BOOOOM!!
Chris and Zane both snapped their necks to where the others where 'fishing'. However Chris couldn't see anything at all, the explosion had created a large dust cloud around the area.
As for Zane, he could see perfectly, well as perfect as it could get for him. Although he had to throw a few sight grenades as the previous batch had disipated.
Inside the dust cloud, David, Adam and Clara where currently fighting the spider which had led them to this place.
The fight was a little tricky since the spider was still in rage mode so it wasn't fighting like a beast at all. I fought like a man in the body of a beast.
This was the reason why hunters always had to kill the enemy beast as soon as possible before rage mode activated. It was extremely rare for a beast to awaken rage mode, but when it did, it became troublesome.
Five minutes later, the dust cloud cleared and the three hunters made their way to Chris and Zane.
Clara was tossing around a mana core with a victorious smile on her face.
David had Adam's arm over his shoulders as he helped him to limp over to Zane.
"How bad is it ?" Zane asked as he checked his mana reserves.
"My leg is barely holding on by a piece of muscle!" Adam shouted in anger. Zane wondered who that anger was directed at but didn't think about it much.
He had other more important things to worry about. Zane quickly ran over to Adam as quickly as he could. Without wasting any time he immediately healed Adam's leg and sighed in relief when he was done.
Although Zane couldn't specifically see facial expressions he could feel the looks he got from the rest.
"He said his leg was almost severed, it's easier to heal a body part than to grow a new one" Zane explained.
Everyone wordlessly nodded, except for Adam who was still angry for some reason.
"I still can't believe you did that" he grumbled.
"Ohh come on bro it was just a prank, which was necessary given the situation" Clara chuckled.
"Well that prank almost cost me my leg" Adam stood up.
"I don't know what happened but I liked it" Chris said with a smile and crossed arms. He was probably taking Adam's situation as revenge for their earlier prank.
Zane's suddenly looked at the direction of the direction of the hole with wide eyes.
"Guys---"
BOOOM!
In the blink of an eye, David had pulled Zane and Chris behind him as he and Adam stood behind Clara who had her shield held firmly in her hand.
The hunter's movements were too fast for Zane and Chris. One second Zane was looking at the cave entrance and the next he was looking at David's back.
All 10 eyes were fixed on the dust cloud in the distance. The most logical action would be to jump in and attack but the hunter group couldn't leave Zane and Chris. If anything happened, they could die to a random stray attack.
They could leave someone here to protect them, however if David's hypothesis was correct, the beast in front of them was a peak grade one beast and two people couldn't hope to survive that encounter.
A few seconds later, the dust cleared. What came into view was a spider, just like the previous two. For Chris, he couldn't see any difference. He only noticed that this spider was a little bit bigger.
The hunters could feel the strength of this spider, David was almost right in his hypothesis.
Zane could feel that the mana in this spider was different from the rest.
The mana from this beast was more compact and higher in density. It was like someone took the mana from two spiders and stuffed it into one beast.
"David!, what do we do?" Adam asked through gritted teeth. Wind mana was gathering on his hands.
David narrowed his eyes as his mind went through every possible solution. However he couldn't think of any solution that was particularly safe. This was a grade two beast after all.
Through gritted teeth he said "We have to fight".
His other two teammates took a deep breath. Yes they once tried to fight a grade two beast before, but that time they had been prepared and didn't have anyone to protect.
"Zane and Chris, stay far away but close enough to be protected. We will try our best but you must also do your best not to die" David said.
All this time, the grade two spider just stood there, looking with interest at the five humans. It's behavior seemed like it was in rage mode. However, this was just the innate intelligence of a beast in the second grade.
Just when David finished his sentence to Chris and Zane, the spider shot forward.
It's pure speed surprised the hunters but their surprise didn't make them hesitate.
The hunters also charged forward with Clara at the forefront, her shield in front of her.
BANG!
The spider smashed through the earth wall David had suddenly erected. However the wall didn't stop the spider it only slowed it down for a split second.
Adam threw a dozen wind blades towards the two front legs of the beast. Unfortunately the wind spell didn't manage to sever the legs and only a superficial wound was made.
Sharp, sword shaped pillars of earth rose from beneath David's feet and assaulted the spider's eyes. This time the spider was blinded for a little bit and it stopped it's charge.
Clara infused fire mana into her shield and it quickly heated up until it was red hot. She then threw it at the spider's legs. It was common knowledge that the weakness of toxic spiders was their legs, if one managed to remove the legs from the equation the spider becomes a sitting duck....or sitting spider.
By now, the spider and the hunters where only 10 meters away from each other so the shield had no trouble hitting the spider's leg at full force, doing minimal damage.
However even though the shield didn't cut the leg it did manage to trip the spider and it fell to the ground. The hunters didn't let this chance go to waste.
Flame balls, large earth rocks and wind blades all assaulted the beast's head. Zanes vision was filled with white as mana filled the area.
The spell barrage from the humans was highly effective, however it was only effective at keeping the spider on the ground.
The spider wasn't getting any worthwhile injuries, that was when David realized something.
"Stop!" he shouted.
"Its toying with us, our attacks have no real effect while we are using energy. In the end we will be exhausted and out of mana while it's only slightly injured, at that point we will be helpless"
David said those words as fast as he could, and it was really fast. It was like he was performing a high speed rap verse, however his fellow hunters didn't have any trouble hearing him.
The hunters didn't need to talk anymore, they all immediately knew what they had to do. It as the only way.