Desper was amazed by the teamwork.
Eland, Taros, and Silas didn't care about the M-1 or M-7 monsters and went straight to the O-3 lizardmen, which were the tallest, with two blades in place of their hands. They provoked one of them and went to the others; their goal was to draw their attention. On their way, the M-Rank monsters tried to stop them, but all of them were killed instantly.
After the ten O-3 monsters went after the Organ Cultivators, Bron and Arkan rushed into the fight.
The difference in numbers was huge, but the team depended on a good strategy: Arkan and Bron fought back-to-back, Silas used his flexible body to slide between the monsters, throwing swift lethal attacks with his daggers, Taros used his tower shield to protect himself from one side and smashed any monster coming from the other side with his mace, and Eland relied on the long range of his spear to hit and run, preventing the monsters from surrounding him.
At the same time, Zen moved around the battlefield on the Azure Horse, supporting all of them with his arrows, but his focus was mainly on helping Arkan and Bron since they were the weakest.
Desper exhaled a deep breath. He felt as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water on his head.
Although during his life in the village he had been proud that he was the one killing most of the monsters, a single day in a random mission was enough to break his ego.
"No wonder many cultivators die every day," he mumbled, feeling a little nervous because he knew that one day he would be in the center of such a battle.
In the next moment, Desper's eyes widened. He saw that twelve monsters had separated from the group surrounding Bron and Arkan and were running in his direction.
He was startled and confused, but he wasn't that worried. He didn't hesitate to turn the horse to run; there was no way for these monsters to match the Crimson Horse's speed. However…
Sohohohoooh…
"WHA—!"
He was shocked as the Red Horse suddenly reared up.
Desper hadn't expected it, and he was still new to riding the horse, so he fell to the ground.
He quickly got up and tried to get on the horse, but it moved violently and ran away.
"What is going on?!!!!!!"
He looked behind. His heart skipped a beat when he saw that the monsters were coming at him fast. He unsheathed his swords and was stunned in place.
'What should I do?!' he panicked in his mind.
Five of the twelve monsters were slightly taller and faster than the others, with one hand morphed into a sword, which meant they were M-7 monsters. The other seven had normal hands, as they were M-1 monsters.
Desper couldn't face them with his Third Stage of Muscle Cultivation. At the same time, he couldn't use his Bloodline to fight or escape, or he would be too suspicious.
'What should I do?!'
He saw the five M-7 monsters outrunning the others, and in a few seconds, they would reach him, so he made up his mind to run away and think of an excuse later.
Sooooooosh…..
Suddenly, an arrow whistled through the air.
Srrrrrrrrrrrr…..
One of the five M-7 monsters shrieked after the arrow pierced its arm.
'Zen!' Desper's face lit up as he saw the man on the Azure Horse shooting many arrows.
Zen ignored the seven M-1 monsters and focused on the five in the front. His arrows were fast and fierce as they penetrated the neck of another one, killing it instantly. Another arrow sank into another bladed one's chest.
He kept releasing more and more arrows. Unfortunately, he was a bit far, his horse was moving, and his targets were moving fast as well, so he missed most of them. Only another arrow hit the leg of the monster with an arrow impaled its arm. Despite that, the monster kept running toward Desper, but it was much slower.
"ZEN!" suddenly Arkan yelled.
Without Zen's help, the pressure on them increased significantly.
Zen frowned. He was between the options of leaving Desper to die or leaving his old teammates to die.
"Tsk." In the end, he chose to help Arkan and Bron.
"Wait! No!" Desper panicked again.
His situation went from bad to worse. If he had run away, he could have just said he used the horse to escape. He couldn't say that anymore, since Zen had already seen him off the horse.
The two unharmed M-7 lizardmen were too close. He had no choice, but to activate his clan's ability and run, but suddenly, he stopped as he thought of something.
'This will be too risky,' he muttered in his thoughts, biting his lips.
He glanced at his teammates and made sure that every one of them was busy and not looking at him. Only Zen peeked at him every three to four seconds.
