Chapter 299: Instant Kill of the Hunting Group.

The thunderous roar that shook heaven and earth was followed almost immediately by a deafening rumble.

"AVALANCHE!"

Someone shouted the warning, and everyone was struck with terror.

During the battle against the first wave of hunters, the adventurers' spells had already loosened the snow. Now, with that enormous magical beast roaring overhead, the snow began to shift and break away.

An immense mass of snow thundered down the mountainside like an army of thousands charging into battle. In the blink of an eye, it swept toward the ice-walled campsite in front of the cave.

Fortunately, the campsite's defenses were formidable. The moment the avalanche struck, its defensive magical formations activated automatically, and a translucent canopy designed to withstand physical attacks appeared overhead, shielding everyone from the onrushing snow.

At that moment, Nasak had never been more grateful for the thousand gold coins he had spent building the ice-walled campsite.

It had saved their lives.

Had they remained inside the cave, they would undoubtedly have been buried alive.

The hunting party wasn't nearly as fortunate as the adventurers.

When the avalanche struck, they had no time to escape. Half their number was buried beneath the snow, while the other half narrowly avoided the same fate thanks to the necromancer's timely intervention.

Hovering in the air, Falm looked thoroughly innocent of the havoc its roar had caused.

Still, the hunters had lived in the snowy mountains for generations and had long since learned how to survive avalanches. Those buried beneath the snow relied on their formidable physiques and considerable strength to force their way back to the surface.

After using magic to hold back the avalanche, Borut raised his head and stared at the enormous magical beast silhouetted against the night sky.

"Is that... a fire dragon lizard?"

Although he hadn't visited the desert in seven hundred years, he still remembered what fire dragon lizards looked like.

The enormous creature overhead certainly resembled one, but there were unmistakable differences.

Regardless of whether it was a fire dragon lizard, however, a fire-element magical beast had no business appearing in these freezing mountains.

Borut gazed at the creature greedily, already considering how he might capture it and take it back for a thorough examination.

Falm had no idea what the necromancer was thinking.

Its thoughts were entirely occupied by the sea beast Amanda had promised it, and it had decided to finish this battle as quickly as possible.

As the Fire God's mount, Falm had emerged victorious from countless battles during the War of the Gods ten thousand years ago. Even the mightiest necromancer would have little hope of surviving an encounter with it.

Although the hunting party's necromancer was a Saint Mage, he was utterly insignificant in Falm's eyes.

This was what Shu Li would call an attack from an entirely different power level.

Before the hunters or their necromancer could react, Falm beat its wings and plunged toward them.

Its claws and tail struck in rapid succession.

In an instant, more than a hundred hunters were dead.

Hoin's face drained of color.

What rank was this magical beast? How could its attacks be so devastating?

He had no time to ponder the question. Roaring in panic, he called for the necromancer to save them.

But Borut was having enough trouble keeping himself alive.

The flames spewing from the creature's mouth were unlike anything he had ever encountered. They shattered his defensive barrier instantly, and every hunter touched by the fire was reduced to ashes.

Throughout his life, Borut had encountered countless high-ranking magical beasts. With the power of a Saint Mage, he had even hunted and killed several ninth-rank magical beasts.

Yet the creature before him filled him with terror.

Only the legendary divine-rank magical beasts could possess such horrifying power.

Borut made his decision without hesitation.

Abandoning the hunters to their fate, he fled alone.

Without the necromancer's defensive barrier, Hoin and his elite subordinates were left completely exposed to Falm's flames.

Falm showed them no mercy.

It opened its jaws and unleashed a serpent of fire that swept through the hunting party.

All Hoin saw was a blinding expanse of crimson.

Then his consciousness vanished.

The leader of the hunting party, who had terrorized the snowy mountains for decades and slaughtered countless adventurers, had never imagined his own death would be so effortless.

Having disposed of the three hundred hunters with ease, Falm followed the necromancer's aura and gave chase.

Borut could teleport.

Falm could vanish and reappear in a flash.

No matter how often the necromancer tried to escape, the creature remained relentlessly on his heels.

For the first time in his life, Borut found himself hovering on the brink of death.

Drenched in sweat, he exhausted every technique at his disposal in a desperate attempt to fend off the magical beast pursuing him.

Nothing worked.

Eager to get back to its midnight snack, Falm attacked with brutal impatience.

The flames it breathed transformed into more than a dozen ferocious serpents of fire. They scorched everything in their path, melting the snow and exposing the blackened earth beneath.

The necromancer had nowhere to hide.

He fled in every direction, scrambling desperately to escape.

When the flames finally surrounded him, his high-grade magical robe and defensive artifacts bought him another half minute.

