Chapter 196: Hunting the Noble Star Beast (1)
As the initial briefing with the bald professor stated, the northern region of the Dodona Sector is a grassy plain flanked by two deserts. And the Sky Gate appeared above the narrowest part of the grassy plain.
No Star Beasts were in sight, which meant the Star Beasts had gone to two deserts.
For the Sky Gate to begin terraforming the area, the Noble Star Beasts would need to occupy the area first. Once it has decided on an area, it would settle there, and only then would the Sky Gate start its terraforming process.
Right now, the Aegis Unit has already separated into two groups to go into the two deserts.
It was their task to disturb the Noble Star Beast from settling down.
Stop it from settling down until the Assault Unit comes.
Unlike the Assault Unit, which normally only has five students, the Aegis Unit has more.
And this was deliberate as the Aegis Unit needs to cover more area.
Even the smallest Aegis Unit has ten Angels in it.
Only the Angels with above-average strength are eligible to be a part of the Assault Unit, while the Angels who aren’t as strong would be placed in the Aegis Unit automatically. It was the same system as the Awakening Ceremony.
Supernals with more than five Divine Locks can choose to be a Demon or Angel.
As for those who have less, they would automatically become an Angel.
One that made Kai sick.
Kai kept up with the unit’s pace without a problem.
And when they neared the Sky Gate, a sudden wave of foul brushed against their skin.
It carried corruption unlike anything Kai has ever felt.
The Sky Gate teemed with Star Beasts, and the concentration of their corruptive aura that bled from it was no small threat. Even Kai, who has resistance to digesting the Crystallized Teardrop of Argus, found himself struggling against the tainted air.
Clearly, this corruption was on another level entirely.
Just then, he remembered what the bald professor said.
Before he could act upon it, the seniors already did it first.
They had done this countless times before, already used to it by now—so the moment the Sky Gate drew near, their Halos flared to life almost in unison. Each one was colorless, which was a sign of their lacking potential.
And yet, somehow, that pale radiance held the corrupted air at bay with perfect precision.
Kai and the other porters also activated their Halos.
Except for him, the others are mostly High Angels, so their Halos’ auras are colored.
But even then, the radiant light couldn’t perfectly shield them from the corruption.
Just this alone already made the disparity between their experiences with the seniors clear.
How much stronger would the corruption be inside the Sky Gate?
Before departing for this mission, Kai had thought that perhaps he—and the others would be able to help the Assault Unit close the Sky Gate. After all—they had killed a Star Beast before. Now he realized why the bald professor said that it’d be the same as killing them to have them help the Assault Unit.
Enduring the corruption is already hard.
If fighting the Star Beasts were added into the mix, then they would probably die more quickly.
"How are we looking?" Asher pressed his earpiece and asked.
’Still two Noble Star Beasts; both are settling in the deserts. The other one is still inside the Sky Gate,’ the person on the other side, the leader of the Aegis Unit, replied. ’Kill the one to your left first. It has fewer Star Beasts guarding it.’
Once Asher received the news, he made a sharp turn to the left.
And the others behind him followed closely.
A few miles away.
Just near where the corruption was at its thickest, a chaotic battle was ongoing.
"Hrrgh!"
An Angel’s boot slammed into the sand, anchoring him—as he drove his spread forward with a violent motion. The spearhead punched through the man-sized scorpion’s head with a wet crack; green acid blood sprayed across the dune in sizzling arcs.
One could see the damage marring the scorpion’s body, which was proof of the battle it had gone through with the Angel. Legs missing—and exoskeleton cracked here and there. But it had still come, and now it was completely still.
Or at least the Angel thought it was still, until it was not.
Swish—!
As he yanked the spear free, the tail suddenly lunged.
Even dead, the scorpion thrashed. The stinger shot toward his chest with mindless intent, and the Angel twisted in time—parrying it with the shaft of his spear as the tip screeched past his ribs, narrowly missing him.
He leaped away to safety and watched the stinger keep thrashing.
It struck the sand around it in a blind, posthumous fury.
"Phew..." the Angel straightened, breathing hard, and wiped the sweat on his forehead.
As soon as the blue sunlight disappeared, the Aegis Unit immediately split into two groups and moved to locate the Noble Star Beasts so that the Assault Unit could quickly take care of them.
His group found one, but to their surprise, it was heavily guarded.
It was guarded by massive scorpions that shifted beneath the sand.
One of the Angels made the wrong move, stepping onto one shifting sand, and it alerted the scorpions. Each one of them came out, displaying a great number of a few dozen, and a fight broke out right after.
He straightened his back, breathed hard, and swept his gaze across the chaos.
