Vasari's eyes widened at the sight of 15 Beta-Stage beasts rampaging towards him.
"Don't run towards me! Turn right, turn right!" Vasari shouted at the cubs. If they continued on their current path, they would be heading straight towards the town.
The cubs heard what he said, but instead of turning to his right, they turned to their right. Vasari slapped his forehead before following them.
'Savage Shadowless Steps: Eagle soaring river and sea.'
As Vasari used his mana to power the Savage Shadowless Steps technique, he moved with incredible speed and appeared to float above the ground after each step.
He observed the beasts chasing his cubs and realized they were all similar in appearance. They had large, muscular bodies with short black hair, thick thighs, and thin cannons. Some even had horns protruding from their heads. Although Vasari recognized them as some kind of bull, he wasn't sure about their specific breed.
The 15 Beta-Stage Bulls leading the charge had red horns and reached a height of 8 metres. The adolescent and adult-stage bulls behind them were not even half their size.
Vasari quickly overtook the bulls and was now running next to the cubs.
"What happened!?" He asked.
Bing, Rian and Cupid looked towards Mo, who had blood leaking from his mouth and Vasari could tell it wasn't his.
"What part of blending in didn't you understand?! Did you not have breakfast this morning?!"
Mo looked at Vasari and flashed him a big apologetic smile.
"Argh, whatever. Mo and Cupid help me create a wall behind us."
Vasari, Mo and Cupid stopped running and turned around. They slammed their paws/feet on the ground, and a 5m tall, 30m wide wall made from the earth formed.
"Run back to the town!" Vasari ordered, the cubs changed directions again and started heading towards Grimdale.
Vasari willed the ambient Fire and Water energies to his hands, forming a large flame in one and a ball of water in the other. He then brought his hands together, and a dense cloud of steam immediately formed, shrouding the vicinity. He then used the ambient wind energies to disperse the cloud of steam, limiting the visibility in the area.
The bulls charged straight into the thick steam cloud, causing them to lose track of their surroundings. The bulls in front started to decrease their movements, but it would take a while to reach a complete halt, due to their momentum. Because of this, when the bulls in the lead crashed into the earthen wall, they couldn't destroy it, and only their horns managed to pierce it. Some smaller bulls collided with the larger bulls, thereby pushing their horns further.
Vasari smiled when he saw this and used his advanced Water Will to soak the earth wall before using his Advanced Wind Will combined with his Advanced Fire Will to dry the earth to solidify it again.
The bulls tried to pull their heads out of the wall but found it thoroughly stuck.
"Hahaha, just stay there for an hour or two, will ya!" Vasari laughed before heading to Grimdale.
He met up with the cubs halfway and gave Mo a hiding for his disobedience and threatened to cut his mohawk off if he does that again.
Before arriving at Grimdale, Vasari sealed his eyes and equipped his black blindfold.
The defensive walls surrounding Grimdale were much more crowded than when Vasari first arrived. Instead of just the two guards watching over the entrance, there were now 4 and one of them being a Cloud Haven Disciple.
"Hey Vasari, you're back!" The Cloud Haven disciple guarding the wall waved to Vasari before remembering he was blind.
Vasari remembered this man's voice from the few days of travelling together. His name was Matheo Ressel and he had graduated with the last batch of students a year before Vasari had joined.
He was just 22 years old, yet his cultivation was on the same level as Hozumi who was nearly three times his age. With good facial genetics and a well-built body, he could be considered a strapping young man that many fathers would consider the perfect son-in-law.
Neatly trimmed, black hair with hazel eyes and a face that was gentle, yet also defined and sharp.
"Matheo, call Chelsea and Dontrall. I have information for them."
Matheo didn't ask any questions and nodded before jumping off the wall and running to where Chelsea and Dontrall were.
A few minutes later, he returned with them in tow.
"Vasari, I heard you obtained information about the beast tide?" Chelsea asked him while checking his body for any injuries.
"Hmm, I ran into a few beasts about 3km deep into the forest. I estimated that they should be arriving late tonight or early morning."
Chelsea and Dontrall frowned when hearing this. They hoped they could have at least a full day to prepare, but it was already past noon and only a few hours until sunset.
"That just means we have to speed up the process. Thank you for your hard work, Vasari. You and your wolves can take a break in the hotel while we prepare the defences." After receiving thanks from Chelsea, Vasari excused himself and headed to the hotel, not before taking the wolf cubs to the nearby stables. When he got to the hotel a bellboy escorted him to his room.
Since the Nakata girls weren't disciples of the Sect and Vasari's 'servants', they didn't have to do any work, but they still chose to help with the defence preparations.
Vasari used this time of peace to bathe and get rid of all the dirt on his face and body. When cleaned up, he unsealed his eyes and sent his consciousness into his right eye's sub-space.
What greeted him was the bloated bellies of the hatchlings. They all lay on their backs with their tiny limbs spread out and content expressions on their faces. Not far away from the cubs was a small white mouse laying in a similar position to that of the little dragons.
