Chapter 8

Hunt

Warning! Entering a forbidden Dungeon of A Class level! Once entered, the enemy will know of your presence! Warning!

Alarmed, Zero took a step back, unsure if he wanted to dive. His hesitance caused Jorge to walk forward without even caring about the consequences.

"What are you scared of?" Jorge huffed, shaking himself a couple of times before he stepped in.

A thundering roar resounded throughout the cave, amplifying the sound and causing everyone to be in a mess of status ailments that hit them all in a full-blow swarm.

Temporary stunning effects are set for thirty seconds. You will not be able to move for the duration of time.

A temporary fear effect has set in for five minutes. After that, moving forward will be very difficult, with a high chance of fleeing.

A temporary blind effect has set in for one hour. This is because the harsh sound wave has caused your brain to lose focus and rattle your optic nerves because of sheer force.

Temporary loss of hearing has set in for one hour. The harsh sound wave has caused you a loss of hearing. Listening to another harsh sound is ill-advised, or hearing loss is insured.

Temporary confusion has set in for one minute. The harsh sound has caused all your senses to become jumbled up, making moving very difficult.

Because you are a Drezo Regalia, a certain status effect has increased. The Behemoth's power has specifically targeted all Drezo Regalia in the vicinity.

WARNING! WARNING! You have entered Behemoth's Territory! Behemoth knows of your presence. Therefore, it is highly advised that you leave the vicinity! WARNING! WARNING!

SEED SHARD QUEST has been temporarily forced on all Players and NPC in the vicinity!

Quest of the Holy Mantle

The Elven Hero, Samuel, was the last elf to hold onto the treasured legendary artifact that had been passed down by royalty. This Holy Mantle has the unique property of countering magic and protecting the wielder from prying eyes. The Queen of the Elven Kingdom has set up a special quest to enter the Dark Continent to retrieve her father's equipment.

Special Quest has been added. Survive against the Behemoth's attack and his swarms, take back the Holy Mantle, and make it back to the Elven City of Elements to use its city defensive magic against the Behemoth. General Liam must not die, or the Quest is forfeit.

Quest Level: A- (Increased in difficulty from B+)

Failure: Loss of levels and decrease in affinity with the Elven Queen. Incapable of resurrecting for one week.

Reward: One high-level piece of equipment of Eleven made armor or Weapon. Increase in affinity with the residents and the Elven Queen.

The Behemoth is among the many feared Demon Prince's army generals. Unless killed, all Drezo Regalias will be hunted down by the Behemoth's hunger.

"Damn it, Jorge! You had to step in?!" Zeraph yelled, pissed off. "I'm filled with status ailments and messages! How the hell did I complete my part of the Quest?!"

"What?!" Jorge shouted, fumbling around like a zombie. "I can't hear you!"

"When I find you, I'm going to throttle you!"

"Whaaaaaaat?! Repeat that?!"

"Ahhhh, Arrrggghhh!" Zeraph screamed at the top of his lungs.

"This damnable status ailment!" Jorge smacked himself against the wall while walking around, unable to do anything correctly.

"Noooooo!" Some of the players screamed in hysteria.

"We're going to die!"

"I can't see!"

"Who's there?"

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Someone save me!"

Other players could not move because of fear, while some took off from the cave, abandoning them.

In contrast, the Elven soldiers didn't scream or panic; instead, they were calm and collected. They knew what to do in such a situation and kept still for a moment to get rid of the majority of their status ailments that hit them.

Zero couldn't believe his luck, especially at a time like this. Even he was hit with a swarm of status ailments, regardless of being in his dragon form, making this the first time he had felt such effects in a long time. It reminded him of when he was back in his pup days, making him feel much weaker. His pride was smashed to a pulp, and he was reminded again not to be arrogant in his dragon form.

The other thing he noticed could bring him a slew of problems. Two of his five senses were blocked for one hour, meaning the fight against Behemoth or escaping from there would be troublesome. This was a very unfavorable situation. In one hour, many things could happen that could cost them their life.

What made this experience worse was the Demon General Behemoth's presence in the cave, meaning there was a hundred percent chance that all the Drezo Regalia would be destroyed. He knew now that he needed to kill the Behemoth somehow, but the question was how.

The power he could feel in the cave didn't compare to when he fought with other bosses. Instead, it was like he was back to the time when he fought the Demon Hero Lilith. Even still, the thought of fighting something stronger than him made his dragon instincts both excited and afraid.

