The Hekratinl growled loudly. <What the fuck is it doing?!> Captain Lain thought.
Then the thaid stood still for several seconds, looking at Lain like a hungry beast, before charging again.
<What the fuck...?> Lain resumed her running, but compared to before, the bear came after her with more speed than ever. The Hekratinl didn't care about trees, rocks, or bushes; its size simply allowed it to bulldoze through them as if they were nothing without hindering its stride in the slightest.
At the same time, Lain jumped over fallen trees, leaped onto boulders, and ran through the dense woods while running away from the beast. She was struggling to keep her footing and keep up with the bear, but even as she dodged and ran for her life, she knew that she couldn't fail this mission, and quickly a look of determination appeared on her face.
The beast had to stay on her tail at all costs. Captain Lain realized that the beast was closer than ever as she could feel the ground tremble increasingly with each step it took. Even if she kept running with all her might and tried to hinder the beast by making it run into trees, it wouldn't take long before it would catch up to her.
As the woman ran toward the river, the beast gained ground until it became close enough to try to devour her.
SNAP!
The jaws of the beast closed, biting the empty air. Captain Lain didn't know how lucky she was that she was fast enough to escape those maws.
"FUCK!" Lain kept running without looking back and trying to escape the bear's mouth; however, she suddenly felt something hit her shoulder. The bear hit a rock with its paw while running, and the stone hurtled toward Lain, making them gasp in pain.
The woman didn't know what hit her, but she began believing that the Hekratnl was just behind her and became terrified. She went through seconds of pure terror that nearly made Lain shit her pants. Then, due to a distraction, she stumbled.
"UGH!"
However, as the soldier fell, she was lucky enough to be near a small slope, and she started rolling on the ground. When she stopped, she stood not even a hundred meters from the river.
The Hekratinl quickly reached her, but as the beast was going to swing its paws at the captain, a volley of bullets, rockets, and laser attacks arrived, hitting the Hekratinl.
Its fur was thick, dense, and strangely resistant, and the skin underneath was tough. The attack didn't seem to have much effect on it, but some rockets damaged it slightly, as they were strong enough to get past the beast's natural mana defense and create shallow wounds.
Captain Lain used the moment of distraction to start running again. The Hekratinl looked at the woman going away and started giving chase again, but the attacks returned, giving the captain enough time to flee.
The beast was now at the river, exactly where Sergeant Greene wanted it to be. Captain Lain was almost to the river bank when the boat's engine started throttling. The young woman jumped on the water vehicle, and soon the boat started traveling across the river. The bear was running toward the water; its size was enough to make it easily traverse the river, but it had to fight against the monster inhabiting the stream.
"SOLDIERS, SHOOT!" Sergeant Greene shouted.
At that point, the brain crystal powers of the ranged soldiers were turned on, and they used them to attack the Hekratinl. As they hit the beast, a small sizzling sound reverberated. Most of the attacks were physical, but there were some members of the Zamora Clan whose power was related to fire.
The attacks were enough to burn a little bit of its fur.
"IT WORKS! SOLDIERS KEEP FIRING."
A few seconds later, another barrage of attacks went after the Hekratinl. They all landed and did the same damage as before, with some burning away a little bit of the fur; a patch of exposed skin was on the beast's back.
However, this time, the creature decided to run into the water to kill the assailants. It jumped in and started swimming at unprecedented speed. The river monsters, though, looking at this massive piece of meat swimming in front of them, started attacking.
The monster fishes, swimming within this vast river, released toxic gas clouds into the water. The strategy was not very effective since the bear had its head out of the water. Besides, this kind of thing mainly worked against other fish that breathed underwater.
However, the toxic substance was irritating the beast's skin, reddening it and making it roar in pain. Sergeant Greene took advantage of these moments to make the soldiers send more attacks at the creature.
They aimed at the unprotected area, going for the spots that impacted the beast the most. People were specifically aiming at the eyes and the patch of reddened exposed skin visible to the soldiers from that vantage point.
