Sheyan had endured quite a bit of suffering in order to save Pokan. He even had to use ‘Gloryheal’ before he managed to escape successfully. And even then, he was left with less than half his HP.
The first reason was because the ‘Spiritual Storm’ was abnormally powerful. If Pokan was not protected by the barrier, and his HP was not close to being full because he was guarded by the Rock Elemental previously, he would have died in the storm.
The second reason was because more than a dozen elite Violent Beasts had skillfully circumvented the area of effect of the ‘Spiritual Storm’ to chase after Sheyan. The rest of the Violent Beasts were also enraged, so as soon as the ‘Spiritual Storm’ ended, they formed the second group in pursuit.
Under such circumstances, Sheyan and Aldaris had no intention of sticking around, let alone fighting back. Not that they did not want to, but they simply did not dare to.
Sheyan just so happened to be within the attack range of the dozen odd Violent Beasts behind him. These Violent Beasts were all elites, so their attack range, attack power, attack frequency and movement speed were all significantly higher. They chased after Sheyan all the way while shooting at his ass.
Sheyan also had to protect Pokan who was now in a state of near death, so he was unable to make many evasive actions. The tragic ass-kicking continued until Sheyan flung out his third bottle of curse-mix. Only then did he successfully shake off the pursuers.
Pokan stared at Sheyan after he had gotten some rest and recovered from the state of near death. He only said one word after a really long time.
“Why?”
Sheyan broke into a grin.
“What do you mean “why”? I’ve warned them before, but nobody would listen to me. Are you saying that I should die with them?”
Pokan shifted his gaze. After a while, he spoke, “I don’t think you’ve tried your best. Otherwise, you would’ve found ways to make them take your warning seriously.”
Sheyan sneered.
“I don’t have a habit of enthusiastically helping those who don’t want to be helped.”
Pokan suddenly got emotional. “But what now? With just the three of us, how can we accomplish the mission? It’s impossible to go on without an MT!”
Sheyan bit the end of a bandage with his teeth and dressed his wounds himself. While doing so, he replied faintly, “Don’t worry, I’m sure more than the three of us will survive. Paul’s a lot stronger than he lets on; I don’t believe he’ll die here. And between William and Ronnie, at least one of them should survive too.”
Pokan said, “Hedi Curry and Azsa may very well make their way out too. Don’t underestimate them just because their shields look a little shabby. In the damn nightmare realms, high-class shields are really rare, so it takes luck to get one. Besides, both of them have attribute-focused builds so they don’t rely much on equipments.”
“Attribute-focused builds?” Sheyan exclaimed in slight surprise, “What’s that?”
Pokan’s brows furrowed. “You don’t even know about attribute-focused builds? This is the path many MTs would take when they don’t have good equipments in the early and middle stages. They’ll give up their priority in loot distribution and instead, ask the party to assist them in achieving high mission completion rates. In addition, they have priority in unknown mysterious items that can be exchanged for free attribute points. The party must also prioritise the purchase of unknown mysterious items on the market if the prices are right. This way, they can make up for their shortcoming in equipments with additional attribute points!”
“Oh, I see.” At that moment, Sheyan saw a light flashing non-stop at a distant spot on the island. Taking advantage of his Perceptive Sense that far exceeded those of the Violent Beasts’, he tried to quietly approach the island again.
The intelligence of the Violent Beasts was far beyond Sheyan’s imagination. Some of them were even hiding in the ground, waiting for Sheyan to deliver himself to them.
Fortunately, Sheyan noticed them and did not fall for their trap. He halted in time before he got close to the island. With his exceptional Perceptive Sense, he could feel the breathing and heartbeat of the Violent Beasts hiding under the ground. It meant that getting close to the island would be difficult enough, let alone helping the other contestants.
After strolling outside the island for a while, Sheyan could only sigh and go back to the place where Pokan was resting. He looked at Pokan and told him, “I need your help.”
Under the effect of the medicine he took, Pokan had recovered about a third of his health by now. Hearing Sheyan’s words, he simply followed behind Sheyan in silence. Sheyan brought him to a spot which was rather low, but was only less than 300 meters away from the island.
