To everyone's surprise, Damion reaching out and lifting fallen petrified trees with Telekinesis did not trigger the Demonic Beasts to immediately attack. Once the team realized this, Damion began to quickly pull as many of the fallen trees out as he could, not even bothering to arrange them on the perimeter. After he pulled them out, the pair of knight brothers, Simon and Peter Beck, began to move the stone logs into position, forming a large horseshoe area around them.

They ended up with an area of about twenty meters wide and thirty meters deep in the end. Mage Phinn would have liked to have a larger perimeter, to give them all plenty of room to fight, but Damion had pulled out all the fallen logs he could reach. To gather more, he would be forced to either walk along the perimeter of the petrified forest, head into it, or try breaking off the standing stone trees. All three options Mage Phinn had said no to.

"It is time we get this fight started," Mage Phinn told them. "I'll walk into the petrified forest and kick things off. Simon, Peter, you two be ready to handle anything that breaks through the forest. Lois, you are on watch for anything coming from behind us. Rodney, focus on healing, James, make sure to keep our little battlefield clear of dead Demonic Beasts, we don't want anyone getting tripped up."

When no one objected to their assignments, Mage Phinn walked a few paces into the petrified forest and then casually walked back. Damion half expected the Lightning mage to run in and then come rushing back out screaming about incoming, but reality was much less dramatic.

However, by the time Mage Phinn returned to the group, Damion could hear a rumbling in the distance. It was not as loud as the last time he had heard rumbling like this, but the sound was familiar, it was the same sound he had heard a year ago, standing on the wall of Saung. The sound of an approaching beast wave.

It was not long before Damion started feeling the vibrations in the ground from the approaching onslaught, but still, he could not see any of the Demonic Beasts. Looking towards the petrified forest, he saw some of the trees in the distance being knocked over and the sound of them smashing to the ground stood out among the noise of the encroaching beasts.

When Damion spotted the first of the Demonic Beasts that were crashing their way through the petrified forest he thought they resembled cattle. Of course, any of the approaching Demonic Beasts would easily be twice the size of the biggest bull found on Earth.

White in color, the Donetto Stone Bulls stood out from the red and orange landscape as they charged closer. The smallest of the approaching bovines measured 3 meters at the shoulders, while the largest close to five. They each sported a wide set of horns on their heads that had several tips along the large rack, making them almost appear to be antlers, but the points in the middle were short and stubby, at least compared to the overall size of the Demonic Beasts.

Mage Phinn sent a series of Chain Lightnings into the stampede. The bolts of Lightning magic bounced between the Demonic Beasts. Dozens dropped to the ground, but the Demonic Beast stampede continued on, trampling over their fallen just as they continued to crash through the petrified forest.

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"And you wanted to fight in the forest?" Scoffed Simon Peck as he cut through the leg of the first Donetto Stone Bull to make its way out of the petrified forest. A second swing from his brother sliced the Demonic Beast's neck open as it collapsed on the ground.

"You'd be agreeing with me if the stampede came from a different direction," Mage Phinn shot back as he sent another Chain Lightning into the herd. Each of his casts took down dozens of the Demonic Beasts, but there were still plenty of the beasts charging at them.

"Let me take on one by myself," Damion heard Mage Young pleading. Everyone ignored the healer, and Damion could not help but shake his head at the Light Mage's request.

"How many of these things are there?" Peter Beck asked as he dodged out of the way of one Demonic Beast while his brother sliced the creature's side open.

More Donetto Stone Bulls were emerging from the petrified forest now and the knight brothers were working together with ease. One would dodge, the other would strike. Each time taking a Demonic Beast down.

Mage Phinn was casting as fast as he could, but there were just too many of the Demonic Beasts. Seeing the situation, Mage Abney cast a Driving Rain just inside the petrified forest. The ground quickly began to turn to mud, slowing the stampede some, but more importantly, creating a conductive surface for Mage Phinn's Lightning magic.

Even if a Chain Lightning failed to bounce to another target, due to too many moving beasts or because the lightning's path was blocked by a petrified tree, the charge would still pass through the muddy ground and the spell could take out large groups of Donetto Stone Bulls with ease time, instead of just a few.

Damion was happily Blinking around the battlefield pulling Demonic Beasts into his personal storage space as fast as he could. He kept out of the petrified forest, since that was where all of Mage Phinn's Lightning magic attacks were aimed, but he stored the carcasses he could reach from the edge in. He would then Blink away from Demonic Beasts as they charged towards him, sometimes teleporting himself straight up and then using Blink to move through the air to the next set of corpses.

"There are usually a few hundred," Mage Abney shouted back to the knight. "Shouldn't be too many more, next up will be the Dune Spiders, they always come after the stampede, emerging out of the freshly broken petrified trees."

"I thought those were solid?" Damion questioned.

"Most are, but some are hollow, the Dune Spiders will spill out and cover the forest floor. They eat things fast, so get moving on pulling as many of those Stone Bulls in as you can."

Damion did as Mage Abney said and continued pulling in the dead Donetto Stone Bulls. Most of the Demonic Beasts were only E Rank, but there were a few D Rank among them, which made him hopeful that a few C Rank Demonic Beasts would be in the mix as well.

"Do another Driving Rain," Mage Phinn called to Mage Abney. "Once the Stone Bulls are done I want to be able to fry all the spiders at once. I really hate those things."

Damion could not help but wonder how he would be using his Ice magic as he watched the other two mages at work. Would he have used Ice Wall, to try and slow down the Donetto Stone Bulls? Or perhaps cast Frost Over enough that the entire area became icy and watched as the Demonic Beasts lost traction and slid all over the place. Or would he use Frost Fire and let its devastation destroy everything in its path?

As he continued to daydream, the last of the Donetto Stone Bulls fell and a disappointed Mage Young pouted about not getting his turn. Without the deafening noise of the stampede, the Crimson Waste suddenly seemed eerily quiet. At least until the clicking started.

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