Chapter 172 First Official Hunt (13)

Erik and his group had just finished killing the creature. Still, the situation could have been better: without Robyn and Elena, the three remaining students, Anderson, Erik, and Judith, had to expend much energy; even Anderson was tired.

He still hadn't used his power, but he couldn't use it unless his friends ran away; if they did, he would be overwhelmed by the thaids, so they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

It wasn't like they didn't think about him using it, but he immediately explained the problem. If he had been stronger, he would have tried doing it, but since he was still a kid, he didn't feel confident or strong enough to do it. Even Anderson had his fears.

"I'm sorry," Elena said. She apologized for having rested after seeing how much time his teammates needed to finish off one monster. "I've rested enough to fight..."

"Good," Erik replied, "because seven monsters are coming our way!" he added.

Judith looked at Erik with a sad look; she was the most tired one among the three, and she was depleting her mana. Robyn was still out of combat due to the Ma-cof attacks, but he was almost done recuperating.

Elena returned to where she was right away, and so did Judith, who decided to give her hounds less mana, making them weaker and smaller and decreasing the amount of mana used per second.

The two boys and Elena started moving toward their enemies while Judith followed behind. They reached the monsters soon after, and Erik and Anderson killed one, each leaving five alive.

The duo immediately went to fight two others, while Judith fought against two and Elena against the remaining one.

Erik and Anderson quickly eliminated the two monsters again, Judith took a little bit more time, and Elena, who was still not in top shape, killed the remaining one after ten more seconds.

That could have been a relatively small amount of time in other circumstances, but in a battle between life and death with monsters that could unleash multiple chained attacks faster than a cobra, it was an absurdly high amount of time.

***

In the meantime, Death was still battling the Crombo; the beast decided to finally deal with the little pest represented by the master assassin and used its power to trap Death.

The man almost shat himself once he ended up in the slimy substance, and it started hardening; however, he quickly hopped inside a shadow and appeared far away from the slime.

However, the Crombo liked that even less and roared in anger before charging with all its might at Death, who appeared several meters behind the slimy substance strewn across the ground.

The sight of the creatures charging was terrifying; anyone would have been scared if monsters weighing several tons and standing several meters tall charged at them.

As the beast moved, the earth trembled, and the other thaids lost their balance and fell to the ground, only to be promptly killed by Laser or Slice.

Death was no ordinary person, as he stood there calmly waiting for the attack. To not give the monster space and time to retaliate, he waited for the Crombo to come close enough, and only then did he dodge the attack and inflict a couple more wounds on the creature.

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

Death looked at the enraged monster with a smile. It was true that his current equipment didn't allow him to kill it; however, it was also true that the feeling of winning against such a strong opponent gave one a lot of confidence.

He and the Crombo were more or less at the same level; the beast had slightly higher strength but wasn't as smart as him, and by using this to his advantage, the man could stay alive and keep the beast occupied. He would have even been able to kill it if he had different weapons.

***

While all that was happening, Greg, Zachary, Laser, and Slice were killing monster after monster. Slice killed the Wiangrine, the strongest beast among the thaids present there, aside from the Crombo; it wasn't that difficult for him due to his training.

The four men killed almost half the thaids, and a bloodbath was presented in front of them. Many creatures had been decapitated; some were bisected into two parts or cut into multiple pieces; others had missing limbs, and many had holes in one or two parts of their bodies.

However, the four men immediately understood that something strange was happening. The term "thaids" was used to represent animals that evolved and developed brain crystal powers; however, despite being classified as "thaids," they belonged to different races that often antagonized each other.

Though now wasn't the case, it was bizarre, to say the least.

"What do you think is happening here, Zach?" Greg asked his friend.

"I don't know, but this behavior is anything but good... I've never seen a Thu-n and a Ner fighting together in my life. It's like they know we are their enemies," Zachary replied.

"Do you think a sentient being could be behind this?" Greg asked. Sentients were thaids who reached human-like intelligence, and once they did, they usually conquered the other thaids and often used them to kill more significant threats.

Wyverns were usually sentient, but even other species could attain that status. If a sentient was present, the Thaids might have cooperated, but things wouldn't be like they are today since scuffles among monsters could happen. Now, the monsters collaborated; they even attacked together and used primitive tactics.

"It could be, but I can't say with certainty," Zachary replied.

Then Slice interjected, "If a sentient is nearby, things will start getting heated back in the city. I'm already imagining Frant's higher-ups shitting their pants," he said, laughing out loud.

Laser nodded, "A friend of mine in the military told me that a horde is headed here. Can you believe it? A fucking horde?!"

"Really? I knew nothing about it," Slice said.

"Yeah, they are keeping this wrapped up so as not to spread panic," Laser replied.

"Do you think they will be able to stop it?" Greg asked. "I mean, if the militaries are already aware of it, they are doing something about it, right?"

"I don't know, man, it looks like they are trying to halt their advance but are having problems doing that," Laser said. "My friend said it is a million-strong horde, something never seen in the last forty years..."

What he said worried Zachary and Greg, while Slice wasn't that bothered. If the monsters managed to enter the city, he would have the opportunity to destress a little bit, which meant killing.

The five men kept killing monster after monster until they realized more than half the thaids had been killed; however, there were still a lot of them, and they had to kill them all before they could get Erik.

The smell around them was terrible as the guts and intestines of the monsters ripped open and stained the ground with feces and blood.

They moved carefully to avoid stepping on the dead beasts' remains and losing their balance, avoiding the charging monsters and the occasional brain crystal power attacks hurled toward them.

***

"Fast! We are almost there!" Amber shouted; they almost arrived where Erik and the others were waiting.

"I heard something!" Floyd shouted. "It was..."

"It was a thaid..." Gwen added.

"Didn't Erik say that people attacked them?" Benedict asked.

"Yeah, but apparently even thaids are involved," Amber added.

"They must be desperate," Floyd said, thinking how Erik and Anderson were battling the thaids and the humans simultaneously.

Once they arrived, they saw a terrific scene: monsters that should have been farther than five kilometers away were rushing in droves against five men, with one of them fighting against a giant beast they had never seen. There weren't that many creatures left alive compared to the number of bodies on the ground, but their numbers were still large.

The situation suddenly became much more complicated than they expected.

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