Birth Of The Crafts-God

"Roar!"

The monstrous sound rang out once again, enforcing the opinion within the minds of all that they weren't mishearing things.

There was a monster down here with them, and a very ferocious one at that. And from the looks of things, it had sensed them.

"Tarak, talk to me."

William cancelled his technique and immediately reached out to those on the surface.

All nine members of the Little Star were accounted for and had gone in pursuit of the Delta Transporter. The Trojan War Fox had only seven men at first, but two were dead and two heavily injured and sent to the command shuttle. This left only three on board. On the command vessel, there was only one man present. Together with those onboard the Trojan War Fox, they were charged with monitoring the area. They also monitored the life signals of the other teammates, which was possible thanks to a band everyone wore on their wrist.

Before entering the cavern, they had scanned for any signatures and failed to spot any. This could only mean that the monster in the cavern had only arrived recently.

Originally, as he was engaged in an intense battle, William avoided communicating with them and gave the order for the other side to do the same unless the situation was dire. Logically, they should have sensed this monster on their scans and informed him, after all, based on the power of that roar, it was definitely not just a fifth level desolate beast.

The fact that the unit on the surface failed to do so could only mean two things: either the monster had been underground this whole time and could avoid their scans by some bizarre means, or something happened above.

"..."

There was no response from the communicator which further raised William's worries. Only one thing could explain the situation now; the group above the surface were taken down so swiftly that they were unable to react and notify those below.

"Shit! Everyone, return towards my side, right now."

William immediately panicked and switched his communication network to match the same frequency as the team present with him. Right after that, he recalled them towards his side while moving away from Canza.

As he had not gone completely wild, Canza still retained his senses and knew that now wasn't the time to resume the battle. It was better to identify the threat that was in the cavern with them first, and nullify it.

Hence, Canza made the same decision as William and called for his team to gather by his side.

"What could that be?"

One of the surviving fourth level stellar practitioners from William's team asked.

After a headcount, of the eight men —alongside himself— only five were alive with one of them being too injured to fight.

"It's most likely a sixth level desolate beast at the very least " The bodyguard said.

He was the most experienced of them all and a former freelancer, so he could roughly estimate the strength of desolate beasts by their energy and even the sound they made.

"Any clues on what it is?" William asked, hoping to get a positive reply.

But the man shook his head.

"It could be anything. The mountains within the Millennium Mountains host a ton of varieties of desolate beasts. Even though we're underground, that's not enough information to determine which creature it is. Also, you said it probably came from above, which means it's not a subterranean creature. My guess is, it's probably a powerful creature that discovered the Aión source just as we did."

William thought for a moment and then added,

"It seems like Canza's men never knew about it either, so it's appearance is just recent."

With a dark expression, he turned on his communicator and glanced at a countdown. There was still fifteen minutes left before the Aión source 'matures'. Despite that, such a powerful desolate beast had managed to sense it already.

One could only imagine how dire and intense the situation would become once it matured.

As a product of a planet's world source, the value and allure of an Aión source wasn't only obvious to intelligent species like hyumans. If it could raise a hyuman's mDNA concentration by improving their m(o)DNA count, it could also increase the potential of other living beings. Desolate beasts, whose growth and progress was heavily reliant on potential, were sensitive to such materials that could improve their innate potential. It was to the point that they craved for it more than their natural desires.

"What do we do?" The only surviving third level stellar practitioner couldn't help but ask.

He was increasingly worried about the situation, after all, he was the weakest individual present. Against a sixth level desolate beast, that was one class above him, the practitioner couldn't offer any resistance whatsoever. A fourth level stellar practitioner, with the right vestiges, might have a very slim chance of escaping, but not him; even if he was armed with a Grade 4 vestige, death was the only option.

"We can only work together with them."

William turned towards Canza who also happened to look towards him at the same time.

Although the 2 fifth level Apertures Opening stage stellar practitioners on their team could take on a sixth level desolate beast, it was possible that Canza and his men would take advantage of this and attack them. The reverse was also true. Hence, the only option was for the two sides to cooperate and quickly defeat the monster. After that, they could resume their battle.

If it was only a sixth level desolate beast, 4 fifth level stellar practitioners armed with Grade 3 vestiges were more than enough to take it down.

"What do you say?" William shouted towards Canza.

Although it was a simple question, he knew that Canza would understand the underlying meaning as the latter should have reached the same conclusion as he did.

"Sure." Canza smiled as he replied.

"It's coming." William's bodyguard whispered.

At that moment, a daunting aura assaulted everyone gathered beside the Heart of Silver. Accompanying this aura was the silhouette of a large creature reaching at least ten metres in height. It's head was almost touching the ceiling of the cavern, resulting in no leeway for the monster to dodge with ease.

However, this didn't seem like a problem for it. This was because, rather than a sixth level desolate beast, it was a seventh level desolate beast; there was no reason for it to have to dodge.

"Roar!"