Their attacks all struck the beast, yet they didn' t cause even the slightest damage.
While they were still stunned by the ineffectiveness of their assault, the stone armor on the beast transformed into sharp spikes, piercing through the bodies of all four, leaving them riddled with holes.
The four twitched, their weapons clattering to the ground.
Several seized the moment, firing arrows into the gaps of the armor-turned-spikes, aiming directly at its scales. But before the arrows could reach, the scales on its body fluttered like wings, generating gusts that slowed the arrows' speed until they fell powerlessly to the ground.
"What the hell! Its armor is so thick, no attack gets through!"
"And those scales have weird tricks too!"
Clang!
The stone spikes reverted to solid armor encasing the beast once more.
The beast grinned wickedly and beckoned them to come closer.
They exchanged glances, none daring to approach.
"Fire everything at it!"
Snapped out of their daze by someone' s command, they unleashed a barrage.
A storm of spells and projectiles rained down relentlessly.
The beast let out a pained roar.
"Arghhh! That hurts so bad! I' m gonna die of joy!"
It wailed in an exaggerated, mocking tone.
Not a single attack managed to crack even a fragment of its stone armor.
Then, a mid-tier mage' s fiery explosion spell detonated, forcing the beast' s armor to split open.
Everyone cheered, hope rekindled.
Several immediately seized the chance, rushing in to attack, thinking the low-tier archers' arrows weren' t strong enough and were blown away by the beast' s wind.
But they soon realized they' d been completely fooled.
Swords, axes, and spears were halted by the wind generated by its scales before reaching the beast. It was like striking a mid-tier mage' s wind barrier—attacks couldn' t penetrate, and their strength was wasted struggling against the gusts.
Then the armor turned into spikes again, piercing everyone around it. Even those who brought shields specifically to block the stone spikes didn' t survive, as the spikes curved around their defenses, riddling them with holes.
The beast laughed heartily, delighted, before retracting the spikes back into stone armor.
"Let me show you true strength."
As it spoke, the stone armor crumbled to the ground, as if melted by a high-tier mage' s armor-dissolving spell.
Those who were cheering, thinking a high-tier mage had come to their aid, stopped smiling.
The beast' s scales began to flutter rapidly, and the wind whipped up stones and weapons from the ground.
With a flick of its hand, the stones and weapons hurtled toward them.
The rocks and weapons stabbed into their bodies, writhing as if alive, then tore through to strike the next person nearby.
"It can control the wind too!"
"This is insane!"
"Who can fight this thing?!"
"Healer! Need a healer here now!"
"Call for [Rank B] help! Lots of them!"
"Argh! Save me!"
"No way! We can' t win!"
"Shoot! Keep shooting!"
"Stop shooting! It can seize your weapons!"
*****
Wind-Scale Stone-Armored Beast
Prey fell in a chain reaction.
A supreme new form, with equally supreme power.
Its body felt light despite the heavy armor constantly protecting it.
The stone armor covering it was stronger than any scales it had ever possessed.
Beneath the stone armor, its scales conjured another layer of wind magic.
No one could harm it anymore—not even those giant flaming rocks.
This evolution was extraordinary.
It was strong, stronger than anyone.
It no longer feared them, the high-tier prey. Hahaha!
"Have you given up yet, prey? Heh, I' ll make you despair even more."
The low-tier prey fled for their lives, while the mid-tier ones regrouped and attacked again.
The first time they hit it was because it wanted to test its stone armor. But this time, it controlled the wind, suspending every attack in mid-air before hurling them back.
"Given up yet? Seems like you haven' t despaired enough."
The low-tier prey called for more mid-tier ones to join.
This time, heavily armored tanks arrived in droves, followed by heavy-hitting attackers wielding hammers, axes, greatswords, and more.
They planned to fight it in close quarters, huh?
Seemed like they learned something, but they were still fools.
"Prey will always be prey for us."
It fluttered its scales, sending gusts of wind radiating outward, covering nearly the entire area affected by the flaming rocks.
It waited until their numbers swelled, reaching nearly five hundred.
Then it manipulated the wind into a swirling vortex. The wind grew stronger, causing the lighter ones to stagger.
But the frontline tanks remained unshaken, growing bolder, thinking that was all it could do.
Soon, they realized their mistake and ordered a retreat.
"I don' t usually like them charred, but oh well, heh."
The wind carried the flames across the battlefield, fanning them into a raging inferno.
Fwoooosh!
The tightly packed prey became perfect fuel.
Every prey was roasted alive in the fiery maelstrom.
They writhed in agony, screaming as their thick armor and weapons melted into liquid.
Their skin blistered and charred, their bodies reduced to unrecognizable husks.
A depressing, terrifying sight for the prey.
But for it, the chef controlling the flames at the center, it felt overwhelming joy, tears of happiness streaming down.
"To eat well, you need fresh ingredients, heh."
But it wasn' t over. It had to avenge its kin, even just a little.
It whipped the flames around it into a massive firestorm.
Then it pushed it toward the city gates.
The heat alone scorched the prey, forcing them to flee in panic.
Anything caught in the firestorm was reduced to ash.
The prey tried to douse it with water spells, to no avail.
Even earth spells raising walls to block or redirect it were useless.
The firestorm didn' t slow or weaken, incinerating everything in its path.
The prey fled from the path they thought the storm would take.
Except for the armored prey, who desperately tried to protect the city gates.
The most foolish order came from a low-tier prey in better armor than the rest: sacrifice themselves to weaken the firestorm.
"Heh, heh, heh… Haha… HAHAHA!"
It couldn' t help but laugh. These prey were hopelessly stupid, born to be food for its kind.
"Pathetic prey race!"
BOOM!
It froze, jaw dropping, as the firestorm was suddenly pushed by an unseen force, slamming into the city wall.
Fssssssss!
The flames flattened against the wall, blackening it completely, but soon the firestorm dissipated.
Only black smoke rose into the sky.
And the culprit was another high-tier prey.
It stepped back instinctively, tripping over a rock and falling on its rear.
So strong. Too strong.
Why? Why wasn' t it as strong as them?
This wouldn' t do. Before that high-tier prey lost patience, it scanned for its target and lunged with all its might.
In front of it were two trash-tier prey, their legs charred from the fiery vortex.
Good, they were still alive. That should be proof enough it was the predator.
No, better to leave their heads—make them believe it ate them.
It grabbed the trash-tier prey first, easier to eat than the beast-tier one.
"Let Elda go!"
It kicked the beast-tier prey' s face into the ground, cracking its skull.
Though it was tough, in this state, it' d die soon. Yet it still cared about the other prey.
It ignored the beast-tier prey' s tearful screams and reaching hands, trying to reclaim its companion.
Look, high-tier prey, it was about to eat as ordered.
The moment it opened its mouth, a roar louder than any it had ever heard erupted.
"Don' t touch my sister!!!"
No, that wasn' t a shout—it was a roar.
On the battlefield, now gray and ashen from the white it once was, ash floated thickly like fog.
That roar scattered the ash in front of it, revealing the figure clearly.
A strange, golden-haired being in a tattered wooden mask—prey or kin, it wasn' t sure.
She lunged, fist raised, charging at it with terrifying speed.