Three days had passed since they left the Southern Region and they finally arrived in the Eastern Region. Unlike other areas of the dimension, this was the only region with a tropical forest.
The other side, Western Region, mostly was made up of water and contained powerful sea beasts within. They wouldn't be too hard for him to kill but that was if they were on land. The difference between land and water combat changed drastically.
"You'll be on your own from here on out. I have some business to attend to." Sebastian said before disappearing.
'What? What happens if I run into a powerful beast?' Lycaon wanted to ask.
With no other choice, he proceeded ahead and found the terrain to be unfavorable for him. Since there was an abundance of trees within the region, it provided great cover for beasts that hide in the shadows. Not only that, but this was the main territory for Abyssal Leopards and they for some reason hated the scent of werewolves
As he was walking through the tropical forest, he made sure to put up his stasis field in case something unexpected happened and he was right to assume.
"Roar!"
Turning to face the roar, he saw a giant orangutan come straight at him. Normally, he would've ran but he was confused by it since it didn't seem to be hostile to him.
Just before the orangutan was upon him, it stopped a few inches away from his face and started to inspect his body as if it was genuinely curious about his body. It then lifted up his arm and started to feel around his body.
'I heard about these before… I believe they're called Earth Orangutans.' Lycaon thought, trying to recall his beast research.
'Wait, Earth Orangutans? Weren't those the aggressive ones or were they the Fire ones?'
Bang!
Being launched forward, he was slammed into a tree and felt a piercing pain in his back. He then quickly stood up and activated his slowed field.
'It was the earth ones' He thought, reaching behind his back and pulling out an earth spike.
"Rah!" Two more orangutans roared and appeared.
"Perhaps Baron will like these…"
—
"Hello!" Sebastian shouted.
Before him, an entire army of chimera ants were kneeling down in his presence. Among them the ants, a fourth-generation chimera was even kneeling before him.
"I see you've been preparing for war."
"The killer of Brother Neo and the others." The fourth ant said. "How did you get this stronger? Jin said you wouldn't be able to fight us yet here you are, suppressing me."
"I didn't come here to fight. I came to talk about potential peace between my people and your people."
"I'll be taking things from here." Another ant appeared.
Staring at the newcomer, Sebastian took notice of the spikes along its back and its beast-like features. He recognized the fins along its forearms and the carapace along its side as if the ant was meant to counter him.
"What are you? A failure?" Sebastian said to the ant.
"Haha. Very funny." The ant mocked. "You heard you killed about three hundred of my brethren. Hopefully you will live up to my expectations."
After completing its sentence, the ant swiftly appeared in front of Sebastian, delivering a fast hook toward his jaw. Sebastian instinctively tried to grab the ant's fist, only to notice a strange force of energy that propelled him.
Bang!
He was then slammed into a wall and saw another incoming attack. Slightly moving his head, he narrowly dodged the attack and released an aura blast toward the ant. As if it was able to sense the energy, the ant moved out of the way and delivered a kick.
Bang!
Barely reacting, Sebastian blocked the sudden kick by raising his arm and letting his forearms take the brunt of the attack. He then pulled out his Umbral Blade and swiftly swung at the ant's legs.
Clank!
"What did you think that was gonna do? We have exoskeletons for a reason." The ant said before throwing delivering hook.
Bang!
In response, Sebastian swiftly regained his composure and retaliated by unleashing a relentless barrage of punches upon the ant. As if that wasn't enough, he infused his fist with world energy, each strike creating a thunderous bang.
Bang!
Bang!
After unleashing Blitzkrieg repeatedly, he finally came to a halt with his barrage of punches, waiting as the dust settled around them. It was only then that he noticed the ant standing, with multiple large cracks on its endoskeleton.
Crack!
"Is that all you have?" The ant asked, putting its arm down and becoming enveloped in a green hue.
'What? Was world energy not enough?' Sebastian thought. 'Perhaps I've gotten soft.'
He witnessed with his own eyes as the ant's endoskeleton began to gradually repair itself until it looked like it was never damaged. It was until now that he started to ponder what kind of beasts were infused into this chimera ant.
Gradually, steam began to rise from his body, deeming the ant to be slightly stronger than him. Soon, he stood over the ant and released his menacing upon it and stared it down.
"Do you think because you transformed that you're better than me, a fourth generation?" The ant asked with a smug expression. "Perhaps the rumors of your strength have been greatly exaggerated."
Bang!
Sebastian's eyes widened in shock as a powerful blow was delivered to his solar plexus, which caused him to fall to the ground, clinging to his chest. The then lifted its leg up and slammed it down upon him with great speed.
Bang!
A big pile of blood could be seen where the attack landed. The surrounding ants walked over and patted the ant on the back before celebrating. In their minds, they thought that Neo was finally avenged, but sadly it never came true.
"Sword Arts: King's Slash." Sebastian's voice reverberated throughout the forest.
The ants heard his voice and looked around frantically for but to no avail, they couldn't find him. As they called out to the fourth-generation, they noticed something was wrong about their behavior and approached him.