Just as he expected, the battle still continued, but it was to be expected.
Another duty that the Aegis Unit would carry out, other than finding the Noble Star Beasts, is to distract the Star Beasts near it so that the Assault Unit could have a straightforward path to take it down.
But it wasn’t looking good.
Five against a few dozen isn’t good odds at all.
Then again, this Sky Gate is the second-strongest among the active ones in the sector.
His eyes fixated on the Noble Star Beast beyond these scorpions.
Its body remained hidden beneath the sand clouds, but the aura that flared made it impossible to mistake it for anything other than the Noble Star Beast—one that seemed to be digging a hole. "We need to find a way to draw these scorpions away before the Assault Unit arrives," He muttered out loud, and then his gaze settled on his friend. "And I need help to do it."
Not too far away, another Angel was still locked in combat with a scorpion.
All of the scorpions are Pest-class Star Beasts.,
As a Grade-3 Awakened Supernal with a Grade-1 Enchanted Weapon that contained a steel affinity, his friend could handle one alone. But killing these scorpions is not important right now. Luring them away is.
Gritting his teeth, the Angel spat blood into the sand and reset his grip.
He channeled mana from his Divine Locks and pointed his spearhead to the sky.
Slowly, the tip glowed white with mana.
It was his imprint, an ability that let him channel his mana into his weapon and unleash a fully concentrated beam. The plan in his mind was brutally simple, but surely effective. Since these scorpions are following and guarding the Noble Star Beast, he would fire a beam straight at it in order to draw the attention of all scorpions to him.
And his friend would do the same, splitting the scorpions’ attention.
But as if it could read his mind, another scorpion burst from the sand right underneath him.
He stumbled and fell to the side.
Recovering quickly, he grabbed his spear and looked up only for his pupils to shrink to slits— as the scorpion was already upon him, and its stinger drawn back, ready to thrust. In the span of a breath, it shot forward, aimed squarely at his face with enough force to burst his skull like overripe fruit.
Just then, with a blink, the Angel saw a shadow above the scorpion.
It was a hulking Angel that dropped from above like a meteor wrapped in muscle.
His bod-nosed mask caught the sun alongside the two-handed battle axe in his hands.
Ferociously, this Angel roared as he brought the battle axe crashing down in a perfect vertical arc. It sheared through the stinger without slowing and slammed into the exoskeleton, but the battle axe cracked it like an eggshell, and the flesh beneath was pulverized instantly.
Almost instantly, the creature was flattened into the sand, killed instantly.
Its green blood splattered across the big-nosed Angel’s arm.
But he wiped it off like sweat despite it being acidic and straightened.
Makos wrenched his battle axe free from the scorpion’s carcass with a wet, grinding pull and slung it over his shoulder. It took only one hit from him to kill a Pest-class Star Beast. Just then, the carcass underneath him twitched.
A nerve-death spasm.
Reacting as quickly, he stomped it flat, shattering it even more.
"Do what you were about to do," Makos said as he gave the other Angel a single nod.
Snapping from his daze, the Angel rose instantly. Mana flared along his spear and settled in the spearhead. He thrust it toward the sand cloud in the distance with a grunt and fired a big concentrated beam of light.
Boom—!
The blast punched through, creating a hole in the sand cloud.
A guttural roar shook that shook the air, and for one stark moment, the flash of light from the impact silhouetted a shape inside. A humanoid monster. It was tall—and had extra limbs that made the silhouette look scarier.
Noticing the attack on the Noble Star Beast, the scorpions turned as one and surged.
All of them went straight for the Angel who had fired that beam of light.
Not far away, the friend Angel finished his kill and saw what happened. Instinctively, he knew what to do and raised both hands. Mana was pulled into his arms as he condensed a massive sphere of churning air overhead.
And with a grunt, he hurled it at the Noble Star Beast, too.
"Legacy Imprint: Blast of Wind!"
Swoosh—!
Some of the scorpions veered and roared in anger; a tide of chitin and stingers flooded toward them both. Makos nodded his head when he saw the opening and took it. He leaped over the scorpions, erupting the sand underneath his feet.
From the cleared flank, Asher and the three seniors emerged and shot forward.
They devoured the distance, weapons out, and speed blistering.
Sensing their approach, the Noble Star beast inside the sand cloud turned.
Bright yellow eyes burned through the dust, locking onto them—and before the seniors could close the gap, the ground rumbled. A thousand voices of bone and steel cackled up from the fissure.
Asher and the seniors hurled themselves backward and skidded across the sand.
Once they stopped and raised their gazes, they frowned.
Before them, where sand had been, an army of skeletons now stood.
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