Chapter 212: The Tier 3 Beast Appears.
Even Forta was staring now because this had gone beyond talent. This bunny was a monster.
Below the wall, Bahamut leaned casually against a broken structure with his arms crossed while Lily, Exildra, and Alana remained nearby. Sel occasionally fired a few special arrows from his stack from the walls to assist the archers, but Bahamut’s attention remained on Ren, watching silently. Then he smirked faintly.
"He’s enjoying himself too much."
"Can you blame him?" Exildra asked calmly.
"He finally gets to fight without holding back."
BOOOOOOOOOM!
A section of the battlefield exploded again as Ren kicked a coyote leader so hard the beast skipped across the sand like a stone on water.
"Yeah," Bahamut muttered. "He really missed this."
The remaining beasts finally broke. Fear overtook instinct. The wolves retreated first, then the foxes followed. The cats were next, and finally the coyotes. But Ren suddenly appeared in front of them again. Towering over the fleeing beasts with glowing red marks and a disturbingly cheerful smile.
"Where do you think you’re going?"
The beasts immediately split apart in terror, and for the first time in Senkeht’s history... several warriors silently began wondering whether the calamity beneath the desert should actually be afraid of the rabbit instead.
The battlefield had barely settled. Corpses of beasts littered the sands outside Senkeht while blood slowly seeped into the desert floor. Smoke rose from scorched areas where the fox pack had unleashed flames, and several sections of the already damaged walls had suffered even further cracks.
Heavy breathing echoed everywhere. Warriors leaned against spears and shields. Archers slumped against battlements while wiping sweat from their faces. Even the wind seemed exhausted. Ren landed atop the wall with a heavy thud.
THOOM!
The battlements shook slightly beneath his weight before his body rapidly shrank back down into his smaller, fluffy form.
"I need food," he muttered immediately. Gabi climbed up moments later, breathing harder than usual.
"You always need food."
"And you always look constipated."
"That doesn’t even make sense."
"It doesn’t need to."
Gabi stared at him blankly and sighed. He was too tired for this. Below them, warriors slowly began dragging away corpses while healers rushed between the wounded. Some warriors even laughed nervously now that the battle was over. It was finally over. That was what they thought.
Forta stood atop the wall silently, scanning the desert horizon. Something bothered him. This was too easy. The attacks so far had been dangerous, yes, but controlled and measured. After hearing the beast’s roar yesterday, he knew something horrifying. The true attack had not started yet.
And he was right as the ground trembled faintly. Everyone instantly froze. At first, it was subtle, just enough to disturb loose sand. It was a low vibration beneath their feet, almost unnoticeable, but it grew rapidly, as if something massive was approaching from very far away.
Ren’s ears twitched sharply.
"No."
The rumbling intensified. The walls of Senkeht vibrated faintly now. Dust trickled down buildings. The warriors slowly turned toward the horizon, and their expressions changed.
The dunes were moving. They were collapsing, breaking apart as if countless things were moving beneath and across them simultaneously. Then the sounds came. Growls, roars, screeches, and howls. There were hundreds of them... No thousands. The horizon darkened, and then they saw it.
The horde. A sea of beasts. An endless flood of claws, scales, fur, and glowing eyes surged across the desert toward Senkeht like a living natural disaster. There were sand wolves, rock lions, sand serpents, coyotes, massive scorpions, desert hawks... creatures most had never even seen before. The desert itself seemed alive.
And leading them was the solar wyrm.
The colossal serpent-like creature emerged from the dunes slowly. Its golden-black scales reflected sunlight like molten metal while its gigantic body stretched endlessly across the sands. Its mere movement caused dunes to collapse. Its eyes glowed like miniature suns. Heat radiated from its body so intensely that the air distorted around it. And when it raised its massive head fully, the entire town fell silent, because the wyrm towered over the walls of Senkeht completely. It was less of a beast and more of a moving catastrophe.
Several warriors lost color immediately. One archer physically stumbled backward.
"That thing..."
"We can’t fight that..."
"Impossible..."
Even Forta’s jaw tightened because he knew... if that solar wyrm reached the walls directly, thousands would die. The other day had been different. It had been stopped, but now? It was inevitable.
Hakim appeared atop the walls instantly beside Forta. Risa arrived moments later. The pressure radiating from the three Tier 3 Demigods spread outward immediately, but even then, the fear did not lessen, because the solar wyrm was not alone. The horde stopped suddenly. Every beast halted at once as if they’d been commanded. Silence fell across the desert; a horrifying silence. Even the wind disappeared.
Something stepped forward.
THOOM!
Just a step, and the entire battlefield trembled.
THOOM!
The beasts parted instantly, not from the force, but from fear. And slowly, it emerged from the middle of the horde. It stood around ten feet tall. Yet somehow, it felt larger than the solar wyrm itself. Its body resembled a monstrous fusion between wolf and dragon. Black fur mixed with dark metallic scales, four massive curved horns extended backward from its head. Its claws dug deeply into the desert with every step. And its eyes... Its glowing purple eyes felt ancient, intelligent, and cruel.
The moment it fully emerged, everyone felt it. Dread. Pure instinctive dread. Several warriors dropped their weapons unconsciously. Some couldn’t breathe properly, while others trembled uncontrollably. Even the beasts behind it lowered themselves submissively.
The creature smiled knowingly like a person, and that terrified everyone even more.
Forta’s face darkened completely.
"That thing is Tier 3?"
Hakim remained silent, and Risa’s expression turned grim, because unlike the solar wyrm, this creature radiated something worse than power. It had presence. Its aura felt oppressive in a way none of them had experienced before. It was as if standing before a true apex predator.
Even Ren stopped joking. His fluffy ears flattened completely.
"That thing is bad news." Beside him, Gabi’s scales had risen fully from instinctive fear. Sel narrowed his eyes seriously. Exildra unconsciously grabbed Bahamut’s arm. Even Lily’s tails had stiffened.
Bahamut...
Bahamut stared directly into the creature’s glowing purple eyes. His heart skipped because the connection returned stronger than ever, and this time, he heard a voice clearly inside his head.
"Found you."
