In the City of Una
Gerard had gathered every one of his followers, as the decision to stay in the city was something he needed to discuss with them. He knew his followers swore an oath, but he had also sworn to respect their choices and opinions, this was also the reason why they followed him, others would have made use of the opportunity to bind them to absolute obedience instead. Of course, he already had his own decision, but he also wanted to hear their thoughts.
"I want to hear your thoughts about staying in the city"
Gerard said, as he looked at his followers. All the people gathered around him were the peak talents in the City of Una, there might be others out there but most of them were here.
"Young Master, we know you have a plan set already, truth be told we have already had an agreement to follow your decisions"
Jason stepped out from the crowd; this was something Gerard's strongest followers discussed with them. Gerard looked at Alexis and the four other people who were trying their best not to glare at Jason, the plan they had was to have some sort of conversation first before agreeing to what Gerard would say to them.
"Young Master, we know your situation best, we know you'll just send those who don't want to stay to other missions in other cities out of consideration, but we also know that to survive in this city, we would need every abled person that we can use"
Alexis said as he kneeled on a leg as the four others followed, followed by everyone else.
"Well well well, it seems you people have been having your own small meetings huh"
Gerard said as he stared at the 5 main culprits. The 5 people in question lowered their heads further as they cursed at Jason. Jason didn't know that what he did would result into a beating later on.
"But I know you all mean well, then first, we'll have to gather the people who want to stay in the city, ask your friends or acquaintances first, the Governor might not take it well if we ask everyone in the city before he departs"
Gerard said, he didn't want to step on the Governor's authority whilst the Governor was still in the city, he knew that Transcendants never forget, so it was much better to ask those his followers knew secretly instead.
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Back inside the Forest
"Who's there?"
Aeron said as he looked around, the monkeys looked at him bewilderedly as they saw no creature around the area.
"You can hear me ssssSSSpeak"
The voice spoke again, this time he felt it was closer to him. The voice sent shivers to Aeron's spine, he instinctively leapt away towards another tree.
"What the!"
Aeron exclaimed, he was currently floating in the air, but that was only what he and the monkeys saw. Aeron however, felt a cool sensation wrapping around his body.
"Who are you?!"
Aeron asked in panic, he had never expected to encounter another problem right after the Grey Eagle and the Bloody Hyena's battle.
"It issssSSSsss me"
The color around him suddenly distorted as a massive snake easily 40 meters long and with its head about two meters big appearing in front of Aeron, his body was already bound by the giant snake. What was more peculiar was the snake's eyes, they were a rich golden color. The giant snake looked at Aeron inquisitively. It had only been talking internally as it found the situation interesting, it never expected to find two High-Grade Beasts in the midst of a fight to the death, what was more unexpected was that a small beast that stood upright heard its thoughts.
"What are you?"
The Golden Eyed Snake asked.
"I'm a human"
Aeron answered while trying to calm down, this was not the time to panic as he needed to find a way to get through this situation.
"A human? What iissSSSss a human?"
The Golden Eyed Snake asked as it raised Aeron up to its vantage point, Aeron had only noticed now that the snake had wrapped itself around the tree he was standing on earlier.
'What should I do?… What should I say?'
Aeron's thoughts were in a whirl, however much he wanted to calm down his situation was not promising at all, Arthur and the silver monkeys were far from him, and mobilizing them would only result to a more dire situation.
"ssSSSSpeak!"
The Golden Eyed Snake suddenly said while hissing at Aeron.
"A human is another type of monkey beast!"
Aeron said hastily, he couldn't possibly explain to the snake, about the existence of humanity right?
"A monkey type beassSSSsst??"
The Golden Eyed Snake asked in wonder. Meanwhile Aeron was desperately trying to find a way, any sort of way just to get out of his predicament. This was when he saw a sudden movement from the Bloody Hyena.
'This is it!'
An idea suddenly popped in his head, Aeron was unsure whether this plan would work, but there was nothing else he can do, other than die.
"I have never sssSSSSsseeen a monkey like you"
The Golden Eyed Snake said while it stared at Aeron doubtfully, this was truly the first time it had seen a human being, this was also the only reason that it was even entertaining Aeron, this and Aeron being able to hear its thoughts.
