The beast flew back due to the impact and while it was in mid-air, Ray appeared right next to it with lightning quick speed and followed up with an elbow strike, aimed right at the beast's temple.
*THUD*
The beast was smashed onto the ground, after the trio's quick succession of attacks.
Ray didn't let down his guard and continued forward to attack the beast but before he could get closer to the beast, a repulsive shockwave was generated, blasting Ray and everything in the vicinity away from the beast.
Ray tumbled backwards but Bryan and Ash managed to stop him in his tracks.
"Ugh…"
Ray groaned with slight pain as the shockwave was quite powerful but soon enough, he was back in form due to his Eternal Body which required a small consumption of his natural energy.
*Swish*
A black aura formed around the winged beast as it floated slightly above the ground. Despite the successive attacks from the trio, the beast didn't show any signs of major damage. In fact, the beast still had the same hideous grin etched on to its face.
"Fuck!" Bryan cursed.
Ray used the Behind the Veil skill on the beast to accurately measure its strength.
[Dark Gorgel – Rank 3 (Peak)]
"Shit, it's a Peak Rank 3 beast!" Ray revealed the beast's rank.
"That's well above our current strength." Ash donned a grim face.
"It has a major tier advantage over us." Ray said with a gloomy tone
"We have to be extremely careful now!" Bryan reminded them.
*Boom*
The beast flapped its wings once, launching itself at the trio at an incredible speed. Their eyes could barely see the beast's figure and their bodies couldn't react in time. The beast forcefully swept its wings at the three, whacking them into the dense foliage of trees.
Trees were uprooted and broken in half, as a massive trail of dirt sported the ground. The three of them stood up from crashing onto the ground and cautiously stared at the beast. The sudden impact shook their internal organs, but the trio weren't in a critical situation apart from some minor bruises.
With the intention of going all out and bar any code of combat, Bryan and Ash each picked a tree to be their battering weapon. Ray, meanwhile, activated his other skill.
"Lightning Wings!"
*Crackle*
Ray slowly floated above the ground and with a crackle of thunder, two beautiful and lustrous wings made entirely of lightning sprouted from his back. The wingspan was double his height and electric arcs occasionally swam around his body.
"Nice!" Bryan nodded.
"My speed should have been considerably increased. I'll keep it distracted while you two smash it with everything you got."
"We gotchu!" Ash smiled with eyes full of ferocity.
*Boom*
Ray propelled himself at a shocking speed. A trail of thin lightning followed him. His current speed after the activation of the Eternal Speed skill and the Lightning Wings skill, has skyrocketed and was even faster than the beast, albeit not by a huge margin.
The beast on the other hand, felt a slight apprehension towards the trio. This confused the beast as it judged them to be weak and just pure food. Nevertheless, a beast of this Rank was still an impulsive beast and it let its instinct take over its mind, that is to savagely fight the three humans with its full strength and later, have a delicious meal.
Using his shocking speed as a boost, Ray's base strength has increased by an ample amount but he had to be careful. Appearing right above the beast, he kicked down at the beast's head.
The beast reacted in time and blocked the kick with both of its forearms. But this gave Bryan and Ash an opportunity. Bryan threw his tree at the beast with immense force, acting as a makeshift spear.
The beast couldn't block the tree in time.
*WHAM*
The tree accurately crashed into the beast's gut, and due to the force was moved a few steps back. Ash soon followed up and rammed the beast in the same spot with his tree.
But this time, the beast was ready and caught the tree, breaking it in half with a mere press. It launched itself at Ash who was in close proximity and constantly attacked with its sharp claws. Ash could barely dodge the beast's claws as few lines of blood soon marred his body.
Thankfully, Ray did his job as a distractor and gave Ash some breathing space. Bryan jumped over Ash and delivered another Phantasmal Fist which was soon countered with the beast's powerful punch.
The black aura surrounding the beast suddenly intensified and this sent a cold trickle down the trio's spine.
'Shit…' Ray cursed as the beast launched itself from its spot at a shocking speed and sent a hurling kick towards him.
With no time to dodge, he activated Trinal Coat which at least mitigated some of the attack but was still sent crashing down onto the ground.
"RAY!" Ash yelled in fury.
Ash marginally used Mirage Flow and appeared right next to the beast, sending out continuous powerful Hail Strikes at the beast. They seemed to deal some damage to the beast but this consumed a considerable amount of energy at his disposal. But he didn't care since right now, he was pissed off.
The beast of course didn't take it head on and countered some of Ash's strikes with its powerful punches.
It was unfortunate for the trio to be suddenly faced with a powerful beast, that too a beast that can utilize its arms and legs, just like a human.
Bryan too joined Ash with the assault. He couldn't spam his Phantasmal Fist due to its generous consumption of his energy.
They both put up a pretty decent fight with the beast, but they both knew that the beast had yet to suffer any major damage.
'I can't use Gaze of Bane yet. I need to save it for the right moment otherwise as its standing right now, my energy will be completely spent after using the skill once, which will render me useless.'
