He didn't know how long he had been running, seconds, minutes, or even hours but he could see that the sun was rising. While running, Shiro occasionally threw stones at the monster frantically trying to keep its attention to himself. His mind as well as his body was tired but he couldn't stop yet, for Shiro protecting his comrades came first.
When he finally felt he was far enough, Shiro turned back to face the monster, he was surprised to see the armored reptilian standing on four legs instead of three, he had been wondering how the monster was able to catch up to him despite losing a limb but now he got his answer. Reptiles had faster regenerative abilities than other breeds of monsters, this prevented people from using hit and run tactics to wear down the beast.
Shiro felt it unfortunate that all the damage he had dealt was gone but he was not discouraged, he had completed his mission now all that was left was returning to their camp site luckily the armored reptilian was proud enough to wait for him to face it.
Using this opportunity Shiro began to run... or so he tried to do, one step later he found himself falling slowly on the ground, all the exhaustion finally set in immediately rendering him useless, his muscles bulged as a hellish pain assaulted his mind.
'Was this the end?' Shiro thought after realizing that he could no longer move his body.
'Well at least their safe'
Shiro watched as the armored reptilian walked towards him, he could have sworn that the lizard smirked at him just now but all that was useless, he was about to die and this only happened because he was still too weak.
Revenge against the gods? What a joke, he couldn't even kill a grade four lizard.
Shiro's life flashed before his eyes, he saw everything that led him into this predicament, including the betrayal of his wife in the heavenly domain.
If only he could kill that woman, Shiro thought, then at least he could die in peace.
His consciousness began to fade as he soon passed out.
*
*Clang!*
The sound of fighting woke Shiro up, he looked around only to see Shin tussling with the armored lizard. Shin's body was covered with injuries and bruises, blood kept on flowing out as his condition worsened.
"You shouldn't have tried to fight it on your own"
Shiro heard a voice say, he followed the sound of the voice which sounded like it came from behind him. He looked back and saw Eris, her two hands were pushed forward and were resting on his body as a green glow enveloped him. He felt a cooling sensation and watched as his injuries healed at a visible rate.
He looked at the lizard and saw that a lot of its scales were missing, Shin must have dealt a lot of damage to the beast for it to be like that.
Shiro was fully healed, his injuries were not much and since he had rested he felt refreshed again.
He got up and proceeded to engage the lizard to allow time for Shin to rest. Looking at the injured lizard, Shiro felt like he only needed one attack to end its life, he could have used that attack from the beginning but then he would become unable to do any other thing. The attack took a lot of stamina and his cultivation was not high enough to support such a skill.
Nevertheless, the situation required him to use everything in his arsenal. Shiro bent over and picked up a stone before throwing it at the lizard. Shin had been paying attention to Shiro's condition so when he saw the stone hit the lizard he immediately retreated using the small window of opportunity provided for him.
Once Shin was far enough, Shiro unsheathed his sword and positioned it in front of himself, black colored lightning reverberated through the blades as sword Ki swelled up inside the sword.
[Sword Style: Third Form; Sword Limit]
A pulsating sound was heard as black flame wrapped Shiro's body.
*Boom!*
Sword Ki exploded as the recoil launched Shiro towards the armored lizard. Shiro's sudden burst of speed shocked the lizard greatly leaving it unable to react.
In an instant, Shiro appeared in front of the monster as he slashed his sword down on the head of the lizard.
There was no explosion, only the image of a gargantuan lizard split into two was left.
Everyone stared deftly at Shiro as they saw the monster that had caused them much problems cut down in an instant, they didn't even know what to make of the situation, it was too shocking, just how powerful was he?
Unfortunately, they weren't out of the woods yet. Shin and Eris went over to where Shiro was and told him that the rest of their group had been surrounded.
Shiro was confused, if their group was surrounded, then how did these two get here. Eris explained that when they heard the sound of fighting reduce, they went out of the camp to look for Shiro only to see a group of grade three armored lizards surrounding their camp. They were able to escape while telling the guards to protect their group.
Shiro understood the situation, there was nothing wrong with what Eris and Shin did, if he was in their shoes he would also do the same thing.
Knowing that the situation was dire, Shiro led the two back to their camp, he didn't even bother trying to save energy immediately dispatching any beast that came near.
Seeing that Shiro was intent on getting to the camp fast, Shin and Eris began helping him to kill the monsters quickly, they didn't pick up the crystals dropped by the monsters they killed mainly because they didn't know the use and they could always come back for them.
It took them less than three minutes to arrive at the camp, Shiro wondered if didn't lead the grade four armored reptilian that far away or if it was because their travelling speed had increased. Either way was okay, all that mattered to Shiro now was getting to their camp quickly.
Once Shiro arrived, he immediately began picking on the monsters one by one, after experiencing the grade four counterpart, these lesser lizards were easily dispatched, Shiro acted quick, he didn't bother killing the lizards, he just pushed them away to clear a path for himself.
A few minutes later, Shiro was able to break through the encirclement and enter their camp. Inside the camp, the situation was not looking good, the guards were on their last legs trying their best to protect the children, and a few of them were even severely injured, seeing the injured ones, Eris ran towards them and began healing their injuries, She couldn't do much for them but she could at least heal them to a safe level.
Shiro went around to ensure that the children were safe and complete. Once he was done he rushed out to meet the other beast.