“The Violent Beasts near this place are all at least a hundred meters away, and they’re buried underground. I hope you can use your ability to help me shape this spot into a relatively high ground so that I get have a good view of the situation on the island.”
Pokan glared at Sheyan and told him flatly, “You chose a really terrible spot.”
After saying that, he stepped back until he reached a patch of reeds in the swamp before he used his special power. A small hill gradually rose like a turtle’s shell. From the island, the hill would only look like a tall patch of reeds swaying within the darkness.
Sheyan climbed up the hill, took out the infrared binoculars each contestant was given, and instantly witnessed a breathtaking scene!
Azsa was currently situated in the southwest part of the island. She had a layer of gentle but bright yellow light covering her entire body. Sheyan was no stranger to this kind of light; it was the effect of an ability he had before – ‘Absolute Defence’!
Nothing could harm the person protected by ‘Absolute Defence’!
Azsa actually had such a terrifying card up her sleeve!
She was currently wielding a crusader sword which was glowing with a dazzling light in her left hand while marching forward with large strides. She only needed to attack without defending herself. Every stroke of her holy sword would claim the life of a Violent Beast. She was like an unstoppable goddess of war!
However, a large number of beasts had gathered in her path. With every meter she advanced by, she would be assaulted by two waves of Violent Beasts. It meant that, unless Azsa could kill every one of the beasts, there would always be more Violent Beasts blocking her way.
That was obviously an impossible task, because ‘Absolute Defence’ could not last that long. Even if Azsa had an innate talent which could extend the duration of any beneficial condition by 100%, ‘Absolute Defence’ would still last no longer than 240 seconds on her. Looking around at the sea of Violent Beasts all around her, Azsa’s heart was left only with despair.
“Goddammit, that bastard Hedi Curry took advantage of me….”
Those were her last words.
***
Sheyan watched Azsa die with his own eyes.
But watching was all he could do. Even if he wanted to save her, he did not have enough power to do so. The sheer number of Violent Beasts around Azsa made his scalp tingle. He had no desire to rush into their midst.
Compared with Azsa who stood out and attracted the attention of a lot of beasts, Curry had obviously made a much smarter choice by remaining extremely low-key. After all, the number of Violent Beasts were limited. If they had sent out a large troop over to that side, the pressure on Curry’s side would no doubt be much lower.
Taking advantage of that, the trapped William brought out his trump card. He marked the area ahead of him. In the blink of an eye, a strange black hole opened in the sky. Then, a ray of blinding light struck down at the Violent Beasts in front. A small mushroom cloud instantly rose and a golden-red blazing shockwave swept through, causing a large number of Violent Beasts to evaporate into nothingness!
Curry, Ronnie and William quickly dashed forward. But just as they reached the edge of the island, something incredible happened. About seven or eight Violent Beasts emerged from the swamp. Not only were they much bigger than the usual Violent Beasts, their mono-eye was also glowing with a dark gold light.
As soon as these beasts appeared, they concentrated fire on Hedi Curry, who was the nearest person to them! The disintegration rays they shot were dark gold in colour. Curry roared wildly, and a layer of bright silver scales appeared on his body. He seemed to have evolved into a beast at the most critical time. The scales were obviously not just there for decoration.
But his effort was in vain. The bright silver scales soon turned pale grey, indicating that a petrification effect had taken place. Curry was not that fast to begin with, and he was even slower now.
At that instant, Curry screamed and shook his body violently. The pale grey petrified layer on his body was forcefully broken and peeled away, making bloody wounds all over his body. But Curry also seized the opportunity to perform his Awakener Skill on William who was ahead of him!
‘Nether Swap’!
William’s pupils contracted, but in the next second, while his angry curse was still echoing in his throat, he was already hit by six disintegration rays and turned into a stone statue.
Having swapped places with William, Curry was still struggling to escape, but the few giant Violent Beasts, which were obviously legendary-tier creatures, refused to let him go. They trod on the mud and chased after him.
Curry’s eyes flickered as he cried sadly in a hoarse voice, “Ronnie, help!”
Ronnie was already more than sixty metres ahead of Curry. When he heard Curry’s shout, he immediately turned around and ran back without hesitation. It seemed that he was going to go back and pull Curry along to help him move faster.
Sheyan could only sigh when he saw that.
“Fool.”