Bryan calculatedly thought as he continued on with his assault. The beast flew back, creating some distance between it and them. It opened its mouth and was gathering some sort of black energy.
Giving them no time to react, the beast rained down countless black bullets at the two. The bullets were devastating and extremely quick.
Since, both Ash and Bryan were in the open and within range of the bullets, they could only hope to dodge and pray that their physique would be enough to withstand the assault.
Countless small little explosions of dirt occurred around them. Ash was at least in a better situation due to his Mirage Flow but Bryan was in a sorry state. His clothes were in tatters and there were numerous bullet-like bruises on him.
"FUCKING BASTARD!"
A furious trail of lightning trailed through the sky. It was Ray who was currently extremely furious at the beast for hurting Ash and Bryan.
With an even faster speed compared to before, he threw lightning quick punches at the beast's face, disrupting the beast's bullet attack. This allowed Ash and Bryan to take a small breather.
*BAM*
But soon, Ray was sent flying back on the ground towards the two. Despite Ray being furious, which fueled up the intensity of his attacks, he was still a major realm below the beast after all.
"That fucking beast!" Ray seethed with anger.
"Fuck, even with the three of us attacking it, the beast is still doing fine." Ash grumbled.
"We know each other's skills, right? So, listen to this…" Bryan spoke up.
After several seconds, the three cooked up a plan. Although this gave the beast enough time to use another beastly skill.
Its claws grew longer, sharper and were shrouded with some kind of dark energy. Just by looking at its claws, gave one a foreboding sense of death. The three knew that if they were hit by those claws, they would be in grave danger.
The battle continued, and it was more intense as ever.
The three took turns attacking the beast, with perfect coordination and teamwork. Since Ray was the fastest amongst the three, he intentionally became the target of the beast's claws. He deliberately made it seem that the beast was getting closer and closer to striking him, making the beast focus most of its attacks on Ray.
*Boom*
*Boom*
The ground trembled, trees were demolished, dusts and stones spewing everywhere, and small clouds of explosions followed their battle. Thankfully, the battle was drawn far away from the village otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable to the villagers.
The battle was mostly in the beast's favour. Despite the beast's claws being occupied by Ray, its wings were durable enough to deal pure brunt damage against the other two.
After a few seconds, the beast's speed showed signs of slowing down, albeit ever so slightly. This change made the trio's eyes lit up.
'Good! It's going according to plan!' Ray had high hopes.
*Swish*
Ray dodged the claws and spun around, letting his lightning wings smack the beast in the face. Bryan threw a more powerful Phantasmal Fist from above, smashing the beast onto the ground. Ash followed up with even more Hail Strikes.
Whenever the beast got up, Ray would smack it down with his Lightning Wings but he knew he couldn't keep this up forever. He still had to save some energy.
The constant barrage of Ash's Hail Strike has slowed the beast down due to the skill's ice effect.
"IT'S TIME!" Ash yelled at Ray.
Taking this as the cue, Ray took a deep breath and muttered.
"Bloodline Transformation! Activate!"
*RUMBLE*
A loud and chilling thunder reverberated through the sky. Tiny streaks of lightning appeared, creating a forcefield around Ray.
The crown-shaped rune on the left side of chest expanded into thick lines of bright purple colour on his body, glowing in preparation of something amazing. A faint black lightning mark emerged on his forehead. His lightning wings grew larger and crackled in power.
His curly hair spiked up and his purple eyes shone brightly in response. Thick purple lightning chained around his body and an indescribable purple aura surrounded him as Ray enjoyed the powerful feeling.
"Fucking hell!" Ash was beyond amazed.
"Damn!" Bryan felt the same.
The beast, on the other hand, felt fear for the first time in its life as it watched Ray's transformation. It intended to run but would the three allow it to?
"I don't have much time." Ray spoke with a rumbling voice.
*BOOM*
In the blink of an eye, he had appeared next to the beast and pummeled it onto the ground, creating a crater underneath it.
*BAM*
*BAM*
Using his wings, he repeatedly smacked the beast like a ping-pong ball. The beast would have put up a fight if it only wasn't affected by Ash's Hail Strike.
From the looks of it, the beast finally bled from Ray's repeated pummeling.
Ray plastered the beast onto the ground and knew it would take a few seconds to get up. He didn't want to waste any time so he signaled Bryan with his eyes and flew high up into the sky.
Ash, in the meantime, showed up next to the beast and continued with the constant bombardment of his Hail Strikes.
The beast suddenly roared loudly in bestial fury, sending Ash a few metres back.
It stood up from the crater and staggered from pain. The beast raised his head and stared at Ray with furious eyes.
It let out another enraged roar and wanted to fly up but a figure blocked his way. Bryan was waiting for the right moment after seeing Ray's signal and now the perfect moment had arrived.
'Gaze of Bane!' Bryan muttered inwardly before two crimson rays of light emerged from his eyes and shot at the beast.
The beast couldn't dodge the crimson ray. Its eyes appeared to be unfocused and dazed making the beast frozen in shock.
Ray knew he couldn't mess it up so as soon as he saw the crimson rays emerge, he knew it was time to deliver the final attack.