Chapter 743: Bloodfalls - 2

Chapter 743: Bloodfalls - 2

Zephyrax struggled to climb back up through the bored wound, getting drenched in red blood in the process. Its spirit body, which had a figure similar to that of a thunderbird, now looked more like a blood bird with all the mess covering it. However, as soon as it took flight again, it used the wind to blow away the blood, freeing itself from its weight.

VHHOOSSSSSSSS!!!

Vorthuun released his own flame-breath attack at the spot where Leo had struck the beast’s head from below, and almost instantly, the exposed flesh began to burn.

Lily also started striking the beast with incessant lightning attacks from above, targeting the spot where Azrakar had removed its metallic armour with his punches. She was making full use of the opening created by the enemy academy.

And, of course, the dragons didn’t take it lightly.

They deliberately aimed their attacks in such a manner that if they ’mistakenly’ missed their targets, the attacks would hit the students of Aurelius Beast Academy instead.

Leo was even cleverer. He smashed into the beast, creating a cloud of metallic dust at the point of impact that obscured his figure. Taking advantage of the cover, he threw a spiked metallic piece from the broken debris towards a nearby hybrid dragon, wounding him.

"You all need to be careful. I cannot control where these stray pieces go," Leo warned them.

Both sides could only grit their teeth at the other party’s clever play and focus on the main goal while being wary of each other.

Everyone exploited the loophole in the rules to sabotage each other while also damaging the beast to the best of their abilities.

After all, they knew that the moment this beast died, a battle between them was inevitable.

When Vorthuun finally stopped his flame breath after scorching the beast’s lower jaw, a strong smell of burnt flesh permeated the air, as though age-old meat had just been cooked.

Since his attacks weren’t capable of piercing the flesh like Zephyrax’s diving attacks, he had to rely on burning the skin instead. However, the beast’s thick layer of dense skin, accumulated over centuries, gave off a terrible stench as it burned.

But this also confirmed that they were finally dealing meaningful damage to the beast’s actual body, unlike before, when they had only managed to melt its outer layer.

Leo even fired concentrated wind-blade attacks that slowly hacked away at the skin until he finally cut through the last layer. Almost instantly, the Behemoth started bleeding.

The blood fell like a waterfall, or, to be more accurate, a Bloodfall.

Lily immediately used Hydra’s Netherblight Poison to start corroding the wound.

Meanwhile, other students like Uraan, Aaron, Yano, and Dhalia simply did their best to attack the beast’s foot. Trying their best to even achieve a 1% contribution. Their attacks of 3-star realm were almost useless.

Though Uraan was particularly useful, considering that he transported people back and forth so they could rest while also splashing the alchemists’ harmful potions onto the wounds.

At some point, the dragons also started attacking the beast’s eyes, which it occasionally opened to look around and check its path.

Both eyes had a diameter of almost 30 metres, and needless to say, just looking at them made one feel disgusted.

Especially with the years of accumulated cavities and biological material inside at the corners. Not to mention, attacking that fluid-filled sphere would only create an uglier sight.

Fuck... that reminds me. I need to clean Howl too... Leo realised, suddenly remembering that Howl’s eyes might be similarly dirty.

And just like that, the days started passing once again.

With little to no reinforcement, the beast endured five days of relentless attacks, leaving its head completely riddled with deep wounds and burnt scars.

During those five days, it had travelled nearly 300 kilometres while enduring the attacks. To its misfortune, both of its eyes had burst by now, and it was now walking blindly, relying entirely on its other senses.

Things would have been different if the attackers had stopped. Ancient Savage Beasts possessed a trait called [Endless Growth], which allowed them to slowly regenerate delicate body parts, such as their eyes, over the years by absorbing biological materials—predominantly water. However, the attackers showed no signs of stopping and were seemingly tireless.

The two spirit summons were, of course, spirits and needed only mana to function. Their mana replenished quickly, allowing them to attack almost 70% of the time throughout those five days.

Then there were the dragons, followed by Leo, Lily, and Kaelion, along with their beasts.

Over the next six days, the beast finally decided to retract its head and settle down defensively.

In the distance, just 50 or so kilometres away, the target city was now visible. The beast had travelled nearly 500 kilometres since it had started walking towards the city 11 days earlier. A thick, mucous trail of blood stretched all along its path, left behind by its constantly bleeding wounds.

As for the city itself, it was even larger than Ember City, meaning it was an important hub that needed to be protected.

However, despite being just 50 kilometres away from its destination, the beast was now forced to sit defensively. This was because Azrakar, Vorthak, Vulcarion, and Leo had literally dipped themselves into its blood through the wounds to attack it internally and shake its skull from the inside.

They had to hold their breath while doing so.

And, of course, it was dirty work. Whenever Leo came out to take a breath of fresh air, he was covered in gooey blood that had coagulated around him. Thankfully, Lily could clean him in an instant using her water and wind manipulation.

On the other hand, Azrakar, Vorthak, and Vulcarion simply cursed the hell out of everyone around them because they had no way to clean themselves except by burning the blood off, which wasn’t actually a good cleaning, returning to their beast forms, and rolling on the ground.

They were fortunate on a few occasions when they stumbled upon water sources where they could bathe.

They had decided to dig into the Behemoth’s body in their humanoid forms because when Vorthak had tried it in his dragon form, the blood had become trapped deep between his scales. Even after returning to his human form, he remained uncomfortable for days, as the blood was still stuck in the crevices of his skin and refused to come off no matter how much he rubbed.

Even burning it didn’t help.

As for the Behemoth, it felt as though multiple dangerous parasites and leeches had attacked it, slowly draining its vitality until it finally died.

And now, they were even attacking it from the inside.

Unfortunately, the beast didn’t seem to possess the [Thermal Pulse] skill that Howl had. If it had, it could have heated its blood to drive out or outright kill the ’parasites’ by boiling them alive.

Little did it know that the dragons wouldn’t be affected by such an attack in the slightest, while Leo also possessed Heat Resistance that was equal to, if not better than that of the dragons.

However, with the beast’s head retracted once again, attacking it had become considerably more difficult. Or so everyone thought.

Over the next few days, every attacker focused their attacks on the exact location where the beast had retracted its head. Within just three days, they managed to open up a path through the closed area, making the tucked-in head visible.

With that, their final attacks began.

Thirty-four days had already passed since the competition began, meaning a new month had started. And 24 days had been spent fighting this Oreback Behemoth alone, and no one knew how much longer it would take to finally kill it.