On the other side of the Village, Niklos and the other Elders watched helplessly as the water levels increased uncontrollably.
They had already seen it rise significantly in the past few days, causing new rivers and streams to form all throughout their territories, causing the wildlife within Winter Rain Mountain to retreat to higher grounds.
Some rivers linked up with each other, forming a vast and interconnected network of waterways and pathways throughout the mountain range.
The source of these rivers were Falling Snow River, and came through Winter Rain Mountain before reconnecting back to the Famous River. As such, despite it not possessing a spiritual vein underneath it, the essence of the heavens and the earth was much thicker in comparison to other places.
This connection back to the Falling Snow River is one of the reasons why so many aquatic spirit beasts could be born here. It was much easier to form Hatred Fae in large amounts near Fae Grounds.
Since the waterways had grown in both number and size, it was easier for the.... larger fish in the food chain to enter. Especially those new ones who had yet to carve out of piece of the Falling Snow River as their own territory.
This Impure Rain Crab, was one such Beast King.
Two of the Elders, that both specialized in Earth Attributed Fae, tried to divert the flow of water away from the Clan, but-.
"Watch out! There's Baron Ranked spirit beasts in the water!".
There eyes widened, and they retreated instantly in the face of this massive, Black Scaled Sturgeon however-.
One of the Elders felt a whip created out of water coil around his leg, and felt himself being pulled back towards the river, his eyes showing an intense expression of fear as he was dragged under the surface.
A pool of red quickly flowed down from where he was dragged under.
Niklos frowned as he examined the rivers and streams from afar.
"The depth of these rivers.... are much too deep to be naturally created. Someone, or something has dug out the bottom of these riverbeds and made them deeper than what should be naturally possible....".
Elder Anatol and Elder Velika nodded.
"Such a thing would be impossible for spirit beasts, especially since he have never detected this before. These spirit beasts aren't Beast Kings, so they shouldn't be capable of planning such a move, especially without getting caught!".
Spirit beasts would usually attack humans at the first chance they got. Just like a spirit beasts Fae materials were beneficial for the forming of Fae, so to was the pure origin essence from Fae Masters.
In fact, all of the Myriad Races were prey for these spirit beasts due to their purer origin essence.
In Arthur's previous life, it would've taken the beast tide at least another week to get here. As Niklos and the others had discerned, the depths of these riverbeds were far too wide and much too deep to be a normal occurrence.
The rain and wind would've at least needed another two or three days to erode more sections of the plateau in order to fit some of the larger aquatic spirit beasts.
The timings between the first beast tide and the second were much too inconvenient for Arthur's plan to be used. Two or three days was more than enough to heal up all the Elders and Rank 2 Fae Masters to full health, as well as enough time to fill up the shelters and bunkers in an orderly fashion.
Arthur.... may have played a hand in such an event.
He did spend quite a bit of time exploring these rivers and streams. It would've been anyone's guess what he did underneath the water for such a long time....
Niklos glanced at Elder Vova before frowning.
"Is this perhaps Stas' work? He hasn't come back to the Clan yet, and no-one has seen him since I gave him his mission. Of course, it could always be spy but....".
In times of crisis' like these ones it was better to keep a level head.
The most likely option was usually the cause in such cases.
Elder Vova snorted before showing an expression of disgust.
"We'll deal with the one who caused this change later. For now, we have to restrict the movement of these spirit beasts so that they can't enter the Village waterways".
The size of aquatic creatures, even mortal ones were usually greater than that of land-based creatures. Not only that, but they possessed a much more varied species than land-based creatures, resulting peculiar mutations and powerful evolutions.
A Rank 3 Black Scaled Sturgeon was the size of a whale. It's fighting capability might not be that high, but its pure physical strength far exceeded that of a Fae Master of the same Rank.
Elder Anatol was the only one still with his origin essence sea at its maximum. Narrowing his eyes, he stepped forward raising his arms and his gazed down coldly at the wide river below.
He opened his mouth to speak, his tone soft, yet his aura overflowing like an active volcano!
"Fire Attributed Control Skill: Searing Heavenly Flame".
Similar to Niklos, Elder Anatol formed a large fireball in the palms of his hands. The sheer amount of heat that rolled of it pushed some of the weaker Elders back and the rain around them to evaporate.
The fireball, changed colours multiple times.
First it was orange. Followed by crimson. Then yellow. Then blue before finally turning a bright white, as if resembling an untouched canvas.
The ball caused Elder Vova's palms to burn as his skin cracked and his flesh was turned black.
He didn't have any Fae to protect himself from his Attribute Control Skill, so technically it was incomplete. However, its destructive power, even rivalled that of Niklos' Transformation Attribute Control Skill!
Elder Anatol pointed the ball of flames towards one of the larger rivers, aiming it in front of the earth barrier the two previous Elders had formed.
Thrusting out with a single hand, a beam, coloured white and emitting a light far greater than anything the other Elders had seen cut through the wind and rain, piercing straight through the waters surface, causing a massive steam explosive to rock the entire plateau!
Elder Vova didn't stop there.
Moving his hand slowly, but surely to the other rivers, numerous more explosions occurred all throughout the Kovacs Clan territory. His strength alone might not have been enough to kill so many spirit beasts, but using their own advantages against them was something that Elder Anatol had seen before!
One of his predecessors, one that had joined a Clan in youth had taught Anatol that before he died. Not the Attribute Control Skill itself, but the relationship between intense heat and water.
By itself a single crimson fae couldn't even cause an explosion in water and would merely dissipate on the waters surface if the body of water was too big.
But gathering heat, light and from all available sources around himself and shooting it forward like a beam.... It was extremely similar to Niklos' Attribute Control Skill.
Taking his knowledge of fire and water, and applying it to the Umbral Shadow Wolf Transformation abilities.... this was his "Searing Heavenly Flame".
The bodies of numerous spirit beasts floated up to the surface of the water. The temperature inside the rivers would be increased for a short period of time, and make it slightly uncomfortable for the spirit beasts inside to swim though.
It may have only been slight, but for Elder Anatol, it was more than enough.