Freddy spotted a creature fighting a gorel worker. The size difference between the two monsters was stark, with the small, dog-sized gorel looking minuscule compared to the massive, nearly horse-sized freaky camel monster—a nebber.
The strange being had a stubby, bulky body akin to a bear's, but its neck was elongated. Compared to a camel, which had a stiff neck, the neck of the nebber was akin to that of a snake, coiling and shifting side to side as it confronted the small gorel in mortal combat. Its head was unusual, too, with flat, goofy features looking almost as if they were squished against a circular glass container. Its flabby mouth drooled with moderately venomous spit.
Freddy had read about nebbers and knew exactly which realm they had arrived from. It was one of the two elite difficulty realms accessible through the gorel realm.
What stood out the most with the freaky monster wasn't its size or unusual looks—it was its surprising lack of power.
Although the gorel worker looked like an angry lap dog barking away at the massive creature, it came out on top in the confrontation. The gorel's primitive Tectonic Strikes were breaking the nebber's legs with ease, and once it was downed, the gorel proceeded to crush the creature's skull like a watermelon.
Dumb as they might have been, gorels were no joke when paired against an equally stupid enemy.
Ignoring the sight before him, Freddy gritted his teeth and ran past the dead nebber, rushing toward the realm he was trying to escape into.
That a nebber had made it this far out wasn't good news. Before long, his suspicions were confirmed.
At first, it was a small group, but before long, such a thick mass of nebbers appeared that it was difficult to make progress.
Freddy pushed past them, smashing them out of his way as he kept progressing while anxiously looking around. The elite realm they were heading into was thoroughly crowded by these beings, but they weren't the reason why it was considered an elite difficulty realm.
After pushing past the mass of bodies for a while, he finally came across the main reason for that classification.
Every single hair on Freddy's body stood on end as he swiftly leaped behind a tree, trying to calm his beating heart as it threatened to burst out of his chest.
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the forest, and with a screech, another monster rushed forth, shredding several gorels with its long, thin arms.
A giant creature stood on two legs. Its whole body was covered in pitch black, thin muscles, and its head looked like a goat skull. Its empty eye sockets glowed neon green with the sickening light of miasma flowing out of them.
Its two horns curled behind its back. The horrifying creature produced deep clicking noises as it searched for more prey.
It was a capragorn.
If it came to a fight, Freddy was... well, confident wasn't the right word, but winning was possible. But it was too risky. Its claws weren't as intimidating as those of the royal guard gorel, but they dripped with a gleaming liquid, and any drops that fell to the ground sizzled with the sound of acidic burning. One good slash across Freddy's bare, unprotected chest might very well be enough to take him out.
Coupled with the dazed, barely conscious Sophia, whom he held over his left shoulder, trying to tackle the beast was a stupid idea.
Freddy waited for several suffocating breaths, and before long, the creature had wandered away in a different direction. He peeked around the tree to check where it had gone and saw it walk past a small group of nebbers, completely ignoring the dumb beasts.
The scariest thing about capragorns was that they were no mindless creatures searching for food. They didn't even need food to live. The reason why the realm was flooded by the nebbers was due to the capragorns, who intentionally ignored the dumb beasts to use them as bait to lure prey into their realm. Those creatures were much like the cultists who were using gorels as bait.
Naturally, Freddy wasn't thrilled to be heading into the natural habitat of such monsters. But it was their best choice.
Such a dangerous realm was the least likely to be heavily guarded by the cultists.
He pushed his way forward, continuously moving past the endless stream of monsters. At one point, he became genuinely concerned about his odds of even making it to his destination.
Whatever the hell that artifact had done seemed to have a magnetic effect on the monsters.
Sophia had estimated that it would take as long as three months for this realm to reach a critical mass of monsters, resulting in a stampede break into Nova York.
But with these conditions?
Freddy wouldn't be surprised if they had already reached that goal.
He swung his fist, breaking a nebber's neck and pushing its body aside as he leaped forward. At this point, he had to use Hydraulic Flex to keep jumping over the stampede of beasts. Soon enough, he couldn't even land anymore.
He grabbed a thick branch with his free hand, holding the dagger between his teeth and Sophia over his shoulder. The woman heaved, sounding like she was about to puke, but Freddy didn't have the time to care.
While the thought of a shirtless man carrying a woman and swinging from one tree to another conjured thoughts of Tarzan, the reality of Freddy's improvised transportation method was far less glamorous.
He climbed up on a thick branch and jumped from one tree to another using Hydraulic Flex. Rather than land with the grace of a ninja or grab onto a hanging vine, he slammed stomach-first into a thick branch, accidentally breaking Sophia's legs and knocking the air out of his chest. The woman screamed, hurriedly burning a spark to fix her legs, and Freddy groaned as a nebber extended its long head and bit his calf, trying to pull him down to the ground.
With supernatural strength, aided by a strong sense of urgency, Freddy pulled himself, Sophia, and the damn nebber, which refused to let go of his leg, up into the tree. As soon as he could release his grip on the branch, he grabbed the monster's head and crushed it.
As yet another powerful tremor echoed through the realm as whatever was controlling the bloody skeleton slaughtered another mass of monsters, the wound on Freddy's leg vanished as if it had never been there.
He continued on his way, trying to ensure he didn't trip and fall into the stampede below.
The realm was quite close, and Freddy could already see the passage. There were no more monsters exiting, and for a long moment, he held the hope that all the monsters had already evacuated it, which would make his life far more straightforward.
"Please..." Sophia begged. "No more—hurgh." She heaved. "No more trees."
Freddy involuntarily chuckled, feeling a slight sense of relief. "Sure thing." He dropped to the ground below, which had already thinned considerably. A few nebbers tried assaulting him, but thankfully, there were no capragorns in sight. He swiftly dispatched the assailants and made his way forth.
