Chapter 40: Confrontation with magic (5)

As ramie was pondering on the information he had received from the artifact… all of the sudden, and like a crackle of thunder, an overwhelming sense of danger violently erupted in every cell of his body.

He sensed an extremely thick, concentrated killing intent, surges toward him like a flood, overwhelming his senses!

It was much stronger than the killing intent he had felt with the first magical beast he had encountered, the snake headed beast, and even the man back in the bakery store.

This definitely wasn't some weak beast trying to sneak attack them… but judging by the extreme viciousness and menace within this intent, it felt more like a deadly enemy was specifically coming for his life…

Erupting with motion, Ramie jumped up, and then, took few steps ahead, facing the direction where the menacing killing intent was gushing from…

Green Vine!

Green Vine!

Not wasting a single moment, he injected the magic energy into the artifact and mentally commanded, preparing to face off this dreadful enemy.

Immediately, and along the sound of tearing off clothes fibers, two vines emerged from his back, tearing their way through his clothes, and extending from his back like a pair slithering snakes.

"WAKE UUUUUP! ENEMY ATTACK!!!!!"

Breaking through the silence of the night, Ramie bellowed out loud, to alarm the others, while on the same time, locking his yellow-shining eyes at a certain boulder.

In his mind, all he had to do was to hold up for few seconds, till the rest wake up, and join him to resist the sneaking beast.

The moment his words left his mouth, an orange-sized object flew from behind the boulder, moved in arch-shaped path, and came descending at them.

It wasn't the razor-sharp claw or the bared teeth that he expected… but merely an orange-sized object!

It didn't even move in great speed, and he could definitely evade it if he wanted to.

But… behind him, were four people who had just heard his shout, and were probably still in state of panic and confusion, and were not aware of the situation yet. If he was to evade, this attack would definitely land on them. Also, he had no idea what kind of strange innate spells this was… so, and just in case, he decided to repel the object away, and not just evade it.

As such, and using one of the vines, he flung the thing away.

Whoosh!

The moment Ramie did so, the killing intent surged again. Then, and following which, a football-sized dark orb of energy materialized next to the boulder, and streaked at him in a high speed, from the same location, reaching him in a moment!

This ball was spinning with speed so high that it caused a visible vortex of wind to twirl around it; also, it was glowing with dark-blue colored light…

"Damn…"

Judging by its speed, Ramie immediately realized that he won't be able to evade it in time, not with his reaction speed.

Luckily, he had the vines!

Upon his will, and with great speed, one of the vines was swing at the incoming dark orb of energy, to fling it away, just like the previous attack…

Bang!!!

However, the moment the vine came in contact with the energy ball… the ball exploded, immediately pulverizing most of the vine into smithereens, only leaving small part of it intact.

Seeing the destructive nature of this spell, Ramie's heart throbbed with alarm.

"This is bad…"

Had this energy orb struck him, he would have been dead for sure by now! Luckily, the vine took the full brunt of the attack.

However, just as ramie wanted to swing the other vine, to launch a counterattack, the killing intent locking on him surged with even further intensity, and with it, a fist-sized, arc shaped mass of black energy streaked at him from the same location.

Whoosh!!

This small arc of energy tore through the wind at speed many times faster than the dark orb! And Ramie could tell that this was something that not even his vines could intercept in time…!

Rip!

Like a ray of laser, the energy arc struck his chest, and cut its way through him with east that was akin to a sharp knife cutting through butter, and emerged out of his back with its momentum not even diminishing a bit, and then continued on its straight path!

Thwack!

With a sickening sound, blood splashed out from ramie's chest and back.

"!!! … !!!"

Ramie stared at his chest, bewildered…

He… was hit…!

He could sense a warm liquid flowing down from his chest, quickly spreading and drenching his clothes…

For a moment, his mind reeled with high speed, a one that made him feel as though the time slowed down for him…

The speed at which his blood flowed out made him realize a frightening fact… this… was a lethal attack… This was definitely a killing blow…!

So far, it had only been few moments since this insane confrontation started… he had no time to comprehend everything, and was only acting on the defense till now… at least, until the rest of the group joins the battle and supports him…

But now… he had suffered a fatal injury before the rest and including the summoned beast could even know what was happening…!

The worst part of it… there was no aura, no presence, no nothing…

The three attacks and the killing intent were the only things telling him that he wasn't dreaming… that he was currently engaged in a heated battle with an invisible enemy…

Even as he kept looking at the boulder, where the killing intent and the attacks were coming from, he couldn't see anything, not even a shadow…

Not even the summoned beast had reacted yet… which meant, that he was literally fighting alone.

'I'm... actually… going to die…?'

The idea finally sank in his mind…! They, had just left the city, and now, they were being assaulted with such a dangerous invisible beast!!!

How could their luck be so bad as to encounter such a formidable enemy…?

Ramie knew that he was dying… that the beast was going to have a good meal tonight.

As he had this though… a deep howling frustration and anger was stirred in his heart... he wanted to kill this despicable beast at all costs.

'No way this thing is living long enough to eat me…'

This beast was simply way too cunning, shooting out one attack at him after another, with quick succession, not giving him the tiniest chance to retaliate…

Worse, ramie was lethally injured, but had yet to put up any real fight…

The idea of him dying without putting up any resisting caused his blood to boil with anger.

The killing intent was still present, which meant that the enemy was still here.

Ramie's anger erupted like a volcano, turning into a maddening rage that demanded a pay back!

"If am dying… then you filth better not dream of living after me… "

"Die…!!!"

No longer caring to defend himself, Ramie roared in explosive rage, and he went on the offense. He wanted revenge on this damn beast at all costs.

Injecting his magic energy without restrain into the artifact, and sending his raging will... the green vines projected from his back, shooting toward the sky, like an octopus arms, extending at crazily rapid rate…

In a moment, the two vines rose to over 29 meters into the sky, as ramie crazily expended his magic energy without holding anything back at all. Then, following the howl of rage in his heart, the pair of vines descended at crazy speed toward the location of the radiating killing intent, as if they were the materialized form of his deep anger.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The two vines crazily whipped down at the particular spot in extremely violent and heavy lashing motions, bombarding the ground, and causing heavy thudding booms to resound, as if pair of sledge hammers were ramming the ground.

Every single lash delivered force similar to full powered punch, energized with life energy from lance. Hence, each lash was causing a dull, heavy thud to resound in the quiet nigh, and even generating slight earth tremors from the point of impact.

"Die, die, die, die, die, die…!"

With a savage expression, Ramie pounded the area with the vines crazily, without care for the massive expenditure of his magic energy.

He wanted to kill this thing without giving it any chance to retaliate. He wanted to squash this beast into a puddle of blood.

Suddenly, and as Ramie sank in a state of mindless rampage, launching his frenzied attacks at the enemy…

Boooooom!!!!

An explosive, rumbling sound reverberated in the vicinity, and a fiery flash of light lighted up the night, momentarily, originating from the site where the object was thrown.

The rumbling sound of the explosion snapped ramie out of his raging state.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

All of the sudden, an anguished cry of sorrow and grief erupted from behind…

Without even turning, Ramie knew that the previous energy attack that pierced him few seconds ago, had struck one of the other four…

…