Chapter 428 - Killing 3

Amidst all of the turmoil, more monsters began bursting out from under the ice and started attacking Cecil's group.

The non-combatants were immediately horrified at the event and unfortunately for some of them, they didn't see the ice cracking from underneath them.

Cecil had already spread out his Mana Sense and he quickly noticed this, however, just before he could say anything, the ice broke underneath their feet and a few of the people fell into the ice while others were dragged down under the water by the ravenous mouths of the monsters.

"SAVE ME!!"

"AHHHHH!!"

"No—"

Everyone else was horrified seeing the unfortunate end of some of their compatriots. The ones closest to them tried to rush forward and help but they were blocked by the other monsters that jumped out of the water.

"SHIT!"

"M-master! They—"

"Ren, take control over here...goddammit..." Cecil was conflicted about which side to help. One side was the non-combatants who were dying by the second due to their incapability to defend themselves, while another side was currently standing off against the Megalodon-shaped monster that had just surfaced from the ice.

"Shit..."

Cecil quickly made up his mind and decided to abandon the non-combatants. They were only going to be a hindrance further down the trials and it wasn't like he could split his body in two and—

"F.u.c.k, my wives would hate me if they knew I abandoned them!" Cecil quickly activated Nature's Shift and split into two people.

He activated the crest on his arm and began transforming into his half-beast state. Both he and his clone had done the same action and while Cecil rushed towards the Megalodon monster, his clone used Blink and quickly arrived at where the non-combatants were frantically floundering about.

Cecil was really straining himself right now. He had his Hyper Sensitivity activated so that he could control both his clone and himself. This wasn't like him using the clone for his night activities with his wives.

This was him using it in combat where multiple variables, actions, and changes were occurring in real-time. He had to process both the information that he was seeing from his main body and his clone and plan out 2 different courses of action.

The first thing Cecil did for his clone was to have it use Mana Burst and immediately charge down into the freezing cold waters and spread out his Mana Sense to lock onto the humans who were currently being swallowed down by the monsters that had taken them.

After locking onto the monsters and humans, the clone quickly burst out with a Mana Volley and tried to finish them off quickly without harming the humans who were being swallowed down or were inside the monsters' mouths.

Once he took care of them, Cecil had his clone use its mana to try and pull everyone who was dragged into the water towards it. This required Cecil to be very careful. He didn't want to accidentally crush the people he was trying to save with his mana.

The Mana 'retracting' and 'pulling' technique required fine use of his mana controlling skills. With his mind split between controlling his clone and his body, it would be dangerous and fatal for the people he was trying to save if he accidentally messed things up.

Of course, he could have just gone and rescued them one by one, but with their injuries, it would be hard for them to survive under the freezing cold waters if he didn't rescue all of them as quickly as he could.

As for the monsters on the surface where he had passed by, Cecil had his clone explode out with an Explosive Wave and try to take down as many monsters he could before his clone dived under the ice.

Thankfully enough, the warriors and sharpshooters who were trying to help their fellow non-fighting comrade took advantage of the opening that Cecil's clone had created and immediately began helping their friends and killing the monsters that were hit by the clone's technique.

Over to where Cecil's main body was at, he was currently trying to save all of his group's people who were accidentally caught in the eruption of ice caused by the Megalodon-shaped monster's grand entrance.

The ice shrapnel which had burst out everywhere gave everyone near the site various degrees of injuries. Luckily for them, they had Cecil's near-divine healing abilities which were able to bring those that were fatally injured back from the brink of death.

Even the ones who were swallowed down and nearly eaten by the monsters that Cecil's clone had saved were able to receive immediate treatment, avoiding a gruesome and pitiful end.

Unfortunately for some, however, Cecil wasn't able to make it in time to save them. Cecil gritted his teeth in anger when he looked at the dead bodies of his kingdom's people.

5 people on his clone's side had perished while 3 had instantly been killed by the Megalodon's surfacing.

The 3 who were instantly killed couldn't be helped, but the 5 who had died after his clone had saved them...if only he hadn't hesitated earlier. If he had been more decisive and immediately took action to save them, then perhaps those 5 people wouldn't have been reduced to cold corpses right now.

"Ren! Have everyone retreat! Here, take Xin, she was heavily injured earlier!"

"Xin! Here, g-give her to me! L-Lord Cecil, please...please avenge our brothers and sisters who were killed just now!" Marylyn cried out painfully.

She had been away from the impact zone of the Megalodon's entrance but she had to watch in horror as her friends were killed and injured.

"Master! People are attacking us and sealing our escape!" Ren reported after he rushed over.

"Just hurry up and take them! I'll hold off this monster. Dammit, it even destroyed the transfer gate! We'll have to go find a different one!"

"We can go to the one that Lady Cecilia and Lady Karen are camping at! But the ones attacking us—"

"Kill them! Kill your way past those fools! I'll have my clone guard you, now go!"

"Y-yes, Master!"