Even though Zero was swamped with status ailments, he stood in place, waiting for everything to clear. He had to focus as best as possible and use whatever other senses he had left to feel his surroundings. It was difficult, but his dragon senses could quickly compensate for hearing and sight loss.

Instead, the sense of touch, smell, and taste are amplified by five folds. Allowing him to feel things he had never felt before; he could now sense in the dark. Even though he couldn't see, the closer the people, the more pungent the smell. Sometimes, he could taste his surroundings with his tongue, giving him a low-grade heat vision like a snake.

His eyes were quickly replaced as he strained hard to redirect his other senses more in his favor. It took a couple of minutes, but his dragon body was doing everything for him. Now he could see through a different source of vision, allowing him to see in a more advanced heat vision. He didn't have to worry much about hearing or seeing through his regular eyes anymore.

You have gone beyond your handicap and were able to redirect your sense. You are now able to use Heat Vision in your dragon form.

Another ability he could sense was the vibration on the ground, giving him a 3D-like map in his head. The bustling of thousands of feet gave him a good idea of how a portion of the cave was made.

You have gone beyond your handicap and were able to redirect your sense. You can now create 3D maps using the vibration in the ground.

Thrilled at what he received, he swiveled his head back and forth, taking a good look around him. All of his status ailments dropped, leaving him with only two. He could feel the priest that followed along with them casting Recovery to combat most of the status ailments, but they couldn't eliminate the two major ones: Sight and Sound. They could only reduce the time by thirty minutes, but even then, they didn't have enough power to go through every soldier.

They could only heal themselves and a handful of important officials until they recovered some of their magic, and the army didn't move because they lost sight and sound. General Liam sat still on his horse, unmoving as he contemplated what to do. Thankfully, his horse was a war horse and didn't bolt as easily as the rest of the others.

Zero scanned his surroundings and saw a couple of other distinctive heat sources. One was bright, giving a hot radiating power that wasn't too far away from his location. Something about the power was the complete opposite of what they had just felt; it was calm and inviting. At the same time, the second source was lively and dangerous. He could also feel where the source of all the problems was, meaning that was the Behemoth.

Luckily, Behemoth was a long way off, giving them some time. But then, Zero saw General Liam start moving toward the calmer of the two heat sources, making Zero wonder if he noticed it too.

General Liam's army broke apart into two. The larger army stayed behind, and the smaller group followed behind General Liam. They weren't many; Zero could see that they were about twenty, and they followed General Liam as if they knew what was going on.

Zero felt that General Liam's army understood what General Liam wanted; he had seen him do a couple of hand-tapping on the other people's hands as it quickly spread through the army. He then walked over toward General Liam as he followed behind him.

"What's going on?" Agnis squealed as she held on tightly to Zero's back. "Where are we? Why are we moving? I can't see!"

"We're moving? What?" Jorge was flat on Zero's back. "Where in tarnation are we going!" He pounded his fist onto Zero's back to get his attention, but Zero didn't reply or overthink it. The reason was that he couldn't hear what Jorge was even saying.

"Zero, where in the blazes are you taking us?" Zeraph sighed; he sat down on Zero's back as his hand rested on his arm.

Zero was able to move around the cave, leaving behind the army. They stepped through a few winding tunnels further away from the dangerous Behemoth. Eventually, as they moved towards the divine source, they arrived after about thirty minutes. General Liam walked towards some steps as he reached over, grabbing the power source. He knew that it was the item they were searching for: the Holy Mantle. It was a simple grab and left; when General Liam touched the source, his body seemed to glow with holy energy.

General Liam tucked the Holy Mantle into his bag, keeping it safe. It was just too easy; there were only two paths to the cave, one with no monster and the other with the Behemoth on the other end. Zero knew when it was too easy, there was always some trap in all of this, and he was right.

Zero felt the ground tremble and the walls shake underneath his claws. At first, it was unnoticeable; only Zero could barely handle it.

General Liam was getting on his horse and then returning to the army hurriedly. The closer they got back to the entrance, the harder the ground trembled.

"What is going on?!" General Liam was leaning over low on his horse. "We need to get out of her fast!"

