Chapter 621 621. CORRUPTED BARMUS
The group proceeded down those steep elevations and descended into the great chasm. Noah realized that it was far deeper than he had anticipated. At least as they descended he noticed this.
The great chasm had become an ecosystem of its own—thanks to the great magic that had caused its existence. Even from their position, he could sense various auras filling that place.
But above all other auras was that of the chasm itself. Far far away from their location small black clouds hovered above certain regions, but an even larger one hovered above what seemed to be the central point of that great location.
His instincts spiked anytime his eyes fell on that certain cloud. It stood still in the sky.
"Those regions contain threat levels far into the fifth tier. Most of this place has even been left unexplored. We have a path, however. It's the safest," Lady Edna revealed, floating till she landed on a cliff. They all did.
Right below them was the rather usual sight of vegetation. Weak beasts even in the third tier roamed that environment.
The crater had different levels of depths and they each contained a flora and fauna of their own. Beasts that have been there for centuries, bathing in that aura.
Even Noah expected some type of changes in their abilities. He also expected to see new things, but for the time being their journey was peaceful.
'The vegetation is already different,' Noah wondered staring at pink shrubs and tall blue trees. Of course, they weren't exactly harmful.
The very environment felt peaceful, probably due to the low level of beasts around them. Their very presence scared those creatures away.
For the time being the beasts he saw were rather recognizable, except that certain features were altered to suit that environment.
Things would change as they spent hours walking, however. The trees grew taller and the presence of the chasms aura became slightly more evident. But there was a dramatic spike in the power of creatures present in that region.
It remained safe, however. The best they had seen were middle-stage tier-four beasts. But their level wasn't the fascinating thing.
They were almost if not completely mutated.
They had encountered a sleeping dog the size of entire buildings. Its fur had been grey, except that it featured strange patterns on them. Those patterns ranged in color and exuded the aura that permeated that environment.
Noah had considered alerting the beast, but it looked too peaceful. He had let it slide.
The next series of beasts simply avoid them.
That trend would change, however.
"We're essentially changing regions now," Lady Edna revealed pointing at the visible change before them. A literal line separated those pink trees and mostly blue bushes. They had not changed elevation thanks to the path they took, but it didn't matter.
They had reached the portion of that region with the strongest beasts. According to Edna. The next portion of the crater would be empty of wild beasts. The flora itself would be the trouble there.
The second Noah stepped past that line he felt a wave of mana density slam into his figure.
'Jeez." he felt forced to exclaim, Erolia felt the same way.
Their journey remained peaceful, but they reached a wide clearing. The trees there were barely as tall as the ones they saw before. The fifth-tier bird quite literally dwarfed them.
The sun streamed down from the sky filling that place with golden light. The short brown grass swayed softly in the wind and the purple trees seemed to glow in the radiance of the sun's light.
That large clearing exuded serenity. It seemed like a different place compared to the rest of that area, and that was already a lot considering they had not encountered any trouble yet.
Unfortunately, that would only be an illusion.
The fifth-tier beast voiced a soft growl alerting its tiny companions.
The others had already noticed too but were barely moved.
"Just one higher-stage beast," muttered Noah, dealing with the little itch that had manifested on his beardless chin.
It had been a while since he last grew a beard. He wondered if he was even physically capable of that anymore.
The ground trembled beneath their feet as the entire group halted their steps to check out the strange creature. It did not seem like anything Noah knew and truly it wasn't.
The trees before them parted to reveal a rather short figure no more than 3m in height. It had the form of a leopard, only that its fur was completely white and black spots existed on it.
Its feet were like those of elephants and its tail resembled that of a scorpion—huge and crimson.
Its eyes glowed a black light as it bore its jagged metal-like teeth whilst wisps of a strange bronze energy seeped out of its muscular build.
Despite its short height compared to other beasts at its level, Noah could immediately understand that it would be a formidable opponent.
The fifth-tier experts barely reacted, however.
"A corrupted Barmus," Yuno revealed, shaking his head ready to send his beast forward. She would crush it. Literally.
"No. Let her handle it," Noah shook his head turning to the expert. Startled by his sudden decision, Erolia considered it for an instant but stepped forward.
"Hmm… alright," Yuno shrugged.
Noah nodded and turned to focus on Eorlia who glanced at him for a second before further approaching the beast.
The winds whooshed softly acting on Erolia's multicolored hair while she took steps forward.
"You can see you're outmatched here," her words seeped out with barely any killing intent, but the beast remained stationary. its dark eyes were now completely fixed on her vibrant figure.
"I see… you're maddened of sorts," she concluded stopping about ten meters from the beast.
"A corrupted Barmu-!" Her words were cut short by the burst of speed her target erupted with. The ground shattered beneath its figure as it accelerated forward, but surprisingly it did not go for her!
Erolia's figure flickered to clash with it.
"I'm your opponent," she frowned. It had tried to attack Noah who remained unmoved of course.
The ground shattered beneath the duo as a small crater unfolded with a shockwave.
Her arm had connected with the beast's face and its strength managed to surprise her. Unfortunately for the Barmus, that was all it could achieve.
Erolia flexed her arm and ended up sending it flying faster than the speed of sound.
Its figure smashed through kilometers worth of trees only to slam into a huge rock that shattered upon impact.
Those experts could only praise her at that sight.
Furrowing her brows, Eorlia's figure shattered the sound barrier to zip toward her target in an instant. The force of her movement relative to that of a huge canon.
The beast had barely recovered so it couldn't dream of evading her coming blow.
Nevertheless, Erolia's fist connected with the beast's left arm and despite the amount of force she had pushed into that blow, the sound of metal striking metal resounded in the environment as her fist bounced upon contact.
The event ended up almost making her trip on her feet, as she stepped backwards to regain balance.
Shocked, she rained a series of blows each ending up unsuccessful.
"Impossible," she jumped backward, creating distance.
Her blows had made a mess of the area around them and had kept the beast in one place, but it wasn't dead.
Her confusion was cleared by Elder Velsvon's words.
"Corrupted Barmus's are known for calling upon the very earth around them to gain a type of defense that puts them even stronger than many metal affinity beasts."
"In short as long as it's connected to the ground below you'll probably need fifth-tier power to kill it in one go." The elder gave an excited chuckle after his explanation.
Erolia could not but find surprise unfolding in her mind.
Suddenly, now she could notice the bronze miasma seeping out of its figure with even more intensity, and now its formerly black spots had turned to the same color, pulsing with a type of power she was encountering for the first time.
The beast parted its jaws to voice a powerful roar. The ground fell under its authority and converged on her figure in an attack.
A huge cloud of dust rose in that region by reason of that offensive, but Erolia appeared in the sky and the wind blew to disperse that dust.
The beast had disappeared and was going after Noah again. Fury sprung forth in her being, and the sky trembled because of her influence.
In the blink of an eye and with explosive might, tornadoes appeared on its path, and further damage was dealt to the environment.
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