Chapter 57: A fierce battle (1)

Roar!

The hell hound let out a vicious roar as a darkish purple light escaped its eyes. Lucien soon found himself in a world smeared with blood getting slaughtered countless times by the hell hound. In just a second he had died over a thousand times.

[WARNING!!!]

[THE HELL HOUND HAS ACTIVATED THE DEATH GAZE!]

[DEATH GAZE DISPELLED]

"Huff!" Lucien breathed out heavily as he fell on one knee and quickly noticed his face was covered in sweat.

"An illusion… A general level beast dares use an illusion on me, I will show you I cannot be easily dealt with!" Lucien growled as his aura exploded and bolts of lightning erupted from his body!

"GET BACK!" Lucien growled as three-star patterns appeared around him, revolving around him.

Grrr!

Grrr!

Grrrr!

Lightning bolts descended from above, connecting with the star patterns around him as an enormous amount of mana gathered around him.

"GET BACK!" Lucien's voice deepened as his eyes let out a bright blue light.

Be it his voice, his aura, or the lightning around, it was enough to snap Hex and Brian out of the illusion. Turning around they saw Lucien assaulted by countless lightning shooting down from the sky.

"Tier three magic: Lightning descent!" Lucien growled viciously as the star patterns around him vanished, appearing on the dark clouds above the hell hound!

"FALL!" Lucien growled as he smashed the ground with his fist.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

_______________________________________________________

Huff!

Huff!

Huff!

Lucien, Brian, and Hex could be seen running through the wind tunnel, leading towards the hill above. Based on the little he knew, magic beasts are very violent towards those who enter their territories. The magic beasts located at the hilltop would be very pissed to see their domain invaded, this is what Lucien is hoping on. If he can get the two sides to turn on each other, they might even survive the night!

"Was that really a tier-three spell?" Hex shot Lucien a glance as he asked. He could also see Brian looking at Lucien as if he was looking at a monster but Lucien didn't pay attention to that.

His body was aching badly and right now he could see light blue marks almost everywhere in his body. Glancing at the notification that just appeared Lucien confirmed his suspicion.

DING!

[WARNING!]

[Host has used a tier-three spell but his body and cultivation realm is too weak to withstand the power he is trying to channel]

[-20mp]

[-10hp]

[Host: Lucien]

[Race: Beast-man]

[Realm: 2nd sky of the Human realm]

[Charisma: 20]

[Hp: 20/35]

[Mana: 25/55]

[Condition: Healthy]

[Exp: 670]

"Yea… my body is unable to withstand the power needed to channel a tier-three spell… so I end up getting hurt each time I use it… I only use it when absolutely necessary" Lucien answered calmly in a bid to mask his emotions.

He knew that he is now recognized as the most powerful in the group and they now recognize him as the leader. If he ends up panicking in a time like this, they will be affected as well. He tried to remain calm and show a level of confidence to help make them more effective in their actions.

Hearing his words, the two nodded and shuddered as they remembered the thunderstorm that rained down on the massive general level hell hound. They were sure if Lucien decides to kill them, it won't be much of a problem.

BANG!

Suddenly the wind tunnel began trembling violently causing them to pause a bit before running at top speed. From outside the wind tunnel creates different tunnels leading to different paths, making it more like a maze so chasing after the caster in this spell is extremely difficult and a bit time-consuming. The hell hound knew this much and chose not to pursue them through the wind tunnel, instead, it chose to destroy it directly.

ROAR!

Letting out a roar, flames poured out of the magic beast's mouth and directly into the fame tunnel, filling each and every path created by Lucien.

"What the hell!" 

The team could suddenly feel the heat and soon bright orange flames slowly made their way towards them.  Seeing this Lucien was about to turn around and meet the attack head-on but surprisingly, someone else dashed towards the flame without a second thought.

It was Brian…

"You are not the only capable one in this team!" Brian growled as the silver ring in his finger glowed and his entire right arm was covered in a bright golden gauntlet with a green crystal orb located at the back of his palm!

