Chapter 36: Confrontation with magic (1)

As the beast lifted his gaze from its young-ling corpse toward the overcrowded boat, his eyes burst with flame of hatred and vengeance that threatened to obliterate everything.

Then, like a death reaper, it dashed toward the water with great momentum and swam toward the boat that wasn't very far away.

Immediately, shouts of fright and panic rang out from the boat, as the protruding bones of the creature's back were the only part of the beast visible outside the surface of the water. These bone spikes moved toward the boat like a shark's dorsal fins, approaching the boat in mere seconds.

The group of five in the fishing boat stared wide eyed at the beast as it swam freely in the water.

This thing was an amphibian beast!

That meant that not only those people in that boat were in danger, but so were they!

This was beyond bad news…!

The crocodile beast bit at the boat furiously and started peeling off large chunks of it as though it was made of fragile plastic! Meanwhile, the people in the boat either fell or jumped in the water and started swimming back to the land in frenzied, terrified manner.

As water splashed about, and in under one minute, in a sight that would make one doubts his own eyes, the boat broke apart and sank into the sea in many pieces.

Ramie and the other four in the boat were watching from afar, in daze, as if they were watching a live horror show.

This was too monstrous! This thing just tore apart a boat larger than its body in less than a minute. Just how exaggeratedly strong its jaw was!

Following which, it returned back to the land while swallowing everyone in the water in his way, not sparing any of them.

As the shouts of despair and anguish rang non-stop from the people still in water, the three artifact users (the magicians), whom had climbed up on some other nearby boats instead of going back to the land, started throwing their magical spells at the protruding beast's back above the water, hoping to give their group a chance to escape.

The warriors on the other hand managed to reach the land first, and started helping out those still in the water.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

With three tail swings, three huge pillars of water rose, along with countless pieces of debris. As for the magicians trying to hold off the beast, every one of them was pulverized to smithereens along with the small boats they stood on.

Afterward, along with boats debris, three red patches of blood started enlarging at the attack sites… this was all what remained from the magicians.

Leaving no one alive in the water, the oversized crocodile beast dived down and then Jumped back up on the harbor land, and started eyeing the escaping figures with ruthless, hateful eyes…

Eight warriors stood in its path, determined to allow the rest to escape. It wasn't known whether the other three life energy users had escaped, or died on the sea.

ROAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!!

The creature unleashed a savage roar that was filled with killing intent and hatred. Obviously, it wasn't willing to let any of them escapes…

Then, the massacre commenced…

…

After an hour of sailing, the worst case scenario, luckily, did not come to be.

They had safely escaped the city, without losing any member of their small group, which was nothing short of a miracle.

As for the crocodile beast, it was too busy chasing and annihilating the other survivors group to pay attention to them, which allowed them to flee unnoticed.

Of course, the beast was probably blinded with so much rage that it failed to notice them. Another explanation would be that it had already notice them, but deemed them to be unrelated to its youngling death, so, it simply ignored them.

However, the main reason for their escape was most likely because the survivors from the other group separated and run back into the city, which forced the beast to chase them, thus buying Ramie and the rest a precious time to sail away far from the city, and that crocodile beast's territory.

For the second time in one day, they managed to escape only because something/someone else took on the full weight of the crisis!

The first time, was the dog beast busying the crocodile, and now, it was this unfortunate group of people busying the same beast.

Ramie had sailed few kilometers away from the coast first, and from there, he made the boat move along the coast, from afar of course, making sure not to lose sight of it, as his sailing knowledge was almost next to nothing. As such, he didn't want to lose his way in the open sea.

So, he made sure to sail along the land, at least till he could no longer see that hellish city anymore.

His city was the only port his country had on the sea. So, sailing away from it naturally means that he had already entered the sea borders of the neighboring country. Which meant, that to go back to the capital, he had to re-enter the country through the land borders, as there was no way in the world that he goes anywhere near that city again… especially not through the sea! Not with that thing lurking there.

The atmosphere in the boat was beyond gloomy, as the scene back on the harbor was simply too gruesome, dark and very hard to forget.

When Ramie realized his bloodline path advantage, the fear of the future in his heart was a bit alleviated, then, and after Reem's summon entered the scene, a bit of confidence seeped in to his heart, giving him a bit of courage in the face of the difficult odds ahead. Afterward, he got his first spell, which served to further increase that small spark of confidence, turning it into a glowing torch.

But now… he realized that he was yet to fathom how much darker the world has really become…

The odds against them were even grander and more overwhelming than he had initially thought.

As, just as they gained strength enough to confront tier-1 beasts, the ridiculously powerful tier-2 beasts appeared in the scene. An hour ago, three magicians with artifacts, and almost a dozen of warriors whom had life energy similar to Lance and others with firearms, were brutally and frighteningly easily killed without posing much of threat or even injuring the perpetrator beast.

It was a one sided massacre in all of its meaning.

Slowly, a certain idea started sparking brighter and brighter in his mind. It first came to him when he suggested to Reem to send her summon to fetch them beast cores to increase their surviving chances.

Unfortunately, that crocodile beast attacking the dog controlling their area had put an end to that though of his. Now however, under the light of the horror show on the harbor, it came back to him again.

The thought was – how many times could his artifact be upgraded, and following so, what kind of spell will he get? Will they be powerful enough to kill that crocodile…? Will these spells make him stronger than these beasts? And if so, then to what limit?

That thought was crazy, as it involved him throwing himself in the face of danger, instead of doing his best avoiding it… But after seeing the terrifying power displayed by crocodile beast, he couldn't help to started thinking – was that monstrosity something they could escape from with their limited arsenal of spells?

The words of the voice started coming back to him, and within which, it implied that those who possess artifacts and had ignited life energy were capable of facing the beasts!

'Did the voice mean that it was possible to face even beasts with strength similar to that crocodile, and the higher tier beasts? Or did he only meant the small beasts…?'

'But he did say to kill beasts and get their cores and level up! Maybe if one is to do that… then maybe… facing even that crocodile is possible…?'

Absentmindedly, Ramie's line of though took a path that he wouldn't dare consider not a day ago. But now, that crazy idea actually started to make some sense to him, slowly and steadily…

'It seems that at one point, we should start hunting these beasts for their cores and hope to unlock some really powerful spells…!' the thought of hunting beasts for their cores started rooting in his mind, a bit by bit.

After another while of sailing, Ramie snapped back to reality. He realized that the boat was in the sea border of the nearby country by now.

The nearby country had a coast city few tenths kilometers ahead. And if they kept sailing in this current direction, then they'd end up in yet another city.

None of the five could forget how dangerous the previous city was. As such, Ramie decided to dock the boat at their current location before reaching that city.

Behind, was the death trap city; while ahead, was another city, though in another country. It was known to all of them that the waves of beasts appeared mysteriously all around the world. As such, it was safer to never go anywhere around any small or medium sized city at all. Not until they are sure that it was beasts free.

As the beasts appeared everywhere, no government in the world would dare to spread their forces thin, not when there were so many beats, and not when there were beasts strong enough to demolish buildings with a single attack. As such, it was wiser to fortify few key cities, such as the capitals or cities with dense population, and evacuate everyone to these places.

For this reason, the current final goal of the group was to reach the capital. Not only for safety, but also for their loved ones who had been relocated there…

…