Another World Mall

"Grraaaaa!"

"!!!" All of them couldn't help but raise their heads, following the roar's direction. After that roar, the beasts started to follow up with another series of roars as well as moving as though they had received individual orders.

Reolf was the first one to react by turning around.

"Reolf? Do you understand what it was saying?" Clovis asked.

Reolf nodded.

"Did it notice us?" Clovis asked another question.

Reolf nodded again before pointing to their back with his paw. He was indicating that the beasts were trying to hunt them from behind, in other words, from the tower's direction.

"It's true. They're coming from the tower's direction. Don't tell me…" Melody gasped, staring at the radar. "Are they sealing our escape route? More and more beasts are also surrounding us from all directions."

"Sealing our escape route? But doesn't that mean they have found us and have been waiting for us this whole time?" Christina frowned.

"…" Clovis' expression darkened. If that was true, how could they find out what they were up to and their exact location? To be able to do it this way just showed them how intelligent the beast was.

It made no sense. He had experienced fighting a Tier 7 beast two times. The first time was rescuing the people in the underground city. Of course, he received help from Mara, which caused the fight to be quick.

Meanwhile, the second time was during an expedition with a large group. At that time, they brought a lot of things to take down the Tier 7 beast. Although the beast was smart enough to create an unexpected situation, this one was beyond that beast.

Not only did the Tier 7 beast realize what was going on, but they also sealed the escape route to make sure they could kill the Libation Fiesta.

"This…" Erwin frowned. "…doesn't seem good. If it's smart enough to seal our escape route, it must know how we operate as well. In other words, if we leave this city, won't it climb the tower and attack the people there?"

"That's not the problem. We need to know how this beast is able to find us. If we don't know the reason, there's a high chance it will take advantage of it again to locate us and ambush us. More importantly, we don't have a lot of time to figure it out." Aileen shook her head.

"Clovis. What should we do?" Ragna asked. In the end, the decision was in Clovis' hand. They had been outsmarted by the beasts, so should they retreat?

It was a reasonable decision, but they had to break through the enemy's rank. If the beast was that smart, it would place a large number of beasts in that direction or stay there personally to block them.

There was no way Clovis could afford to let them die.

In other words, the best choice was to go outside this city and hide somewhere. But the beast might be smart enough to lure them far enough until the tower's influence weakened or nullified before attacking them. At that time, the beast would fight them at full power. Without Christina reaching Tier 6, it was impossible for them to survive.

There was also an option to use the guns on top of the wall to suppress these beasts, which would create an opportunity. But Kanaria couldn't guarantee they could be used due to the technological gap.

Hence, there was only one option left. This would be what most people would do. It was to use everything they had to break through. Even if it meant sacrificing some of them, the group could still survive.

They had been completely beaten by this Tier 7 beast. No. They had severely underestimated the intelligence of a Tier 7 beast.

There was a reason Tier 1 to Tier 3 beasts were known as low-level beasts, while Tier 4 to Tier 6 beasts were classified as mid-level beasts, and Tier 7 to Tier 9 became high-level beasts.

Even in human classification, they were also split into those three categories.

It was no wonder why the expedition wanted so many people and required all that equipment just to kill a single Tier 7 beast. This was the true terror of a Tier 7 beast.

"It doesn't seem there's any option left." Jay moved forward. "Ragna. Let's go!"

Ragna nodded with a solemn expression. It looked like she understood that they were the ones responsible for creating an opportunity for Clovis and the others to escape. For Jay, it was his responsibility as the vice captain. Meanwhile, Ragna had once sworn to protect Clovis no matter the price.

Erwin and the others looked at Jay and Ragna, wanting to stop them. But all of them could see their impending doom if they didn't decide right now.

However, it did seem Clovis was incapable of ordering his subordinates' sacrifice for the bigger picture.

Jay took a deep breath. "Let's go, Ragna!"

"Yeah." Ragna nodded.

But before they left, Clovis suddenly stopped them. "That's enough. Why did both of you make a decision by yourself?"

"Can't you see the current situation?" Jay gritted his teeth.

"I'm the captain of the Libation Fiesta. I haven't even given up yet, and you already think about sacrificing yourself? Are you an idiot?!" Clovis sighed.

"Are you serious right now? If we miss the timing, it will be all over." Jay grabbed Clovis' collar.

"I'm being serious." Clovis grabbed his wrist and pushed his hand away. "We'll split our group into two. The first group is to remain here and buy as much time as possible. The second group will create a path toward the Essence Bank and open the vault. We'll be retreating to the vault."

"The vault?!" Christina raised her eyebrows. "Now that I think about it, the vault here is impenetrable according to them… at least for Tier 8 beasts. Are we going to seal ourselves there and try to get stronger? Even so, absorbing the essence and evolving require a lot of time. We don't have enough supply."

"Don't bother with the supply. This is the only path for all of us to survive. I will now tell the members for each group!"