The End of the Beast Tide

The battle had gone on for who knew how long, and it was still continuing.

Richard estimated that he and Pandora had killed over a thousand crazed animals, yet the assault showed no sign of slowing.

"Screech!"

Two squirrels and a raccoon, their eyes bloodshot, slipped past Pandora's defenses and lunged at them.

Richard shook his head lightly and chanted a spell. A Wind Repulsion sent the three small animals flying, and he immediately began chanting again.

A fist-sized cluster of liquid oxygen formed, then merged with another, larger cluster floating in midair.

Richard glanced at it and saw that the accumulated Liquid Oxygen Cluster was nearly half the size of a washbasin. After using up almost all of his magic-pattern White Jade Shards, he could only honestly use the most basic method to produce liquid oxygen clusters, which was extremely inefficient.

At that moment, the three animals that had been sent flying charged back. GanCuiMian the little raccoon took the lead, while the two big Wang Xun squirrels covered its flanks from left and right. Normally adorable creatures, their gazes were now filled with bloodlust and rage.

Richard showed no mercy. With a flick of his hand, a smaller scalpel appeared in his grip, while Wind Agility empowered his body. He dipped slightly, dodging the raccoon's attack, then swung his blade at the squirrel on the left.

With a pfft, the sharp blade sliced through nearly half its body without resistance. Blood sprayed out as it shrieked and fell to the ground.

Richard then twisted his body and stabbed at the squirrel on the right.

The squirrel on the right did not dodge at all. It viciously snapped its two large incisors down at the blade, trying to bite two notches into it. Richard turned the blade and coldly thrust it straight through the squirrel's open mouth, driving it down its throat and into its body, skewering it on the smaller scalpel with a pfft.

With a slight flick of his wrist, he flung away the squirrel that was clearly beyond saving, then quickly turned to face the raccoon. The raccoon, whose first attack had failed, had already landed and launched its second assault.

"Whoosh!"

The raccoon leaped up. Richard loosened his grip on the scalpel slightly, letting his muscles relax for an instant, before suddenly tightening his hold again.

"Smack!"

His thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger exerted force in turn, locking tightly around the scalpel's handle. Driven by his shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints, he slashed fiercely forward.

In the darkness, a flash of cold light burst forth, followed by a spray of blood.

With a pfft, the scalpel cut into the raccoon's midsection. It struck something hard, paused slightly, then burst through with full force, cleaving all the way through.

"Crack!"

The raccoon's upper body, more than half a meter long, remained in the air, its eyes still blood-red and its front paws still clawing. Its lower body, however, fell downward and hit the ground with a thud. Richard had sliced the twenty-plus-pound raccoon cleanly in half at the waist.

Blood splattered everywhere. The raccoon's upper body weakly scratched with its front paws a few more times, the red glow in its eyes gradually fading into lifelessness. It traced an arc through the air before finally crashing heavily to the ground as well.

Richard let out a soft breath. Looking at the three animal corpses, he did not hesitate. He hurriedly chanted another spell and released another Liquid Oxygen Cluster.

By then, the floating Liquid Oxygen Cluster was nearly half the size of a washbasin.

Richard's gaze sharpened. He cast a Wind Spell, sending the large cluster of liquid oxygen into the distance. Then a Blood-Red Flame shot from his hand and chased after it as he called out in warning, "Watch out!"

Pandora had already switched to her fourth tree trunk and was swinging it with all her might. Hearing Richard's words, she blinked. With a bang, she swung the trunk with full force, knocking countless crazed animals away. Then she took a step back, dropped the tree trunk she was holding, and covered her ears with some reluctance.

"Bang!"

At that moment, Richard's Flame Impact successfully caught up to the Liquid Oxygen Cluster, and the midair explosion that had appeared before erupted once again.

"Boom!"

A scorching blast swept wildly through the area, clearing the hilltop in an instant.

But another batch of beasts that had been waiting below the hill charged up.

