Kill or being killed
Kill or being killed
From the sound, it seemed like the beasts were still far away and probably not over the wall.
However, the relief barely lasted two minutes as the first flying beasts could be seen hovering over the streets and diving towards their human prey that aimlessly ran around trying to find a place to hide.
The pitiful sounds of humans crying out for help, their pained shouts mixed with the screeches of beasts, and the anguished cries of terrified kids were bloodcurdling, to say the least and everyone huddled together, praying for their dear lives.
Jason tried his best to ignore the sounds even if goosebumps erupted all over his body. But after he finished skimming through a few tutorial videos, he decided to take a look outside.
There were mainly four different kinds of beasts that Jason could see in the sky.
I)low/mid awakened beast→ Iron feathered hawks
II)late awakened beast→ heavyweight vultures
III) mid/late-evolved→ thunder eagles
IV) low/mid unblemished→ winged wind centipede
"Malia, Greg...what are the strongest ranked beasts you two can defeat solo or in a group?
Jason asked without looking at them.
The beast tide didn't seem normal and Jason had a premonition that this beast tide wouldn't end without something huge happening.
Greg and Malia also looked outside while Malia answered.
"I'm at the Initiate-Master rank and I can defeat up to two low-unblemished ranked beasts at once.
With the help of my soulbonds, maybe five to six but that's the most I can hold out."
Defeating an unblemished beast while being at the same rank indicated that Malia´s soulbonds provided her with a large amplification in strength, so she could fight against them head-on.
Killing beasts at the same rank was harder the further one walked down the path of cultivation because the divide between human ranks and beast ranks only widened further.
While Jason was astonished about her strength, Greg also answered,
"I'm at the 3rd Adept rank and due to the physical enhancement of my soulbond, I can defeat a group of mid awakened beasts or two late awakened beasts at most. With Taurus, I can defeat a few low evolved beasts."
Jason listened carefully and looked at the mana cores of everyone within the safety room, but it looked like even if there was someone with decent strength, he or she wouldn't be able to help. A cursory glance across all the nervous faces told him that they were going to faint once a single beast entered the room.
He wasn't sure if a beast would enter this room, but some beasts were extremely sensitive to smell and pheromones. And, due to the anxiety most people spread inside the room, it wouldn't be a surprise if a beast was already on its way to rip apart their little hiding hole.
The atmosphere inside the room was tense and nobody made a sound. The hands of the clock seemed to move slowly and Jason was still looking around attentively. To his dismay, he could see the first beasts roaming through the streets….The gunshot sounds could still be heard but a few beasts seemed to have pushed through the defensive lines.
But according to their core strength, they didn't look strong and Jason was confident in killing them with his Mana M9 pistol so he wasn't really scared at the moment.
Some good news, however, was that the flying beasts had spread out through the city, leaving the shopping street after they had preyed on humans.
There was also the possibility of them being shot down by some hunter, but the important fact was that the more time passed, the fewer flying beasts roamed around the sky.
A full hour passed and more and more beasts could be seen infiltrating the shopping street.
Unfortunately, a few shops were attacked and the people inside had been massacred and torn apart mercilessly.
Jason, who had been confident in the beginning, was feeling slightly complicated...
Turning around, he asked everyone about their strength or if someone possessed weapons to defend themselves because the situation seemed to spiral out of control slowly.
Not a single person had a weapon and it was a worrisome situation. Only Greg and Malia had grade-two mana pistols that could kill unblemished beasts easily, and hurt magical beasts or even kill them with some effort, but it would take some time to do that.
Jason was surprised that not even the shop owner had a weapon, and he peered at him intently with his golden eyes, subconsciously spreading his intimidating aura. The shop owner began to look more and more guilty, and suddenly he gave in and blurted out that he had a graded mana rifle to defend himself in the worst-case scenarios.
Everyone looked at the shop owner in contempt because he had lied to them to save himself, except Jason, Malia, and Greg.
Could the shop owner know that Jason didn't want to steal his mana rifle to save himself?
Not really, he was just scared...
To be honest, everyone would at first save himself and then maybe some strangers, without risking one's own life.
Probably only the most loved family members would be saved before one would save oneself, but that was the most likely occurrence.
Jason asked if they had mana weapons only because of a single reason...once the beasts would rush into the shop, Jason would probably abandon the people inside, because he was the last who could protect someone.
Being locked inside a small space with beasts was even worse than trying to survive outside.
During the last hour, Gabriella had sent the distress signal to everyone through the GPS informing that there were too many magical beasts, and if they abandoned their position, the whole defensive line would break in, which was quite unfortunate.
They could hold their position and push back the beasts slightly, but that was it.
If something were to happen, she ordered the youths to send her another SOS and they would immediately disregard the city's safety for them.
When Jason read this, he was taken aback but he nodded. If he were to be in a similar situation, he would also save his family instead of other people.
Gabriella and Mark weren't responsible for the life of the citizens, rather they would look out for Greg and Malia if something were to happen, which Jason agreed to.
While Jason was thinking carefully about what to do, a low awakened beast began to sniff the safety room gate, and everybody's breath hitched as they grew scared about the beast.
Jason was frankly disgusted by their reaction. He could understand the middle-schoolers being scared about awakened beasts but grown-ups cowering with fear was too much for him to handle…
There were more than enough Advanced-Adepts and Experts ranked here. WHY are you scared about an awakened beast?!? SH*Theads??
If there hadn't been a beast tide occurring, Jason would have most likely thrown a fit right now, even if he didn't like attention or talking to strangers... if one was strong enough to defend himself/herself, fight for your life?!
Because the low-awakened beasts' action had drawn some attention to their shop, they had to do something.
"Open the gate slightly for a short moment, so I can see its head."
While the others were scared about Jason's order, he took out one of his low-grade-1 knives.
The others tried to hold back Jason when he suddenly turned around.
They could see his anger-filled golden eyes flickering coldly which caused them to involuntarily step back, disregarding their thought of intercepting in Jason´s business.
Malia was still amazed and even slightly scared about his eyes, but she put up a small water wall between the three of them and the other people inside the safety room before Greg opened the gate with his immense strength.
A moment later the gate closed again and the knife in Jason´s hand had already vanished.
Jason took a deep breath and he looked slightly exhausted because he had used up more than half of his mana in an instant. He had injected it into the knife in order to send it flying towards the beast and decrease the sound at the same time which worked perfectly fine.
The low-awakened beast sniffing through the front door collapsed lifelessly and everybody sighed a collective breath of relief. However, Jason couldn't even celebrate his first awakened beast kill because he had to replenish his mana as fast as possible.
Time passed slowly and Jason had now completely replenished his mana while the situation outside was getting out of hand. The street was filled with beasts and more and more shops were getting attacked, the death toll was increasing every single second.
Jason also noticed two new corpses in front of their shops. While one was charred to the crisp, the other one was wet and Jason understood that it was Malia who killed them with her abilities, while he had replenished his mana.
He was already aware of her fire and water soulbonds because he had seen the transmuted mana inside her mana core.
Even Malia looked slightly worried right now and it was only when she got another notification after the beast tide had been going on for more than 2 hours, that the tension eased up to a certain degree.
The beast tide was almost over and the soldiers would clean up the rest of the city now.
Afterward, each of the three youths got a message in their newly established group channel, that Gabriella and Mark were on their way.
They informed that it would take them a maximum of 5 minutes and the trio was about to cry out in joy when a majestic pair of lion-heads looked through the window. Time seemed to have slowed as a guttural roar shook the surroundings, before the beast spat fire out of its mouths, melting the shelter's gate without any hindrance.
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