Lunar Legacy: Rise Of The Beastlord-Chapter 276: Abnormal Beast

As soon as Fred gave the order, Anderson didn’t hesitate. His finger squeezed the trigger, and the cannon roared to life.

The green beam that erupted from the weapon was brilliant and deadly, a concentrated lance of energy that screamed through the air with a sound like tearing metal. It left a glowing afterimage in its wake as it shot toward the beast’s exposed chest.

The Sabertooth Flare saw it coming. Its eyes widened in recognition... it had been hit by this weapon before. It knew the danger. But it also knew that dodging was impossible now. So at the very last possible instant, the beast made a desperate decision. It couldn’t avoid the beam entirely, but it could choose where it hit.

With a violent twist of its massive body, it turned, presenting its left arm instead of its chest to the incoming attack.

The beam struck.

But this time, unlike the first shot, it didn’t send the beast flying. Instead, where the energy made contact, the flesh and bone simply... ceased to exist. A perfectly circular hole the size of a soccer ball appeared in the beast’s foreleg, the edges seared black, cauterized by the intense heat of the beam.

"Rrrrrrrrrrghhh!"

The Ancient Flare’s scream of agony echoed through the forest, sending birds fleeing from trees hundreds of meters away.

But it wasn’t just the wound that caused to scream like that. Something else was at play.

Jayden’s enhanced vision caught the change immediately. The beast’s veins... normally glowing with molten orange beneath its hide, began turning a sickly green. The discoloration spread rapidly from the wound site, creeping through the beast’s circulatory system like infection racing through a bloodstream.

And that’s when it hit him,

"The beam is poison," Jayden realized, his tactical mind cataloging the information. "The laser isn’t just energy. It’s also delivering a toxic payload."

It made perfect sense. The EVA had clearly done their homework before deploying. They had equipped advanced fire-resistant suits to negate the Flare’s heat, and taken a poison-based weapon to exploit the species’ documented weakness to toxins. They’d come prepared, equipped, and ready to handle exactly this type of threat.

The Ancient Flare stumbled, its wounded leg unable to properly support its massive weight. But even poisoned and maimed, it wasn’t finished. With a snarl that spoke of pure stubborn defiance, the beast forced itself back to its feet, its remaining three legs trembling with effort but holding.

"Don’t give it a chance to recover!" Fred’s command cut through the air. "Anderson, prep another shot! Martinez, Chen, cover me while I move in!"

The agents responded immediately. Martinez and Chen engaged again, but this time they stayed at range, peppering the beast with attacks designed to distract rather than damage.

Fred moved with purpose and precision. He closed the distance while the beast’s attention was divided, and then he went to work with surgical efficiency. He reached out, his glowing hand touching the beast’s joints... first the shoulder, then the hip, then the knee of its good front leg.

Each touch triggered an internal detonation.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The explosions rippled through the Flare’s body in rapid succession. Joints shattered. Ligaments tore like wet paper. Blood sprayed in arterial spurts that painted the ground dark. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The beast’s pained cries filled the clearing as its body simply gave out. It collapsed hard, unable to support itself on its destroyed legs, and crashed onto its side. The impact drove the air from its lungs in a massive exhale, and now its chest...that vital, vulnerable spot, was fully exposed to the sky.

"Target locked!" Anderson called out, the cannon’s nozzle glowing brighter as green energy coalesced for another shot. "I have a clear shot on the core!"

"Confirmed," Fred said, backing away to give the weapon an unobstructed firing line. "On my mark. Three... two..."

The beast knew what was coming. And Jayden could see it in its eyes... the recognition that this was the end. If that poison beam hit its chest, penetrated to its core, it would die. There would be no recovery, no resurrection.

But from his vantage point in the tree, Jayden felt something else. A shift in the energy around the beast. A building pressure, like a dam about to burst. His tactical instincts, honed through countless battles, screamed a warning.

He focused his enhanced senses on the fallen beast, and then he felt it clearly. Power was gathering inside the Flare’s body... not the red Phoenix flames of resurrection, but something else. Something desperate.

His frown deepened.

"Shit," he muttered.

On the ground, oblivious to Jayden’s observation, Fred completed his countdown.

"One... Fire!"

Anderson’s finger tightened on the trigger. But before he could actually fire...

ROOOAAAAAARRRRR!

The beast let out a roar unlike anything it had produced before. This was raw, primal desperation... the sound of a creature that refused to accept death.

And then it erupted.

Flames exploded from every inch of the Ancient Flare’s body. Not the red flames of the Phoenix’s resurrection power, but its own natural fire... orange-gold and blazing with an intensity that made the earlier attacks look like candle flames. The inferno expanded outward in a sphere of pure heat and fury, so intense that even the fire-resistant suits of the agents began to smoke and char at the edges.

But the flames didn’t stop there. They grew brighter, hotter, more intense. And the beast’s body began to change within the inferno... growing, expanding, its muscles swelling with newfound power. Its wounds closed rapidly, flesh knitting together at impossible speed. The hole in its arm sealed itself completely, as if it had never existed.

The EVA agents were forced to throw themselves backward, raising their arms to shield their faces from the searing wave of thermal energy.

And the aura of the beast rolled off it in crushing waves, so powerful it was almost visible, distorting the air like heat ripples off asphalt in summer. But this was different. This was primal terror made manifest, an ancient predatory presence that spoke directly to the most primitive parts of the human brain.

Fear crept up the agents’ spines like ice water. Their legs trembled despite their training. Their breath came in ragged, involuntary gasps. Every instinct screamed at them to run, to flee, to get as far away as possible from the apex predator before them.

But they held their ground. Barely.

"What... what the hell is happening?" Fred breathed, his voice tight with barely controlled panic. He’d never felt anything like this before, not in all his years as an EVA agent.

"Captain!" Chen murmured. staring at his scanner with wide, disbelieving eyes. "The energy readings... they’re increasing! The beast’s power output is rising!"

Fred’s head snapped toward him, his eyes widening in shock. "That’s impossible!"

Chen swallowed. "I know, sir, but—"

"No, you don’t understand," Fred interrupted, his voice sharp with fear and confusion. "Normal beasts need to consume other beasts to increase their energy. Be it crystals or meat, they need fuel either way," he explained. "Moreover, this thing just evolved, which means it shouldn’t even have the capability to increase its power again until after it’s consumed another beast." His eyes fixed back on the transforming Flare. "And since we arrived, it hasn’t eaten anything. Which means..."

The implications crashed through his mind. Either the beast had consumed something immediately after evolving, just before they’d arrived, or...

This isn’t a normal beast.

And then there was the scanner issue. Chen had said the beast was C-rank, which Fred had dismissed as a malfunction. But now, watching this impossible power surge, he wasn’t so sure.

He stared deeply at the beast and whispered something beneath his hot, shaky breath.

"What are you...?"