Chapter 362 Outpacing Death

Chapter 362: Chapter 362 Outpacing Death

Chapter 362: Outpacing Death

The brief respite within the hidden cave was over.

The group slipped back into their ruthless hunting strategy.

Karsten and his men would cautiously leak their auras to act as bait, and the moment an early-stage Domain Master beast took the hook, Rhain and Lyra would instantly execute it with ruthless precision.

Five days passed in a relentless slaughter.

By working from dawn until their essence reserves were nearly entirely drained, they managed to successfully hunt and extract the cores of another 120 Domain Master beasts.

During a brief moment of rest, the group took shelter beneath the an ancient tree.

"We have a problem," Rhain stated, while assessing their current inventory.

He turned to face the exhausted group, delivering a grim reality check.

"Fifteen days have passed," Rhain explained flatly. "That means half of our trial’s time limit is already gone. As of this moment, we have collected exactly three hundred and fifty Domain Master beast cores in total."

The atmosphere beneath the giant roots instantly turned incredibly solemn.

"Three hundred and fifty..." Karsten muttered, as he did the math in his head with a furrowed brow.

"We need one thousand to pass the trial," Rhain continued, "That means we must somehow hunt six hundred and fifty more in the remaining fifteen days. That is roughly the double of our current pace."

The words dropped like a heavy boulder onto their chests.

Double their pace?

They were already pushing themselves to the absolute limit just to gain the current number!

To double it was practically impossible.

Lyra’s fists clenched tightly, "If we push ourselves any harder, we might die from exhaustion first."

"I am aware," Rhain replied pragmatically. "Perhaps, we need to change our strategy now. We cannot continue hunting solo beasts anymore."

As the heavy silence settled over the group, Karsten let out a bitter sigh and pushed himself up from the dirt.

"I will go harvest the core from the one we just killed," Karsten grunted, drawing his dagger as he stepped out from the cover of the roots, heading toward the carcass of a venomous panther resting a few dozen yards away.

But just as Karsten took his fifth step—

RUMBLE—!!!

The earth beneath their boots trembled violently.

"Another beast!" Karsten shrieked, frantically scrambling backward.

Just as Karsten’s voice fell, they saw a armor-plated beast rushing toward them that resembled a demonic wolf.

But strangely, the beast wasn’t roaring with bloodthirsty killing intent.

"Early-stage Domain Master beast!" Rhain analyzed in a fraction of a second.

Assuming it was just another wandering beast they could add to their quota, Rhain and Lyra did not hesitate.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Both of them exploded forward in perfect unison.

Rhain and Lyra simultaneously dropped low, driving their kicks with immense physical force directly into the beast’s front legs.

CRACK!

The beast’s legs were cleanly swept from under it.

"Owwww!"

With a scream, the massive wolf crashed onto the ground, skidding across the dirt and momentarily stunned.

Seeing the perfect opening, Lyra didn’t waste a single millisecond.

She leaped high into the air, her star-forged rapier pointing downward.

"Crimson Tempest Rend!"

An explosive burst of orange-crimson True Heavenly Flame erupted along her blade. She prepared to deliver the final, lethal blow to the downed beast’s exposed neck, entirely certain of securing their three hundred and fifty-first core.

But right as her blazing blade was about to strike—

"Something is wrong."

Rhain’s spritual sense suddenly caught something extremely terrifying.

Every single hair on his body stood on end.

The aura of death plunging from above was overwhelmingly dense.

"LYRA, MOVE!"

Rhain didn’t wait for her to react.

Boundless Sky Wind!

He surged forward at an impossible speed, materialized directly beneath her mid-air form.

Rhain wrapped his strong arm firmly around her slender waist and violently pulled her away from the downed beast, throwing both of them backward just as the sky above them turned completely black.

Just as they left the spot, a colossal shadow instantly blotted out the sun.

BOOM—!!!

A gigantic, mutated eagle crashed down from the heavens like a descending meteor.

The sheer kinetic impact of its landing pulverized the stone and earth into fine dust.

Its massive, razor-sharp talons, gleaming with golden lightning, sank effortlessly into the early-stage Domain Master wolf.

"Woooooo!"

A scream of despair sounded from the dying wolf.

In the blink of an eye, the wolf was obliterated, completely crushed into a paste of blood and shattered bone under the eagle’s horrifying grip.

Rhain, still clutching Lyra against his chest, skidded to a halt several dozen feet away.

His dark grey eyes widened slightly as he looked at the colossal beast that had just crushed its prey.

