Caw! Tsuu! Tsuu! Woosh! Boom! Gnuu! Woosh! Woosh! Gnuu! Bang! Caw! Bang!
Havok dashed over as he heard sounds of the falcon fighting. He was hoping that it would not be over too fast, so that he could see just how strong the falcon had become. He arrived and saw the falcon battling against a wildebeest. The wildebeest was massive, its height was about a foot bigger than Havok was, its black hide with a dark red hair down its spine. Its face was long, a dark red mane on its chest that looked intimidating, a long horn on each side of its head that were all black with dark red tips, a dark red tail that was swinging as it was clashing with the falcon.
The falcon might have the ability to fly and be extremely fast, but this wildebeest was not any slower. "Damn, they are both faster than me by quite a bit and that is even using 'Darkness Dash' I still won't be able to match their top speed. I need to battle more once this small break is over. That is the only way to improve my techniques and get stronger. Even though this wildebeest is fast, if it does not have an affinity, it will still lose because the falcon can just stay in the air and launch attacks until the wildebeest tires." Havok watched the fight with the joy of a child as got what he wanted. The falcon had finally met a powerful opponent.
He looked around and noticed something strange, "Why the hell is the ground singed?"
Havok as he glanced around the battlefield. He just got here and saw the ground shredded from the falcon's attack that he witnessed in the fight with the bobcat. He focused on the singed parts and noticed that hoof marks were all over the place and they were burned into the ground. "Holy shit! It has a fire affinity," shouted a surprised Havok as he looked at the wildebeest's hooves and saw that they were on fire, not just that, anywhere that had dark red hair on the wildebeest when he first arrived was now on fire.
He was shocked because other than the rulers he didn't think that any of the other mana beasts would have an affinity yet and this was the first time he was seeing the fire affinity. 'I know that it was not on fire when I first arrived, so it probably does not have that much control over its affinity. The fire also seems to be flickering and not steady, which shows that it either does not have control or its beast core is running low on mana. Does the fire affinity make it faster or is its race just fast? Can it spit fire?' Several thoughts flashed through Havok's mind as he watched in amazement.
The falcon was clearly injured. It had the wounds from the hooves of the wildebeest that looked like a fire brand on its wings and several feathers were burned. "How the hell did it manage to stomp on the falcon? The only time that any beast that can't fly is able to get close to the falcon is when it is feeding and close to the ground. It must have tried to kill the falcon quickly and failed just the bobcat, but the wildebeest did some damage. That must have used up a lot of mana and that is why its fire right now seems so unsteady. Still how did it manage to get close enough to stomp on the falcon without it noticing? It is certainly fast but the speed I am seeing now is not enough to catch the falcon off guard. The only thing I can guess is that the fire affinity made it faster or maybe it followed the falcon like I did and waited for a chance to strike." Havok was full of questions as he watched them fight.
"None of that matters now, I just need to focus on the fight. The falcon should wrap this up now that the wildebeest seems to be running low on mana." Havok shook his head, getting rid of unnecessary thoughts as he focused on the fight.
The falcon's injury to its wing managed to make the falcon have some difficulties flying, so it was lower to the ground than usual. The wildebeest took advantage of the situation and attacked, it sprinted to the falcon dodging the blades of wind the falcon was launching at it. They were weaker and slower than they usually were. The wildebeest launched itself off the ground and soared towards the falcon. Havok thought this was a foolish decision, "Now that you are in the air you have no way to dodge when the falcon attacks. Against an opponent that specialized in flight that is a stupid choice." Havok said as he shook his head in disappointment.
Just like Havok predicted, the falcon who was struggling just a second ago seemed to have recovered instantly and its talons swiped at the horns of the wildebeest that was trying to impale it. The attack didn't manage to break off the horns, but they did lose a chunk on one side and the falcon did not escape without injury, though the flames on the wildebeest horns were not stable it still burned the falcon's talons and both beasts were knocked back. The wildebeest was blasted into the ground and the falcon was shrieking in pain, shaking its talons trying to cool them off.
Boom!
"Those horns are sturdy, even if I hardened my weapons they would have been blasted apart after taking that attack. It would be nice if I could make a few throwing knives out of them, sadly I don't think I will get that chance." Havok shook his head at his misfortune.
The wildebeest was not able to climb out of the crater that was created when it was knocked out of the air earlier before the falcon flapped its wings and sent large, quick blades of wind at it. The wildebeest cried out in pain as they slashed its body up and when the dust cleared, the fire on the wildebeest was nowhere to be seen. The falcon wasted no time and swooped down and swiped its talons at the wildebeests' head, slicing it off.
Havok got excited, "Last time it cut off the bobcat's head, it only took its body and left the head. Hopefully it will do the same thing this time. Damn, that would be perfect!" The falcon was currently standing on the body of the wildebeest cawing, declaring its victory.
Havok's wish came true, the falcon grabbed the body and headed back to its nest to enjoy the spoils of its victory. Havok had the notion to yell in celebration of his unexpected boon, but he did not want to draw the attention of the falcon, so he held back.
