บท 44: Demon Beast

The group of friends began to see pieces of broken walls and pillars covered by moss and plants, and realised they had reached the edge of the Ning You City Ruins. Along the way, they had encountered several different groups of demon beasts over the last few days but all were at Silver Rank at most, making it an easy task to defeat them and to harvest any of the spirit herbs which the beasts were protecting.

However, nothing came close to the rarity and value of the Azure Water or Silver Moondrakes, which made Ning'Er even more grateful that she had the fortune to find them. They spread out a map they had purchased from an Adventurer's Guild on a large rock as they discussed their next steps.

"From what I've been told, these ruins have Gold Ranked demon beasts which have taken over some of their old structures as their homes. We will need to be more careful once we enter in." Linjian warned the rest.

Ziyun turned to Ning'Er, "Where are we headed to? Most of the obvious places such as the homes and vaults of the nobility, as well as the past Governor of the city, would have been cleared out already."

Ning'Er pointed to a location at the outskirts of the city. "We don't need to go anywhere close to the main parts of the city today. We just need to come here to complete our mission!"

The others looked at where she was pointing, completely puzzled. It was the last place that anyone would want to risk looking for treasure or valuables. It was a large commoner graveyard, which required a rugged trek through rocky hills and was situated next to a region of smelly swampland.

It was in this unwanted patch of land that nobodies would be buried, and even family members who wanted to visit the graves of their loved ones would have an arduous trek, as well as face the risk of powerful beasts from the swamp. No one would have thought that anything of value could be found there, and no adventurer would have wanted to face such risk for no return. What could Ning'Er have found out about this location?

They reached the rocky hills which would have taken a commoner three hours to navigate through but for Gold Ranked warriors like them, they would be able to proceed at many times the speed. Within just over half an hour, they leisurely looked out at the multitudes of crudely engraved gravestones which lined the valley.

"Everyone spread out and look for a gravestone marked with the name, Li Tie," Ning'Er instructed. "Watch out for demon beasts and whistle the moment anybody needs any support. We will be able to provide help within seconds so stay safe!"

They searched through the large and chaotic rubble of stones, overgrown weeds and gravestones as quickly and efficiently as possible. Fifteen minutes later they heard a piercing whistle and gathered around Du Ze, who had called for them.

"What's wrong? I don't see any demon beasts around. Did you find the tombstone?"

He pointed at a gravestone which had been broken into five different pieces. It was obvious that the tough rock had not been cracked apart by natural means and they wondered what beast had smashed it apart, seemingly with one blow. Around thirty yards from the broken tombstone, they found a gaping hole that plunged into a darkness they could not see through.

Ning'Er suddenly put her finger to her lips, signalling for them to keep quiet. She had found a few deep imprints in the mud around the hole, and was concerned about the bloody aura that the claw marks exuded. She extended her soul perception into the hole but all she could sense was a bone-chilling cold from within, and was unable to gain any clues about the demon beast which had left those fresh footprints.

No matter what, she knew that she needed to enter into the hole because she had come all this way for one main mission only. She motioned for her three friends to position themselves in readiness around the hole as she prepared two flares to light up and throw inside. They all took out their weapons and held their breath as she threw them as far inside as she could.

The flares revealed a stairway leading deep inside with no demon beast in sight. From what they could see from the dim white light that the stairs went in for more than a hundred yards. It was an ominous thought, walking into such a gloomy place, with a formidable demon beast or more waiting around a hidden corner, patiently stalking its dinner.

To be safe, she decided to merge with her Panterran demon spirit and lead her friends into the dark passageway. Her demon spirit gave her an effective night vision, allowing her to see objects and creatures by the different levels of heat and cold that they gave off. Du Ze also transformed into his demon beast and followed closely behind her to support her in the event of sneak attacks. Ziyun and Linjian formed the rear in their human forms, holding flaming torches in one hand and their weapons in the other.

Together, they slowly made their way forward. The stairs led downwards for two hundred yards, before they entered into a long, wide corridor. They found lamps hanging at the side of the walls and was surprised to find that they were still filled with fuel. Lighting each of the lamps along the way helped to settle their nerves a little as they kept a look out for demon beasts.

Finally, they came to the end of the corridor, leading into a massive hall that had been built underground. Who was Li Tie? This was clearly not a grave. It was an entire base that had been built, hidden under the commoner graveyard! They could smell the scent of rich medicinal herbs as they stepped into the dark hall.

