At a wide area,on an open field surrounded by trees,and filled to the brim,with jagged uneven stones were the party of Darian,Galahad,and Benjamin who had been lured ,and ambushed by an entire pack of red murder raptors.
Darian,and co were not too concerned with the idea of losing their lives,after all they were very powerful mages,and warriors of their own right,each capable of standing toe to toe,and winning against an adolescent dragon provided they were on an even playing field,and it's intelligence was not equivalent to that of a mages.
But even if that was the case with the weapons possessed by both Benjamin,and Galahad, such a tussel would likely result in their survival,either by retreating or a direct win for the young lads.
Darian was the only one seemingly guaranteed a painful death.
Murder raptors had the physical flexibility of a kangaroo,and cheetah combined being capable of standing on their own two feet for minutes on end without collapsing,but they rarely did so preferring to run on all fours.
Appearance wise these creatures had red armor like scale plating,their faces consisted of mandibles,sharp teeth,and a horn at the centre of their foreheads that had similarities to sharp blades in appearance,each horns tip was laced with natural poison.
Their arms were long,and their forearms were like Gauntlets with a special hole that allowed them the ability to release a long sharp curved blade,capable of cutting through diamonds one on each forearm.
Overall many legends still described them as oversized lizards.
Using their natural advantages this species fighting style revolved around running on all fours with extreme speed,ramming their heads at their opponents,or standing up for a few moments to engage in a dual of blades, even jumping at their opponent head on with both blades acting like a skewer was an option.
So ofcourse combined with its speed,and its glistening red armor,in the outside world this beast group had gained quite the infamous reputation.
Their love of shiny things led them to decimate caravans,and enter villages in numbers killing all in sight.
Currently Galahad wore a dark armor with a red cloak,and went about the dispensing of his enemies,wielding two black daggers as he dogged,and gutted his foes targeting the path of least resistance.
Benjamin wore white armor with gold highlights,and wielded a xiphos styled sword its blade having a golden glow allowing him to slice through these creatures defenses like butter.
Darian who stood a significant distance behind the two raised his hand high,then over 10 metres in the air a brown box appeared levitating, and spining mid air it mechanically unwound itself releasing a staff from its contraption causing the staff to fall towards Darians hand in a horizontal fashion.
The box then vanished back into the void,as Darian smirked as he caught the staff with one hand,horizontally holding it up,his grip placed at the middle of the staffs main body.
This staff was a gift from Claus,a transformation type weapon meant to be a multipurpose tool,It was a dark sceptre its length reached near Darians shoulders having a blue gem embedded at its head.
This made sense after all Darian was not just a sword wielding young lord,but a trained mage.
Before Galahad, and Benjamin could be overwhelmed,Darian caused an array to appear beneath the murder raptor groups feet its effects changing the structure of the ground transforming it into a sink hole.
He then combined a second spell to it raising spiked Earth crucifying his opponents.
During this tense situation Darian summoned,and Controled a fireball of condensed Mana,it spun on its axis generating sparks,before being shot out like lightning from the clouds easily tearing through a horde of murder raptors,while cratering the ground beneath it,and actively melting through its victims flesh ,and bones evaporating the blood inside them.
He then shot out earth projectiles like bullets aiming for these creatures foreheads,the speed of the projectiles were so fast that it created a visual illusion making it seem as if their heads exploded on their own moments later, releasing blood,and brain matter.
A rift formed in the air as Galahad pulled out an Axe,adorned with Gold,pulling it from the rift,and with the same swift motion harnessing the momentum, to carve at his enemies.
The Axe was enchanted with thunder, sparks of lightning surging from it,flying about leaving those of his enemies that were not cut in two numb,and defenseless.
" I see your not going to use your spear",Galahad said scoffing,Benjamin laughed," No need,our current enemies aren't worth the hassle,I'm also assuming that's the reason you haven't drawn your sword".
Galahad smiled,and nodded," Its way too taxing,using it on creatures I can easily despatch with daggers,it would show a lack of skill,and self control if I used it on just anyone".
Darian enhanced his eye sight with mana,watching the movements of these creatures,and just as he expected,a group of murder raptors splintered from the original pack surrounding a single matriarch.
He knew from the start that one of these murder raptors had to be the leader,they were not mindless creatures after all.
