55: Chapter 55 Visitors from the Beastmen

"Open the gate."

Wang Sheng's voice fell from the gate tower like the chime of a golden bell.

Tang Waner shouldered her giant shield and pushed open the gate made of wild logs. The heavy gate leaves creaked deeply on their Spirit Rune hinges, revealing a gap just wide enough for two people to pass through side by side.

The moment the gate opened, the beastkin girls saw hope. Their speed visibly increased, like drowning people spotting land.

Running at the very front was a slender beastkin girl. She had short, light-brown hair, two nimble deer ears standing upright on her head, and a fluffy white short tail that swung rapidly as she ran.

Her legs were long and powerful, and with every step, she covered an astonishing distance, much like a real white deer galloping across the grasslands. Yet, even so, the distance between her and the pursuing Red-Maned Berserk Lions was shrinking bit by bit.

"Faster! Faster!" the deer-eared girl at the front called back to her companions. Her voice was as crisp as the cry of a deer in the forest, carrying a sense of unyielding stubbornness and anxiety.

Behind her were six other beastkin girls, with cat ears, rabbit ears, fox ears, and even one girl with a leopard-patterned tail.

They were all wounded; the claw marks and teeth tears from the Savage Beasts left shocking scars on their skin and clothing.

Some had bleeding arms, others were limping, but everyone was running for their lives because they knew that stopping meant death.

The roars of the Red-Maned Berserk Lions exploded like muffled thunder on the edge of the Savage Beast Forest. The three Red-Maned Berserk Lions had accelerated, their target being the leopard-tailed girl running at the very back.

The distance was less than fifty meters!

The leopard-tailed girl turned her head; there was no fear on her face, only a desperate rage. Her legs kicked off the ground, and her body spun.

"Don't..." the deer-eared girl's cry tore through the spirit mist.

The leopard-tailed girl did not listen; she stopped, turned around, and faced the three charging Red-Maned Berserk Lions.

Her hands gathered a ball of pale golden spirit energy—the wild power of a beastkin warrior—but the light of the spirit energy was weak and flickering, like a candle in the wind. She had already exhausted most of her spirit energy while fleeing.

The first Red-Maned Berserk Lion had already lunged in front of her.

Golden light, resembling a waterfall descending from the heavens, exploded between the leopard-tailed girl and the Red-Maned Berserk Lion!

Holy Light Slash!

Wang Sheng's figure plummeted from the village gate tower like a meteorite. The golden Holy Light Slash blasted from his right fist, roaring like a golden dragon as it collided with the head of the Red-Maned Berserk Lion.

The Rank 3 Barbarian Warrior Red-Maned Berserk Lion was hit head-on by the Holy Light Slash. Its dark red, coarse fur was like withered grass scorched by the blazing sun under the Power of Holy Light. The golden radiance exploded on the Savage Beast's head, blasting its entire body away!

The massive body of the Savage Beast traced a parabola in the air, crashing onto the ground twenty meters away, rolling three times before stopping. The two-meter-tall Red-Maned Berserk Lion now looked as if it had been struck by lightning; the fur on its head was charred black. It let out painful roars, struggling to stand up, but the Power of Holy Light was ravaging its body, like thousands of golden needles piercing its meridians.

"Go!"

Wang Sheng's voice was like the chime of a golden bell. He did not look back at the blasted Red-Maned Berserk Lion, for he knew the power of the Holy Light Slash.

A Rank 3 Barbarian Warrior Red-Maned Berserk Lion would not be killed in one blow, but it would be enough to render it incapable of fighting for a short time.

His right hand grabbed the leopard-tailed girl's arm. The arm was slender yet firm, its skin covered in a thin layer of light golden leopard spots, like silk kissed by sunlight. Then, he tapped his toes on the ground, and the explosive power of a Holy Light Warrior allowed him to sweep toward the village gate like a meteor, carrying the leopard-tailed girl with him.

