Chapter 83 Stuck

Moreover, the mental coercion that the monster put everyone through didn't allow anyone to truly think. The fear was so heightened that even the most prepared and most chiselled individuals would have faltered upon feeling that much fear at the same time. It had the ability to heighten the fear that one felt and it took pleasure in seeing its targets afraid and in tears.

Even Kyouko felt that it was quite a sick monster.

The huge face began to close in towards Kyouko just as it had done with the S rank man with her.

Kyouko had witnessed the sight earlier so she knew what was coming for her. When you knew the magnitude of the threat but the timing was uncertain, that was when one felt the true horror. The waiting was the most difficult part and the monster especially tried to move as slowly as possible when it was about to devour its victim. It wanted the target to experience the fear in its most primitive and heightened form.

Kyouko was going through the same mind breaking fear. Her whole body trembled and her legs grew weak as if all the blood had been drained from them. Even then she was unable to fall. She was in a suspended animation where she was soaking in her sweat, her bowels about to let loose, her mind drowning in the worst fear imaginable, her body trembling from the horror of her situation and about to be devoured by a monster that took pleasure in seeing her terrified appearance.

As the monster was enjoying itself, Valerie and the others were busy running away from it. They were literally breaking their legs trying to escape. Just the aura of that monster had been enough to tell them about the ordeal that they had somehow managed to escape from.

They wanted to keep it that way and maintained their pace so as to increase their distance with that thing. Where they were now, they could still hear that piercing laughter of the monster that sent chills down their spine.

Alissa who was lying on Valerie's shoulder at this time had witnessed the entire scene of the monster devouring the S rank mage. On the other hand, Valerie had avoided it since she had been looking forward in order to determine the best path for their escape.

Valerie didn't know what kind of monster that was so she proceeded to ask Valerie about it.

"What was that monster, teacher?"

Valerie didn't expect her to ask such a question now. But she knew in her heart that Alissa was thinking about Zavier. She was worried about him lying there within the reach of the monster.

"Don't worry about such things for now. We will have the time to talk about that later. For now let's focus on escaping from here. Otherwise, the opportunity that Zavier created for us would be in vain."

Unknown to them all, there was another spectator who had witnessed the entire thing without any of them having noticed.

There was a masked man who had been hiding in one corner of the battlefield which had now turned into the slaughterhouse for the monster. He had been there from the beginning and had been keeping watch on the entire situation.

As soon as the huge face appeared, the masked man muttered to himself, "The mission is a failure this time."

The man let out a huge sigh as if burdened by a great ordeal and left at a fast pace. Just as nobody had noticed his arrival at the battlefield, none of them witnessed when he left.

Kyouko had her eyes closed as she trembled in fear while the huge face kept creeping closer and closer to her. Her very existence was one chomp and one gulp away from being extinguished. Even the great genius wasn't able to think of a solution in such a situation and could only fear for her life.

She was like a fish on a chopping board with a knife hanging over her head. She had no ability to defend herself whatsoever. She could only wait until the chef used his butcher's knife and slaughtered her.

The face finally revealed its abyssal mouth and opened it to the extreme very slowly so Kyouko could feel the death creeping closer to her. Kyouko could tell that the monster was watching her desperation and her fear with extreme happiness as if tormenting her was a source of joy for it.

As soon as the face chomped down at her, their came a bright light from her chest and the Yata no Kagami that had been hidden inside her body popped out to protect her from the giant mouth.

The light from the Yata no Kagami was able to repel the monster somehow. It screamed in pain and its expression twisted into something even more terrifying. Kyouko could feel that she had angered the monster by denying it the food that it had been looking forward to.

As soon as the monster was thrown off of her, she felt that her body was free from all types of oppression and the suppressing force had also disappeared. She could not only move about but could also mobilize her magic power.

Previously in her terror, she had completely forgotten her X rank defence when she had been within the grasp of the monster. Thankfully, Yata no Kagami was able to protect the owner without it being ordered. It sensed the danger on its own and was activated in response to it.

The sacred light had been able to hurt the monster but wasn't capable of finishing it off. Kyouko also understood that the Yata no Kagami was a defensive treasure and was not capable of bringing out a powerful offensive that was capable of taking it down.

