By the time the Quicksand Beast opened its maw, the Second Young Master’s slaves had already fled to the Oasis, and the leading slave coughed out blood after being kicked by Chi Shi, when he rushed into the Oasis.
*These foolish slaves…they even led the ferocious beast directly towards the Oasis.* Chi Shi clenched his fists. If they were not the slaves of the Second Young Master, Chi Shi would have cut off their heads immediately.
“Oasis guards, prepare yourself!” shouted Chi Shi.
The guards of the Oasis were all staring nervously at the Quicksand beast. They could beat the Quicksand Beast, but every time they fought with those beasts, they ended up paying a heavy price.
On the other side, the Quicksand Beast, which had digested the food that it gobbled up just now, looked in the direction of the Oasis with its golden eyes staring at the people who were guarding the Oasis. Even under such a hot weather, the people being stared at, had the feeling of being in a land of bone chilling wind and icy coldness at the moment.
*This is indeed a fierce beast.* Thought the three people of the Flaming Horn tribe.
The Quicksand Beast, that kept staring at the Oasis, did not move towards them immediately and neither did it pull out the other half of its body which was buried under the sand. Instead, it slowly swayed the exposed half of its body, and also bobbed its head up and down.
The beast was not communicating any intent of agreement or counting the number of people – it was actually showing signs of preparing an attack.
“Watch out!” shouted Chi Shi.
Even though Shao Xuan didn’t know the creature well, he could intuitively judge the situation. Without hesitation, when the Quicksand Beast nodded again, he yelled to remind Lei and Tuo, “Move back!”
Applying pressure on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet, Shao Xuan jumped away. A sand arrow shot towards to the position he had just stood on and exploded. The splashing sand sank into people with the sharpness of tens of thousands of knives, and slaves who didn’t avoid them in time screamed miserably.
The sand arrow was nothing but the sand sprayed out by the Quicksand Beast, which it had swallowed along with the slaves just then.
Shao Xuan didn’t worry about Lei and Tuo as they had the wits to act quickly. And Su Gu was protected by Wu Shi.
Stepping behind Su Gu with Lei and Tuo, Shao Xuan asked, “Does this Quicksand Beast have any weaknesses?”
“Weakness…?”, Wu Shi said with some uncertainty, “Generally, we just attack its eyes when facing against the Quicksand Beast.”
They often used the same method when encountering other beasts. As for weaknesses specific to the Quicksand Beast, Wu Shi didn’t know. Not only Wu Shi, the others didn’t know it either. What’s more, because the Slave Masters took fancy to the skin and bones of the Quicksand Beasts, the slaves regarded such beasts as the king of all beasts in the desert and believed that it had no absolute weakness.
Shao Xuan looked at the others and felt helpless. They had to find a way to fight against the Quicksand Beast by themselves.
When people don’t possess the raw power to fight against beasts directly, they have to plan and execute a strategic fight. And when it comes to building strategies, knowing the weaknesses of the target was highly important.
Shao Xuan and the other two were on guard but didn’t actively rush into the fray. They weren’t worried about the beast destroying the Oasis, because it was not in the territory of the Flaming Horn tribe. Moreover, this accident was caused by the slaves of a Fallen Leaves City’s Slave Master and had nothing to do with the Flaming Horn tribe.
Meanwhile, Chi Shi led the slaves to fight against the Quicksand Beast which was attacking the Oasis.
The archers wanted to shoot the Quicksand Beast’s eyes, but the cautious Quicksand Beast dodged the arrows every time. The hard scales and raised bones around the eyes of the Quicksand Beast also offered it effective protection. A series of arrows were fired, but not one of them landed on its eyes. Being made out of wood and stone, the arrows were too thin, and its effect on the Quicksand Beast was limited.
Shao Xuan jumped onto the roof of the stone house and looked over.
