Chapter 552: Cloud Rhinoceros

Lin Yun calmly took over the task of blocking the magic beasts. After this small disturbance, the team started moving through the forest once again after having stopped for a while.

Perhaps due to approaching the center of the primitive forest, the magic beasts’ attack frequency greatly increased. It originally took the group one or two days before they met one or two wandering magic beasts, but now, they would meet them several times a day.

Especially in recent days, it could no longer be referred to as frequent encounter, it could even be described as continuous.

The team hadn’t moved far before a deafening shout echoed in their ears.

Hearing such a howl usually meant that the ancient magic beasts controlling that part of the forest had already detected the intruders. It would then lead to an unavoidable battle.

And this was already the 4th magic beast encountered this day…

At first, Falton and the others wondered if it was possible to circumvent the ancient magic beast’s location and continue forward. After all, even a High Rank Archmage would have a hard time fighting these tyrannical magic beasts one after the other.

Especially since they would gain nothing from a hard fight. For efficiency-minded mage, this held no interest at all.

The proposal to avoid a battle by circumventing the magic beast’s territory was unanimously accepted by the three major forces.

It’s just that this seemingly great proposal had only been implemented once.

These ancient magic beasts occupying the depths of the forest were obsessed with the intruders, far beyond what the mages could have imagined.

When the mages circumvented a group of ancient burrowing insects, they carelessly intruded on the territory of an eight-limbed monster with one eye. The burrowing insects chased them and joined hands with the monster. After being teamed up on, that idea was dropped.

Thus, when the mages heard the magic beast’s roar, they all got ready for battle.

And sure enough, the ground shook just as that roar stopped. It wasn’t hard to surmise that a pack of magic beasts was charging towards them.

And they didn’t have to wait long…

The vibrations were getting closer and closer, and soon, a huge magic beast rushed from behind a tree trunk, exposing its fierce body, followed by more similarly huge silhouettes.

‘Sh*t, it’s a crash of Ancient Cloud Rhinoceroses…’

Seeing this group of colossi, even Lin Yun couldn’t help but inwardly curse.

Ancient Cloud Rhinoceroses weren’t easy to handle, Lin Yun had seen many reports regarding them in the decaying library, one such report recorded an event that left a profound impression on Lin Yun.

That was an event that had happened in the 3rd Dynasty and had caused a great shock.

In that era, there had once been two mage forces with really strained relationship. They could be roughly compared to the Black Tower and the Cloud Tower in terms of strength, and had accumulated a lot of enmity while fighting over resources.

One day, while they were exploring some ruins of the Ancient God Era, both factions unexpectedly met each other and automatically attacked each other to compete over the ruins, starting a war of unprecedented scale.

No less than a hundred Mid-Rank Archmages centered around the Ancient God Era’s ruins and carrying out a bitter fight. This was definitely a battle bound to be recorded in history.

But, there was a very small inconsistency between what spread and what was recorded in history.

The two major forces were very similar in strength, so much that the teams they sent to explore the ruins were evenly matched. The battle sank into a deadlock from the start.

It was to such a point that despite the fact that both sides had their mages cooperate to cast taboo spells surpassing the Archmage realm, they still couldn’t inflict any serious damage to the other force.

The power of both forces was too similar, to the point that regardless of what method one side came up with, the other side would be able to resist with a spell of similar rank. As a result, the very long battle continued, and despite the scars and bruises on everyone’s bodies, no side had the upper hand.

If the situation kept developing that way, it would only lead to the exhaustion of both sides. After losing some people, they helplessly gave up and decided to retreat to their own camps.

But beyond everyone’s expectations, a shocking crash of Ancient Cloud Rhinoceroses suddenly charged the battlefield.

Perhaps they had been disturbed by the spells cast by the mages, or perhaps this crash of Cloud Rhinoceroses just passed by and was attracted by the commotion…

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But this no longer mattered.

To these exhausted mages, what happened next was an unprecedented bitter experience.

It was just one charge.

