More of them came from the forest. These ones were different — at first glance, they looked like something that had been skinned alive but kept hunting anyway.

Hunched, armored nightmares the size of small cars, built like hyenas crossed with crocodiles. Bone-white plating covered their backs and shoulders, but their undersides were exposed — raw pink muscle visible between armor gaps, like creatures that had never finished growing their shells. Long, barbed tails dragged behind them, twitching constantly.

With their arrival, the screams increased.

They could rear up to the size of a horse, and when they did, they simply lunged forward with blurring speed and crushed their powerful jaws into bodies, twisting violently. They'd backpedal immediately, leaving with a chunk of whoever they'd grabbed.

Mercenaries had their hands eaten off in an instant, blood pouring onto the ground. Some lost shoulders. Some lost eyes or lips.

The scenery grew macabre quickly. Their presence changed the atmosphere entirely — from desperate battle to outright slaughter.

'Tier two. Has to be.'

I still had a Cratakiti to deal with. Another one was already burrowing out of the ground, but I didn't wait for it to emerge. I set the hole on fire.

Not just the point of entry. I drew a mental image that traced the tunnel no matter how far it went and made everything explode. The fire moved like a snake through the soil, burning whatever it touched. Smoke rose from the ground along with the crisp smell of burnt flesh.

[You have killed a Feral (Tier 1) Spirit Beast: Cratakiti]

[You have killed a Feral (Tier 1) Spirit Beast: Cratakiti]

[You have killed a Feral (Tier 1) Spirit Beast: Cratakiti]

[You have killed a Feral (Tier 1) Spirit Beast: Cratakiti]

[You have gained Cratakiti Hook-Barb]

Not minding the noise in my head, I turned toward the forest. More of those creatures were lunging toward us now.

The cries in other areas had seemed to die down. I could see Tristan moving with insane speed, covering the front line, spinning his dagger and sinking it into the underbelly of the creatures with efficient brutality. Each strike was precise — no wasted motion.

Nisha's summon was clearer now. A black, four-legged creature that looked like a panther but had tentacles sprouting from its back. It leaped from one of those abominations to another, tearing through them with a rawness that made my skin crawl. There was nothing elegant about it. Just violence.

There were two of Levi fighting now. He wasn't beating his clone to death this time around — they were working together. But he was missing punches that his clone suffered for.

The old man moved fast despite his age. He held his sword with both hands, his eyes unblinking and fixed. So even when the creatures lunged forward with that blurring speed, he was unfazed. His sword would simply tilt forward and slash upward, cutting through their underbelly and slicing them clean in half.

The immediate environment around me was doing okay, but that wasn't to say the entire caravan was. We didn't know how things were going toward the front — we were positioned at the rear.

One of the creatures locked eyes with me.

To be more precise, it locked a jaw full of vicious teeth with my gaze. Before it got the opportunity to come at me, I set the bastard on fire.

The head ignited immediately. But to my surprise, the thing shot toward me anyway. The fire did nothing to stop its speed or its advance. I threw my hands forward to block, and its teeth sank deep into my arm — wrenching a loud cry from me.

The man beside me, the other man to my right — they were all busy. Not that I expected them to come to my aid.

The pain ran so deep I almost screamed Kassie's name. But I held back and instead kicked the bastard's belly with everything I had, just as it tried to twist a chunk of my flesh off.

As my leg connected, white flames ignited its whole body with a force that sent it flying into the forest.

I breathed heavily. But there was no breathing space — another was already lunging.

I summoned daggers into my hands. The blessed chains shot out, four of them, all wrapping around the creature's legs instantly and trapping it mid-movement. My eyes burned with radiant white light, and the creature began to writhe as white flames tortured its body and soul until it died.

I heard the confirmation for the first one I'd sent flying.

[You have killed a Savage (Tier 2) Spirit Beast: Gorewraith]

Then confirmation for the one that had died in front of me.

[You have killed a Savage (Tier 2) Spirit Beast: Gorewraith]

'Of course!'

They were tougher than the Cratakitis, no doubt. But I'd still managed to kill them. On my own.

This was a great development.

'Finally.'

It felt nice to be able to kill Spirit Beasts by myself. Even though it was with the help of the flame attributes, even though I was still far from the strongest person here — I was doing it. Not hiding and waiting for rescue.

Even when I got the white flames, I'd still had Kassie watching my back. But this time, everyone was busy fighting for their own lives, pushing their deaths one more second forward. Every damn second counted.

Except for someone like Tristan, who was going around saving people, and Nisha's summon, which intercepted brutal advances and gave mercenaries the opening to crush the Gorewraiths.

The man beside me was already having difficulties. His chain was efficient — it spun with crazy speed and beat away the creatures. But the problem was that sometimes, the chain was just a touch too slow. These Gorewraiths had some kind of quick burst of speed for their attacks. There was no other way to explain that momentary acceleration.

It had to be an ability of theirs.

One of the creatures lunged toward the man, but my chains wrenched one of its legs, giving him breathing space.

He panted, eyes wide. The Gorewraith had already bypassed his chain. If I hadn't stepped in at that moment, the creature would have carved out his face.

He was shocked but quick to collect himself. He handled his chain, drawing it closer. It wrapped around another leg, and then he threw me a glance.

Both of us were thinking the same thing.

I pulled my chain to the right. He pulled his to the left. We put in enough force that the creature's entire body was viciously torn in two.

Putrid black blood spurted across the ground.

Then we locked onto the next targets.

The caravan was viciously busy — everyone trying to defend ourselves and the goods from this horde of beasts. The painful part was that everything was going smoothly. People were certainly dying, but it wasn't turning the tables on us.

However, the number of Gorewraiths pouring from the forest wasn't decreasing. Smooth as it was... it was only a matter of time before people started to get tired.

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