Doomsday Pillars

CRASHHH!!

A loud explosive sound resounded throughout the garden, shocking everyone out of their mind except for Cerri, who still maintained her calm. The humongous creature with the body of a lion, wings of an eagle and face of a human showed up from the ceiling, followed by countless debris falling to the ground.

The sudden appearance of the monstrous beast caused the expression on everyone's faces to change greatly, especially Alex and Ardeth's. Although this time there were about three dozens of Sky realm fighters in the area, after witnessing the prowess the legendary beast exhibited previously, Alex was pessimistic about their current situation.

Perfectly knowing the [Magic Bullet] wouldn't work on the beast, as it would only be deflected by the beast's thick hide, Alex quickly drew out Stroke and brandished it before him. 

He swiftly prepared his fighting stance, set his mind to full alert and used all the buff-type spells and scrolls he had, such as: [Hexagram Technique - stage 4], [Bless], [Stone Skin], [Windwalk], [Energize]. Alex then eyed the beast sharply, ready for a fight if necessary.

When the flying beast broke through the ceiling and looked down towards Alex and the others, it swiftly swooped down towards them with its talon spreaded apart. The speed of the swooping beast was insanely fast. It quickly crashed upon a fighter, the latter didn't even realize when it hit him.

In an instant, the fighter was slammed to the ground, creating a small crater around him. All the other fighters immediately dashed away, scrambled and surrounded the crater where the huge beast was currently.

When the dirt and dust flying in the air settled, everyone could only see broken and separated parts of the body strewn inside the crater, while the beast eyed them with a gaze full of hostility.

Even though each of them was either a Sky realm Knight or Magus, which could be called a top powerhouse in the world, they couldn't help but sweat when they saw the fate of their poor companion, that now laid beneath the beast.

Naturally, the fighters didn't remain still. As they surrounded the beast, they immediately sent out their attacks. A barrage of spells and bullets swiftly flew in the air heading towards the beast.

Alas, their efforts were completely futile, as the beast received the full brunt of their attacks without taking any real impact at all. Seeing the unscathed hide of the beast without any wounds, all these veteran warriors were currently sweating bullets.

As expected, the beast was only further provoked by the attacks, as it roared angrily.

*ROAR!!!*

A sharp piercing roar, reminiscent of a lion's roar, echoed through the air. In the blink of an eye, powerful gusts of wind like some kind of magic spell materialized, as the beast did a sweep with its huge wings. As a result, several unprepared fighters were thrown away by the wind currents. Some of them even knocked against the wall near the path they took and received a concussion.

At the moment, the beast was walking slowly, eyeing each and every fighter in the area, as if it was a lion in the middle of its prey selection. Every fighter who received the beast's gaze was completely terrified.

Unexpectedly, Alex jumped in front of the creature's line of sight with his wooden sword in hand. The gait Alex's body showed indicated he was coming to fight. Provoked by his action, the beast swiftly dashed towards Alex.

When the creature charged towards him, Alex immediately casted [Decelerate] to slow down the creature and dashed forward himself. When the two figures were only a meter away from each other, he swiftly swung his sword diagonally, as Stroke created a beautiful arc of light. 

Not only that, Alex also subtly shifted his feet, as his body leaned to the right. With this, he would be able to instantly spin and dodge the beast's strike the moment his own attacks landed.

Splat!

Alex was able to land a significant wound on the creature's body. Immediately after, he spun his body to dodge the incoming talons and retreated back. Thankfully, Alex managed to evade the sweep rather easily, as the beast's speed had been lowered by his spell. Meanwhile, Alex's successful attack made the beast roared again, this time, beside anger there was also pain.

It appeared that with his [Decelerate] spell, Alex could at least win in the speed aspect. As for the strength aspect, he didn't dare to try and test himself against the beast.

When Alex was finally able to smile a little bit seeing the wound on the creature, it suddenly healed itself to a speed apparent to the naked eye.

"Shit!! Hanz! Mr Heinrich! Any way to kill this monster?"

