In the grassy hills in the mainland, the centaurs had gathered around a leader.
They might look like intelligent beasts, with their human-ish looking upper bodies.
But in truth, they were nothing but very savage beasts. Their instincts told them to hunt and raid.
They had followed a herd of animals and slowly thinned it over the past days.
And now the pack-leader had arrived, and they gathered to finish this herd of food.
Xena had lost both troops and villagers in the past days, but now she was close to the beach.
She could literally smell salty sea in the air.
Even the ground showed signs of sand and seaside grass.
'Arrow is waiting just out there, on the other side of that sandy hill' Xenas spirit had hightened.
Even the civilians showed signs of smiles and began to talk more than they had done the last few days.
But their happiness was short lived.
Grrrouuuumm. Rumble. Rumble. Rumble.
They could all feel the ground vibrate and hear the sounds of hooves closing in.
600 people froze in their track and looked back over their shoulders.
A thousand or more centaurs suddenly appeared, flooding over the hills behind them in full speed.
"RUN!"
Xena became terrified! She was so close, why did they attack yet again?
"Drop everything and run to the beach! NOW!" Xena yelled to break the frozen-state of her people.
Screaming, yelling and crying the civilians finally began to rush as fast as they could.
But the centaurs, having the lower body and hooves as a horse, quickly gained on them.
Half of Xenas troops turned around.
Bravely they sacrificed themselves in an honest attempt to block the storm from hitting their young lord.
But it was in vain.
The charge was powerful and the troops were killed or directly run over and trampled by the mass of centaurs.
'They should be here soon.' Arrow had anchored the boat 20 meters from the coast.
He was waiting in the boat with 20 common rank archers. The best troops Ramises currently had.
This showed Arrow, just how much Ramises had bet on this deal.
Sitting down with troops in the middle of the boat, where they had roasted some fresh fish caught in a net, they were about to eat when suddenly they heard something.
They dropped their fish and rose up, looking towards the sand dunes and hills behind the beach.
Then they heard it again.
"Arrow, sir! It's cries for help!" A troop suddenly shouted and pointed at a certain hill of sand.
Humans suddenly appeared, running, yelling and tumbling down the sandbanks, they desperately tried to reach the coast.
Xena was arrived at the beach in full speed. Her troops had all been cut down and trambled.
She yelled for help as she fell down, slipping in the sand.
She could see the boat with oars rowing, hastily trying to reach the beach.
Civilians rushed by Xena, as she stood up and ran to the sea waters.
But Arrow had stopped the boat 10 meters from the shore.
"Jump in Lord Xena! Swim before it's too late!" Xena heard arrows voice and jumped into the sea.
When she reached the boat, she could finally breath again as Arrow helped her up.
But no one else had made it.
As she turned around, she saw the centaurs murdering the rest of the civilians at the beach, even running into the water and killing those who had managed to jump in.
Arrow had to turn the boat around quickly and move to deeper waters.
Xena just watched with tears streaming down from her eyes, as the very last of her people got massacred.
On the northern peninsulas beach, Jack finally arrived.
'This is a paradise!' Jack marvelled at the beach he found.
The sand was white, coconut trees littered both sides of the beach, near the steep mountains.
The waters were calm, birds singing in the air and many small animals were busy around the sea and sand.
There were even a few of the tri-horns here, basking in the shallow waters of the beach.
As he watched, a long row of his troops gathered around him.
Many of them, including Jack, took off their armor and enjoyed the warm sun and cool water.
While he enjoyed swimming in the beach, and watching his troops having fun, they were suddenly interrupted.
"RAAAWRR!!"
A large roar suddenly sounded as a majestic dinosaur emerged.
The young [Prime Rex] was hunting the tri-horns, patiently waiting, hidden in the coconut trees and wild growth.
But this herd of smaller animals had interrupted it.
Its pray of tri-horn were leaving!
As such it launched prematurely.
"Get out of the water! Defensive positions!" Jack yelled while swimming back to the beach.
All his troops where naked, and their spears far away on the sand.
The tri-horns, thought huge and powerful, ran in panic as they saw their mortal foe had appeared.
The primal rex was not fully grown, but the tri-horns were few, and they had no choice but to flee.