'Surprised they haven't killed it yet.' Vasari thought before removing all of the deceased beast's bodies from the sub-space to his spatial ring, except for the deer carcass that the hatchlings haven't finished eating yet.
After that, he checked out the progress of his forest and was pleasantly surprised by how well it was growing. In just the 5 days since he last inspected it, some trees were already grown taller than him, and some erotic flowers were already starting to bloom. As he focused his gaze on a particular spot, he noticed a stunning flower with deep green petals that gleamed like emeralds.
'The Emerald Clematis. A rare plant that, when refined, can grant a cultivator the opportunity to comprehend Emerald Intent, a unique variation of Earth Intent.' Vasari remembered the properties of the plant after Witney searched it up on the Mananet.
Vasari was on the fence about whether he should refine the plant or not, but in the end, he decided against it unless he couldn't comprehend a better variant of Earth Intent.
Before leaving the sub-space, he spent a few minutes scratching the round bellies of the hatchlings and cuddling them in his embrace before leaving them to sleep.
Entering his left eye's sub-space, Vasari went to get his sword. With probably his biggest battle to date approaching, he needed every advantage he could get, especially with him unable to use his bloodline.
Vasari clasped the short sword before sending it out of the sub-space.
In the bath, Vasari opened his eyes and looked at the sword in his hand.
When he first received it from Blacksmith Davenport, the blade was metallic silver in colour and the handle was standard, wrapped in brown leather as a grip. But now, the spine of the blade was pitch black. It was like Vasari was looking down a dark abyss, and even when blind, his vision was not as dark as the spine of the blade.
The blade's edges had a chilling purple and cyan shine, while the handle's leather was destroyed. Despite this, Vasari found the handle to be more comfortable now.
A familiar aura seeped from the sharp edges of the short sword, causing Vasari's eyes to widen in excitement.
It was the same tyrannical aura that his left eye exudes…Destruction.
Still nude and in the bath, Vasari swung the short-short above his head with a child-like smile.
"Perfect." Was the only words to escape his lips after playing around with his sword. Unknown to Vasari, the short sword he was swinging around was not a Heaven-grade weapon but something even better.
Only when he heard a knock on the hotel room door, did Vasari put his short sword into his spatial ring and seal his eyes. He quickly jumped out of the bath and wrapped a towel around his waist. When he opened the door, a body he knew all too well crashed into him.
"Vasari! I'm so glad you are safe. Chelsea said that you ran into some beasts. Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" Hiromi bombarded Vasari with questions while unwrapping the towel around his waist and checking his entire body for wounds. Vasari shook his head in helplessness and closed the door before anybody saw his nude body.
"I'm fine, they couldn't even lay a hand on me," Vasari chuckled but just received a humph in response.
After double-checking his body, Hiromi dragged Vasari to the hotel bed before laying him on the mattress. Vasari allowed her full control of his body, not resisting one bit.
Hiromi took off her clothes, and when she too was fully nude, she jumped onto top of him. Her little sister rested on top of Vasari's little dragon, but she didn't insert it even though she was already wet and ready to go. She just rested her head on Vasari's comfortable chest and her body relaxed on top of his.
Vasari had a genuine smile of affection as he stroked Hiromi's soft, black hair on her head and rubbed her back with his other hand.
He could tell she was still incredibly anxious about fighting Beta-stage beasts, and he didn't blame or mock her for it.
"No matter what happens, I won't let anything happen to you or your mother and sister. I promise." He whispered before gently planting his lips on her forehead.
Hiromi smiled after hearing his words and feeling his soft lips on her forehead. She softly hummed in response before slowly falling asleep. His caress and soft kisses sent her to cloud 9, and after so much stress, her mind was tired and she needed rest.
Vasari used this time to go over his new techniques mentally. He didn't have time to comprehend all the advanced elements yet, but he could still learn some moves from the '5 Elements Palm' and 'Elemental Dance' techniques. However, he put those techniques to the back of his mind for now and concentrated on the 'Dragon Elephant Prajna Body Art'.
This technique was focused on traditional Martial Arts incorporated with cultivation. The Technique was split into 10 levels which they called 'stances'. Each stance became more difficult to learn than the previous one, but at the same time, the effectiveness and power generated were well worth the effort.
'1st Stance: Gentle Giant'
Vasari pictured the stance movements in his mind before moving to 2nd stance.
'2nd Stance: Ferocious Bull'
Vasari imagined himself performing the movements, but he still couldn't understand the intent behind each one.
'I need more practice. I haven't even mastered the first stance yet.' He lamented his lack of free time recently. He promised himself to enter a closed-door cultivation session after these missions were completed. His goal was to enter the Nebula Realm as soon as possible since he only had more or less 6 months of leeway until the excess energy of his eyes overwhelmed his body.
Vasari spent the next 6 hours going over 'Dragon Elephant Prajna Body Art' before he heard the loud ringing of a bell coming from outside.
"They're here…"