A Story of Evil

Chapter 151: Crystal Hunting IV

As soon as the creatures rose from the sands, Sol used his [Analysis] on them. Making sure that he had every bit of information that could be used before the real exchange could be made.

Meanwhile, Hendrickson and Cain were already fending away the creatures. With Hendrickson using wide deadly swings while, Cain supported him from behind with his bullets. Jade also helped in keeping the creatures at bay by using his explosions. Making their movements lag in between hits.

"I'll come up with a plan soon. Just make sure that they're preoccupied." Sol said as the stats of the monsters finally came out.

[Monster Type: Desert Serpents]

[Level: 50]

[Limited Information: Secrets deadly venom which it can also spray on its opponent. Anything that makes contact with it receives a burn effect.]

[Limited Information: The scales on its body are almost indestructible.]

There wasn't enough information provided. Five serpents in total faced them at that time. All of these are on the same level. Making them difficult to deal with. 

Another factor which made the fight difficult was the speed that came with their size. The serpents were gigantic yet they could move so fluidly and effortlessly like the laws of gravity didn't work on them. Yet, it wasn't like they were impossible to beat. Not with Sol leading the team.

"Nathan use your inferno field, place it under those creatures."

"Got it." The flame user said, slamming the ground with his hand which released a wave of flames that crept quickly until it reached the serpents.

The others backed away at this point as the monsters began squirming, just a little bit from the heat. Yet, they didn't allow themselves to lose just like that. The serpents whipped their tails; hitting Hendrickson who was thrown back to the tree. Making the leaves and some of the branches fall.

The steel user was fine since he used his [Iron Body] skill. However, the impact was so great that he momentarily lost consciousness rendering him useless in the remaining parts of the fight.

Meanwhile, Cain was also targeted by this. But Sol was able to respond on time. Increasing the gravity on the tail of the monster and making it fall just before impact. Cain didn't miss this chance and dropped a grenade on top of the tail jumping away as he activated the trigger.

This created a large and powerful explosion. Making the ground rumble as the unfortunate tail was cut from its main body. The damaged serpent hissed; secreting its venom on the one that caused it pain.

Jade was the one who intercepted this, burning all the liquid down with a thin layer of green flames that was set as a wall.

With the fight being reset, Sol continued giving out the orders. Staying at the back as he optimized the movement of every member of the group.

The serpents were half distracted by the burning which continued hitting their bare part., Although resistant to flames, the creatures weren't immune to it. That is the principle behind Sol's idea of spreading flames under them. It was the only part of the monsters which wasn't covered by scales.

Of course the creatures tried slithering away but, Sol already set up walls of invisible space to hinder their exit. They could destroy this if they exerted more force but, just the shock of hitting something without actually seeing a wall was enough to prevent them from trying. This left the serpents with only one route of escape, that is, under the ground.

Alice however, wasn't going to allow such creatures to escape without putting up a proper fight. That's why she ran up the tail of the snake which got wounded. The other creatures tried attacking her during this interval. Snapping their heads at her which came almost at the same speed as a fired bullet. Alice was able to dodge these through her [Danger Sense]. Aside from this, there was also support coming from everyone else who were instructed by Sol to cover for Alice. 

The girl's nimbleness and her lightness helped greatly in running up the creature. With gaps being present in between its scales, Alice got herself a strong foothold. As if she was back to her thieving days when she needed to run on top of a tiled roof.

Although slippery in their movements, the outer skin of these serpents weren't smooth. In fact, it was rough due to their habitat being the desert. Thus Alice found no problem that is, except for the secreted toxins of the creature which came directly at her at that moment. A large quantity of it which looked impossible to escape.

Everyone thought it would hit. The fright was enough for them to feel as if time itself has stopped. However, Alice wasn't the type of enemy which could be easily defeated that way. She used her flicker and leapt up, giving her enough momentum to finally reach the head of the snake and, in one quick execution, she stabbed both its eyes. Making the creature fall to the ground as it began trashing its body. Hitting the other serpents along the way.

Cinder didn't waste this chance and activated her phoenix. This and the fallen serpent were enough distraction for Jade to come close to one more serpent. They tried hitting the summoned creature but, all their attacks simply evaporated upon contact.

The phoenix continued flying in the air, giving Alice enough time to retreat. As soon as she was out of harm's way, the summon landed on the serpents. Yet instead of getting them burned, the creature actually descended to one person Jade.

"Everyone back away!" Sol commanded as Jade began absorbing not onlyt the flames of the phoenix but also, the flames that was dispersed on the ground. Sol aided by restricting the movements of the serpents through his gravity although this was only to a limited extent. However this alone was enough as Jade was able to charge up just on time. Releasing [Overheat] on one serpent making green flames immediately rise all around its body as the monster became nothing but an indistinguishable corpse.

With two of the monsters down, the remaining three finally fell back. These hissed as one by one, the serpents dived towards the sand. Disappearing just as quickly as they showed up.

As the threat left, everyone fell to the ground, a bit exhausted but nevertheless still capable of movement. Meanwhile, Hendrickson have just woken up. Activating his sword again as he rushed forward looking for enemies. Yet, the only thing he saw were the two corpses and nothing else.

"What happened? They escaped?" He asked, unaware that he lost consciousness for quite a while.

"Three of them got away." Sol began as the group began to feel defeated. However, he didn't stop there and, in fact had a smile worn on his face. The same one which meant utter victory as he looked at Cain.

"Were you able to place it?" 

Everyone wondered what it meant but, it was only Cain who had the answers to this. The same Void citizen brought out a small circular device and held it on his hand. On it was a small dot that continued to move.

"Does this answer your question?"

"Wait, I'm confused. What's happening here exactly?" Hendrickson asked. A question which was actually on everyone else's mind.

"There was no way for us to defeat those things entirely without loosing a lot of resources. That's why I trusted Cain to place a tracker on one of the serpents before they left."

"A tracker?"

"It gives us the current location of those things as well as where they are headed. Everything will appear on this device I'm holding." Cain said in reply, waving the same circular device he had on his hand.

"We can hunt them down which fixes our issue of looking for monster nests." Cain added, his voice sounding victorious at that moment as he tapped Hendrickson's shoulder as he asked:

"Who's gonna be the dead weight of this team again?"

'Why you little" Even before Hendrickson could do anything, Sol increased the gravity on both him and Cain. Making them stop and focus on things that were of higher importance.

"It's good that we didn't need to waste resources on those things. Let's just salvage what we can with the remains and eat our lunch for now. Agreed?"

"Fine by me." Nathan said, moving back to the camp.

"Got no problems." Jade said, following suit.

Cain and Hendrickson were also released from their bind at that moment. With Cain giving one last remark to the steel user. Turning as he said:

"Looks like I'm not the one who needs to prove myself around here."