Chapter 003: Thunder Beast

“That’s a Thunder Beast! How could so many of them appear here?” Moses’ face turned deathly pale.
“Thunder Beast? What kind of magical beast is that?” Du Fan quickly asked upon hearing that Moses seemed to know this beast.
“I’ve only heard of Thunder Beasts; I’ve never seen one in person. According to our elves’ knowledge, Thunder Beasts can only exist in the divine realm!” Moses said in shock.
Thousands of Thunder Beasts, which supposedly only existed in the divine realm, suddenly appeared in the ruins of the gods—no wonder Moses was so astonished!
“Let’s run quickly! Thunder Beasts, especially adult ones, are magical beasts of level 9 or above. Just stepping on us could kill us!” Moses shouted and started running up the mountain.
Seeing Moses act like that, the others followed him, running frantically.
But those level-9 Thunder Beasts were clearly much faster than these humans who ran on two legs. What was originally a distance of thousands of meters was quickly reduced to dozens of meters. At this pace, it wouldn’t be long before they were caught up by the Thunder Beasts!
As the group turned to flee, a few archers took the time to draw their bows and shoot arrows.
The long arrows fired by those holy archers had no effect at all on the Thunder Beasts! The arrows struck their blue-black scales, leaving only small white dots.
Seeing the horde of Thunder Beasts approaching closer and closer, Du Fan grew increasingly anxious.
“Run over there! I’ll distract these Thunder Beasts!” Du Fan shouted.
After saying that, Du Fan suddenly ran toward the Thunder Beasts.
“Du Fan, I want to come with you!” Nai Xiu suddenly ran over.
“Nai Xiu, trust me—I’ll be fine. My Absolute Protection will keep these Thunder Beasts from harming me. If I distract them, everyone will have a chance to escape,” Du Fan said.
“Make sure to leave a mark. I’ll distract these beasts so I can find you!” Du Fan shouted loudly, pushing Nai Xiu toward Moses before jumping toward the Thunder Beasts.
“Let’s go! We need to find a place to hide right away!” Moses quickly pulled Nai Xiu and started running.

As he ran, Du Fan drew out Frostfall Snow. Ever since Moses acquired the Sword of War, Frostfall Snow had returned to Du Fan’s hands. He cast several supportive spells on himself in quick succession. With a loud roar, Du Fan swung his sword with all his strength at the lead Thunder Beast!

The Thunder Beast attacked by Du Fan was one that was leading the group. It had nearly reached the peak of level 9; just one more level and it would enter the Sacred tier. However, reaching the Sacred tier was even more difficult for a magical beast!

For a magical beast originally at level 9 to advance beyond its tier actually went against natural laws. Such cases were extremely rare—truly rare!

This peak-level 9 Thunder Beast was essentially the most powerful among them and also one of the main leaders of the group.

Without any special techniques, Du Fan relied entirely on his physical strength this time.

His physical strength had reached a terrifying level. Ever since Chenchen cast the spell of complete recovery, Du Fan’s physique had attained a state beyond what ordinary people could imagine. At the Elves’ Spring of Life, he had absorbed an amount of energy equivalent to that of the spring alone!

The energy from the Spring of Life kept transforming Du Fan’s physique. Its energy was so vast that even after all this time, he had only absorbed about 80% of it. Yet, even with just 80%, his strengthened physique was already infinitely close to that of a divine being!

In other words, Du Fan didn’t possess divine powers, but he basically had a divine physique!

With a fierce swing of his sword, Frostfall Snow, combined with his divine physique, severed the head of the lead Thunder Beast in one strike!

The Thunder Beast let out a pained roar before collapsing to the ground.

At that moment, all the Thunder Beasts turned their attention toward Du Fan!

By killing one Thunder Beast, Du Fan immediately caught the attention of the entire group. And that was exactly his goal! After killing one beast, he immediately changed direction and ran in the opposite direction from where Nayixiu and her group were fleeing. The Thunder Beasts, as if waking from a dream, immediately chased after Du Fan at full speed!

“Come chase me! Hurry up!” Du Fan kept shouting at them as he ran, regardless of whether they could understand human speech.