The leader almost never participated in the hunt unless the prey had fallen,and were almost always surrounded by four to six other strong members of its tribe,simply giving instructions through its screeching voice.
Seeing that the distance was not too vast,Darian proppeled himself in the air,using the concentrated air beneath his feet, allowing him to reach a higher elevation,before mentally communicating his intended spell," piercing stone cannon!!".
The matriarch had sensed a foreboding danger before its protectors could,but seconds later it made eye contact with Darian,right before his spell lauched,and before it could alert its protectors,it's eyes revealed a realization of its unavoidable death.
Finally same as the first few dozen,the leaders head seemed to Completely collapse on itself before exploding as brain matter,and blood spurted out.
Without a leader the rest were in a state of panick,and rage becoming more violent,and uncoordinated reacting with pure vengeful animalistic instincts.
Before long they had finally given up ,and ran away, cutting their loses due to the constant steep decline in their numbers.
As the group of three smiled at each other celebrating their victory,Miles away a Gigantic explosion sounded," Boom!!!".
It was the prelude of an upcoming battle,and the ending of another,"Boom!!!",another explosion sounded plooms of smoke rising from afar.
The sound of the sound barrier being broken with extreme ferocity was heard from miles away,these consecutive events already indicated that a high level threat was in motion.
Both Benjamin,and Galahad gazes landed on Darians face,Darian tapped the staff as a blue array appeared beneath his feet as he crouched down touching the soil.
This reconnaissance ability was called Memories of the Earth,the Earth itself would give Darian information of this enemy,after all the Earth had no unbreakable loyalty it was impartial remembering all who tread on its grounds.
Darians consciousness flew like a Constantly moving shadow,seeing many battles simultaneously from different angles,and perspectives like a shattered shard of glace,each telling it's own story.
Darians consciousness zoomed in on one section revealing a tall figure sporting,red eyes,white pale skin,Black flowing disheveled hair,a pointed nose,and wearing a conical straw hat a cape made of dark large feathers,chainmail armor,black pants with leather belts.
It had an above average build,and height its appearance giving off a type of madness,and fear pressuring all who gazed at it.
Multiple images flashed in Darians mind of the hunting spree this creature had gone on,its only targets being the students that had entered this space.
Scenes of creatures head turning after beating on a students face,its fists enveloped with blood its mouth giving off a hideous smile.
A student with a great war hammer jumped from a high elevation but unfortunately his strike was completely dodged,but the force was enough to cause a Gigantic explosion this was Goliath of the house of iron.
During another battle three groups stood side by side,infront of them was a dome covered with varying colored arrays representing attack,and defensive magic this group fought in what they thought was a life,and death battle but were unfortunately dismantled.
The attacks Deimos dished out were too consecutive its speed exceeded their own,their attacks had no time to launch while thinking of their own safety.
Other images included,Deimos holding a petite female by the throat,or kicking a female in the stomach.
Darian even percieved glimpses of Harrods groups battle,and how devastating it was,some students vomited or wetted themselves out of pure fear.
It had only been seven or so hours since they had entered,but every region in this place was so densely packed that one could experience many battles consecutively in an hours time many were not prepared for the strain.
After seeing snippets of these battles Darian immediately shut the spell down,crouching down,and almost hurling first due to the spells natural strain but the second reason was due to the grotesque beatings,and near death states the creatures left these students in.
Darian,and co had not fought a strong opponent or one that could make them bleed,and he was already distrustful that an entire test would begin by telling them they were essentially invincible.
But as he fell back to the ground he understood things much better but the adrenaline in his mind suddenly kicked up,the last image he saw was Deimos in motion to their specific location.
He quickly regained his bearings using his staff as a cane to help him stand up," let's runn!!!,we cant stay here!".
After saying these words Darian immediately followed suit leaping up covering a huge distance,Galahad,and Benjamin had no deep understanding of the threat but had trust in Darians instincts.
And followed moments later,after a few minutes a shadow that came with the cawing of crows sounded as it trailed behind them slashes of air were fired at them forcing them to parkour from branches dodging a few attacks that cut through entire thick trees.
Deimos knew it could not kill them so this initial attack was just him testing its prey,infact it had the speed to catch up but enjoyed the chase that was the reason it treated groups that stood their ground immediately much harder choosing to prove their courage wrong as a point of ethics.
