"Whoosh!"
With a flash of golden light, the yellow-clothed girl in Noah's group shot an arrow from her Solunar Bow aiming at the Winged Ash Snake.
"Bang!" The arrow collided against the Winged Ash Snake producing an explosive sound. The snake's entire body began to spasm for a moment before settling once more. On its giant body, a single bloody hole could be seen.
With an enormous hissing sound that stung the ears, the snake focused on the girl. Those vertical slit pupils were locked onto the girl, "Use the whip to bind its body!" Evan raised his spear, roaring at the snake while keeping a safe distance from the snake.
Alicia dashed forward with a serious expression. In an instant, the whip in her hands blurred as it flew toward the snake's body. While in midair, the whip began to extend before becoming a hundred-meter-long cord that wrapped around the two wings and bound it shut, preventing the snake from flying.
"Forward!" Evan roared. With his Rare Weapon in the air, he and three other men dashed at the Winged Ash Snake. At the same time, Noah's body blurred away as aimed his Light Wind Sword to attack.
"Bang!" An explosive sound and a billow of energy pulsed out like an ocean of energy. The surrounding area quickly went to ruins as the three other divisions began to fight as well.
"Ah~~"
As the battle continued for some time, a cry filled with pain could be heard on the battlefield as a youngster was bitten from the waist down by a creature whose head looked like a mouse, dragging him down beneath the ground.
"Ground Terror!"
"The Ground Terror is here! Everyone, be careful of the ground!"
As soon as everyone heard the yell, they all stared intently at the ground.
At that moment, right in front of the group, a large golden-colored rat-like beast flew up from the ground with the upper half of a man in its mouth.
"Be careful, the Ground Terror is here!"
"Hurry up and attack it, don't let it escape into the ground!"
As soon as the Ground Terror appeared, everyone began to shout out loud as they charged at the Ground Terror.
The Ground Terror was extremely fast and immediately flew back into the ground after swallowing the body in its mouth. Even when Rare Weapons slashed at its body, only sparks could be seen. The Ground Terror was a scaled magical beast with silvery scales all over its body. Despite its defenses not being as strong as the Bearded Earthworm, it was still stronger than what the average Body Refining stage warrior could damage.
An incredibly sharp spike arose from the ground and instantly speared through the hip of a man before he could even react.
"Ah!" The man cried out in a shrill voice before thrusting his fire attribute Rare Weapon into the ground in hopes of exposing the Ground Terror from its subterranean hiding spot. All that he hit was earth as the Ground Terror had already moved on from one area to another.
An intense purple light flashed as the entire world shook all of a sudden. By the side, the Golden Lightning Lion shot out a blue spear of lightning that arced toward the closest person, reducing his body to nothing but ashes.
Several men immediately struck out at the lion with their Rare Weapons, creating a clunking sound as they smashed against its scales with some sparks and blood. Although the Golden Lightning Lion's defenses weren't weak, it wasn't capable of defending against a barrage of blows of a large group without taking some damage.
An angry roar was emitted from the lion's mouth as it swiped its sharp claws at the surrounding people attacking it. Another arc of lightning was spat out from the lion's mouth, striking the closest person without giving him a chance to dodge. In that instant, five of the thirty warriors who attacked the Golden Lightning Lion had been shocked by the lightning and fell to the floor with charcoal black bodies.
The Winged Ash Snake wasn't much stronger than the Bearded Earthworm, especially with its wings restricted by Alicia's whip. She used her and her whip's full power to attack the snake. Although the snake was a Core Formation level beast, it wasn't as intelligent as those who were fighting it, therefore, with three Rare weapons and good strategy, they were able to do some damage to the snake.
In the end, the snake's strength while bound up was far less than before, which impacted it majorly, so only around sixty percent of its full power could be displayed.
The Winged Ash Snake continued to struggle fiercely against the bindings but to no avail. The wounds on its body were growing more and more severe and its temper even more violent.
Alicia's face grew serious as she bit her lower lip and concentrated while sweat pooled over her forehead. At the moment, she was completely focused on constraining the wings of the Winged Ash Snake.
