The trip to the red zone was quite long due to the fact that it was further away from the shelters than the green zones. With the travel time taking 2 hours to arrive, and 2 hours to head back, it meant they would spend at least 4 hours just walking. Then, after spending some time hunting beasts, they would need to take a few breaks to regenerate their MC cells. Needless to say, it was going to be a long day.
When looking at the other groups, there was one up ahead that Erin had a feeling was their biggest rival.
"That's our competition," Erin said, gesturing towards a boy with red hair in front of their group. He was about 30 ft ahead of them.
"Him?" Layla asked, "Are you talking about the red head?"
"No doubt about it. That red hair is the trait of the Sunshield family. All originals who learn their magic acquire the ability of fire."
"What about that guy using a strange machine?" Quinn said as he heavily eyed Erin, "Maybe he's someone we should look out for."
In a neighboring group a little further ahead, there was a large machine that they could tell someone was sitting in. It was a device with spider-like legs that crawled across the ground. Only someone like Fex or Erin could tell that the boy sitting in that mechanical chair had green hair.
"There's no way that person is from the Big Four."
Quinn frowned at Erin disappointingly, but he was just guessing after all. Whoever was using a device like that had to be good with technology, or at least, that's what he hoped.
"What's the deal with the Big Four anyways? Having red hair doesn't seem that impressive," Fex dryly commented as he whistled away.
Suddenly, everyone stopped moving to stare at Fex like he suddenly grew two heads, and started flapping his wings like a chicken about to fly to the moon.
"What's the deal?" Layla said in disbelief, "They're like, the BIGGEST deal. How have you not heard of them?"
To everyone else in the group, hearing that someone didn't know about the big four was practically impossible. It was like someone asked what a house was. Pretty much everyone on earth knew about them, which made Quinn start to believe that Fex, and by extension, other vampires, didn't live on earth.
"They're some of the biggest, most strongest, and influential people humanity has. They've had their abilities long before everyone else did, passing it down for generations, and they've resided on the top for the longest time," Layla explained, "If their team has someone from the big four then they're bound to be powerful, and there's very little we can do against them."
"…I guess." Fex mumbled, still not getting the big picture. To him, it just seemed like the humans had their own version of the vampire families, except that there were less of them, and that they weren't the only forms of leadership in their society.
Looking around, Erin noted the groups traveling to the red zone were gaining some distance from them. Stopping to explain to Fex about the Big Four meant that the other teams were going to get first dibs.
"Alright, explanation over, can we get a move on now? We're falling behind," Erin urgently said.
She turned away from the group to continue walking ahead. However, she was only a few feet in before she felt a rumble under her feet, and the others began to feel it too.
Quinn knelt to the floor, placing a hand onto the sand trying to detect what it was. If it was a group of smaller movements then it had to be toothworms.
He was only there on the ground for a few seconds before his eyes grew wide.
"That's not a toothworm!" Quinn shouted, and everyone immediately spread out.
Right where they once stood, a large snake slithered out of the sand. It was quadruple the length of a human being, and was as thick as a tree. The upper part of its body had several black horn like protrusions on it, perhaps to allow for easier tunneling. Its black and dark red scales resembled coals, and its burnt orange eyes stared them down.
[Inspect]
[Name: Burningsnake]
[Intermediate tier beast]
[For fighting with your soul linked partner, additional rewards may be given]
"How is there one here?!" Peter cried. He was already imagining the worse case scenario.
"Get behind me!" Quinn shouted to Peter.
Peter obliged, while Fex and Layla stood in front of Erin.
The coal like scales were beginning to heat up, turning into a bright golden orange matching its eyes. When the burningsnake's scales heated up, the sand around it began to melt, turning into an unrefined glass.
The beast opened its mouth, with a bright light forming inside of its throat. it was charging an attack, and shot it out towards Quinn and Peter.
Quinn lifted a wall of earth, blocking the attack, and the beast's colors returned back to black and red.
