Born in Blood



Steadily, the group pushed forward.

Ruth's hammer and Adrian's mace made the ground tremble and shake at times, crushing the poisonous lizards like they were grapes.

Iris' bow gave her the ability to control the arrows she shot.

Paired with her wind, the arrows were like bullets that pierced through the lizards' brains in an instant.

Maeve's longsword cut through the air with a burst of flames, burning groups of lizard's alive.

Krel and Oro's attacks were speed oriented, and their shadows were like another hand to fight with.

The former's sickles always lined up against a lizard's neck, decapitating them in one swing, and the latter's glaive easily tore apart the lizards.

By then, the lizards stopped being stationary and fought back.

Hisses accompanied with streams of green liquid flew through the air, melting through the terrain and plantlife it came in contact with.

To Liam's eyes, those attacks weren't anything special. He dodged left and right while ducking in between the shots of liquid, then swung his blade and hurled a needle in response.

In the next few moments, another eight lizards were severed in half and corroded.

Flicking the blood off his blades, Liam shifted his attention to the others.

The entrance was pretty much cleared.

In their wake, were squished, burned, decapitated lizards that stank with a nauseating stench.

Maeve whistled in approval seeing Liam's handiwork, but thankfully didn't add any comment.

Giving a forward gesture, Krel was the first to start running in the giant mass of lizards, with Adrian and Ruth to his sides.

Iris and Oro followed behind, with Liam at the group's rear.

Lizards surged forward like a tidal wave, stacked atop each other.

BOOM! CRACK! SHING! BOF!

Ruth and Adrian let loose their destructive weapons followed by supportive attacks from the rest of the group.

The ground shattered like a pane of glass, and bloody pieces of flesh and viscera flew in every direction. Liquid poison fell on Liam's skin, but he was too focused to pay attention to it.

'It's like they want the pack leader to come out!' Liam cursed as he hurled his needles between every opening he could find.

The Rank 3 cultivators were incredibly fast paced in their approach.

Unstoppable arrows, raging arcs of red fire, devastating strikes of earth and destructive spells tore through the dungeon floor.

Liam barely managed to match their tempo, but considering his inferior Rank, he was doing just fine.

SKREEE!

With a cacophony of screeches, the remaining lizards desperately scurried deeper into the dungeon. 

Running down a slope that led to a larger clearing and a bigger area. 

"Look at 'em, they're running to mommy!" Oro joked, shooting a condensed orb of water from his hand that exploded and blew apart the lizards. 

Iris and Maeve picked off a good number of them before they all abandoned their dungeon space. 

Only a few survived the offensive, and even those were maimed and in no condition to fight.

"The real fight starts now," Adrian said sternly, looking at Liam in a new light after seeing him battle. 

Even Ruth wasn't as cold towards him as before. "Don't try anything valiant," she added.

Liam responded with a terse nod. Tired of their scrutiny, he followed behind Krel as the party traversed the passage leading to the 'boss' room.

And there it was.

The 'boss' – a Rank 4 Poison Lizard was in the center of the spacious underground dungeon. 

It looked at Liam's group with no particular emotion in its eyes, but its hostile aura couldn't be hidden.

Behind it were small-sized 'Ora' crystals studded into the jagged and rocky terrain, oozing world essence. 

It was nowhere near the size of even a small-sized 'Ora' Mine, but good enough to expedite the evolving of a magical/spirit beast.

'That explains why the lower ranked beasts were above while it remained below. It was hogging all the 'Ora' for itself,' Liam realized. 

There was a tense silence in the air as man and beast entered a staring contest.

Slowly, the Shadows spread apart, encircling the Zenith beast.

Since they were seven, Liam had to pair with someone due to his lower Rank.

He chose Krel as a duo due to his superior strength.

The silence was a bit unnerving.

Usually, magical beasts attacked straight away. 

Spirit beasts were presumably no different.

Yet the one in front didn't move a muscle, even as the Shadows encircled it from all sides.

"Something's wrong… this isn't supposed to happen," Liam uttered to Krel with narrowed eyes.

Perhaps he was thinking too deeply about it since it was his first time attempting to hunt a Rank 4 beast, but his instincts were usually on point.

"Whatever it is, it works in our favor," Krel dismissed the notion, tightening the grip on his blades.

Making a countdown gesture with his hand, Krel began casting his most destructive spell. 

The others did the same, 'Ora' gaining around their figures, hands and weapons. 

Wind churned, fire raged, earth trembled and water grew. 

Only Liam was on the edge.

'Why isn't it attacking? Can't it sense the threat it's under?' 

Although paranoid, Liam didn't disobey Krel's orders to cast any long-range spells he could.

Five needles formed between his fingers. Liam purposely didn't form more needles for one single reason.

Why wasn't the lizard attacking?

As the spells were ready to cast, Krel gave a single nod.

WHOOSH! RUMBLE! CHOOM! 

Liam waited for the cluster of powerful spells to lessen in effect before throwing in his needles. 

If he used them instantly, it would have been blown away or doused by the destructive streams of water. 

Nonetheless, he threw them in the mix.

Plumes of fire and dust began to cloud the space.

The next moment, wind helped blow the smoke away, revealing a shocking scene.

The Rank 4 Poison Lizard was dead.

Its eyes were slashed, blinding it. Most of the spells were focused on one spot, which helped pierce through small openings in its scales. The more destructive attacks revealed the grimy muscle and viscera underneath.

A Rank 4 magical beast's body was incredibly rigid and powerful, but not even they could withstand so many spells one after the other targeting one point.

It wasn't brutalized beyond recognition by any means, but definitely dead.

It had died without even casting a single attack.

Pale smiles formed on the group's faces, except Liam, who still fell unsettled.

Slowly, the smiles died down on their faces as something began to separate from the furthest wall of the dungeon.