Standing in the center of the arena, Gauss and the others suddenly felt the whole environment change.
A beam of light shot down from above, illuminating the center of the stage.
From the high surrounding stands, the shadowy silhouettes of tall insect men appeared, and waves of cheers roared from all directions.
It felt as if their three-person team had traversed countless years and crossed into an era before the ancient kingdom fell, participating in a beast trial watched by all.
Standing in the arena, the images of those insect men became even clearer.
Gauss frowned slightly.
He felt... everything was too realistic.
In a daze, he looked at his own body, as if seeing spotless, white joints.
"Gauss... Gauss!"
Only when Aaliyah’s shout reached his ears did Gauss come back to his senses.
"Prepare for battle!"
Aaliyah said.
"Okay." Gauss shook his head.
What was happening to him? He inexplicably spaced out again just before the battle.
He forced himself to focus on the area where the light was projected.
Sure enough, not long after, a plant-like demon appeared in the center of the arena.
"Not a man-eating flower?" Gauss raised an eyebrow.
But he predicted this.
When he heard the meaning conveyed in the strange insect chirp indicating it was a trial, he guessed that the opponent’s strength was likely related to the strength of their adventurer team.
But what kind of demon was this?
Gauss had never seen any description of it in any book.
While the demon was still stretching its body, he quickly looked at Aaliyah and the others.
"Do you know what demon this is?"
"Never seen it."
"I don’t know either."
The two of them were equally confused.
Gauss nodded.
Encountering an unknown demon means it’s either very rare, so much that even common books don’t record it, or it might be extinct, no longer present in the surface material world.
"Be careful."
Before entering, the three, along with one wolf and one bird, were already shielded by the Gauss Force Field.
Unfortunately, it seemed impossible to release the Gauss Force Field on clay creatures; otherwise, they would have shielded the four spiders too.
When the demon fully emerged, Gauss and the others finally beheld its appearance.
It was a large demon, unclear whether it was a plant or an animal.
It looked like a beast made of twisted, withered thorns, with dozens of deep green, almost black, spiked, flexible vines hanging from its tail. The tail was about 3-5 meters long, and the front body was about 4 meters long, the height of an adult.
A layer of pale yellow, moist mist swirled around it, giving off an ominous feeling.
Though the specific species was unknown, judging by its aura, it was clearly much stronger than the man-eating flower from before.
This confirmed Gauss’s guess that the demon’s strength was related to those who entered the trial.
However, it was unclear whether it was related to Profession Tier or actual combat strength.
"Boom!!!"
It roared in the direction of the three.
Sound waves rippled through the air.
The Thorn Giant Beast moved first.
It raised a tail.
Soon, the sharp red spines on the tail swept toward the three like a storm.
"Bang bang bang!!!"
Every spine sliced through the air like a metal dagger, penetrating the ground and leaving many pits.
Fortunately, both Serdur and Aaliyah, riding Ulfen, moved quickly, running in opposite directions.
Occasionally hit by the spines, the damage was absorbed by the blue ripples that flowed around them.
Gauss reacted the fastest, dodging the attack.
He glanced at his teammates with his peripheral vision, relieved that everyone was unharmed.
The white magic wand in his hand gathered light.
"Magic Missile!"
He first used the fastest-reacting magic that could be cast from a distance, determining its strength and forcing it to stop attacking, easing his teammates’ pressure.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
The Thorn Giant Beast sensed the spell gathered by his wand early on, driving several tails across the trajectory of the missile to intercept it just as it approached.
The spell exploded prematurely.
The missile released a powerful blast field.
The vine tails broke in response.
However, before Gauss could react, the tails, oozing green liquid from the broken ends, quickly regrew.
"It has very strong regenerative capabilities." Gauss noted this silently.
Furthermore, are the tails not its main body?
Because when shattered, it showed no pain, or perhaps it feels no pain?
Does it fear fire?
This needs to be tested as well.
Gauss’s actions were quicker than his thoughts.
"Flaming Arrow!"
As a trick, the normal casting speed was already fast, plus Gauss’s various enhancements, the casting was almost instant.
"Whoosh—" The flaming arrow left a fiery red trail in the air.
"Screech!"
The flaming arrow reached the Thorn Giant Beast, passing through the yellow mist surrounding it, and finally struck its body.
"Sizzle!" The flame arrow was visibly stopped by the outer layer of withered thorns and did not penetrate.
Moreover, the flame extinguished in an instant, as if the yellow mist provided some protective effect.
Fire attacks couldn’t achieve the same results on it as on other plant-type demons.
After two waves of attacks, Gauss successfully drew the Thorn Giant Beast’s ire.
Watching the Thorn Giant Beast turn its tail toward him, Gauss remained unfazed.
Everything was proceeding according to the agreed strategy.
"Buzz!" Serdur’s blessing spell began to take effect in his body.
The faint golden light made him feel very comfortable, like soaking in a hot spring.
All of his skills and abilities were amplified to different degrees.
