Doomsday Pillars

Chapter 238 - Thorny Devil

The Australian Outback deserts weren't the driest deserts in the world. These deserts were often hit by rain, causing the wildlife in these deserts to be very large and diverse. During the 200 days they were in these deserts, Alex and his entourage had met numerous types of dangerous mutated animals, from big to small, fast to strong.

"What type of mutated beast is it this time?" Jerry asked Theo.

Theo put two fingers on his head and tried to use the psychic skills he had become more and more familiar with ever since he reached the Earth Realm.

Of the four main elements, which were fire, water, wind, and earth, as well as the next four elements, which were lightning, plants, ice, and metal. There were two special elements: Light and darkness. Psychic mental powers were part of the light element. The element of light dominated all existence, whereas darkness dominated all inexistence. After mastering the intermediate-level light spirit element, Theo learned a new skill.

[Lifeform Detection]

"It's at least a Tier 2 high-tier mutated beast. 300 meters from the west!" exclaimed Theo instantly when he detected it.

It seemed that the creature Theo was referring to came approaching from the direction of the carcasses of the mutated dingos that previously attacked them. Jerry immediately shouted at Dinda, "Dinda, hurry retreat, now!"

Dinda immediately jumped back. Promptly, she took an arrow and drew her bow in preparation to shoot whatever was coming their way. She paid special attention to the west, where Theo previously said the beast was coming from.

"There's nothing there!" exclaimed Oscar, contrary to what they expected due to Theo's warning.

Even so, they didn't let down their guards the slightest bit. They believed Theo wasn't making things up. Theo would never joke about danger. This made them even more worried and alert. An enemy that they couldn't see was much scarier in comparison, as it would be hard for them to know what they were going up against. The six fighters in this place were all peak-level Earth Realm fighters. Even Dinda and Jerry were peak Earth Realm spirit enhancers. But the six of them were still very wary.

"Is it that monster? ...isn't it too fast?" Cindy whispered to Theo worriedly.

"200 meters! Closer!" exclaimed Theo. He unconsciously made his voice slightly louder.

Jerry immediately reacted. He raised his hands and released a wind spirit skill.

[Gust of Wind]

It was the same skill which he had shown and proven to be able to withstand six mutated dingos. But this time, he released it to its fullest power. He aimed the skill at the sand on the floor, and the gust of wind raised the sand of the area it touched to form a sand wave crashing toward the west.

The sand waves could be seen whirling to an area to the west. Not long after, it was clearly visible that on one side, the sand hit a hard object.

Jerry immediately shouted to Dinda, "Dinda, now!"

"On it!" Immediately after that, Dinda released her arrow toward the object that was preventing the movement of the sand waves.

Pssssssh!!!!

A figure could be seen moving away from behind the sand waves, but the arrow Dinda shot moved faster.

SPLAT!!

A splash of yellow liquid trickled down the desert. It seems that Dinda's attack succeeded in injuring the figure. Because Dinda's attack succeeded in injuring the figure, slowly, the shape of the creature appeared.

It was a giant, thorny lizard almost the size of a truck. It had black skin and sharp giant murky orange thorns. The creature's tail grabbed the arrow that was stuck in its shoulder. As though it was a second head with a mouth and fangs, its tail took out the arrow and bit it until it snapped.

[Mutated Thorny Devil]

[Level 60 mutated beast]

[Tier 2 peak level]

One of the most unique creatures in the Australian wilderness. These creatures had the ability to change their body colors to camouflage, making their bodies invisible. These high-level creatures were one of the most dangerous ones in this wilderness.

Seeing the form of this mutated being, the six fighters weren't worried. On the contrary, they sighed in relief and smiled.

"Oh... I was worried for nothing," said Oliver, also relieved.

"Still, don't let your guard down. Keep your eyes open, this is a high-level creature," Jerry reminded.

Jerry was the fighter appointed to lead the hunt today. With the existence of a fighter as strong as himself, added with Dinda, who was quite powerful, and Theo, who could detect danger, this group's safety during the hunt was pretty much guaranteed even though there were only six of them.

They had met this type of creature several times. Even though this creature was very dangerous, with their team combination, they weren't worried at all.