The creature was, though, almost on the other side of the river since it kept going forward with fury. More toxic fumes were coming from the water, causing the animal even greater discomfort. But instead of fleeing, the beast kept going forward.
As the creature approached the bank, more brain crystal power attacks began falling on it. Some fell short, but the others landed direct hits. Nico actually managed to pierce through the exposed skin with a stone bullet, and the beast roared in pain.
Then it arrived at the shore, where the humans were waiting. It slowly got out of the water and shook it off its fur. "ATTACK!" Sergeant Greene shouted. The warriors dashed at the beast. It was humongous; its head was big enough to swallow a person whole, and it was at least four times taller than a person, resembling an elephant due to its size.
Unfortunately, the exposed skin patch over its back couldn't be attacked from that position, but the soldiers kept aiming at its eyes, hoping to kill the beast that way. The thaid frequently closed its eyes and moved its head to avoid death.
The creature was hard to hit at those points; it wasn't stupid and protected its vulnerable spots effectively. But the poison from the river monsters had effects: the creature's skin was compromised and corroded. It was also bleeding in different spots because of the attacks, and the poisonous gases seeped inside the wound left by the soldier's attacks while it was inside the water. If the beast took in enough poison, it would probably die in a couple of minutes, but the group was unsure about it.
More and more projectiles got stuck in the creature's skin, but because of its size, they didn't hurt it severely. The melee soldiers arrived at the creature's feet; they tried to keep the monster in place, stopping it from going toward the ranged ones.
They used their swords to cut left and right, spears to stab, and any other weapon they could conjure to try to get under the thaid's hide and hit its vital organs.
Unfortunately, the Hekratinl had no weakness to exploit. Its claws could tear apart the flesh of a human being as if they were made of butter, and its teeth could rip open the chest or throat of a warrior easily. Then the creature turned around and roared at the humans. Suddenly increasing its side three times.
The beast became gigantic, but simultaneously, aiming at its weak spot became easier. A hundred melee soldiers stood in front of the monster. They all slashed wildly and tried to cut the monster's ligaments to cripple it. The beast didn't stay idle, though; it swung its paw, sending fifteen people flying.
Another group of ten soldiers rushed toward the hind legs. Another ran up to its head while others surrounded it on all sides. There were too many attackers for the beast to defend itself properly, so it used its now gigantic size to escape the encirclement.
It charged toward Captain Lain, who was attacking with the rest of the company and jumped to the side, avoiding being killed at the last second. Some people weren't so lucky, though. At least twenty people died, trampled by the creature.
"F**K!" Sergeant Greene shouted.
"What do we do?" Dylan asked Captain Lain. "This beast doesn't want to get down. "We're powerless to stop it!"
She looked at her teammates, seeing the same fear in their eyes that she was feeling. No matter how much they trained, this situation was beyond them. Their only chance was to make the creature bleed enough and hope the monster would slowly die if the poison didn't take effect. "We have to make it bleed more!" Lain replied, and everyone heard her.
Sergeant Greene nodded in agreement, and she ordered the soldiers to move forward again and try to climb the monster. She hoped that by attacking the beast's weakened spot, they would be able to kill it.
The creature kept running and trying to trample on people. Still, now it couldn't move as fast as before due to the poison and the countless wounds it had accumulated on its body. The river thaids' substance had to be strong if it could weaken a creature so tough and so massive.
"Keep trying," Sergeant Greene ordered.
One by one, more and more soldiers started climbing on the thaid, and after having reached its back, they started whacking, slashing, and stabbing its exposed skin. The soldiers did so relentlessly until the beast had to stop. After ten minutes of that, it looked like the tactic started to be effective.
It was panting heavily; the anglerfish-like thaid's poison had weakened it, and the blood loss had almost killed it. But the creature left a trail of destruction; more than eighty people were killed by it, and there was nothing Sergeant Greene could have done to prevent it. Seeing all those bodies strewn across the ground was a depressing sight.
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