"Van, you are not in a condition to fight anymore, take care of Dreg, we can't leave him alone here," Fred said to Van, then he stood up and followed Aiden.
Van was hesitating, but when she looked at the severe wounds on Dreg she nodded. Dreg already lost consciousness so he didn't have any say in this matter.
"You don't need to come. If you stay, then you can save two lives other than yours" Aiden said without turning his head.
"Escape, then what? Where would we go? and my little girl is still inside the village. I would rather take a few of them down with me," Fred said with a solemn face.
Aiden didn't say anything further.
When they arrived at the back of the village they saw several men in black imprisoning the villagers.
There were several cages lying at the side, all the children and young ones were locked inside them.
The cages were made of a grey-colored metal, capable of absorbing Qi. It was the reason the occupants had lost all strength to resist.
When Aiden and Fred arrived, first they looked at the imprisoned people and children for a moment, before they focused their attention on the two men flying above the cages.
One of the levitating was an old man with shriveled up skin on his face. He was wearing a black cloak covering his body.
The other person was in a Semi-Monster Transformation state. He was a muscular man, with jackal-like ears and a tail behind him. He was the traitor, Drain.
"Why?" Aiden said when his eyes met with Drain's.
Drain subconsciously averted his gaze, because of inner guilt.
"Hahaha… Why, you ask, because we offered him more than, what you, with your run-out village can provide. We signed a contract with him after you are all caught we will give him enough money that he can leave this continent and live a luxury life somewhere else.
You know what's the irony in it, the money we will give him is a part of the large sum of money we will get from selling you animals" The old man said while laughing like a madman.
Drain hardened his heard and looked back at Aiden with firm expression but then he suddenly looked behind him and his eyes shined.
Fred felt something wrong, he looked behind only to see Van closing in.
"Why are you here? Is Dreg fine?" Fred asked worriedly.
"He is unconscious. It's hard to tell if he would survive and I wasn't able to hold myself back and keep sitting there while you are facing death here… I also wanted to confirm with my own eyes if Drain had really betrayed us... and it seems true" Van said, as she looked disdainfully at Drain.
"Van it's good that you are fine, didn't you want to leave this small village and travel freely around, come with me I am leaving this place, we can go to a good place together and get marrie…" Drain didn't seem to mind the disdainful look aimed at him and tried to persuade her.
"Fukkk Offff, don't you dare say my name again" Van shouted at him with red eyes.
{It's better if you agree, at least one of us can survive} (Fred)
Aiden also slightly nodded, indicating that she should agree, he already knew the chances of, him and Fred surviving today, are very slim.
{You two don't need to persuade me, I am not ungrateful like this scum. Going with him aside, I don't want to even look at his disgusting face… Today he sold his home. Who knows, tomorrow he might sell me too, for the right price} (Van)
They didn't try to persuade her more.
Drain was angry at her rejection.
"Suit yourself, you will regret it in the future," Drain said in an angry tone.
Aiden didn't talk more, he raised his broad sword and attacked the old man.
Fred and Van also attacked Drain.
The old man just sneered at him and tried to block the attack with bare hands but when the sword got near him he slightly frowned he tried to step back, but it was too late
A big cut appeared on his hand but the old man was prepared, he swallowed a pill while backing off and the wound stopped bleeding quickly.
"To be able to exert so much strength in such a pitiful state, a Demi-Human like you, who is also a Body Cultivator is really strong, not just anyone can hurt a Core Forming stage cultivator with Heaven Venerable cultivation base, you are good so I will give you a chance to survive. Become my slave and I will spare your life," The old man said.
"You don't forget our deal, you said the leader will die," Drain on the side shouted in panic while fighting Fred and Van.
Drain knew that if anyone of the experts in the village especially Aiden or Fred survives today then there is a high chance that they will come for revenge and even if they themselves don't come, once they spread the news of what he did then he will become the traitor in the eyes of the whole Demi-Human race.
"Don't get cocky I only promised not to harm you and give money if I really want to kill you then all I have to do is just leak the news about you to other beast hunting sects" The old man said with a sneer.
Drain immediately shut up, he already knew that there is no going back he was fine with it as long as he could survive.
"I would rather die," Aiden said then attacked again.
"Hmph…then die" The old man took out a strange whip and swung it towards him.
The whip was very fast, it made a shrill sound when passing through the air then hit Aiden's chest
..Swiish..tha…
The whip broke his defense and a thin but long cut appeared on his skin.
'A spirit weapon?' Aiden ignored the bleeding and kept attacking the old man.
Drain was also not in good shape, earlier he too fought others and got injured, and although his condition was much better than Fred and Van but both of them were fighting him without carrying about their lives.
Suddenly he turned to the man that were imprisoning the villagers.
