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Chapter 108: Exposure

Having made their final decision, the group followed Ashura with grave expressions and looked at the battlefield in the thinning mist ahead, where they could vaguely see two Beasts tearing at each other.

After a brief thought Ashura said to them, “For the fight that may erupt in a moment, I want to make use of the tier-4 and tier-5 beast cores we have gathered along the way.”

Although they did not know what he intended, they still nodded in agreement.

Jella immediately took 4 tier-5 beast cores and 17 tier-4 beast cores from her spatial ring; these were the spoils the team had gained during their more than 20 days in the forest, all stored in mage Jella’s spatial ring.

Choosing Jella to safeguard the beast cores had been a joint decision because the others would have had reservations if the loot were kept by anyone else.

Only Jella was the daughter of the Magician Association’s vice-chairman, and everyone knew her background well, so they were not afraid she would abscond with the treasure.

If the cores were placed with others, someone would inevitably feel uneasy, especially the siblings Clay and Christine, whose strength was the highest; if they ever had ulterior motives the rest would have nowhere to appeal.

After receiving the exquisite beast cores, Ashura glanced at Luna and asked, “If I tie this beast core to your arrowhead, will it affect your accuracy?”

Luna shook her head blankly, so Ashura said no more and took a rune engraving pen and a little tier-5 Beast blood from his storage, then, under the group’s shocked gazes, he carved several small magic arrays onto each beast core.

Their eyes changed again when they looked at Ashura; everyone knew how rare rune engravers were, yet they could not fathom why Ashura, who could have become rich through rune engraving, had chosen to risk his life in the Beast Forest.

Judging from his usual behavior and clothing he did not look like a rich young master, and the black-haired youth radiated both madness and mystery.

The girls in the team stared at Ashura with shining eyes, thinking that finding a rune engraver for a partner would not be a bad choice.

Before long Ashura skillfully finished inscribing the beast cores, handed them to Luna, and told her to tie them one by one to his arrows, which she obediently did.

When Ashura warned her to handle the arrows carefully, saying that the runes he had inscribed were explosive and that an impact would detonate the beast core, Luna’s small face instantly fell.

She looked at Ashura pitifully, as if blaming him for giving her something so dangerous.

Ashura ignored her mood, looked solemnly at the others, and said, “If we start fighting later, use every trump card you have; this is not the time to hold back.”

They nodded seriously and held a brief tactical discussion, agreeing that they would attack whichever Beast survived once the two had decided the duel.

After that the group hurried back to the large boulder ahead and cautiously peeked out.

They saw the pale blue mist thinned by the two Beasts’ battle, yet the red miasma around the Red-Lotus Serpent King still wrapped both Beasts.

The fight had reached a fever pitch: the Lightning Leopard clamped its jaws around the Red-Lotus Serpent King’s neck, dark red blood gushed from the serpent’s wound, and its head lashed from side to side in agony.

The Red-Lotus Serpent King coiled its massive body tightly around the Lightning Leopard, apparently trying to squeeze it to death, and the Leopard was bound so firmly that its bones seemed to creak audibly.

They believed that, given time, the Lightning Leopard would secure victory, because it had bitten the Red-Lotus Serpent King’s vital point and the serpent’s agonized roars told the whole story.

To their surprise, however, the Lightning Leopard suddenly released its death grip on the serpent’s neck and let out a mournful roar filled with complex frustration.

The unexpected move stunned the Red-Lotus Serpent King for a moment, then it flicked its body and slammed the Lightning Leopard heavily against the cliff wall.

The tremendous force made the Lightning Leopard cough blood, its eyes glazed, and its abdomen rose and fell weakly as though death might come at any second.

The Red-Lotus Serpent King slithered up, its sinister triangular eye staring at the dying Lightning Leopard with a mockingly human expression, as though deciding which part to devour first.

The six young men and women watching from not far away felt a chill, and Ashura sensed that the Red-Lotus Serpent King now looked even fiercer than before.

Moreover, the life-and-death duel they had expected had ended in such a cursory fashion; although the serpent was wounded, it was far from a mutual-destruction outcome.

Thinking of this, Ashura gritted his teeth, gave the others a stealthy hand signal to retreat quietly, and planned to withdraw from the battlefield because he felt the moment was not right.

Just as the others nodded in agreement, Ashura’s eyes sharpened as he looked into the mist behind them and muttered, “Damned bastard!”

No sooner had he spoken than an Explosive Fireball shot from the fog at their backs, and Clay hastily raised his knight’s shield to block the spell’s damage.

After a brief calculation they knew which bastard was behind it… Gais obviously wanted them dead here… and they now regretted having stopped Ashura from dealing with that scum earlier.

At that moment they clearly heard a rustling sound of something sliding rapidly over the ground toward them, and they knew they had been exposed, causing a surge of tension in their hearts.

Ashura drew the Twin Swords and shouted, “Rock, guard our rear and Jella; the rest of you come fight with me!”

With that he charged first at the Red-Lotus Serpent King; ever since entering the Beast Forest he had unlocked the first seal of the Caban’s Prison, and the power of a 1st-stage Grand Martial Master combined with Chasing Wind, Pursuing Thunder footwork barely let him evade the serpent’s head-on strike.

The siblings Clay and Christine, knowing the battle was unavoidable, each produced their knight’s lance.

Though they lacked mounts, they used movement-based combat skills to sprint to the serpent’s flanks, and their family’s knight art Thunderclap Strike pierced toward both sides of the Red-Lotus Serpent King with an ear-splitting sonic boom.

Luna, usually rather shy, showed no hesitation in battle.

She leapt lightly onto a boulder with a wide view, drew an arrow tipped with a tier-5 beast core inscribed with runes, and shot it at the wound on the serpent’s neck.

Jella first used a wind-force rune to buff her speed, then silently chanted a wood-element magic binding spell.

Thick wooden vines burst from the ground and coiled around the Red-Lotus Serpent King; they could not hold it completely, but they greatly hampered its speed and agility.

Rock brandished his huge axe, secretly shielding Jella while staying alert for the fire-element mage hiding in the dark, ready to trigger his Frenzy state at any moment.

He cursed his own weakness in his heart, incapable of charging to the front to help the young master block the Red-Lotus Serpent King.

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