A mage in the making: Unlocking my mage system-Chapter 43: A horde of beasts

Upon turning around, Chuck’s gaze was met with countless numbers of massive boulders that were oddly similar with the features of the immortal colossus that he and his group managed to defeat using their team effort. He received multiple system prompts, but his attention couldn’t be focused on the translucent screen because of the current predicament he faced.

"Why the fuck are you still standing there? We need to find a place to hide!" Chuck yelled with fright.

The rest of the group turned their heads to the boulders that seemingly came out of nowhere. With second thoughts, they started moving backwards with a slow and precise motion, trying not to rile the beasts up.

"We need to be silent," Kaiden said as she dismissed the electrical energy sparkling around her arms, trying to cause less noise, "we definitely do not want these beasts to emerge from their shells."

"But where do we even go? We’re in the middle of a freaking forest," Lance said in a panicked tone.

"It took the five of us to kill just one of these things. Fighting multiple of these beasts will definitely be a death sentence."

There were about thirty beasts in total still covered in their shells. If the beasts were to emerge and attack the cohort directly, they weren’t going to survive.

"Let’s just back up slowly. There should be a place that we can hide out somewhere around," Chuck said, almost whispering.

They continued their slow and steady advancement, moving backwards while keeping their eyes on the foreboding figures that stood with a menacing stance. Xin kept up with the group, moving alongside Lance. She suddenly felt a small vibration underneath her feet. She paused, lowered her head and stared down at the ground. The vibrations felt even more intense with her body no longer moving, she raised her head as she stared forward at the large boulders.

"Guys, I think we should stop moving slowly," Xin spoke up with a slight shake in her voice.

"I think we need to run!"

At that moment, one of the boulders shot up forcefully as it unveiled its true form midair. The beast landed on the ground with its full body now exposed, it caused the ground to quake, causing the cohort to stumble off balance. The intense vibration from the gargantuan caused a reaction to the other beasts. One after the other, they all started to energy from their shells as they stood with a menacing glare. The group stood still as they watched the terrifying scene unfold before them. No matter how much they wanted to run, their bodies weren’t listening to them.

*Growl!!!*

A loud and deafening growl came out from the nearest beast, it began moving towards the group, each step was met with an intensive vibration on the ground. This advancement caused their survival instinct to kick in as the cohort ran towards the opposite direction with speed.

"Run," Erik yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Run!!"

"Run!!!"

The rest of the group didn’t need to be told twice as they bolted away from the beasts with speed. The horde of immortal colossus didn’t just stand there watching the group escape — they kicked off with an unusual speed pertaining to their size, as they chased them with speed.

"What the hell? How are these enormous creatures able to move with such speed? Shouldn’t they be slow?" Lance yelled as he bolted. Electrical sparks formed across his body, providing him with more speed as he ran across the forest.

"If they were slow, then they wouldn’t be worthy of being called an evolved beast," Kaiden replied.

She turned around to see the beast closing the distance between them, she could also feel the vibrations and quakes on the ground intensifying.

"Guys we need to move faster. Use whatever means you can, just increase your pace."

The group nodded in accordance as they began using their magical affinities. Their bodies began to glow red hot as fire began to form on their beings. Hot gaseous flames emitted from their being, it was directed beneath them as the force of the explosive flames recoiled their bodies upwards. Chuck used his large flaming wings to boost himself upwards, giving him more speed as he tried to evade the incoming beasts. His god eyes were automatically deactivated due to the numerous distractions he was receiving.

Unfortunately for him, the speed he tried to attain wasn’t enough as he saw a large claw heading towards him from his side eye. The sharp long claw glinted under the reflection of Chuck’s golden wings as they traveled with speed. Chuck reacted just in time, he swerved to the side as the blade skimmed through him, grazing his wings. It sliced past a small fraction of his left wing, going through the scorching heat easily.

"Shit!"

"We need to move faster!" Chuck said as he tried to flap even faster and harder.

"It seems like they are getting faster by the second! We need to split up," Kaiden yelled. Her whole body was covered in layers of flames as she propelled herself forward.

"What?" Xin spoke up, she could see the beasts converging to their position, slowly circulating around them. It proved that the beasts had a bit of intelligence.

"It’s the only way to divide the attention of the beasts. If we stay together, they’re going to get us!" Kaiden explained.

"Then let’s do it!," Erik affirmed.

The group slowly began diverging, distancing themselves against each other. Chuck flew to the left, his flight was a bit unstable due to the small chunk of his wings missing. He noticed Kaiden also taking the same direction, they both flew further and further away from the rest of the group, leaving Erik and the twins to head off in another direction.

The horde of beasts stopped for a second, causing a bit of relief over the intense vibrations. They all looked at the group as they distanced themselves away from each other. Some of the beast regained composure as they began moving again, chasing after their potential food, while a small number of the gargantuans stayed still, staring at the divided group in confusion.

Chuck was flying alongside Kaiden, and he could see a significant amount of beasts still on their tail. They moved with speed trying to evade the beast before they got any closer.

"We have to find a place to lay low, I can feel my mama running low," Kaiden said in a panicked tone.

"Let’s just try to stay alive," Chuck replied.

They blasted for hundreds of metres with the beasts still on their tail, they occasionally had to swerve or dodge to avoid close strikes from the beast, they could already feel the strain on their bodies from the flight.

Chuck began to notice that the wet, muddy ground was beginning to fade away as the ground was now covered in pebbles. Looking ahead, he could see a large hill that could’ve been easily mistaken for a mountain. Chuck squinted his eyes, and he could see a dark small slit atop the hill.

His nerves spiked up as a sense of relief overcame his strained body.

"Is... is that a cave?"