Suddenly, the Winged Ash Snake let out a loud hiss as a large amount of corrosive acid shot from its mouth headed in every direction, "Watch out!" Noah saw the Winged Ash Snake turning its head at Alicia to fire a blob of corrosive acid which was powerful enough to melt Alicia giving her a horrible death.
Noah knew he couldn't reach Alicia in time, the golden babaroo could have helped her but it was with Maisy back at the cabin. He felt helpless and threw his sword at the snake even though he knew it couldn't hurt the snake.
Zzzzzzzhhhhhhh!
Zzzzzzzzhhhhhhhhh!
Alicia closed her eyes knowing it's too late to move but at that exact time, she heard two crackling sounds.
"Hiiiiiiiiisssssssss!" she opened her eyes to see the snake shaking its head violently. There were two large holes in its head, exactly at the place where it had two eyes.
"Ghost!" Evan couldn't help but shout in relief when he saw Michael before he transformed into a bolt of lightning. After blinding the snake using his upgraded Ignitia, Michael didn't waste any time lingering around. He dashed at the snake at full speed getting closer to the snake in mere seconds.
Whoosh!
The Arch Energy as well as the speed gave him enough strength to leap into the air. Evan's jaw slightly dropped when he saw Ghost landing directly on the Winged Ash Snake's head,
"Keep it still!" Noah shouted at Alicia who used her full strength to keep the snake from taking off with Ghost on its head. Michael's training as an assassin came in handy to stay on its head without falling down nonetheless he didn't plan to stay longer as he crouched, placing his two hands right between those two bloody eyes.
"IGNITIA!" Michael conjured all his Arch Energy. Thick cracks of lightning danced emerged from his hand dancing around his fingers.
ZZZZZZHHHHHHHHHHH!
Boom!
Everyone heard the loud crackling sound of electricity and the very next moment, a loud boom sound reverberated the area. Splashes of hot blood, organs, and dirt splattered across the area surrounding the snake. The burning smell and iron filled the air yet Evan or anyone who witnessed the Snake's head explode into a blood-red mist didn't twitch their noses but stood still looking at Michael comfortably landing on his feet bathed in the snake's blood. His eyes contained a sense of accomplishment and pride within while his lips curved upwards making him look like a blood demon.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Core Formation stage level 7 beast. The reward is 60000 Experience points and 1000 Badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 1500 Badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 2000 Badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 3000 Badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 500 Badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 300 Badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 300 Badass points]
….
The moment the others noticed the headless snake lying on the ground in its own pool of blood and Ghost in front of it, their faces went still with shock and amazement. There were still cracks of lightning dancing around and through the snake's body as well as greyish smoke radiating from the part where the head was.
Even Noah was no different from the rest.
Just then, the Bearded Earthworm let out a terrible sound as well before collapsing to the ground. Victoria was breathing heavily while clutching her sword tightly. She had more than twenty men before the fight but now, only ten or so people stood behind her, terrified and ready to run for their life.
"Time to kill the worm," Michael thought to himself looking at the Bearded Earthworm. Although he hated Victoria, looking at the injuries and the large wounds on the Bearded Earthworm's body, he felt grateful towards her because she just made his life better, a lot better. Until a few minutes ago, his target was this Earthworm but when he noticed the Snake struggling under the attack of Noah and his group, he changed his target to the Snake. However, it was not as simple as blinding its eyes and killing it like he did. Before he actually fired bolts of lightning at the Snake, he concocted a variant of the devil's breath and mixed the gas in the air around the Snake using his Arch Energy.
The more everyone inhaled the air, without them knowing, they would become weak, including the Snake. Coupled with his potion and Alicia's hard work of keeping the snake still, he got the chance to target its eyes, the weakest part in its body. His attack caught the snake in surprise, leaving no time for it to defend or dodge. Of course, he wanted to let the snake finish Alicia so he would have one less enemy in the future but unfortunately, the devil's breath could only weaken the snake for a few precious seconds.
"Evan, give me your spear" Evan knew about his speed spell, therefore, when he asked for the spear, Evan threw the Spear to him because it would be more useful to Ghost than to him in this situation.
