While Oliver and the soldiers entered the command centre, something horrible was happening on the other side of the base camp.
The mountain king, who was sleeping slowly woke up.
The large mountain peak, which coiled around, shook. Rocks and mud flew in the air as the giant head rose into the sky.
The mountain king was a serpentine mana beast. It had a long body without any limbs and looked similar to a python.
Once it woke up from its slumber that spanned over a decade, it lifted its head, which was covered in mud and rock, to look around.
The giant head was about sixty meters wide. The humongous beady eyes blinked twice and quickly focused in the direction of the dragon city and base camp.
After that, it didn't turn its head at all. Focusing only on the direction while it gathered mana into the body to quickly recover. Due to sleeping for years, it had to replenish some of its mana and activate its body.
Soon, an hour went by.
At this point, Oliver and his group had entered the research outpost.
Meanwhile, the panicking group of military and superhumans began to strengthen the city's defence.
The awakened S rank mana beast would surely cause a beast tide. They had to prepare to defend the city.
The headmaster of the military school, the retired S ranker who was called the Thunder Emperor was also participating in city defending activity.
His main priority was defending against the Mountain King if it attacked the city.
Soon, a request for reinforcement was sent to the Hunter Association, Superhero Monitoring Bureau and Hero Union.
The Hunter Association was a worldwide organisation that was created to democratise access to permanent gates all over the world. The main service it provided was for registered superhumans to hunt and sell the bounty from Second Earth, mainly mana beast carcasses, minerals and medicinal resources.
The Hunter Association maintains close ties with numerous superhumans and heroes, enabling them to deploy reinforcements effectively. Their organization's survival hinges on the stability of permanent gates and the cities they inhabit, making their interests deeply intertwined with these entities.
On the other hand, the Superhuman Monitoring Bureau was a law enforcement agency that dealt with the capture and punishment of unlawful superhumans. They maintain a registry of all superhumans on Earth and their powers to find misconduct.
Although it was a worldwide organisation just like the Hunter Association, each country had their branches that only responded to the country itself.
The better comparison would be that the Hunter Association (HA) worked like a worldwide business organisation while the superhero monitoring Bureau(SMB) worked like an extension of government.
Therefore, SMB can deploy strong superhumans of the country in times of danger.
And, the last, but not least important organization that they requested reinforcement from was the Hero Union(HU).
HU was an organisation that worked beyond the borders of nations and states. It allows superhumans to do hero work after registration.
Their main goal is to protect and serve humanity.
What do they protect from? It was from miscreants in society and dangerous entities of the second earth.
Unlike the SMB and HA, Hero Association was an organisation solely created for the welfare of the people. It was also one of the first organisations to come into being after the gates appeared on earth.
By working for decades, they had amassed a lot of goodwill among the people. High-ranked superheroes were always treated respectfully everywhere in their world, regardless of their country of origin.
Simply put, the Hero Association is the place where new-age influencers and politician build their image.
For building a good image, they would certainly help in times of danger.
Therefore, the dragon city requested help from all three organisations, asking them to send high-ranking superhumans to defend the city from beast tide and, if necessary, help subdue the mountain king.
While that was happening, the body of the mountain king quickly recovered. Mana flew into its body from the surroundings like a tidal wave until it was fully satisfied.
The once sleepy and lethargic body quickly regained its vitality.
The Mountain King was over 1 kilometre in length and had a girth of about 100 meters in its midsection. The head was over 60 meters wide and it was coiled around the peak of a mountain.
Its head was towering over the peak, gazing in the direction of the Dragon City which was more ten kilometres away.
Its beady eyes were focused, without blinking.
Then suddenly, the entire body of the serpent began to tremble. The muscles and scales all across its body trembled in low frequency, creating an audible hum.
*Ohmmmm*
The voice traveled across the land startling every beast in the vicinity.
The low rumble induced fear among even the strongest creatures nearby.
The mountain king was called the king for nothing. Just its presence was making everyone quake in their boots.
The military scouts that were planted near the mountain felt their innards shake, resonating with the rumbling sound.
With sound, the mana the mountain king used was also creating an aura field. And low-ranked soldiers were finding it difficult to just take a breath.
They all thought simultaneously - "Something bad was about to happen."
Fear drowned their mind, not knowing how they were going to defend against such a creature.
After all, even nukes had limits.
While thoughts were running wild, the mountain king lifted its head higher.
The vibration rippling around its body shattered dispersed the stones and mud covering its body revealing shiny dark black scales hidden beneath.
The body that was coiled around the mountain began to move up slowly. Bit by bit, the head of the serpent moved up into the sky.
200 meters.
300 meters.
400 meters.
It was rising up into the air in the coiling motion.
It was flying.
The giant mana beast was defying all norms as it flew into the skies.
The scouts scrambled around to send reports back to base. Sending radio signals was difficult because of the flood mana and aura the beast was releasing. They had to personally run back to base to report.