Cecil quickly handed over Xin to Marylyn and he turned towards the large, presumably ancient-class monster currently glaring down at him.

The monster seemed intelligent and it could tell that Cecil was most likely the strongest individual present.

"Dammit...If only Lulu was here... I don't have anyone to help me buy time to use Over Flash or Skyfall..."

Cecil didn't have any time to think because the Megalodon in front of him began casting its spells and sending truck-sized water bullets and water cannons at him.

His vision and senses were limited because of the constant blizzard but it wasn't hard to evade the Megalodon's attacks since it was easy for him to sense the large mana spikes that would occur whenever it cast a spell and sent it at him.

The monster also didn't discriminate. It had long since noticed the other human parties around it and it began sending attacks at them as well.

Cecil didn't care for these humans since they bore ill-intentions towards him and his group, but he wasn't going to just stand by and watch them die. For now, they served as good bait and attention grabbers for him.

He didn't care about these people, but he couldn't have them die too quickly. Cecil prepared a few of his attacks and began sending them to the Megalodon. He wasn't putting in his all since he only wanted to stall the monster and not kill it.

If he did decide to try and hunt this monster, it wouldn't end well for him. Cecil didn't forget about the 3 other individuals who were close to him in level and he didn't forget about all of the other human groups who would definitely take advantage of him being exhausted from killing the Megalodon.

If he did things poorly like that, he might end up losing the loot from the monster and he would most definitely come out battered and injured.

"There are no free lunches in this world, I definitely won't let any of you benefit from my ordeal!" Cecil silently declared.

He also didn't want to kill the Megalodon or fully focus on taking care of it. He needed to keep an eye out for his kingdom's people through his clone and make sure that they safely arrived at the other transfer gate that his allies had occupied.

A few weeks had passed and most of the groups on the stage had settled down. Many were hunting for crystals by killing the monsters and others began occupying the transfer gates on the second stage.

From the information that each group exchanged, there were exactly 7 transfer gates in total on the second trial. Now there was only 6 because the Megalodon had destroyed the one Cecil's group was occupying during its entrance.

The only other place Cecil and his group could turn to was the ones his allies had occupied. It would take a few days of travel in the blizzard if they didn't get lost, but things became even more troublesome since now other groups were targeting them.

Cecil could at most maintain a 2-3 kilometer connection with his clone. Any further apart and the connection would be severed and his clone would immediately disappear after a while.

The only way he could maintain the connection while holding off against the Megalodon monster was to divert its attention towards the other human groups that were close by. They had tried to take advantage of his kingdom's group so he wasn't going to let them off easily.

Even though most were retreating by now, Cecil was doing his utmost to keep them from doing so by destroying the ice ahead of them.

"That bastard! He's trying to keep us here!"

"Aim your attacks at him!"

"He's too high up. I can't see him clearly in this blizzard!"

While the groups below were panicking, Cecil continued to steadily keep the groups in the area from retreating while at the same time blocking, dodging and counterattacking against the Megalodon that hadn't once diverted its attention away from him.

"Tsk, it's mainly focusing on me. It's just trying to slowly eliminate or force away all the other pests around it..."

Since it was trying to have a one-on-one with him, Cecil made sure to do the opposite. He did his best to keep everyone from retreating.

"This lunatic! The monster is clearly focused on him! Why won't he let us retreat?!"

"F.u.c.k.i.n.g hell! Since he's not strong enough to defeat it himself, he's trying to drag us down with him!"

Far away from where the battlefield was, the Baphamet and Belze Clan were currently observing the situation.

"Hmph, fools..." Lewis Baphamet scoffed in disdain after looking at the other groups which were targeting his prey fumbling about due to Cecil's actions.

Beside him, Barthelo Belze was also looking down at the situation before he started looking around and said, "We had seen him stealthily place those traps around his group's campsite, but who knew that the one to blast away all our problems would be this floor's guardian beast!"

"Hehehe, he's just not lucky. Just like right now since our two clans are targeting him..."

"Those two are also apparently eyeing him and since they haven't made their moves, its best we stay back as well. So shouldn't we go after his underlings first?"

"...Yeah, let's do that. Honestly, these past weeks of waiting have been driving me insane. I'll take my anger out on his pitiful followers."

"Let's get going then. Remember, don't underestimate them. You've seen how they're well-coordinated and well-equipped."

"Heh, we don't have to worry now. Most of their members are injured while some are even dead! We'll quickly take care of them and head back to watch the show!"

Barthelo nodded and he quickly motioned for his clan members to get ready. Lewis did the same. He looked up towards the figure in the sky who was sending out large golden bolts and waves of mana and couldn't help but smirk in derision.

'You may be powerful, but once we've taken care of your friends and the monster drains you of your strength...we'll slowly have fun taking our revenge...This is for my clan members that you just so ruthlessly killed by blocking off our retreat!'

Lewis turned around and began mobilizing his clan members. Soon enough, the two clans began making their way over to the Silvaria Kingdom's group that was fleeing away from Cecil's battlefield.