The boost from a level 3 priest was indeed extraordinary. Every time he experienced this buff, Gauss marveled at how inviting Serdur into the team was an extremely wise decision.
However, the blessing spell could only last for 1-2 minutes in high-intensity combat, so Serdur needed to continually renew it.
Gauss activated [Might] and [Enhanced Jump], and with the blessing spell’s support, the effect of the skills became even more remarkable. With an explosion of power in his legs, his body ran across the open ground, leaving afterimages.
Behind him, a barrage of sharp spikes relentlessly chased after him.
With all focus attracted to him, Ulfen and four Clay Spiders circled around the field to the back of the Thorn Giant Beast.
Then they suddenly pounced on the Thorn Giant Beast.
Ulfen’s claws glinted sharply, tearing through the air with a whoosh, fiercely aiming for the relatively weak area where the torso and tail vines connect to the Thorn Giant Beast.
Meanwhile, the four fearless Clay Spiders were even more aggressive.
Led by the white spider in front, they deftly and swiftly jumped onto the Thorn Giant Beast’s body. Their sharp limbs stabbed like chisels into the gaps of the beast’s withered thorny body, and they kept climbing upwards.
"Boom!"
The Thorn Giant Beast was originally fixated on Gauss.
Now suddenly under attack, it instantly became enraged.
Neither Ulfen nor the Clay Spiders’ attacks were fatal, but just like flies can annoy people, it became extremely agitated.
Its attention shifted from Gauss to the small creatures around it.
In particular, the four Clay Spiders on its back swung their blade-like sharp limbs, continuously creating small wounds.
It swung its tail, whipping toward the direction of the Clay Spiders on its back.
"Bang!!"
The Clay Spiders were perceptive and agile, always avoiding the attacks in advance.
Additionally, Ulfen occasionally harassed from the side.
The Thorn Giant Beast’s attention was repeatedly distracted.
Gauss observed this scene thoughtfully.
This trial demon seemed to have a clear shortcoming in decision-making, and its focus was easily diverted by new attacks.
If it were a normal elite demon, even an elite goblin, it would definitely know to prioritize and lock its main focus on him, the strongest point.
This had nothing to do with intelligence and was more of a simple combat instinct.
Even a stupid being like a goblin could manage that.
"Bang!" Suddenly, one Clay Spider couldn’t dodge in time and was struck by the tail, instantly turning into a pile of mud on the beast’s back.
Gauss didn’t mind.
The distance didn’t exceed the casting range of Clay Magic, and soon under the influence of magic power,
the shattered brown clay, after consuming some magic power, reformed and continued attacking the Thorn Giant Beast like a sticky plaster.
"Possibly approaching level 4?"
Gauss closed in on the Thorn Giant Beast, estimating in his mind.
The reason he guessed it was approaching level 4 was that he felt the beast was stronger than level 3 demons in terms of destructive power and presence, but its combat intelligence was lacking.
Overall, it wasn’t beyond his current capability.
It should be like that, just like the all level-1 professional team earlier. They faced a level 2 demon, but it must have had some flaws, which allowed it to suppress the adventure team but not cause significant casualties in a short time.
This time, it might be because there’s a level 3 priest in the team, so a demon above level 3 but not quite level 4 appeared.
However, this was just his personal judgment; he wasn’t entirely sure.
Minutes passed again in a blink.
During this time, Gauss continued probing the Thorn Giant Beast and repeatedly pulling its attention.
Not only his summons, but Aaliyah’s Entanglement Technique also proved very effective.
Taking this opportunity, he also observed the giant beast’s weaknesses in close combat.
The reason he didn’t immediately enter [Ghost Form] was to ensure nothing went wrong.
The consumption of Ghost Form was still too high, and if it couldn’t decisively take the enemy down, it would be troublesome for their team afterward.
So, Gauss preferred to keep stalling to gather as much information as possible.
At the very least, from the probing so far, the Thorn Giant Beast had no apparent weaknesses and had strong regenerative abilities. Even if a significant wound was inflicted, it would heal quickly.
Like an undead creature, even using a fire attack would be quickly extinguished, unable to spread.
"Serdur, please give another blessing spell."
Gauss looked towards Serdur, who was healing Ulfen, and spoke.
"Okay."
As another layer of blessing spell lighted up on him, Gauss’s fatigue vanished again.
He looked at the giant beast.
Suddenly, in a flash moment, he noticed a detail he had overlooked before.
His eyes lit up.
Finally found you!
That was, among the dozen or so thick tails, there seemed to be one tail that had never attacked!
Even though the spikes on other tails had been used up and regrown, the spikes on that tail were never used from beginning to end.
This was obviously quite unreasonable, as if the spikes were decorative. Or rather, there was some reason it didn’t want to expose that tail?
However, this detail was actually hard to notice. If Gauss didn’t have outstanding Intelligence Attribute and hadn’t observed carefully the whole time, he would likely have been deceived by it.
Gauss quickly reviewed all the information in his mind.
He knew the weakness he had been searching for was on that tail.