CHAPTER 46: THE BEASTS' FLOCK ATTACK (1)
As the three trucks moved on the way, Ramie could still feel few glares falling on him every once awhile.
He still did not know whether this type of perception was one of his bloodline abilities, or it was his 'unknown' innate spell. Anyway, this enabled him to perceive the intents behind the gazes of people once they cast their intention directly at him. Even if he was closing his eyes, he could still perceive the type of intents, their intensity, and even the direction where these intents coming from.
To him, this ability was as useful as his abnormal vitality, as these two abilities played a massive role in his survival thus far.
Scanning everyone around, Ramie saw that everyone in the truck was actually relaxed. As for the reason behind such behavior, it was clearly because the compound leader was with them.
Seeing the way everyone looks at that man, it was very obvious that they held a great respect toward him.
Lance had told him that the reason why only 100 inhabitants died thus far and not everyone… was mainly due to this leader.
Anyway, it was quite obvious how tragic the first few days of the crisis were on these people, which showed in their hardened expressions and their high life energy ignition percents, indicating the severity of battles they went through.
It was at that turbulent time that the compound leader made his contribution, earning him the respect of the people.
Anyhow, after all they went through, these people were elites now. And the harmless vibe that people living in peaceful times usually give off… was all but erased from them by now.
Looking at the warrior with him in the truck back, ramie saw that each and every one of them was holding a long spear. These spears all had a shaft that was made of metal, with their heads made of beasts' bones!
This was one of the ideas that the compound leader had come up with.
The metal bars with sharpened heads failed most of the time in penetrating the tough defense of the beasts, thus, the compound leader came up with the idea to use the bones of the beasts that they hunt, which were very hard, sturdy, and light in weight, to make weapons to fight the beasts.
And it worked, amazingly.
In fact, this particularity was one of the contributing factors of why they had survived thus far. It had even raised the effectiveness of warriors in battles by a huge margin. After all, what was the point of having strength if there were no tools to manifest this advantage in a direct fight? In the end, even the beasts had weapons that suited their competitive advantages, which came in the form of fangs and claws.
So, obviously, the warriors needed weapons too, to better exert their strength.
Anyway, it weren't only the warriors that were offered these spears, magicians and ordinary people too. Ramie himself got a spear, albeit a short one, the same as the other magicians and ordinary people, as his strength wasn't sufficient to effectively use a heavy long spear.
There weren't only spears in the compound, but other weapons too, also made of beasts' bones. However, the reason why the majority seems to favor spears… it was because the spear was a very easy weapon to use for the none-trained. It was just point and thrust. This was something that everyone was able to do.
Anyway, with the sharp bony ends, any simple thrust could inflict an injury. And this way, everyone could do his role in fighting the beasts, albeit only the weaker ones.
After a while on the road, the three trucks finally reached a certain hill, and were parked behind it.
Immediately, and as if they had done it many times before, the warriors and magicians got off the trucks, weapons in hand, and hurried to the top of the hill.
The hill top was flat, and was filled with large rocks. Everyone moved in ducked posture among the rocks, to stay hidden. Then, after reaching the edge of the hill top at a certain direction, they peered ahead.
No one said anything to Ramie, but he did as the rest, wordlessly. After all, Lance had already told regarding this matter.
In short, this rocky hill top was very suitable to hide them and give them a very good sight at the river. This river was exactly the hunting site where they usually get their preys.
Peering over at the river, ramie was now really stunned.
At the riverbank, a large number of beasts on both sides of the river could be seen drinking water. They came in all shapes and sizes. Some beasts were alone, while others were in hordes.
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The sight was just like a documentary of wild life. Except in this documentary, mythical creatures were the norm.
"Do you see the horde of gigantic buffalo-like beasts? That's our goal!"
Beside ramie, Lance spoke in low voice.
Ramie's line of sight fell on the horde of buffaloes following Lance's words.
Those buffalo-like beasts were as Lance's words implied, very similar in their morphology to the buffaloes. Except that they were larger… almost as large as an elephant.
Ramie couldn't help wonder on what was the hunting strategy here, as the number of beasts ahead wasn't small at all.
As if hearing his thoughts, Lance spoke again in low voice:"these beasts that you see on the riverbank are all herbivorous beasts. All of them only go active at daytime, and retreat to their hideout in the nighttime. But make no mistake; they are as formidable as the counterpart carnivorous beasts. And perhaps more, as most of them live in hordes that are overseen by tier-2 beast. And similar to the carnivorous beasts, they also fell under the division of normal beasts that had life energy cores, and magical beast that have magic energy cores."
Hearing these words, ramie went in deep thoughtful. 'Overseen by tier-2 beasts…!' however, he wasn't very surprised. After all, Reem's summoned beast was an obvious example that herbivorous beasts can also be as formidable as carnivorous ones.
Lance continued: "these buffalo-like beasts had strong sense of unity, making it is practically a suicide to try hunting any of them in the open, in front the horde."
"Few days ago, we went after one of them and killed it in one attack. However, and before we know it, the rest rushed at us and even killed two warriors! If it weren't for the compound's leader immediate action, a lot of us would have died here. So, when you kill one of them, be sure that the rest don't recognize you as the killer, otherwise…"
At the hill base, ramie saw the compound leader sneaks into another even lower hill nearby, holding two thick, long spears.
