Terror Beast

A distance of 20 kilometers, given this world's bicycles and Gloria's physical fitness, would normally take at least over an hour.

This was the reason for her initial anxiety; she worried that by the time she arrived, the monsters would have already rushed into the town, causing destruction and casualties.

As a result, from the moment she met Lizer until now, less than 15 minutes had passed.

Up ahead, they could already see the figures of five monsters, along with two patrolmen following them from a distance.

Lizer hit the brakes hard, stopping thirty meters away from the monsters. Under the inertia, the surging waves of Gloria's chest pressed tightly against Lizer's back, causing a slight, swelling pain.

She didn't know if riding a motorcycle was just like this or if Lizer was intentionally taking advantage of her. She wanted to get angry but felt somewhat uncertain.

She could only keep a cold expression and jump off the motorcycle.

Gloria observed the monsters for a moment and let out a sigh of relief. Expressionless, she introduced them to Lizer:

"Fortunately, these are just ordinary low-level Terrorbeasts, with no mutated variants.

Their strength is roughly between that of a low-tier wizard apprentice and a mid-tier apprentice. A relatively strong knight can also fight them."

Lizer had analyzed relevant books in the library regarding the common monsters of this world. The analyzed data introduced them like this:

Terrorbeasts were rumored to be canine variants possessing a very faint trace of dragon bloodline, somewhat similar to kobolds.

However, one was a monster and the other a low-intelligence creature. It was unknown if the two races shared any special relationship.

From a bloodline perspective, such a probability existed.

The Terrorbeast, this canine monster twisted by the power of chaos...

Its entire body was covered in dark brown, short fur that was as sticky as corpse oil. Every inch of its skin was taut with bulging, bruised-purple blood vessels.

Its seven-foot-long deformed body carried three hundred and fifty pounds of rotting flesh. Its bones made a rattling sound beneath the skin, as if they would burst through that thin layer at any moment.

The most terrifying feature was the single eye split horizontally across its forehead:

The pupil was like a pool of coagulated blood, and the whites of the eye were covered in cobweb-like dark veins. When it darted around, the drool that spilled out landed on the ground, instantly corroding small pits that emitted white smoke.

This was its only weakness, yet it also acted like an evil eye embedded in its skull, constantly radiating a man-eating malice.

The tips of its claws were like poisoned bone spurs, curved and glinting with a cold light.

From the bulging, tumor-like lumps on its back, traces of sulfur-smelling acid would occasionally seep out.

When it arched its back, the residual dragon breath overflowing from deep within its bloodline mixed with the stench of decay, making the air so thick that it seemed even light would be swallowed by it.

Its jumping ability was extremely strong. It preferred close-combat claw strikes, tearing its enemies to pieces before swallowing them raw, but sometimes it would cunningly spit acid from a distance to attack.

This monster was much more formidable than the skeletons from before, but Lizer was also no longer the same as he used to be.

In a flash, the group agreed on a strategy:

The two patrolmen would deal with one Terrorbeast, Gloria would handle one, the skeleton warriors summoned by Felina would entangle one, and Felina herself would take on one.

The extra one would need to be held off by Lizer until Felina and Gloria, both being mid-tier wizards, defeated their monsters and came to support the others.

Lizer jumped off the motorcycle and said:

"In a moment, let's shoot their eyes out first; it will be safer that way."

"That will be difficult, won't it?"

Gloria shook her head. Dark gold magical light flickered at her fingertips as she branded a resistance-boosting rune onto each of the five people.

The runes carried a piercing chill as they faded into the skin. Casting five spells in a row consumed a sliver of her mental strength, causing faint purple lines of fatigue to appear at the corners of her eyes.

But the Terrorbeasts had already caught the scent of living flesh. Their single eyes shot out a scarlet, ferocious glint as they roared and charged forward.

Gloria said no more. Dragging her two-handed greatsword along the ground and kicking up sparks, she lunged forward like a blazing, blood-red whirlwind.

This was Lizer's first time seeing Gloria fight with all her might:

Her fiery red uniform whipped in the strong wind, revealing the tight contours of her waist and abdomen.

As she swung the two-handed greatsword with one hand, the blade was enveloped in a faint red combat aura.

Every slash sent the Terrorbeast's dark green, viscous blood splattering. It was violent yet possessed a deadly beauty, making her look like an out-of-control beast of flames.

One of the Terrorbeasts stumbled from the shockwave of Gloria's sword aura, its single eye briefly losing focus and pausing.

A faint gleam of alchemical runes flashed in Lizer's eyes. He decisively pulled the trigger of Silver Lightning. The gun barrel erupted with light blue magical sparks as he aimed straight at that horizontal single eye.

Over the past few days, Lizer had learned how to make ordinary magical gunpowder from books, thereby preparing some magical bullets for himself.

Bang!

The first shot grazed the single eye and hit the scales on the Terrorbeast's forehead. Dark green acid oozed from the cracked scales, hissing as it corroded the dead grass on the ground.

