beast, the beast just kept swinging his tale about, threateningly. The tail was very thick, and had a large club-like protrusion at its end, giving the tail appearance of sledgehammer. Apparently, this was the beast's natural weapon, his competitive advantage.
Ramie gazed intently at the beast, and following which, information appeared in his mind.
Tier-2 Beast
Name: Rock lizard
Innate Spells: none
Special notes: Heavily armored creature known for using the charge attack to crush, and the tail to hammer his opponents.
'Charge attack…? That's useless now with his injured leg. All they have to do is to stay away from this creature's tail and they'd be fine…' Ramie thought to himself as he scrutinized the beast ahead.
As ramie, lance, and Neil, watched from a safe distance, the warriors charged at the beast.
Ramie didn't need to tell them about this beast's stats. After all, Nora had already divulged this information before they even get here.
Howl!!!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Howl!!!!!!!!!
Having seen the team heading toward him, the beast start swinging his massive tail and smashing at the ground, thus producing this heavy thudding, explosive sounds.
As the massive sledgehammer-like tail of the beast bounded at the ground in irritation, tremors of shock wave started spreading out, and causing fear in the hears of the attackers.
Obviously, this beast has great strength as well.
BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!
Every single step the team takes toward the creature, the faster the pace at which he hammers the ground, as if menacing his enemies with a squashing force if they kept moving closer to him.
From this behavior, it was evident that the injury was impactful enough for the beast to resort to intimidation, instead of just charging at them and turn them into mincemeat with that tail of his.
"Archers! Shot your arrows, now!!" Gregory shouted out, commanding.
Following which, six warriors loaded their bow, pulled back the strings, and released.
At once, six arrows made of beast's bones flew toward the beast.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The arrows however did no damage at all to the beast; some rebounded off the armor plates, while other just shattered about, due to the abnormal defense.
Having seen this sigh, Gregory frowned. Every one of these arrows had enough penetrative power to embed itself into the compound's wall, even from long distances. Now however, they didn't even leave a scratch on the beast's armor, even from such close distance.
"Another round, use the inscribed arrows this time!" Brian issued his order, wanting to finish this battle as soon as possible, as he didn't feel very comfortable being out in the open, with the threat of another beast popping up on them at any time.
The six warriors pulled out other arrows that were marked by black dye, for distinguishing purposes.
They immediately activated the inscription, which led to the appearance of small lightening arks, flickering as they danced around the arrows tips, signifying the initiation of the inscriptions.
Having seen this sight, Gregory watched with anticipation.
"Let me see how much damage these inscriptions can do! Now, SHOOT!!!"
Immediately, six arrows with lightening arching around them tore their way through the air, toward the beast, while leaving trail of lightning sparks behind.
…