- Slash! -

Using all the energy he could muster, Ethan dodged to the left. The wolf stopped its charge, turned towards him and approached carefully.

Another wolf ran past it and tried bite Oliver in half. Several mana blades pinned the creature down.

The wolf thrashed and contorted its body. One by one, the blades of mana were breaking apart.

Ana sent a bunch of rocks towards the beast that attacked Ethan but was forced to hide beneath the ground when the other 2 targeted her.

One of them started digging while the other slashed a tree and climbed onto another.

“Shit!” Arthur’s voice was heard within the canopy. It was now one on one, yet almost every human was outmatched.

Ethan pulled out his knife and charged at the wolf in desperation. He could probably kill it with the help of his phantasms, but it would take time.

Oliver would be the first to die, and then Arthur. Ana stood a good chance if she dug low enough, but how could he be satisfied with letting the brothers get killed? He was indebted to both of them.

“Argh!” his headache intensified to the point where it affected his vision. At low ranks, high speed mana recovery was the ultimate cheat, but he did it for too long at too fast a pace.

- BOOM! -

Just as all hope was lost, a comet struck from the sky obliterating several trees, trunks and all. A powerful aura hit everyone’s senses. It was so terrifying that even the wolves stopped in their tracks. When the dust settled, 2 giant wings were revealed.

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It looked like a hawk, but its feathers, beak, and claws were light blue, and its whole body was half transparent. Even crazier, while it chomped on a large wolf, its beak turned red. Its feathers also turned brown or green as if trying to match its environment.

“Now’s our chance!” Arthur jumped from a tree and landed near Oliver. While his wolf was being dismembered by the hawk, its pack mates were retreating as well. “Earth girl, get us down!”

The boys clustered together at Ana’s last known location and the earth slowly took them in. The girl was on her knees from overexertion. Though his ears began ringing, Ethan placed a hand on her shoulder and started pouring mana.

“Breathe…” he said. “I know it’s hard, but you need to get us lower.”

The giant bird was around level 4. Just by taking flight, it could turn this place into a crater.

Though breathing heavily, Ana placed her palms on the ground.

“This is… training too, right?” she smiled weakly. For about 5 minutes, they kept going down.

Suddenly, a thunderous sound was heard and the earth began to shake.

“Is it attacking or leaving?” asked Arthur.

“Who knows? Let’s… wait here for a while.” Ethan stopped gathering mana and leaned on a wall. It was getting harder and harder to maintain consciousness. Despite this, his arms were crossed and his face stoic.

‘This is nothing.’ he thought through gritted teeth. ‘If I can’t even help a few kids, then I might as well have stayed dead.’

- BOOM! -

An even stronger earthquake reached the group’s position.

“What the hell?” panicked Oliver.

“Maybe it found food?”

“As long as it isn’t us, it can eat the whole damn forest, especially those muts.”

Another hit was heard and felt, though it came from a slightly different direction.

After the rainbow hawk found a giant wolf running through the canopy, it assumed there’d be more prey hidden nearby. Seeing the scrambling wolves and humans, its suspicions were confirmed. So, after devouring its target, bones and all, it began destroying the forest in hopes of finding more.

’I f***ing want one!’ thought Ethan.

The earth around them was becoming unstable. Ana spent the remainder of her energy trying to keep the walls from swallowing them. However below, the soil started slipping down as if it was sucked into a vortex.

“Ana?” Only Oliver noticed, but it was too late.

Suddenly, the ground caved in and all 4 teens fell into the abyss.

“Ouch!”

They landed on solid stone, some more successfully than others. Using their friend’s glowing pills, they checked out their surroundings.

‘Find opportunity and seize it…’ The more he analyzed the cave, the more Oliver’s eyes started sparkling.