The Genius Evolution Store

"Run!"

Auric and Katarina immediately turned back and descended the mountain as quickly as possible.

"Warning! Everyone, get ready for battle!"

"!!!" Eva, Vera, and Eric were still wearing their earphones, so they heard him. Because they were cooking earlier, Auric and Ellia weren’t wearing them.

Still, there was no need for a warning.

A rumbling sound soon echoed through the ravine.

Ellia couldn’t help but raise her head and see a massive snake poking out from behind the mountain.

"Shaaaa!" The snake let out a cry.

"Snake side dish?" Ellia narrowed her eyes. She immediately stored everything in her storage before taking out her sword and picking up Auric’s earphone.

She rushed toward the group knowing that the snake before them was not just a normal snake. It was a rank 4 snake.

"This is a mess..." Vera reached the group and complained.

"It’s more than that." Eric squinted, noticing that other smaller beasts were actually following the snake.

"Shaaaa!" Once enough beasts had gathered, the snake let out another cry, charging together with the other beasts.

"Holy snake." Eva raised her shield and created a barrier.

Fortunately, Ellia managed to reach their position before the clash began.

Auric immediately gave orders. "Eva, face it head-on. Vera, Ellia, Eric, you three will hit this snake. Katarina and I will provide support from a distance, but take care of the beasts yourselves."

"Roger." Eva rushed forward and smashed the shield to the ground.

The snake charged straight at her shield, its body covered in green energy. On the other hand, Eva raised her spear and summoned her avatar. "Valkyrie Transformation!"

The Valkyrie avatar soon turned into particles and flowed into her body. A pair of wings made of energy appeared on her back. A translucent full-body armor and helmet formed right after.

"Haaaa!" Eva took a deep breath and braced for impact.

Bang!

The snake crashed into her. As expected of a massive snake, it completely overpowered her, especially since it was a downslope for the snake.

"Khhhh!" Eva was still standing strong even though she was being pushed back.

Vera and Eric moved to the left side of the snake, while Ellia was on the other side.

Seeing so many beasts about to reach them, Eric immediately sped up and formed his scythe.

"Eric!" Vera was a bit surprised that Eric took the initiative.

"I might be selfish, but I know when to be selfless." Eric slashed two beasts that pounced on him.

Their blood splattered, but before it reached the ground, Eric pointed his palm forward. "Blood, heed my command! Attack."

The blood that was supposed to fall to the ground suddenly flew forward like bullets, overwhelming the incoming beasts.

He still remembered the time he was surrounded by so many beasts. He didn’t intend to replicate the same thing anymore. That was why he had been training hard and picking up more techniques.

This time, he improved his elemental manipulation so that he could kill a lot of beasts in just a single attack.

"Go!" Eric shouted.

Vera’s expression turned grim. She released her wind element and hit the snake. The wind element spread, attempting to cut the snake.

However, it was only powerful enough to graze its skin.

"Tsk. As expected from a rank 4 snake..." Vera had just evolved her avatar to the adult form, so it wasn’t enough for a snake that was equal to a mature-form avatar.

Still, the attack worked, even though it wasn’t effective.

She just had to inflict enough cuts.

That was why Vera covered her legs with her wind. She made herself light and started climbing the mountain and following the snake’s body so that she could cut it over and over again, leaving numerous grazes on its skin.

She moved extremely fast because she didn’t have to worry about the beasts. After all, Eric was there to stop them.

However, things on the right side wasn’t as lucky. Ellia tried to cut the snake, but it produced worse results than Vera. Still, she could see the red line, showing that her attack still worked.

Unfortunately for her, no one was able to protect her from the beasts. As a result, they pounced on her, forcing Ellia to use her Void Step to avoid them.

She then gathered even more power to strike the snake. Before she finished, another beast came from behind.

Ellia didn’t have a change of expression. She knew the incoming beast, so she first completed her downswing without letting the sword touch the ground. Instead, she tossed it backward before she rotated her arm, making it look as if she had just grabbed a sword from her back.

Then, she made another swing, cutting the beast behind her before her blade reached the snake’s skin again.

Two more beasts came from her sides. Ellia slightly lowered her center of gravity and made a horizontal swing, spinning her body to make a 360-degree swing.

The beast on the right was startled and couldn’t stop Ellia. In the end, its body was split in two.

However, the beast on the left had seen the attack for a split second, so it immediately put its paws forward, blocking the strike.

As a result, the blade slid on the paws and stopped after hitting the snake’s skin.

The beast on the left immediately extended its head forward to bite her head, but Ellia kicked its head from below before she jumped up, using the momentum to slash the beast’s head.

There were a few more beasts behind it, so she had no choice but to handle them first before attacking the snake.

Meanwhile, Auric and Katarina leaped away to the right. As expected, the beasts noticed their movements. Some of them changed direction.

Auric asked, "Can you deal some damage to this snake?"

"Maybe, but the snake is so big and its skin looks so tough. It will be quite hard." Katarina narrowed her eyes. "I might have to resort to fusion. However, it will take time to form my power."