The Earthworm had already suffered major wounds in the battle with Victoria and her group. Since Earthworm was the weakest and Victoria used all of her powerful spells and her Rare weapons to fight it, the worm's strength was reduced to almost 60%. Taking the spear, Michael didn't immediately activate the lightning dash but stealthily moved towards the Earthworm while it was focusing on Victoria. If the Earthworm could kill before he reaches his desired position to attack the worm, so be it, no rush, this was his thought. While he was snaking towards the Earthworm, he signaled Noah and Evan to attack at the same time as he thought hand signs.
Noah nodded, then Evan, and finally Alicia. The trio didn't take anyone with them to ambush the Earthworm because a large group could alert and take the worm's attention from Victoria. Michael focused completely on the target before him, not at the other two magical beasts ravaging the rest of the youngsters. Inside Michael's long coat's pocket, the baby dragon attempted to move trying to see what's going on outside except, Michael tapped his chest making the dragon stop moving.
Now that he dealt with this minor trouble, he conjured the Alchemy flames heating the tip of the spear. Evan saw his spear tip turning from silvery white to bright orange.
When he was just twenty meters away from the Earthworm, he stopped and showed three fingers indicating that he would attack in the count of three.
Three fingers…
Two Fingers…
One finger…
"Lightning Dash" He activated the skill silently, then he dashed forward aiming the heated spear at the big black dot in its head which seemed to be the eyes.
"Godly Slash!"
"Death Frost!"
At the same time, both Noah and Alicia began their attack. A crescent-shaped golden light soared through the air towards the worm while a bone-chilling frost of ice instantly covered the Earthworm.
"Normal spear stab" just like before Michael leaped into the air muttering these three words under his breath with a small chuckle in his mind.
Boom!
The golden light Noah sent was powerful enough to cut through the worm's strong scales and the frost spell Alicia used crystallized half of its body and the frost continued to crystallize the rest of its body.
"It's mine!" Victoria screamed madly seeing they are going to finish the job she started. She didn't want them to take the credit, especially Ghost except, he already stabbed the spear through the worm's eyes making the worm shudder violently. Michael retrieved the spear to stab it again, again and again until it stopped shuddering.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Core Formation stage level 7 beast. The reward is 60000 Experience points and 1000 Badass points]
Just when he saw the notification did he stop stabbing the worm. Both the Winged Ash Snake and the Bearded Earthworm were dead now. Only two remained, one was the Golden Lightning Lion which was prancing about. Despite the wounds on its body, they were nowhere near killing the Lion.
The Ground Terror was the most healthy one. Scuttling about underground, it would play hide and seek with those on top as if it were a game rather than a battle. Appearing and disappearing randomly before attacking people in a single instance, it left behind no traces and only a major headache.
The groups who were fighting both the Golden Lightning Lion and the Ground Terror had taken major casualties. At least a dozen men died fighting the lion while many more had taken serious damage. As for the Ground Terror, it had already swallowed seven men while injuring a dozen others. The Ground Terror hadn't even taken any damage yet.
"The Golden Lightning Lion is far too strong, come and help us quickly, or we won't last much longer…."
"Help us deal with the Ground Terror…"
Seeing how the Winged Ash Snake and the Bearded Earthworm were killed, the others cried out for assistance with glee.
Quickly steadying himself, Noah dashed to those in need of help.
"Follow me!"
Without looking at the Earthworm's corpse, Noah called out to the rest of the men to follow him to battle the remaining beasts, surprisingly, Evan, and Victoria followed Noah but not before Evan took his spear from Michael.
"Are these idiots expecting me to join? No thanks"
In the heat of battle, they forgot why they came here but not Michael. He had no intention to help those youngsters because the remaining two magical beasts were not harmed, not at all. Although with Noah, Evan, Victoria, and Alicia by his side, he could kill one of them or even both, he didn't come here to kill magical beasts but to take the treasures inside the cave. Just like Michael, few of them had the same thought, they were looking for the right time to dash into the cave following Michael.
Ignoring them, Michael dashed into a cave. This cave was unnaturally deep and with every single interval, there was a single night pearl emanating a white glow of light. The interior and cave walls were glossy as well, meaning that someone had used an incredible amount of strength to cut the walls evenly.
"Bang!" A loud sound could be heard up ahead as the entire passageway began to tremble.
He began to hasten his pace even more before quickly arriving at an area where a single stone door blocked his path.