Scared shitless, the players stood above the sand with heartbeats racing and tense limbs. Their eyes kept shifting from a sand dun to another, trying to catch a glimpse at the predator underneath them. Unfortunately, only rolling waves of sand covered their vision.

There was absolutely no sign of the serpent's whereabouts. This feeling of knowing that they were being watched without the ability to discern from where caused their already tense limbs to stiffen even further.

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They would rather have the beast towering over them as before than hide underneath their feet like this.

Seconds went by and the only thing that was still making its presence heard, was the sound of the desert getting larger and spreading wider.

The serpent was acting the same as a chef, preparing the ingredients meticulously before cooking them off. However, its way of doing things was putting a dent in those players' mentality.

Their gut feeling screamed at them to leave this death trap. Yet, their bodies were as unresponsive as a log.

Zoe and the spectators all went quiet as well. No one made a single sound, as their eyes were fixated on the serpent that was swimming within the sand, unhindered like a fish in the ocean. Few whispers were thrown here and there about who was the lucky player to get picked up first.

Suddenly, their eyes brightened up, as they noticed the serpent slithering towards a player that had a frozen area of sand around him.

The player was putting his entire focus on freezing the sand underneath him, so the serpent wouldn't pop out straight under his feet.

Too bad, his proactive defensive attempt made the serpent put its focus on him first. It sensed that it shouldn't let him continue building his defenses around him. Otherwise, it would affect its final attack.

Thus, the poor lad just shot himself in the foot, as the serpent used its long golden tail like a whip, sending it towards his feet.

Boom, Crack!

The frozen sand broke into small pieces, as the tail kept penetrating it without a single ounce of resistance.

Frightened, the player tried to jump in the air after sensing that his defenses were getting ruptured within moments. However, before he reached even one-meter mid-air, the tail latched into his waist and dragged him down, burying him out of sight in an instant.

It happened so fast, the others in the area didn't even catch a glimpse at the serpent. The only thing their eyes kept feeding them was a two-meter hole left behind after that deadly and hidden ambush.

The open cross was engulfed in an ever creepier silence. Gulping sounds were heard here and there, as the players were on the verge of a mental breakdown. Their mind and instinct kept clashing for control over their bodies.

Their instinct kept sending signals to retreat as fast as possible. Meanwhile, their minds refused to disobey Charming's request.

This constant war was taking a toll on their bodies, leaving them unfocused and weakened. They already had a null chance of slaying the serpent with their basic synergy, but now, it was simply a fat joke!

They were just sitting ducklings in the eyes of the spectators, waiting for their turn to get dragged deep within the sand.

Worried, Charming Sky kept biting her nails while observing this trashy display of skills. In her eyes, there were plenty of ways they could rely on to counter-attack the serpent ambushing techniques.

The easiest and fastest way, was of course to use a bait to drag the serpent out and bombard it with a barrage of elemental abilities.

They could simply make their front-liner taunt the beast underneath while having every defensive ability on him or ready to activate.

The serpent with its top-notch hearing would not miss his voice, and after constant provocative attempts, the serpent was definitely not going to spar him.

If that happened, the rangers with all of their strongest offensive abilities would have an easy time barraging it after it exposes itself.

This was merely one of the many ways this battle could have played out. But those strategies only worked for well-trained teams.

As for those randoms who weren't even able to control their own decisions properly? Forget about having synergy with each other, they didn't even have a proper synergy between their bodies and instinct!

This was one of the many weaknesses of Charming Sky's bloodline. The players' gut feeling always gets in the way of her request, thus lowering their strength by at least 60%. This issue only crops up during those kinds of difficult battles.

Charming Sky knew so as well but didn't want to admit it. She would rather blame the stupidity of her minions than to accept that her bloodline was flawed.

Unfortunately for her, the Terror Serpent wasn't in the mood to entertain her ego, as its preparation for her final attack was finally over.

the desert that was enlarging within eyesight abruptly stopped, leaving the players worried about this unknown action and the spectators holding their breath in anticipation.

"It is coming!!!!"

Thrilled, Zoe pointed with a slender finger at the serpent, which buried deep down start to coil around itself until it was squeezed into merely one meter and a half.

The cracks on its scales opened up yet again, but this time instead of releasing sand, it withdrew it!!!

Whoosh! Whoosh!...

If before, the sand oozing speed was fast, then its withdrawal was at least ten times that!

Yet, the scary part wasn't even this, but the fact that the sand was whirling in the process, creating a horrifying sandstorm!

The players' defenses meant jack shit in front of this raging storm that was traveling 750km/h. Their bodies were all flung in the air and revolved around the center of the serpent's position.

The weaker ones defensive-wise, had their body's limbs all ripped apart in a cruel fashion, spraying blood and pieces of flesh in the air just to be obliterated by the storm. As for the rest of the players, their skin was being peeled slowly by the sand particles, which were battering them in a consistent manner.

"Ahh.!..."

The moment one of them opened his mouth, trying to scream over this torturous way of dying, sand assaulted the inside of his body through his mouth!

If only swallowing sand was the end, it wouldn't have mattered that much. Sadly, it wasn't even close, as the sand inside his stomach kept trying to withdraw to the serpent's scales as well!

This resulted in having a mini storm inside the body too, destroying every organ insight.

Oooooh!

Mortified, the audience's heads all drew back while hissing at the sight of that player's guts, exploding akin to eating a hand grenade.

He died instantly!

But he shouldn't feel too sad, as the rest accompanied him within a few seconds in between, leaving the sandstorm raging all by itself.

On the other hand, Charming Sky was already one km away from them and was still running barefoot while holding her high heels under her armpit.

She stood true to her word and escaped the moment shit hit the fan.

After seeing the desert stopped enlarging, her gut feeling told her that it was time to bolt. And bolt she did without questions asked.

She didn't care in the slightest about stepping on traps as the only thought in her mind was to be as far as possible from that damned serpent.

She truly overestimated her strength and her bloodline in thinking that it was enough to handle an epic tier 2 beast.

'Who can win against this monster?! Screw you, Landlord, you baited me!!'

Riled up and displeased, she gritted her teeth while checking from time to time behind her back.

Her displeasure was understandable, as she believed that since Felix could beat an epic beast solo, wasn't even easier for her team to do the same?

After all, she had six bloodliners under her thumb and all of them weren't too shabby.

Unfortunately, that thought was utterly extinguished from her mind after her team got played by the serpent without even wounding it that heavily.

Right now, she wanted nothing but to beat up Felix for baiting her into that death trap. She already placed all the blame on poor Felix, who had no idea about any of this.

Charming Sky's personality was still as irresponsible and egoist as ever. She would rather blame innocents than take the blame on herself.

"That's too unfortunate for Charming Sky." Zoe shook her head and highlighted Charming's statics on the screen. She pointed at the energy index and explained, "She consumed too much energy during that fight. Her energy now is not even 30%. If she won the battle that would still be alright." She sighed, "But now, she is definitely eliminated from the wager. There is nothing much she could do."

Although the spectators were disappointed at her early disqualification from the bet, they still cheered for her since she gave them a terrific fight to watch.

Though it was more like a one-sided slaughter, it was still pretty entertaining to watch.