Dan looked at the scene with a dark expression. He clenched the handle of his blade so tightly that his knuckles turned white. The person next to him, Levi, held him down forcefully to prevent him from doing anything rash. The slightest activity from them could possibly cause the monkey to flee with Merell, so, as much as possible, they should first evaluate the situation then act accordingly, afterward.
The location given by the Tracer wasn't really a direct one. At most, it could pinpoint the area where the person was currently at. They couldn't find Merell earlier because they thought that the person was traveling on foot. With this thought in mind, naturally, they searched for a person who was walking or running around.
Who would've thought that he was moving from one tree to another because he was being carried by a magical beast?
What Dan couldn't understand was that the monkey was moving slowly towards the camp. Was it to meet the tiger? Or was it for something else? They don't know.
What they knew for the moment was that they were really fucked up. The only good thing about the situation was that Merell, for some reason, wasn't being eaten by the beasts. He was simply laid down on the ground.
Suddenly, the saber-toothed tiger started moving. It moved back a bit and started gagging. It appeared as if it was trying to spit out something that was caught in its throat even though it looked completely fine earlier.
After a few moments of gagging, the tiger finally achieved its goal. A red fruit covered in its saliva fell from its mouth and rolled near the tiger's feet.
Without even waiting for it to stop rolling, the monkey immediately pounced on the fruit. It completely forgot about the human it had carried over.
The monkey caressed the fruit, the light shining brightly on its eyes. During that moment, the monkey forgot that it still had other things to do. It smiled until its bloody fangs became visible. It leaned closer, meaning to take a bite.
But then the monkey froze from the sudden sound. It was jolted awake from its trance.
The tiger growled lightly at the monkey, and the monkey immediately backed away from the human it had splayed on the ground in front of it.
The tiger took a step forward and bent its forelegs. It slowly moved its face towards the human who was lying down. It appeared to be sniffing him.
Everybody felt tensed just from seeing the tiger move as if it was about to eat the unconscious human. When its face hovered on top of Merell, they realized that the beasts really had no intentions of eating him. At least that's how it appeared to be.
Inwardly, they all heaved a sigh of relief. They all stared at the beast intently, observing its every move.
While both magical beasts were preoccupied with what either of them got from the transaction, it was finally time to act.
Aeon tugged on Korona's shirt to catch her attention then pointed at the tiger. After that, Aeon gestured toward his left waist.
Korona looked at the tiger. Based on their position, it's left waist was not visible to them. However, this didn't mean that she could not target it. Korona concentrated and started casting a spell inside her head.
Above the tiger, a small ice shard started to solidify from the water vapor around. Just before the cold wind around Korona started becoming noticeable to the two beasts, the ice shard shot forward.
Fwip!
Shatter!
The ice shard hit the tiger, but it immediately broke upon impact, producing a crisp shattering sound.
The monkey looked at the tiger.
The tiger looked left.
Whooosh!
Aeon rushed through the bush and headed straight towards Merell.
The beasts heard the rustling of the leaves, but…
It was too late.
Aeon grabbed Merell, who was lying on his belly, by the collar and skidded to a stop. He naturally couldn't run straight or he would risk being isolated from the group. He stared at the tiger with a smug look on his face. Aeon could only imagine how the tiger was feeling now.
Ice started forming on the feet of the monkey. It started to panic as the ice slowly crept upwards. It took a large rock from its pouch and started bashing on the ice trapping it. The commotion it made was loud enough for the tiger to hear, but the latter did not even bother checking on him.
The tiger continued staring straight at Aeon, its fangs bared. Despite this, Aeon didn't mind at all. Instead, he had the urge to taunt the beast.
It was the 4th colossal beast they encountered, but the tiger was quite different. Aeon felt that his body was heavier than usual due to the pressure that the saber-toothed tiger exuded. Aeon wanted to fight it without restraints, but he was carrying an unconscious person. Moreover, there was dan.
But that didn't mean that it won't fall today. With their group, it was sure to die.
By the corner of his eyes, he could see the monkey already trapped. It's time to separate the two beasts. Aeon rushed towards his left and ran into the forest.
The tiger roared as it pounced forward and began its pursuit. The ground shook with every step.
It had abandoned the monkey.
Ice continued forming on the monkey's legs no matter how much he broke off a piece of it. The moment the tiger ran off, a group of people started approaching it. Panic overcame it and it started bashing the ice wildly.
The group paid no heed to its behavior and calmly approached.
At the forefront of the group was Suri, his face full of rage. It looked at the monkey who attacked him just this morning, causing him to go unconscious. Up close, the monkey was just as big as he was. He didn't even think that it should be classified as a Lake Beast because it was so weak.