"I forgot about that." Havok smacked his forehead as he remembered something that he did when he was about to pass out after the fight with the jaguar. "That technique is extremely helpful, and it allows me to be able to keep my distance while still getting what I want. Let's try it." He flicked his finger and a streak made of darkness shot towards the head of the wildebeest, but it was not able to reach it. The streak was just stuck in the air, Havok tilted his head in confusion, "My mana core is full, and my control is good. I must be too far away for the amount of mana I used. Let me up the amount a bit." The streak of darkness continued on its way to the wildebeest's head.
Once it got close enough Havok made a grabbing gesture and the black streak turned into a hand and copied what he was doing and grabbed the head. Havok pulled his hand back and the streak of darkness retracted until the head was in front of him. He wrapped the head in darkness as it was still bleeding, and he didn't want to leave a blood trail straight to his front door.
He activated 'Darkness Dash' and went home to drop the head off before he headed to the eastern region. The sun was still a few hours from going down, but it really didn't matter because Havok wanted to see what happened in the forest when the sun went down as he knew that most beasts were nocturnal or at least they were before mana. Also being in the dark will enhance his senses and techniques.
He arrived in the eastern region and climbed up a tree to get a good view. The grass had grown to ridiculous heights. Havok could walk in the grass and not be seen even if he was standing straight up. The number of beasts had increased like the other territories, and they were also all stronger. He could clearly see the alpha wolf lying down on the biggest rock in the area sleeping just like last time. However, when he looked around for the four beta wolves, he was only able to see three of them even after scanning the area twice.
"I wonder how it was killed, anyway, I need to go check the area for food. I just need to make sure to stay away from the area where the alpha is sleeping." Havok jumped down from the tree he was standing in and landed in the shade below. There was a slight noise from when he hit the ground, but there were no mana beasts around, so he was fine.
"Lucky for me there are no mana beasts around, 'Hidden Presence' has advanced, but there is still room for it to grow." Said Havok, as he thought of ways, he could improve the technique as he began to search for food.
He saw the mana beasts acting just as violently as the beasts in the other territories. He moved from shadow to shadow and made his way through the territory and he found nothing. The sun was setting, and he finally found something, "Onions and a lot of them, nice." Havok said as he used the darkness in the form of hands, and he began to fill up his backpack.
Havok was just finishing up, when he heard the sound of a mana beast coming, he jumped to the shade of a tree nearby and waited for it to pass. With 'Hidden Presence' active and him standing still while in the dark, he was practically invisible, unless the one looking for him had extremely keen senses or was stronger than him by a large margin.
A few seconds after he stopped moving a mana beast came by sniffing around seemingly looking for him because he was the only one in the area. When Havok saw the mana beast he cursed, 'Well, shit. It should not be able to find me, but I still need to be ready for anything.'
It was one of the beta coyotes that ruled the eastern region. it was alone, but Havok was not sure if it would stay like that or even how it knew that he was here in the first place. Not that any of that mattered right now all he cared about was getting away from the coyote without fighting. He was not scared of the coyote, but they were a pack animal and all it would take was one howl and the rest of the pack would rush over. Unless he could kill the coyote quickly without giving it a chance to howl, Havok wanted to avoid a fight.
The coyote stayed for about ten minutes as it searched the whole area and was unable to locate him and it left. Havok didn't want to take any chances and decided to stay put for a few more minutes just in case the coyote was still in the area watching.
Havok activated 'Darkness Dash' and left the area and remembered the location of the onions, so he could mark it on the map. He made his way to the inner region of the forest. This area was much more crowded than the other regions because all of the weaker beasts that lived here didn't want to risk living in the regions of the stronger beasts. Though there are strong mana beasts here, there was a definite gap in their strength and the strength of any of the rulers. Part of the reason that the mana beasts here are weaker is because they lacked the ambition and will to challenge the stronger beasts, they preferred to kill the weaker beasts and live a comfy life.
It was now dark and Havok was standing on the branch on one of the medium height trees scanning the inner region. He decided to pass on searching this region for food because it was packed with beasts, and it was almost impossible for him to look around without constantly running into mana beasts. He sat down as he wanted to see how the mana beasts behaved now that the sun was down and would any stronger mana beasts show up now.
It took a while, but they did start fighting as if the sun going down was a signal to begin. The stronger beasts went out and hunted down the weaker ones, Havok was disappointed as he watched shaking his head, "This area is fucking dud, the other areas might have smaller numbers, but at least they try to get stronger. Here, it's just the strong feasting on the weak, I should not even call them strong because in reality they are just stronger than the weak beasts that are in this region. If they went to the other regions they would be at the bottom of the food chain. I wonder when one of the stronger mana beasts from another region will come here and become the ruler." Havok stood up and paused as he was conflicted if he should go to the northern region or not.
"That big bastard is probably awake and the other mana beasts in that area should be stronger than most of the mana beasts in the other regions given that they are able to drink the run off of that glowing pond. While I am slightly worried about running into the black bear, I still want to see how the mana beast in this region differs from the inner region. Only by risking my life will I be able to get stronger and I might be able to find some type of fruits or vegetables. Fuck it, lets do it."