Zero felt an ominous aura coming from left, and when he turned his other sight, he saw a vast body coming closer and closer. It wasn't a run but a steady, powerful walk that stated that the Behemoth didn't need to rush forward to deal with them. Instead, he felt that the Behemoth was just leisurely taking its time as it made its way toward them.

The rocks on the walls and ceiling started to crumble, falling from overhead. It wasn't just one or two, but many that could kill a man or an elf. Some the size of a human-sized spear fell.

Even the vibration on the ground trembled as he saw spots all over the ground coming to life like rain, and he instinctively knew that something was falling from the ceiling. General Liam's soldiers that came with him couldn't dodge out of harm's way; some got squashed in the process, leaving behind about ten.

They attempted to run but were prevented—their ability to see and hear created a detriment in their movement. What was worse, the closer they got to the entrance, the larger the boulders fell, and worse, the ground shook.

Even Zero was having a hard time not being swamped by the falling hazard that could kill him, especially those shaped into a sharp spears. As a result, zero had to push his senses to the extreme.

The heat sources helped him see, giving him a pretty good image of what was around him, but what helped him was the feeling through his fingers and body. He could feel the vibration through his finger and even the slight vibration in the air. Pushing his body allowed him to experience a new side of himself that he would never have experienced. His intuition became ten times sharper, allowing him to make judgments utterly different from when he could see or hear.

If anyone could see the extraordinary feat that Zero was doing, they would be astonished at the flexibility in his dragon body and sharp instinct. Every time the stalactites fell from the ceiling, Zero barely moved out of harm's way by feeling the air around him, letting it inches away from his scales.

There were more times than he could count where the stalactites had barely missed spearing either Jorge, Agnis, and Zeraph by a few inches if it wasn't for Zero moving out of harm's way. Even Jorge could tell that they were flirting with death with every second of their time inside the cave, and he wanted to get out as fast as possible but couldn't. All he could do right this moment was hold onto Zero's back and pray that he wouldn't get killed.

Even Agnis and Zeraph had to push their senses to the limit, moving around just as fluidly but quickly to destroy any extra stalactites that Zero missed. Of course, zero wasn't a god who could sense every single one, but he could rival a master martial artist with the crazy feat of dodging so many with two out of five senses hindered.

Eventually, they were able to get to the front of the entrance. Almost all the army and the players had scuttled out from the cave and were waiting outside. Quite a few of the players and even the soldiers started to be able to see much faster than they could hear. They knew exactly what was going on and helped ferry the others out.

When Zero, General Liam, and the remaining soldiers spilled out, General Liam quickly used touch signals to move the army into a march away from the cave. But, even though they were moving, they were slow; the ground shook even more viciously as the rocks on the cliff started to break apart.

Zero could feel the rumble of the rocks tumbling down towards them from the side. Then, from the right, a large landslide of rocks broke apart, completely taking out a tenth of the army in seconds. Although luckily, Zero didn't have to hear the screams or the painful sound of bones breaking and being squashed to smoosh; such a thought made his stomach twirl.

"Move! Move! Move!" General Liam yelled; even though nobody heard him shout, they all knew something bad was happening.

The army continued to move forward quickly in a frenzy, trying to get out of the trenches.

Already, a quarter of the players were blundering around as they got trampled over each other, eventually succumbing to the falling rocks. At first, his war horse listened to him but made a blunder and fell, breaking its leg. Then, General Liam was thrown off as he rolled on the ground.

Zero knew instantly that this would be quite a problem; he raced toward General Liam and picked him up like a cub.

"What in the world?!" General Liam threw his hand over his head, trying to throw in a couple of jabs to get whoever off of him, but his swings completely missed. "Put me down! Whoever you are!"

Zero, Seeka, and Valiant pushed through without difficulties, zipping through the land. He could feel the horrible evil power chasing after them leisurely and each step felt like the Behemoth was

that much closer.

Eventually, they could get out of the dangerous cliff as now a good three-fourths of the army

could now see, and only a half could hear. But unfortunately, zero and his companions weren't lucky enough to be given a status recovery, so they were stuck with the ailments for a little longer. He checked how much more time he had before it would expire, and he found out he still had a good ten minutes left.

Ten minutes was a lot of time, especially when they were running away from a Boss class monster that was bent on destroying all the Drezo Regalia, plus he got a horrible feeling that the Behemoth allowed them to take the Holy Mantle instead of the other way around. But, of course, that was a different meaning, stating that the Behemoth could get the Holy Mantle anytime it wanted.

