The bison grew tired after a few hours, and their run turned slowed into a trot. Pascal and the rest all had sweat dripping down their faces, the prairie that was one exciting to them had become boring. Along the way, although they saw different animals, both big and small, they never saw another beastman. When asked, Tuwhayik assured them that it was because the Tauren territory was one of the territories closest to the forest they came out of, although even he found it odd that there weren't any Beastman shepherds taking their livestock out to graze.
To cure his boredom, Pascal asked Tuwhayik questions about the Beastmen. Their appearances, their official names, their lifestyles, anything he could think of. Since there was no harm in answering, Tuwhayik began explaining the beastman race to them. He started with the Taurens, the Taurens were bull-headed Beastmen with innate strength, they were the strongest in terms of physical strength. They were the main herders of bison in the Wildlands, which made them very important. They had huge muscular forms, even the females although theirs were leaner. They could be easily distinguished by other Taurens but other Beastmen did so by their horns; the males were bigger and darker while the females had pointier and light horns.
Next, he talked about the Ariens. Just like the Taurens they also had horns growing out of their heads, but theirs were the horns of rams. While the Taurens were stubborn in nature, the Ariens were calmer and more docile. Their hair grew in white tuffs like wool, even their tails were fluffy.
At this point Pascal glanced at Tuwhayik's lower back to see if he had a tail, he noticed a standard bull's tail growing out of it.
The Ariens were mostly farmers, and were the suppliers of most of the crops in the Wildlands. They had their own life stock but they didn't sell them. Although docile, the Ariens were not to be underestimated. They turn fierce when it comes to protecting what was theirs.
The other horned Beastmen were the Capricorns, but they were reclusive and lived in the mountains. They had the horns of a goat, and dull, emotionless eyes. But they rarely left the mountains so everyone knew little about them.
The Taurens, Ariens and Capricorns all had a symbiotic relationship, they rarely had fights and didn't cause much trouble among themselves. But there were other Beastmen who behaved rapaciously in the Wildlands.
They were the Leons, or, as they like to call themselves, the Prides. With their sharp teeth, bulky figures and golden eyes, they were definitely a frightening sight to behold. The Leons did not have livestock, they instead hunted the livestock of the horned Beastmen. They were rambunctious and proud, they took themselves as the kings and queens of the Wildlands, but the most frustrating part was they did have the power to do so. The Leons were the strongest Beastmen in the prairie. Tuwhayik wouldn't go into detail about the strength and weaknesses of any beastman so they just had to take his word for it.
He also spoke about the subsidiary Beastmen. They were Beastmen that didn't have their own official territory – or rather, weren't strong enough to make one – so they lived under the control of the rest, they didn't even have their own official titles. The Leons rule over the Tiger-man race, the Taurens lived with the Dog-man race, and the Ariens took care of the Rabbit-man race. As for the Capricorns, no one knew.
At the end of Tuwhayik's explanations, Pascal was left frowning in confusion. He thought that there should have been more Beastmen, and although he didn't know the amount of Beastmen living on the prairie he still felt that their race was too little. He didn't voice out his suspicions to him, from their talk he got to know that he and Tuwhayik were agemates, so even if there had been some Beastmen that went extinct he probably wouldn't know about them. Hundreds of years had passed already, even the oldest among them would have forgotten.
Pascal shook his head and decided to stop thinking about things that were out of his control, what he needed to focus on was the chafing in his thighs and the distance that remained for them to reach the Tauren's territory.
"Not too far now." Tuwhayik spoke as if he could read his mind. Pascal nodded and looked at the rest behind him apologetically, they looked so tired. He had impulsively decided to follow Tuwhayik, yes, but they came to explore the Forsaken Lands in the first place, having someone to follow was better than walking around aimlessly.
Suddenly, Pascal got a sense of urgency from Zahir who roared loudly up above. The bison all trembled but didn't break out in a run, they did stop in place.
"What's going on now?!" Tuwhayik complained.
"Something's wrong." Pascal said. "Everyone get down!"
The rest didn't have to be told twice, they jumped down from their bison and after a few stretches followed Zahir who had flown ahead. Tuwhayik hesitated for a moment for decided to follow them.
Before they reached where Zahir was, they could already hear fighting and see its dragon flame, Pascal trusted that Zahir wouldn't attack the Beastmen of the Wildlands unless he ordered it too, and fact that it was using [Dragon Flame] instead of just smashing the enemy showed that they were fairly strong. When they arrived at the scene, they were met with strange creatures scrambling about in the flames. The creatures looked like they were made out of glass, and the glass contained black sand inside them. The shape of the creatures was that of scorpions, and they were as big as Third Ranked Beasts.
There were about a dozen of them, there might have been more before they arrived but judging from the melted glass and black sand, they had been taken care of by Zahir. When the creatures noticed them, they ignored the flames and threw themselves at them, Pascal summoned his armor and jumped forward to meet them.
His sword met the one he attacked with a clang, the vibration from the attack almost made him drop his sword. The bodies of the creatures were harder than they looked, his sword only left a mark on the creatures. His senses tingled and he jumped backwards, effectively dodging the tail swipe of the creature. The stinger of the creature penetrated the ground like it was made out of soft jelly, Pascal had goosebumps at the sight.
"Ha!" Tuwhayik rushed past him and smashed his rod on one of the glass scorpion's head, the creature skidded backwards but the rod shattered. He threw the remainder of the rod to the side, his tattoos glowed bright blue, with a snort he jumped forward and punched the creature on the head. A crack appeared on the creature's head and black sand began flowing out of it. The creature twitched and tried to attack him with its tail, he grabbed it before it could hit him, spun around and tossed it away.