The leopard-tailed girl only felt an irresistible force pull her up. In her vision, a golden figure flashed past her like lightning, and then she realized she was already in the air.

The wind whistled past her ears, her leopard ears twitched rapidly in the wind, and her heart felt as if it were about to jump out of her chest—not because of fear.

It was because she turned her head and saw the side profile of the person who had pulled her.

Sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, deep and handsome. Within his golden pupils swirled the majesty and mystery unique to a Holy Light Warrior. Yet, on that angular face, she did not see the murderous intent of battle, but a supreme determination to protect his own.

It was as if he were not protecting a group of total stranger beastkin girls, but his own kin.

Her heart skipped a beat.

The leopard-tailed girl did not know what that feeling was; she only knew that at that moment, her leopard tail stood up uncontrollably, as if awakened by something, the fur at the tip of her tail bristling as if struck by an electric current.

As Wang Sheng delivered the leopard-tailed girl past the village gate, the second and third Red-Maned Berserk Lions had already charged to within fifty meters of the defensive wall.

"Shiyun."

The Frost Mage's response was a deep blue cold wave. Frost Mage Lin Shiyun pushed her hands forward, and two orbs of deep blue frost spirit energy surged from her palms like two roaring ice dragons.

The Frost Spell exploded on the ground outside the village gate. The cold wave, like a bursting glacial river, spread across the ground with unstoppable speed, freezing the ground beneath the feet of more than twenty Savage Beasts into solid ice!

The Iron-Backed Wolves and Red-Maned Leopards slipped on the ice; their claws scratched white marks into the ice, but they could not gain enough traction, like clumsy actors dancing on ice.

The Red-Maned Berserk Lions were larger and heavier, so the ice had less of an effect on them, but their speed was still reduced by at least thirty percent.

"Yuqing."

Xiao Yuqing's Spirit Rune longbow was already fully drawn. The Rainstorm Archer's spirit energy was infused into the arrow, as if compressing a rainstorm into a single arrow shaft.

She released her fingers. Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish!

Five Spirit Rune arrows, like five streaks of light, accurately struck the five Iron-Backed Wolves charging at the front. The arrows pierced the Savage Beasts' shoulder blades, and the spirit energy exploded within the wounds, blooming like five blood-colored flowers upon the Savage Beasts.

The five Iron-Backed Wolves fell simultaneously, emitting painful howls.

"Murong Xue, intercept in close combat."

Murong Xue jumped down from the gate tower; the Holy Light Knight's silver armor was like a bolt of silver lightning in the morning light, and the tip of her wild spear traced a silver arc through the spirit mist.

She landed on the ice, the Spirit Runes on the soles of her silver armored boots automatically activating to provide her with stable traction on the ice, and then she charged out.

The silver spear weaved through the pack of Savage Beasts like a silver dragon. Murong Xue's spear technique was just like her personality: direct and straightforward, without any flashy moves, but every strike accurately pierced the vital points of the Savage Beasts.

An Iron-Backed Wolf lunged at her; she twisted the spear tip, piercing its throat.

A Red-Maned Leopard ambushed from the side; she swept with the tail of the spear, shattering its cheekbone.

The Rank 4 Barbarian Warrior Holy Light Knight moved through the pack of Savage Beasts as if in an empty field.

The battle lasted less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

More than twenty Savage Beasts were killed—half of them—and the rest, led by the Red-Maned Berserk Lion, turned and fled back into the Savage Beast Forest. Savage Beasts were not mindless animals; when they realized that behind the prey they were chasing was an existence far exceeding their own strength, fleeing was the most logical choice.

Before leaving, the Red-Maned Berserk Lion looked back and roared. That roar was like the fire of unwillingness, but it was merely anger, nothing more.

The three Rank 3 Barbarian Warrior Red-Maned Berserk Lions, deterred by the Holy Light Slash, dared not step across the line again, disappearing into the deep green shadows of the Savage Beast Forest with the surviving Savage Beasts.