General Liam's sight and hearing finally came around, allowing him to see around him. "Zero?"

He craned his head to see that Zero had him like a newborn kitten. "What? Wait?! The others!"

Zero didn't hear a single word; how could he when he was still under its effect?

"Damn it, Zero! I said stop!" General Liam squirmed, trying to get out of Zero's mouth.

Eventually, Zero noticed General Liam's squirm and stopped, dropping him flat on the ground. He knew he couldn't let General Liam die; he had the Holy mantle with him, making him a priority, even though the thought of leaving all the soldiers left a very bad aftertaste in his mouth.

"We have what we need; there is no rush to get out of here so quickly!" General Liam grumbled and got up to his feet. He glanced up toward Zero, getting a good look at him. "Zero! Are you listening?!" He snapped his finger at him a couple more times.

Zero didn't respond and stared into the distance where the Behemoth was coming. He could see the heat signs of the Behemoth's body getting bigger and bigger.

"Zero?!" General Liam tried to call again, and it finally dawned on him that Zero was still blind and deaf. This shocked General Liam immensely, mainly because he maneuvered out of the dangerous area and came out without as many scratches, most superficial. When he looked at

Zero, he was amazed at Zero's instinct and had a new profound respect for him. "You're truly a monster." He whispered.

Zero swiveled his head and tilted it; he could see less than a thousand soldiers, and even fewer players came running out from danger. Most of the players who got out alive were out of sheer luck, in which case it was a skill. He frowned, knowing full well that this was going to be a tough battle; his gut instinct told him that there was a very high chance that he would fail.

Still, he didn't recoil from the danger; instead, waiting a few more seconds before he decided whether or not he would pick up General Liam and dash away.

As both sides hid behind the cliff walls, General Liam was redirecting his army into two. They got themselves ready to push back the Behemoth and stand and fight against the monster instead of drawing it back towards the city.

Zero wasn't sure having a standoff right here against the Behemoth was a good idea, and honestly, he had a bad feeling about the whole idea. He could see the heat signature of the Behemoth slowly slugging its way over. He could also see some heavy tail resembling a dolphin's tail being pulled behind it, with the rest of its body reminding him of some oversized buffalo.

From his guess, with the Behemoth taking its sweet time in making its way over, the army would have a better chance of fleeing. However, zero didn't want the soldiers to die over a pointless battle, so he rushed toward General Liam. General Liam's scent was engraved in his mind, and he easily found him.

"General Liam!" Zero trotted over quickly. "We need to get out of here!"

General Liam turned towards him and folded his arm. "What are you talking about? This is a good time-"

Zero interrupted General Liam as he just continually talked. "The Behemoth is walking slowly; at this rate, it will be better if we run away and make it quickly back towards the city."

"What are you su-" Once again, General Liam was interrupted.

"Please trust me on this. Even though I can't see or hear, I can still sense it differently. So we need to leave now!"

General Laim went speechless; he forgot that Zero was deaf and blind for that split moment; he was too engrossed in what to do.

"Using the city's defense mechanism will be more beneficial in this fight. Plus, we will have more people fighting with us."

General Liam thought it over, but then he shook his head. "No, not worth the time. We need to kill this monster now instead of running away." He then turned around, leaving Zero behind.

For a moment, Zero thought General Liam understood him as he was shouting and waving toward his soldiers, but as time passed, he saw nobody moving in the direction they should be going. So instead, they stayed at their designated spot, waiting for the Behemoth.

"Damn it!" Zero swore, rumbling with annoyance. But unfortunately, this battle wasn't favorable, and many players and soldiers were still blinded and deaf.

"What are blazes going on?" Jorge replied, holding onto his spine. "Is everything alright?"

They replied as if Zeraph and Agnis understood Jorge's words.

"I got a horrible feeling about this." Agnis pushed her body closer to Zero, her arms wrapping around his spine as if her life depended on it. "Where are we, Zero?"

"Zero, we need to move away from this area now!" Zeraph yelled, slapping the side of his neck, telling him to hurry up.

Still, Zero brushed off Seraph's path and stared in the direction of General Liam. He paced back and forth, debating on what he should do. Go in and snatch General Liam and run or choose to fight to the last man standing. Zero gritted his teeth and dashed forward.

