Chapter 34: Rank one beast
As they headed deeper into the forest, Raze kept his ears open for any movements. He didn’t want to be attacked unexpectedly by any beast.
"So what do we do during the night?" Joel, who had been silent for a while now, finally spoke.
"Hmmm, good question, and there is a simple answer. The night is filled with all sorts of beasts, more beasts than we can handle.
We don’t want to be taken unaware in our sleep, so we will be taking sleep shifts," Raze said and kept walking.
"You mean one of us will be awake and the other person will be sleeping?" Joel asked.
"I didn’t stutter when I said that, so yes, that’s what I meant. We can decide about the sleeping time later when we get to the stream, but for now, let’s just keep moving," Raze said and kept walking. Then he thought about something and spoke.
"I want to emphasize the fact that the beasts move most at night, and they are everywhere. If you feel that night is the best time for you to kill me and take revenge, please think again.
If you kill me, you will be left alone in the night, and I can say for a fact that you will not last more than an hour alone," Raze said.
"So you believe I want to have revenge?" Joel asked.
"Joel, don’t be dumb. Of course, you want vengeance. I threatened you, threatened your family, used you, and more. There is no human that doesn’t want revenge after all that.
I know that very well. You are a blade targeted at my neck, and you can cut at any time if I make the wrong move, that is.
Though I’m certain that I won’t be making that wrong move or giving you the chance to do what you want to," Raze said with a smile, but his smile dropped as he heard some rushing footsteps.
There were a lot of them, and that made his mind race as to what could be headed his way. After a few seconds, a pack of four-armed monkeys came rushing. Raze immediately wanted to start running, but he noticed that the eyes of the monkeys were not fixed on them.
There was panic in their eyes as they ran. Raze grabbed Joel and pulled him down to the ground, allowing the monkeys to rush past. The wave successfully passed without Raze or Joel getting hurt.
But that was the least of their issues because Raze felt another presence headed their way, probably the reason the monkeys had been running.
He got up to his feet, and when he looked forward, his eyes met with a massive four-armed ape rushing toward them.
Raze could tell in an instant that this beast was a rank one beast. His instincts screamed at him to run away now, but before he could even take one step, the beast was right in front of them, swinging down with a powerful attack.
Raze immediately used his dome to block the attack. The hand slammed into the dome and didn’t reach Raze, but it shattered the dome.
Raze used that opportunity to fire a special blade right at the beast’s face. He grabbed Joel by the arm and pulled him so that they could run.
"You don’t want to die, right? So make yourself useful, or I’ll feed you to it," Raze threatened. Joel could tell that Raze was not joking.
"What do you want me to do?" Joel asked.
"I need you to manipulate the earth around the beast and make it soft," Raze started explaining, and before he could dive deeper into the explanation, the ape was already coming from above, all four arms clasped together.
"Shit!" Raze cursed and created the dome again. The attack hit and shattered the dome again, but it didn’t manage to hit Raze.
Raze was shocked at the fact that the beast was able to easily break the dome after one hit, but that was not his main worry now. He took out his sword and charged in at the opening, stabbing for the beast’s chest.
The beast saw this and grabbed the sword. The blade cut the palms a little but not deep. It used its remaining hands and slammed Raze in the chest, sending Raze flying and slamming into a tree.
Raze coughed and fell to the ground. He struggled to get back up, but the beast was already charging his way.
"I guess this is why they are called rank one," Raze said. Sure, he had read about them, but now having to face them in real life was a whole different thing. It was more real and more life-threatening.
The beast punched with two hands. Raze rolled out of the way as fast as he could. The attack landed on the tree and blasted a huge hole into it.
Raze put distance between him and the beast as fast as he could. He held his sword, waiting for the right opportunity.
The beast turned after seeing that it missed Raze. It immediately chased after him, but at that moment, Joel finally became useful and cast his spell. He made the ground around the beast turn soft.
The beast stepped into it, and its legs sunk. Raze took that as his golden opportunity and charged at the beast.
He knew that the beast would still attack, so he made sure to use his dome. The beast threw a punch, and this time the dome stopped it without shattering. Raze then leaped into the air and stabbed from above.
The beast moved its body to the side, and the sword stabbed its shoulder rather than its head. Then it immediately grabbed Raze by the arm and threw him so hard in the direction of Joel that he hit Joel, and both of them slammed into a tree.
Raze struggled to get back on his feet. He coughed out blood, his vision a little blurry, and to his dismay, now that Joel was knocked down, the soft ground spell was off, and the beast was free.