While the beast was distracted with him, Fex threw out several strings onto its spikes. He tugged at them, but was struggling to get good footing with the sandy ground. The burningsnake flailed around.
While the beast was trying to shake him off, Layla shot a flurry of arrows at its head. They dinked right off its scales, and it louldy hissed, annoyed.
'What? But these are steel arrows!' Layla thought to herself.
Seeing that the main attackers towards it were coming from Layla and Fex, it began charging up another fireball, glowing orange once again. The fire shot out of its mouth, and Erin ran in front of Layla, about to take the hit for her when another earth wall was formed. Quinn had protected them.
'Damn, I don't want to use up a lot of my MC so soon,' Quinn thought to himself, 'If only Peter would help me out.'
Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Erin jumped onto the earth wall, and stabbed her rapier into its eye.
[+6 HP]
[HP is full]
"Of course!" Layla said before taking out her ice arrow, and placing it on her bow, "The eyes are softer than the rest of its body!"
The beast arrow could only be used 3 times, but if there was any time to use its active ability, then it would be now.
Erin jumped off of the burningsnake, taking her sword with her. Quinn then began shooting tri-spikes from a mud gauntlet at the beast. It roared, and charged at him. Yanking the string, Fex forced it from attacking Quinn. He then began running around the beast. It tried to smack him with his tail, but he was simply faster. Soon enough, the burningsnake was tied up, restricting its movements.
Seeing the opportunity, Layla activated the beast weapon's ability. With her power, the arrow flew true, and shot into its eye.
The beast roared again, a glacier of ice forming around its face. In its pain, it frantically flailed around, but it could barely move.
It tried to create another fireball, glowing bright orange as it did, but thanks to Layla, the ice that formed around the burningsnake's eye had actually reached inside of its mouth.
Not wanting to be useless, Peter formed a simple mud club and ran up to it, smacking the side of its body. However, the club only bounced off of its coal-like scales, and agitated the burningsnake.
"Peter! Get out of there!" Quinn yelled, but it was too late.
The burningsnake freed itself out of its restraints just enough to smack its head against where it felt Peter's clubbing. He was only narrowly saved when a large rock came out of nowhere, and hit the beast's head, flinging it back. The sudden distraction gave him just enough time to scramble to safety.
Peter ran to Quinn, almost breathless.
"Thanks for that!"
Quinn looked at him confused, "That wasn't me."
"What?" Peter asked, but he looked over to see that Erin had jumped onto the burningsnake's maw, completely forgoing the umbrella.
[You are being exposed to direct sunlight]
[Your stats have been reduced by 70%]
'It's still a major hit to my stats, but being in the sun doesn't affect what my beast gear gives me,' Erin thought.
Right now, with her beast gear, her stats gave her effectively 11 in agility, and 12 in strength. There wasn't anything she could do about the stamina, but she was good enough at pushing through exhaustion.
Holding her rapier high, Erin repeatedly stabbed at the beast's throat.
[+6 HP]
[HP is full]
[Ability cannot be used again for 10 seconds]
Ignoring the system messages, she was able to deal massive damage. Before she could take the final kill, a giant earth boulder had crashed into the back of the burningsnake's head. It fell to the floor, indicating it had died.
Yet again, Erin's win had been stolen from her.
[Quest failed]
[No EXP will be given]
Erin ran to her umbrella, and held it over her head.
[You are no longer in sunlight]
[All stats will return to normal]
Once the harsh sun wasn't bothering her anymore, Erin could see a team of students looking mighty proud of themselves.
"…Well?" One of them said.
Fex had ignored them, and held one of his daggers. He was about to carve its crystal out when one of them had thrown a small rock at him.
"Hey, hey, hey, we got the final hit on the beast. You wouldn't mind sharing its crystal with us, would you?" Earl said with a clearly forced innocent smile, "Its the least you can do since we saved your buddy, Peter there."