The harassment that Dyne gave drove the Seru enemies mad.
Strafe was also enraged at what he saw.
The Chicken King can only work if the user generally and truly wishes to run away and have no intention of fighting. This was, of course, true. Dyne could not fight and face these monsters alone. He would surely die. The fight he had with the Zenoir made them use all that they had. But even after Vahn summoned the Gimard several times, the Zenoir was still able to resist it.
It proved that those two, the Zenoir and the Level 2 Gimards are stronger than Dyne imagined. It would have been possible for a level 4 Vahn to kill a Zenoir with items and the right magic in the game. But here, it was dangerous. Unless they could always nuke the enemy with Gimard's or had special penetrating attacks like Dyne, there was no way to kill a Zenoir. So obviously, Dyne's heart was really bent on not fighting these Seru monsters.
But this was not the case for Grim.
Dyne was carrying grim in a way that his head was facing the enemy. And since Serus could acquire more energy when absorbing the Mist, Grim could slowly harass the enemies by shooting small fireballs that harassed the enemy.
As such, the six Serus fell into a crazed state of chasing after Dyne.
Strafe was very frustrated at how easy it was for Dyne to lead a group of Serus to the river. It was improbable since the Serus didn't casually stroll towards the river areas and hunted on the mid zones. In the game, Zenoirs and Gimards don't appear on the area where Dyne was. They only appeared inside the Mist Generator. Dyne knew that something would happen in the future to make the Serus stay inside.
But now, Dyne realized what caused the Serus to stay hidden. Even Strafe didn't know that Dyne was already expecting that and had been moving to prepare the village for it.
Dyne had to evade the fire attacks of the Zenoir and the Gimard, but his speed was just too much for them. Dyne would occasionally stop running and rest or take a few sips with the Hunter Spring water that he carried.
This would make the Serus chase after him all the more enraged, and Dyne would run right before they got near.
Along the way, Dyne continued to observe the Serus every time he got so far ahead. He would turn back and observe the Serus.
"So Serus don't get tired, huh? I wonder just how strong Vahn would be to be able to travel days and days in the Mist?" Dyne wondered as he observed them.
Then he realized something.
"Unless… Soul Cultivation could do something to our physical bodies. If Serus is a Soul creature, what energy do they use to move? It must be Life energy! I wonder…" Dyne began to experiment when he started running again as the Serus was getting close.
To Strafe, miracles like these became trivial to him, and instead of being surprised, Strafe gave a happy nod and watched Dyne run as he used up the energy of his soul.
This allowed Dyne to run without wasting more of his stamina. At that point, Dyne was frustrated as he couldn't balance the energy. As of this moment, only five percent of the energy he expended was being eaten from his soul. What he didn't know was that Strafe took three years to get to that level.
The sprint continued, and Dyne was reaching his limits. But even though he was reaching his limitations, Dyne gritted his teeth and concentrated on exploiting his soul to grant him strength. In these desperate moments, Dyne even fell into a short trance as his soul seemed to be recovering his body.
This allowed Dyne to persevere and run more and more.
Soon, Dyne approached the area where several Frogs and Ostriches could be seen. The Frogs and Ostriches escaped and moved further away at the sight of Dyne's sprint.
The harassment and argo of these Serus have maintained thanks to Grim's occasional attacks and whenever Dyne would pause to take a breather.
"Getting close!" Dyne panted. The Zenoir and Gimards were able to maintain their max speed while Dyne had used the Chicken King, which somehow reduced the stamina he would waste as he ran. Dyne was very tired, but he was close to the location where the Basilisk was. Thanks to his experience as a soldier, he could easily locate directions even with the Mist around.
Soon, the river could be seen. At this point, the effects of Drake water and the water from Hunter Spring could not keep up with the pain that Dyne had felt and the exhaustion he was at.
Dyne's legs were so wobbly. He continued to forcible run with whatever strength he had. The Serus was now slowly gaining on Dyne.
Many Frogs and Ostriches that were resting around the river came to view.
