Chapter 88: Palace-Guard Beast (Sixth Update)

Beyond the door lay a lush jungle, thick with undergrowth and thorny brush, and that made the beast frown. The terrain here put him at a disadvantage. Moreover, the moment he entered, the system displayed the overall combat power of the holy beast before him.

The holy beast’s total combat power was fifteen hundred points. That was not exceptionally high; after all, the lower threshold for a perfect-stage digital monster was just over a thousand points, so this probably only barely counted as perfect stage.

Nor could it be called weak. The mainstream level of digital monsters these days was still only at the mature stage. Even the beast, in burst mode, could only reach a total combat power a little over thirteen hundred points, still more than a hundred short of the holy beast’s fifteen hundred.

Though the same total combat power could yield different base attack values, and the damage inflicted after the enhancement of various skills would differ as well, the fact remained that a gap of more than two hundred points meant the holy beast’s base attack was certainly stronger than his.

The beast moved across the ground, his pace not fast, his expression grave. Even the official records had said this place housed the dungeon boss, so a dungeon boss was certainly here.

For a small, swift, agile digital monster like the holy beast, such terrain was an immense environmental advantage. In other words, even a digital monster with the same fifteen hundred points, or even one stronger than that, could still be ambushed successfully here by the holy beast and ultimately destroyed.

As the beast passed a certain spot, a black shadow suddenly flashed by. He did not notice it, though perhaps because the shadow had passed close to the dragon beast, the dragon beast sensed something and turned his head to look back. But when he did, he found nothing at all.

The beast continued onward, then suddenly stopped. For some reason, although he had noticed nothing, an uneasy chill had risen in his heart, or rather, a keen sense of danger.

His instincts had been honed in mountains of corpses and seas of blood, so they were unlikely to be wrong. And if they were not wrong, then the danger he felt now must be real. Realizing this, he was already preparing to leave.

But at that very moment, six holy beasts appeared from six different directions. Beneath their feet was a hexagram formation. It had not yet been completed, but it was already nearly finished.

The holy beast was a vaccine-type sacred beast, a perfect-stage digital monster whose special move was an insect formation. He was one of the twelve imperial demon digital monsters, representing the rat among the twelve zodiac signs. He was also a subordinate of the black tortoise, one of the four sacred beast digital monsters, and served as the black tortoise’s interrogator, a sage renowned for his wisdom.

The holy beast laughed heartily. “Useless. I know you were planning to slip out of my attack next, but it is a pity the hexagram formation is already complete. You have lost.”

As his words fell, five of the holy beasts had already planted the vajra in their hands into the ground. Now only the last holy beast had yet to drive his vajra down.

If he succeeded, the insect formation would take shape. Given this holy beast’s total combat power, it would not be impossible for that single strike to wipe out the beast in an instant.

Though the beast had no time to stop it, the dragon beast still managed in time to exhale a deep crimson blaze toward the last holy beast who had not yet planted his vajra.

With the dragon beast’s mature-stage power, he naturally could not damage the holy beast. But even without breaking through its defense, the system’s forced calculation would still strip away a sliver of its life and create a brief moment of stiffness.

That instant passed quickly. Ordinary people would not even have perceived the change, but the beast did. At once, with a flicker of movement, he appeared directly before the holy beast. Then his figure shot straight out of the hexagram formation.

By then, however, the holy beast had also completed his ultimate seal, binding the dragon beast, who had failed to escape in time, within the formation. In many cases, by this stage, the insect formation was already complete. Yet in many other cases, at this stage it was still one step short.

Under normal circumstances, the holy beast would seal his enemies inside the hexagram formation, then on the next move crush both the formation and everyone trapped within it with his vajra. So from that perspective, once the holy beast had trapped his target, the matter was already over.

But if the holy beast faced multiple enemies and failed to seal them all inside the hexagram formation, then this move was not yet finished. He would still need to smash the hexagram formation and the digital monsters trapped within it with his vajra before it could be considered complete.

However, the comrades of the digital monster trapped inside the hexagram formation outside could not possibly stand by and watch the holy beast act without trying to stop him. If they could halt him, or even destroy him, then the trapped digital monster would still have a sliver of hope.

That was precisely the situation now. The holy beast had originally intended to trap both the dragon beast and the beast, then annihilate them together. Yet who could have guessed that, in the end, only the dragon beast had been sealed away?

It was plain to see that although both the dragon beast and the beast were mature-stage digital monsters, the beast’s total combat power far surpassed the dragon beast’s. In simple terms, the dragon beast was at best an expendable pawn.

The holy beast knew that if the positions of the dragon beast and the beast could somehow be reversed, then perhaps the battle would already be over by now. But as things stood, it was obvious they would still have to fight a bitter, grueling struggle.

He sighed. With a slight movement of the vajra in his hand, he was about to shatter the hexagram formation and destroy the dragon beast trapped within it. But at that moment, the beast also made his move.