Gulp!
"This can't be!" Rory looked in the direction of that chamber and felt his whole body tremble with the terrifying aura of a 3rd stage creature approaching from there.
Everyone near the tunnel where they had positioned themselves a few moments ago turned their eyes toward the altar inside the chamber.
Sensing the same thing, they felt the nervousness that would come to any being who challenged a higher-level creature, and it showed itself to act against them.
"What are we going to do?"
"Damn it! We have no way of dealing with a damned Mage beast!"
Vicente's men muttered among themselves while the teachers opened their mouths and their eyes wide, ignoring Vice for the first time in the last two minutes to look in the direction from which a mighty beast was coming.
From the aura emanating from such a being, they could tell it was furious with the bold humans who had tried to steal that essence!
"We have to run!" The strongest teacher shouted, moving opposite from where the chamber was.
"How? Cesar can't be moved! Moving him will only increase the chances of him failing to absorb the pentagram!" Rory said, trying not to scream.
"If he stays here, he will surely die," Julian expressed, understanding the position of Rory and the others.
But for this group, there were no options. Either they fled, or they would die to the 3rd-stage creature when it arrived and noticed that the yellow pentagram had been lost.
Pentagrams could not be absorbed by beasts that were capable of creating pentagrams in the same way that magicians could. That is, they couldn't use it to gain a new skill, stabilize their base, or increase the density of their mana. However, magical creatures capable of forming pentagrams could benefit greatly from living, meditating, sleeping, or eating near these essences.
They found it easier to develop their power, and even the pentagram within them, when they were in the presence of such a thing. As such, pentagrams had value even to beasts.
Since the only pentagrams that could last for "long" periods outside of living bodies were the naturally formed ones, only those had value for beasts.
In other words, those magicians had taken the greatest treasure from the woodpecker that was coming toward them!
There would be no chance for them if they stayed there!
Rory could understand that, but he knew Vicente would be in a bad situation even if they escaped. Just by being moved while meditating, Vicente would have significantly hindered the process of absorbing the pentagram.
The simple fact of moving someone in the middle of meditation triples the difficulty of absorbing a pentagram or even trying to advance a level.
But as long as there was a chance for Vice to survive, Rory was willing to risk it!
Gulp!
"All right. I want eight of the strongest in the group to carry and protect our Don's body!" Rory decided. "The rest of you stay with me. We'll buy time for our companions!"
"Are you crazy?" Julian asked, sensing that such a young man would end up killing himself with such an absurd plan.
"Forget it, Julian. We don't have time to talk." The teacher leader said as he looked at Julian.
With that, the men of that group began to move, while Rory and ten Acolytes of the Mazzanti family saw the teachers and the men carrying Vicente move away from them.
At that moment, Rory activated his own ability, making his red pentagram appear as he targeted the supporting structures of the walls and parts of the tunnels in the area.
As he did so, he said. "Guys, prepare your weapons!"
"Aim!"
The ten soldiers aimed at the interior of the chamber, specifically at the door at its entrance.
Then, as the door there was destroyed by a winged beast slightly larger than an adult human, followed by several Acolytes of the same race, Rory shouted.
"Fire!"
Bang! Bang!
...
Boom!
BOOOOOOOM!
Julian and Vicente's group, already several dozen meters ahead of Rory's group, heard the sound of several shots from the Mazzanti family's guns and then the sound of explosions.
Some looked back, afraid of what might happen to their friends and allies, but everyone kept moving while Vice kept his eyes closed, meditating.
The ground and walls around the tunnel they were moving through shook while crackling sounds were heard in the area, indicating the possibility of a landslide.
'Damn it, we've got to get out of here as soon as possible.' One of the teachers there felt it, sweating in fear of being buried to death by the madness of Rory's movement.
As much as they were Acolytes, they weren't monsters that could withstand falling from great heights, being crushed by tons of rocks, or other things that could kill ordinary humans.
Their ability to cast spells and subtly alter reality made them different from mortals who could not awaken their powers. But they were very vulnerable until they reached a high level of power, with a large amount of mana in them.
Many things could kill them!
Considering the trouble they were in, these teachers even forgot about their mission and Vicente's situation as they ran in fear of losing their lives.
Vice's men were also worried about themselves. But unlike those teachers, they had confidence in their leader's potential!
'If the boss survives and successfully absorbs the pentagram, we can also survive!' One of them thought as he and three others carried the metal plate on which Vicente had sat.
Meanwhile, the other men of the Mazzanti family had their weapons prepared to fire and moved cautiously through the increasingly narrow tunnel.
Boom!
Suddenly, a louder explosion shook the whole area, and one of the side walls of the area broke, revealing more underground tunnels.
Then they looked down and saw huge insects the size of adult Labradors glaring at them.
"Oh, fuck!"
"Are there any more magical creatures in this underground area?"
"We're fucked!"
Without hesitation, Vicente's men looked at these creatures and fired their weapons as they saw what looked like giant ants leaping towards them!
Bang! Bang!
"No wonder!" The strongest teacher finally drew his sword, realizing he had no choice but to fight the 2nd-stage insects that had suddenly appeared in their path. "Those insects, not the woodpeckers, must have made some of the tunnels we found!
They were probably trying to steal the woodpeckers!" He realized correctly, solving the mystery of why there was such a good way to the place where the yellow pentagram had been minutes ago.
The owner of this place would never do such a thing. Those tunnels had been made by others who wanted to steal that pentagram!
