Shangguan Bing Xue's voice reached the others correctly. At the same time, she erected several walls of ice in front of the beast to obstruct it. However, none of this was enough to stop it.

Swoosh!

Just like a ghost in the middle of the night, the rune bear appeared in front of a militant and lowered its body to look him straight in the eyes as if it was having a lot of fun with the terrified look in the man's eyes.

"I-"

Before the militant could utter another word, the beast brandished one of its claws with a swift swing of its arm and as if it were a sword cutting paper, the man's head detached from his body and flew several meters through the air forming a beautiful but horrifying bloody arc before falling to the ground with a thud.

"F-Fire!!!" A militant near the beast screamed in panic and began firing as he took aim in a hurry.

However, after several clinking sounds, the militant's head shot skyward just as before and his body collapsed decapitated as his head fell shortly after with eyes devoid of the characteristic radiance of life in them.

"N- No!"

"Run away!"

Finally, some survivors could not stand the pressure at the bloody sight and began to turn around to run in different directions. 

"Idiots! Don't run into the forest!" Zhong De shouted as he threw a grenade towards the rune bear in an attempt to stop it.

However, more than thirty survivors ignored his warning and ran into the forest. Not even two seconds later, cries of pleading and clemency could be heard from the open clearing.

"Don't move from your place! There are still many beasts in the vicinity!" Cai Jingyi gritted her teeth and a sparkle of resolve flickered in her eyes as she activated her most powerful skill.

Crack!

The sound of a lightning crack echoed across the battlefield and tiny lightning snakes began to flicker on her body. With a swing, her body disappeared from where she stood and she quickly charged towards the rune bear.

Surprisingly, Cai Jingyi was using the same skill as Bai Zemin, Lightning Movement!

Just before leaving to capture the second village, Bai Zemin had given a fruit to Cai Jingyi, and shortly after capturing the second village, a second formerly green fruit fully ripened so he handed it over to Kang Lan. Therefore, his two Loyal Followers possessed in their arsenal of skills an active Second Order peak level skill!

"Fool, don't do it!" Shangguan Bing Xue exclaimed. Although she was surprised by Cai Jingyi's skill, she could see her movements clearly as her Agility was still superior to hers even with such a skill.

This meant that there was no way the rune bear, who was even faster than Shangguan Bing Xue herself, could not follow Cai Jingyi's movements!

Indeed. The beast's eyes flashed and its body seemed to disappear from its position before appearing like a ghost before Cai Jingyi.

Shangguan Bing Xue bombarded the beast with all kinds of ice weapons: Ice Spears, Ice Swords, Ice Pikes, even tried to stop its movements with ice vines. But nothing worked as the runes on the beast's stomach glowed with a strange amber color just like the runes on its chest before.

All the ice spells exploded just before reaching the creature and Shangguan Bing Xue's face lost all color after realizing that this monster possessed an active skill to block magical attacks!

With a swift movement, the beast's claw struck Cai Jingyi's body and from the others's point of view, she hadn't even had time to react.

"No!" Zhong De shouted in terror as he watched the monster's claw descend on his companion's body.

He and Cai Jingyi along with Kang Lan and Fu Xuefeng had been following Bai Zemin since the beginning. The four of them had become great friends and could be said to be like siblings. 

How could he not feel pain at seeing a cherished one about to be slaughtered but not being able to do anything?

However, what happened next was unexpected by all.

The sharp and seemingly unstoppable claws of the rune bear cut Cai Jingyi's body in two. But instead of a bloody scene, what happened was that her body exploded into countless flashes of lightning that flickered and disappeared in mid-air.

The beast's eyes flashed with a touch of confusion as if it did not understand what was happening. Just then, the air behind the creature seemed to have a strange movement and with a loud swing of its claws, a second Cai Jingyi that had appeared was also cut in half.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!...

More than twenty explosions echoed everywhere and the earth shook fiercely as the rune bear retreated two steps. A roar of fury and pain escaped from its mouth as one of its claws came out from its right hand due to the explosions.

In front of Shangguan Bing Xue, a Cai Jingyi with a face as pale as a sheet appeared like a ghost. She was panting noisily and was covered with sweat as if she had participated in a fifty-kilometer marathon.

However, her bright eyes had a glint of pride that was impossible to hide.

Even Shangguan Bing Xue looked at her back with obvious praise, understanding what had happened.

Cai Jingyi had used 1 clone to confuse the rune bear, another clone carrying several grenades took the opportunity to sneak in from behind and when the rune bear destroyed the clone, the grenades completely exploded and enveloped it in a burst of explosions and fire, damaging it for the first time.

It was only now that Shangguan Bing Xue remembered that before evolving thanks to Bai Zemin's support, Cai Jingyi stood out not because of her strength; but because of her amazing intelligence!

Although it was slight and was not completely with her strength as she used external objects and human technology to accomplish it, the first to succeed in wounding the rune bear was none other than Cai Jingyi, who had not yet evolved to First Order!

The rune bear let out a second terrifying roar that made the ears of almost everyone within fifty meters begin to bleed. Through the cloud of dust, the beast's glowing fluorescent golden eyes seemed to be filled with murderous intent as it glared at the human that injured it while the pain of losing one of its claw-like nails tormented it as blood dripped onto the ground staining it red.

The runes on its chest radiated with a bright amber glow and a sound wave came out of his mouth again, only this time there were only Cai Jingyi and Shangguan Bing Xue in the way.

Shangguan Bing Xue could have avoided the attack, but seeing that Cai Jingyi couldn't even move, she realized that all her Stamina had been completely drained.

What a brilliant woman! Shangguan Bing Xue was moved.

Activating Lightning Movement and creating two clones as well as holding them for a few seconds had drained all of Cai Jingyi's Stamina and Mana, therefore, she had made a final effort to reach Shangguan Bing Xue as she was aware that the powerful ice mage was the only one capable of helping her now that she had lost all her battle power!