Max very cautiously led Mira along the western trail towards the black dragon camp as every second of the way he felt his senses heightened to the maximum and his heart beat rapidly.
He was walking in an extremely dangerous forest, where every time he scanned his surroundings he found multiple tier4 or stronger beasts in the vicinity that could pounce upon the duo if they so pleased.
He was living absolutely on the edge as while dragon's who had massive wings and ruled the skies could fly away from a fight if they found themselves surrounded, he himself did not have a similar luxury.
If he was suddenly surrounded by a bunch of monsters, it was fight or die. A situation which made Max feel an unprecedented adrenaline rush.
Everytime Max had faced such a tough situation where death was a real threat, he had some cushion to fall back to.
Within the school, it was a wild-zone, meaning even if he did die his soul would not dissipate.
Within dragon's paradise it was Kremeth's watchful eye that would bail him out of trouble before he died, however, today he was truly alone, protecting an injured Mira with nothing but wits and valour.
*RAWRRRRRRR*
Max and Mira instantly leaned against a tree trunk the second they heard a dragon roar as both of them looked from between the tree leaves towards the sky, hoping for the dragon to pass by without noticing them.
" It's one of my pursuers, he's monitoring this trail " Mira said as she recognised the yellow dragon which had just flown over their heads.
Although it was not one of the two tier6 dragon's incharge of finishing her off, it was a member of that same group.
Thankfully the dragon failed to notice them, however someone else unfortunately did take notice of them.
[ Mutated Spike Python ] ( Tier 5 ) :- A mutated variant of the spike python species known to have poisonous spikes all over their body.
Its mutation allows it to not only have poisonous spikes all over its body, but also shoot them like arrows at will.
Note : Getting pierced by a single spike will kill an adult giant within 2 minutes.
Max and Mira had encountered a very dangerous creature, one that even the dragons never hunted because of the poisonous spikes covering its body.
*Shua* *Shua* *Shua*
[ FireWall ]
The python released three spikes towards Max and Mira, however, Max reacted quickly and created a flame wall between them and the python to block it's attack.
" Mira, I'm going to give you a boost, Go grab the tree branch above, give me aerial support and stay out of the fight.....
Come now! " Max said as he cupped his hands together and gave Mira a strength boost to grab the hanging branch twenty feet above their heads.
Max did not want to involve the injured Mira who did not have much of her mobility in this fight as a single spike could lead to her demise.
Hence, with aerial support as an excuse Max got her out of harm's way.
Retrieving his staff from inside his inventory, Max prepared himself for battle as he narrowed his eyes, staring straight into the pythons yellow reptilian eyes as he said " Bring it Voldemort's bitch "
*************
( Meanwhile Neatwit )
Neatwit took a deep breath when he saw the 2 Billion gold coins bounty just to get Ravan's stat and personal information.
Just a few weeks ago, the Caesars had placed a 500 million gold coin bounty on Ravan's head, yet now they placed a 2 billion gold coins bounty just for his information?
There was definitely something special about this boy if he could push the enemy's buttons in such a fashion.
" Are we going to take this mission guildmaster? " Amelia asked Neatwit with her eyebrows raised as both herself and Neatwit knew that the money was too good to pass up on, whereas the target had a strong connection to Max Rajput.
" What is the usual bounty rate for information on a tier3 player? " Neatwit asked Amelia
" About 50,000 gold coins, 2 billion is what one would pay for information on a god like yourself " Amelia replied as Neatwit sucked a breath of cold air.
It was just as he had expected, this bounty was way out of proportion for a small target and there were undoubtedly going to be a hell lot of tier5 tackers for this bounty, with several tier 6 god's also potentially showing interest.
" He is Max's friend tho… " Neatwit said grinding his teeth as he fought a battle of morals within himself.
After thinking for a while, he let out a deep sigh as he said " No- don't take the mission, there will always be more money to be made, there will only ever be one brother of Guildmaster Shakuni. We won't cross our own people for money "
Amelia beamed listening to this reply as she revealed a rare smile to Neatwit.
She had gained newfound respect for the guildmaster as in her heart this was the decision she was vying for.
The reason why the True Elites guild was such a formidable force in the universe was because of the way guildmaster shakuni had built the guild.
It had never compromised on its morals and a war on a single elite meant a war against the entire organisation.
The elites's refusal to bow before anyone was the exact reason the guild felt more like a family than an organisation.
The last thing that could break the spirit of this guild was the allure of money.
************
( Meanwhile Rudra )
Rudra inspected the changes to his body and realised that he had finally entered the uncharted domain of tier8.
His half form body had several qualitative changes as he felt ten times as powerful as he did at his peak.
Secrets previously incomprehensible to his brain were suddenly starting to make sense as he was also made aware of the barrier that existed to prevent one from growing beyond tier8 towards tier9.
Rudra's reconstruction process had reached till his waist, it would only be another year till his body was fully reconstructed again and he would be freed from his predicament of floating within nothingness.
With every passing second, Rudra gained a better understanding over his powers and the mysteries of the universe as within the void of nothingness there was nothing else to do except peer into his own mind exploring its darkest secrets.
The only thing that kept him sane was the constant mulling over these powers that be, as he constantly made breakthroughs in this process.
-----------
/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the PS target, good job everyone! ///