As soon as the captain ended the phrase, the Blirdoth jumped out of a bush on the side of the car and slammed its body into it, almost toppling it.
"SHIT! DO SOMETHING, NICO!"
"I'M TRYING!"
The other three free squad members started shooting the thaid with their laser rifles; however, there were two problems.
The first one was that since mana started interacting with creatures, their bodies were entirely changed by it, making them stronger and more resistant.
Most of the thaids had very durable skins, which could resist attacks that would have killed any other creature in the past.
The second problem was that mana was naturally released by their bodies, creating a sort of protection that rendered most conventional attacks useless. Only mana-based attacks were truly efficient against thaids unless they were low leveled ones, as they had much less mana coming out of their pores.
This meant that the laser rifles, despite having been destructive weapons in the past, were now basically useless and were used mainly to avoid soldiers wasting mana.
Some Thaids' species belonged to a grey area where conventional weapons were still effective but not as much as on low-leveled thaids. The captain hoped that the beast was in such a grey area.
PEW
PEW
PEW
PEW
The three soldiers, including the captain, started shooting at the beast, which shrugged the laser rifles as if they were nothing. Though, they could scratch the beast's skin here and there, making the lasers annoying for the thaid.
"IT DOESN'T WORK!" a soldier shouted.
"IT DOESN'T MATTER. KEEP SHOOTING!"
At that moment, the Blirdoth was going to ram the car again. However, Nico reacted in time and created an earth wall that stopped the creature from doing so. Though the thaid crushed the wall as if it was made of sand and almost hit the car. Luckily, the wall slowed the beast down enough for the vehicle to avoid the attack.
"What do we do, captain?"
"We can't go on like this! We must stop it!"
The captain kept firing at the beast, hoping to hit it in the eye or something like that, but at the same time, he thought of a way to stop the creature. Then, he had an idea; what he was going to propose was a risky move, but one that would get rid of the trees in front, making it so that the car could go faster and they would escape the monster.
"Nico, can you create a ramp and bring us over the trees?"
The young man looked at his captain like he was a madman. Even if he could do that, they would surely be seen by flying thaids, and escaping those beasts was much more challenging than escaping the Blirdoth. However, as things progressed, only certain death awaited the five men if they didn't try. At least that way, they had a chance.
"I can..." Nico said.
"LOOK!" one of the soldiers said, pointing at the Blirdoth. "It is releasing something in the air!"
They all turned to look at the chasing beast, but once they did, they were horrified at the view. The trees behind the running beasts started to wither when they got in contact with the fog it released. Some plants even started liquefying.
"MAKE THESE DAMN RAMPS NICO!"
The young man immediately started channeling mana while the team kept firing at the thaid.
"USE THE ROCKET LAUNCHER!" the captain shouted.
One of the soldiers went to the back of the car and picked up the weapon. There were only two rockets in that car, as they were thought to destroy caves and things like that mainly. They weren't that powerful, so the captain doubted it would have been that efficient. Yet, they would have at least created some vision impairment.
The soldier quickly pointed the weapon to the Blirdoth, and after having prepared to shoot, he did so, making the rocket travel through the air.
SWOOOOOSH
BOOOM
The sound of an explosion reverberated through the forest. The soldier hit the Blirdoth right in the face, making the Blirdoth roar in pain and rage. However, the rocket did nothing more than slow it down a little.
It was apparent that its eyesight wasn't affected by whatever the rocket produced because otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to see them. As such, the beast charged forward, trying to crush the car with its massive body.
"Its power is too little! We need stronger weapons!"
"We don't have those. We must do with what we have!"
"Nico, how much time do you need?" the captain asked.
"Sir, it's not easy to control the earth at this speed and distance!"
As the soldier said those words, the Blirdoth almost caught up with the car. Behind it, a giant cloud of gas spread out. It destroyed everything it touched, leaving decayed plants and liquefied creatures around.
Clearly, the car would be able to last a little bit longer if the gas hit it; however, the captain wasn't sure about what would happen to them if they got inside that fog.
Then the Blirdoth flanked the car and started slamming its body on its side, raising its left wheels from the ground.
"NICO! DO SOMETHING," one of the soldiers shouted while he kept shooting at the beast.
BOOOM
The thaid slammed the car again, but then, seeing that it was useless, it decided to use his poisonous fog and sped up, trying to go in front of the car.
"NICO!"
As the Blirdoth almost went in front of the vehicle, soon, a huge ramp appeared in front of it. The group quickly went over the trees, losing sight of the Blirdoth.
However, Nico was in serious trouble; it wasn't easy to maintain all that earth and sustain the car's weight with the mana he had available. The young man's reserves were not limitless. Still, luckily he was relatively high ranked on the Idor scale, so he could sustain that mana expenditure for a bit compared to when he was younger.
"GOOD JOB, NICO!" one of the soldiers said.
"Yeah, well-done, soldier!" the captain added.
However, they saw the man sweating a lot and starting to pale.
"Keep going on, boy!" the captain said.
As they traveled over the trees, with an earth road constantly generating in front of them, the group could finally speed up enough to lose the thaid. However, as they were up there, they saw countless flying thaids roaming around.
"We can't stay out here for long..." the captain said.
"Yeah, besides, I can't keep going on forever. We should go down!" Nico said.
"Good, make a ramp again, and let's hide from these monsters..." the captain said.
Then Nico did as instructed, bringing the team to ground level after a short while.
"Good job, guys, we made it!" the captain said.
As the car traveled, the captain checked the map continuously to see where they were, occasionally indicating the way to the driver.
The captain then contacted the HQ. He had to tell a lot to them. Probably Echo squad was dead, killed by the beast, which was also probably responsible for team Charlie's disappearance. After that, the car kept speeding through the forest until they reached a nearby camp.
The people there monitored the horde, meaning they traveled at least 600 kilometers from the cave.
As the car stopped in front of the camp, a couple of soldiers rushed out to receive team Delta. From there, after having helped Nico, who almost exhausted his mana, the team's captain reported to the camp leader, explaining how dangerous the beast in the east was.
"Are you sure that was a Blirdoth?"
"Yes, sir," the captain said.
"Understood; I will contact the higher-ups to find a way to fight this creature. They will probably send Higher ranked soldiers, I think. Thank you for your job, captain."
After that, the man went to rest with the others members of his squad. This was a very stressful day, and he couldn't wait to return home to his family.