As a wind magic master, he also possessed the physique of a domain expert! Du Fan’s speed could only be described as monstrous! It was this speed that allowed him to dare face such a group of Thunder Beasts alone. Even so, these Thunder Beasts were not much slower than Du Fan! In the Divine Realm, Thunder Beasts were already famous for their speed! Many lower-ranking deities liked to capture them as mounts or for pulling carts. Of course, higher-ranking deities could catch even more powerful divine beasts. Level 9 magical beasts were merely the lowest rank of beasts in the Divine Realm. Yet, these lowest-ranked beasts became practically the highest-ranking ones once they came to this road. Du Fan didn’t dare let a large group of Thunder Beasts surround him! Just now, to chop off the head of one of those Thunder Beasts with a single sword swing, he had to exert all his strength. When cutting off that Thunder Beast’s head, Du Fan clearly felt the solid resistance of its scales—such resistance that he needed to channel all his strength, combined with the sharpness of the Frostfall Blade, just to barely break through its protective scales. In the distance, Moses could still be seen running with his group. Some of the Thunder Beasts slowed down, constantly looking back and forth between Du Fan and Moses. Clearly, Moses now had many more prey. Seeing this, Du Fan gritted his teeth, raised the Frostfall Blade again, and severed another Thunder Beast’s head. With that, the group of Thunder Beasts no longer hesitated and charged at Du Fan with fierce roars! Soon, Moses and his group ran all the way to the top of a small hill. From there, they could see Du Fan and the Thunder Beasts in a chase-and-flee situation. “Du Fan, will he be okay?” Naixiu asked worriedly. “I don’t think so. Look at Du Fan’s speed—it’s clearly faster than those Thunder Beasts. With this speed advantage, he should be fine,” Moses said. Leading the group of Thunder Beasts, Du Fan moved further and further away from Moses’s direction. He was trying to take them as far away from Moses as possible, then find an opportunity to get rid of them and reunite with Moses and the others. Along the foot of the mountain, Du Fan led the Thunder Beasts behind the hill. From the top of the hill, Moses and his group could still see Du Fan’s direction and followed the path he was taking.

At that very moment, at the foot of Bone Mountain, by the river, a dwarf suddenly appeared. This dwarf was the one who, during his duel with Sullen and just before being killed by him, had fled into Karu inside the Divine Ruins. Although his face still showed many whip marks, Karu had put on new clothes. As an heir of the Dodge clan in his position, a storage ring was naturally essential for him. Moreover, the Scorching Sun Axe in his hands had regained its luster. Not long after Du Fan entered the Divine Ruins, Karu, out of desperation, also entered them! After entering the ruins, Karu saw from afar that Du Fan and his group were fighting against several skeletons. He hid at a distance and followed them from afar! Along the way, Karu had an extremely easy time—Du Fan and his group had already dealt with all the enemies ahead of him, so Karu only needed to follow from a distance without being noticed. When Du Fan, the Thunder Beast herd, and Moses and the others moved far away, Karu, the cunning dwarf, began to cross the river. He didn’t have good armor, but he had his own method! He raised the Scorching Sun Axe in his hand, gripped it tightly, and a blazing red sun appeared! The Scorching Sun Domain! To cross the river safely, Karu immediately unleashed the Scorching Sun Domain! On the wooden planks above the river, the jumping arrowfish were instantly roasted into dried fish by the domain’s heat and fell lifelessly onto the river surface! Having crossed the river easily, Karu headed straight toward the direction of Green Mountain. Karu, this dwarf who still didn’t know the reason but was determined to take Bash’s life, entered the area around Green Mountain before Du Fan and his group. As for Du Fan, who was far behind with the Thunder Beast herd, he suddenly unleashed a flying spell and soared into the air, leaving the beasts in shock. Could this human not fly? Turns out he could! The few magical beasts ahead hung their heads dejectedly and shook their heads. It seemed there were several other humans in that direction. The leading Thunder Beast suddenly grew angry, but when it turned its head, it saw more people there! Magical beasts remained magical beasts—they still lacked a lot in terms of intelligence!

The reason Du Fan and his group didn’t use flight magic just now was that aside from Du Fan, who was a wind mage, and the three elf mages, the others, although all at the Saint level or above and theoretically capable of using flight magic, especially Bashaa, with his abilities, could at most fly only about a hundred meters!
So, under such circumstances, Du Fan had no choice but to use himself as an attraction to lure those Thunder Beasts away at a distance!
“Du Fan, are you okay? I was so worried!” As soon as she saw Du Fan land from the air, Nai Xiu rushed over, grabbed his hand, and asked.
“Don’t worry, how could anything happen to me?” Du Fan said with a smile as he hugged Nai Xiu.
Hugged by Du Fan like that, Nai Xiu shyly turned away.
“Elder brother, second brother, let’s hurry inside,” Du Fan said promptly once he returned to the group.