When the nearby beasts tearing into the giant beast’s hide noticed the group, they immediately sprinted toward them.

"Don’t capture any of them. We will kill them all." Theo gave a command.

For the first time, Kaelor smiled with confidence as he drew his sword from its scabbard.

"Everyone, move back," he said, slashing through the air.

For the first time, Theo saw it clearly.

The aura latching the blade shot forward and sliced cleanly into the charging beasts.

The beasts continued moving forward for a moment, but within a second, their bodies were split neatly into two halves.

Theo could tell the man had generated aura at least a hundred times faster than he could, which was normal and made sense as Kaelor was a full-fledged knight.

Once the beasts were all taken care of, Theo looked up, only to see nothing. The mantis was gone.

Theo forced himself to stop overthinking for a second and decided to focus. The larger beast seemed to be asleep, while the pack beasts they had just killed had been biting into its hide.

’Is this beast even alive?’ Theo couldn’t help but wonder.

’Mantis, come back immediately,’ Theo commanded through the bond, only for the mantis to send a few more emotions before going silent again.

"The mantis found blood," Theo said out loud, drawing everyone’s attention away from the dead beasts and the massive one toward him.

Theo turned to Lucien. "I don’t think this beast is just asleep. I think it’s injured," Theo said, following the mantis’s trail with his gaze.

And soon, an idea came up. "Sir Kaelor, should we try to stab the creature and see if it reacts or not?" Theo asked.

Kaelor looked at him with surprise. "...you want to stab it with aura?"

Theo only nodded, and everyone looked at Theo with a frown.

Just when he was about to explain further, the falcons returned from wherever they had gone and began making screeching sounds again.

Everyone looked up at them and realized the birds wanted the group to head even farther south.

The falcons circled directly above the beast’s body, and one even perched itself on it, yet the beast still showed no reaction.

"We are like mosquitoes for this beast... we are too small to matter," Theo spoke out loud.

Nobody could argue with that.

He was right. The beast was simply too massive.

Theo took the sword and channeled aura into the blade before stepping closer.

Lucien moved right away to stop him, but Theo had already pressed the tip of his blade against the beast’s hide.

And as Theo pushed it forward, the aura focused at the point of contact of the beast’s hide; that was what shocked him the most.

Nothing happened.

Theo pulled the blade back and tried stabbing again and again, pouring more strength into each strike, his aura flaring at full force. Before he could continue, Lucien grabbed both his shoulders and yanked him away.

Kaelor stepped closer, glancing at the beast at the spot where Theo had been stabbing before moving closer.

"You didn’t even scratch it..." Kaelor muttered as he dragged his hand across the hide.

"This beast is too strong. Do you think you can hurt it, Sir Kaelor?" Theo asked, letting his aura fade. There was no way he was going to waste it right now.

"You used aura at roughly 40% of my full strength. It should have done something, but as you can see..." Kaelor spoke while pointing at the spot Theo had tried to stab, but there wasn’t even a single scratch on it.

Kaelor drew his sword too and swung it at the beast’s body.

Theo watched closely, staring at the hide with even more bewilderment, his confusion deepening.

Even Kaelor’s strike had left no mark.

A bead of sweat slid upward along Kaelor’s temple, defying gravity itself.

"...I used 80%, young master," Kaelor spoke as they stared at the beast’s hide.

Still, there wasn’t even a single scratch.

"I don’t know why you both are doing this," Lucien said, gripping Theo’s shoulder tightly. ’We can’t handle this beast at all. It’s a hundred times larger than us; we can’t cut its hide even with aura, and I am confident our beasts would fare no better."

"Theo, just because Knight Kaelor is level 12 and you are level 10 doesn’t mean you can stand against a level 13 beast. Sometimes life is unfair, and this right here is one of those moments," he spoke while looking into Theo’s eyes.

"I don’t know if you will even be able to hurt it once you reach level 13 either," he added while Theo stared at him.

"As unfortunate as that is, I agree with young master Lucien," Kaelor added with a sigh.

"Then why is Sir Garrick pushing us forward?" Clara said with a frown. "If that thing wakes up, we won’t be able to do anything."

There was no way anyone in the group seemed to be thinking straight.

Theo was adamant about testing himself against the big beast, as if he truly believed he stood a chance. Kaelor was doing it to humor him, while Lucien was the only one thinking about their safety.

"I need to go forward. Mantis is there too. And since it didn’t wake up even after Sir Kaelor used such a powerful aura, then..." Theo said, bending his knees.

Clara, Elias, and Lucien immediately realized what he was about to do and lunged at him to catch him...

But it was too late.

Theo launched himself in a hyper-jump, the beast’s body filling his entire vision. Within seconds, he landed atop the beast’s massive body, and a chill ran down his spine.

’It feels like I am standing on the ground itself...’ he thought before glancing back, then pushed forward again.

He saw the falcons looking at him with sharp eyes before they veered south. Theo followed, running along the beast’s body.

Its entire body was covered in scales, each scale nearly three times the size of his own foot.

Along its back ran a ridge of spiky scales, much like that of a wyvern.

’Its name doesn’t state it... but this beast looks more and more like a dragon, or even a dinosaur...’

But soon enough, when Theo moved toward the other side of the spiky-scaled center line, a strong metallic scent hit his nose.

Blood.

Behind him, the others followed, trying to catch up to him, hyper-jumping above the beast’s body one-by-one.

Drawn by the scent of blood, Theo moved toward it, and soon, after what felt like ages, the silhouette of the mantis came into view.