Therefore, the only option that was available to her was to escape from that place, as fast as she could and as far as she could go.

She didn't want to come within a million miles of that monster ever again. Without thinking about any means of counter attack, she ran as fast as her feet could carry her. She made use of her magic skills to further enhance her speed through acceleration magic.

Within no time, Kyouko was nowhere to be seen.

The monster on the other hand seemed to be more incensed than before. It led out a loud shriek that was shrill enough to pierce through the eardrums of all those who managed to endure it.

Both Kyouko and the group of escaping girls heard the same scream and knew that the monster was about to go berserk.

Valerie didn't look back for fear of slowing down. She didn't want the monster to notice all of them. Same was the case with Kyouko who knew that if she was caught again, the monster would tear her from limb to limb.

Valerie could feel her heart pounding in fear and terror. She was afraid that the monster would turn towards them if he didn't find Kyouko. She wished for it to locate Kyouko instead of them. Calista was hoping for the same thing. Unlike Valerie she had been watching the situation progress with her own eyes. She was faster than Valerie so she could afford the slight delay in order to stay abreast of Valerie.

Sometimes the bad vibes are an indication or a warning of what was to come. Both Valerie and Calista had been unable to rest at ease ever since they had heard the scream of the monster.

As their luck would have it, the monster did show up and apparently it had chosen to go for the easy prey instead of the one that had hurt its teeth.

Calista felt that icy chill while she had been busy running for her life. The suppression came an instant later and she found herself unable to move despite trying her best. It was then that she knew what true terror was.

Calista couldn't make sense of anything any longer. A second ago, she had witnessed the monster get injured and wail in pain. At that time, it had been more than a mile away from them. It should have taken some time for it to catch up to them. That was what they had been counting on. Zavier had given them that lead just to avoid a situation like this.

Apparently, it was an oversight both on their and Zavier's part. The monster that he had unleashed was stronger than their wildest fantasies all put together. And now it had turned its fangs on them. It had taken only a blink to get to them who were already more than a mile away.

Distance was only a perfunctory word for a monster like this. There was no difference to it as long as they remained within its sight.

Even Valerie was dumbfounded at how game breaking the ability of the monster was. She had never anticipated that they would be the first ones to be caught and so easily at that too.

Dahila had already been afraid since she too like Alissa had seen it swallow the man whole. She was already freaking out but now that the monster was about to attack them, she truly lost her mind and mindlessly charged towards it to attack. She used her ice lances to puncture through the giant face that was sneering at them.

Of course it was useless. None of her lances made any difference. It was like attacking the air itself. They couldn't connect at all with their targets. Considering the number of lances that she had thrown at the monster of that size, at least one of them should have hit it. But the result was quite the opposite. The enemy remained unaffected and untouched.

For a body that size, it was quite flexible for it had managed to every lance there was.

The only result that Dahila received from the attack was that she had brought an even creepier grin on that giant monstrous face that had been crying until that moment. It appeared to be playing with its prey and Dahila's desperate but harmless attacks had made it especially happy and joyful.

It had already started to shift its attention towards Dahila. Valerie knew that once she was stared down by the monster, it would all be over for Dahila. She wouldn't be able to handle the fear at all and might even die from the shock of it.

She couldn't take the risk so she pushed her out of the way and attracted the attention of the monster on herself.

The calamity that was about to descend on Dahila, she had taken it upon herself. The suppression that was about to come missed Dahila and landed on her instead.

Valerie felt as if her limbs had been tied up and her legs had been stuck in stone with no way for her to pull them out. She was unable to move anything let alone her legs to escape, not even her eyelids were listening to her. She had forgotten to even blink after being stared down by the monster.

Valerie knew what was coming next.

The monster in front of her was gradually increasing in size which meant not that it was expanding its size further but that it was coming closer to her with each passing second. The monster had a stretchy smile on its face as if it found her actions amusing like that of the final struggle of a chicken that is due for slaughter. Who went first didn't make much of difference to the monster anyway.

Before it could even open its mouth properly, an arrow appeared right in front of its eyes with a whooshing sound. Of course, even Calista wasn't powerful enough to leave a dent on the monstrosity. The arrow missed but enraged the monster in the way that it had distracted it and had allowed its prey to escape, the prey being Valerie.