Dyne finally did the hardest part of this maneuver. Dyne undid the effects of the Chicken King and raised Grim up high.
Grim sent all the fireball attacks it could do to the nearby Frogs and Ostriches.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Several angry cries were heard.
The Gimard and the Zenoir were right behind Dyne.
Just as someone who was exhausted from running a marathon mustn't stop running or else he wouldn't move again, Dyne felt the same level of exhaustion. But his will remained, and he used the last remaining effects of his soul and rushed to the back.
Right before the Gimard and the Zenoir could attack Dyne, Dyne disappeared as he ran towards Zenoir.
Dyne jumped and stepped on the Zenoir and sprinted to the back of the group.
The confused Serus was startled at Dyne's sudden movements. But then the monsters that Dyne provoked saw these Serus and began to attack them.
The Serus were greatly outnumbered, and the distant cries of several Ostriches and the croaks of Frogs could be heard as those who avoided the Serus charged back to fight them as their nest was suddenly attacked.
Dyne had collapsed at the rocky edges nearby. He was trembling as he drank all the Hunter Springs and the Drake Water that he carried.
He positioned himself as his strength slowly returned and watched the battle occurring.
It was brutal. The Gimards and the Zenoir could quickly kill these monsters with several attacks. But the Frogs and the Ostriches were wildly charging at them without regard for their life.
The rocky exterior of the Zenoir and the metallic body of the Gimards was being pecked by the Ostriches. The Frogs began to leap high to the sky and do head-butts and body slams towards the Gimards.
These monsters could easily kill a Gobu Gobu. Dyne and his team were only able to fight and kill them easily with cheat techniques developed from Tekken 3. But if these monsters were to hit Dyne or Vahn, it would have been dangerous. These monsters' attacks were something that could break through Spirit defenses and could even kill a human that has bonded with a Ra-Seru!
The Zenoirs looked like immovable and unrelenting mountains that used their fingers and smashed them on several Frogs at once. The Frogs who would have these fingers pierce through them relentlessly attacked the body until it was dead.
Despite the disadvantage in numbers, the Serus was still winning!
Tens... Twenties... Soon, over thirty monsters were killed as the Serus continued their rampage.
The Zenoirs mowed down the monsters and crushed them with their fingers. The Gimards shot, pecked, and stabbed the enemies that drew close.
Yet every now and then, some of the monsters could land a clean hit. Soon, more and more were able to do so.
Finally, two of the Gimard had fallen from the hits. The Zenoir rushed out to draw the attention of the monsters. As the battle moved forward, the two Gimards could be seen on the ground, surrounded by dead monsters.
Dyne saw it and could not help but be greedy.
He slowly stood up and checked on his condition. He revealed the miraculous gold collecting Card.
Strafe was cursing at Dyne as he did that. By any means, Dyne shouldn't have that card. But when Strafe set fate to make the dead merchant lose a huge bulk of his money, it was to spend on this purple card, which wasn't really a cheat artifact but merely something convenient for Dyne.
But in this scenario, it was a cheat.
Dyne ran and used Golden Compass and rushed to the back area of the battle and gathered the dead monsters' lifeblood. The quality of their blood was much higher and had a different color.
Dyne moved from one body to the next as he kept his body low.
Slowly, he crept forward until he reached the dying Gimard. After hesitating for a bit, Dyne moved forward and came closer to the second Gimard as he gathered the lifeblood of the monsters nearby.
When he got to the second Gimard, Dyne confirmed that this one couldn't fight back either.
Dyne immediately carried the Gimard and retreated. He ordered Grim to peck on the first Gimard as he passed by. And so, the inconspicuous Dyne hid with two Gimards.
The battle continued, but now, the monsters were more organized, and the Serus began to act in caution. The battle continued at a slower pace. The monsters were enraged that they wouldn't let these Serus escape.
Dyne smiled as he looked at the two dying Gimards.
"Perfect. I can use my Imaginarium Arts with this! Grim, my friend, it's time to make you stronger!" Dyne smirked.
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