What initially seemed like a simple cleansing operation quickly turned into something completely different.
The forest had exploded, the sound of screams, explosions, roars, and the clash of weapons could be heard from every direction.
Trees were falling one after another, the ground was shaking under the continuous waves of mana.
Every time one of the groups thought they had cleared an area, dozens more Ironfang Ravagers would jump out from among the bushes, underground tunnels, or behind the trees.
As if the entire forest had come alive, the commanders soon realized that the initial information had been wrong.
The number of monsters was much higher than what they had expected.
For this reason, several temporary defensive lines were formed, the lower-level awakened ones were placed in the back.
The stronger ones stayed at the front line, but even they were under pressure, on the eastern side of the field, a five-person group had managed to kill nearly twenty Ironfang Ravagers.
The group members breathed a sigh of relief, only for the sound of breaking branches to be heard from deep within the forest a moment later.
Then more than thirty new Ironfang Ravagers jumped out from the shadows, everyone’s faces changed.
The battle had only just begun.
No one could have even a moment of peace or rest for a while, this was a battle for the complete extermination of a race, and such operations could always lead to unknown variables.
Everyone knew it would not be easy, but they did not expect it to be this hard, until now they had also suffered dozens of casualties.
Even two of the strongest awakened ones had been killed by the Fallen ones, everyone thought the mission would be easy because of the large number of awakened ones.
But they were badly mistaken.
In all this chaos, Lian was not fighting like the others, he was hunting, there was a big difference between the two.
Most people were fighting to survive or protect others.
But Lian was fighting to grow, for stats and for exp, which result in becoming stronger.
In one part of the field, three Ironfang Ravagers attacked two young students.
One of the students raised his shield, but the monster’s strike threw him back several meters.
The second student was ready to die, but suddenly the sound of thunder echoed in the air, Lian’s body moved through the trees like a ghost.
Lightning had gathered on his right fist.
[ Thunder Calamity ]
His fist hit the Ironfang’s skull directly, the sound of bones shattering echoed in the air, the monster’s body flew several meters and hit a tree.
The tree broke in half, the system notification appeared.
[ Ironfang Ravager level 19 Eliminated ]
[ EXP Gained ]
[ Stats +10 ]
Lian did not even stop, before the other two monsters noticed his presence, he increased his speed.
The ground beneath his feet cracked, he turned, a massive ice claw formed on his left hand.
[ Glacial Reaper Claw ]
A horizontal strike, the second monster’s chest was torn open, and poisonous blood splattered on the ground.
But Poison Foe was active and his body showed no reaction, the third monster roared and jumped at him.
Lian just stepped aside, the monster’s teeth passed a few centimeters from his face, and then he drove his elbow into the creature’s side.
[ Thunder Calamity ] was activated again.
The thunder exploded inside the monster’s body, and the Ironfang fell to the ground.
Three hunts, in less than ten seconds, then Lian disappeared, all the monsters he went after were intentionally below level 22.
The reason was simple, he could hunt monsters below level 22 with a few punches and at high speed, but the higher-level ones were harder and more time-consuming, and it was not worth it.
In another part of the field, Kael’s group was showing why they were famous.
Three Ironfang Ravagers attacked Bren at the same time, the creatures roared and jumped on him, but Bren did not step back even one step.
[ Fortress Heart ]
Mana veins shone on his armor, his muscles swelled, he raised his massive shield in front of him, the strikes of three monsters landed at the same time.
The ground beneath his feet cracked, but he remained like a wall.
At that same moment, Rhea passed by him, flames twisted around her large sword.
[ Blazing Charge ]
She entered the field like a fiery meteor, she cut the first Ironfang in half, the monster’s body split into two pieces, and before the blood could fall to the ground, Rhea turned toward the second target.
A vertical strike from her sword crushed the creature’s shoulder.
At the same moment, Zak disappeared.
[ Hidden Step ]
No one saw his movement path, he appeared behind the third Ironfang.
[ Shadow Sever ]
His sword passed through the monster’s neck like a dark shadow, the creature’s head fell to the ground.
Elias was standing in the back of the field, his hands shining with golden light, and every few seconds a wound on the group members’ bodies would disappear.
Sometimes he also activated Life Transfer and transferred part of his own mana to Rhea or Bren.
But the most dangerous member was still Kael, the lightning mage calmly raised his hand, a few Ironfang Ravagers were running toward the group.
A massive magic circle appeared in the air.
[ Thunder Spear ]
A spear of lightning fell from the sky, the resulting explosion from the impact destroyed four monsters at the same time, the blue light of the thunder illuminated the entire forest for a moment.
Among the groups formed for this operation, they were one of the most successful, and all of them were not far from reaching level 20, and their main goal was to reach that level today.
But other parts of the field had a different situation, where the Fallen monsters had appeared.
For the first time, real fear could be seen among the awakened ones, a level twenty-two hunter moved forward confidently.
He probably thought that no matter how powerful the Fallen ones were, he could at least land a few hits and successfully retreat.
He raised his sword, shouted, and attacked.
Three seconds later, the upper half of his body was on the ground, the Fallen monster had not even stopped.
A heavy silence fell over the area.
A few people lost their color, many understood that this operation could easily turn into a graveyard.
An awakened one who had passed their first evolution had been killed that easily.
In the heart of the battlefield, the level twenty-seven Fallen monster was present.
A massive giant, larger than all the members of its race.
The commanders were personally engaged with it, massive explosions were happening one after another.
Fire.
Lightning.
Mana blades.
Each attack could destroy a normal monster, but the Fallen Ironfang just stepped back a few steps, that was all.
When one of the spells hit its chest directly, the creature roared and charged forward again.
Several level thirty hunters were forced to stop it at the same time.
Lian watched from a distance and immediately concluded, if he entered a battle with that monster alone, his chance of survival was low.
Maybe he could deal damage, maybe even land a few good hits, but in the end he would be killed, the power gap between him and a level 27 Fallen was too large.
If his guess was correct, that monster had the power of a normal level 40 monster or higher, and now there were several of them here.
Defeating them was not going to be easy, but fortunately, the commanders of this operation were not empty-handed either and had some trump cards.
He decided to act logically, that battle was not his, at least not for now, he had hunted as much as he wanted, and his number of stats had reached 211.
There were no monsters below level 22 left here anymore, so the time had come to go after his main goal.
While observing the field from the branch of a tall tree, he noticed something.
Almost all the main forces were moving toward the center of the nest, even the Fallen monsters were slowly retreating.
They were drawing the awakened ones toward the heart of their territory, and this matter had one important result.
The path to the river was almost empty.
Lian stood on the branch and looked around, thousands of people were engaged in battle, all attention was focused on the monsters, the commanders were leading the forces, and the hunters were fighting to survive.
No one was looking at the river... no one.
All these conditions were screaming only one thing, and it was completely clear, finally the time had come.
A smile appeared on his face.
"Now is a good opportunity." And without anyone noticing, he quietly jumped down from the branch and headed toward the river.