Lizer frowned. The accuracy against a moving target was indeed compromised, but the impact caused the Terrorbeast to let out a roar of pain, delaying its movements by half a second.

That half a second was enough!

The aiming line in Lizer's eyes locked on once again, and the barrel of Silver Lightning glowed with faint purple magical patterns.

This was the result of him expending mental strength to secretly gather energy particles from the air, injecting a trace amount of magical energy that could briefly increase the bullet's penetrating power.

He had not yet learned any miraculous offensive spells and was still unable to forge magical firearms.

He could only instinctively use his mental strength to enhance his attacks, which was an extremely draining manifestation of his power.

In the hands of a true wizard apprentice, every sliver of mental strength cast through familiar spells would carry a hundred times the power!

Bang! The bullet pierced accurately into the single eye!

The Terrorbeast's eyeball instantly burst, spraying a dark green fluid mixed with black streaks of blood.

It let out an inhuman, agonizing shriek and wildly flailed its claws, unexpectedly knocking over two of its companions nearby, causing them to experience a momentary chaotic pause.

Bang!

Bang!

Lizer's Silver Lightning continuously spat out magical tongues of fire. Two bullets successfully shattered the single eyes of the other two Terrorbeasts.

Having lost their vision, the Terrorbeasts went completely insane, beginning to tear and bite at each other.

Dark green blood and shredded flesh flew everywhere. The air was filled with the foul stench of acid, rot, and blood, while the roars of the three maddened beasts sounded like wails from hell.

"Great marksmanship!" Gloria could not help but praise.

Earlier, she hadn't thought Lizer's tactic of shooting their eyes would succeed at all. She never expected that in the blink of an eye, the situation would turn out like this.

Lizer felt a hint of pride. "I've been training hard in marksmanship recently. Luckily, it yielded some results."

Gloria raised an eyebrow and looked at the Silver Lightning in his hands:

"Hey! Lizer, I remember you don't have a firearms license, right?

Confess honestly, where did you get this gun?

Illegal possession of a firearm can get you detained, you know!"

Hearing this, Lizer gave a slight, bitter smile, thinking to himself that he needed to obtain official membership in the Internal Intelligence Bureau as soon as possible. Otherwise, this illegal firearm possession would indeed be troublesome.

At this moment, he could only reply vaguely, "Big sis, look at the timing. Why do you care about that right now?

If you guys just control the Terrorbeasts enough to make them pause, I can hit their eyes."

Hearing this, Gloria changed her strategy. With a leaping slash at one of the Terrorbeasts, the massive impact from descending from the sky indeed caused the beast to pause for a moment.

Bang!

The familiar gunshot rang out. Yet another Terrorbeast's eyeball was shattered, and it began to attack wildly and indiscriminately.

On the other side, Felina commanded the skeleton warriors to form a bone wall to entangle the Terrorbeasts.

Dark magical threads wrapped around her fingertips as she manipulated the eerie green glowing Wizard's Hand:

It was a translucent giant hand condensed from shadow energy, wrapping around the dread beast's limbs like a poisonous snake, rendering it completely immobile.

This shadow energy carried a piercing chill. Lizer had once experienced being entangled by it; it felt as if his very soul was being frozen, leaving him completely at Felina's mercy.

Bang!

With the familiar gunshot, all five dread beasts were now plunged into a state of blindness.

Losing their sense of direction, they attacked wildly in all directions, while the two patrol officers and the two women stood quietly not far away, exchanging glances.

There was no suspense in the ensuing battle. Before long, the five dread beasts were slain by the group. Gloria asked:

"The flesh, skin, blood, and organs of magical monsters all hold a certain value. They are important raw materials for various witchcraft items and potions.

For example, the blood of a dread beast seems to be one of the supplementary materials for low-grade strength potions.

After the loot is tallied, do you want the actual materials or their equivalent value in gold coins?"

Lizer curiously examined the corpses of the dread beasts. This was his first time observing magical monsters up close. The skeleton from last time did not even reach the Knight tier, so naturally, it could not be considered a magical monster.

He thought for a moment and said with a hint of interest:

"Could you give me two of the corpses? I want to study anatomy in the near future.

If their value exceeds our share of the loot, I will make up the difference with gold coins. How does that sound?"

Gloria's introduction to the value of monster corpses made him realize his lack of witchcraft knowledge. At the very least, anatomy was a necessary skill for every wizard to learn.

Otherwise, after killing a magical monster, he would not even know how to harvest the raw materials.

He was a complete novice in the realm of wizards. He still needed to study hard and invest heavily every day.

Lizer had helped Gloria and the police station a lot recently, so Gloria initially wanted to just give them to him for free.

But on second thought, this loot was the main source of income for ordinary patrol officers outside of their meager salaries.

The fair distribution of loot was one of the most important and fundamental principles for internal unity within the police station, just like in the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Regardless of whether the amount was large or small, she knew she should not break this rule.