While the leaders planned their defence strategies, Vasari was strolling through the streets of Grimdale with Hiromi hand in hand.
Kurumi, Hozumi, DT and Jaxon joined along for their walk.
"This place feels like a ghost town," Kurumi commented after seeing hardly any of the town's residents walking through the streets. She could see some people watching them from inside their homes and they all had nervous expressions.
"Most of the residents must have already evacuated and you can't blame them for doing so. I would have evacuated my sect if even one peak Beta-Stage beast was about to attack it. Never mind a hundred." Hozumi sympathised with the residents who decided to look for a new home. She would've made the same decision if her daughters were put in harm's way.
"About that, Vasari, are you sure we should've taken this mission? I mean, there's only 25 of us versus 100 Beta-Stage beasts plus thousands of adult-stage and adolescent-stage beats." Hiromi asked as she gripped Vasari's hand tighter.
She still remembered the fear she felt when in the presence of the 3 rulers of Draynora, and she couldn't imagine fighting against a hundred of those types of beasts.
"Don't worry. You are not the same as you once were. You now have amazing techniques and a powerful weapon, and you also trained with Adele, who is ridiculously strong. Believe in yourself, okay?"
Vasari rubbed the back of Hiromi's hand with his thumb as he tried to motivate her.
"Vasari's right, and remember that not all the Beta-Stage beats will be as powerful as the Black Firedrake. Most will probably be early or late rank Beta-Stage beasts." Hozumi added to ease her daughter's worries.
Hiromi smiles and thanks them for their words of encouragement.
Meanwhile, DT and Jaxon were busy arguing about who gets to ask out one of the girls in their mission squad. While travelling on the Colossal Roc, they both developed a crush on one of the girls they sat next to.
After spending an hour or so walking around, Vasari and the others started getting bored and decided to return to where the mounts were.
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When Vasari got back to the mounts, he heard the wolf cubs playing with Chelsea's red and yellow striped tiger.
Although they were no match for the peak rank Beta-stage beast, they used their agility and strength in numbers to their advantage.
The red and yellow striped tiger was 5 meters tall when standing on all four legs and 8 metres long. Compared to the cubs, it was over double their size.
"Hey Vasari, your wolves are pretty strong for late rank Adult-stage beasts."
Vasari heard the smooth-flowing voice of Chelsea come from his side. She walked towards Vasari and the others with confident strides, but she only had eyes for him.
Chelsea no longer wore her white Sect robes. Instead, she wore a tight leather one-piece suit the same colour as her red hair. Her busty breasts and thick ass formed a spectacular outline that left DT and Jaxon drooling and unable to look away.
Her red hair was tied back into a tight ponytail, accentuating her slender neck. Her yellow irises fixated on Vasari's every movement, and her pink lips formed a slight smile, entrancing any male who had the privilege of witnessing it.
"Yes, they are. Their biological father was very talented and I'm glad his children inherited his genes."
"Hmm, and their bloodline isn't even that pure. You should save up for some Bloodline Purity Pills for them."
"Hahaha, why do you think I'm here." Vasari enjoyed a hearty laugh causing Hiromi to smile and Chelsea to giggle.
"Well, I'm going to gather everyone for a meeting about the beast tide before booking everyone's accommodation. Meet me at the town centre whenever you're done here." Chelsea excused herself and walked towards the town centre, where most of the disciples were just standing around.
"Hoh hoh, I think that Chelsea girl likes you, Vasari." Hozumi teased while elbowing him from the side.
Vasari chuckled and remained silent. He didn't know how to respond to that. His mother-in-law had no reason to lie to him, so he took it as it is. Whether she liked him or not, Vasari wasn't going to go out of his way to court her.
"Mother, I'm sure nearly every girl we meet is going to have a crush on Vasari," Kurumi commented from the side and giggled at the thought of Vasari bringing home tons of women. She couldn't imagine the face Witney would make.
"Of course, every girl would form a crush on Vasari. If they didn't, I would think something's wrong with them." Hiromi added while snuggling closer against Vasari's body.
Vasari merely shook his head with a slight smile, not willing to partake in their conversation
"Otis, make sure they don't go too far." Otis neighed in affirmation and the group of 6 made their way to the town centre to meet with Chelsea and the rest of the mission team.
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The town centre was a large open square with a large fountain in the centre, but it appeared to be out of order and badly maintained.
Standing next to the fountain was a redheaded bombshell and a dark-skinned male. Those in the surrounding buildings watched on as these 2 figures addressed the 20-odd men and women in front of them.
"So we just finished discussing the plan with the Town Head and the Head of the Grimdale defence team. We will be splitting the group into 3 mini squads that will work with the Grimdale defence team to guard the town walls. Every 8 hours we will rotate shifts.
Also, Vasari, you and your wolves will go into the forest and try to locate the beast tide, if they are heading in our direction, determine how long it would take for them to reach us."
Dontrall relayed the plans to his fellow disciples and looked at Vasari to see his reaction. Vasari had no qualms about his role, so he nodded.
Hiromi however, was not okay with the idea of sending Vasari alone into the forest. She fiercely glared at Dontrall, but he wasn't even paying attention to her.
Chelsea then took a step forward and explained the next part of the defence plan.
"If the beast tide does head our way, here's what we are going to do…"
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Two hours later, Vasari and the wolf cubs had just left the town and were about to enter the forest located a kilometre East of Grimdale.