'Arthur! I will send you a signal, when you receive my signal, scream loudly, then kill the Bloody Hyena! And level up! Remember! You have to level up, my life depends on it!'
This was the first time Aeron had sent a soul command towards Arthur, soul commands were unquestionable, except if the soul the command was given to was much more powerful. But that could only ever be true towards Aeron who had tamed a stronger pet, as most Tamers would have a relatively powerful soul, at most equal towards their tamed beast. Even Aeron had to follow such rule, he was very lucky having an obedient Arthur to begin with.
"That's cause we are very rare, yes very rare!"
Aeron said, he was unsure if his plan would work, but if by some lucky chance the snake would let him go then he would rather do that.
"Rare? Do you know what thisssSSsss meanssSSs?"
The snake asked Aeron, its eyes were becoming sinister by the minute, Aeron had already half given up about entertaining the notion that the snake would just let go of him.
"Wha..What does it mean?"
Aeron answered, but he was already readying his skill.
"It meanssSSss I have not tassSsted any of you"
The Golden Eyed Snake said as its golden eyes narrowed into slits, it opened its gigantic maws trying to eat Aeron whole as most snakes do. A pungent smell assailed Aeron's nose, this was the smell of venom as most beast in Gaia didn't have body odor because of the rules of mana.
'NOW!'
Aeron sent the signal to Arthur.
"KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!"
Arthur's scream alarmed the Golden Eyed Snake as it stopped its motion and quickly looked at the source of the noise.
"[Tame]!!"
Aeron quickly activated his skill while he prayed that things would go as he planned. His eyes suddenly glowed blue while a blue string connected him and the Golden Eyed Snake. The Golden Eyed Snake tried to dodge at first, but they were too near and it was distracted for a moment.
Aeron opened his eyes, he was in the soul battlefield, there was only blue grass around, and a giant snake a good distance from him.
"What issSSS thiSSSSS!!"
The snake looked around, when it saw Aeron up ahead, it asked in anger. It started slithering towards Aeron at an alarming speed, meanwhile, Aeron started to run away, trying to buy time for Arthur's task.
"Kii!"
Arthur quickly shortened the distance between it and the Bloody Hyena, it was only now that it noticed that the Bloody Hyena was not bleeding and strands of blood were starting to connect between the two halves of its body.
Hahahaha!
The remaining hyenas started to attack, one way or another, the Bloody Hyena was able to command them while it was lying on the ground.
"Kiii!"
Arthur screamed again as the silver monkeys intercepted the remaining Hyenas, although small, there were still about 20 hyenas while 5 of them were Mid-Grade Hyenas. A battle ensued while the black monkeys joined the fray, the brown monkeys were too far away, Arthur had also ordered them not to touch Aeron or the snake, because it would cause damage towards the weaker soul.
"Kii!"
Arthur smashed its golden staff heavily at the Bloody Hyena's head, but a thin veil of aura protected its head, Arthur did not stop attacking but the aura veil held on.
'Please Arthur!'
Aeron thought as he was running away, when he looked back the Golden Eyed Snake was already halfway near him in such a short time.
"Kiii! Kii!"
Arthur swung its golden staff with more and more force, each attack was imbued with [Empowered Strike], but each time it felt the thin veiled starting to weaken it would still hold on. Arthur looked at the body of the Bloody Hyena, it suddenly noticed that the Bloody Hyena was only protecting the area where Arthur tried to hit it which was its head.
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'Arthur hurry up!'
Aeron thought as he saw the Golden Eyed Snake gaining at him. Aeron looked behind him, but when he did, the giant Golden Eyed Snake was nowhere to be seen.
'It can turn invisible in the soul battlefield too!'
Aeron was shocked, from what he knew there were no beasts known in the history of their family to have ever used an ability inside the soul battlefield, and the Ironbull family was already a colossus within the ranks of Tamer Families. But having no knowledge about it, did not mean there weren't any at all, but those who usually encountered them were long dead or maybe only those old Tamer Families had records of them. But this comparison was only to those families in the outer regions, the Central Region was different in this aspect.
Aeron still kept on running, this was not something within his control, the only thing he could do was wait and hope. But seconds after he turned around, his body suddenly left the ground.