They evaded the attack from the primal rex, and the young Rex roared with anger as it had lost its pray.
Instead of giving chase, it turned its attention and anger towards this strange herd of creatures that had interrupted its hunt.
[Primal Rex, Rare. Dangerous!]
[Fortitude: 155]
[Spirit Power: 45]
Jack was for once scared for his life.
The rex was easily 10 meters high and spanned twice as much in length.
It was fast and appeared much more agile than you could imagine, with only two huge legs.
The bared teeth, as it roared, could easily stake a man.
The jaws so powerful it could bit you in half without breaking a sweat.
And it was angry.
It ran into the midst of swarming smaller animals, Jacks troops.
It left devastating havoc as it trashed everything and everyone into pieces.
Jack reached the beach and watched as troops were flying through the air after being swiped by the tale.
They were bit and killed by the dozens, and a few unlucky ones were swallowed whole.
'Gusha's spawn has found some fun it seems.' Sha'ri enjoyed the spectacle as she watched in hiding with many of her retilian troops.
Sha'ri was the reptilian lord who had spawned on this peninsula.
On their old world, females dominated everything.
The males were smaller and stupid.
The Females fought to the death for the breeding right, when an extremely rare and large specimen of the opposite sex appeared.
They only chose the absolute strongest males to breed with. And the males had no choice but to comply.
They had been furious about the fact that males now had become lords here.
This rage had spurned them to wage war on the surrounding beasts and monsters. Enabling them to grow their settlements fast.
All so they could hunt the reptilian male lords and kill them in spite.
They all feared only one thing.
'Gusha'... It was the reptilian word for the giant race of 'Rex' that originated on their home world.
The reptilians and Gusha, were biologically very distant related.
Reptilians had grown smaller, faster, more humanoid in appearance and more clever.
The Gusha... Well it was terrifyingly large and strong!
And here on the beach, Sha'ri watched as just a young and small Gusha, were killing a whole herd of strange animals.
It didn't take long for Arrow to reach full speed with sails down.
They had sailed for a few hours, leaving the shore far behind.
Xena had spoken sparingly, she had cried a lot.
Arrow was surprised to find that Xena was just a small 12-year old girl. He had expected a very mature and full grown woman.
Thus in the sailing hours, he had tried to comfort her and gave her roasted fish and water.
Xena was eventually beginning to be excited as she saw the whole between the mountains, and the beach appeared.
'I can't kill this thing!' Jack realised after the fight had been going on for a very long time.
His troops had taken devastating casualties. Dead bodies littered all over then sandbeach.
But the Prime Rex were beginning to get exhausted, having killed thousands of troops to the point where only a few hundred remained.
Normally the encounters Jack had so far, the beasts could be swarmed and killed with much less casualties.
But as this Rex continued to kill, he realised that besides the 'stats', the body type, size and match up had devastating consequences if not properly considered.
Like this Rex, with its high fortitude, huge body and thick scaly armour.
Even with 20.000 trash troops, jack didn't think it would matter!
He had to increase his own effort.
With the rest of his energy, and the young rex feeling fatigue, Jack ordered the rest of his naked troops with spear to swarm it a final time.
He strained himself to the point of passing out. Forcing the sandgrains to follow his will.
As the troops swarmed, and where equally killed in swarms, Jack finally released his energy.
A hundred thin, strong and fast sand spears, infused with every bit of spirit power he could muster, direcly penetratred the Rex everywhere on its body.
The power of the spirit-sand-spears were so strong that they were now stuck in the sand beneath the monster.
Xena, Arrow and the 20 troops all saw this as they approached from the boat.
They knew that had to be Jack!
No one else could be so powerful, but the globally ranked number one!
But as they watched, they suddenly became afraid again.
Another wave of foes had appeared, they stormed the beach with their humanoid-raptor-like bodies.
Quickly killing the rest of the troops.
They swarmed Jack, too weak to fight back, and dragged him with them as they left.
'Deja-vu!' Arrow thought. Too stunned to move.
Xena was crying without control. This was the second time she had witnessed loss on a beach, in the same day.
'Not again!!!!' Was all she could think, as her tears flowed freely.