Dan was truly much more experienced when it came to hunting magical beasts. He realized that the beast they were facing gave a different vibe. It had an aura of a supreme predator, one might say.
The moment Dan's blade connected with the tiger's new protective armor, he realized that it was tougher than it looked. Judging from where its armor came from, it was probably its bones. Surprisingly, though, it was really hard.
But not hard enough!
Dan pressed his blade down harder, making it glow brighter and sink deeper. However, before his attack could break through the tiger's defense, its paw coated with more of its bone armor headed straight towards him. Dan had no choice but to halt his attack. He kicked on the tiger's nose and somersaulted backward.
After a single exchange, the others woke up from their shock. Aeon backed away with Merell on his arms while the others started casting their spells.
The tiger finally sensed that the group was a great threat to it, but it showed no intentions of escaping. It jumped back and ran into the forest, trying to get outside the effective attack range of the biggest threat among the group, Dan.
Dan being equipped with a large blade, obviously had trouble with his mobility. He could only watch as the colossal beast distance itself from them. Several spells shot towards the beast but ultimately missed. The tiger wasn't extremely agile, but it was very fast.
The group started to feel the pressure from being preyed on. There were obvious holes in their formation due to the lack of people. This was the beast's terrifying advantage against a small group like Aeon's.
They didn't have enough Serans to cover for their Remorans. Unless, of course, if they compress on one spot. But this was an extremely dangerous move. One huge successful sweep from their enemy and their formation would be broken.
The tiger patiently circled around them trying to wait for an opening. Sometimes it moved at an extremely fast pace, only to slow down and change directions. It didn't even try hard enough to dodge a few D-ranked spells.
If the battle dragged on, they would deplete their magic reservoir. Moreover, the longer they stayed there, the higher the chances of other beasts joining the battle.
Finally, Dan called for a retreat. It was certainly not time to dally around. They finished their objective, so it was time for them to head back to the camp. The group started running with the tiger following closely behind. It seemed like it was maintaining some sort of distance that it deemed to be safe.
Aeon passed Merell to Samuel. Thankfully, Merell wasn't too tall, only about 178 cm, so the latter didn't have much trouble with him. As they ran, Samuel secured Merell with two ropes, making him move fairly easier.
The group moved ahead while Dan protected the rear.
For the meantime, the situation was quite favorable to them. The beast couldn't attack them. And if it does, it would have to face the group all at once. It was forced into a passive situation and it was extremely aware of it.
Despite this, it wasn't necessarily a good scenario for them. Because with what was currently happening, they were literally dragging a dangerous beast back to the camp.
After a few moments of running, Aeon felt like the quaking of the ground was unnatural. It didn't seem to match the steps of the tiger. Suddenly, Aeon yelled, "Dodge!"
Everyone jumped away.
The ground in front of them suddenly opened up. From it, a gigantic hairy forearm emerged, its hand slapping towards the group.
BOOOOM!
The slap was so strong that it formed huge a hand-shaped crater on the ground. Dust, dirt, and pieces of rocks flew everywhere, blocking their vision. It even caused a strong shockwave.
Everyone was caught by it, but amongst the group, Selena took the most damage. She was a beat too slow to respond to Aeon's warning, and she was practically next to the hand when the shockwave erupted.
Blood dripped from the corner of Selena's mouth, and she tried her best to keep track of the surroundings. When each of them jumped, none of them headed in the same direction. Now, due to the dust cloud that formed, she couldn't see anybody. Her heart started beating faster as panic overtook her.
She didn't move from where she was staying. She tightly gripped on her staff, ready to cast a spell at any moment's notice. She turned around and around, trying to make sense of what she was currently seeing, but she could barely see what's in front of her.
Suddenly, she started seeing a large shadow move around.
….
The case was similar to the others. No one tried to get out of the dust cloud they were currently enveloped with, or else they might risk being caught by the tiger. For sure, if they all moved outward at the same time, they probably won't be too far from each other. But the opening would probably give enough time for the tiger to catch one of them. Fortunately, they all made the same, and correct, decision.
All they needed to do now was to beat the tiger in terms of how they responded to the situation.
However, now they are in bigger trouble.
The underground beast who was just lurking earlier finally decided to join in on the fun.
Everyone focused on the outer part of the cloud where it was thinner, and at the same time, tried to get a feel on the ground as much as possible. Dealing with underground attacks wasn't really that hard. The attack from earlier only caught them off guard because it was too sudden. The quaking of the ground caused by the tiger also covered for the underground beast's movements.
As the dust grew thinner, everyone acted accordingly. Aeon was the farthest one from the center making him the first person to get better visibility. He started running through the edge of the cloud trying to spot a teammate. He also didn't forget to pay attention to the tiger.
Soon enough, he spotted Suri.
Suri recognized Aeon and started running right next to him.
"Where are the others?" Suri asked, extremely worried. His eyes frantically moved, trying to get a vision on as much area as possible.
"I'm also looking!" Aeon answered.
They weren't even able to run more than 20 meters when their feet ground to a halt. In front of them, was a huge shadow that looked something like a mountain. Beside it was a huge hole in the ground.
Naturally, it wasn't the tiger.
The two looked up and saw its two red eyes, glowing through the dust. The two were already in its vision. Surprisingly, however, it did not move.
Slowly, the dust around them started to clear, revealing the real appearance of the beast.
It was a gigantic gorilla, even bigger than the colossal tiger they were fighting just a few moments ago.
Then, they realized why it was not moving.
The beast had a closed hand near its face. Because its face was so high up, about 23 meters, Aeon and Suri only caught a glance what the beast was holding on to, but they were both sure about what they saw.
Peeking out of its hand was a huge block of ice.
But the ice wasn't as clear.
No, it wasn't.
There was a shadow of a figure inside it!
The beast was holding on to someone. Suri felt like he was about to faint when he recognized who the gorilla was holding on to.
It was Korona.
Suddenly, as the gorilla eyed the two, it clenched its hand tighter. The block of ice strained at the beast's grip and it started cracking.
"No!" Suri yelled as he charged towards the leg of the beast. Adrenaline coursed through his body as he tried to draw as much power as he could.
Strangely, even after Suri yelled, Aeon just stared at the gorilla's hand. As if snapping out of his confusion, Aeon started charging forward as well. He drew both his swords and breathed in deeply.
Even though the situation looked perilous, Aeon felt relieved. Korona was able to hold out and cast a spell before the humongous creature was able to crush her.
Now, it was up to them to release her.
But… where were the others?
….
As soon as the dust settled down around him a bit, Dan found himself being assaulted multiple times by the tiger. It jumped in and out, making use of the limited visibility in order to wear him down.
Indeed, it had deemed him as the most dangerous among the group. Moreover, he couldn't concentrate because he was still paying attention to potential underground attacks.
Dan ground his teeth hard as he found himself to be in a tight situation. The tiger was extremely fast! He couldn't throw out any random spell either because he might hit the others. After a few moments of being harassed, the dust finally settled.
Just across Dan, in the other side of the crater, was a gigantic gorilla standing on two legs. He felt his jaw dropped as he marveled at the creature. He even momentarily forgot that he was on the battlefield.
Boom! Boom!
Two explosions woke Dan up from his stupor. He looked around and his eyes settled on three people, Levi, Selena, and Samuel.
Aeon and Suri were completely out of sight.
….