Lloyd continued to walk with his team, and after about 30 minutes of nothing, they had finally left the forest and walked into a rocky plain littered with hills.
Large rocky mountains could be seen in the distance, and even though it seemed like it was the middle of the day, there was a shade of darkness over the entire as the clouds became so compact that it seemed like they were entering the pits of the night.
Lloyd grinned with greed when he imagined how many monsters he could kill in this area. The others grimaced when they imagined several ways they could die when they stepped out of the forest area.
"Oh. This place looks nice, doesn't it? We can get a shit ton of points here." Lloyd grinned from ear to ear while everyone stared daggers at him.
"Do you think we're going to find any second commandment monsters?" Lloyd asked while feigning ignorance at their glares.
"Probably not. Most of the monsters on this planet at in the first commandment. Some monsters that we might consider 'boss monsters' might be, but normal monsters won't." Alex explained with a smile of his own that reassured everyone.
Everyone but Lloyd.
'I don't trust him...' Lloyd thought to himself. His smile reminded him too much of Veronica, so he kept his guard up at all times around the third year.
Ever since the dungeon, Lloyd has had problems trusting anyone other than himself. Sure, Fatima was around, as well as Derek and Jay, but he couldn't really trust them.
They were more like allies or people with the same interests. Lloyd simply used them so he wouldn't go insane from being alone for too long.
Even Fatima, who knew most of what happened in the dungeon through the reports, Mr. Khan, allowed her to read, didn't get an explanation from Lloyd's mouth. She knew he had become a little colder since the last time she met him, but she still acted normally around him, hoping that he would do the same for her.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt'This is the perfect environment for dark or lightning monsters.' Lloyd thought to himself while looking around.
Clouds. The sound of thunder every minute or so. Darkness that affected everyone except Lloyd. It had all the right conditions.
And now, they were about to see the kind of abominations created by such conditions.
*ROOOOOOAAAAAR*
A creature roared, causing Lloyd to look down the hill they were on.
The creature had a maw from a face, and pitch-black tree stumps for feet and hands.
Its arms were muscular and also pitch black, yet its maw was as white as milk, while its exposed teeth were as pristine as quartz.
It ran toward the team, a gorilla, and it was quite fast due to using four limbs to run rather than two.
"Uh... I don't know what that thing is but its coming toward us." Lloyd announced, explaining the sound coming toward them in a single sentence.
"Shit... I knew this was going to happen!" Haley shouted before conjuring a ball of flames and shooting it down in the creature's general direction.
The two D ranks began to panic. John quickly took out of his gun and began wasting his mana.
While his gun was capable of using magic bullets as ammo, one could use their own mana to create the bullets.
Of course, they weren't as effective as real bullets since those traveled much further and dealt much more damage, but mana bullets sufficed for this situation.
Jay narrowed his eyes and got his staff ready, leaving him and Lloyd as the only ones who weren't panicking.
'This is what happens when you let children into the battle field.' Lloyd rolled his eyes while watching the ball of flames shoot right past the creature, but it did help them see the creature better since it illuminated its surroundings.
However, that wasn't technically a good thing.
"AHHHHHH. IT'S A MONSTER!" Elliot screamed like a little girl while Alex simply watched everything happen with a neutral expression.
It looked like this wasn't the first time he had seen such a thing happen. No, the pity in his eyes told Lloyd that he must have done the same thing the first time he had gone on his mock exam.
"Useless." Lloyd grinned, dashing forward and slamming both his feet into the creature's sides, causing it to be flung away...
Or at least that's what Lloyd expected.
The creature simply slid a few meters and didn't have a single scratch on it. While Lloyd hadn't used his full power in that attack, he expected it to at least tumble a little.
*ROOOOOAAAAAR*
The creature roared once more; this time, its voice sent shockwaves.
'Oh shit, they're coming toward m-' Lloyd was too late to dodge, so he simply crossed his arms in an X and took the shockwaves head-on.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe felt himself sliding a little more than a few meters away. Hell, he felt like he was about to fall down, but before he could, Lloyd leaned forward.
*BOOM*
Propelling himself off the ground, Lloyd shot through the air like a bullet and appeared in front of the creature again.
It instantly looked at him, making Lloyd raise a brow since it didn't have eyes, but he knew that it wouldn't be able to react in time.
Appear before it, he landed a devastating punch into its guts. Due to its large size, even though its arms were in the way and would have protected it against any creature of its size, Lloyd was much smaller and could easily move through the gap between its arms to land that attack.
'It's skin is tough, so my blade won't work unless I use [Aspect of Void].' Lloyd thought before landing on the ground and taking position while remembering an attack Rex had taught him when they were in the dungeon.
[Celestial Kung-Fu]
Lloyd levitated his hand one inch away from the gut of the monster.
[One Inch Annialation]
Circulating void mana through his body, Lloyd began energizing his arm and all the body components needed for the move with mana so that his shell wouldn't crack or break, ensuring that the mana didn't leave his body.
He wanted to go further since he had improved the technique by a lot. Still, after realizing that the thing before him was just a peak first commandment, Lloyd realized that any more would have absolutely obliterated the monster, turning it into a paste.
What he had done so far was already overkill, but he wanted to try it out on a monster since he didn't get the time during his void walk.
Lloyd shifted his body weight and slammed his fist into the creature's gut. It all happened in the blink of an eye, so no one really saw what happened except Alex and Lloyd.
However, what none of the expected was that a hole would appear where Lloyd had punched, before hundreds of cracks spread out through the rest of the creature's body while blood, organs, and guts rained on the other side.
'Oh shit... I may have underestimated myself...' Lloyd thought with a blank expression.
The creature fell on top of him, but due to the hole in its stomach, he was completely fine.