The aura rolling off its massive body was dangerous.

Level 8 Domain Master!

"It wasn’t attacking us," Rhain realized instantly, a chill running down his spine. "It was running from this beast."

The early-stage Domain Master beast hadn’t been charging them; it had been running for its miserable life.

SKREEEEEEE—!!!

The mutated eagle ripped its beak from the pulverized wolf and let out an ear-piercing shriek.

The soundwave was so incredibly dense and terrifying that it visibly distorted the air.

"GAAAH!" Karsten and the mercenaries clamped their hands over their ears, blood leaking from their eardrums as they collapsed to the dirt.

Even Lyra, pressed against Rhain’s chest, winced in agony, her face turning ghastly white.

The eagle’s massive, golden eyes snapped toward them, irritated by the presence of other insects near its kill.

Rhain’s heart hammered against his ribs.

A Level 8 Domain Master flying beast was fundamentally different from anything they had faced in this trial.

Its speed, destructive output, and aerial advantage made it a walking natural disaster.

"RUN!" Rhain roared, hauling Lyra to her feet. "EVERYONE, RUN!"

Without needing to be told twice, Karsten and the mercenaries scrambled up and sprinted frantically through the dense woods, pushing their Core Formation essence to the limit.

Rhain and Lyra ran right behind them, weaving through the colossal tree trunks as fast as their legs could carry them.

But it was entirely futile.

Against a Level 8 flying beast, running was a joke.

The colossal eagle flapped its massive wings, the sheer force of the gale instantly snapping the ancient trees behind them in half.

It easily outpaced them, its colossal shadow sweeping over the fleeing group as it closed the distance in mere seconds.

As the eagle swooped down, its massive wings crackled with terrifying energy.

It opened its beak, unleashing a devastating, concentrated barrage of razor-sharp wind blades and golden lightning essence that rained down upon the forest like a divine judgment.

"We can’t outrun that!" Lyra shrieked as she the golden lightning falling upon them.

Rhain could also feel it, and knew that there was no way for them to dodge this attack, so he abruptly stopped in his tracks, spinning around to face the incoming destruction.

He knew his physical strength and domains were completely insufficient to block a direct attack from a Level 8 Domain Master beast.

With a flash of spatial light, an ancient mirror forged from unknown divine crystal materialized in his grasp.

Emperor-Grade Artifact: Heavenly Illusion Piercing Mirror!

Rhain poured his vast, ocean-like Soul Power directly into the artifact.

Buzz—!

The mirror activated instantly, projecting a blindingly radiant golden barrier just as the barrage of wind and golden lightning crashed into it.

The mirror did not suffer a single crack.

Instead, the ancient arrays within the Emperor-Grade artifact erupted with a blinding brilliance.

BOOM—!!!

The colossal mass of destructive lightning and wind essence was violently rebounded directly back at the eagle—but with double its original destructive force!

SKREEE?!

The mutated eagle’s golden eyes widened in sheer disbelief as its own amplified attack slammed squarely into its chest.

The beast let out a shrill, pained shriek as the doubled force blasted it completely out of the sky.

The colossal eagle tumbled backward, crashing through a dense cluster of ancient trees and kicking up a massive cloud of dust and debris, completely momentarily burying it in the ruined forest.

"Keep running!" Rhain commanded, not stopping to admire his work. He knew the reflection wouldn’t kill a beast of that caliber; it only bought them a precious window of time.

They sprinted further into the depths of the forest, putting miles between themselves and the crash site.

After several minutes of frantic running, Karsten and the mercenaries slowed down, their lungs burning and their legs trembling.

"D-Did we lose it?" Karsten gasped, leaning heavily against a tree trunk, wiping a thick layer of cold sweat from his scarred face. "Thank the gods... Lord Rhain, your artifact is truly heaven-defy—"

Before Karsten could finish his sentence, the air pressure in the forest abruptly plummeted.

A bloodthirsty power rushed toward them at an inconceivable speed.

The eagle had completely freed itself from the rubble, and it was entirely enraged.

Materializing directly in the sky above them, the colossal beast shrieked with fury, its golden eyes locked entirely onto the tiny humans who had dared to injure it.

Instead of swooping down, the eagle flapped its massive wings violently, raining a carpet-bombing assault of destructive golden lightning essence from above.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Wherever its strikes landed, the earth shattered.

Hundred-foot-tall ancient trees were effortlessly toppled, exploding into splinters that flew everywhere.

The entire forest was being systematically leveled under its tyrannical power.