"Gah! Zero!" Agnis grabbed on tightly so she wouldn't fall off. She was bulking up and down into a sprint, causing her hair to spray all over her face. "Slow down!"

"Ugh!" Jorge held his breath, trying not to barf on Zero's shoulder.

The intense energy was coming toward General Liam's army much quicker than before, and everyone felt it. They shuddered, holding their weapons close to them as they waited. Of course, nobody knew what they were facing; all they knew was called the Behemoth. But, even from its name, they knew they would fight against a Legendary creature that had just appeared.

Even the horse whined and whimpered, neighing in fright at what was coming toward them. They skittered around, pacing back and forth until finally, they couldn't take it anymore as they bulked. All the soldiers and players who had horses were thrown off their horses as they ran away in fright.

People started to panic, knowing full well that controlling their mount wasn't easy; for it to run away made their escape that difficult, meaning that this was a stand-or-die fight. A rare few on their horse were dragged away, unable to make them turn around.

"Blasted horse!" One of the players fell off with a loud thud as the horse ran away.

Players were chasing after their runaway horse but miserably failed. Some were jostled around by other players and soldiers trying to stop, causing several accidents.

"What's going on?!"

"Something is coming!" A player shrieked in fright; the overpowering energy was getting stronger, making breathing difficult. "We need to escape!"

"Shut up! Nobody is escaping!"

"Get ready!" General Liam's voice cut through the panic, helping to quell the chaos. "We'll defeat the monster here and now! For the honor of the Elven Queen and the Hero Samuel!"

The army cheered, drowning out the shouts and fear.

General Liam yelled. "To honor!"

"To honor!" The others replied with just as much enthusiasm.

The Behemoth's steps became heavy, causing the ground underneath them to shake horribly. A giant head emerged from behind the cliff as it took up one-third of its body, its large mouth gaping open, breathing in and out its foul air through its mouth.

Everyone cringed from the horrible stench of their breath, making their stomach turn. Its six beady black eyes were like small buttons on the sides of its head, and scales that were jagged and rough like an elephant covered its body. Walking slowly on all four of its legs, its hammer-like tail thrashed around and hit the side of the wall. Upon impact, the wall crumbled, bringing down with it an avalanche.

"Attack!" General Liam yelled, pointing his sword toward the monster.

On both sides, the army spilled out, throwing magic at the Behemoth's body.

Behemoth raised its front legs and stomped downwards hard. The ground trembled, and everyone floundered around as they fell onto the ground. Even Zero dropped low, hugging the ground. Large fissure-like division erupted around the Behemoth's leg, splitting the ground. A handful of soldiers close to the Behemoth were suddenly pulled into the dark depths. Screams resounded as they disappeared into the ground.

The Behemoth picked up its other leg and slammed down once again. The ground trembled even harder as it split the ground once again, this time taking with it a good handful of players on the right side.

"Nooooo!" A female player screamed as she tumbled into the dark depths and died.

"Ruuuun!" Another scrambled up, trying to escape, but he couldn't as the ground broke under him.

"Help!"

"Ahhhhhhh!"

"General!"

"Someone save me!"

Chaos was rampant, and the players were in chaos while the army attempted to get back up to stop the Behemoth from going through another stomp. Flashes of magic flew through the air as they bombarded down upon the Behemoth's side, causing it to falter. Blasts of smoke erupted outwards, covering a good portion of its body.

"We got it!" Quite a few soldiers yelled in excitement, but when the smoke cleared up, the Behemoth only stood there stoically, completely unphased.

"How?!" One of the soldiers gasped. "That's our strongest spell!"

This time, the magic around the mage swarmed in a powerful aura; wide-scale magic was activated around one hundred elven mages. With such a powerful attack, a large magic circle started to form under their feet. Even the air around them started to tense up with power almost equivalent to the Behemoth's strength.

"Protect the magician!" General Liam yelled. "Don't let the Behemoth get close to them!"

The Behemoth could feel the power welling up around the magician and instinctively knew he was in danger. It slugged its body over to crush them with its foot. Quickly, the soldiers and players scrambled onto their feet and sprinted toward the Behemoth's leg to draw its attention.

The soldiers shot multiple arrows, lodging them into the side of its body. Quite a few irritated the Behemoth and diverted its attention from the magician. They scrambled around, trying not to get stomped on by the Behemoth's heavy foot.

