He recently found out that those every beast had a special skill and it would strengthen everytime they leveled up. For example, a boar which was Mortal rank would go berserk, A Mortal rank Silver tongue fish would have special horn on it's head from which it would inject it's enemy with paralyzing Spritual force attack , paralyzing it.

At apprentice level, a beast would have two special skills and this Stone Basilisk lizard would also have two abilities to attack or to protect it's life.

Ace knew he won't be able to fight the lizard so he directly decided to leave.

[ Master, The Stone Basilisk has sniffed us out, it's following us ]

" That's what I was most afraid of, As a Basilisk it has snake's instincts and can most likely track us down...we need run faster "

Ace didn't panic as he soon started running even faster, his body was healthy and at Mortal level rank 9 he was able to run at 50 to 60 Kmph.

Unfortunately the Basilisk lizard was even faster, it was able to keep up with Ace and was even catching up with him. Ace soon started using terrain to his advantage and swiftly changed his path in different directions.

This was advantage of higher intelligence as he was able to stall the beast which was six level higher than him.

Ace was following the holographic image and his body was able to perform even better as each and every move of his was well calculated.

Unfortunately he wasn't able to fully utilize ability of his strong body as he didn't get into such intense situations much ever since his strength has increased.

Ace soon realized that his stamina was running low but he soon reached the cave which was supposed to be the hideout of the bandits.

Ace directly went. inside the cave as he soon. saw the internal structure of the cave which was covered in stalact.i.tes and stalagmites. The roof of the cave was almost 10 m high and there were three wooden buildings inside the cave.

Ace soon noticed the bandits which were all standing at the entrance of a cave behind the building which was in center. All of bandits were just standing there and looking at the cave. Ace also noticed that there were two people standing near the gate which led inside the small cave.

Ace didn't have time to greet them as he rushed towerds the building which was on right and jumped on the second floor. Basilisk lizard which was size of a truck soon came inside.

Strangely, none of the bandits even turned their head to the direction of the Basilisk. In the cave there was the person who was fully covered in rags, he was sending his strange black Spritual force inside the person next to him.

This person was Wu Chang and he now looked like a dried up corpse. Strange energy was circling around his body and wherever this energy pa.s.sed, his body world develop strange red blisters. It was as if his skin was burned and corroded by the strange energy.

Unexpectedly his strength was still rising and he was Apprentice level Rank 2.

Suddenly the rag covered person heard a loud noise from outside.

* Boom! * * Cras.h.!.+ *

" Who is it that dares to disturb me? a beast? " He had a sinister smile on his face as he flicked his hand once and his black Spritual force swiftly flew outside of the cave.

" Kill whoever dares to enter this cave without permission "

The black smoke spread among the group of bandits who looked like zombies now. Wu Meng and Wu An both stood guard outside the cave. They were now Rank 1 Apprentice level.

All the bandits suddenly had bloodshot eyes as they looked at the huge truck like lizard destroying the building in which Ace was hidden.

The building was st.u.r.dy and well made and had support of the cave walls from three side so it didn't collapse easyly. Even after seven to eight attack, the stone Basilisk lizard was only able to destroy half of the building. Ace was continuously changing his position inside the building so he avoided being hit and crushed everytime.

Ace soon noticed that all the bandits rushed towerds the lizard without caring for their lives. He also noticed their strange appearance. Ace soon knew that something was wrong.

" Alice scan them. Tell me what's wrong with them? "

Ace jumped out of the building in which he was and ran inside the building which was in the middle of the cave.

There was strange glow from his body for a second as soon came the reply of Alice

[ Master, their life force is diminished and is they are under control of an unknown energy. I can detect a different kind of spritual force inside their body. Symptoms are similar to Demon cold from 200 years ago. ]

" Life force diminished? do you mean, undead? Demon cold? "

Ace soon noticed this and a chill went down his spine. Demon cold was a disease which took lives in trillions. It was a plague developed by an alien civilization and unfortunately human weren't able to counter the poison after many years of biological research.

In the end, humanity abandoned the planet infected with Demon cold and all of the planets were destroyed by Weapons of ma.s.s destruction. The Alien civilization was also wiped out and not a single alien of that race was left alive. Whole galaxy which was headquarters of the civilization was throughly cleaned of any planet. That was the only galaxy in the universe which didn't have even a single planet in it.

[ Master although it's similar to Demon cold but it's not same, the energy inside those bandits is what's causing them to become like this. If it was a virus from demon cold, you won't even be able to escape before it infects you. ]

After listening to this Ace had sigh of relief. He didn't let his guard down as he soon saw Basilisk lizard received all kind of different attacks from bandits.

* Roar!! *

The stone Basilisk was enraged and forgot everything about Ace. It started fighting with bandits with madness. It hissed like a snake sometimes and roared like a dinosaur. there were bandits flying everywhere.

Those bandits knew how to fight and some were using Weapons while some were just kicking and punching it without any regard for their life. Some were thrown away by the impact of lizard's tail and some even got bitten in half but they still kept fighting as if there was no injury in their body.

" This is a good opportunity, Let's do it hehe " Ace wasn't going to just watch the show. He soon reached out to the roof of the building and planted the Spritual crystal time bomb there. He then jumped down from the building and soon walked close to the mini cave.

" The leader of the bandits is really sinister. There are two zombie guards so there must be someone controlling those bandits. "

Wu Meng and Wu An weren't able to notice Ace as he was hiding and their attention was on the lizard. If lizard defeted the bandits then they would have to fight it out.

Ace suddenly got an idea as he smirked " Why should I go near the cave and fight them? I have better plan " He took out his crossbow and loaded an arrow in it. He tied the bomb at the end of the arrow with a rope and he was sure that the force from crossbow was enough to pull the bomb.

* t'chi *

Arrow soon flew straight inside the cave and both guard noticed it. Inside the cave, arrow nailed it self between both people in the wall of the cave. the bomb which was tied with the arrow was hanging by the rope.

" Mission accomplished " Ace escaped right after firing the arrow. He soon went outside the cave and as the Basilisk lizard was fighting with the bandits. None of them had any time to stop him.

Ace hid on top of a tree just outside the cave.

" What is this!? who dares to shoot an arrow in here!? " the rag covered person was enraged and if the arrow was just slightly to the left, it would've nailed it self into his head.

suddenly there was a blinding red light in front of him as everything went blank.

* Boooooooom!!! *

Soon it was as if the whole cave was lifted up into the air and then furiously slammed back into earth. whole. cave collapsed and for a long time there was continuous clatter of rocks falling.