Dead:Lost - Chapter 15 Before The Red Dawn

We saw three [Soul Eaters] drinking from the lake. Soul Eater is a Demonic Beast that appears from Abyssia. [Soul Eater] has two form, [The Beast Form] and [Ethereal Ghost Form]. What we encountered right now are [The Beast Form] Soul Eaters. These Beast Soul Eaters are blind, but they have extremely sharp sense to detect sound, smell and vibration. The Beast Soul Eaters shaped like a lizard with wolf fangs, claws, dragon’s tail and “stone-like” mane. Few of them do not have pair of eyes and few of them possess it. Beast Soul Eaters have five colors type Red, White, Black, Grey and Brown. They used those colors as a camouflage in the place where they live (volcano, snowfield, cave, mountains and desert). They have big body but their movement is fast.

The Beast Soul Eaters normally live independent and they will live in pairs after mating season. They love to hunt alone and they normally go hunting in night or after a natural disaster occurred (blizzard, flood, volcano eruption, sandstorm, etc.) The Beast Soul Eaters normally manipulate the nature around them and the mist released from their body before attacking their preys. Other than that, they also can change their body color to the environment around them (mimicry). The Beast Soul Eaters can’t make a sound, it means unlike normal beasts who can emit sound like “raawwrr”, “grrrrhhh” or “roooarr”, they are totally “silent”. It makes them become a deadly assassin and apex predator on the nature.

All Soul Eaters’ attacks are almost completely “concealed”. It means they are “concealing” their attacks perfectly in purpose to make their preys “unaware” and “confused”. These creatures have become an A or S-ranked beast that becomes a nightmare for adventurers, even the full-pledged (most professional) adventurers, warriors or knights said, “They are extremely deadly and hard to deal with rather than Dragon, Lesser Demons or Demonic Dragon.”

“…now what should we do?” asked Zack.

“…conceal anything with skills or spells quietly, I recommend the Mages cast multiple layers of protection and conceal spells right now…” I said. Then, we silently cast the skills that give and enhance [Presence Concealment] effects like [Silent], [Stealth], [Shadow Walk] and many others. After that, The Mages casted protection spells, enhancement spells and other conceal spells.

“…must we wait or fight?” asked Erick.

“…I want EXP…” said Luna.

“…we have two options, let Erick throws a diversion and then we jump into the lake and run or let Erick throws a diversion then ambush them.” I tell them our options.

“…no! it’s better if Erick throws a diversion and then I ambushed them with [Explosion].” said Tim.

“…yes, fireboy and after that we’ll be getting ambushed by them or even more of them will appear. I’m sure I’ll tell Rania to punish you after this.” After Luna said that and grabbed his shoulder, Tim jolted (with scared explosion).

“…can’t we divert them to different place with different diversion? It will make the fight easier…”

“…we can’t Rahealis-dono, if we are fighting separately. It will make them easier to “ambush” us with their “unseen” and “silent” attacks.” said Zack.

“…then, fighting three of them in same time? Are you sure?” asked Luck.

“…Luna, how deep the lake is?”

“…wait, let me analyze it…hmm (Activating Earth Elemental Magic: Contour Analyze), it 30 Me Kaichou. Why did you ask?”

“…put Mages and Archers on the lake and we would safe from them. They can’t swim.”

“Oh! Brilliant Ishizaki-dono! I’m sure—” Suddenly, Zack stand up after hearing my opinion. Moreover, he talked with loud voice.

“…Ah…” He suddenly realized that we still “hiding” from The Soul Eaters.

“…” The Soul Eaters and we looked at each other.

“RUUUUUUNNNNNNN!” he is running first before us and those three Soul Eaters are chasing him.

“Uh…he becomes a nice bait for diversion, isn’t he? I don’t need to throw my explosives then….” said Erick.

“That Leader of mine…oh my, please forgives him Ishizaki-dono and Rahealis-dono….” said Daendles.

“…Rather than being apologetic, let’s get into formation shall we?” I walked from the brushes.

“Julio, activate your [Taunt] and [Aggro Exchange], Luna, Tim, Daendles-dono, Zikiya and Riona-san, go to lake. Distance yourself from the edge of the lake. Those Beasts can jump to 5 Me length and height without fail. The rest of you follow me.”

“Come here to me you faceless beast! [Challenge], [Aggro Exchange]!”

“Divide the [Aggro] to Suzuka Julio!”

“As you wish!”

