Feeling the terror of the aura of the strongest beast he had ever encountered, Vice opened his mouth and his eyes wide to look at the top of the trees where a strange creature descended from the sky.
It had dark blue scales, a snake's head, a long neck, and a long tail. But its chest resembled that of a bird, with a prominent front and long wings with feathers the same color as its scales. It also had four legs, the hind ones incredibly muscular, with long, dagger-like claws.
Its size was not small. With more than 5 meters between its head and tail and a similar length between the tips of its wings, this creature was enormous.
Its aura carried the size of its being, and even the level 5 Acolytes in the area couldn't help but pale in the face of the most ferocious creature they could encounter that night.
"Shit!" Ryker shouted as he noticed the Mage-level magic creature staring at him.
"Retreat! Flee immediately!" Nova despaired at the sight of this creature, knowing that it was the leader of the canyon and all these beasts would serve it.
The whole world had its hierarchies, power relations, etc. In the beast world, the strongest ruled, no matter their race!
As the strongest in the area, that basilisk was the commander of the area, and all the beasts in its presence, regardless of their tribes, would serve it when it appeared near them!
Knowing that they would have all these creatures gathered against them, everyone there immediately began to move away from their opponents of a few moments ago and prepared to flee.
With a long sigh, Vicente saw the creature descending from the sky. He immediately understood it was giving orders to those beasts.
'Tsk! Are they going to chase us?' He imagined that this was the order because the moment the beasts heard that sound, all the beasts looked at the group of humans differently.
Thinking it would deal with the strongest first, Vicente didn't hesitate to manipulate the metals around his control area and began to float in the air, flying at low altitude, faster and faster.
Looking at Nova, he didn't hesitate to go towards her, surprising her by grabbing her in his arms and quickly starting their escape from the area.
Realizing that her feet were no longer on the ground, Nova resisted by struggling. But Vicente warned her. "Captain Bain, let's not fight now. If we do, we'll both be killed by these beasts."
Nova looked at Vicente's blood- and dirt-stained mask, ignoring the smell of sweat coming not only from his body but from hers as well. She clenched her fists and looked into his eyes. "Cesar! You caused all this! Now you want a truce?" She shouted as she grabbed the collar of his shirt and pushed it down.
"I did what I had to do to survive. Remember, you chased me and attacked me. What was I supposed to do? Give you my life?" He said in a sarcastic tone that was easily noticeable, even with his mana distorting his voice.
While they exchanged these brief remarks, Vicente flew quickly through the forest, dodging his opponents' long-range blows and quickly distancing himself from the beasts that were already chasing them.
Nova could no longer see more than half of the group of humans that had been allied with her moments ago, while the few she could see were sweating to run and not be killed by the creatures chasing them.
The basilisk was too powerful and wouldn't chase most of them. It only focused its attention on the strongest in the area, leaving the rest to its subordinates.
Noticing this, Nova loosened her grip on Cesar's clothes, aware that she would have to ally herself with him in order to live.
"Tsk!"
Seeing that she had given in, Vicente said. "Take a moment to recover. I'll be exhausted in a minute. Then we'll have to walk."
"Don't you have any more recovery potions? If you can't fly any longer, I'm afraid we'll fall into enemy hands before we leave The Rocky Gorge." She knew that beasts were better trackers than humans of the same magic level, so she was worried.
"I've already used up all my potions trying to escape the many enemies that caught up with me tonight." He said. "Do you realize I've faced nearly 20 Acolytes in the last four hours?"
"Are you saying this to show off?" She narrowed her eyes as she looked at him and moved to get on Vicente's flying board without staying in his arms.
Vicente said nothing and then saw her use a spatial storage item to take out a recovery potion and give it to him.
"You trust me like that?" He laughed as he asked her.
"No." She said before taking another potion and drinking it herself.
Sensing this last 'attack' from Nova, Vicente watched her for a moment but then drank the potion she had given him, noticing that there was no poison in it.
With the beasts behind them moving almost as fast as they were, he needed to recover in order to keep running for a while.
Feeling the potion's effects, Vicente increased his speed by 10%, enough to temporarily increase the distance between them and the beasts chasing them through the trees in that area.
...
A few minutes later, several of the humans who had chased Vicente earlier had met their end at the hands of the beasts of The Rocky Gorge.
Some had managed to escape the arrival of the basilisk but had died from severe injuries inflicted by their opponents before and during the chase initiated by the beasts.
One of the few still breathing was the leader of Defiant Tyranny, who had seen the entire top echelon of his group perish in this forest region that night.
However, after using all of his life-saving resources to withstand the basilisk attack and flee the area, Ryker was exhausted and badly wounded.
At this point, unable to move properly due to the severity of his situation, he dragged himself to the entrance of a cave in this forest region in search of shelter for the night.
If he survived the night, he could return to Millfall at daybreak, when the beasts were usually less active.
'Damn it! You'll pay for this, you bastard Cesar! One day, I'll rip your head off.' He thought, cursing the person responsible for all his misfortune.
But as he crawled, Ryker suddenly heard footsteps approaching and shuddered as he heard a distinctive sound, a special click he had recently learned.
"Ryker Beckman, I didn't expect to be the one to kill you."
Ryker looked back to see a young red-haired man with other men, all with guns and masks on their faces.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