On the moment Zen looked away, Desper stirred the power in his stomach, letting it flood his body, and rushed at the monsters, his eyes filled with green veins.
The lizardmen hissed and swung their bladed arms at him.
Desper raised his swords to deflect their attacks. He was in the Third Stage of Muscle Cultivation, but after the activation of his Svikari Bloodline, he had the strength of a Muscle Cultivator in the Eighth Stage. Strength wasn't his problem in this fight, but time.
After blocking their blades, he lunged in the gap between them and charged at the injured lizardman that Zen's arrow had penetrated in its arm and one of its legs.
The monster attacked him with the blade of his unharmed arm. Desper parried it with his left sword and swung his right sword horizontally at its neck, beheading the monster.
He didn't have time to celebrate his first kill of an M-Rank monster and rushed toward the other seven M-1 monsters in the back.
While running, he placed one of the swords in front of his face, blocking Zen's view from seeing the green veins in his eyes.
'I need to end it fast,' Desper said inwardly.
When he reached the seven monsters, he struck the two in the middle with both of his swords. They tried to attack as well; however, these monsters were much weaker than Desper and didn't even have blades like the others to parry.
Desper's swords sliced easily through the monsters' bodies and killed two of them instantly, then he rushed through the gap he had just created.
Arghhhhh…..
Desper groaned as he felt sharp claws cutting his back.
Seven monsters were still many to pass between them unharmed. Luckily, these monsters didn't have blades and didn't inflict deep wounds.
He could have avoided these wounds by turning around them, but he didn't want to waste time on that.
After Desper finally passed all the monsters, he turned his body to face them, giving his back to the team. He did all of that so they couldn't see his eyes.
Desper took a swift backstep to avoid the monsters' attacks, then he swept his swords and killed another two of them. the adrenaline rush made him forget the pain of his wounds.
He wanted to kill more of them, but unfortunately, the two bladed monsters caught up with him and arced their blades at him. He blocked them, but the remaining three M-1 monsters attacked him at the same time.
Arghhhh..
Desper clenched his teeth in pain. While pulling his swords back, he stretched his arms wide, so his swords slaughtered the necks of two M-1 monsters.
He took another step back to avoid the striking blades and used one of his swords as a spear, thrusting it into the neck of the last M-1 monster.
'I must end it fast!' he screamed in his mind as he heard the fighting noise behind him decreasing.
His heart was beating rapidly, and more blood poured out of his wounds. His eyes were opened wide, moving between the last two lizardmen.
The monsters whipped their blades at him. Desper lifted his swords and fended them off, then he shifted his body and dashed to the right, isolating one of them.
The monster repelled one of Desper's swords, but he had already expected that and thrust with the other.
The monster tried to block it with its hand, but the sword pierced through the hand and went into its eye.
Desper couldn't catch his breath as the last lizardman attacked. Desper parried with the first sword, but unfortunately, he didn't have time to pull the second. The monster lashed out its clawed hand at his neck.
Desper retreated at the last second, but the claws still left a deep wound on his shoulder. By that time, he could retrieve his second sword and struck the monster's neck.
"Haaaa…. Hoooo…. Haaaa…. Hoooo…"
Desper's breath was heavy. His clothes were stained with the monster's blood and his own blood. He felt severe pain from wounds on his back, chest, and shoulder, but the last was the worst.
He deactivated his Bloodline and looked behind. He found that Eland and Silas had already killed the O-3 monsters around them together with many other weaker ones, and went to help the others.
'I must hurry'
Desper pushed himself to walk, but suddenly…
"Ahhhhh…"
He roared in pain and fell to the ground as a monster's maw snapped on his foot.
Desper looked over and found that it was the M-1 monster that he had stabbed in its neck and thought was dead.
"JUST DIEEEE…."
Desper impaled his sword into the monster's skull, surely killing it this time.
He looked behind and found that Eland was looking in his direction, his face filled with shock and slight relief.
"That is a big problem," Desper muttered under his breath.