It was a snake, a very large one. Raavar was unable to see its full size but it was at least 4 meters in diameter. Its length seemed to stretch endlessly around the forest. The scales were white in colour and reflected the sunlight into rainbow colours. It’s large slitted eyes were yellow in colour and its Ehror that it released in intimidation gave off a feeling of deep malevolence. Raavar was shaken to his core. If he hadn’t released his own Ehror in instinctive defence he was sure that he would have been paralyzed from the pressure it gave off. He worried for the other guards and Odelia as he glanced around but realised that Zoe’s own Ehror spread about in a defensive layer over all of them providing them with protection from the white snake’s aura. Ariel was also up on the defensive her staff was held up in front of her in defence and she had a determined if somewhat shocked expression on her face. Artillery class monsters were extremely rare in this forest and the few cases were well in its centre which they were quite far off from.

There was a large difference between the typical monster against an equivalent human. Just like with animals and regular humans intelligence gave humans the advantage typically when there was not a large strength advantage towards the animal. This is the same case even with monsters and thus when facing a monster of a higher-level multiple humans of a lower level were capable of taking them on. The problem was that they would need several Soldier classes on the level of Zoe with at least decent coordination to be able to take on something like this. The one silver lining was that it was on the lowest end of an Artillery class so it would not be capable of instantly crushing them. Zoe’s presence was a huge relief and would be key to their ability to make it out alive.

Zoe took up the front, her shield held up and her green eyes took on a dangerous light. With a yell she banged it to draw the monster’s attention. That did it. The snake charged on with a head on collision with the shield, it obviously wanted to brute force the fight. Even with her enchanted shield she would not be capable of withstanding the hit. Zoe took a low stance at the very last moment angling the shield to face it upwards. The snake slammed into it and was deflected into the air as shield functioned as a ramp. The snake shot past above her with unbelievable speeds as it crashed past into the forest.

“Odelia!” Ariel yelled as she moved to her.

The young girl was frozen stiff with fear even without the effects of the snake’s Ehror touching her. She likely would have been comatose from the pressure on her mind and soul if that had happened. At fifteen she was a year too young to have gained the ability to use the Ehror coursing through her body thus she had no way to defend herself in any capacity against beings that could use it offensively. That was the main reason for Zoe’s presence.

Ariel grabbed her throwing the girl over her shoulder before channelling a spell under her breath.

“Light weight.”

A spell formation formed under her feet. It then pulsed and a white light spread over the area touching every guard including Zoe and Raavar. She felt multiple times lighter than before, making her movements far quicker and easier than before.

It did not taker her long to reach the carriage and she dropped the terrified girl into the bed in it before jumping out again.

The battlefield was chaos, three guards had lose their lives, their bodies mere splatters on the grass. Raavar was firing lightning enhanced arrows at the snake as Zoe bashed and slashed at it with sword and shield. The damage they did to the monster was negligible it’s defences were simply too strong. The other guards could only act as brief distractions.

Raavar knew that the snakes was just playing with them Zoe was strong and extremely skilful in combat, however her lack of an ability was a massive issue putting them into a tight spot.

“Raavar I am here!” Ariel called from the side.

“Perfect, prepare a spell to restrict its movement there is no way to beat it we have to escape!” Raavar and Zoe had actually been holding back for when Ariel had secured Odelia they could not afford to use up their stamina before a plan could go into the works.

“You would have to buy me some time some thing with this level of Ehror…I would need to gather a lot of power!” She did not wait for an answer she knew he would begin.

“Zoe, you heard?!” He shouted at the bodyguard.

“I did, we don’t have much of a choice anyway!”

Zoe jumped into the air as the snake slammed into her shield bodily, she used the force of the attack to fling herself away from the creature as Raavar’s body became immaterial from his original position behind her. He was suddenly in front taking the snakes attention. As it was still mid attack he was free to fire an especially powerful lightning arrow. The surroundings shook from the arrow passing by at a speed imperceptible to any person in the area. The arrow slammed into the snake throwing it back and drawing blood.

Zoe stood up and raised her sword in front of her it glowed from her Ehror coursing through it. Weapon aura, done by coating your weapon in Ehror, it was incredibly hard to do. She then swung her sword towards the snake release an arc of blue energy. It slammed into the snake again drawing blood, she did this several times quickly and with such perfect movement that little energy was wasted in each swing. The snake was not pushed back at all, but it could certainly feel the attacks now. Raavar was able to use that arrow again, he would aim at an eye, but the snakes simply moved too fast for even his superhuman level of tracking to keep u. Meaning that all he could do was aim for the large body. Raavar fired another powerful shot slamming the snake’s body back once more, he could feel that it was getting frustrated. It would not be long before the monster decides that enough was enough and took its food seriously.

Zoe had taken a breather and was back up charging the snake. Off to the side its tail which was hidden until just now flung out at her. She leapt over the attack over ten metres into the air right at the snake’s head. The snake reared back in surprise causing her swing at its eye to miss by a hair. She wasn’t done however, releasing an aura from her blade at the last moment the snake could not react in time at such close range. The shockwave from the hit rocked the surroundings as the snake was threw itself back hissing in pain. The snake had been practically entirely silent until now.

Raavar was impressed, Zoe had showed off her incredible amount of experience in just those few moments managing to do what he couldn’t in a few steps. However, the snake was definitely mad now as he could tell from the tone its Ehror took. It had an ability! Yet before it could release it, he felt Ariel’s magic settle.

“Absolute detainment!” She yelled, a large magic formation expanded from her position becoming five metres in diameter before disappearing.

A moment later all over the large snake what looked like panes of glass appeared linked together, in various triangular shapes and sizes. They covered the snake following the length of its body to its very end. The snake was completely frozen in place, as if time was stopped.

“We have to move, now!” Ariel shouted.

Raavar roused himself into movement, he was certain that they had been about to die if not for Ariel’s intervention. The other guards had already been retreating towards the carriage as the fight had started while he and Zoe had distracted it. He knew that the spell would not last long and there was no way they could make their way to Maitol in this situation so they had to retreat. The mission would be called off.

“How long do we have?” Zoe asked.

“A couple minutes at most.” Ariel replied.

“We would not cover enough distance in that time.”

“Don’t worry I left it a present within the spell.”

That explained why her spell seemed to take longer than expected. The bigger the formation, the longer and more powerful the spell. But while they were indeed facing an Artillery level opponent meaning that her chant would have to be even longer for the spell to be meaningful, Raavar did not think she had to have chanted for so long. That meant that she had added another spell to it for its eventual escape. As expected of the genius mage.

The carriage was started as soon as everyone was on it which did not take long. Raavar flashed from the field onto its top, with Zoe doing the same to the entrance.

A while after they had left they heard the sound of an explosion and an angry hiss following right after.