Chapter 342: Arrival of beast artillery unit.

The sight of thousands of ferocious beasts growling was bound to put fear into the hearts of many, but for some reason, a sea of beasts that were quiet and grouped in formations was way scarier.

The tension in the air was at an all-time high, as both armies at the sides of the city barrier stood waiting for the next order.

“You have 1 hour to rest and regain your mana, before reporting back to the wall.” Major Reeves quickly dismissed the students and returned his gaze to the army of beasts outside the wall.

“Isn’t only me that is nervous?” Brian asked.

“Definitely not. Even the soldiers who have witnessed many beast tides are still nervous, So it is normal for you to be” Luciano said in order to loosen the nerves of the team which were being affected by the tension in the air.

“Someone seems to be perfectly alright.” Castiel pointed at Blake who seemed perfectly normal.

“If I said I am not nervous, that would be a lie. It’s just that, I don’t see the need to worry about things that are not in my control. So it’s best to not worry and leave things to fate.” Blake said.

.....

The truth was that the students were insignificant in this battle. Their firepower and arrays were nowhere compared to that of the volunteers talk more of ash corps. Their safety was 90% in the hands of the barriers, magical weapons, and everyone else defending the city.

As for the remaining 10%, a fraction of it was dependent on their skills, while the rest was totally on luck.

...

After their 1hr break, the students returned to the wall and each team was assigned to positions in between 2 ash corps teams. With the wall being huge in both length and width, they had no problem with space.

The students were tasked with patrol but unlike those of previous days. They were meant to stay at their assigned spot and look out for anything strange.

2 hours into the patrol Castiel spoke.

“I have a question.” Castiel said, drawing the attention of the ash corps beside them. “If all the beasts are working as one, it means predators don’t eat prey. So how can they survive so long and still be full of strength without eating anything?”

This question made everyone ponder about it, but that was when Major Reeves came along.

“We suspect that the cause of the beast tide that is powering them is also sustaining them.” Major Reeves explained, how they had captured multiple beasts in the past to experiment on them. Apart from the beasts dying due to severe acute malnutrition after the beast tide, they had found nothing else.

“The beasts get powered by the beast tide?” Blake was stunned by this discovery and couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes. You might not have noticed because you are facing weak beasts, but as you go up in rank it becomes more noticeable.” Major Reeves replied.

[It explains how you were unable to match the knight rank praying mantis in speed.] The system said.

‘I thought a knight rank beast was meant to be that fast.’ Blake said.

[Not a tier 1 knight rank beasts, at best you were meant to be at the same speed as it.]

The beast ranks were a way of comparing the power level of beasts to that of humans, but beast tiers were a way humans used to compare beasts amongst themselves.

Beast tiers were determined by the bloodline of beasts. The greater the amount of their ancestor’s genes that they possessed the stronger they would be.

Tier 1 beasts like sklades had a very little amount of dragon genes because they were the lowest-ranked reptiles.

An example of tier 2 beasts was Rugors. They had a large amount of Karkadann gene in their blood granting them the ability to manipulate the earth to a certain degree at the knight rank. Meaning they would awaken the 2nd element by the king rank.

As for tier 3 beasts, they were the beast’s ancestors and their direct descendants.

(AN: In case you are wondering why sklades have chances of evolving into dragons. Evolution causes an increase in purity of bloodline (increase in ancestor gene) and the level of increase mainly depends on luck and other factors that would be mentioned in the future.)

‘I didn’t notice the increase in power because I still killed them in one slice.’ Blake thought.

“If that is all the questions, then I will be leaving.” Major Reeves said as he continued moving to make sure everyone was in their position.

‘Although bored, I wouldn’t want to get lively.’ Brian said, but almost instantly sound earthquakes were coming from the beasts.

The earthquakes continued for a few minutes before multiple intersections in the ground burst open as water geysers shot through, each carrying 20 elite rank aardvarks.

In a few seconds, the water geysers were gone leaving behind multiple 20-meter-long pools of water.

‘What is going on?’ Everyone was confused about why beasts would dig out such large pools of water. Their questions were soon answered, when Armored hippos began rising to the surface of the water.

‘Holy shit!’ Blake exclaimed.

[From the looks on their face, this is new.] The system referred to the stunned expressions of the ash corp teams beside them.

Everyone knew how dangerous armored hippos were. They were tier 2 elite rank beasts, that not only had immense physical strength and defense, but they possessed the ability to shoot water bombs that made them good artillery units.

With them being in the middle of the beast army, they would be difficult to get to.

(AN: The armored hippos’ ability to shoot water bombs is because they are tier 2 beasts, but note that it is just an innate skill and not water manipulation from awakening the water element.)

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