As the trio saw the beast about two hundred meters staring at them like a predator ready to jump on its prey, they felt their body heavier than usual, mouth completely dry and sweating much more than when they were training.

Niall’s leg were trembling and failing to hold up his thin frame. Adrian’s heart was beating so fast that he felt it would jump out of his chest any moment now. Sizuna felt her body betray her, for the first time in life she felt she was completely made up of bones, without muscle or skin, tears rolled down her eyes like waterworks, she couldn’t hold herself and shouted pointing at the beast.

An animal this huge and intimidating could only be a vicious beast that they heard about so much. A vicious beast was the name given to animals that could sense qi, use qi as second nature and cultivate. They didn’t need cultivation techniques, they just integrate qi into their habit and slowly progress further. As they grow stronger, they grow more intelligent when they become familiar with their body and start to reason with themselves.

Adrian jolted awake hearing Sizuna’s cry and saw the beast leap towards their direction. It would probably kill or heavily injure them if they collided head on with the beast. Suddenly, Adrain saw a flash of himself colliding with a big metal object but quickly snapped out of it, probably the fear twisting his thoughts.

“The stones…! Grab the stones and hit it, and don’t stop!”. Shouted Adrain. With their body and legs betraying them, running was out of option at that moment, the beast could probably catch them before they turn around and take few steps. The training ground was like a field, grasses and stones scattered around everywhere.

Right after he said it, Adrian had already started picking up stones and throwing them at the incoming beast. Following the cue, both Niall and Sizuna were throwing whatever they found around their feet at the beast. It only took a moment for the beast to cross a hundred meter distance and saw stones flying in front. It came to an abrupt halt, with a slight maneuver of its joints it jumped left and right dodging the stones and slowly nearing towards them.

Adrian scanned around and saw a silver metal pole about three meters tall with hook like protrusions at its sides every three feet distance. There were objects and equipments of various shapes and sizes made for different training purposes in the training ground and the pole was nearest to them.

“Quick! Climb that pole. To the top, NOW!”

Niall was nearest to the pole so he quickly ran and started climbing the pole like a ladder using the hooks at its sides. Adrian and Sizuna followed suit. The beast was almost near them and ready to jump and take the first bite. Niall reached the top with Adrain below him and Sizuna at the bottom.

Just then, the beast jumped! It opened its mouth wide and attacked the nearest prey accessible. When its head was a meter from Sizuna’s feet her heart skipped a beat, she opened her mouth but no sound came. But then, she felt a grab at her hand and with a pull she was lifted.

“THUNGG!!” ………… “THUMPP!!”

The beast collided with the pole and fell back hard on its side. It was Adrian who seeing the beast, bent his body with one hand holding the pole and other lifting Sizuna, surprisingly he was able to lift her swiftly without any problems. Sizuna caught upto what was happening and grabbed at the hook she found after being pulled.

This whole process happened in a short time from the beast jumping to falling down. While lifting Sizuna and moving, Adrian head bumped into Niall’s behind as he was already at the top. It looked like Niall was sitting on his head. He could feel Niall’s bones on his head and it hurt as Niall was wriggling and struggling to maintain the hold. He saw Sizuna hold the top hook with the other hand. Letting go of the hand he was holding her, he put his arms around her waist instead to let her other hand also support her weight.

Adrian could feel his body tearing apart. His head supporting the boy and one hand holding the overweight body of his friend, he saw Sizuna’s face, messy hair, dried up tears, lips and chin trembling, one hand on top holding the hook, other hand clutching Adrian’s clothes, she looked like in the verge of a breakdown. He felt a tinge of pain seeing her in a state much more miserable than him.

By this time the beast had fallen and was trying to get up. Thats when Adrian suddenly saw Niall lose balance and fall down in front of him.

“NOOO!” He shouted but couldn’t do anything as both his hands were occupied. He saw Niall bump with the beast making it wail a little and slump back down. Adrian let go of his hands holding both the pole and Sizuna, then jumped down. He took out a small stone from his pocket which he'd put inside whilst climbing the pole. Clasping the stone with both hands and pointing its edge down he fell on the beast and struck the stone at its neck.

“GRRRUUAAAHHHHH!!”. The beast growled in pain at being hit hard at one of its vulnerable parts. For a moment, it lost hold of its senses but quickly came about and tried to get the two weights off its body.

“FUOOH!!” … “THWAKKKKK”

Then it happened. Sizuna was the last to fall down. May be she saw both her friends attacking the beast and got courage or may be she couldn’t hold her weight with those small hands. Either way, she fell ass down on the beast’s head. It could never die with this much but it lost consciousness and stopped moving. A moment of silence.

“……”

“……”

“Ow.. ow… ow. Oh my bum, my bum! It hurts, it hurts so much! Wuuuu.. wuuu.” Rubbing her eyes, she started wiping her tears and cried hard.

Adrian leaned back on the beast and closed his eyes. Niall didn’t even seem to know what followed behind him after he fell down.

During this whole time the kids were experiencing their life threatening attack, there seemed to be a few pair of eyes above the roof of a house outside the training grounds that were watching all that happened ever since the beast appeared and fell.