As the beast overwhelmed the group with numbers and tenacity, Lamis stepped in and raised her staff while muttering a few words under her breath. Her eyes closed briefly as the staff glowed bright green. Like a wave of energy, a circle of vines sprouted from the ground and wrapped around various parts of the monsters.
Although the knights were doing fine in defending, Lamis needed them to have more energy to deal with bigger threats. the monsters that were wrapped around by the vines watched as the vines impaired and massacred the ones that were caught by the vines.
Their growls and anger had suddenly turned into ones of confusion. Alen like every other nerd was amazed by the power of magic and the things it could do, and even though he was still curious as to where his best friend is. He knew Lamis and the other heroes knew he was still amazed by how capable they were at handling the situation.
He knew he still needed to keep an eye out for any weaknesses just in case these people turned out to be his enemies, but right now he had his problem to deal with. The beast he had engaged with was still standing and he couldn't count on support from the others because of the beast's onslaught. Despite his best efforts the beast refused to stay down, its attacks growing faster and unrelenting.
Alen's adrenaline was pumping through his veins as he fought on, determined not to let the beast win as losing could mean his death, the beast threw out its claws causing Alen to duck at the incoming attack and use that opportunity to attack. But as he got closer to the beast the other head tried to bite him once again, he kicked up and spun around midair.
But this had given the beast an open to punch Alen away with its other hand, despite his best efforts Alen found himself struggling just to stay arrive and he remembered at the beginning of the ambush Jack had killed the leader of the group of monsters who was a tier above these.
Alen got up quickly making a recovery and charged straight at the beast, unlike the others Alen was excited about the fight, this is the first time he has seen real combat since coming here. He admired the beast for its ferocity and deep down he knew it was just trying to survive.
Using his momentum Alen waited for the beast to attack him and as it did he jumped onto the arm now using it as stepping ground he charged at the head, using all that speed he gripped the head of the beast and used it to rotate as violently as he could breaking the neck of the beast, then using his fist he punched the other head unleashing every but of energy he had into the attacks.
Eventually, he managed to crush the beast's skull killing it on the spot, he was exhausted but triumphant. He looked up to see the other heroes finishing up the beast that had managed to slip by, and although they were injured, they had sustained minimum injuries as the major ones were healed during battle.
One of the mages cast a fire spell hitting the beast in the face and blinding it for the moment allowing two other heroes to run up behind it and decapitate it, the knights had also finished their battles, and suddenly the blood-covered field erupted into victorious celebrations.
After the group had calmed down one of the Chris who had done next to nothing except watch the battle stepped forward and taught the others how to extract beast crystals, he talked about their uses and how they could be used as power sources or forged into great weapons, as an example he took the falcon beast weapon of his hip and showed it to the group. Suddenly all the excitement left Alen's body, this was Quinn's weapon and even though the heroes are acting nice he knew they were planning something he just didn't know what.
As the group collected the beast crystals, their eyes were drawn to the Leader's crystal as it shone a different shade and tone than the others. With their loot in tow, they continued on their journey encountering a magical beast along the way.
Though the group encountered various tough opponents, they managed to win each time, collecting the crystals and going on with their journey. Eventually, the group stumbled upon a run-down building, the building was so dilapidated that Alen feared it might collapse anytime soon.
"Looks like we made it here in time," Chris said.
"This is where we will rest for the night, but the insides are filled with monsters and we can't sleep outside since we will be exposing ourselves to greater dangers, the monsters inside aren't that strong, nothing you lot can't handle," Chris said with a charming expression on his face causing some of the ladies to turn slightly red.
Alen remained wary as they entered, wondering what beast lurked inside. Suddenly, a blinding light filled the room as Now it was encased in a golden outer shell, The shell extended to the outside and the rundown building had a slight golden hue to it.
The group had been sealed inside by a spell, confused Alen turned around to find Lamis holding up her glowing staff, she and the other two great heroes had sinister looks on their faces, Alen realized too late that his fellow heroes had become the true monsters they were meant to defeat. The bloodlust in their eyes confirmed this. This was how the princess intended to get rid of them, by using the great heroes as her pawn.
Alen wanted to warn everyone but before he could Lamis flicked her wrist and sent a blast of energy towards him. Alen barely managed to dodge it as the attack destroyed his arm, the force of the attack had also sent him flying to the side, and the others that had caught on to what happened drew their weapons and charged at Lamis only to meet their end by the hands of the guards or Jack and Chris.
The traitors laughed as they found amusement in their destructive power.
"Chris what is happening!?" One of the girls asked, but Chris just ignored them and watched as Jack calmly made his way toward Alen, grabbing him by the hair Jack picked up Alen who was gritting his teeth trying not to scream from the overwhelming pain.
"You're not dying just yet," Jack said as he dipped his finger in the pool of Alen's blood and used it to draw a rune on the base of Alen's injury, he then infused mana to the rune which stopped the bleeding and closed the wound.
"I've wanted to do this for a long time, but you're always hanging around that bitch Alice and that idiot Quinn. By the way, figured you should know since he was your friend, Quinn is dead" Jack said with a sadistic look on his face.
"The princess wants you dead, she does not need useless people, and your pathetic dreams of going back home. I mean why go home when you can have power like this" Lamis said as she unleashed a powerful wave of mana, the air felt heavy as a huge cloud of mana surrounded Lamis.
"We were given the go-ahead to kill all of you, but I have a different plan. We will kill you but not until we have some fun." Lamis said as the massive amount of mana swarmed her to the point where her hair was floating slightly from the pressure.
She then cast a spell on the male heroes causing them to attack each other while also casting healing magic to prevent them from dying. While jack chained Alen up to the walls and then proceeded to place a collar around his neck.
"What are you going to do? your flock is in trouble" Jack said as he punched Alen in the stomach using all his might, the force tore Alen's stomach open Causing him to spit out blood. Jack then infused mana on the rune he had drawn earlier, and Alen's stomach started healing again.