CHAPTER 57: ARRIVAL OF THE SURVIVORS' CONVOY (2)
"Bring the weapons! Call everyone! Prepare for battle!" the compound leader roared his orders with urgency. Then, he jumped up on one of the two trucks that were supporting the wooden barrier.
Looking the direction where Reem pointed earlier, and seeing a massive figure charging over, the compound leader's countenance turned extremely heavy.
Seeing his expression, Ramie gulped down a mouthful of saliva, his expression terrible to behold.
For the second time, and in less than 12 hours, the compound was attacked by a tier-2 beast!
'Could this beast be drawn here by the scent of blood from yesterday's battle…?'
Although the blood was cleaned yesterday… exactly for the purpose of avoiding other beasts being attracted to the smell, but Ramie couldn't help to question. After all, he couldn't just believe that their luck was simply this bad.
As the roars of the beast approached closer and closer, the weapons' bundles were brought, and all of the warriors and magicians gathered near the gate, preparing to defend against the assault, for the second time in less than 12 hours.
With terrible expressions, all of the warriors and the two magicians in the compound gathered behind the gate barrier, preparing for the incoming confrontation.
Many of them had already fought yesterday at night, and had barely gotten any rest, but now, they had to go through it all again, and in such short interval.
The newly awakened warriors were still in the initial state… they were yet to get used to their life energy, which meant that they won't be able to exert all of their strength.
Normally, they shouldn't be allowed to partake in a confrontation with tier-2 beast caliper, but… what was alternative?
Judging by the direction where the roars were coming from, it was apparent that the beast was coming at the gate.
"Be careful, this beast has the size of a truck! Quickly, anyone aside from the warriors and magicians; gets away from here, and hides in his house!"
The threat now was not something to be confronted with numbers. So, any one with no special abilities would just hinder the others.
In this fight, and against such a monstrous size, quantity was useless. Only quality can make difference here!
Also, if the warriors and magicians present here were unable to handle the beast, then the average people would be even less so.
Originally, the total number of individuals in the compound was only around 300. However, in yesterday's battle alone, over 60 souls were lost to the beasts. It was a horrifying loss in any standard… especially considering that the 60 fatality were among the 100 most capable individual in the compound. As for most of the remaining survivors, they were mostly children, women, or old people, which were less useful when fighting the savage beasts and even less willing to.
Roar!!
Roar!!!!!
ROAAAAR!!!!!!!
The roars of the beast got closer and closer. The group of magicians and warriors steeled their hearts for the imminent death battle.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
By now, everyone could sense slight tremors spreading across the ground in a certain rhythm. This was obviously the beast's heavy steps.
'Just how heavy that thing is…!'
The compound leader stood atop one of the trucks that were supporting the wooden barrier, one of the warriors ran over and handed him a bundle of the throwing javelins as well as the bony spear that he had use against the tier-2 flying beasts yesterday.
Picking up one of the javelins, the compound leader assumed a throwing posture, and with a 'whoosh,' he sent the javelin flying toward the beast, hoping to kill it before it reaches the compound.
Seeing the compound leader through the javelin, everyone held their breath, awaiting the leader's expression to loosen in relief, to see if he could inflict either a killing or crippling injury on this beast.
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However, instead of the leader's expression loosening or rejoicing in triumph, his face darkened even further… killing their hope on the spot.
He did not stop there, but picked up one javelin after another and threw it at the charging beast.
However, and to every one's dismay, the beast didn't roar in agitation or an anger, to indicate that he had suffered any damage. Thus making the present warriors and magicians feel even more agitated, as they didn't know whether the leader's attacks missed the target or that the beast's defense was so terrifying that these types of attacks didn't cause the least damage to it.
Suddenly, the leader's expression changed. On the same time, Ramie felt a massive aura charge at the wooden barrier with a great speed!
Ramie heart sank at once.
'This thing is actually intending to charge through the barrier…!'
Everyone expected the beast to attack the barrier first, and then force his way in. As such, they intended to inflict as much damage as possible to the beast as he's busy trying to make path to get inside the compound.
However, and sensing that the beast was coming at the barrier in such momentum, it was obvious that the beast was intending to charge his way through the barrier.
One quick glance at Reem that was about to shout in warning confirmed ramie's thought.
Not wanting to wait a second further, Ramie turned and charged away with his top speed.
A moment later, two shouts of warning sounded out in succession, warning everyone to run away from the barrier.
One was deep, very loud and angry, while the other was soft and barely audible.
BOOOOM!!!!!
RUMBLE!!
With an ear shattering, violent sound of explosion, the wooden warrior was blasted apart to the inside of the compound, sending wooden shrapnel in various sizes flying everywhere.
As the wooden barrier caved in and exploded, the two trucks were pushed violently to the inside of the compound, flipping and sliding on the ground in such momentum as though they were two speeding trucks that had been involved in a violent road accident.
The two trucks crushed anyone who didn't move in time, and countless wooden shrapnel showered the running people, killing few on the spot and injuring others.
A thick, two meter long trunk of tree that was part of the barrier came hurling violently though the air with great momentum at Ramie's direction.
The trunk was rotating in the air like a bat that had slipped away from the grip of a baseball player, as he was swinging it at the ball.
Thud! Thud!