"Brother Johnson?" An ant questioned, having the courage to touch the ant.
The moment the ant had touched Johnson, he split into two before falling onto the ground. Taken aback, the ants started to panic and heard Sebastian speak again.
"Sword Arts: Zero Point Slash."
Suddenly, the ants felt a numbing pain in their lower abdomen and looked down. Dread entered their hearts as they realized what had happened.
"Poor souls, if only you took the peace option." Sebastian said, appearing beside an ant.
With the slightest touch, the ant's upper body slid off its lower body, leaving its legs only standing in place.
"I must say, that was indeed more powerful than I had thought but I'm still stronger." Soon, blood seeped out of his mouth after he completed his sentence.
With one last move, he slowly put his katana back into its sheath and made a clicking sound. As if the sound was the sole activation of his ability, all of the ants' slid off from the lower half of their bodies and dropped dead.
"I suppose I'll go check up on Lycaon." Sebastian said, sticking his finger up to the sky to measure the time of day.
It was until now that he realized thirty minutes had passed since he left him and rushed back to him. Although he sure he was fine, he still had the job of keeping watch over him.
After rushing toward his location, he arrived at a bloodied scene as multiple corpses were on the ground, beheaded. As he looked among the corpses, he heard sudden sharp noise of a blade cutting through the air and quickly reacted by erecting a blue wall with his aura.
"And what do you think you're doing?" Sebastian asked a bloodied Lycaon.
"I've been waiting for thirty minutes! I nearly died from them all!" Lycaon shouted in anger.
"Hey, at least you're alive."
Bang!
Before his very eyes, Sebastian witnessed as Lycaon appeared in front of him and slam his fist into his abdomen.
"Was that really necessary? Like I said, I had business to attend to and by business, I meant the ants." He revealed.
"Don't care! Do you even know what that beast is?" Lycaon pointed.
Staring at the beast corpse, Sebastian walked over to it and picked it up before inspecting its body. After a close-up examination, he realized it was a Pinnacle E-Rank Hydro Serpent.
"A Hydro Serpent?" He questioned.
"No, you damn idiot. That's a basilisk! A rare and thought to be extinct species of snakes. They were said to be able to devour mountains and giants."
A Basilisk was a legendary serpent capable of infecting people with its venomous breath. A single bite from it was enough to kill a giant yet Lycaon managed to kill it or rather a baby basilisk.
"If these things exist in this region, then we might as well be signing our death warrants."
"Why? I don't see the problem."
"Fine, but you will be responsible for my death."
Walking to each individual beast, he extracted the crystals and put them inside his space ring while Sebastian proceeded to grab the corpse and throw them all over the place.
The current beast he was looking for was a Thunderous Behemoth. Unlike the term Behemoth in its name, it was similar to a mammoth. Unfortunately, they were somewhat hunted to extinction for their unique tusks and hide.
The only problem that came along with hunting them is the fact that they were rare and powerful. Like the name said, electricity constantly flowed in its fur. When it uses its trunk to trumpet, its loud roar echoes in the cloud above, creating a thunder-like atmosphere.
The most unfortunate news is that they are quite difficult to kill, especially with its almost impenetrable hide. Luckily, he had Antares or so he thought as when he looked behind him, he was gone.
"You've got to be kidding me. I thought you would at least help me hunt." Lycaon said.
Walking deeper within the forest, he heard loud thumping in the distance and quickly hid in the trees. As he looked out from the tree, he saw two groups of gorillas engage in a turf war and was surprised to see a rare gorilla.
'A frostback gorilla… Interesting. Perhaps Evergreen will find your crystal to his liking.' Lycaon thought.
Pounding on their chests, the gorillas rushed forward and engaged in combat. Suddenly a loud lightning bolt struck a gorilla and killed it on the spot. Soon, multiple trees fell on the ground and multiple Thunderous Behemoths soon followed.
From the looks of it, he was able to tell something probably happened to anger the beasts as it now turned into a three-way turf war. He also felt excited because it wasn't everyday you would see a turf war amongst beasts.
"Cowabunga!" Sebastian's voice could be heard descending.
'No way, right?' Lycaon thought
Before his very own eyes, Sebastian could be seen descending from the tree and crashing down on top of a gorilla.
Stab!
He then stabbed one of the gorillas and ripped its head off before jumping to another gorilla and attempting the same thing. Just before he could try to rip its head off, a lighting bolt had struck him and sent him flying through the air.
Suddenly the mammoth-like beast appeared by the flying Sebastian and slapped him with all its might with its trunk, which sent him flying further away.
'I swear, I'm paired up with the dumbest person ever.' Lycaon shook his head.
Although it may have looked like Sebastian did it for fun, he didn't. He did it because he needed to separate from Lycaon. He didn't want Lycaon to rely on him so often so he could be stronger by himself.
'Knowing Lycaon, he's probably sh*t-talking me.' Sebastian thought, allowing himself to fly further away as he glared at the Thunderous Behemoth.