This mutated creature looked infuriated. It went back to using its camouflage skill and its body began to "disappear".

"Stay alert!" warned Jerry.

Theo used his skill again and exclaimed, "Oliver!"

"Okay!" exclaimed Oliver in response.

He put his hands together and used the skill he had just mastered. His two palms formed a shining electric flash and let out a loud sound.

[Shock Wave]

Oliver slammed his hands into the sand below and a burst of electric shock shot down the area of sand around him. Shortly after, the electric shock caught and smote that mutated lizard. The electric shock not only made it revert from its camouflaged form to its original form, but it also immobilized it for a moment. As a side effect of the shock wave, the mutated lizard was paralyzed for a moment. 

"My turn!" exclaimed Oscar, the twin brother of Oliver, who was standing nearby. His voice had quite a bit of excitement in it.

With the mutated lizard in sight, Oscar didn't hesitate to jump over to the beast. With both hands, he gripped a small dagger and immediately stabbed directly into the neck of the mutated lizard, which had been injured by the arrow earlier.

When the blade of the dagger, which was no longer than 15 centimeters long, stabbed the mutated lizard, a shiny blue light appeared from the wound, and Oscar easily slashed through the mutated beast's tail like hot knife slicing butter.

The skin of the mutated lizards was one of the hardest compared to other mutated animals in the Australian wilderness. These creatures were high-level mutated beasts that not even artifact weapons could easily pierce through. The success of this attack was largely due to the special dagger Oscar was holding.

[Lightning Cutter]

[Dagger - Tier 3]

[15 centimeters long, weighs 2 kilograms]

[Special Effect - Extra sharpness]

[Special Skill - Lighting Blade]

This dagger was one of the weapons that were successfully obtained as B-level rewards for clearing the early challenges of the Doomsday Pillar. Oscar was fortunate not because of his success in clearing the challenge, but because he and Oliver were the only electric-element fighters among them. Because of this, Alex entrusted this weapon to the two of them. This weapon could increase their fighting prowess, which was still left behind compared to other A-rank spirit enhancers.

"Yeah! Feels so satisfying," exclaimed Oscar, evidently satisfied.

Yellow blood flowed along the beast's body and the beast immediately fell on its back. However, he didn't notice that the beast's tail was still moving. It swung at him from behind, trying to catch him off-guard when he thought it was completely dead.

"Watch out!! Be careful!" One of Jerry's greatest worries was that these young men were too careless.

Jerry used [Wind Walk] as fast as he could to try to help Oscar, but he was too far away. With the distance between them, he wasn't going to make it.

SPLASH!

The fangs on the mutated beast's tail stopped exactly a few centimeters in front of Oscar's face. A rope could be seen tied on the tail, pulling it so it couldn't attack him.

[Whip - Tier 1]

[30 meters long, weighs 10 kilograms]

"Huh! What's the use of a Tier 3 weapon if the one using it is this stupid!" exclaimed Cindy, pulling the animal's tail with her whip.

WHOOSH! SPLATTT!!

An arrow struck the mutated beast's head and pierced right through its eye, and it finally fell fully motionless, really dead this time.

"Thank you, Pretty Sister," Oscar thanked as he bowed respectfully.

"Come on, we've been here for too long!" exclaimed Theo.

They immediately took out the yellow spirit stones from the mutated beasts. The higher the level of the beast was, the more likely it would be for the beast to grant higher-tier stones. After that, they also took out a storage ring and put all the carcasses of the mutated beasts they killed in it. Mutated animal meat was the best solution to increase the strength of these fighters, especially the meat of high-level mutated beasts.

"Come on, let's go now!" exclaimed Theo, ushering them to leave.

Theo immediately forced all of the teams to get on the vehicles and immediately drove off. It wasn't long before the team felt an earthquake, and a giant beast came out from underground, just below the area of sand where they had been fighting earlier.

[Bearded Dragon]

[Level 80 mutated beast]

[Tier 3 middle level]

This was the mutated beast that this team had been afraid of encountering. Their current selves didn't have the ability to fight Tier 3 mutated beasts. These beasts always approach because they smell the blood of other beasts. Luckily, these beasts couldn't travel quickly outside the sand.