Suri drew his blade. The others kept watching as they waited for Aeon to return. All of them were calm except Dan, who still had his eyebrows furrowed
Suri's broadsword glowed red. He lifted it up above his head, making it visible to the monkey. Then, the blade of the sword blazed with fire, giving off immense heat.
Seeing this, the monkey's movements turned sluggish until it slowed to a stop. It stopped struggling, having anticipated its imminent doom. Suri felt a pang of guilt, but the monkey was really too dangerous to be left alone.
Suri slashed forward.
Just before the sword landed on the monkey's head, a huge hand came out of the ground.
It reached forward and grabbed the monkey into the earth below. Everything happened in a split second. No one even had the time to react. They all fell into a daze.
Suri's attack landed on the devastated land.
Sizzle!
The flame from the sword scorched the broken land, but it failed to achieve its purpose.
Everyone woke up from their shock as they realized that there was another opponent lurking on the ground.
Of course, Dan thought. How could that small monkey catch Merell on his own? It must've been the owner of that huge hairy hand's work! Dan completely forgot about it beforehand because he was too focused on what the tiger and the monkey were doing.
Everyone stood on guard. They stared at the ground with their weapons ready.
….
Aeon was simply playing tag with the tiger.
Beasts too large had a plain-to-see weakness—they had trouble dealing with relatively smaller creatures. And Aeon took advantage of that quite well with the help of his speed and agility. That was the reason why he had always been in charge of the distraction whenever they fought against colossal beasts.
The tiger was about 10 meters tall when standing on all fours. Aeon was not even a fifth of that! A couple of times, the tiger overtook Aeon with its large strides, but Aeon never thought that this was a problem. If it caught up, he would simply slow down, making the beast scramble to change directions. If it tried to bite him, he'd simply dodge. The bigger it was, the easier for Aeon to monitor its movements.
Aeon ran for half a minute. It should be enough for the others to finish the monkey off. Aeon ran in an arc with the tiger running close behind him so he could go back to the others with ease.
After another half a minute, he saw the others in the same spot. They were all looking at the ground as if they lost something and were trying hard to find it. Three beasts lay in the ground just beside them, dead. In just a minute, they had already encountered three more beasts.
When the group saw Aeon, they all faced towards him. However, Aeon could spot them looking occasionally towards the ground. Aeon felt curious, but it wasn't the time to be talking about it. He told himself to focus.
For this battle, Dan was the main Seran. He slowly moved forward as he eyed the beast behind Aeon. His giant blade started burning and it slowly crept up all the way to the tip. Purple flames consumed the entire blade.
B-ranked magic, Rising Phoenix.
Spellbooks written based on mythical creatures were one of the strongest spells in the continent. Dan, being part of the Academy, was given the privilege to learn one. Although it was still not mature because he had only been a member of the academy for a year, it was still formidable.
Aeon saw the purple flames literally jumping out of Dan's weapon, ready to devour anything it touched. He immediately realized that it was bad news. The moment he saw Dan swing his blade, Aeon subconsciously activated his Tenro for a split second and jumped away.
SCREEEEE!
The clear cry of a Phoenix reverberated through the air as the purple flames rapidly soared forth. Even after Aeon dodged, he could still feel the scorching heat emanating from the flames on his skin. His sweat immediately turned into vapor.
Aeon sighed. The battle should already be over.
The rushing tiger was caught off guard by the attack because the flames moved extremely fast. It didn't have enough time to change directions and had no way of dodging. The flames consumed the beast's entire head all the way down to its neck and shoulders.
The students stared in awe as they expected the beast to fall anytime.
Contrary to their expectations, Dan charged forward with another attack. He casted another spell as he ran. His blade glowed purple and white that flowed like a river on its surface. Dan jumped all the way up towards the burning face of the beast and slashed down.
His blade whistled through the air as it dropped.
Finally, the flames on the tiger stopped burning, revealing its head.
What the students saw completely stunned them.
Ashes fell down from where the fire previously blazed, but the ashes didn't come from the flesh on its head. It was from the armor it was currently wearing.
Yes, armor.
The beast's entire head, neck, and shoulders were wrapped in an armor-like shell. However, they couldn't identify what it was made of because it was burnt beyond recognition. Pieces of it fell, but it managed to do its job and keep the tiger alive.
Dan's blade finally arrived in front of the tiger's face.
Just before it hit the tiger, the entire burnt armor covering its head crumbled into pieces revealing its unharmed face.
It didn't stop at that.
Spikes suddenly popped out from the tiger's jaws, rapidly wrapping around its nose and mouth.
Tak!
Dan's blade connected with the new layer of armor.
….