Chapter 122 - Last Ride II
After the man asked the question, among the crowd, there were a few moments of silence. It was Victoria who broke this silence with her words, "We are not waiting for anyone. The people here are more than enough to slay those four beasts!" she left no place for anyone to talk back. Ever since he humiliated her during Heaven's gate competition by spartan kicking her off the stage, the seed of hate towards Ghost had grown into a giant tree in her heart. Every time she hears the name Ghost, a flash of anger would emerge from her soul itself. Hearing the name she hates the most again, deep down she hoped he had died somewhere in the Nether realm.
"That bitch didn't change a bit," Michael said to the little dragon as it tilted its head confused.
Evan smiled, "Ghost can join the fight when he comes here. For now, the inner group here has enough people to split into two groups. The rest of the men here should split into two groups as well. Does anyone have any objections?"
The inner group Evan had mentioned were all standing right next to him, all of them belonged to either one of the three sects or a powerful faction like the Guardian guild. Behind the tree, Michael was scanning the area to detect the so-called four magical beasts they were meticulously planning to defeat.
His closed eyes opened abruptly when he detected the magical beasts using his Environmental scanning.
"Four Core Formation Level 7" these beasts were not something he could handle alone, maybe with Gaya, he could have defeated one but even with her at his side, no way in hell he could have killed more than two. Fortunately, these guys were preparing to fight the beasts, leaving him to plot a plan of his own.
On the other side, Evan spoke to the others, "Four magical beasts are guarding the immortal's cave. The names of each of these strong magical beasts are the Winged Ash Snake, Golden Lightning Lion, Bearded Earthworm, and the Ground Terror. After examining them closely, we've already established that their strength is the same as each other. The only difference is their innate skills. The Winged Ash Snake is capable of flying and spitting out an extremely potent acid, if it takes off into the air, then it will be extremely hard to deal with. The Golden Lightning Lion has an extremely high defense because of its golden scales. As the name suggests, it can also spit out lightning as well as discharge electricity from its body, it would be best for everyone to stay away from it. The Bearded Earthworm is a special variation of an earthworm. It has an equally strong defense to the Golden Lightning Lion, but its only weakness is, it is slow. If anyone has speed spells, the Bearded Earthworm will be your best target" few of them who had speed-enhancing spells decided to take on the Bearded Earthworm.
"The last one is the Ground Terror and our biggest headache. Its attack strength isn't as strong as the other three, but the most annoying trait about it is that it's fast, extremely fast. In a blinking moment, it can drill deep into the earth to evade our attacks and then strike out from underneath. It is completely silent when it's underground and leaves behind no trace. It can attack from underneath one's foot at any time, and while it is the weakest in terms of attacks, its attacks are generally unblockable."
At the mention of the Ground Terror, Victoria's eyes narrowed angrily; clearly, she had fought one before and ended up on the losing side.
"Evan, which magical beast do you think we should take on?" Noah asked from the side.
" We should target the Winged Ash Snake. We have three Rare Weapons, and one of them is a longbow. If the Winged Ash Snake were to take to the skies, then we could shoot it down. We also have a whip that can tether and restrict the snake's mobility. At the very least, we could prevent it from taking to the skies. These two weapons are the bane of the Winged Ash Snake." Evan spoke with no hesitation.
Noah thought for a moment before nodding his head in agreement, "makes sense"
Since Abel went missing, Noah wasn't his usual self or he would have taken the initiative to lead the group against these four magical beasts. Alicia hoped they would find Abel soon, alive and well.
After hearing Evan, Victoria spoke up, "The Bearded Earthworm has extremely strong defenses and has a lot of strength as well. The average Body Refining stage warrior wouldn't be able to do any damage to it, and without a Rare Weapon, its defenses cannot be pierced. I will lead a group to take this one, the others can deal with Golden Lightning Lion and Ground Terror"
In a flash, the discussion was over. The most annoying magical beast, the Ground Terror who had an unavoidable and unblockable attack, and the strongest magical beast the Golden Lightning Lion were given to the last two divisions, Hanah Berry led one while a rogue cultivator led the other. Although the men in those two divisions were displeased, they weren't able to say anything. The Winged Ash Snake was capable of flight which would render all those on the ground helpless. It would also be able to strike at the men on the ground with its potent acid, so this magical beast was best suited for the group with the longbow and whip user.
"I should pick the weakest beast" he recalled what Evan said about all the beasts, thinking which beast he should target. Without another thought, he removed the Ground Terror from his mind. That left him with three options, the Golden Lightning Lion, the Bearded Earthworm, and the Winged Ash Snake except Noah and his group picked the Winged Ash Snake. Considering he couldn't use the long-ranged weapon as good as Gaya, he decided to leave the Winged Ash Snake to his group. Finally, after deep thinking, he chose the Bearded Earthworm as his target. He had two reasons to choose the Earthworm, first, he could use its slowness to his advantage, and second, he would be able to steal the spotlight from Victoria as well as get more Badass points from the system.
Although the Ground Terror and Golden Lightning Lion were both hard to deal with, the remaining two divisions were strong in their own right and had many people. With at least thirty Peak Body Refining Stage warriors against a single magical beast, the problem shouldn't be that big.
After walking towards the cave for a few minutes, everyone came to a stop as they spotted the remains of a battleground. Some were engulfed by greediness, they thought they could make their way into the cave without alerting the four beats guarding the cave entrance except they couldn't.
Suddenly, the thunderous roar of a magical beast could be heard as it shook both the heavens and the earth with an ear-splitting sound. Then, three enormous magical beasts came into view: one massive python of large width with a head bigger than the height of a fully matured man and black wings–this was the Winged Ash Snake.
Right next to the Winged Ash Snake was a gigantic lion with a ferocious look and body covered with golden scales. Occasionally, a ripple of electricity would dance across its body– this was the Golden Lightning Lion.
To the side of the Golden Lightning Lion was a lizard like magical beast that was a meter tall and ten meters long. Four stumpy legs held it up from the ground and its body was completely covered by greyish scales. The most iconic feature of this magical beast was the long beard hanging from its chin. Obviously, everyone recognized this as the Bearded Earthworm.
As these three magical beasts appeared, everyone felt a sudden surge of power in the air, pressing against their chest as if there were a heavy stone there, making them difficult to move.
"Don't panic now, the Ground Terror might still be underground, so be careful!" Victoria said as she held up her flaming sword and charged toward the Bearded Earthworm. Following straight behind, Noah, Evan, Alicia, and their group charged at their target.
Standing atop a tree branch, Michael watched the battle starting between the magical beasts and the youngsters. On his shoulder, the baby dragon craned its neck to see the battle, "huhuhu" maybe he was wrong but the baby dragon sounded like its asking why isn't he taking part in the battle.
"Let them fight and weaken the beasts, then I will take out the weakest. Note this baby dragon, do not pick a fight that you cannot win" the baby dragon moved its head up and down acknowledging his advice. Michael had two plans, in plan A, he would kill the beasts after they weakened the beasts using all their spells and attacks. In plan B, he would simply dash into the cave while the four beasts were occupied with the youngsters. Of course, he could ask the system to get a perfect solution but he decided to test himself to prove himself that he could survive without the system's help because overly depending on the system might become his weakness in the future. To take out these beasts and overcome this situation, he would use his current as well as the skill set he learned as an assassin.
At that moment, aside from the Ground Terror, the other three magical beasts began to take action. He focused on the Bearded Earthworm to study all of its movements and attacks.
This is going to be a battle where Michael had to depend on himself completely rather than the System.