Half a minute was enough.

His soul transformed into a wisp of black smoke and slipped free of his physical body.

But Falm had seen this trick from necromancers countless times before.

The instant it spotted the black smoke, it breathed fire without hesitation.

Its flames, capable of burning anything in the world, consumed the necromancer's soul until not a trace remained.

Mission accomplished, Falm cheerfully flew back toward the campsite.

Meanwhile, the adventurers hadn't been idle during Falm's battle with the hunting party.

They had been busy clearing the snow piled above their heads.

Although the ice walls and defensive barriers had protected them from the avalanche, leaving the snow in place would cut off their air supply and eventually suffocate them.

The Light Squad was the first to clear away the snow.

That was the advantage of having so many mages. With everyone working together, they broke through to the open air in less than fifteen minutes.

Falm returned at just the right moment.

Seeing that the tents had already been set up again, it shrank its enormous body back into the round, palm-sized magical beast everyone knew and landed beside the campfire.

"Where's my midnight snack?"

It looked around eagerly, searching for the four-meter-long sea beast.

"Just a second~"

Amanda walked over to an open patch of ground and retrieved the sea beast from his storage ring.

They had been so busy clearing the snow earlier that he had put it away for safekeeping.

The moment Falm saw the sea beast, it let out a delighted cry and pounced, sinking its teeth into the meat without the slightest hesitation.

Despite its tiny size, it could devour food at an astonishing speed.

Shu Li crouched beside it and poked its backside with a finger.

"Hold on a minute. Tell us what happened to the hunting party and the necromancer first."

With a chunk of meat clamped between its teeth, Falm answered indistinctly, "What do you think happened? They're all dead, obviously."

"Are you sure?"

Shu Li was a little astonished.

That necromancer had been wreaking havoc in the snowy mountains for over a thousand years. Countless adventurers had died because of him.

Yet Falm had apparently disposed of him without breaking a sweat.

It was almost unbelievable.

Falm swallowed its mouthful of meat.

"I even burned his soul to nothing. He couldn't be any deader."

Seeing how impatient the creature was to return to its meal, Shu Li gave one of the little wings on its back a gentle pinch and stopped bothering it.

He stood and addressed his companions.

"The hunting party probably won't be coming back. We can finally get some proper sleep."

If the necromancer hadn't appeared, Shu Li wouldn't have sent Falm into battle.

After all, their journey through the snowy mountains was supposed to be a training expedition. He wanted the Light Squad to gain valuable experience along the way.

But the necromancer had appeared, and the ice walls couldn't withstand his attacks indefinitely. A fierce battle would have been unavoidable tonight.

Even if they had been capable of killing him themselves, they would have paid a considerable price.

Rather than waste their time and energy fighting their way through the snowy mountains, it made more sense to send Falm out early and eliminate the threat.

"Finally!"

Budno was the first to cheer.

At last, he could get a good night's sleep!

Moresy and Seidler looked at him in silence.

This child slept like a log every night.

When had he ever failed to get a good night's sleep?

"Come on, come on! Let's go to bed."

Before long, everyone had returned to their respective tents, leaving Falm outside to feast to its heart's content.

Shu Li removed his fur coat, lay down beside Ace, and pulled the blanket over himself.

After all the excitement of the past several hours, he felt wide awake and not the least bit sleepy.

Remembering the way Moresy had looked at Falm before they entered the tent, Shu Li propped himself up on one elbow and asked quietly, "Do you think... Moresy and Seidler are starting to suspect something?"

Lying flat on his back, Kumandi answered, "Definitely."

A group of low-ranking mages traveling with a high-ranking magical beast capable of killing a necromancer in seconds?

Anyone would be suspicious.

"But they didn't ask," Shu Li pointed out.

Most people would have been unable to resist asking questions out of sheer curiosity.

Ace smiled.

"They're intelligent men."

Intelligent people knew better than to pry into every secret.

Shu Li lowered his gaze, watching the faint upward curve of Ace's lips.

"If they do ask, should we tell them the truth?"

He didn't want to deceive his friends.

Traveling with the two of them had taught him a great deal.

Seidler was an upright white mage whose integrity had already been put to the test.

As for Moresy, Shu Li had noticed certain similarities between him and Efit. Although he was glib and flirtatious, his remarks were obviously made in jest and never came across as genuinely unpleasant.

Kumandi frowned slightly at Shu Li's question but offered no immediate answer.

Ace lifted his eyes to meet Shu Li's gaze.

Their eyes locked.

Neither looked away, almost as though they were engaged in a silent contest of wills.

After a long moment, Shu Li's guilty conscience finally got the better of him.

He admitted defeat.

