As its entire body temperature rose while being attacked on multiple fronts by explosions on its wounds, the 3rd stage woodpecker opened its beak in pain, temporarily affected.

Even though its mana and characteristics were far above those of a level 1 Acolyte like Rory, the bird's injuries and underestimation of its opponent caused it to scream in pain, revealing its plight to those around it.

But Rory's movement was far from enough to stop the 3rd stage woodpecker's attack, let alone endanger the beast's life!

The woodpecker continued on its way to Rory's chest, glaring furiously at its target now that it had seen a bit of the human's abilities.

Bang!

The three men next to Rory fired the last bullets in their guns at the wounds on the relatively large body near them.

These were bullets that could kill the bodies of level 3 Acolyte humans. However, even though the woodpecker hit by those bullets was far superior to humans of that level, it didn't mean it wouldn't feel pain from being wounded even more by those bullets.

Under normal circumstances, the woodpecker wouldn't even have its skin pierced by such bullets. But with open wounds all over its body, it was defenseless against the shots fired by the men in the area.

Even though the bullets that hit it were not lethal, they could cause it as much pain as a superficial blade cut on the body of an ordinary person on Earth.

Would a superficial cut kill someone? Hardly. But even someone with a strong mentality might have trouble fighting with several such wounds on their body.

Suffering a dozen more wounds in the face of Rory's men, the woodpecker was even more enraged when it was about to hit its target.

If it could speak, then it would say aloud that it would slowly kill everyone there while promising to eliminate all humans who got in its way from that night on.

But it couldn't speak and acted against Rory, trying to pierce the chest of the young man in flames in front of it.

Rory jumped back in the face of the enemy, but he didn't have much space.

Even with the flames around his body, he knew he would be in trouble if the opponent hit him.

'Shit! I'm screwed!' He lamented as he felt the frustration of having nothing left to use against an opponent who had put up with the best he could do.

"Aaaaaagh!"

Rory opened his mouth as the long, sharp beak of the 3rd stage woodpecker hit his body.

The flame aura surrounding his body helped him greatly, burning the woodpecker's beak so badly that the creature missed his heart and hit his left lung.

Still, Rory's chest was pierced with ease, and he screamed in pain as he felt the bird collide with him against one of the chamber walls.

"Help the deputy!"

The three men dropped their weapons and let their pentagrams appear around their bodies as they moved to help Rory.

As they cast their skills or spells, the men's eyes momentarily widened as they saw the woodpecker strangely stop attacking Rory and look in their direction.

'Huh? Did we get its attention?'

'Maybe we've become stronger than...'

One of them was thinking with a smile when the woodpecker suddenly dropped Rory's wounded body against one of the chamber's walls and flew towards the men, scaring them considerably.

Just as they were about to regret what they had done, the three level 1 Acolytes saw a person appear above them, floating on a metal plate.

Vicente ignored his men as he entered the area, using his two skills simultaneously against the woodpecker he had spotted from afar, using more than 90% of the mana in his body.

"Get the fuck out!"

He did the same as he had done earlier when he was attacked by two woodpeckers and the sting of a scorpion, using the field lines around him to drive his enemy away.

The woodpecker was powerful, but its intelligence was far behind that of humans like Vicente.

Its instincts would normally help it in times like this one. Yet, tired and with many wounds on its body, it fell into Vicente's trap, feeling the same way some of its tribe members had felt earlier.

Instead of hitting its new target, it was thrown in the opposite direction of Vicente while several shots were fired in its direction.

Bang! Bang!

Vicente didn't want to waste time and yelled in the middle of the woodpecker's uncontrolled flight. "Quick, get your deputy. We're running away now!!"

Vicente then made a series of hand signals and stopped in front of the tunnel he had used to reach this chamber.

"Vice!" Rory shouted as he saw his friend standing, smiling, even in pain, bleeding from his left chest.

But that was all that was said between them. Following Vicente's orders, the less injured men quickly grabbed Rory and started running toward the tunnel where Vicente stood at the entrance.

As he watched the last of his men pass by and the 3rd stage woodpecker stagger dozens of feet ahead after hitting a wall and then the ground, Vicente used the rest of what he had on a spell.

Concentrating the mana in his hands, he struck the ground with his right palm, instantly making the surrounding ground tremble as the walls of this tunnel closed in on him.

"Run!" He shouted as he ran in the direction that led to the insects' home. At the same time, the woodpecker noticed its enemies fleeing and jumped into the air to fly at high speed towards them.

As it flew toward the tunnel, the woodpecker saw the space in front of it narrow, with the walls of the tunnel moving toward the center of it, the radius of the tunnel reducing with each breath.

Rory was being carried, so he watched as Vicente, the last of his team, ran as the tunnel closed.

'Damn it! Hurry up!' He saw the woodpecker getting closer and closer to Vicente and was worried that his friend would be caught by the woodpecker or crushed by the tunnel's walls.

Just as Vicente was about to be crushed by the tunnel, he slid down it while Rory saw the walls of the tunnel closing in on the woodpecker's body, inches from reaching his friend.

Their escape had been pushed to the limit!

But would it be enough for them to escape without any more problems?