Upon hearing Alex's question, Heinrich shook his head and said, "No, Mr Alex. We hoped you would know..."

Meanwhile, the creature didn't stop his rampage when Alex was busy 'interrogating'. When he saw the creature instantly killed another fighter, Alex quickly dashed towards it while still using the [Decelerate] spell. He wanted to do another swing at the beast, this time aiming at its neck. Alex was hoping that cutting off the creature's neck he would win him the fight.

When he saw the opportunity was coming, Alex quickly positioned himself on the beast's blind spot and immediately channeled all the power he could muster to his arm, as he swung Stroke.

CLANK!

To Alex's complete shock, his tier 5 sword was only able to cut an inch deep into the skin. When the sword got in contact with the creature's neck, Alex felt as if he was hitting a metal wall.

On the other hand, the creature was in rage when it felt pain in its neck. It  snapped his head around and spotted the retreating Alex and swiftly charging towards him.

With the footwork of Hexagram Technique, Alex was barely able to dodge the monster's furious charge. It didn't stop there, the beast immediately launched a series of claw attacks towards him, followed by countless blade-like wind currents towards him

Finally, the fourth attack the beast launched was able to land on Alex's body, causing the protective barrier he had to immediately shatter and tore the protective vest apart.

[Energy Shield 0/200]

[Condition : Destroyed]

Alex was utterly shocked when he saw the tattered state of his vest, "Just one attack, and the tier 2 protective vest was totally wrecked! What a powerful attack!"

Alex swiftly moved back, as he tried to break away from the beast. Unfortunately, the beast was still moving towards Alex and following him like a glue. It then quickly sent another claw strike at him.

This time, Alex was much more panicked. He really didn't dare to imagine what would happen when another attack managed to land on him. Hence, he swiftly did a backward tumble to dodge the strike and once again swung Stroke to block another claw coming at him.

Clank!!

The moment Stroke met the beast's claw, Alex felt a tremendous strength channeled to his body through the sword. As a result, he was thrown several meters away and fell to the ground, coughing out blood.

Coincidentally, Alex landed near the location of Heinrich and Hanz.

"The creature is too strong, Mr Heinrich." Alex said, still coughing some blood.

"Mr Alex, we do have another plan. But we think you will not like it."

"At a moment like this, any plan will be appreciated."

Right as Alex finished his words, Heinrich gave a nod to Hanz and Hanz quickly drew a knife out of his ring and stabbed it on Alex's shoulder. With his protective vest pretty much a goner, the blade went straight through into his bone.

The stab was surely hurt, but it was still bearable for Alex. He was about to struggle when the other Iron Eagle fighters suddenly brandished their swords towards Ardeth.

"What the hell, Hanz?! What are you guys planning?" Alex asked, panting while still coughing blood.

Hanz pulled out the knife and placed it near Alex's neck. He then whispered, "Just play along, Mr Alex. This is probably the only way for us to survive."

With the current condition, where Ardeth was also held hostage, Alex thought he might as well wait and see what was their plan. Heinrich walked near the river and shouted towards Cerri, who stood behind the barrier with her arm crossed.

"If you don't order that creature to stop its attack, I will kill this man." Heinrich said, pointing his finger at Alex.

Unexpectedly, Cerri appeared to be unbothered by the threat, "Just kill the man. I don't know him and I don't care."

The legendary beast seemed to just finished devouring another Sky realm fighter when it suddenly turned around facing Heinrich. It then swiftly charged towards him.

Upon seeing the incoming beast, Heinrich shouted, "If you don't order it to stop right now, Alex's head will roll!"

Naturally, Alex would not let this happen. He was about to use his energy to free himself when he suddenly realized something made his spirit power unable to channel properly. A thought then flashed in his mind.

'Poison!?'

Meanwhile, the creature kept his charge towards them, the knife near Alex's neck kept inching forward.

But at the last moment, a sudden loud shout stopped the beast on its tracks. Everyone's gaze turned towards the source of the shout.

It was a shout from a little girl, who came from across the river.. Alex's daughter, Tiffany.

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