Free and Unfettered 22 Fleeing For Their Lives

Deltan paled at the familiar roar. It was the Demonic Winged Tiger!

"Run!" he shouted at his teammates via voice transmission.

The team of five ran with all their might hearing the roar. It was imbued with magical energy, which prevented those who didn't have enough willpower from resisting.

Thankfully, the team of five were rather steadfast and had gone through various difficulties and challenges.

They grit their teeth as they ran, feeling the sweat soak their backs. Never had they felt something so threatening.

They heard the crashing of various trees, shrubs and branches as they pushed themselves beyond the limit. It seemed like the beast was chasing them at a steady pace, not giving them any time to relax.

They finally saw the face of the beast chasing them as it flew overhead and landed heavily in front of them. It roared, shaking the surroundings and causing everything else to flee. The Sixth Tier Magic Beast was the overlord of the area, and nothing else dared to challenge it.

The five students felt a chill from the malicious intent hidden within its eyes. In sync, the five of them released magic and aimed at the beast, not watching to see if it would hit.

As one, they changed direction and ran as they prayed that the small amount of magic would distract it for awhile. They managed to pull a bit of distance from it as they ran for their lives.

"We have to head away from where our classmates are at," voiced Lucien. His normally calm and steady voice seemingly had a trace of fluctuation as the exertion took its toll.

Nine's lips quirked when she heard his voice transmission. Since she had significantly higher mental strength than them, she could hear the voice transmissions between the team loud and clear. What a pretentious fool. While his words may be sincere, his exhaustion wasn't.

Aciel nodded as the rest concentrated on altering their path. They didn't have the luxury to spare any strength to chat about things that weren't beneficial to them right now.

"That's a Sixth Tier Magic Beast, the Demonic Winged Tiger. We don't stand a chance against it alone, so we better not split up."

Deltan and the rest gave a wry smile. While the chances were slim, they weren't willing to give up just like this. Their heartbeat thudded in their chests as they danced along a fine line of danger and peril.

All extraneous thoughts cleared from their mind as they focused on surviving.

After being chased for half an hour, they could already feel their body flag as their strength was depleted from the extended running. It was then that they had the faint inklings that something was wrong.

As a Third Tier mage that was about to step into the Fourth Tier, their body was only twice as strong as a civilian. They hadn't yet reached the stage where they should be able to flee from a stronger foe without them catching up.

Indignation filled their hearts as they thought about it. Deltan cursed inwardly as the thought surfaced in his mind. Could it be that the Demonic Winged Tiger had recognised him and was chasing after him to get revenge?

He couldn't disregard the thought. His younger brother had been beating up the tiger everyday in his vicinity while he stood by idly. The curses in his mind intensified. He was the one who healed up the Magic Beast after each session! How could it not have any gratitude! Not to mention, because his healing magic was still unstable, he had to heal himself uo after getting beat down by his brother! The tiger had already passed out by then so it didn't see the suffering he had to go through!

Gritting his teeth, Deltan willed his legs not to give out on him.

As abruptly as it started, it stopped. The five students didn't dare stop as they continued running for another kilometre.

Eden dropped first, collapsing on the ground as his legs finally gave out on him. He panted harshly, greedily sucking in breaths. His lungs were burning. He couldn't continue any longer.

One by one, the rest of them stopped, taking the signal from Eden as a sign to stop.

Lucien narrowed his eyes as he spread out his magic in a circle to ensure the Magic Beast wasn't lying in wait for them. He caught his breath not too long after, having already recovered, but he hid it as he pretended to be as tired as the rest. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he couldn't find anything.

"I can't feel the Sixth Tier Magic Beast anymore, but I'm worried about the rest of our classmates," Lucien said, his voice tight. Even though he tried to keep his voice steady, the others were able to detect his worry.

Aciel displayed remarkable control over her body as she forced herself not to take heaving breaths to conserve stamina.

"Regulate your breathing! We need all the stamina we can get!"

Eden and Brooke struggled to follow her instructions, but felt slightly better when their breathing eventually returned to normal.

"We have to go," Brooke said anxiously.

"We don't know when the other Magic Beasts or monsters will return. It seems like the Sixth Tier Magic Beast is the overlord of this area judging from how it's casually running wild, but that doesn't mean there aren't Fifth, Fourth or even Third Tier Magic Beasts around here. I doubt we will be able to put up much of a fight while we're still recovering," Aciel said, her mind flying at a rapid pace.

After another five minutes, the five students dragged their heavy body as they killed a few First and Second Tier Magic Beasts along the way. They didn't have much trouble with them, thankfully. Their magic had recovered a substantial amount.

Cautiously, they returned to the area where they were supposed to meet the rest. After making sure nothing was lying in wait in the surrounding areas, they heaved a sigh of relief.

The students in the area widened their eyes in shock as they saw the state the five of them were in.

"What happened?!" one cried out.

Didn't they say they would go hunting for food? Even if they went up against a Third Tier Magic Beast, they shouldn't look so wretched and dishevelled.

The five students made a vague gesture and didn't answer as they made quick work of setting up runes that would allow Magic Beasts up to the Third Tier to overlook them.

"Don't just stand and stare! Help us!"

Breaking out of their stupor, the rest of the students quickly set to work, feeling the tension and urgency in the air.

A couple of them set up an alarm type spell that would alert them if anything within the range of 500 meters entered.

"Good job. Now, everyone gather round," Deltan said, his face incomparably serious. "I didn't think to mention this earlier because we aren't close to its habitat, but there's a Sixth Tier Magic Beast that lives in this forest. A Demonic Winged Tiger that can use the elements of Water and Darkness."

The remaining students hadn't yet had a chance to react to this news when the alarm tripped.

Their hearts flew into their throat.

Chapter end