"Take villagers as hostages, they will stop on their own" Drag shouted at them.
"You Scum…" Van took the opportunity and slashed her dagger at his hand when he turned around to shout.
Drain's left hand got cut and fell to the ground but instead of fighting, he ran towards the other man in fear.
Those people have already heard his words they just randomly picked any beast-man and placed their dagger on their necks.
Fred and Van stopped in their tracks, Aiden also got distracted.
The old man secured the opportunity and kicked Aiden's chest.
Aiden was thrown to the ground and landed near Fred.
"If they move from their place then kill all the unneeded beast-man," The old man said.
"Hehe... I didn't think something like that would really work," The old man said while laughing.
But Aiden didn't respond both of his hands were touching the ground it was like he didn't even have the strength to stand up left in him.
'Is it the farthest we can go?' Fred asked to himself.
He was worried about Aiden but he wasn't allowed to move, then suddenly he felt something wrong he heard some slight crackling sound of bones.
Fred looked at Aiden with slight doubt.
{Aiden?} Fred said but he didn't get any response, it was like Aiden didn't hear his voice at all.
Aiden felt like he was isolated from the world right now, everything became quiet, a warm sensation was embracing him he felt like if he just lied down and sleep then all his worries will disappear in the next second.
But he held back when he thought how everything became so quiet, several images began to appear and disappear inside his head, some of them belonged to his wife, some were of his daughter and Fred then he also remembers that all of them were caught right now and if he didn't walk up they will all die… or might experience a worse fate.
Endless rage filled him when he remembered the faces of Drain and the old man, he didn't reason with his thoughts anymore he started to roar like a beast and the world around him started to crack.
"What is wrong with his body," The old man said when he saw that the brown fur on the Aiden's body started to turn pitch black.
He was just sitting there with his head down so he didn't consider him a threat anymore but now he suddenly started to feel a slight threat from him.
Aiden's body started to go through a complete metamorphosis, his muscles expanded in size, his fur became thickened and his body shape and size also began to change.
"Thi…this is Full-Beast Transformation but how… everyone kill him before he completes it," Drain panicked and said
"Wait... I also want to see the rumored Full-Beast Transformation," The old man said with a sneer, according to him even if Aiden becomes too strong as long as they use hostages he could control him furthermore if Aiden really learns the Full-Beast Transformation then his price will be increased by several times in the black market.
Drain didn't like his decision but he didn't have anything to say.
As a beast-man Drain knew that not just anyone could achieve Full-Beast Transformation, only those who had experienced several life and death battles and had a grasp over the fear of death can achieve a Full-Beast Transformation, once they achieve this form their battle strength will increase by several folds
Aiden's body size kept increasing until he was three times as big as before, right now he had completely transformed into a huge bear with no similarity to a human.
The huge bear slowly stood up and raised his head to look at the old man.
When the old man's eyes met with ferocious eyes of the bear he inwardly shivered, the look in the bear's eyes made him feel like he was prey who is being watched by a predator.
He forced himself to calm down then attacked the bear with the whip in his hand.
…Swwiisshhh…tha…
The whip hit the bear but…. the bear didn't respond to it he kept looking at the old man, the old man noticed that the whip didn't leave any wound on him.
The bear started to slowly walk towards him.
"You all attack him," The old man said to the man standing behind him.
Although they didn't want to fight the bear but they didn't have any choice so they rushed at him and used their best move against him.
"Rock Breaking Fist"
"Mountain Drilling Spear"
"Beast Subduing Hammer"
"Blood Sealing Cha...."
Various attacks landed on the bear.
But the bear didn't put them in his eyes at all and began to rush at the old man.
All the attacks didn't have any effect on the thick fur of the bear.
"You stop if you take one more step I will kill all the hostage," The old man shouted but the bear only increased his speed, he didn't seem to hear or understand anything he was like a predator whose only focus was on his prey
"Van step back, he unlocked the transformation but he didn't gain the control over it, right now he can't tell the difference between a friend and an enemy, his hatred is making him choose his targets," Fred took Van's hand and rushed to the side to use the panic as an opportunity to save as many people as they can.
When the bear was close to the old man, the old man clenched his teeth and faced him head-on.
'Mountain Suppressing Palm,' The old man used a palm attack
The bear raised his paw and attacked
…Booooomm…
When their attacked collided the bear was only forced back one step while the old man flew uncontrollably and crashed into the rock behind him.
The old man coughed out a lot of blood after crashing in the rock.
"Cough…Cough…. impossible how could it be… how could I someone at Core Forming 2nd stage can be pushed back by a puny Heaven Venerable" The old man said in disbelief while supporting his fractured arm.
The bear was again moving forward but then he sniffed a certain smell in the air and turned to look at Drain who was picking up his broken arm.