He gulped.
There was a small clearing between the forested area and the open passage. Nobody was standing anywhere near the open portal, but that by no means meant that it wasn't being watched.
With a thundering screech, the bloody skeleton swung its massive arm again, and Freddy felt a pulse of soothing lifesteal ineffectually course through his body, having nothing to heal or fix. But it did clear his mind slightly.
Blood Sacrifice hadn't gone as planned, but it had still caused a massive distraction. In fact, given that it seemed to be attracting every damn monster in the surrounding area, Freddy wouldn't be surprised if the cultists had gone to try and take it out, seeing as it might very well wholly ruin their plan.
"But the backlash—" the man was about to protest, but—
"Do as I say!" she screamed, leaping away from the pesky royal guard that was still after her. "Hurry!" she commanded.
Peter growled, rushing over to the bulky form of Damian and grabbing the man by the arm. The two men lifted off the ground, and Peter's skin instantly grew red as his blood pressure spiked tremendously. The more weight he tried levitating off the ground, the greater the stress it exerted on his body. The bulky form of Damian was almost too much to handle, but with their whole agenda on the line, he had no choice but to risk it.
Rushing as fast as possible, Peter brought the man over the skeleton's crowned skull and dropped him down.
Almost instantly, the fierce form of the skeletal giant looked up, staring at the falling man with its sinister crimson eyes.
Damian grinned despite himself, cocking his arm back as he charged a Tectonic Strike and activated his talent.
His fist landed just above the skeleton's upper row of teeth, sending a powerful burst of force through its massive skull. The blood coating the creature splashed in every direction, making the crimson skeleton turn white briefly before more blood oozed through its bones.
No more than a thin crack remained from his strike.
"Oh boy," Damian called as the skeleton opened its mouth and slammed it shut on his body. He braced himself against its teeth, barely holding it back from chewing him into a mass of pulp.
"I'm gonna—ugh! I'm gonna need some help!" he shouted, and before long, a stream of projectiles flew at the skeleton's head, slamming its neck and distracting it long enough for Damian to push himself out of its mouth and jump down.
Peter caught him mid-fall, slowing him down just enough to prevent fall damage, and even that much was almost enough to make the man faint.
The skeletal monster screeched madly, continuing its onslaught unimpeded.
Its power was truly remarkable. It was slow, but its destructive capabilities and sheer endurance made it capable of competing with the weakest four-star-class monsters.
Illya, the only three-star present, wasn't nearly powerful enough to quickly dispatch the creature.
What proceeded was a grueling fight that lasted for hours. Numerous beasts fell at the crimson skeleton's bony arms, and at least a dozen cultists lost their lives trying to take it down.
By the end, the massive stampede of monsters had been drastically thinned down. Hills of gored flesh and rivers of blood formed beneath the grinning skeleton's feet. As its body finally started to crumble under the unending assault, it seemed to smile at them, grinning gleefully at the carnage as if to say, "My job is done."
Illya watched the giant crumble into inert pieces with an infuriated frown. Her scorpion tail was still.
Her brethren stood to the side, most panting heavily and trying to stay on their feet after the grueling battle.
By all means, this whole expedition was turning into an utter failure. Master had shared nothing about his side of the plan, keeping it a secret even from Illya. She prayed to Holy Prosperity that his machinations weren't compromised.
Peter landed beside her, keeping his nose plugged with one hand to stave off the continuous stream of blood pouring down it. His eyes appeared bloodshot, and his arms were trembling.
Yet he still spoke with all the dignity of a high-rank cult member. "We are recovering the strange artifact," he said. "Damian should arrive with it in a few moments."
She didn't respond to the news.
A few minutes later, the bulky man, his robes torn and bathed in blood, ran over while carrying a massive limb like a log over his back. "I got it!" he said as he approached and threw the object on the ground.
Illya observed it, cocking her head. She briefly entered the Netherecho to take a closer look at it.
What could only be described as a boiling mass of crimson screams assaulted her senses. A storm of aura roiled around the horrifying object, its power incomparable to anything Illya had ever witnessed firsthand.
Her projection was forcefully thrown out of the Netherecho, and she returned to reality with a start, taking a few involuntary steps back before regaining her composure.
Peter's eyes raised slightly. "That powerful?" he asked, his brows twisting into a scowl.
Illya gulped and nodded. "Indeed. This is a truly bizarre artifact. I have never witnessed anything like it."
"Monsters seem to be attracted to it," Damian said, crouching as he took a closer look at the dried limb. "Do you think we could use it as bait to populate the realm?" he asked Illya.
"Most definitely," she confirmed. "However, I'm not certain that's the right move."
The two men hummed.
"Indeed," Peter said, sighing. "Perhaps it's a bit too attractive. I don't see a way to redirect the flow of monsters outside the realm once they all bundle around this thing like flies around a pile of cow dung."
She nodded, keeping her eyes on the sinister object. "I do wonder what this is..." she mused. "Whatever it had belonged to must have been unimaginably powerful."
"Yeah..." Peter nodded. "Above five stars for sure."
Most of the cultists in earshot swallowed, including Illya. The thought of a power above five stars was... simply unimaginable.
But it did exist.
"Illya," Peter called. "What are your orders?"
She thought for a moment, glancing at the artifact, the crimson sky, and the people around her. "Gather the bodies, scavenge the rings," she said. "We'll take some time to recover, then go from there. The barrier gives us ample time to act. We're out of live bait, but there is a mountain of flesh here. That will be enough to attract plenty of scavengers."
"And what about the arm?" Peter asked.
She looked at the limb carefully before making a decision.
"We'll try to seal it."