Vasari was dressed in a black martial robe and had his hair braided by Hiromi, instead of the white sect robes he used to wear. He had also covered his face and neck with dirt to blend in with the forest surroundings
Chelsea suggested that they scout the forest using a sweeping technique. With each wolf 50 metres apart and Vasari following slightly behind them, they entered the forest.
The locals of Grimdale called this forest 'Wretched Forest', and was somewhat of a forbidden area for them.
The forest was exactly what you would imagine - towering trees, dense grass, and a variety of flowers and plants. But, what terrified the Grimdale residents was the fact that the forest was completely devoid of any other living creatures.
After many years of investigation, they found a plant called 'Wretched Weed' that releases a foul odour for ten months of the year. Beasts and humans alike were heavily affected by this odour and if overexposed to it, they would pass out and often die.
In the two months that Wretched Weed plants don't release their deadly odour, beasts from all over come to graze and hunt in the forest. The locals also join in, trying to get their share of meat for the next ten months.
However, this time was different. One of the locals spotted thousands of beasts entering the forest at once. Amongst them, nearly a hundred were in the beta stage. When the locals heard about this news, they went mad in fear and many decided to abandon ship, taking the risk of immigrating to another town and restarting their life.
Vasari and the cubs travelled 3 kilometres into the forest when they found the first beast. It was an Adolenscent-stage Two-tailed Deer, and it wasn't long until they started finding more and more beasts.
They tried their best to remain hidden, but there were just too many beasts in the area, and eventually, their cover was blown. The wolves did their best to blend in with the other beasts while Vasari hung back and quickly killed any beast that saw him. He didn't want to take any risks. In a beast tide, there was always a leader or a group of leaders orchestrating everything and he didn't want to alert them so early. His sect-mates were still preparing the town defences, so it would be catastrophic if he initiated the beast tide early.
Since he was alone, Vasari unsealed his eyes to get a true grasp of his surroundings. The first thing he did once he opened his eyes was to climb up the nearest tree. Once he thought he was high enough, he looked around and what he saw genuinely shocked him.
Hundreds of adolescent and adult-stage beasts roamed and grazed the area as far as he could see. The area was littered with them and he knew there were hundreds more that he couldn't see yet.
'They're moving closer to the town, but they don't seem to be in a rush. At the rate they're moving, they should reach Grimdale in the morning.' Vasari estimated and was about to call the cubs and go back to the town to report his findings when he suddenly heard the whistling sound of a pointed projectile cutting through the air.
Vasari quickly jumped off the tree without turning to see what was approaching and landed on the forest floor.
*Boom!*
Half the tree suddenly split and the impact was explosive, causing all the nearby animals to become alert. Vasari looked towards the source of the whistling sound and noticed a large black porcupine with white quills on its back staring at him with hostility in the distance.
Human and porcupine entered a staring competition before Vasari heard another whistling sound come from a different direction.
'There's two!'
Vasari thought and jumped back to avoid the incoming quill.
"Early rank Beta-Stage porcupines. Might be troublesome, especially for the cubs." He mumbled to himself. He had no idea where the cubs were since they continued on while he stayed back to avoid being seen, but their plan was a failure, and he ended up getting found out anyway.
"Boys, come back now!" Vasari shouted before dodging another quill. He didn't know if the cubs heard him or not, but he decided to get rid of these porcupines before the nearby beasts trapped him in an encirclement.
Vasari quickly sped towards the porcupines, deftly manoeuvring through the trees to avoid getting hit by their quills. The first porcupine was less than 400 meters away, while the second was even further back. When he reached within 50 meters of the first porcupine, he climbed up a nearby tree and leapt towards it.
The porcupine was taken aback by this human's recklessness, as he had jumped right towards it and was now defenceless against its deadly quills. Without hesitation, the porcupine flexed its back muscles and shot over half of its quills at Vasari.
Vasari, however, did not panic and put his hand out in front of him. A transparent wall made of wind suddenly appeared in front of Vasari and deflected all the quills with ease. Seeing its attack fail, the porcupine panicked and tried to fire off the rest of its quills before regrouping with its partner, but suddenly felt its skull being pierced by one of its own quills, killing it instantly.
"Man, who knew being able to see in a fight would be so amazing?" Vasari asked himself after landing next to the dead body of the porcupine.
"Onto the next." Vasari pulled a handful of quills from the dead porcupine before running towards the porcupine further away.
This time he didn't use the trees as protection but bee-lined straight towards the porcupine. Using the white quills in his hands to deflect the incoming quills, Vasari did this to improve his hand-eye coordination. Even though he could now see, he was still overly reliant on his hearing and wanted to balance his senses.
It didn't take long for Vasari to kill the second White Quill Porcupine. He plucked a few of its remaining quills and started slaughtering the approaching beasts with it. Vasari struggled at first, but once he learnt the proper method, he easily defeated nearby adolescent and adult-stage beasts with his nascent quill-throwing skills. After every kill, he stored the carcass in his Heavenly Eyes sub-space.
He chuckled at the thought of the hatchling's surprised faces when they saw all the food being dropped for them.
*Awoo!*
Vasari's smile grew when he heard the familiar howling of one of his boys and spotted them running towards him at full speed. However, Vasari's smile quickly disappeared upon witnessing a horde of beasts relentlessly pursuing the four wolf cubs, including 15 vicious Beta-stage beasts with bloodthirsty expressions.
"Fuck me..."