Azeria Family

Lin raced towards the flashes like a bullet train. Deep in the mountains, three people battled a lightning element beast. They were all Rank 2 Quint but seemed to be struggling against their foe. Two among the three wielded rock elemental abilities while the last wielded a wood element. Several people surrounded the region but were all very hesitant to approach the battlefield and soon began to leave one after another.

Lin stood upon a high hill and peered down on the ranging battle. He was a bit confused when he saw people starting to leave. There were a few higher ranks there who could easily steal the prey however, none dared approach. They all left without getting within a hundred meters of the battle. Realising he was the only one left after 2 minutes, he slowly approached to get a closer look to determine why everyone had left without attacking.

After drawing closer to the battle, he soon realised why no one dared to steal the prey. Behind the backs of the three was a symbol of a three-tailed fox. Each tail had a different colour and the fox looked like it was biting its middle tail with the other two arching over it. The fox was blue like its centre tail. The other two tails were black and white.

He frowned deeply after seeing the symbol behind their backs. He looked towards the beast they were fighting.

<Notice>

<Lightning Element beast Procompsognathus found>

<Level: Quint>

<Rank: 2>

<Specialty: Speed>

Procompsognathus was a bipedal beast about two meters long and about the height of an average person. It had two short forelimbs, a long tail and a billlike mouth full of sharp teeth. It was fast and tough to deal with. With easy prey in front of him yet, being unable to do anything depressed Lin.

"Seeing how easy it was for me to defeat a rank one beast, I should be able to do fine on my own against a rank two beast but why are guards from the Azeria family here? And rank 2's at that?" Lin was a bit confused. The Azeria family was one of many families that oversaw the territories. If they wanted something done effectively, they could have sent high-rankers; seeing low ranks here, he was a bit dumbfounded. Each habitable territory was ruled by a powerful family, of which the Azeria family was one. The Azeria family controls the territory of Gamel which was the closest territory to Coulden.

"This is a bit troublesome." Lin was disappointed he could not do anything. Though hesitant to leave, he soon made up his mind. "Well, forget it. It is someone else's prey anyways. Stealing is a bad habit; I should desist from it." Lin looked at the three fighting in the distance and left.

Meanwhile, the three were not doing well though they were of the same rank as the beast. Due to the beast's speed, it was difficult for them to do any significant damage to it. It was the annoying type of opponent. It kept spewing lightning from its mouth as it avoided the attacks of its opponents. The two with rock elements tried several times to trap it with rocks whilst the one with wood element attempted to lock it down but it was futile. The beast used its speed to throw off their coordination while relentlessly spewing lightning at them. It looked as if it was toying with them.

The fight continued for a while when suddenly a figure wrapped in black flames appeared out of nowhere a delivered a punch towards the beast. The beast noticing how threatening the incoming attack was, reacted quickly by spewing out a ball of lightning about the size of a soccer ball towards the incoming fist. The fist and the ball of lightning collided mid-air and caused an ear-piercing explosion. The three who fought the beast soon realised the power of the lightning just released was on a whole new level compared to its previous attacks.

Though they were not the strongest among the rank twos, the three together would be enough to cause trouble even for the most capable rank 2. Before them was someone they had never seen before. The person seemed almost on equal footing with the beast that gave them trouble. They were so shocked they forgot their prey was about to be stolen. "When did someone this powerful appear in the territories?" one asked the others. There were two men and a woman. She shook her head and said, "I have never seen this person before or even heard of him. Also, his fire element is different from all the others".

"Yes, I have never seen anyone wield black flames before" another said.

Unlike them, Lin wasn't in good condition at all. After just that one exchange, his hand was already numb. He immediately knew if he did not go all out, he would certainly perish. "Damn it! Are all rank 2's this strong?" Before he could recollect his thoughts, the beast lashed his chest with its tail covered in lightning. He quickly formed an x with his hands on his chest to defend himself. Even with that, the impact caused him to cough up some blood as he barrelled away.

The beast seemed angry that it was sneak attacked and chased after him. It ignored the others. "Should we chase them? We must get that core or the young miss will trouble us". the woman said.

"No, let's wait a bit and see. At this rate, we don't have to do a thing. Let's just wait for him to kill the beast and then rob him of the core" one replied with a smirk.

The others nodded in agreement and stood where they were. Lin in the meantime, was still being knocked back by the beast and was now already about three thousand meters away from the three. Seeing as they were not coming after them, he felt relieved. He landed on the floor cleaving a 10-meter-long trench in the ground. He slowly stood up and peered at the beast moving towards him. His power suddenly erupted like a volcano. The fire that was shrouding him quenched and was replaced by lightning.