“Don’t you dare cower, this is what we came for in the first place,” Oliver’s aura transformed, his commanding tone broke them free from the paralysed state they were in: “Get into positions now!”

“PAWOO!” The Stone Elephant raised its trunk directing all its intense fury at Oliver who stood directly in front of it only a couple dozen metres away from it and then charged at him.

He sighed in relief when it charged at him: It’s a good thing that all its aggression is focussed on me; I’d be the only person that could be able to distract it. Just from its heavy steps, he could get a sense of how much power the Stone Elephant had.

Quickly taking out a bow and a quiver full of special arrows out of the bag, he threw the bag to Sira in the distance: “Get to point B where the trap is and prepare both ballista's, there should be around 4 projectiles left so 2 for each ballista.”

“5 Minutes, that’s all I can give you to set it up.” He ran aside then shooting an arrow aimed straight at the Stone Elephants eye to keep its aggression on him. “If you understand go!”

As he said that he released the arrow, it streaked through the air, a blue hue appearing on the tail of the arrow. The arrow drilled into the adult Stone Elephants hind leg.

The Intense pain was numbed by the huge adrenaline going through its body, it roared once more as it chased Oliver into the trees.

Sira looked at the others: “Let’s go, leave the corpse here we can come back for it anytime.”

“Sara, Yeri, both of you follow him, remember to maintain a wide distance and be wary of being noticed.”

The two nodded and ran off following the trail of destruction left by the Stone Elephant.

“Andrew, stay with me, I need you to help me set up the second ballistae.”

----------------

“BOOM!”

A large tree was smashed down by another tree’s trunk.

Hiding under the shroud of the tree leaves Oliver desperately tried to calm his thumping heart, he was only hiding on top of that tree a few moments ago.

“Damn it!” He gritted his teeth in resentment: “Those bastards did not mention that it was a Sage Warrior level beast!”

“Do they really want to kill me off that badly?!”

He leapt to another tree and just then that tree was smashed to bits.

As he landed on the ground, the Stone Elephant caught sight of him and rushed at him, destroying everything in its path. Just then 2 arrows flew hurtling at the Stone Elephant in vain leaving only scratches on its tough skin.

Even though it did nothing to it, it drew its attention for an instant just long enough for Oliver to disappear into the covering of the trees once again.

Under the covering, his fingernails dug deep into his palm trying to calm his hammering heart and rapid breathing, to quell the petrifying fear of death.

Oliver pulled out an arrow from his quiver placing it on his bow; this arrow was different from ordinary arrows, made of a special kind of silver metal with a slight touch of cyan blue on it.

I’ve only got three of these arrows left in my quiver; I have to make sure that these shots count. Breathing in deeply, he pulled the bowstring to full stretch, the moment he exhaled the aura around him changed and the tension disappeared,

“Twang!” The sound of the arrow was startlingly quiet.

Hurtling through the air, splitting through it and with that, a trail of blue light followed the tail of the arrow.

Although the sight of the arrow flying was beautiful it caused his heart to bleed, the price he paid for it was a quarter of his entire savings.

When the Stone Elephant noticed the arrow itself it was moments too late, the arrow flashed before its eyes and forced its way into its eye socket.

It roared in pain, even louder than before, witnessing this Oliver’s judgement was clouded by joy, quickly raising the bow he once again shot another one of his special arrows aiming for its remaining eye.

However, because of his clouded judgement and naivety over the situation, the Stone Elephant was prepared to raise its trunk to protect its other eye. The arrow drilled into its trunk causing it even more pain but it stopped before reaching its eye.

Blood flowed down from all wounds yet it only filled it with even more bloodlust, the Stone Elephant roared as it dashed towards Oliver its speed increased by nearly 50%.

Realising what was happening he couldn’t but slightly whimper out the words, “Berserk State…”

Oliver bit his tongue without mercy until blood was flowing from his mouth to eclipse the fear with pain.

He jumped once again to run away but he was moments too late.

Arrows flew aimed for the Stone Elephant but they were too slow.

-----------

“Richard, are you going to help him, the Elephant’s gone berserk?” Ryan asked.

The berserk state was something Richard had explained to him while training, it allowed a Beast to enter frenzy where its power increases exponentially depending on many factors, but this condition drains the lifespan of the Beast itself until the only thing that awaits it is death.

“Do you want me to help him?”He replied.

Ryan looked at him strangely: “It’s normal not to help a stranger when you have no connection with them, but isn’t that what you did for…” me.

“Stop, I’ll go,” Richard interrupted, grunting he disappeared from where he was leaving only dust to fly up in the air.

--------------

I’m so close to the meeting place…” Oliver murmured in the face of death, unwilling and despair filling his heart, not even noticing the two girls shouting out his name.

“BOOOM!”

“…” Oliver lay there motionlessly anticipating the moment that never came until he heard a voice: “How long are you going to keep your eyes closed?”

His eyes snapped open wide, and facing him was a tall man wearing a brown cloak, his face slightly ragged but his grey eyes were locked onto his own eyes and were hard to escape from.

“The Stone Elephant?!” Oliver exclaimed, yet Richard pointed behind himself.

Slowly looking behind the man Oliver’s mouth gaped open in shock, a trail of dirt led to the body of the Stone Elephant sprawled on its feet, one of its feet was nothing but mangled flesh with blood spilling down from it.

“Pawooo!” It bellowed in pain.

All of a sudden a spear formed in the air, slashing down it severed its head from the body.

“Don’t you agree that Stone Elephant was annoyingly loud?” Richard yawned while he said it.

Oliver did not even process the information passing through his eyes to his brain and just stared at the dead body dumbfounded.