"This…" Hex muttered as he stopped running to observe the magic weapon in Brian's possession.

"This is the Lucardo family heirloom, Dawn!" Lucien gasped in shock!

Who would have thought Brian would be in possession of such an amazing magic weapon! With this, there is a chance of victory!

"Dawn: Full guard!" Brian growled as the gauntlet let out a bright glow and quickly took the form of a human-sized golden shield similar to that of the Romans, the green crystal orb at the center of the shield.

Pushing the shield forward, a larger image of the shield appeared in front of them looking like a massive gate.

BOOM!

The massive flames smashed into the gate, yet the gate didn't even tremble! But it was strong enough to shatter the wind tunnel Lucien created.

"As expected of a noble family heirloom!" Lucien complemented it honestly.

Whoosh!

The hell hound could be seen airborne, landing by their side and summoning a massive amount of flames in its mouth again!

"I have got this!" Hex growled as dashed towards the hell hound fearlessly.

The moment the hell hound released the ball of fire, Hex stopped running and slammed his fist on the ground, creating a star pattern beneath his feet!

"Creation magic: Rise Boitata!" Hex growled as he was engulfed by a pillar of flame.

When the fire died down, a fiery human-sized serpent could be seen beside him. 

"Go!" He ordered as the serpent lunged towards the flames and with its mouth open and suddenly the large ball of flame shooting towards them was pulled into the serpent's mouth by an invisible force and when released it was twice the size of an original attack.

BOOM!

"wow!" Lucien was momentarily stunned by the display of strength by his team.

He soon realized that until now he never considered these two his teammates, to him they were mere burdens. That's why whenever a fight broke out he would order them to run. He has been so focused on his strength, he failed to realize he had two of the most capable students on the campus as his allies.

'I am such a fool…' Lucien thought as he took a few steps forward to meet up with Hex and Brian before saying.

"I never thought we would come across a magic beast in this area that will be strong enough to force the three of us to take action together" Lucien decides to take the arrogant genius approach and it worked.

"Well, it can't be helped… A general-level magic beast is worth our attention…" Brian said with a cocky smile on his face.

"I would have loved to deal with this alone but both of you insist I will help you out" Hex chuckled.

"It's settled then!" Lucien said as he took a few steps forward and the faint image of the black devil appeared behind him.

"Just this once, we will team up against an enemy…" he added…

"Just this once!" the other two agreed!

[Shadow cloak activated!]

[Shadow hop activated!]

Lucien's body was quickly consumed by darkness before vanishing completely.

[Shadow paw activated!]

Whoosh!

Lucien shot out of the magic beast's shadow and struck it on the belly but nothing happened!

[WARNING!]

[THE ENEMY IS TOO STRONG, THE WEAKENING EFFECT HAS BEEN NEGATED!]

Receiving that notification from the system, Lucien dared not stay too close to the beast and quickly used the shadow hop skill to return through Brian's shadow.

[Shadow hop activated!]

[Shadow steal activated!]

"It's not over! Shadow steal!" Lucien growled but to his greatest surprise a similar notification!

[Shadow steal failed]

[WARNING!]

[THE ENEMY IS TOO STRONG… ITS SHADOW CANNOT BE STOLEN BY YOU WHILE IT'S AT ITS STRONGEST!]

Seeing this notification, Lucien's facial expression crumbled since this is the first time he is experiencing something like this.

"My shadow abilities are not working… It's too strong!" Lucien complained.

"Then we will help you weaken it…" A voice could be heard from afar and turning back, Lucien, Hex, and Brian saw the three most powerful humans of their generation walking towards them.

The first was Lenard, the youth with the time magic, following him were two other humans. The other is Susan the girl who also got the spatial magic with her talent only slightly inferior to that of instructor Han and finally, there is Logan. The black-haired human youth who is always dressed in black attires that was blessed with the force magic!