The hurling trunk hit two warriors on its path that were running away from the gate.
The first one, a newly awakened warrior, was hit on the head.
Given that he was new with life energy, and that his ignition was less that 3%, he was completely unable to withstand such immense force. Thus, his head was crushed, killing him on the spot.
The other warrior had ignition percent of 68%, making him equivalent to high tier-1 beast. Plus, he had advanced at the beginning of the crisis. Thus, he was adept at using his life energy, which showed, considering that he pushed all the energy at the backside of his body to block any attack that might came from the beast.
As such, and as one of the edges of the hurling trunk hit him on the back, the warrior was flung violently to the side. He only suffered a slight bruise.
Ahead of the two warriors, was Ramie!
So far, he completely depended on his innate spell ability to sense the killing intents aimed toward him to evade attacks.
But this trunk was inanimate object! It has no aura or killing intent. As such, Ramie was clueless to the approaching hundreds kilograms weight of trunk that came at him crushing with huge momentum.
Bam!
Ramie was smashed violently at his right shoulder with one of the edges of the trunk.
Even though the trunk's momentum was lowered upon hitting the last warrior, but Ramie had no life energy protection. Thus, his right shoulder's was shattered upon the impact, and the meat was torn apart, mingling with the bones, while he was flung away in the air, rotating, as though he was a doll that was thrown away by an angry child.
Spining in the air, his right arm that was now attached to his deformed shoulder by a thin piece of meat finally broke free from his body, and was thrown in a different direction.
After flying for a distance, his body finally crushed to the ground. And he displayed no sign of movement afterward.
Originally, the large cluster of people weren't standing far the barrier, waiting for the beast to attack the barrier so that they shower him with their assaults.
They didn't anticipate the beast simply charging through the gate like that, which was understandable, considering that the barrier was made from double layer of thick tree trunks and was supported with two trucks that were parked behind the barrier to reinforce it with weight.
This display of power on the beast side exposed everyone to a shower of variant sized wooden shrapnel, and two smashing trucks.
Through the translucent lightening shield spell that Reem had casted to protect herself, she witnessed Ramie's shocking situation, and cried out in horror.
But he wasn't the only one in a sorry situation…
Many newly awakened warriors met their end here. Three were crushed by one of the flipping trucks, one with the hurling trunk, and few had several large wooden spikes planted in their bodies. Others too were injured with shrapnel.
The two truck's cargo beds were loaded with hundred of bricks, to increase the weight that supports the barrier. However, these bricks flew at them and worsened the situation by an entire notch.
Luckily, the leader had ordered the average people to hide in their homes. Otherwise, the death toll would have been much worse.
Lance was now a peak Lv.1 warrior. Hence, his defense saved him from sustaining any injury.
Reem had her defensive spell, and so did her beast.
Neil on the other hand was the furthest from the gate. And luckily, a warrior with 73% life energy ignition percent was running behind him. So, he unintentionally protected him by receiving the shrapnel's shower.
As for the shy Etta, she had absorbed too many cores through the night, raising her power from low to mid to high to peak in one go. Hence, her life energy was very unstable, which is why she stayed home.
Roar!!
Right now, a towering figure was inside the compound, scanning everyone with eyes that were oozing with savageness and greed for the rich harvest ahead.
The beast charged in while running on his four limbs, but now, it stood up on its hinder legs, towering over the two flipped over trucks.
Finally, the people inside managed to get a clear look at the enemy.
The beast was large, heavy, and was covered with thick, silver-blue colored fur. Standing on its hinder leg, the beast casted a huge shadow on the ground, making every ones heart's quiver in trepidation.
"It looks… like a bear!" one of the warriors blurted out.
ROAAAR!!!
Unleashing a savage roar, the beast charged at them with his massive figure, causing the ground to rumble under his heavy weight.
This beast had indeed caught the scent of the blood from yesterday's battle. Thus, he had come here to satisfy his insatiable hunger. So, upon seeing the number of preys ahead, he could no longer hold his urge back.
Upon this sight, the faces of everyone fell and their hearts tightened.
Immediately, they rotated their life energy to its max, and raised their spears, trying to resist the beast.
However, and as the hill of muscles and savagery charge at them with a momentum of an oversized tank! And coupled with the rumbling ground under the gigantic thing, the charge of the beast gave them an illusion as though he was a landslide and they were a mere weak ants standing in its way!
Although everyone remained in their spot, and held their ground… but, it was obvious that it wasn't out of dedication or bravery. Simply, they were too afraid to runaway and give their back to such monstrosity!
"Warriors, hold your ground! Magicians, cast your spells! Now!!" the order of the leader sounded out from the right wing of the group.
Suddenly, and as the order fell, the speeding silhouette of the leader came rushing from the side, with a long spear in his hand…
His face was red with anger, and the swelling veins of rage made his forehead and neck look like a map.
Less than a day ago, a lot of people died, and among them, 11 warrior and 3 magicians fell. And now, many warriors and probably one magician were killed as well.
He simply couldn't take it anymore. He had to stop the bleeding in numbers. Otherwise, the compound might become history in no time at this pace.
Thus, with a belly that was filled with volcanic anger, he rotated his life energy and prepared to dash at the beast, deciding to sneak attack and land a fatal hit with his spear the exact moment the beast attacks the group.
…