The momentum of those Cloud Rhinoceroses was unstoppable, they trampled the two forces, resulting in a third of the powerhouses turning into casualties in an instant.

This was unimaginable…

After all, although both sides used taboo spells in the previous battle, it didn’t cause much casualties. But they lost a third of their troops from one charge of the crash of Cloud Rhinoceroses, over forty Archmages…

What did forty Archmages mean?

If they joined to fire spells, they could easily destroy a city. One can very well imagine how terrifying that force was, but they were actually trampled to death by the Rhinoceroses.

Admittedly, the mages had been exhausted and were running out of mana. Fighting mages of similar rank had been a headache on its own and the sudden arrival of the crash of Rhinoceroses had caught them off guard.

Moreover, the power of an Ancient Cloud Rhinoceros by itself was not to be underestimated.

After all, even if the Archmages had exhausted their mana, they weren’t weaklings that would let themselves get trampled to death. This battle where over forty Archmages died in one move was the only occurrence in all of Noscent’s history.

The Ancient Cloud Rhinoceros, this thick-skinned magic beast, left behind a huge mark in Noscent’s history with this one battle…

After that event, people seriously researched this kind of magic beasts. After all, Ancient Cloud Rhinoceroses weren’t particularly standing out among magic beasts of the same level. Although it had extremely tough skin with the ability to offset part of a spell’s damage, an Ancient Cloud Rhinoceros couldn’t be considered formidable by itself.

An Archmage should be able to easily get rid of one under normal circumstances, even in a frontal attack.

But, Rhinoceroses had the habit of forming crashes, thus, the circumstances were a bit different.

On the book Lin Yun had read, there had been a reminder for future generations: If you are facing a crash of angry Cloud Rhinoceroses, running might be your best option…

And now, the team was facing a crash of enraged Cloud Rhinoceroses.

The only thing worth rejoicing was that this crash had less Rhinoceroses than the one recorded in the book.

“High Mage Merlin, it’s time for your people to fulfill their obligations.” Following the appearance of the monster silhouettes, Suval’s voice echoed beside Lin Yun.

“As you wish…” Lin Yun glanced at Suval before ignoring him, his gaze focusing on the Frost Dragon and Heaven Puppet behind him, before landing on that silhouette trying to look as small as possible and remaining as far as possible from him. Naturally, it was Xiuban, who was avoiding him.

“Sir, this is a crash of Cloud Rhinoceroses…” Xiuban wailed. He then looked at the charging crash, his face turning deathly pale.

“So?” Lin Yun frowned and calmly looked at Xiuban.

“Alright, Sir, Xiuban will go right away.” Understanding his master, the scared Xiuban was startled and readily got on the move, ‘Damnit, the calmer he looks the greater the storm. Compared to Sir Merlin’s fury, I would rather face that pack of beasts.’

This mischievous Draconic Beastman’s judgement was far superior to his fighting power. He held Carnage and his Aura covered his entire body as he howled towards the distant Cloud Rhinoceroses.

‘Damned rhinos, you dare to make Lord Xiuban personally take care of you? Let’s see how Uncle Xiuban blows up your brains.’

“Sir Suval, my subordinate already went to stall the magic beasts, it’s time for you to get ready.” Lin Yun indifferently looked at Suval as he said that.

“Of course.” Suval smiled sinisterly before returning to the Black Tower’s side.

After this short exchange, the madly charging crash reached a hundred meters from the team, and the Draconic Beastman went to welcome them with his Carnage.

Compared to the body of an Ancient Cloud Rhinoceros, Xiuban was pathetically small. As both sides were about to collide, everyone could see Xiuban heavily lifting Carnage and started smashing the charging Rhinoceroses.

“Bang!” Following that deafening sound, the hammer hit the ground and caused a fierce shockwave so powerful it couldn’t be resisted by the nearest Rhinoceros and made it sluggish.

It then discovered that the one provoking him was a very small Beastman and that was enough to thoroughly infuriate it. It then stared at Xiuban and charged.