Chapter 299 - Attack!
’’People!’’ one of the Dragonfang members shouted to the back.
Nadia’s expression had long twisted.
Her gaze had moved past the fleeing people, landing on the enormous flock of Desert Vultures behind them.
’FUCK!’ she thought, clenching her fists. ’That’s why the nests were empty!’
Just from seeing the beasts, she could instantly tell what was going on.
Because of the number of people suddenly appearing and dying around their nesting grounds, they had gone into a blood frenzy, completely taken over by their hunting instincts.
Nadia’s mind raced.
’We could turn around,’ she thought. ’I doubt the vultures would leave that group for ours.’
But deep down, she knew that was impossible.
Circling around the place now meant losing over half an hour of time.
That was some precious time they simply didn’t have.
’’Prepare to fight!’’ she shouted. ’’We have to push through here!’’
Serious expressions immediately appeared on everyone’s faces.
’’You heard her!’’ Darius followed up. ’’Dragonfang! Defensive formation!’’
The summoned beasts below them slid to a halt right away.
Weapons appeared in each of their hands as mana began erupting throughout their group.
The Imperial Church quickly followed their example.
Gabriel’s voice immediately rang out, barking orders at his group members.
Just like that, after only a few seconds, both groups had jumped off their summoned beasts and taken their positions.
Theo exchanged glances with his friends and nodded.
’’Finally!’’ Owen shouted with a wide grin.
He didn’t even wait until Lyra’s beast had halted, jumping off with a large sledgehammer in his hands.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
His body tumbled across the ground.
Owen got up completely unfazed and kept on running forward.
The others rolled their eyes, having waited patiently for the beasts to stop.
Theo jumped down first, followed closely by Iris and Jim.
Lyra remained behind for another moment, quickly ordering her summons to retreat with the others before joining them.
’’Where do we go?’’ Jim asked.
Theo glanced across the formations, his eyes narrowing.
Dragonfang had taken the center, while the Imperial Church had gathered on their right.
’’We’ll take the left,’’ he said.
The others nodded and quickly followed him.
Within seconds, they caught up to Owen and reached their positions beside Dragonfang.
Owen planted his sledgehammer into the sand and stared at the approaching swarm.
’’That’s a lot of fucking birds,’’ he muttered.
Theo nodded slowly, placing his umbrella on his shoulder.
’’We’ll have to hurry up though,’’ he said, eyes narrowing. ’’I don’t think we have much time left.’’
As the others nodded around him, Theo’s gaze locked onto the fleeing group.
He watched as another of their members was lifted off the ground by swirling sand and crushed in the middle of the air.
The man’s screams barely even lasted a second.
Completely unmoved, Owen picked up his sledgehammer again.
’’Let’s get this party started,’’ he said with a grin.
Just as he wanted to rush forward, Theo raised a hand.
’’Wait,’’ he said, glancing at the other two groups. ’’We need to see what they can do first.’’
Theo understood perfectly that while his group was strong enough to deal with a B-rank, they couldn’t handle the rest at the same time.
They needed the other two groups for that.
And without knowing how strong they were, there was no way their small group should charge in.
’Besides,’ he thought, glancing at Gabriel. ’You never know what else they might do if you show them your back...’
Just then, Darius’s voice rang out loudly beside them.
’’Attack formation two,’’ he commanded.
The nine remaining members under him immediately began gathering mana.
Four people began gathering huge fireballs.
At the same time, another three began gathering pure wind mana behind them.
’’Target the top,’’ Darius commanded once more. ’’And fire!’’
The massive fireballs each released a massive fire beam straight into the sky.
At the same time, the three wind users released their spells.
WHOOSH!
Swirling wind beams shot up after the fire pillars.
Within seconds, they had all merged into a gigantic fire wave that stretched hundreds of yards into the sky.
WHOOSH!
The sky lit up as the flames merged together into a giant sea of fire.
SCREEEEEECH!
Suddenly, two loud screeches rang out from inside the swarm.
The two B-rank vultures immediately reacted, pushing through to the front.
Their blood-red eyes regained some clarity as they stared at the flames coming towards them.
Both immediately spread their wings wide.
WHOOSH!
Tens of thousands of tons of sand rose into the air, forming two enormous sandstorms in front of the flock.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The sea of fire crashed straight into them.
Flames spread everywhere, covering almost the entire sky ahead.
But instead of breaking through, they quickly started disappearing.
More and more sand was pulled into the two storms, smothering the flames until barely anything remained.
Darius didn’t hesitate one bit.
’’Attack four! Fire at will!’’
This time, lightning erupted throughout the Dragonfang formation.
Almost a hundred lightning bolts gathered above them, each easily as powerful as a silver core spell.
At the same time, the Imperial Church also began charging their attacks.
A huge light formation lit up around them, forming into a single massive beam as if they’d done it hundreds of times before.
CRACKLE! CRACKLE! WHOOSH!
Both the lightning and light shot towards the miniature sand tornado in an instant.
The two B-rank vultures had already formed dozens of layers of massive earth walls in front of their flock, though.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The entire sky lit up brightly as if a second sun had formed in the sky.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Huge cracks instantly spread across the earth walls.
Barely a second later, layers began shattering one after another.
The lightning bolts were barely stopped by the final few walls.
The beam of light, however, tore straight through.
BOOOOM!
One of the B-rank vultures hurriedly twisted aside.
The vultures behind it weren’t so lucky.
WHOOSH!
Over a dozen C-rank vultures were swallowed by the beam, their bodies instantly evaporating inside the light.
The beam continued for hundreds of yards before finally disappearing into the distance.
SCREEEEEECH!
The B-rank vulture let out an enraged screech as it stared at the empty space where part of its flock had just been.
Theo watched the attacks with slightly widened eyes.
’Both groups have amazing teamwork,’ he thought. ’And they even combine their attacks.’
’Definitely the kind of strength you’d expect from such large groups.’
Even so, the vultures didn’t show any signs of slowing down.
It wouldn’t take long before they closed the distance between them completely.
’The B-ranks are going to be a problem,’ he thought, narrowing his eyes. ’They are way stronger than the injured King Cobra we killed...’
Their strength was already approaching that of the Deathworm they’d encountered.
Even for twenty-five gold cores... that would be extremely troublesome.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Theo glanced back at the others.
’’Everyone,’’ he said. ’’Stay close and help each other.’’
The others immediately nodded.
Just then, shouting rang out from ahead.
’’HELP!’’
’’LET US THROUGH!’’
The remaining members of the fleeing group were almost there.
Several immediately headed towards Dragonfang, but Darius raised his battle axes.
’’Go around!’’ he shouted coldly. ’’You’re not entering our formation!’’