“Suzuka, you and Kenzia go to southeast and stall it near Zikiya’s AoE Spell!”

“Right, let’s go Leader!”

“Ayumi, Erick, go with Julio. Erick, you must assist each team with your debuff. Be sure to retreat to lake periodically!”

“Okay…” After we separated, I run to Zack’s position that located on north side of the lake. Julio is stalling one of the Soul Eaters on East and Suzuka is battling one on southeast. Their position is near the support Mages’ AoE Spell Range.

“Haah…haah (breathing) Damn, you are so strong buddy.” After that, Zack dodged Soul Eater’s attack [Unseen Chaos Claw] and then he rolled forward to dodge [Shadow Claw]. He unleashed [Sword Art Third Form: Skull Clash] and it successfully hit Soul Eater’s head, making it inflicted by [Bleeding], [Dizzy] and [Stun] debuff status.

“Whoops! [Inflammation Flask], get back you two!” Zack and I jumped back before Erick threw a flask to Soul Eater. The [Inflammation Flask] is a flask that causes a painful burn sensation in the target’s chest and makes the target unable to breathe. That is one of [Prankster] ——— Class specialty. Erick sent it with [Gate].

“Let’s finish this Zack-dono!” We activated [Guillotine Drop] and successfully beheaded it, although it wasn’t easy.

(On Western Side of The Lake)

“Activate [Challenge]! Take this [Paladin Sword Skill: Light Fury of God]!” Julio attacked when the Soul Eater almost fully concealed its body.

“Cih! It won’t reach!”

“Activate [Divine Attribute Spear Skill: Impalement of The Just]!” few white spears emerged from the ground and stabbed the Soul Eater’s legs and body, canceling the Soul Eater’s [Conceal]. Thanks to that, Julio’s attack landed a [Critical Hit].

“My thanks to you, Ayumi-dono…But, it’s still breathing…!”

“I will strike it again!”

Ayumi runs to the Soul Eater then jump to it, but the Soul Eater opened its mouth, it launched its special skill [Soul Eater]. Ayumi who noticed it quickly changed to [Defensive Mode] but it’s too late.

“Oh no! Ayumi-dono!”

*Bam*Bam*Boom!* (sound of multiple arrows exploded and an explosion from an [Explosion Flask]) a man jumped to her and grabbed her body. Then, the man landed on the ground, he is carrying the woman in “Princess Carry” position.

“Are you okay Ayumi-san?”

“Yes, thank you very much Haru-san.” (Blushed)

“My Lord, Ayumi-dono…!”

“I’m okay Julio-san! Keep taunting it!” said Ayumi.

“Hey Ishizaki-dono! If you are late, I’ll finish this off for myself!!!”

“Let’s go.” I put down Ayumi and then I run to the Soul Eater. “Wait for me Zack-dono!”

“Gang it up! Activate your [One Hit Kill] skills!” I said.

“ACTIVATE [GUILOTINE DROP]!!!” we activate [Guillotine Drop] together from four directions and it made the Soul Eater’s body teared into four parts.

We chose to activate [Guillotine Drop] because it is a [One Hit Kill] skill that can instantly kill the enemy if you are aiming at their neck, head or other vital spots on their body. If it missed or failed, [Guillotine Drop] will inflict very serious damage and debuff like [Bleeding], [Paralyze], or [Broken Bone] on the target. But even though [Guillotine Drop] is an overpowered skill, it can be negated by various [Anti-One Hit Kill] spells or skills or with few spells or skills that have protection effects. [Guillotine Drop] has higher chance of success if the target is unaware and if the target has lower level than the user. The chance of [One Hit Kill] also will increase if other activated the same skill together.

“Heeh…Kaichou…four [Guillotine Drop] skills at once? How merciless.” said Erick through [Divine Telepathy].

“We must finish it in one go Erick. Now, focus on Suzuka’s group.”

We ran into Suzuka’s group and tried to assist them but it was too late…yes, it was too late because they have finished the Soul Eater by themselves. I saw Suzuka activated [Katana Sword Skill: One Cut of Tranquility].

“Mattaku (Oh My God) this beast kept avoiding my attacks like it was nothing. Thanks to the Mages and Archer, if they weren’t here, I’d die from Soul Eater’s claw attacks.” said Suzuka while sheathing her katana.

“Thankfully, The Soul Eaters’ levels are below 100, so they didn’t become a real problem for us. Alright, we are done here Ishizaki-dono. Where should we go now?”