The man with the light orb as well as everyone else froze when alex's tail stopped the man. the man looked at alex fearfully but alex just raised a single claw and made a "put it down" motion. the man carefully put the light orb down and raised his hands to show his surrender as he backed away from it. alex just huffed in annoyance as he grabbed the orb and pulled it towards him protectively. the thing was both expensive and his ticket to greater power so alex was definitely not going to hand it over so easily.
Alex overheard the man talking about how he had noticed the loose dirt in the center of the nest and when he dug at it with his foot the yellow glow came out so he grabbed the orb. alex snorted at this explanation as it was one of those curiosity killed the cat type moments. it was pretty clear to everyone nearby that whatever that orb was alex treasured it so they made a mental note not to touch it. the admiral who showed up a couple days later had no such issue however as he held the orb like it was a basketball.
"Helluva lot of energy in this thing sid , i kinda wanna know where you got it." the huge man said while holding the orb carelessly. alex wasn't even worried the man would make off with the light orb since he was far too blunt to try and trick alex just to steal it. the admirals curiosity was just that , curiosity , and nothing more. there was actually a new rule formalized after that event that if any strange objects were found in alex's nest no one was to touch them. alex handled that situation very calmly but no one was willing to antagonize him to see how he would react.
"Seems a shame to cover it with dirt like that though , it's real pretty after all." he paused for a moment and grinned. "tell yah what lemme go grab some netting and i'll string it up over head like a lantern , sound good?" the admiral asked with a smile and alex nodded. he did too as he came back with buoy nets that were missing the buoys and strung up the light orb overhead after giving it a good wash with water.
This had a great effect too as the nest went from very dark to dimly lit as a result making it much more comfortable for people. alex didn't care really so long as he could still soak up those sweet elemental gains. the next day alex got up and headed out like normally however today was different than usual. today alex had decided to end the anjanath that had been butting heads with him for so long. it wasn't difficult to find either as the thing left very obvious trails that made it easy to track. when alex found it the beast was chewing up a great jagras in the area with the weird suspended boulder that regenerated somehow.
Alex remembered using the natural trap at least five times to kill a great jagras by knocking it over. the anjanath was the unlucky monster getting the boulder dropped on it this time as a quick flick of alex's tail caused a spark stone to rocket into the thing. at alex's current size he had a huge amount of strength in all of his limbs including his tail that moved fast enough to crack the sound barrier if he swung it full force.
Alex knew this was the anjanath he was after because of the large scar under its eye from when he first met it. surprised by the sudden falling boulder on top of it the anjanath fell over onto it's side and began to struggle to get up in a panic. alex wasted no time closing in like a black blur that crackled with electricity with his maw wide open. the anjanath noticed alex and protected it's throat without stopping it's attempt to right itself. alex had no problem changing his target since his first choice wasn't available as he closed his fangs on the anjanath's exposed belly.
The beast roared in pain as alex tore out a hole spilling it's guts all over the ground but alex was a merciless hunter and the spine at the tip of his tail lit up as he channeled energy through it followed by the next and the next. by the time the energy reached alex's head it was hyper condensed and the anjanath could feel death approaching and struggled harder , but it was in vain. unlike what alex was expecting the energy didn't leave his mouth as a beam but a large blinding orb that slammed into the open belly of the anjanath and exploded inside it.