Chapter 169 First Official Hunt (10)

Erik was furious. Nathaniel lured thousand of thaids toward his team; the problem was that the beasts were not Noks and Lomalins but different and stronger thaid's species.

However, it was with horror that the young man observed the Crombo's and Wiangrine's presence amidst the monsters.

They had a possibility against the second one, but against the Crombo, it was another story itself. The beast would have been enough to wipe out a group like them even if it was alone, which it wasn't. The creature stood proud amidst the other thaids as a king amongst beasts.

Erik could feel the rage building inside him at this sight while he tried to control himself from doing something stupid or foolish in front of his teammates. To suppress his rage and avoid doing something stupid, Erik did what he thought best: ignore everything around him and focus solely on surviving.

"THEY ARE HERE!" Slice said, and then the monsters arrived.

SWOOOOOSH.

The man bisected a thaid with one swing of his sword. His blade glowed blue for some seconds before returning back to its normal color a couple of seconds later. He then raised his sword and swung it down again, killing another thaid.

Laser was instead targeting the weaker thaids. He was faster than slice in killing the beasts. Still, he constantly avoided attacks, occasionally jumping to avoid being bitten. He was using his power to inflict pain to keep the other thaids at bay, and he was viciously effective in doing so.

Greg and Zachary were not as efficient as the other two but were keeping a lot of thaids from reaching Erik,

"Don't let them pass!" Zachary warned everyone. Greg nodded. Both killed thaids left and right; the beasts were a lot. However, they were not that strong as to pose a problem for them, though the Crombo was another story. The beast stood tall amidst the thaids, whose only thought was to devour the humans in front of it.

Death, the strongest of the bunch, was the only one able to fight the beast, but even he was having problems since the creatures' defenses were very high.

In the meantime, Erik observed what was happening. Only ten seconds had passed since the battle started, but his mind was in overdrive. The young man knew what Nathaniel's plan was: lure these creatures into fighting his team so they wouldn't be able to gain more points; this move was dangerous.

However, Erik noticed something weird; the monsters didn't attack each other. They only focused on the humans, which was weird since countless bodies were littered on the ground, only waiting for the alive thaids to eat them.

Though there was something good in the current situation, despite being double unlucky, since he got attacked by two parties, one of the two, the five men, would end up protecting them from the thaids, at least until Erik was around.

If he ran away, the five would try to get him, as their goal was clearly to take him alive, but his comrades would die. If he told his comrades to flee, it was clear that the sheer amount of monsters, and their overall level, would prevent him from surviving, and he had no intention of getting himself killed.

In a sense, what Nathaniel did was positive since the only thing Erik had to do was to wait for the teachers and his friends to arrive.

The prick did him a favor; however, he couldn't simply ignore the fact that he put them in danger. They could've even risked dying if it wasn't for the five men's intervention. Nathaniel had to pay this time.

He found a good spot near thick bushes where tree branches met overhead, forming a roof over his head. It looked like a good enough spot to decrease their presence enough to give trouble to the thaids searching for them.

"Follow me. We need to take cover behind the bushes!" Erik shouted, and immediately the rest of his team followed suit.

"Ok, we will use the usual battle tactic," the young man said as soon as the other four arrived. "However, Judith, I need you always to keep your hounds active. Is everything clear?" Erik asked.

"Yes!" the others replied in unison.

At that moment, three thaids started getting past the five men and approached the group of students. Two of them were relatively easy to kill, but the last one wasn't.

Erik immediately recognized the beast; it was a Genare. If the young man had kept in contact with Benedict, he would have known this was the same beast he and his team had killed earlier.

The beast's crocodilian body, feline's head, and small but pointy and sharp teeth sent shivers down the student's spines. However, judging by its speed, it was clear this creature could be killed with a joint effort. Though, the team had to pay attention to the two long horns that protruded from either side of its cranium.

This would be a complicated fight for the team, but nothing they couldn't do; however, they had to do it fast if they didn't want to risk other thaids getting in their way.

"Anderson, I need you to stall the bigger beast. Can you do it?" Erik asked.

"Yes," he said while unsheathing his claymore. He then ran toward the beast and started attacking, creating a lot of different but minor wounds on its thick-furred hide. As expected, the monster responded by attacking back, which meant Anderson was forced to dodge or else face certain death.

Fortunately, the beast's attack missed its mark, allowing the boy to counterattack. With swift movements, he managed to land several blows before the beast, luckily distracting the beast. This allowed the young warrior's teammates to take down the other two creatures.

Robyn threw his spear toward one of the two beasts, who dogged with a swift move; however, Judith's hound was there and started biting at the creature while she attacked with her daggers.

At the same time, Elena and Erik attacked the other one, quickly severing its head off. Soon they went onto the other beast and pierced its heart, ending its life.

[MULTIPLE HOSTILE CREATURES KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]

[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]

[3...2...1...0]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. 88 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]

It was at that moment that Anderson shouted.

"Guys, I need help here!"

Immediately, the other four students jumped into the fray, attacking the Genare with everything they had. Elena and Erik went melee and hacked the beast with their swords.

Judith's hounds attacked the beast while she hit its leg, trying to cut off its ligament, but without success. At the same time, Robyn used his spear and attacked from a distance.

The beasts tried to bite, gore, and kick; however, the student's coordination helped them avoid the attacks, although some of them got grazed by the horns. Fortunately, none of them suffered serious injuries. The Genare started accumulating wound after wound while losing a copious amount of blood.

At the same time, another couple of thaids slipped past the five men's defenses and approached the five students.

"I will take care of them!" Erik said.

Immediately, the young man disengaged the Genare and approached the other two monsters. They were relatively weak insect-like thaids called Ceren. Erik channeled mana through his brain crystal and diverted it to the sword, and after a couple of quick slashes, he killed the two creatures.

In the meantime, the Genare lost so much blood under the students' assault that it seemed like it wouldn't survive another minute. However, the beast continued fighting until. Finally, it collapsed dead.

[MULTIPLE HOSTILE CREATURES KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]

[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]

[3...2...1...0]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. 952 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]

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A.N: Don't forget to vote with powerstones!