Judith had put all her effort into racing toward the floating carriage filled with treasures. But considering the fact that the carriage was a distance away, she didn't even get halfway through, before the Parabeast had emerged from the ground and had swallowed up four slaves before diving back into the sand.
Screams had erupted from the slaves, and the nobles watching from their floating carriages began to panic.
But the Tethereds did their best to keep calm.
"Encase yourselves in a barrier and keep your sights to the ground!" Qui Lin had screamed and every single Tethered had done as she ordered.
'No, that won't work.' Judith had thought, because she knew that even with the casing of their barriers, their demise was inevitable.
The Tethereds all did as Qui Lin had ordered, and within the second, transparent spheres of various colors began to encase several Tethereds and slaves.
But as Judith had said to herself, this wasn't enough to protect them. Within a second, the Parabeast had emerged once more, this time swallowing the barrier itself, before diving into the sand.
The Tethereds and slaves in the barrier which the Parabeast had swallowed, quickly found themselves in the Parabeast's stomach, where in an instant, powerful stomach acids began to eat away at the barrier's integrity.
And within several seconds, the Tethered's Mana had been siphoned out of his body by the barrier and it broke, exposing them to a sea of stomach acids, which dissolved them in seconds.
Back on the surface, the slaves began to panic. They began to attack the Tethereds in which they were sharing a barrier with. Once the Tethereds were either dead or badly wounded, the barrier collapsed and the slaves began to run in every direction.
Qui Lin and the prince on the other hand, were sharing a barrier, whilst struggling to find a way out of this dreaded situation.
"What do we do Qui Lin?" The prince had asked, trying to keep his nerves together.
Qui Lin said nothing, she started to analyze the situation at hand, then the Parabeast and what could be done about it.
As the Parabeast surfaced and widened its mouth to scoop up more slaves, Qui Lin had kept an intent gaze on the beast, taking in every minutia of it.
Until she had noticed something about the beast that seemed to change as it surfaced.
Certain scales on the Parabeast's body had shifted back, revealing holes that seemed out of place.
At once Qui Lin had used an Alkalis of perception, and in that moment, she noticed that waves of air were being sucked into the holes.
In that moment, she realized the holes were nostrils, which enabled it to breathe.
Of course after getting this information, Qui Lin had gritted her teeth in anger, as this information had no use to her in anyway whatsoever.
After finding no other option, she decided to go with her last resort.
"I'll have to Transform." Qui Lin had finally spoken and upon hearing these words, the prince became immeasureably weak.
"You can't be serious." The prince had said.
Qui Lin had turned her sights to the sky, and found several carriages were levitating higher and higher into the sky.
"They've already begun the ascending." Qui Lin said, then brought her sights down to search if there were any carriages left.
"You have to think of another way." The prince had said, but Qui Lin's attention was taken away when she saw Judith clinging onto one of the carriages levitating into the sky.
At first, Qui Lin had thought that this slave was smart to escape the slaughter by stowing away on a carriage as it ascended into safety.
But confusion became her when she saw Judith, prying open a treasure chest and running through its contents.
She had wondered why a slave would want to steal treasures, when - if she should survive this - she would be incarcerated again, and probably even put to death for stealing.
But Qui Lin's confusion didn't stop there, as she found Judith had leaped off the carriage once she got her hands on a golden tray.
"What is that slave doing?" Qui Lin wondered, just before her attention was brought back to the dying slaves and Tethereds.
Though she had decided she would transform, she found her will wavering, as she feared this act.
Judith, on the other hand, had picked up a Tethered, whose legs were completely gone and was dying from blood-loss and pain.
"Listen to me, I need your help to save everyone here." Judith had said to the Tethered, who - with weak eyes - had looked down upon Judith.
"What could you possibly do?" The Tethered had said.
Screams erupted as the Parabeast had emerged yet again, and taken more Tethereds and slaves with it.
"Dammit, I don't have time for this. I need your help, if you don't want to do it for your comrades, do it for yourself. You can still make it out of here alive, but only if you help me." Judith had said, a deep dread in her heart not for her safety, but for those present that didn't deserve to die.
"What do you need me to do?" The Tethered had asked.
Qui Lin, after finally steeling her nerves, had turned to the prince.
"Once I transform, make sure you run for those carriages. You must return to Qugan alive." She had said to the prince who was already refusing to abandon her.
"You can't transform." The prince had said, pain filling his eyes.
"It's the only way…"
*GONG* erupted into the air, but more than anything, the sound had reverberated into the ground.
Qui Lin and the prince had lost their nerves upon hearing this sound, as they feared that another Parabeast of some kind had just arrived.
*GONG* resounded once again, pulling everyone's attention to the point of its origin. Upon pinpointing the origin point of the sound, Qui Lin and the prince had discovered Judith and a Tethered with no legs, were ringing what seemed to be a massive golden tray.
"What?" Qui Lin had said, but with one more gong, before everyone's very eyes, the Parabeast had burst out of the sand, and had crashed onto the surface of the sand, whilst convulsing.
"How?" Qui Lin had asked herself as she stared directly at Judith.