The vice leaders started to lead everyone after him. Ibra knew going forward wasn't an option right now. The only way to survive this was by running back, going towards the direction they all came from.
"Damn! This way is also blocked!" but just as the team ran for a few minutes, they noticed a distant disturbance in the trees up there.
"Let's go this way, there isn't a single monster there," Lang pointed in panic towards a direction, where trees stood tall and not shaking or falling like it was the end of the world.
"Don't slack! Keep running! And look for a safe place to hide!" Sara's shout came as the team started to run in a direction away from where they came from or they were going towards before.
"Please, hang in there for a little longer," as the path they got forced to follow took them away from William's place, Berry couldn't help but turn her head towards William's direction, and mutter these words in deep worry and fear.
She felt before saving William was a piece of cake. Yet as she was totally inexperienced about the true terror of the deep parts of the forest. She took it as a safe trip inside her clan or something, but she was totally wrong.
The entire situation turned ugly, and she got no control at all on the dangerously increasing situation here.
Instead of going back there and saving William in a heroic way like she imagined, they were now running as fast as they could, with their lives hanging by a thin thread.
None of them got any control over the direction they were running at right now. Every now and then, the team would end up with their path blocked by new monsters. Even their running path wasn't determined by them, but by the direction void of any monsters.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"Are we going to die?!!"
"Please, I just wanted to get stronger, kill dark spirit masters, not to fall into the hands of monsters!"
"If we have no way out from here, please, someone please kill me! I don't want to get eaten by any monster."
"Me too!"
"Shut the hell up! Tsk! Why is that damn bastard missing when we need him the most?!" Ibra roared like a hurt beast, shaking his head in anger. If there were few monsters out there, then even if they were all at gold grade, he was sure he'd be able to lead everyone away.
But they were running for almost the entire night from a tsunami of monsters. Even he lost track of their current destination or location!
They changed their path many times to be tracked by anyone! And he didn't know if they were close or far from William, far or close from the academy even!
"There are flashes of light! There must be spirit masters there fighting!"
"Thanks god! I'm so close to falling dead out of running!"
"Please, please let them be good spirit masters, not some dark twisted ones, please god!"
Ibra, the silver members, and the five vice leaders exchanged silent gazes. They got no say in this, as this was the path they got forced towards by the swarm of monsters chasing after them relentlessly all the night.
What others mentioned about them being part of the dark spirit masters wasn't just their least troubles.
What really bothered all of them was the value of joining such a group of spirit masters in their current bad situation.
After all, what would a small group of spirit masters do against such a deadly monster tide?
In their eyes, there was no hope for them to survive if things kept going this way.
As these strong and more experienced members had such a headache, the team got closer from the location of all these shining lights.
The closer they were from there, the more astonished they became.
"This..."
"What the heck is that?!!"
As the team got closer from the place of lights, they couldn't help but get shocked.
Instead of the spirit masters they thought they'd find fighting against monsters, they saw spirit masters standing on high hills, looking like manmade pillars or something.
First the initial number they thought to find was wrong, totally wrong! The best estimate anyone had in their mind was just a team of twenty spirit masters.
But what they saw right now wasn't anything close from that! They spotted hundreds of spirit masters, standing on top of these hills, surrounding a central area of close to half a kilometre square, with bright burning fire torches placed inside this vacant space of land.
These torches were the source of the lights they spotted from far. And that added more to their puzzlement.
"Go this way!" and when everyone felt more confused by what was going on out there, a loud and thundering shout came before a thick pillar of lightning fell from the sky all of sudden, "follow the lightning, don't go into the hunting ground!"
"...!"
*Rumble!*
"Just follow the damn lightning! It's not that hard to do so!"
*Rumble!*
After three successive lightning strikes, the entire team got jolted awake.
"Let's go there!"
"Follow the lightning! Don't go in there!"
"Just follow us!"
Ibra and the vice leaders showed their quality at this stressful moment. They led everyone into an arched path, heading away from the open place that was situated between the circle of hills.
They couldn't tell what was going on right here, but they realised going towards the area that was filled with torches would be quite disastrous for them.
"Good lads," the one who spoke earlier said as if he admired their fast response here. Ibra and others tried to see where that dude was but couldn't until they reached where the lightning kept striking before.
There they found some sort of a bubble waiting for them. "It's a protective shield!" many exclaimed in surprise.
*Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*