Some hours later, deep into the forest, Benedict and his team searched for thaids. It wasn't simple to make their first kill, but after having thought about it for a while, he and his team members gathered the courage, and soon later, they killed a couple of thaids.
After that, things became easier. It still wasn't simple to kill the beasts, but they did it nonetheless. Unlike Erik, the students decided to fight freely to kill as many thaids as possible. However, they would immediately notice they were rookies if someone saw them.
Currently, the group was fighting a medium big thaid. The beast had a reptilian body, a feline head, and a mouth filled with small, sharp teeth. Its body was covered in thick yellowish-brown fur. Its paws were large claws, which could be used for digging or ripping apart its prey. On top of all this, it also sported two long horns protruding from either side of its skull. These horns helped it defend itself against predators by stabbing them with great force when necessary. They were usually found living alone, although groups of three to six might occasionally live together.
The creature turned its face towards Benedict when an arrow was shot at the creature's eyes. However, the beast moved its head, avoiding the attack at the last moment.
Martha tried to ensnare the beast with her thorned vines, but the beast retreated several meters back before jumping out of Martha's reach.
While it did so, Rex aimed another arrow, aiming straight at the thaid's front paw. This time he hit his target perfectly; however, no blood was coming out.
At that moment, Benedict's team members learned this thaid's brain crystal power. It could generate simple illusions that generally helped it, ambushing its prey. The beast was, in truth, in another place, taking cover between the trees. That way, it wouldn't be seen until it wanted to appear again.
"I told you," said Rex, "this thing is tough."
The team quickly lost sight of the beast and started searching for it while staying alert for any sudden movements around them. As expected, the thaid reappeared shortly afterward, only this time, it came from behind them.
Rex immediately fired arrows, hitting what he later discovered was one of the thaid's illusions.
Benedict and Beatrice, both with a weapon conjuring power, went in front of Rex, Martha, and the rest of the squad to shield them from attacks. While the others tried to take cover behind one of the trees surrounding them.
The beast charged at benedict and Beatrice, trying to grab them. At that point, Benedict wrestled with the beast, stopping it from harming his comrades. However, the monster was powerful and kept trying to bite him in the neck with its scary-looking jaws.
Soon enough, it slashed down on Benedict's arm with its paws, causing him severe pain. He yelled in agony as the beast bit harder.
As Benedict fought hard to control his opponent, his teammates attacked. Rex released a couple of mana arrows toward the beast, hitting it on the flank.
The projectile arrived before Beatrice arrived, and the beast, feeling the sharp pain on his side, tried to escape his attackers. However, Martha immediately used her thorned vines to restrict the beast's movements, giving Beatrice and the other two teammates time to arrive at the beast's side and whack it with their weapons.
The thaid roared in pain as the six students continued attacking it relentlessly. But despite everything, the thaid was too strong and resilient and refused to die.
A brawl broke out later. With the beast, trying to slash, bite, swipe, and kick anyone who got near it.
After a few minutes of struggling and many wounds accumulated, the thaid finally collapsed onto the ground and succumbed to death.
After that, everyone looked at each other. The students knew they had won their battle, though that was only a beast. Despite being harder to fight, they weren't going to get more points from it. This was because the Red Palace and the military wanted to encourage the students to kill as many thaids as possible. The reason was that they wanted to reduce the number of monsters before the horde reached the city's gates.
"Are you ok, guys?" Benedict asked his teammates.
"Yeah..." Rex replied. Despite not having exerted himself that much, he was pretty tired. "My arms are sore..." he lamented.
"I'm ok," Martha said. "how are you? You had a close call..." she said.
"I'm good. I just got a scratch," Benedict replied.
Beatrice looked at her team with a cold look in her eyes. "Let's go," She said. "We need to hunt more thaids if we want to have an opportunity to win this competition..."
They all agreed and followed after Beatrice, leaving the dead thaid behind. The group searched for more beasts while remaining vigilant against anything else that might come their way.
During the following hours, the group hunted hundreds of thaids, but unfortunately, none of them were very skilled at hunting. The beasts often escaped or ran away from them before they could approach, resulting in fewer points than they should've gotten.
"Ah... I can't take this anymore..." Rex said. He was the weakest one in terms of physical strength, and keeping up with the pace was getting difficult for him.
Martha nodded. "Me neither," she added.
"I still don't get why the Red Palace issued this quest. I mean, it looks like it's too much for students like us..." benedict said.
"I don't know," Rex said. "Take a look at the scores; there are teams that killed hundred of thaids already," he said while looking at his phone.
"Damn, Erik's team is even first, with 2500 kills!" That was a remarkable result considering that Erik was the lowest-ranked one among them. "How is a score like that possible?" Rex added.
"Well... Anderson is on his team. Besides, Erik himself has a ton of knowledge about thaids. He probably knows where to find them and how to kill them..." Benedict replied. To be honest, he was happy that Erik could get this kind of score; he was that kind of guy.
Rex sighed. "It's frustrating knowing we'll never beat those guys."
"Don't worry, bro," benedict said. "We are doing great. We just need to keep searching a little bit more," he said.
"Are you done talking?" Beatrice said. Her tone of voice suggested that she wasn't tired of his and Rex's constant talking. That was probably one of the reasons why they were unable to find thaids.
"Yes, ma'am," Benedict replied.
"Good, let's continue our hunt then," Beatrice said. "If you see any thaid, make sure to alert the others ASAP! Remember, if things go bad, call the other teams..." she reminded her team members.
"Sure thing, boss lady!" Rex shouted sarcastically.
After searching for a bit more, the group found a rather large Ner group. Erik had never met these creatures since the breach was in the Lomalin's territory.
However, they were present around here, and Erik knew it. He told the other groups what kind of creatures they could fight roaming around here so they knew how to kill them.
These beasts were invertebrates thaids with ant-like heads and stubby antennae. Their faces had pincer-like mandibles, and their long bodies had multiple legs. They had a relatively powerful poison-like brain crystal power that allowed them to kill bigger thaids, and their body was covered in thick chitin. They were around thirty centimeters long, but they were in huge numbers.
"It looks like we are finally lucky," one of the other team members said.
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