The truck was already moving at top speed, but it still couldn't outrun the giant beast.
At that moment,
Seth began to regret—he should've brought an off-road vehicle. That would've been way faster than this.
The beast was closing in fast, the tremors in the ground growing more intense by the second.
They all knew—
In less than a minute, the giant beast would catch up to them.
Clutching his shield tightly, Seth gritted his teeth.
"Captain Zhu Yuan, Senior Qingyi, I'll hold it off. You two, get out of here!"
With that,
He raised his shield in one hand, a staff in the other, and channeled Geo energy to form a layer of stone armor across his body.
He was ready to fight.
But Qingyi stopped him.
"Seth, don't throw your life away."
Seth clenched his jaw.
"But if this keeps up, none of us are getting out. Someone has to stay behind to buy time—"
Qingyi took a deep breath.
"You're still young. Dying here would be meaningless. Just promise me—you'll support Zhu Yuan well from now on."
Seth froze.
"Senior Qingyi, what are you saying…"
Before he could respond, Qingyi had already jumped out of the truck.
Seth was stunned.
By the time he snapped out of it, he was already yelling,
"Captain Zhu Yuan! Something's wrong—Senior Qingyi jumped out!"
Zhu Yuan immediately turned to look.
Sure enough, she saw Qingyi fall to the road behind the truck, then spring up and charge straight toward the beast.
"Jane, stop the truck!" Zhu Yuan shouted.
Jane sighed.
"You guys really dragged me into a mess this time…"
She didn't stop.
Instead, she spun the wheel hard and slammed the brakes, pulling a full 180-degree drift right on the road.
Then she gunned it—racing back toward Qingyi and the giant beast.
From a distance,
Seth shouted with all his might,
"Senior Qingyi! Jump on!"
But before the truck could reach her—
The ground beneath them quaked violently. Before they could react, the earth erupted beneath the truck.
A massive beast burst from underground,
lifting the entire vehicle into the air like it weighed nothing.
The truck slammed into the jagged stone on the beast's back.
The front of the vehicle crumpled like paper.
The impact was so brutal it left Zhu Yuan, Jane, and Seth dazed, the sheer force nearly knocking them unconscious.
Seth crawled out of the wreckage with difficulty.
He couldn't even process what had happened.
"Captain Zhu Yuan… Jane… you guys okay…?"
"Where… where are we?"
"Why did we hit a boulder…?"
They climbed down from the truck and saw an enormous cone-shaped rock blocking the road ahead.
Looking around—
Only then did they realize…
They weren't on the highway anymore. They were on top of a hill.
"What's going on, Jane? Did you drive us onto a mountain?!"
"No… This isn't a mountain. It's the same road—we've been lifted up. The beast tunneled under the truck and raised us into the air."
"Captain Zhu Yuan! Look! That's the beast's horn!"
...
Following Seth's pointing finger, Zhu Yuan and Jane spotted two massive golden horns up ahead on what looked like a mountaintop.
But it wasn't a mountain.
It was the beast's head.
At this moment, the three of them were standing on the back of the giant beast.
They froze.
None of them knew what to do—jump off or stay where they were?
They had never seen anything like this.
The sheer scale of the creature left them breathless.
Seth tightened his grip on his shield.
"Captain Zhu Yuan… what now?"
Zhu Yuan's expression turned grave.
"First, we need to figure out where Senior Qingyi is."
Seth immediately shouted,
"Senior Qingyi! Where are you?!"
He clearly remembered—Qingyi had been nearby when the beast lifted the truck.
A moment later,
A voice came from behind a pile of scattered rocks.
"Stop shouting. I'm here. Don't alert the beast…"
But just as Qingyi sat up from behind the boulders,
the ground—no, the beast's back—suddenly began to tremble violently.
They all knew.
The commotion had caught the beast's attention.
Qingyi rushed over, yelling,
"Grab onto something! Hold the rocks!"
Seth blinked.
"Why the rocks?!"
Before he could figure it out,
the beast beneath them leapt into the air, carrying Seth, Zhu Yuan, Jane, and Qingyi skyward.
Then—
It came crashing down like a mountain.
The impact shook the earth.
None of them could keep their grip—they were all thrown off its back.
They fell from dozens of meters in the air.
Zhu Yuan rolled on impact, using the momentum to break her fall and barely managed to stay upright.
"Senior Qingyi! Seth! Jane! Are you okay?!"
"Captain… my back hurts so bad…"
"Seth, get up—don't get trampled!"
...
It had already been overwhelming enough to stand on the beast's back.
Now, face-to-face with it on solid ground—
Zhu Yuan, Seth, Jane, and Qingyi all looked up at the giant beast and truly felt the pressure it radiated.
What had once been a towering beast of sixty or seventy meters…
Had now become a colossal giant nearly a hundred meters tall.
It loomed over them like a mountain,
its presence far more suffocating than any high-level Ethereal they'd faced.
Just one glance was enough to send a chill down their spines.
Seth raised his shield again, summoning Geo energy to form fresh armor over his body.
He grit his teeth.
"Captain Zhu Yuan, Senior Qingyi, Jane—I'll stop it. You three run!"
Qingyi sighed.
"I told you to run earlier. You just had to come back. Now the truck's wrecked—where exactly are we running to?"
"No choice but to fight. Let's take this monster down."
Of course, Qingyi knew it was a pipe dream.
But it was the only move left.
They couldn't escape with a truck—let alone on foot.
She drew her weapon.
At her side, Zhu Yuan, Jane, and Seth followed suit, weapons in hand, ready to fight with everything they had.
At the same time, the giant beast charged once more.
It raised its foot and stomped toward them.
With a foot over ten meters wide, there was no way to block it.
They all dove aside with everything they had.
They dodged—barely.
But as the massive foot struck the ground,
a golden shockwave exploded outward from the impact point.
It swallowed Zhu Yuan's team in an instant.
The overwhelming Geo shockwave blasted Zhu Yuan, Seth, Qingyi, and Jane straight off their feet.