Absolute Beast Dominion

But Kaelion also realised another thing after the punch.

"This beast doesn't have a tough hide like Shyra…"

That gave him confidence that he could somehow beat the beast.

And so, the fight started.

His own beasts, Singham and Grivak, took the forefront to act as tanks, while Ice-Unit covered the surrounding ground in frost, making it slippery.

Aaron kept himself busy cutting off the dense branches so that sunlight could reach the forest floor, making it difficult for the beast to hide. The beast seemed to be using guerrilla warfare. Sometimes, it would launch an incessant assault, while at other times, it would completely disappear for tens of minutes.

"Aaron, careful!" Kaelion shouted when he sensed the beast trying to attack Aaron.

"Wha—"

Tham! Clink!

Suddenly, a brilliant forcefield shield generated around Aaron's body and absorbed a vicious attack initiated by the Panther, cracking the next second.

The 5-layer armor bought for him, Dhalia, and Ronan had finally come to use.

Seeing its attack prove ineffective, the beast withdrew its fangs and launched a Shadow Claw strike.

Clink! Cling! Srack!

Two more layers shattered instantly, while the claw even managed to terribly damage the armor itself, as if the claw possessed a phasing effect. A deep gash ran diagonally across the chestplate.

The claws were so large that just one of them was enough to effectively attack Aaron, with the remaining claws extending to his sides.

Aaron was thrown away and crashed into a tree, where yet another magical shield absorbed the impact. But it seemed that he was indeed hurt by the blunt force, evident from the blood he vomited.

Sylrael immediately reached him and cast healing magic before joining the fight almost instantly.

Kaelion had already jumped toward the panther's location, a critical punch already prepared.

Tham!

RAAAAAAARRR!

The beast roared as it spat out blood and once again tried to melt into the shadows, while the magical effect of [Nightfall Roar] partially blinded many people. Those in the 3-star realm were almost completely blinded as Dhalia smashed her hand onto the ground.

Numerous thick, pointed ice columns jutted out of the ground, covering them in a safe zone in case the beast decided to attack them while they were blind.

Finding an opportunity while the beast was midair, Sylrael shot multiple arrows toward its location.

Whrr… nnh…

The beast whimpered when the arrows pierced through its body. Sylrael immediately used her magic to increase the size of the arrows while they were still embedded in its body.

The beast's eyes sharply contracted when it realised what was happening, and it created distance from the group while rolling frantically to dislodge the arrows.

But some broken arrowheads remained embedded in its flesh, widening the wounds.

Suddenly, the group felt that the fight would be won soon.

But at that time—

05:00:02

05:00:01

04:59:60

04:59:59

Suddenly, a brilliant flash of light descended upon the panther, immediately healing it back to peak condition.

Even the panther seemed surprised by that.

While Kaelion's eyes widened at seeing all of their progress lost, another sign of danger was suddenly caught by his senses.

He sharply turned toward the centre, from where the beacon beam was shooting up. There, he could feel another dangerous beast, just like the panther right here, closing in on them at terrifying speed.

"SHIT! Retreat! Get away from the flag zone!" he shouted and summoned Skyreaver, whom he instructed to cast pressurised wind gusts to push back both beasts while Kaelion used his own wind skill to reinforce the powerful gust, allowing the group to safely retreat.

At Leo's location, another chaotic battle was unfolding.

Plato was busy healing Cecil, while Ronan, his Sentinel beast, and the horse were together dealing with multiple Ice-Viper summons.

It was so bad that Leo instructed Thalvyr to go and help Ronan, who might have already been defeated by now if not for Thalvyr engaging almost 5 Ice-Vipers, ranging from Low 3-star to High 3-star, alone.

Nyxa's Astral Wolves were acting as great distractions while she herself tried assisting Leo to the best of her ability.

Leo, on the other hand, was locked in an intense 1v1 battle with the main body of the serpent.

He seemed to have cracked almost every scale covering the beast's body, while multiple regions were being corroded by the Netherblight potion, with long and brutal gashes running everywhere.

The battle would end soon.

And it did when Leo smashed open the viper's skull.

Ding!

Ice-Viper (Peak 4-star) Killed - 100,000 XP

Level 31: 260,000 -> 360,000 / 1,550,000

04:28:21

It took nearly 1 hour for Leo to finish the beast, and it seemed like nothing had happened, just like at Kaelion's flag, where the beast was completely healed at the 1-hour mark and another similar beast had appeared.

He had also received a call from Kaelion mid-fight, who immediately relayed what was happening.

Must be the reason the beast was in Mid 4-star rank… Leo understood.

When the call was connected to the stronghold, Fruder immediately racked his brain. Having studied various competition formats, he quickly told them the possible mechanics.

"We will need to kill the first beast before the 1-hour mark is up so that it doesn't heal up. If the challenge is in easy mode, then that's it. If not, I am pretty sure that that new beast at the 1-hour mark will still appear. In other words, if the first beast isn't killed on time, the danger will double! Did Sir Leon notic—Crackle—BAM!"

Suddenly, a blast occurred on Fruder's side.

"Ahh… Miss Lily is dealing with some elven academy students that have attacked the stronghold. She says not to worry because they are weak."

Both Kaelion and Leo nodded together even when they were not there. They could tell Lily was indeed enough if she said so.

As a matter of fact, those Evergrove students hadn't even sensed Shyra, who was just trailing them from 50 meters behind in the shadows, while Leo was keeping an eye on them through Sense Share.

Since Leo leaving the snowfield was not ideal due to the uncertainties of what might happen next during the remaining 4 hours, they quickly formulated a plan.

"Leon, send your Skyreaver back to the territory and have it bring Shyra over to your location. Since you say their defence is weak, Shyra might be a huge help…" Leo looked up at where Agnivar was flying.

"I will send Agnivar. When the first panther is defeated, give him the beast core extracted from the beast so that he can bring it to me."

But then, Leo realised that Agnivar might be attacked along the way by some dragon. Not to mention, his speed was not great enough to outpace them.

"Better send your Skyreaver. It's faster. When it comes here, I will send some more backup that it can carry there," Leo said, looking at Nyxa, who was busy munching on the better, uncorroded parts of the Ice-Viper corpse.

Internally, Leo was thinking something else.

Damn, am I really this lucky?