A giant beast surrounded by flame faced Alexei in an area of the battlefield.
The beast looked like a bear, measuring 5 meters in height, its fur was a fiery red. A pair of moose antlers horns was on his head, and a long flaming tail was moving behind him.
Each time the beast exhaled, a small flame was expelled from its body, raising the temperature around it by a few degrees.
It had been an hour since Alexei and the Horned Flame Bear had been fighting. The beasts and humans around them had left an empty zone avoiding those two at all costs.
Water daggers slash through the air, rapidly heading toward the flame bear without any delay.
The flame bear erected a wall of flame in front of him to block the water daggers coming his way.
Alexei continued to send wave after wave of water daggers when he received a call from a member of his guild.
"Sir, four Bronze rank beasts have just been detected rushing to the battlefield."
Alexei frowned.
"How come you only discovered them now!"
"We're sorry, Anna is currently facing a Bronze rank beast. Without her, detecting Bronze rank beasts takes longer. We also believe that one of the Bronze rank beasts must have a concealment ability."
While Alexei was talking with his guild member, a claw wrapped in flame shot toward his head. Quickly dodging the attack by taking several steps back, a cut mark appeared on his cheek.
'I'll have to take care of this one before I can help the others. If a Bronze rank has a concealment ability, it could attack us at any time.'
"Warn everyone, tell them to watch out for ambushes."
"Yes, sir!"
***
To the east of the battlefield, a minotaur stared at Anna with hatred. Spears of ice were impaled all over its body, and one of its arms was missing.
Anna looked at him without any expression, turning her hand in the air, spear after spear, appeared all around her.
A shadow crossed the battlefield quickly, coming dangerously close to her. Before she could lower her hand, a pair of claws surrounded by shadows fell on her.
Seeing a shadow appear behind her, the spears of ice around her quickly moved, erecting a barrier behind her.
The pair of claws made contact with the ice spears, easily shattering them, leaving a deep wound in her back, and projecting her away.
A 3-meter-tall tiger emerges from the shadows, surrounded by darkness, turning its gaze towards the minotaur.
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A spear of ice shot through the air before piercing the tiger's shoulder.
*roars*
The tiger roared at Anna, who was standing up with blood dripping from her back.
Crystal essence emanated from her body before a layer of frost resembling hundreds of small linked spears spread over her back, preventing the wound from bleeding, her face still showing no expression like a statue of ice.
***
Kieran's eyelids quivered slightly before he opened his eyes.
'Where am I..?'
Slowly rising on the bed, he inspected his body.
'All my wounds have healed.'
he examined his whole body when a voice drew his attention.
"You should rest. You were seriously injured."
Turning his head in the direction of the voice, Kieran saw Sheyla, whose face was pale white busy tending to an injured person.
"I'm fine, thank you. How long have I slept?"
"You were asleep for four hours," Sheyla said in a weak voice.
"Four hours!? How is the situation on the battlefield?"
Kieran suddenly stood up, trying to get closer to Sheyla, but he stopped after a few steps, not wanting to disturb her.
Sheyla only glanced at him before continuing to treat the injured.
"The cultivators are still resisting the wave of crystal beasts. Some sections are doing better than others, but no beasts have crossed the front line for now."
Kieran thought about what he should do. If he returned now, he could help at the front. After a short hesitation, he prepared to leave the healing area when Sheyla stopped him.
"Where do you think you're going? My ability consumes a lot of crystal essence from me and the target of my ability. You shouldn't have much crystal essence left in your body."
He inspected his spiritual world and realized that Sheyla was right.
"If I don't go back, some people could die because of the lack of people at the front."
Sheyla was speechless at the audacity of this young man who was only at the middle stage of the Iron rank. He had been brought here with serious injuries, and once healed, he just wanted to go back?
"Even if you go back, a middle stage Iron rank won't change anything, stay here and rest."
"If everyone who is healed does this, the front line will never hold!"
Kieran started to lose patience, Sheyla had good intentions, but with all the visions of death he's seen in his nightmares over the past few months, he couldn't stand the thought of sitting around doing nothing while others gave their lives to defend this place.
"You're just a kid. It's not your responsibility to defend this place!"
"What a kid!? I came here accepting the risks like all the other cultivators!"
*boom*
As Kieran tried to reason with Sheyla, a loud explosion could be heard from outside the healing area.
Screams filled the place.
"It's coming from the east side. Did the beasts manage to get through!?"
"What are we going to do? We should have escaped before those beasts arrived."
"Calm down. There may only be one beast that made it through."
People panicked, most who were there didn't know how to fight, and those who could fight were injured.
Kieran ran to the front of the area, leaving Sheyla alone inside the tent. Another explosion sounded before a figure flew towards him.
Noticing it was a human, he grabbed it before it could fall on the ground. The power behind the blow knocked him back several steps before he stabilized.
He felt a cold but also soft sensation coming from his arms. He was holding a young woman with short blue hair, her complexion was pale, and blood was pouring from her lips. On her back, a piece of her clothing had been ripped, leaving deep wounds trapped in ice.
Anna stood up, leaning on Kieran for a moment before standing on her own, giving him only one look before looking away, her eyes landing on a cultivator with a tree emblem on his chest.
"Bronze rank beasts are about to arrive here. I will try to hold them off. Take advantage of this time to evacuate this area," says Anna.
"Yes, Mrs. Anna!"
The cultivator belonging to the Whisper of Life guild rushed into the injured area, warning all the cultivators who could help to evacuate the area. Little by little, the injured cultivators who could still move started running all over the place to evacuate everyone.
Anna's gaze fell on Kieran, who still hadn't run away.
"You have to evacuate too. I won't be able to protect you when they arrive."
Two beasts appeared in the distance as soon as she finished those words.