At this early stage its form was like that of a group of crows jointly moving at tremendous speeds but then as Galahad,and Benjamin observed this creature a pale muscular hand appeared from the front of the crow group from within the crow group stationed infront then spaced themselves revealing a mans face with large sinister eyes staring directly at Galahad,and Benjamin the two immediately avoided eye contact their was a crazyness to those red eyes.
What the pale hand,held was a long Odachi blade it quickly descended at a fast speed striking the ground with its piercing tip creating a shockwave breaking the sound barrier as a Giabt sinkhole began to almost instantly form Collapsing the surrounding trees into it.
Luckily Galahad,and Co were much faster getting out of range as the chase continued,the cawing of the crows increased releasing a disorientating mind breaking feeling.
Darian slowed down letting both Galahad,and Benjamin to pass him as he fired up an array wider than his entire body," fire ball!!",the amount of power that was being funneled into this spell even surprised Deimos taking up 30% of Darians own reserves.
Deimos smiled clenching his teeth unleashing a counter slash,the two attacks colliding in a moment that felt as if time had stopped the moisture in the air the expressions on Darians,Galahad,Benjamins face stopped in time the aftermath unleashing a devastating explosion.
Darians own attack if fully unleashed would of been the equivalent of setting off a small contained nuke capable of whiping out a Town,and leaving a large crater while its shockwaves would reach for less than a mile.
But combined with the slash it tripled,before Darian, and co even felt the shockwaves likely causing them to die if they fully took it without activating any special armament a green light shined from each of them as they dissappeared.
Meanwhile Deimos finally bled this sudden unexpected clash left him on his knees coughing out blood half of his body covered by a shadowy liquid substance,using his odachi as the only supporting pillar so as not to fall.
He smirked then laughed a little,remembering Darians resolute eyes,anf expression right before he launched that spell it was intriguing.
Darian,and co found themselves falling from a high elevation their sight glimpsing only white,before they realised it was pure snow.
"Dammit!",Darian cursed as he regained consciousness Immediately moving both his arms folding it back towards his chest in a circular motion creating a giant outer earth shell tha covered the entire group before they crashed its hasty creation causing it to fall apart seconds after impact.
Darian mopped around dizzy before,Galahad came up in anger grapping his collar," what was that!!,were you trying to get us all killed",Benjamin who stood behind Darian waved his hand while having an awkward expression on his face indicating the two to stop bickering.
Before anything could be said further Galahad pictured something out the corner of his eye, it was a Giant owl,moth looking creature with large twisting shofar horns being brown white,and black in color.
Galahad immediately let go of Darian screaming for the group to run,Benjamin saw it coming seconds later as Darian ran out of pure instincts.
Besides them was a huge cliff like a tablet of purplish stone its top covered by a thick powder of snow.
Beneath everyones feet was a thick sheet of snow making it hard for everyone to run,so they laced the bottom of their feet with mana running on top of the sheet instead of within it.
The owl shot out frozen thunderbolts from the spinneret located in its mouth,these thunderbolts were actually electrified sticky web like silk that instantly froze over upon contact that could easily completely cover preserve,and kill small prey.
But luckily for Galahad,and the others they were too small the creature finding hard to aim while flying.
The group ran in a triangle formation with panicked expressions Benjamin actually screaming for his life while they constantly swapped positions making it harder for the Great moth to aim.
What they did not know was behind the tall cliff was a cave as they headed towards the bottom path of the mountain it became more visible within it a single Giant red eye saw its prey respectively running,and flying.
As its eye glowed brighter as the Moth slowed down,the area became colder as giant sheets of ice crystalised ice began to form in Darians groups path.
A bright beam shot out from the single eye melting through the snow almost hitting Darian,and co before moving in zigzag pattern trying to find it's prey.
A furred Giant jumped out ,and roared having sharp ape like teeth,a single ruby red eye,pale blue skin,the rest of its body covered in snow white fur at its back from its shoulders to the waist,and below its belly button to its knees.
Its arms arms aswell were covered in white fur,while having two opposite facing goat horns,it was more than a 100metres tall as it came out from the cave throwing giant shards of rock at the Moth,while moth shot out its webs.
While beneath their feet Darian,and co ran for their lives.
If this scene was framed as a picture many would say it perfectly represented the food chain.