Pascal gaped at Tuwhayik strength, then quickly brought his sword up to block an attack. It seemed the Beastmen were stronger than he had thought, but he didn't have time to think about that now. He injected energy into his sword and it lit up, he had learned when he was in the forest that his sword could be made sharper if he charged it with his energy. He timed his attack well, he waited until the creature attacked him with its tail, then jumped to the side and cleaved it in half.
Now that he wasn't in immediate danger he glanced at the rest. They had decided to fight in two teams rather than fighting individually. Ronan was the strongest, therefore the vanguard. He battered the creatures with strong attacks, creating numerous cracks on their bodies which had been softened by Morgana's flames. When a creature tries to attack from the side they would be blown backwards by Frederick's [Air Blade]. On another side, Duma and Conrad attacked while Damon supported them from behind.
The creatures were strong, but with everyone's attacks and Zahir's flames they were soon taken care of. Pascal looked at the dead creatures after the fight ended, the creatures were undoubtedly strong but didn't have much vitality. Maybe it had to with the fact that they didn't have any organs other than the black sand, when the outer glass was broken it wouldn't take long for the sand to spill out.
Pascal bent down and felt that black sand with his fingers, it was smooth to the touch. Then he grabbed a piece of glass and studied it with a frown, these things didn't have eyes or hearts, or any openings really. Only smooth, tough glass and black sands for innards, so how were they alive?
"This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder." He mumbled.
He looked up and noticed Tuwhayik staring at the distance with a slight frown, he had gathered the bison and was about to mount one, "What's wrong?" He asked.
"The Tauren territory isn't far from here." Tuwhayik said with a deep voice.
Pascal understood his concern, he called the others and they continued on their way, this time none of them complained about the ride. Tuwhayik made the bison speed up because of his urgency, they hadn't even gone too far when they heard sounds of fighting. Tuwhayik jumped off his bison before it stopped and ran ahead, Pascal and the rest weren't that daring and waited for theirs to stop before unmounting.
The first thing they saw when they arrived in the midst of the clashes were numerous broken parts of the glass creatures on the ground, there were Taurens fighting the ones that stood with strong rods and cudgels, others fought with their fists and horns. Pascal and the rest stayed closely beside Tuwhayik as they helped fight the creatures, Tuwhayik didn't stay in one place but waded through the chaos, looking for someone. As they moved Pascal surveyed the Tauren territory, although he had expected that the living conditions of the Beastmen wouldn't be comparable to that of humans – since Tuwhayik had been wearing only fur loincloth when they saw him – he was still a bit shocked by what he saw.
They had no houses, only tents made from animal hide and fur. The male and female Tauren wore little clothing, they only covered their most private parts. They met a few Dog-men among the Taurens, they fought in packs but barely left scratches on the creatures. Pascal noticed that the tents in the Tauren territory were placed in a circular formation, as they moved deeper and deeper into the territory the tents turned scarcer, until they reached an open space with just one big tent in the middle.
Unsurprisingly, the glass creatures were there too. The Taurens that fought them were stronger and all had blue, glowing tattoos on their bodies, Pascal realized that he hadn't seen them on the other Taurens they had passed by. There were two eye-catching Taurens among the rest, the first one had a hulking figure, each of his punches shattered the body of the glass creatures they touched. The second one was more elderly, he had white hair and a somewhat hunched figure. His eyes were white, like that of a blind person, and the tattoos on his body were green. Unlike the rest of the Taurens, he didn't fight with brute force, but with magic. Slews of incantations spilled out of his mouth, with every wave of his hands a deep cut would appear on the body of the glass creatures he targeted.
"Father! Grandfather!" Tuwhayik yelled and ran towards the two Beastmen. But there were glass creatures in his way and they don't they were not easy to kill, his state of mind did not let him be mindful of his surroundings and he didn't notice the stinger of one of the glass scorpions striking down at his head.
"Tuwhayik!" The hulking Tauren screamed and rushed forward, but he was too far away and wouldn't be able to reach Tuwhayik in time. Tuwhayik himself had noticed the attack but couldn't think of a way to stop it without getting gravely injured.
In a golden flash, Pascal arrived in front of him and deflected the attack, shocking those watching. Without missing a beat, he jumped forward and cut off the creature's head. But he didn't stop there, he raised his sword up and swung it down with might, releasing a slash of [Resplendent Light] that smashed every creature in front of him to pieces.
He turned back to find Tuwhayik looking at him with his mouth agape, he clanged his sword on his shield to break him out of his stupor, "Don't just stand there, move! Go meet your father. Everyone else, go help the rest of the Taurens beat these things. Morgana and Duma, careful not to start a fire."
Duma blushed a bit while Morgana scowled at him, as they left to do his order a few glass creatures appeared in their way but they were immediately razed by lightning and burned by fire. Pascal sucked in a deep breath; the girls were definitely annoyed by his statement. He followed to his father's side and waved his sword at him, "Pascal Anderlude, Overlord of the Forsaken Lands. Happy to make your acquaintance, sir."
Tuwhayik's father and grandfather, and the Taurens beside them all looked at him in shock – staring at him like he was a foreign creature, which he probably was to them – before reluctantly tearing their gaze from him and focusing on the fight. They had a lot of questions, but they would have to save them for later.