Chapter 61: A lead

James threw all the crystals in his possession, including the gilberk tier crystals with him into the formation, but it wasn't enough. The others seeing as he was struggling with what to do decided to render their help.

"Even though I don't like the smug look on that punchable face of yours, you're still my brother, I should help when needed." Sam said as he began to drop crystals after crystals in his possession into the formation.

The others seeing what he did decided to follow suite. The formation lit up as more crystal were being absorbed. It didn't stop until there was nothing left to give. They were all out of crystals, not knowing what to do, they continued to observe the ongoing absorption that seemed unending.

"Don't you have an idea on how to stop this if it's not working??" Noah asked

"It won't stop once it started." James said while scratching his head.

One of them stepped forward which made the others give him a questioning look.

"Don't look at me like that, I don't know what I'm doing, can't just let my crystals go to waste." Sam who stepped forward said.

He placed his hand on the edge of the formation and immediately it reacted to him. It began to suck the energy from him.

'I thought as much, this stuff just requires energy, I hope this is enough. Nerh I can't be the only one doing this else I'll be left with nothing' he thought

"Common let's give this thing the energy it needs and move on from here." He shouted

The others were hesitant at first but had no choice but to concur due to the glare from Sam. They all placed their hands on the edges of the formation which instantly began to draw out energy from them. Suddenly they all got stiff and lost control of their movement and body, they couldn't withdraw their hands nor move their body, all they could do was roll and move their eyeballs.

Then a strange occurrence happened as the pulling force was being channeled forcefully in their body hereby sucking out a unique form of energy in them. The runic energy that bonded the five of them was being drawn out, the runic energy fought back against the suction force but it proved too strong, when they felt like the rune energy within them was trying to activate, they decided to take control of their internals and battled against the suction force.

They battled against the suction force and were successful but they all lost a considerable potion of the runic energy to the pull, immediately the rune got absorbed into the suction force, the absorption process stopped and they all collapsed due to exhaustion from drained energy. The formation began to disappear and everything vanished into the beast, the atmosphere became silent, while the only sound heard is their huffing and panting.

A low growl that made heir instincts scream seeped into their ears, but their body couldn't move due to exhaustion, they could only be a sitting duck to whatever it is that growled. A large beast towered over them, it cast a shadow over them. Summoning the strength to peek at what owns the shadows, they could see a large raccoon. It looks more bigger and fiercer than the others they had seen so far, the beast was drooling and staring at them hungrily.

"Did someone actually said there is no other beast as strong as the snail on this planet?? James asked

He received no answer as a thought filled their minds.

'Is the information we were being given about this planet updated and confirmed?? Is this beast responsible for the team work among the beasts??'

"One thing is sure, we are screwed" Timmy said with a tone of urgency and they all stared in silence, pretty awaiting their death, until someone broke the silence.

"This beast isn't passing off a killing intent toward us, I can't sense any from it" Sam spoke with a low tone, fearing that it his words might jolt the beast and make it pounce at them.

The raccoon suddenly moved it paws which made a certain person yell so loudly that it jolted everyone there, the figure suddenly jumped to his feet and charged at the raccoon with all he has left in him, but instead of attacking back. The raccoon fled to the other side of the others, using them as a shield.

"What the hell, did that beast just scurry away like that??" Timmy asked astound by what just happened.

Suddenly he beast gave a painful growl which caught their attention, they stared at the beast, wondering could be the cause of it's pain. Without notice, pain shot through their right shoulders. It was unbearable, as if their arm wanted to fall off.

A dark aura emanated from their shoulder and same time the raccoon emitted same dark aura. The aura shrouded the raccoon completely, the raccoon vanished from sight, leaving the dark aura in its place, the aura moved and attached itself on their shoulders, embedding a kind of tattoo on their shoulders. Each tattoos has a quarter part of a raccoon's body, when they came together to check the strange thing on their body they realize that each part combined together forms a full raccoon.

"What's this??" Sam said while staring at the tattoo.

"It was meant to make a pact with me, instead it made a pact to us all" James said

"How ??" Timmy asked

"We can summon the raccoon together by willing it at same time" James answered

"That's what the artifact says, actually I was meant to be he only one who can summon the b east but now it made a partial bond with each of us, making it impossible for a single person to summon it." He added, his voice sounding as if he wants to cry.

"Let's try to summon it individually fist to see if the artifact is correct" Timmy suggested

They all tried but it didn't bulge, two of them tried it same time but there was no response, nothing appeared, they then decide for three people trying it which made the beast appear right at their presence, there was something they noticed, it wasn't exuding the same powerful aura it had like before until they decided to summon it together and they were astound at the powerful pressure that exuded out of it.

"Let's get out of here, we have other things to do " Noah reminded the group.

"I am not leaving this planet without refilling my stash of crystals ." Sam proclaimed.

"Are you nut??" Didn't you witness the wave sometime ago, what if they come back??" Timmy shouted

Í don't care, I am heading there, we came here to gather crystals, get information and possibly grow stronger, don't forget that." Sam retorted and began to head toward the direction of the previous beast wave.

"That guy is crazy." Timmy said

"He is right" James suddenly said

"What do you mean??" Timmy asked

"He is right about everything, he has been right all this while, we need to get information, get stronger by pushing our body to the limit, and besides I also need to refill my stash of crystals, they sure will come in handy." He responded and turned around to leave also.

Timmy groaned in frustration as he was feeling exhausted, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax man, we can't come all he way here and head back without no beast crystals, no exact information, nothing to show, we shouldn't disappoint miss Abbie ." Noah whispered before walking along with the other two.

They all got to a point where they couldn't see any beast, it was as if they all vanished. All they could see was a small sized mountain.

"Where did all this beast went to??" Sam said aloud.