"Watch out for its feet!" An elven soldier shot an arrow to its side, the Behemoth didn't stomp hard to cause another tremor, but it did kill quite a few unlucky soldiers and players underneath its feet.

"Keep its focus!" General Liam rushed forward; he raised a bow and fired continuous arrows into the side of the Behemoth's head. When the Behemoth got closer, he rushed forward, slicing the side of the Behemoth's leg as best as he could.

Players and the army alike swarmed around the Behemoth's body like ants, attempting to bring down the giant. They swung, shot, and casted magic to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately, even the health of the Behemoth was slowly decreasing, but it wasn't doing as much as anyone hoped. The magicians shot a blast of powerful energy, chipping away a portion of the Behemoth's strength, but it didn't do much against the Behemoth's health.

Zero, quite a distance away, got up and bolted forward. He aimed to protect General Liam to the best of his ability, possibly spiriting him away when things went south.

Sekka and Valiant both closely followed behind him. Valiant dragged his swarms of the skeletal army behind him. Sekka's power increased threefold, her feathers and scaled shimmering with light, blinding her to see.

"Valiant?!" Reed cried out in panic; her hand grabbed Valiant's body, unsure what was going on. "What's happening?!"

"What's going on? Is there a battle?" Leaf called out to Sekka as he leaned close to Sekka's body.

Just like Zero, they couldn't see or hear, but they had learned the same power as him. They could feel the raging war that was going on in front of them and knew what Zero wanted to do without even telling them.

Eventually, all of them finally realized that they could talk with each other through private telepathic communications. With such a thing, they didn't need their character's hearing.

Swarms of skeletal army smashed into the Behemoth's leg, chopping away and attacking in an attempt to put it down. Finally, the Behemoth lifted its leg, stomping down and flattening the skeletal army. Still, they relentlessly attacked, chipping away the Behemoth's health as best as possible.

"Zero!" Agnis words blared through Zero's mind as he picked up the call that came to him. "What's going on?! Why are you running?!"

"No time to explain in too much detail." He hurriedly replied. "General Liam found the Hero's Mantle, but he chose to fight the Behemoth." The thought of fighting something that could kill them without reinforcement or leverage was suicide. He knew that, and General Liam made that decision that could cost hundreds of lives.

"Wait, the Behemoth's here?!"

"Yea, we're going to help him either push it back or snatch him and make a run for it." Zero swiveled towards the right, jumping over the large crack in the ground. He landed with a light thud like a cat, making his jump graceful for a blind dragon.

"We need to help them! We can't let them die for nothing!"

"That's difficult," Zero growled, "I can't normally see or hear, you know."

"Still?" Agnis cursed, "why in the world are you still running then?!"

"I can still see differently. More to explain and relay the message to others. We're going into combat in less than thirty seconds."

"On it." Agnis cut off her connection, leaving Zero to his thoughts.

Zero raced over towards General Liam; he jumped, lodging his claws and teeth into the side of the Behemoth's leg. His jaws clamped down hard, trying to get a good chunk out of the Behemoth. Eventually, his teeth cut through, taking out a good chunk of flesh.

The Behemoth yelled, screaming in pain and anger at Zero's act. It swiveled its ugly head toward Zero in an attempt to cut him down. Instead, its large body shook, rumbling in a low, threatening tone, and even its giant claws swiped toward Zero's side. Zero jumped back, jostling his three passengers on his back.

"God damn it!" Jorge cursed so badly that he smacked his head on Zero's spine. The jostle caused him to lurch forward, making him lose his grip. "What the hell is happening? Damn it, why is it taking so long to see! This is a complete bull!"

"Kyaaaaa!" Agnis screamed as she was thrown to the side, hitting her back against Zero's spine.

While Zeraph kept his body low, keeping close to Zeraph as best as possible. It wasn't easy to move around when there were three different people on his back, especially when they were nothing but dead weight right at that moment.

The moment Zero jumped back, the Behemoth snarled, swinging its tail to the side in a low sweep. Hundreds of people were thrown by the Behemoth's tail, flying far away. Zero was luckily able to dodge the tail and scramble away backward. Even still, the Behemoth didn't stop its rampage; breathing in deeply, its belly filled with air.

Zero felt his animal instinct kick in full gear, and the heat in Behemoth's belly glowed brightly. He knew instantly that the Behemoth was going to spray out something very dangerous, and he bolted as far away as possible. He didn't want to get caught up in the Behemoth's attack. Glaring downwards at its enemy, the Behemoth spat out a lighting attack.

