Chapter 168 First Official Hunt (9)

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Greg shouted, referring to the trees that Erik threw at them.

"STOP WASTING TIME AND DODGE!" Zachary said as the tree fell.

At the same time, Anderson, Judith, Robyn, and Elena kept fighting against the thaids. Anderson used his claymore to fell a thaid. Elena did the same with her sword, while Judith's hound kept others at bay enough for the young woman to end them with her knives.

At the same time, Robyn had a more proactive approach, using his power and spear to kill all the thaids that were going to attack his three teammates.

Slowly, the team gathered points; however, they were worried about their assailants. Who the hell were they? Why were they attacking them?

As the tree fell over the Crystal Cross gang members, Erik took another pine cone and sent it toward them. He still had 38 of them.

"DODGE!" Zachary shouted. The five of them dodged the tree quickly, but there were many of them, so it was not that simple to do it. Basically, they had to do that in a small amount of space, just when they were a couple of meters from the ground.

They moved with agility among the tree trunks, dodging the trees and the brunches. However, this kind of dodge required good physical coordination, and it would be hard without training.

Erik threw two pine cones this time; he now had 36 of them. He had to pay attention not to finish them all before help came.

While the two cones traveled through the air, Erik pushed a button attached to his backpack strap. That was a device the Red Palace gave the students for safety reasons; a teacher would go help them once pressed.

The closest teacher received the distress signal on another side of the forest. "Ah... fucking weaklings," he said, not knowing who or what attacked the students who asked for help.

The teacher knew that the ones who called were first-year students, but he also saw from the device that they were inside the peasant rank's safe zones, so he wondered how weak these students were to have problems with weak thaids.

However, once he saw who the caller was, he had second thoughts. To call them was the first-ranked team. They had many kills, so it was weird for them calling for help. Like that, the teacher headed in their direction at full speed.

Erik knew he had to move fast. Calling the teacher was not enough; he needed his friend's help. The more people there were and the safer the situation would turn.

However, as he observed the five intruders, he saw them avoiding the last tree trunk.

"GO!" Zachary shouted. Erik heard him. However, he wasn't done. He got two other pine cones and sent them to the five strangers again.

"BE CAREFUL!" Greg shouted. Erik called Amber through his biological supercomputer as the trees traveled through the air toward his enemies.

"WHAT?!" Amber replied, knowing that he would be in trouble if he called her.

"We got attacked by unknown people. You need to contact the others and..."

Erik picked up two other pine cones again and sent them to the assassins. Who took cover again or avoided the trees.

"THAT FUCKER IS GETTING ON MY NERVES!" Death said.

Erik threw another two pine cones as he remained with 34. More than three hundred threes traveled through the air like freight trains. It was tough to avoid them all. Some of them landed near the five intruders, sending shivers down their spines. Others hit the trees nearby, making them fall to the ground.

"CALL THE OTHERS, AMBER!" Erik said, then closed the call; as he needed to throw the trees again.

"FUCK!" Amber said.

"What happened?" Floyd asked.

"Erik and Anderson are in trouble!" she replied. She then called the others while they moved toward Erik's team.

In the meantime, Erik kept sending the trees to the five. They basically didn't move an inch from their initial spot.

"How was that fucker able to find out we were attacking?" Laser asked.

"I don't know, but I do not like it...." Slice said.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

The sound of more trees falling to the ground echoed. The other students heard the noise from a distance and were scared, thinking it was a powerful beast who had done that.

At the same time, Erik's friend heard the noises, and since they knew they came from Erik's team location, they grew worried.

"I want to rip that motherfucker apart!" Death said. The mission suddenly became more complex than expected.

"Didn't he have a slicing power or the like?" Laser asked.

"Did you forget he is an awakener, you dumb prick?" Zachary shouted.

"Hey! There is no need to get angry!"

As Erik used more and more pine cones, he turned to look at his friends, they were almost done with killing the thaids, and once they did, they would have a shot at running away.

However, Erik didn't know if that would be enough. The only way to do that was to learn how strong these guys were.

Still, Erik was already aware they were strong, not only because of how agilely they avoided his trees but also because the system stated so. Nevertheless, it was necessary to know HOW MUCH they were stronger than them.

<Analysis!> Erik thought immediately; multiple screens appeared over the guys' heads, but he could see them clearly as if they were in front of his eyes.

However, Erik frowned once he saw their stats; they were many times more powerful than he and his team, and Erik wondered how he could keep them from attacking.

That was the first time in his life that Erik was glad he had the plant growing power because, without it, he would be a sitting duck. Not even by using his other powers would he have been able to escape from them.

The situation was this: two of them were relatively weaker than the other three, around the XI3 level on the Idor scale.

Their power levels were similar, around 154, almost double Nathaniel's one. However, this didn't mean they were almost two times stronger than Nathaniel no.

They were much stronger than him, not only because they had a very generous amount of Energy, though less than Nathaniel's, but because they had more than double his other stats.

However, if that wasn't alarming enough, the other three were much worse than them, with power ranging around the MI3 on the Idor scale. The scariest of them all was the guy with the mask, Erik didn't know him, but he was Death. That guy was at power level 210; he was a monster.

As Erik saw their levels, he was immediately alarmed.

"Guys, how much before you kill the thaids?" Erik asked.

"5 minutes," Anderson replied.

Erik kept throwing the pine cones at the humans; however, its stash was rapidly decreasing. He hoped his friends and the teachers would arrive soon. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any chance for them to do anything.

A few seconds later, his team managed to kill all the thaids, but unfortunately, he ended the pine cones. Erik didn't know if they would have been able to escape the five men.

"RUN!" Erik shouted. However, as they didn't have any more of the pine cones' protection, Greg and the others quickly reached them.

"We got you, mother fucker!" Laser told Erik. The young man grimaced; however, a noise started spreading from the forest before anything could happen.

SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER

The sound of something running toward them became louder.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR

A beast roared from between the trees.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

Then another screeched.

A huge number of monsters came from within the trees. There were many beasts, but a Crombo and a Wiangrine stood proud among them.

"SHIT!" Erik said.

"PROTECT THE BOY!" Zachary shouted, immediately piquing the students' interest, especially Erik's one.

​ As the beast advanced, Erik saw a silhouette among the trees. He observed the male figure swinging atop the trees for a couple of moments until he recognized him. It was Nathaniel that motherfucker lured the thaids toward his team. The problem was that they weren't weak monsters at all, not as much as the Noks or the Lomalins, at least.

[QUEST UPDATE!]

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<Emergency quest: Survive.>

-Rewards for completion: 5000 experience points, 800 DNA points, and 5 strength stat points for surviving the encounter.

-Failure Penalty: Death or Unknown.

WARNING: This quest has a high failing chance. The recommended approach is to flee.

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"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Erik shouted.

(A.N: Ok, I'm currently trying some grammar correction tools. If you find anything weird, please tell me. Also, I wanted to say that I'm a little bit behind with the previous chapters' corrections since I've got a lot of things to do in IRL, and I'm still at chapter 42. I heard what some people said, and I understood that the kind of character Erik was wasn't well received. He still has his problems even now, but he is much more confident than before, and less of a psycho. I apologize if you thought that Erik was too much, but with me being relatively new at writing, I still have to figure out a lot of things, and I'm learning along the way. Have a nice day bros...)