Lance spoke again: "Do you see the compound leader down there? He was once a prominent javelin thrower! He had even won few medals at the national level! Anyway, the reason why we no longer lost anyone in these days, was because that's how he hunts these beasts now – from a distance!"
Ramie was amazed that this man was actually able to hunt in this manner. After all, the distance between the hill he was stationed at and the closest buffalo beast was few hundreds of meters!
Seeing that the compound leader assumed a posture, ramie observed carefully.
Putting down one spear on the ground, the compound leader held one in his hand, scanned the location of the beasts, and then walked back few meters.
Then, and like a predator, charging at its prey, he exploded into motion, in a speed that ramie didn't think was possible for human to move at.
Bang!
The compound leader kicked off the ground with his leg violently, propelling his body forward in a sudden acceleration, like a race car. Then, and dashing several meter ahead with explosive momentum, he reached the hill edge in a split second, before suddenly and violently twisting his body in a sudden motion, transferring all of his gained momentum into the spear, as he shot it out toward the horde of beasts in the distance.
The might of Lv.2 warrior was fully displayed to ramie.
'This man might be actually able to fight that wicked dog beast head on!'
When ramie first felt the aura of the tier-2 wicked dog beast back in the city, he didn't think that it was power a human could ever contend with… but now, and seeing the power and speed of this man, he couldn't help to get excited at the prospect of leveling up his artifact, to see how much of effect would his spells have once he advances their rank.
'Sailing through the wind,' wasn't a proper description of how the spear was traveling – instead, saying that it was ripping its way through the air was more accurate of a description to its high velocity.
This compound leader was obviously adept at the javelin throwing sport!
With a pained cry, one of the buffalo-like beasts fell to the ground, while only half the spear shaft was apparent, protruding from its back.
Clamor! Clamor! Clamor! Clamor!
As one of them fall, the buffalo beasts started howling in rage as they trampled on the ground violently, looking for the killer.
Dust rose in the air and smaller beasts started running away to avoid being trampled to death by the angry horde.
The compound leader didn't stop there, but he picked up the other spear, and repeated the process once more.
However, this time, the spear missed, and instead, it cracked one large rock near the riverbank in half.
After a short while, the fallen buffalo went still. Afterward, and seeing the death of one of them, the horde clamored for a while before running off to the distant.
Ramie was now really astonished.
Just this easily, an elephant-sized beast went down from such a distance!
This manner of hunting was really unique, and obviously effective and safe.
'No wonder everyone holds this man in such a degree of admiration and respect…!'
Actually, the treatment the compound leader received wasn't baseless. After all, he was the strongest man around in incredibly dark and chaotic times, where strength was the deciding factor of who lives and who dies.
Especially now, that there is new specie at the top of the food chain, a one that even the modern weapons could not match its might.
Of course, if the threat was only the first tier beasts, then the humans might not have fallen to such desperate state. Unfortunately… this wasn't the case.
As the horde of the beast fled away, a large area around the riverbank was cleared of beasts. Of course, it wasn't as if all of the beasts in the distance or on the other side of the river fled away, but only the beasts in this particular area.
What happened afterward was just as lance told him. Even despite the presence of beasts, the group drove the three trucks to the river side, and in organized manner, they loaded the corpse of the buffalo beasts in an exceedingly short time. Of course, the biggest helper was the compound leader, as he was Lv.2 warrior with superior strength.
Throughout the process, the compound leader was constantly radiating his life energy, as a form of deterrence, to prevent any beast from attacking.
The other beast did not attack, and minded their own business. Ramie detected many beasts with peak tier-1 levels, which acted indifferently to their presence. Probably, because these beasts weren't afraid that they can threaten them, which was due to the beast's individual strength or due to them being in hordes.
Anyway, seeing a chance to gain some trust from the group, ramie projected two green vines to help them in the loading process. After all, it would be more convenient and easier for him if the others didn't raise their guard against him all the time.
This wasn't the only reason why ramie wanted to help. As after giving it some thoughts, he concluded that it was highly possible that they might suffer some beasts' attacks in the future, and that he would have to fight in a life and death battles with these warriors and magicians. So, in such scenario, it would be better for him to have some allies that are willing to help in times of need.
As for the other reason, his fight with the two demonic brothers made it obvious to him that his lack of pure offensive of defensive spells means that it wasn't safe for him to fight beasts alone. As for his green vine spell, it was only supportive spell, with an offensive aspect to it. As such, it would be better for him in the future if he partnered up with others, and play the role of supportive magician, at least until he unlocks offensive and defensive spells.
Having projected the vines, and displayed the maximum output of strength that he could exert, even the compound leader was surprised at the sight.
After all, even though Ramie could not exert the vines full potential, due to him lacking the aptitude for the wood and plant paths, the green vine was still rare grade spell. So, even at part of its potential, it could still be considered a strong common graded spell.
Some of the group exclaimed in surprise. The green vine spell strength was impressive to them, and in these times, strong individuals were always welcomed. However, in return, some distanced themselves even further away from him, and felt even more alarmed.
Anyway, seeing that he had successfully stirred the interest of the three magicians in the group, which approached him, and even throw some words of praise, Ramie knew that his display gave the desirable effect.
After all, the magicians' standing in the compound came second only to the compound leader. Which wasn't weird, as the power that their offensive spells could produce was much higher than a warrior on the same equivalent level.
This point was obvious when Neil killed the snake-headed beasts that lance was defeated against.
Finishing the loading process, without any incident, the group went back to the compound on the same path they had come through.
…