"Check the scanner, let's see what's happening" Noah said

"It shows that there is no beast around, but there is a large amount of beast energy concentrated somewhere here " James said while staring at the beast energy scanner.

"Something is not right" Timmy said

"We should have just left this planet." He added

"Tsk, you're irritating. I can feel a beast presence somewhere here. Sam said

"Gotcha"

They all turned to James who seems to have seen something.

"What did you see??" Noah asked

"There is a concentrated amount of beast energy nearby, when I checked well, it is coming from this small sized mountain." He replied

" Are some best inhabiting the mountain ?? Let's check it out" Noah suddenly said

Has he got closer to the mountain, the ground rumbled.

"What was that?? They tried to get hold of their footing.

The small sized mountain moved, dust was fallen off it, revealing a large shell, the ground shook with more intensity as the mountain moved. A large snail head came out of the mountain, the snail has a large eyes that stared down at them. It moved it's head slightly, which was followed by a loud deafening hiss, so loud that it threatened to destroy their eardrum. Following the loud hiss, different beasts that inhabits the planet came out from different angles.

"We fell into the trap of a beast" Noah exclaimed

" As if it wasn't expected, what tier is it on the scanner??" Timmy asked

"It….it is at…the sid…sidon tier." James stuttered

"Sidon what??!!! Wasn't it suppose to be at either the advance or hyper tier??!" Sam questioned but received no answer

The surrounding beasts didn't waste time as they all sprang into action the minute they set their eyes on the humans. James immediately summoned his ethereal beasts and is spear, the others wasted no time to start launching their attacks at the beasts. Different attacks rained on the beasts.

Nothing they do seems to stop the unending beasts, they fought and fought until their already below average energy got drained more.

"If this continues, we would all die here." James said

"As if we aren't aware." Sam responded

"I warned you guys, but you won't listen, now your arrogance would be the death of us." Timmy said angrily.

He jumped back while avoiding a claw aimed at his chest, as he landed, a snake beast launched at him, not giving him chance to hold his footing.

"Flowing slash" steam came out of his nostril as he mouthed those words.

Water condensed on his hand, forming a sword which he immediately swing, the water moved like a sharp current, slashing every beasts it touched in half. The others backed off, trying to back themselves up, they used strong attacks to take out large range of beast attacking them, but it came with an immense loss of energy.

"The raccoons are making it more difficult with their intelligence." Noah said

"Are you taking note of that raccoon that is yet to join the fight since." Timmy said

They could all see the raccoon that was standing close to the snail, the raccoon being also close to the tier of the snail.

"That raccoon is at the hyper tier, what are we meant to do if it decides to act??" Sam asked the obvious

Seeing that they weren't attacking, they beasts limited themselves to growls, hisses and other intimidating sounds. The both parties are busy watching each other, waiting for a perfect time to strike.

"Guys, I think we should use it." James suddenly said

"Use what man, use what exactly??" Timmy was getting impatient

James didn't answer but instead gave Noah a stare.

'Is he actually suggesting we use that, but we don't know if it will get us out of this.'

"Guys I think we should try the....." he was interrupted by a line of flames that appeared out of nowhere, the flame struck and engulfed the surrounding beasts. The beasts that the flames touched were immediately smoked alive, they were burnt on all sides with no resistance.

"What is that??"

"A blue flame, never seen that before."

"Never heard of someone being able to use a blue flame, is that an ability of another beast??"

"Such control and power"

A mist suddenly appeared and danced round the beasts, the mist avoided direct contact with them, every beast that the mist danced around were being engulfed in the blue coloured flame, in no time the flame has engulfed the whole beasts, leaving few to scurry away.

The mist suddenly moved towards the hyper tier raccoon and the snail, when it got closer to the raccoon, two lines of blue flames shot out of it and engulfed the raccoon, the flame burnt it as it roared and thrashed itself about. The flame seems to be alive, it burnt it to crisp, leaving only the beast crystal. Then at the speed of sound, the mist dashed towards the snail beast which now has a pink hue emitting from it's body. The mist clashed with the pink aura that seeped out of the snail's body, forming a barrier around it.

A loud bang echoed and a rebound occurred, blasting the mist back to where it came from. The mist moved across the ground before dissipating, revealing a human figure within.

'Not bad from a sidon level, you aren't my opponent though. Too bad you're just unlucky. I can't possibly ley you get rid of my only source to finding him' the human figure thought

Right from his robe, he brought out a sword.

"Hellish slash" the figure muttered and without swinging his sword, a large line of blue flame slashed the snail. As it touched the pink barrier, it went right through it like a knife cutting through butter.

The mountain like shell begin to break into pieces and after the snail dropped dead instantly being sliced in different pieces. The figure then went forward and picked up the crystal out of the snail

"This might come in handy but….." he looked up and stared at the four, who stood there awestricken at what they witnessed. He walked to the hyper tier crystal laying on the floor, he picked it up and toss both crystals to the four figure, the crystals landed few meters from them.

"If this is the strength of the human new generations, before you know it, the human will be lost forever, they stand no chance against what's to come." With that said, the figure disappeared with a lingering word.

"Grow stronger, because I won't spare you if we cross path again."

The words echoed into their ears, making all the hairs on their bodies stand straight, fear gripped them that they all had forgotten to breathe even after the figure vanished.

"Let's get out of his planet asap" Timmy's word jolted them out of their aewsrticken state, tey began pulling out crystals after crystals of thy fallen beasts.

"I wonder who that was figure is, how can he just leave this crystals as if they are of no value." San murmured.

..................

Somewhere far away from the four guys busy pulling out crystals

" I can feel a reaction from the detector, but not too strong to confirm that he's one of them."

"They would be my lead to him."