"I will kill you… I will kill you… I will…." A man kept growling, staring at another person with bloody eyes.
"Can you stop yapping?" that person said coldly in annoyance.
Right now, the team was heading back to the Beacon. Two of the Crimson Horses weren't mounted. Bron, who had somehow survived after Eland saved him, was being carried by Taros, unconscious. On the other hand, Desper was lying on his stomach behind Eland on the Azure Horse.
Desper's right arm was still fixed to his chest, his leg was still sharply rotated, and the skin on the left side was peeled. He also had new injuries that weren't caused by the O-4 bear; his body was full of bruises, and his ears were pierced by the teeth of the B-Rank bears.
He kept staring at Silas, repeating, "I will kill you."
Eland looked at Silas and asked, "What did you do to him? You're not the one who caused these injuries, are you?"
Silas shook his head. "I'm not, but you can say I gave him a lesson the hard way."
"I WILL KILL YOU!!!!" Desper screamed.
Silas ignored him and asked Eland, "It is the second time these monsters have behaved like this. What was that?"
First, the M-Rank lizardmen and, now was even the O-Rank bears.
Not only Silas, but the others also looked at Eland to hear the answer. Even Desper stopped repeating the words and listened. He had almost died in both situations.
"I don't know." Eland furrowed his eyebrows. "The only thing I can think of is that these monsters suddenly targeted the Muscle Cultivators. I've never heard of such a thing before."
All the team members grimaced. In this world, no one wished for something unusual to happen to them, even if it was a good thing.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Silas inquired.
Eland held the Detection Desk. "I will send a Back-Up-Team Signal."
"A Back-Up-Team Signal?" Taros repeated in confusion.
Desper was surprised. He was still new, so it was normal for him not to know about this signal. However, Taros was an Organ Cultivator, which meant that he was experienced in the sect. It was very strange for him not to know about the signal.
"It is not strange that you don't know about it." Eland explained as he touched the Detection Desk. "It is a very rare type of support signal, like the Emergency-Team Signal and the Elder Signal, which we can use if we face something we can't deal with alone."
He proceeded, "The Back-Up-Team Signal is used when there is a bizarre situation like the one we are in right now. The sect will send two strong teams to take our place at the Beacon, so we can return to the sect and report the situation."
Everyone was relieved when they heard that they would return to the sect, especially Zen, Arkan, and Desper, as they were the Muscle Cultivators in the team and the ones in the most danger; Bron would probably feel the same if he were awake.
"This…." Suddenly, Eland's mouth trembled.
Desper couldn't see that, but Eland's face showed shock.
"What happened?" Arkan asked.
Eland stuttered, "I can't… send the signal!!"
"What?!"
All the members were shocked.
Eland tried again and failed.
"I will send an Elder Signal," he said seriously.
The Elder Signal was only used in absolute life-threatening situations, where sending another team wouldn't make any difference. It was the highest signal a disciple could ever use.
However, in the next moment, Eland bit his lips. "It is still not working. I can't even send any type of signals."
Silence descended over the area. They kept looking around for any hidden danger.
After a while, Silas broke the silence and asked the same question again. "What are we going to do now?"
This time, the coldness had disappeared from his voice.
Everyone looked at Eland, waiting for the leader's decision.
He thought for a couple of minutes, then said, "First, let's hurry to the Beacon. It is safer there."
The Beacon was attracting monsters, but at the same time, it was made of hard materials, so the monsters couldn't destroy it. The team could use it as a shield if they were in danger.
They no more cared about the horses' tiredness and made them run fast back to the Beacon.
After putting Bron on the bed, the team gathered outside.
"Are you sure you don't need to rest?" Eland questioned Desper.
Right now, Desper leaned on one of his swords so he could stand.
He responded, "I will be okay."
Deep inside, he didn't know whether he should feel happy that his clan's Bloodline wasn't probably the cause of all of that, as he had thought, or feel terrified of the whole situation.
'What a great first mission for a new disciple like me,' he scoffed inwardly.
Eland nodded and turned to the others. "Right now, we are between two choices: either going back to the sect, abandoning the Beacon and the villages around it, or staying until the end of the mission."
The first might result in the death of hundreds of people, since there would be no one in the Beacon to magnify his Essence fluctuation and attract the monsters away from the common people.
The second might result in the team's death.
"I have an idea." Desper drew the team's attention. "Since the Beacon is safe and attracts the monsters, why don't we just stay inside the Beacon until the end of the mission and the arrival of the next team?"
Eland shook his head. "That won't work. When the monsters come out from a Spatial Crack, for a while, they lose their sense of the Essence fluctuation and attack anything nearby. So we always need to go there and kill them before they leave the area."
He paused for a minute and said, "I can't let myself leave hundreds of people die like this. However, if any of you want to go back, I won't stop them."
He looked at the other members, but none of them said anything.
Seeing no one reacting, Desper sighed and said, "Until the end of this mission, I won't come with you to any Spatial Crack."
He was the most vulnerable one in the team, since he was the weakest. Actually, he was a burden on the team right now.
Eland nodded. "That's better for you and for us."
After that, he explained the strategy they would start to use in fighting. It was mainly about how Silas would lure all the O-Rank monsters away, when and how Arkan and Bron would rush into the fight, and more.
Desper didn't care about these things and went into the Beacon. He gave the unconscious Bron a pitying look and lay on his bed. He wanted to cultivate, but the High-Purity Healing Pill was consuming a lot of his Essence to heal his wounds. So he kept staring at the ceiling, thinking about his life.
'First, I lost my memories, then the village was destroyed and all of its people died… and Amal.'
Grief filled his face as he remembered.
'After that, I discovered that I'm from the most dangerous clan. Now, I almost died twice on my first mission, and I don't know how this mission is going to end.'
He closed his eyes. 'My life is going really badly.'