Lowering the arm that supported his head, he rolled onto his side and pulled the blanket a little higher, concealing half his face.

Ace spoke as though nothing had happened.

"They're friends we can trust."

Shu Li froze for a moment.

After observing Ace throughout the day, he had noticed more and more similarities between him and the Elven King.

Without even realizing it, he had begun to equate the two in his mind.

"Then... we'll wait until they ask," Shu Li said.

If they were trustworthy friends, there was no reason to keep secrets from them.

Perhaps they could even expand their party of heroes.

The thought delighted Shu Li, and he relaxed every muscle in his body.

"It's almost dawn. We'd better get some sleep while we can!"

"Good night," Ace said softly.

"Good night..."

Shu Li closed his eyes.

That night, the Light Squad was the only adventuring party that managed to sleep peacefully.

The others remained restless, particularly the hundred-member party and the mercenary company, whose members were still shaken by what had happened.

"Captain, that magical beast..." Joseph began, then hesitated.

Nasak gripped his wine bottle and answered grimly.

"It's the same one."

The high-ranking magical beast that had attacked their campsite in the middle of the night, disturbed their sleep, and destroyed their tents.

Joseph raised a hand and pointed toward the Light Squad's campsite.

Nasak understood what he was implying.

"Keep your distance from them as much as possible," he warned.

Those adventurers might look like rookies, but they were not people to be trifled with.

The fact that they had killed only sixteen men the previous night without involving anyone else was already an extraordinary show of restraint.

Joseph wiped his face and asked curiously, "But what kind of magical beast is that? Why would something so powerful agree to become the contracted magical beast of a low-ranking mage?"

Nasak smacked him on the back of the head.

"Who cares what kind of beast it is? If you want to stay alive, don't ask questions!"

Joseph clutched the back of his head, baring his teeth in pain.

Of course he knew he shouldn't ask.

But that didn't make him any less curious!

"All right, everyone, get some sleep. We still have to travel tomorrow."

Nasak waved his hand, dismissing his companions back to their tents.

After the devastating blow the hunting party had suffered, the rest of their journey should be safe.

Nasak had led expeditions through the snowy mountains no fewer than ten times, and this was the journey on which they had suffered the fewest losses.

If that terrifying magical beast hadn't intervened tonight, every one of them would have ended up as a puppet of the necromancer.

Under the circumstances, he was more than willing to pretend the beast's attack on their camp two nights earlier had never happened.

The following morning, every adventurer overslept.

The second half of the night had passed peacefully. Protected by ice walls on all sides, the adventurers had finally relaxed enough to enjoy a collective lie-in.

But when it came time to break camp and depart, everyone was reluctant to abandon their ice-walled campsites.

They had paid good money for them, after all.

Leaving them behind seemed like such a waste.

Unfortunately, they couldn't take the walls with them, and no amount of regret would change that.

Of all the adventuring parties, the hundred-member party felt the loss most keenly.

They had spent a full thousand gold coins!

Shu Li's eyes darted thoughtfully.

Then he addressed the other adventuring parties.

"From now on, this place can serve as a safe stopping point for anyone traveling through the mountains. Of course, if you'd rather keep your campsites for yourselves, I can install a 'key' system to control who can enter."

"A key?"

Nasak's interest was immediately piqued.

"For just twenty gold coins, I can add a 'lock' to your campsite. That way, only your party will be able to use it. No one else will be able to get inside."

Smiling brightly, Shu Li held up two fingers.

Nasak stared at those slender fingers.

Twenty gold coins wasn't expensive.

It was just rather frustrating to be squeezed for more money when they were already in such a predicament.

But he genuinely couldn't bear to abandon something that had cost him a thousand gold coins.

Rather than let strangers enjoy it for free, he might as well preserve it for his own future use.

"Fine. Twenty gold coins it is."

He tossed over twenty gold coins.

Shu Li accepted the payment and took out his magic staff.

First, he installed a magical formation on the ice wall. Then he beckoned to one of the mages in Nasak's party.

Under the man's puzzled gaze, Shu Li taught him how to deactivate the formation and restore it afterward.

The mage was astonished.

He looked at Shu Li with an almost feverish intensity.

He was an Intermediate Magic Instructor, yet his understanding of magical formations was apparently inferior to that of a low-ranking mage!

The other adventuring parties were equally unwilling to abandon the campsites that had cost them five hundred gold coins each.

One after another, they paid Shu Li to install magical formations for them as well.

Shu Li happily collected their money and efficiently fitted every campsite with its own magical "door lock."

Once everything was finished, the adventuring parties set off with their minds at ease.

Angel gave Shu Li an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Not bad at all!

In just a little while, he'd earned another hundred gold coins!