Static electricity danced outwards, hitting as many elves and players alike, while the remaining energy went into the ground dissipating the attack. Most of them were stunned by its devastating attack, while the Behemoth snapped its giant head downwards and took a chomp out of its enemy. He even swallowed quite a few as it gobbled them up like snacks.

Zero bolted back in; his claws outwards as he slashed across the Behemoth's leg. He weaved in and out its leg, attacking with his claws and jaws. The thought of letting the monster get the best of him wasn't an option. This was his tactic for the next couple of minutes, and every time the Behemoth felt like Zero was too much of a nuisance, it would spray out another electrical attack.

Zero couldn't move out in time in the third electrical breath attack. Instead, he jumped onto the Behemoth's leg, attaching himself as closely as possible. All three of his passengers were holding on tightly; they strapped themselves upon Zero with a rope so they wouldn't be thrown.

"I can finally see and hear!" Agnis shouted joyfully, but when she saw where she was, she gasped. "What?!"

"Finally!" Jorge grunted, but he was swaying side-to-side as he was strapped tightly on Zero's back. "Holy mother of-?! Why are we off the ground?!"

"I don't know, but we're in battle!" Agnis quickly replied. She glanced up and saw what they were exactly. Zero was scaling up the colossal Behemoth that towered over them like skyscrapers. When she saw the monster that they were fighting against, she shivered.

Even Jorge could not speak from the sheer size of the creature that Zero was scaling. Zeraph had his bow out, shooting his arrows at the Behemoth to even hurt it, but so far, his arrows barely did much damage.

"Its hide is too thick!" Zeraph shouted towards the other three. "We need something stronger!"

"Gotcha!" Agnis replied; she endowed her arrows with magic and fired off as many as possible. At first, it was difficult, but her odd contorted angle was the best she could do right this moment, especially because she was strapped against Zero's back.

Zero could feel the heat waves from his back, and he knew instantly that his teammates were finally fighting, which relieved him. What was still a problem was that he still couldn't see or hear, making this fight annoying and difficult.

Off to the side on the other leg, he could see both Sekka and Valiant scaling up just like Zero. They were quite fast, climbing up with little trouble with their partners. However, even they could finally see and hear, making Zero the last one affected by the ailment. Looking at the amount of time, he realized he had less than three minutes.

Eventually, climbing up to the top, Zero pulled himself up. The Behemoth thrashed side-to-side, causing him to drop low as his claws dug into its skin. Zero wasn't going to allow the Behemoth to throw him off; he was going to make sure he threw in a couple of devastating attacks before he jumped off.

When the Behemoth stopped jolting around, Zero inhaled a deep breath. He could feel his stomach grow warm as magic churned in his stomach. Then with the best fire breath, he spat downwards into the Behemoth's back. The fire spread outwards, licking the Behemoth's skin, but the fire didn't do a single thing.

He inhaled again, this time changing the elemental fire. Again, a blast of holy energy sprayed outwards; this time, pure white fire danced across the Behemoth's back. The fire continued to burn on the back of the Behemoth's back and trailed up its neck as a loud, piercing scream erupted out of the Behemoth's mouth.

The Behemoth jumped onto its hind legs, trying to throw off the nuisance in its back. Zero slammed his claws into the skin, clinging on as best as he could. Vaillant and Sekka were thrown off, landing on the ground without breaking a bone.

The ground rumbled and split ways creating an ugly fissure by the Behemoth's jump. The earth broke apart as large parts of the land slanted upwards, while some were pushed downwards deeply into the ground. Half the players and the army fell into the cracks as they died.

A deep rumble grew in Zero's throat, and his sight slowly started returning to him, but his hearing was still silent. What he saw before he was devastation and death. Half the army was dead, and the other half was badly injured. At this rate, they were going to die.

Zero knew that the battle wouldn't last five minutes, and he knew that he needed to cripple the Behemoths as much as possible in that short period. The Behemoth's level and skill were exponentially higher than any of them; winning was difficult, but he knew he had to win one way or the other.

With a torrent of Holy Flames, he spewed another gush of fire as he ran across the Behemoth's back. He wouldn't allow the Behemoth to chase them down if he escaped. Oh no, he was going to make sure it would be hell.