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"Kiiii!"
Arthur suddenly attacked the Bloody Hyena's body instead of its head, and sure enough the Bloody Hyena was too weak to cover its other body parts with its aura veil. If Aeron had more knowledge towards High-Grade Beast then he would've been able to see that the Bloody Hyena was a genius within its ranks, its control over its aura as well as its intelligence was something very rare amongst the High-Grade Beasts, especially because it was currently at a lower level, its potential was actually something those Tamers in the Central Region would drool at, even including the fact that it was cowardly in nature, and was potentially disobedient and rebellious.
But it was currently being battered to death by a Mid-Grade Beast, albeit a King Beast, if other more knowledgeable and experienced Tamers knew, then they would've hated Aeron to the bones.
"Kiiii!!"
Arthur suddenly changed its attack, this time towards the head of the Bloody Hyena. Unlike earlier, this time, its attacked broke through the Bloody Hyena's weakened aura veil, the Bloody Hyena opened its eyes one last time gazing hatefully at Arthur's face. The only reason why the Bloody Hyena was still alive was because of the energy it had gotten from the Grey Eagle's death, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to use its skill to heal and spare some aura to protect its head, but that was it, the edge of the golden staff transformed into a spearhead as Arthur pierced the Bloody Hyena through its eyes.
"Kiiiiii!"
Arthur screamed into the sky as the massive energy traveled through its body. An Aura of promotion suddenly exploded from its body. A Beast leveling up and a Human level up had differences, unlike humans who could only gradually let the strength of his body travel slowly, a Beast could speed up the process as long as its body could take it. Arthur stimulated its whole body to speed up its leveling process, its muscles bulged as the veins of its body glowed blue, this was a very dangerous stage as it could potentially overload and implode.
"Kiiiiii!"
Blood started flowing out of its eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, its veins were like balloons that could pop anytime, but Arthur still held on. The pain it was experiencing was beyond imagination, but it was ordered to quickly level up, and it knew that somehow it leveling up was the only thing that could save its master. In truth most beast would rather take its time leveling up and would usually sleep just like how Ursa just slept in its transition to Mid-Grade.
"Kiiiiiiiiii!!!!"
When Arthur's strength peaked, Arthur screamed one last time before it fell unconscious, as much as it endured, it was far too young. Its body started falling down, the silver monkeys caught Arthur before laying it on the ground. But as it fell down, the skill bestowed by its master, started to take effect.
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Aeron was hoisted in the air as the Golden Eyed Snake slowly appeared again.
"What did you do?!"
The Golden Eyed Snake asked in rage, this was the first time it had encountered such scenario. It couldn't feel its body as much as it could a while ago. It felt like a big amount of its power was gone. It was confused and even scared, it had never found a match inside the forest, even the Bloody Hyena would run when it saw any sign of the Golden Eyed Snake. But the puny creature in front of it was able to transform it into something weaker. Of course, when the Golden Eyed Snake settles down, then it will be able to calmly assess the situation.
"You can't kill me, if you kill me then we will both die"
The Golden Eyed Snake glared at Aeron as it started to look around and observe its current predicament. It knew that Aeron was much weaker than it, it could also feel the fear the little monkey beast showed it.
"LiesssSSss! You tried to essSSsscape, sssSSSssomething tellssSsss me I sssSSSssshould kill you"
The Golden Eyed Snake said as it settled its thoughts. But to its surprise, the puny beast was smiling instead.
"Hahahhaha I should thank you for taking so long"
Aeron said as he felt his soul starting to sublimate, his soul strength suddenly surged, he was currently much more powerful than a normal magic beast soul. This was the same feeling he felt when he leveled up, if he used it then the sublimation would be canceled, but his life was more important.
"What isssSSss happening?!"
The golden snake asked in confusion, for some reason, the puny being in front of it radiated a scary amount of strength to the point where it felt fear. The creature that seemed so small felt more like a giant. The Golden Eyed Snake panicked as it tried to unwrap itself from Aeron's body, but it felt like it was being held by a giant hand.
"DIE!!"
Aeron shouted as he released all the power surging within his body, he didn't even care whether the snake would be annihilated as he wasn't even sure if it was enough to actually kill it.