The found a few more lamps hanging at the side of the hall and continued lighting them up as they made their way towards the vigorous medicinal aura that grew even stronger when they drew nearer to it. There was a whole section of the hall set aside as a spirit herb garden. Of course, after all these years untended, most of the herbs had shriveled up and died, and weeds were completely overgrown. However, there were a few that had lasted the test of time and had become even more potent across the centuries.

As they drew closer, they did not see a large, glassy eye slowly open and rotate to view the incoming intruders with contempt and murderous intent. Ning'Er only had a moment to growl a reflexive warning before a large creature launched itself, from a clump of tall grass, at full speed towards them. She deftly jumped to the side using the incredible leaping power of the Panterran to avoid the creature but a tail slapped across Du Ze's chest, flinging him twenty yards to the side, his momentum only stopping when he crashed painfully against the wall.

They looked at the demon beast in horror wondering what strength could launch a fully grown Scarlet Flame Bear to the side as though it were a baby. The flickering flames from their torches and the side lamps highlighted a massive alligator, its breath appearing like clouds of steam in the chilly hall.

It was a Blood Alligator. Ning'Er remembered that one of the top ten experts in Glory City, Gong Liangshu, had merged with a Blood Alligator and had showed tremendous fighting ability. Remembering something, she sent a loud roar to try to draw the demon beast's attention on herself, and to warn Ziyun and Linjian.

Right at that moment, a stream of red flames shot out towards them. It was the unique ability of the Blood Alligator, Blood Flames! This lethal fire had the ability to latch on to an enemy's body and use blood as the fuel to continue burning at a terrifying intensity until there was no more blood left to utilise.

Fortunately, Ziyun and Linjian had either responded very quickly to the warning, or had already been ready for a ranged attack. They had started lunging backwards to gain distance from the dangerous creature before it even made a move. The Blood Flames missed them by inches and they took the opportunity to quickly merge with their demon spirits. This was not a beast they could take lightly and Ning'Er could sense that it had likely reached early Black Gold Rank!

She contemplated if she should signal a retreat because this was an opponent unlike any they had encountered before. Even the hydra had only been at the peak of Gold Rank, and her friends may lose their lives at this rate! She glanced to the side and saw that Du Ze had extricated himself from the wall, holding his shoulder where a deep gash could be seen.

She decided to take an aggressive stance to force the Blood Alligator's attention would be focused on her. With the Panterran's abilities combined with her battle instincts, she was confident that she would be able to survive, she was just afraid for her friends.

A ball of black lightning began to grow in the Panterran's mouth. She feinted a frontal attack and as the beast shot another stream of Blood Flames towards her, she had already lunged to the side and launched a full powered sphere of condensed energy into the side of the beast. Although its back was covered with near impenetrable spiked armour, its stomach had less protection on it. The problem was that with its short legs and low center of gravity, it was difficult to attack its weak spots.

The lightning strike into the side of the alligator mostly landed on its tough spikes but a small part of it managed to overlap into the softer underside. It roared in pain as the insidious black energy caused intense heat on the outside skin, and also began to penetrate deeper into the organs. However, because such a small portion of it had reached through to damage the Blood Alligator, it was able to use the soul force from its Black Gold Rank to quickly purge its effects. Despite this, the excruciating pain caused the beast to eye the Panterran as its main enemy.

When her friends saw that the destructive lightning strike of the Panterran had barely caused any damage to the Blood Alligator, they realised that the demon beast was at a level that none of them could hope to match except for Ning'Er. Instinctively, they knew that they should stay out of her way so as to not distract her, and began supporting with ranged attacks aimed to distract.

The Winged Divine Winged Lion King soared from the distance, launching yellow fireballs from its mouth while the Giant Winged Roc tried to use the cover of fire to target the Blood Alligator's eyes with its bladed feathers. However, this was too easily defended by the beast, simply by shutting its eyes and turning its heavily armoured head slightly, none of their attacks could even scratch its skin.

Right as the beast began to feel a gloating sensation at how weak its opponents were, a large slab of rock slammed against the side of its face at full force. Although the Scarlet Flame Bear could not compete in close ranged combat with the Black Gold ranked Blood Alligator, at the precise point that it was distracted, Du Ze started throwing huge pieces of jagged rock using the bear's immense brute strength.