Chapter 69 68 - The Big Four

[Heroic Rank Beast]

Species: Greater Cyclops

Status: Healthy

Disposition: Agressive

A large beast that is known to have a hunger for human flesh. Despite the massive eye, they depend on their sense of smell, and can pick up the scent of a human from a kilometer away.

[clear]

Reading the description of the beast, Milo knew he and his friends stood no chance of defeating it, even the members of his team during the in field experience found troubles when dealing with a Unique rank rank beast. The cyclops lumbering towards them was of the heroic rank and was also humanoid meaning it would have a higher level of intelligence than normal heroic ranked monsters.

The cyclops was about a block away and as it got closer, Milo could smell it coming, it smelled like rotting flesh. When peeking out he could see blood on the beast's mouth, meaning it had already found a group of people somewhere else. But was probably still hungry and would most likely sniff out the group hiding in the building they were in.

While this was all happening, the sirens continued to blare and the message about gatecrashers arriving soon was still on a loop, as if it were mocking the group that the gatecrashers would get there too late to save them.

Milo could then hear screams and peeked out to see the cyclops reaching into another building and pulling people out before lifting them up to its mouth and chomping down. The beast was savage as it killed and ate the people attempting to hide inside the building only a block from where he was hiding. He could only crouch down and pray that the beast wouldn't find them next.

After the screaming stopped, the beast continued on getting closer to where Milo and his friends were hiding.

"Where the hell are the gatecrashers, they should be here by now," he thought.

A few seconds later, the enormous leg of the creature could be seen coming into view outside the windows on the front of the building. After stepping in front of where they were hiding, the Cyclops began to kneel down. Once down low enough, it dipped its head down and gazed into the building.

Seeing the massive eye stare at all of them sent the group over the edge, a woman hiding with them screamed. As soon as she screamed a twisted smile appeared on the face of the monster looking in at them as if it knew it had found another meal and there was no way that its food would be escaping it.

The cyclops then reached its massive arm out, smashing the barricade at the front in the process. Splinters and broken glass rained down on the group hiding inside as they all scurried to try and avoid the beast's grasp. Its grotesque hand touched around trying to find it prey, after failing to find its food, the beast pulled its arm out and peaked its head back down to peek at its prey once more.

The beast reached its hand into the building again, this time it found its target. It grabbed a woman and lifted her with ease, before pulling her out of the front of the window. Seeing this Milo did something he knew he'd regret, running out into the street. He then formed an ice spear and threw it forward, where it lodged itself deep in the eye of the massive beast.

The beast roared in pain and threw both hands to its face and dropped to one knee, dropping the woman in the process, who collected herself quickly and ran back into the building. After seeing her make it back inside the building safely, Milo turned to see the beast shake off its pain before roaring again in anger. While its sense of sight was now useless, it depended mostly on its sense of smell.

Sniffing the air, it could sense Milo a few meters away standing in the street. It turned towards him, and roared again, slamming its club into the building next to the one where the civilians and Milo's friends were hiding, smashing the entryway to pieces and throwing rubble everywhere. It then got back to its feet facing the direction Milo was standing.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Milo said to himself.

The beast then took a step shaking the street, seeing it start to move, Milo turned and ran. After turning a corner, he could still feel the rumbling of the beast lumbering after him. He felt relieved that his friends would now be safe from the man-eating monster, but he would now have to find a way to either kill or escape it himself.

As he ran, he looked around to see if he could find somewhere to hide, but most of the buildings were newly renovated with security doors that would close over the front of the entrances and front windows to prevent beasts from getting inside, which in turn blocked him from getting in as well. Eventually he turned down another street to find himself cornered.

Turning around, the cyclops paused as its target was now stuck with nowhere else to run. It began to slowly walk forward, licking its huge lips and smiling grotesquely. Without having anywhere else to run, Milo began to summon ice spears behind him, as many as he could muster. Eventually there were around 12 ice spears spinning behind him, making a loud whirring sound as they rotated faster and faster.

As he stared the beast down, the beast suddenly sniffed the air and looked to the top of the building behind Milo. Milo tilted his head in confusion, as all of a sudden, a massive spike of earth shot up from behind the beast, piercing it through the chest and killing it. Milo blinked in surprise, before a man wearing enchanted equipment landed on the ground in front of him.

"Are you okay?" The man asked, "I'm a gatecrasher from the Olympus Guild tasked with closing off the rift."

Hearing the name of the guild that came to close off the rift, Milo was surprised. The Olympus guild was considered one of the big four. The big four were the four strongest guilds found throughout the world, and the guildmasters of each were considered to be the strongest people in the world, outside of the GAA president.

Milo had forgotten that the Olympus Guild headquarters was located in Miami. After a few more moments, the purple aura in the sky started to dissipate. Milo and the man who introduced himself as Marcus made their way back to the building where his friends and the group of people were hiding. Marcus had the earth ability and was a rank B adventurer, because it was a rift, he explained that the guild didn't send their main strike force. When arriving, they helped everyone out of the building and Marcus checked everyone's conditions, before noticing the dead beasts at the front of the building.

He was confused, as no other guild members had come through this street yet.

"Did you see who killed these beasts?" he asked the group of survivors.

A man stepped forward and explained that Chris, Mark, and Milo had killed the beasts, while Zach helped the survivors to take cover, and also about Milo hurting and drawing away the cyclops that Marcus had killed earlier.

Marcus told the kids well done, and was surprised when he learned that they were still students at the Awakened Academy. He was surprised as most students would have been too afraid to act in a life or death situation.

After they were cleared to leave, and treated for the scrapes and bruises they had accumulated, Milo and his friends made their way back to where they were living for their little vacation to pack their things.

"Well that was certainly an unexpected way to end our vacation," Chris said.

After finishing up packing, Milo and company made their way back to the GAA building where they teleported back to the Acropolis and made their way back to the academy. After getting back to their room, Milo sprawled out on his bed and went to bed. As he dozed off he was happy that he had a few more cores to absorb, but at the same time was nervous. Final Exams were only a few weeks away, and his first year at the academy would be coming to an end.