Pandora released her ears, picked up another tree trunk, and looked expressionlessly at Richard. "Can't kill them all."

"Yeah, can't kill them all," Richard replied with a bitter smile. At least, not under the current circumstances. Using the Liquid Oxygen Bomb only relieved some of the pressure temporarily; it could not solve the root of the problem. As long as the Mental Strength within the nearby mountain was still at work, and as long as the animals in this forest had not all been killed, the battle would continue.

The night had grown very late. Richard could not help feeling worried. Once the fourth tree trunk in Pandora's arms broke, once the mana in his body was exhausted, the hardest moment would arrive.

"Whew..."

Richard slowly exhaled, but the next moment, something unbelievable entered the corner of his eye.

For some reason, Pandora, who had been relatively calm a second earlier, suddenly furrowed her brows, widened her eyes, and tightened her porcelain-doll face. Then she abruptly exerted force and hurled the tree trunk in her arms straight out.

With a whoosh, the tree trunk, more than ten meters long, flew like a giant arrow, roaring toward something in the sky.

What?

Richard looked over in confusion and saw the tree trunk flying higher and higher. Under Pandora's strength, it nearly struck a huge figure descending from the sky.

"Flap flap—ah!"

The huge figure cried out in alarm. It noticed the danger a little too slowly and abruptly climbed higher, letting the tree trunk pass beneath it by a hair. Then it slowly descended and met Pandora's eyes.

"I remember... wasn't the beast tide supposed to happen tomorrow night?" Gregory, flying back through the air, said to Pandora in a somewhat weak voice. "That's why I specifically came back a day early..."

"Today!" Pandora said coldly.

"Uh, well... maybe... maybe I remembered wrong. Pandora, you know, when you get older, eventually—"

"Gregory!"

"Ah?"

"Boom!" Pandora stomped, and the ground sank sharply beneath her. She shot high into the air and threw a vicious punch, saying with utmost seriousness, "It—is—to—day!"

Gregory was so frightened that he hurriedly climbed higher again.

"Thud!"

Pandora missed and fell back to the ground, her face taut as she stared at Gregory circling in the air.

"Come down!"

"Pandora, my good daughter, this really isn't my fault. I didn't do it on purpose..."

"Come down!"

"Good daughter, my good daughter, don't be like this..."

"Come down!"

"Look, there are outsiders here..."

"Come down!"

"Roar!" The many beasts gathered around the hill ignored the tender exchange between Pandora and Gregory, father and daughter. After devouring their injured and dead companions, they launched another attack.

Gregory, meanwhile, let out a breath of relief. "Pandora, my good daughter, let me deal with these annoying animals first, then we can talk about us, all right?"

Without waiting for Pandora's reply, Gregory, circling overhead, abruptly turned his head, opened his mouth, and spewed out a massive torrent of flames, scattering it over the crazed animals on the hill like lava.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

The flames blazed fiercely. Wherever they passed, the horde of crazed animals vanished as though melting like cream cake.

The crazed animal army kept charging forward, but they could not break through Gregory's wall of fire. All they could do was scream as they turned to ashes.

The scene fully proved one saying: there was no problem in this world that a giant dragon could not solve. If there was, then call the giant dragon's father.

Gregory's appearance meant that this battle had ended ahead of schedule.

In fact, whenever beast tides occurred in the past, as long as Gregory was present, Pandora hardly needed to make a move. Like Richard, she only had to deal with a few stray small fry. Though it was boring and annoying, it was nowhere near as bad as today.

Today, she had broken a full three tree trunks! One, two, three—three trunks! That was why Pandora had been so angry when she saw Gregory.

Gregory knew he was in the wrong as well, so he slaughtered the crazed animals with all his strength to ease Pandora's anger.

Flames surged, bathing the hill in light. Countless crazed animals roared, screeched, and charged endlessly into Gregory's flames.

"Roar, roar!"

"Hiss, hiss!"

"Awoo!"

After a long, long time, the night finally fell silent.