"In that case, that will depend on how much you intend to trust me." Auric stepped forward, as if telling her that he would be killing all these beasts until she was ready to attack.

Katarina chuckled. "I trust you."

Without hesitation, Katarina raised both hands and formed her bullets. She then joined them together, trying to combine them.

As she’d said, her skills were nowhere near Auric’s when it came to fusion. That was why it would take a quarter of a minute to fuse two bullets.

But against an enemy like this, she would need even more powerful bullets. That was why she had to fuse not two, not three, but four bullets.

The time she required to form this composite bullet increased drastically.

Auric, on the other hand, scanned the battlefield. His eyes tracked the energy that the beasts released to locate them.

Auric first wrote, "Earth Shaker."

It was a new battle technique. After reaching rank 2, he definitely needed to upgrade his own battle techniques, not just his Edict. The Edict could serve as a foundation, but it was used to combine other battle techniques. So, if the other battle techniques were weak, the Edict would result in a weak ability.

That was why he learned rank 2 battle techniques. Even though the time was limited, he managed to learn eight battle techniques.

Earth Shaker was one of them.

The ground suddenly cracked open, forming a small slit in the soil. Some beasts had their feet sink into the hole.

Then the rocks started to emerge from the ground before closing the gap and smashing multiple beasts that had been trapped.

Two beasts used this opportunity to close the distance between to Auric before pouncing on Auric.

Auric pointed his finger at them, using Piercing Thunder to blast them away.

After that, Auric raised his hand and formed a wind sphere. He shot that sphere, which exploded upon impact, causing the lightning element it contained to electrocute the beasts.

He hurriedly placed his hand on the ground and activated another ability.

Branches extended down, and the roots emerged from the ground, capturing the beasts.

*Roar!*

*Roar!*

The beasts were struggling. In desperation, some of them opened their mouths and released a breath of their respective elements.

Auric immediately shifted his position so that none of those attacks would reach Katarina.

He formed a barrier using the earth element as a foundation.

"Auric, not good! The snake didn’t just call for the beasts behind the mountain. That cry earlier also alerted the beasts in this ravine. They’re coming from our back!" Lindwurm warned Auric.

"!!!" Auric widened his eyes and glanced back. He still couldn’t detect any trace of energy, but he took a leap, bringing himself closer to Katarina so that he could react if beasts came from behind.

At this short distance, Auric could activate his Edict again to amplify his power.

Lightning Wave.

Auric sent forth many lightning bolts to overwhelm the beasts.

Some beasts died because of this attack, but a rank 3 beast appeared and let out a roar, neutralizing Auric’s power. It charged toward Auric.

If it had been just a one-on-one fight, Auric might still have a chance to stop this beast, but Lindwurm gave another warning. "Auric, behind you!"

*Roar!*

Another roar echoed from behind while two beasts pounced on Katarina.

"..." Katarina’s expression remained calm as though she showed complete trust in Auric.

Auric clicked his tongue and raised his finger.

"!!!" Katarina was astonished, seeing fire forming on Auric’s fingertip.

The fire grew larger as it integrated itself with the plant element, using the plant element itself to create a blaze.

Then, Auric used it one step further. He stacked this power with the wind element.

Auric then compressed this blaze with his hand.

Absolute Storm.

A heat wave spread in all directions, carrying the heat of his absolute fire element.

*Roar!*

*Roar!*

The beasts screamed in pain as their bodies were burned to ashes. The trees caught fire, some even crumbled upon contact.

’What? He has a fire element? And this kind of fire element... It’s the strongest I’ve seen... It’s comparable to Tommi’s fire element?’ Katarina was dumbfounded.

She expected Auric to hide another element, but the element he hid this time was simply too strong.

Even the rank 3 beast had to halt, using everything it had to block the heat wave.

Fortunately, this was a magical flame. As long as he supplied it with energy, the fire would spread. But if there was no supply from him, the fire would go out, so they didn’t have to worry about the fire spreading.

Auric glanced back, confirming that the two beasts behind Katarina had been burned to a crisp.

"I’m ready. Thank you for waiting." Katarina smiled and raised her hand. "Meteor!"

A massive sphere of energy formed on top of Katarina. Its size was ten times bigger than her body.

She waved her hands down. The sphere split into ten and flew toward the snake as well as the beasts around the snake.

The attacks themselves looked nothing unusual. However, the moment they hit their targets, the tough shell containing a massive amount of energy finally broke, causing the compressed energy to surge out.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Massive explosions occurred in many spots.

One meteor hit the ground and exploded, engulfing more than twenty beasts. The beasts simply blew the beasts’ bodies to pieces.

Another meteor hit the snake. Its explosion was so powerful that it actually obliterated the snake’s skin and chipped away its flesh, despite being one rank above Katarina.

Some other spots received the bombardment. Katarina couldn’t control the bullets after throwing them, but she definitely aimed for those locations.

All the bombardments killed a lot of beasts or injured the rank 4 snake heavily.

From this single attack alone, she killed over seventy beasts and created three big holes on the snake’s body.

Auric couldn’t help but turn around and say, "Meteor indeed."

Katarina just crossed her fingers.