Chapter 132: The fourth hour.

After several hours of fighting, the beginner adventurer are starting to thin out. Those who were wounded or killed had left the battlefield. Those who remain are either lucky or the cream of the crop in their ranks.

The veterans had higher stamina and made less mistakes thus they could hold out for much longer. But having to protect several idiotic mistakes performed by the beginners, they too started to show signs of fatigue.

The darkness crawled further in as midnight approaches. The entire town was shrouded in a pale darkness. The only thing that provided some relief are the light of the moons and the remaining few street lamps who still glimmered in their bioluminescence.

Cytex look back at his group. Only two dozen adventurers remain. They were the ones strong enough to survive till now so he had some trust in them to cover his back.

The tide has retreated for now, preparing for its second surge. The remaining monsters lost their advantage in the waters. They either fled or were slaughtered by the adventurers.

Large quantities of crab and shellfish corpses littered the soaked streets along with debris from buildings. An unimaginable amount of sand was also washed up by the tide.

The once pristine cobblestone pathways have been fully covered by a deep layer of sand.

The thunder boomed above the skies and the rain seemed to settle down into a light drizzle.

Suddenly, a small movement in the sand. It went unnoticed by the beginners but Cytex caught a glimps of it.

[Cytex]: Shit, everyone on alert! We got sand monsters!

His warning came a bit late as a large bee erupted from the sands and with its large mandibles tore straight into an unsuspecting beginner’s throat.

It ripped half his neck off completely as it quickly dove back into the sand, digging rapidly with its front and hind legs. A trail of blood oozed from the soaked sand.

The beginner fell over dead, large quantities of blood poured from what remained of his neck.

[Cytex]: Shit, GET YOUR ASS READY!

The shocking scene and Cytex’s shout got the remaining beginners to break out of their relaxed form and back into a fighting stance.

A faint buzzing could be heard from the sand underneath them.

Having seen how fast the bee shot from the ground, most beginners would not be able to dodge it. Cytex had to cover them which further increased his fatigue.

Alone, he perhaps would be able to last several days, but with the situation as it is now, at best he may last another six hours.

Like a pebble being kicked, three bees shot from the sand toward one beginner. Perhaps it’s his fatigue showing but the adventurer couldn’t move. He moved his sword upwards trying to deflect the one aiming at his neck but the other two gorged into his sides.

Cytex quickly rushed up to the kid and stabbed one of the bees but couldn’t make it in time for the other.

Two out of three bees deflected but the last one still took a chunk out of the poor beginner’s sides. Blood flowed generously down into the sand as another victim fell limp down onto the ground.

[Cytex]: Everyone huddle together! Protect each other’s backs!

Cytex thought if the group could encase themselves into a circle, perhaps the bees will only attack from one side.

The beginners shuffled into a circle as fast as they could. The ones who were far too tired to fight were stood in the middle.

Cytex stood on top of a street lamp and stared down at the sands. The buzzing got louder and more aggressive.

This time, half a dozen bees erupted from the sand and dove toward Cytex.

With a spin of his harpoon, he blocked five of them and stabbed the land one. Taking a closer look at the bee revealed it to be a drone type sand bee.

[Cytex]: Only a drone? Damn. If we’re already being tied down by drones, I wonder who had to deal with the soldier sand bees…

______

Crule looked down at the ground. He covered it completely with his aura. Under the night sky, the aura made the ground looked as if it doesn’t exist. It reflected the sky making it blend into the horizon. The adventurers following Crule were all alive, albeit a tad tired. They fared far better than their peers in other groups.

The bees that popped out of the ground were at least triple the size of the ones Cytex’s group was fighting. They were the soldier bees with large drill-like teeth on their mandibles. But no matter how menacing they looked, they were immediately snatched by a dark tendril that stuck onto their body when they shot from the sands. The tendril dragged them down back into the dark aura. The sound of dissolving could be heard as the bees ‘entered’ the darkness.

Crule’s aura was slowly fueled itself with the energy contained in the bees. It didn’t even tired him at all with the sheer amount of bees attacking him.

Ming was lecturing the adventurers. It seem at some point, they wanted a few points but Crule was too busy to teach them. Most beginners would have no idea how to control their auras. They were taught how to use spells and how to develop gates. Many had no idea they had such a thing in them. They accepted the gates as mere ‘milestones’.

After teaching them about their auras. The adventurers glowed nearly every color on the rainbow. Their auras covered their hands as they played around with them.

Like children discovering a new toy, they practiced manipulating their aura into different shapes. The more adept adventurers could mold their aura into a thin layer that cover their entire body. The less adept could at best make their aura into a sphere or a cube to be thrown.

Those with small energy pools immediately felt heavy and tired. They sat down panting for air.

Ming instructed all of them on combat with auras. Crule’s forces were only getting stronger while the rest were decreasing.