BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

"UGH!"

Death was currently fighting against the Crombo, the giant lizard-like creature that naturally preyed on the Lomalins. The beast was terrifying; it was easily taller than seven meters and had the weight of a tank.

The scales were pure black but had a purplish tint that glistened every time the beast moved. A long tail extended behind its back, and the beast swung it several times to kill its opponent.

The thaid moved around on its long-clawed paws, attempting to rip Death in half, and he would be successful if the man wasn't quick enough to avoid its attacks.

The beast was odd, ugly, and intimidating. It seemed more intelligent than other monsters, even though there was no way to prove such a thing. Still, Death could swear that the beast tried to ambush him into attacking certain spots several times, only for him to almost die under the beast's gigantic maws and razor-sharp teeth.

It knew how to fight and used all its natural weapons to give a hard time to the master assassin. The young man just dove to avoid the beast's tail, which spun on itself, creating a monster tornado and moving a lot of air in the process, almost making Death lose his balance and fall to the ground.

"Fuck..."

However, Death was a skilled assassin and a veteran warrior. Despite facing a mighty beast, he knew his job was to keep it at bay while his teammates killed the other thaids and kidnapped the awakener kid. He was also aware that the beast wasn't using his brain crystal power at all.

The Crombo mainly preyed on the Lomalins.

The beast needed to eat many of them to sustain itself, so it developed a brain crystal power that allowed it to do so. It could create a slime with the property to harden, and it would use it to trap the fleeing Lomalins while it devoured the other ones alive.

Death slashed at the creature with his two daggers several times; however, the thaid's hard scales prevented him from doing any damage whatsoever. He could only create shallow cuts that did nothing to stop the creature and could, at best, avoid its attacks.

The Crombo swung its right arm to attack the assassin, but he rolled forward and counterattacked with his knives, hitting the creature's calves. The beast tried to use its tail to swipe him away and hopefully eat him, but the man jumped and acrobatically avoided the attack, landing a couple of meters behind the monster.

The thaid turned around and swiped again, but Death was ready. Jumping backward, he gained distance from the beast. The thaid roared angrily as it missed its target, then charged towards him once again.

Despite its massive size and the beast's habit of walking on its hind legs, the Crombo was fast. The assassin had little time to avoid the move, so he dove inside the shadows.

The Crombo looked at the spot where the man disappeared and was left confused for a moment. However, the beast didn't have much time to think about what had happened because Death appeared behind it and slashed again at it.

The creature felt the knives scratch its scales and reacted quickly by turning around; however, not giving the beast the time to do anything, Death ran past the beast and made another small wound on the beast's body.

The Crombo growled furiously. It then raised both arms above its head and brought them down sharply. The claws of each hand pierced the ground like spears, digging deep into the soil and making the ground tremble.

The tremor was felt even by Erik's team and, for sure, by Death's four comrades.

"Would you mind paying a little bit of attention?" Zachary shouted as he struggled to keep his balance.

However, the master assassin didn't reply. He was usually cheerful when off duty, but his mind became razor-sharp once he was in combat. He wholly concentrated on the beast and kept drawing the beast's attention. At times, the Crombo was distracted by Greg, Zachary, or Slice and tried to run toward them several times. Death prevented the beast from doing any damage.

<Why are those fuckin' beasts only targeting us? Why don't they kill each other?> the master assassin asked himself.

"Hey!" he said to his teammates. "How much time until you kill all these fuckers?"

"5 minutes at best," Laser said.

That was the amount of time they needed to kill the thaids, grab Erik, and run to the city. If he could get this job done, he would earn a considerable amount of money. The only thing that Death loved was money; he was a greedy person who killed people for jobs because he got paid well.

That way, he always stayed rich no matter how bad things were going for him. He never cared if someone was innocent or guilty. His main goal was to kill, earn money, and occasionally buy sex. With a loud roar, the Crombo charged toward Death and attacked him.

The master assassin dodged the charge and moved to the creature's back by leaping inside the shadows. While avoiding the beast's attacks, he started looking for some weaknesses, but he didn't find any. His knives weren't enough to pierce the thaid's scales, he needed a different kind of weapons to truly do it damage.

Death had a room that was solely dedicated to storing weapons, and if he had known that he would have had to fight a Crombo, he would have brought his sword; however, he thought he would have had to, at best, impair Erik, so he didn't bring anything too lethal.

As the fight continued, Erik's time was almost at an end. If Death's four comrades killed all the thaids, he was bound to be kidnapped. The young man knew that if his friends and teachers didn't arrive on time, that was his destiny.

***

In the forest, Amber and the others ran toward Erik's location; the young woman called everyone to help her friends.

"How much before we reach them?" Benedict asked.

Amber replied without even looking at the man, as her sole goal was to reach Erik in the shortest amount of time possible.

"2 minutes!" the woman replied.

Benedict cursed under his breath and kept running forward. He knew someone had attacked his roommate and found it really weird. Who the hell would target a Red Palace student?

Furthermore, he was the only awakener within the country, and the military were most likely keeping an eye on him.

He couldn't believe how such idiotic people could exist. However, the young man was a bit worried since they had to be skilled to get out there without them noticing.

The students didn't know that a small, thousand-strong horde of thaids was currently attacking Erik's group, and they were bound to find a huge surprise once they got there.

"Who do you think attacked them?" Floyd asked.

"Someone with a death wish," Gwen replied.

"No, really... This doesn't make sense!" the young man added.

"It does if you consider that someone completely wrecked his house... Whoever did it was probably searching for something, and if they attacked him, they must think he has it or know where it is..." Amber said.

"So you think they didn't go into his apartment just to rob him?" Floyd asked.

"No, otherwise they wouldn't have attacked him..."

"What if they are too strong for us?" Gwen asked.

"Erik should have called the teachers by now. They shouldn't be that far, so we must keep them at bay until they come!" Amber replied.

"And what if they are already dead, or Erik has been kidnapped already?" Benedict added.

"Let's just pray this is not the case..."

===========================

A.N: Don't forget to vote with power stones! Thank you very much!