The Beasts Invade (4)

As soon as sunset came, the evolved beast teams prepared to leave their temporary dwelling. They made it through the day with only a few scares, but there were no encounters so everything was on track for the final stretch of the mission.

As predicted by a canine elder, it was a full moon tonight so the power of the moon hunting dogs' bloodline skill went up by another level, which was very helpful considering the territory they were about to enter. So far they had remained undiscovered, but that could change if they let down their guards for even a moment, especially because of the danger of the next phase of their mission. As there was no safer route to the chimera lord, they had to pass through every zone occupied by shadows of rising strength, with the last one being for shadows of Master Realm-level. There was one Master Realm-level shadow in each cardinal direction, but they had no choice but to somehow slip behind them.

The teams aimed for the intersection between the shadow at the north and the one at the west as they believed it was safer to go through the edges of their perceptions, even if they overlapped. The journey was fortunately free of interference, and since no other shadow was in the zone of the Master Realm-level shadows, they pushed forward at their fastest speeds without worrying about inactive shadows.

They still had to be careful so the teams stayed in pace with the moon hunting dogs so as to maintain their stealth. If they were human, there would be a good chance of someone tripping due to the pressure, but trained evolved beasts like them would never let their anxiety overcome their valour.

As neither of the threatening shadows that made them fearful with just their auras noticed them, the five teams reached the wall. Without a moment to waste, the monkeys flew up the wall with their agile limbs and then created a ladder with their bodies to pull up the others. The three-eyed monkeys evolved to focus on spellcasting, but they were still strong enough to support even the iron panda's weight.

Once all five teams were on top of the wall, they maintained their gaze on the creepy figure that could be seen even far away from the city. The simplest way to describe it would be to call it an enormous black blob. It was a hemisphere that engulfed the entire city, with an undulating surface that had bubbles popping up like in boiling water, as well as miniscule in comparison creatures that were ejected from it like cannonballs. Hands-off was one way of describing its philosophy regarding child care; the thing might not even consider them as its children.

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, the actual body of the chimera lord was hidden inside the blob, so it couldn't be seen. However, more information was needed to call this mission a success, so the leading moon hunting dog took a step forward; that was its great blunder. The very next moment, an eye as big as a three-eyed monkey opened on the hemisphere. Its red iris and ominous black pupil moved around without focus before suddenly stopping on their figures. Subsequently, countless similar eyes appeared, stared at them and simultaneously dispelled the starry aura that they were protected by.

"Retreat!"

Without waiting for the inevitable consequence of their appearance, the scarlet tiger high beast leader ordered them to run. As if disdainful of the idea of a safe landing, the beasts jumped off the wall. All five teams were able to reach the ground with minimal injuries, but they were nowhere near safe yet. Soon after they landed, giant gooey black arms stretched from behind the walls and dropped down on them. They tried to escape these hands of death, but one iron panda was too close and too slow. A hand engulfed its body, quickly muffling its last roar. The rest of the beasts wavered at the sight, but their legs didn't pause, and they wouldn't be given the chance to pause either. The hands stopped pursuing them soon after they moved away from the wall, but a roar and a screech warned them of impending doom.

The rhino lizard shadow of the north and the winged snake shadow of the west were awoken by their parent and ordered to deal with these intruders. The evolved beasts couldn't see the shadows yet, and they hoped they never did. With only a faint trace of their formation remaining, they fled with as much speed as they could muster. Their only priority was escaping alive, so there was no longer a need to worry about conserving their energy. This resulted in the high beasts being much faster than the beast spirits, but that didn't guarantee any of their survivals. Such a hope was like a fading light in the distance, and for one of them, that light faded even quicker.

As one of the moon hunting dogs beasts spirits took a step forward, the ground beneath it rippled. All of them knew what that meant, but they intentionally ignored it because none of them had the leeway to offer aid. The moon hunting dog knew that no help would come, so it poured its strength into its legs in order to somehow escape this fate, but then a big pincer appeared under its belly. At this moment, its future seemed clear. The moon hunting dog imagined the scene of it being roughly split into two, however, it was surprisingly calm. Even though death was certain, there was a stronger belief inside of it. It couldn't remember when this started, but it could feel another within.

If any of the other evolved beasts had kept their attention on the dog at this point, then they would have noticed a change in its aura. As if it had escaped danger, all signs of panic in its behaviour had vanished. It recognized that it couldn't move fast enough to escape the pincer, so it shot concentrated nature energy from its paws to force itself into the air. As the pincer clipped nothing, the hunting dog flipped around and then pushed itself downward with slight wind manipulation.

The shadow that the pincer was attached to, revealed itself as the hunting dog was going down. It looked like a messy fusion between a crab and a worm, so there was nothing pleasant to look at, but the hunting dog stared intensively at the shadow as it approached. Once the hunting dog got closer to its reach, the crab worm swung its pincer to strike it down. However, the hunting dog deftly avoided the hit, and used the pincer as a platform to launch it forward. Then, by utilizing its nature energy much more efficiently than before, the moon hunting dog accelerated quick enough to join the rest of the group.

Those that noticed the hunting dog reunite with them were surprised, but as they turned there was something much more important to see. There was a several feet tall rhino with light-devouring scales covering its body on the left, and a dark cloud in the form of a snake with a pair of webbed wings swooping down from the right.

Their dash for survival was just beginning.