A short while after everyone left the mountain...
Jaguar Clan Territory
In a medium sized clan of jaguar sat a group of panthers, if Shadow was here she would recognise them!
The clan leader of the jaguar clan looked at them with greed in his eyes. "So you are the younger generation of that old panther, does he intend to keep his promise?"
The son of the panther clan head spoke with confidence. "Yes, our clan wishes to welcome you to the mountain and join the panther clan and help us take over the Ever Reaching Mountain. Our power has grown and with your help we can rule over the mountain and those that live on it."
The jaguar snorted. "It has taken you a lot of time to come back to see me, its almost as if you forgot about me and your promise."
The young panther pretended to be offended by his words and replied in anger. "How could you doubt our clan? Haven't our clan heads known eachother for a long time? During the many years that scheming monkey has been watchful over our clan and the fox clan has been pushing us to fight to our deaths before we are sure we can even win. However an opportunity has presented itself."
"Oh? Do tell." The jaguar had a look of interest.
"We also had to include the deer clan into our plans because there are a brother and sister who are rising in strength as fast as myself and the exiled black foxes daughter. we have had no opportunities to wipe them out until now however an opportunity has presented itself. Many of the younger generation have gone hunting down the mountain and this is a perfect opportunity to remove them to avoid future threats. Once we have dealt with them then the next big problem would be killing the monkey king and dealing with the many black foxes. Of course we can also use this opportunity to kill the kings son as he has also joined the hunt." The young panther spoke with confidence with a look of killing intent in his eyes.
"Hmph so you need my help to kill them all, are you certain with our help you will be able to keep your promise after its all over?" The old jaguar questioned with a look of distrust.
"Our clans have been old friends for hundreds of years, of course we would not abandon eachother in our time of need. We will keep our promise." The young panther nodded his head.
"Okay you may leave, wait outside I will prepare our clan and send some of them to you soon." The old jaguar finally agreed to help.
"Thank you." Bowing his head in grattitude the young panther quickly left.
After the panthers left his presence the others from the jaguar clan were summoned along with the jaguar clan heads son.
He quickly told the jaguar clan of his plans so they left to prepare for a war, after they left he sat alone and laughed to himself. "Hahahaha finally the day has come! Many years ago you denied my clans entry onto the mountain and to be part of your alliance. You old monkey, you knew the panther clan and jaguar clan wished to join together to take over your rule so you only accepted one clan to keep the balance of the clans on the mountain back then. Too bad for you that I will personally eat your flesh, drink your blood and devour your core! My grudge is deep, being stuck in this place struggling to survive among the stronger clans with this poor territory. If my clan wasn't strong enough we would have no way to survive, hmph I could have informed the other clans of the alliance and the territory belonging to that old monkey long ago but then I would lose out myself!"
"And when that is settled....hehehehehe old panther you just wait... don't think you can use me and my clan so freely at your own convenience. I will have the last laugh!" He had a look on his face that was a mixture of greed and bloodthirst.
Nobody knew the hardships that the jaguar clan went through while the panther clan joined the Ever Reaching Mountain back then but it was clear that the jaguar clan had less of a friendship with the panther clan now.
In fact ever since they were abandoned they began to resent the panther clan and called them traitors.
The most resentful was the clan leader who held onto the thought of killing the monkey king, the panthers clan head, the fox clan head personally while also wiping out their bloodline.
What about this new deer clan though?
What does he care for them, they would just be appetisers for his main meal so he never spent even a thought on them.
Meanwhile during the desolate forest hunt...
A group of black foxes began to fight against a larger beast using their larger numbers, the beast was a large bull spirit beast .
The bull was now covered in many claw marks and bite wounds, losing blood rapidly their strength was greatly dropping.
The bull began to charge towards the leader of the fox group, the daughter of the fox who taunted the young brown foxes mother.
Seeing this sight the young black fox grinned, during this time she had been hiding her strength while directing her clansmen to weaken the bull.
This lead to the bull thinking that the leader was weak, however when the bull reached her she easily dodged the strike as a black energy wrapped around her claws.
Her first attacks were towards the back of the bulls hind legs after it was forced to stop after missing its target.
The bull collapsed and as ordered the other black foxes began to pounce onto the bulls vital parts scratching and biting until it finally gave up its struggles.
The young black fox let out a light yawn. "How boring."
After digging up the beast core from the bulls body it showed the energy of 5th spirit gathering, the core was quickly placed before the female black fox.
"Young miss how many have we collected?" One of the older foxes asked, although he was much more experienced and equal in strength to the female fox he spoke in reverence towards her.
"We have collected 4 lower grade cores with energy of 1 to 4 spirit gathering, 2 medium grade with energy of 5 to 8 spirit gathering and 1 spirit herb." The female fox counted the items they had collected so far. [1]
"Young miss, thanks to your planning we have been killing very efficiently and have not lost a single life." The older fox began to praise her.
"Of course, the only ones who can compete with us are the panther clan. However I am sure they are getting in touch with some old friends now." The young female fox began to analyze the current affairs.
"How does young miss know?" The older fox asked.
"My grandparents once taught me about the panther clans past, if they would want to make a move then they would do it soon which is why we took this time to hunt. If we come back alive and win this competition then our clan will become the rulers with the least casualties so long as we stick to the plan. The winner gets to assign the new ruler which means we just need to follow the rules, then the old monkey will have no choice to step down and have no choice but to serve our family. This way we gain everything without spending much effort and spilling too much blood from within the alliance ourselves." The female fox answered.
"So what do we do now miss? Aren't we also targets for the panther clan?" The older fox looked excited, surely his young miss would have a solution.
"We hide. Since we already know they are coming we hide for some time, this way we avoid the bloodshed but I feel something is missing..." The young female fox began to be lost in thought.
The young female fox had been personally cultivated by her grandparents care, given the best teaching on the history of the desolate forest, their clans, their strength and also taught various tactics to defeat her enemies.
Her strength had been kept hidden while she quietly gained enough strength without even her own clan members knowing her true strength, until today she had barely appeared in the public eye.
Todays event was the best strategic time to unveil herself to the world, creating a chance to improve her influence on her clan and gain more experience.
She was the complete opposite of the young female brown fox who openly fought on the mountain against invaders, displaying her strength to everyone around her.
The brown foxes personality was usually kind and caring while ruthless to her enemies but also somewhat impulsive at times while the young black foxes personality was cold, calculating and liked to hide her strengths and weaknesses until she knew she could come out as the victor.
One was an exile of the clan walking her own path while the other was enjoying the riches of the clan while growing more dangerous every day in secret.
[1] Spirit gathering stage has 1 to 12 stages before stepping into origin stage. As spirit beasts their cores are referred to grade/rank 1 cores. They are seperated into 1-4 Low grade, 5-8 Medium grade, 9-12 high grade cores. (After origin stage it is only 1 to 9 stages so its low (1-3), medium (4-6), high (7-9))