Many reptiles did not have hard scales on their abdomen, but the Quicksand Beast was quite different. It’s lighter colored abdomen was covered by a thick layer of hard skin.
The long, flat upper half of its body stood up to nearly 20 meters in height. Although it had a large body, it was quite flexible. Dodging the attacks of the slaves, it wilted down their numbers. As the lower half of its body, buried under the sand, drove the sand up the ground, the sand was lifted up making them look like waves of a roiling sea.
An arm-thick spear stabbed the head of the Quicksand Beast with a piercing sound. Missing the eyes, the spear stabbed into another part of the beast’s head. Even though the spear broke through the scales on the surface, it didn’t seem to cause any pain to the Quicksand Beast at all.
Under the protruding eyelid bones, only a slit of the eyes were exposed, and a golden glint came out of the gap. Shao Xuan did not feel any sense of optimism on the Oasis slaves prevalence over the beast, instead he only felt as though the situation was tough.
The desert beasts that had been around the Quicksand Beast had all disappeared, including the black beetles that always appeared on the desert, they either ran away or hid deep under the sand.
After the guard slaves of the Oasis launched another volley of attacks, not only did the Quicksand Beast not retreat, it became even more livid. It seemed like the Quicksand Beast had been extremely irritated to the point of no return, as it appeared to have full intent to kill with no thoughts of leaving any survivors in the Oasis. Even if it couldn’t defeat the people in the Oasis in a short period, it seemed to have made up its mind – it wasn’t going to leave.
A horrible whistling sound, like that of a storm blowing through a narrow gap, blasted in front of the Oasis.
It was a full-blown shriek of the Quicksand Beast. It normally had some folds that clung to its neck – but at the moment it shrieked – these folds unfolded completely. This stretching of the folds made their original color turn lighter, and the hard scales on the folds exuded a golden l.u.s.ter under the sunlight, just like that of a King’s cloak, which can be so dazzling that it hurts people’s eyes. The golden horns on the beast’s head seemed to want to pierce through all obstacles – they looked sharp and fierce.
“It’s so beautiful!” exclaimed Su Gu.
Hearing Su Gu’s words, Shao Xuan was shocked, *Is there something wrong with his brain? Or is he slow-witted? How could he admire a beast in such a situation?*
With the intuition and years of experience in hunting, the three people of the Flaming Horn tribe had already been on alert even when they had not seen the beast. When they saw the Quicksand Beast, they paid their undivided attention towards defense. If they were to encounter such a beast in the mountains, they would not fight, instead they would escape immediately.
Looking at the situation on the edge of the Oasis, Lei and Tuo felt worried. The Quicksand Beast seemed to be mad. Its body had already been hurt and some of its scales were broken by intense attacks and it even began to bleed – despite all of that, it seemed like the beast had no intention of leaving.
Looking at the slaves who had run towards the Oasis and thus brought the disaster along, Lei and Tuo thought, *Did those people drive the Quicksand Beast crazy? Or is the Quicksand Beast acting irrational?*
Shao Xuan didn’t think about the reason why the Quicksand Beast was acting crazy. Wu Shi and Su Gu had mentioned that the Quicksand Beast was known as the king of desert beasts and it had no absolute weakness, but Shao Xuan still tried to find out its weaknesses.
In Shao Xuan’s mind, the totem flame became weaker and the egg-shaped sh.e.l.l lit up brightly. In Shao Xuan’s vision, the glare of the sun turned the yellow beast and sand dark.
In addition, in his vision, the golden-colored Quicksand Beast only had a layer of dense scales wrapped around its body.
There was no doubt that the defense of the Quicksand Beast was almost impeccable. Its eyes had shrunk into a slit, leaving the slaves with a very limited chance to attack them successfully. Other parts of its body had hard-sh.e.l.ls covering them, and even the neck folds were covered by tiny, dense scales.
If it weren’t because of the ferociousness and constant volley of intensive attacks from the slaves, the beast would have already broken in.