The 30 men strong force organized themselves into a square formation but it didn't look quite sophisticated. Each man carried a spear and a shield to cover each others flank, around 5 members carried bows with them and were placed in the rear of the formation where it was far more safer.
It seems like after advancing myself spiritually I cant somewhat understand the emotional state of any creature which I chose to observe, this has allowed me to desciper the language of these new humans just by reading their emotions.
A tall well built man with tanned skin and clean shaven face led the group into the jungle, they traveled around 2 kilometers before encountering a large lion with thick black mane and a length of 4.2 meters not including the tail.
The lion was sleeping and seem to have been startled by the approaching group and immediately pounced with an ear deafning roar which shook the very insides of the soldiers. The soldier caught in its pounce tried to raise his shield but was immediately crushed under its immense weight, the beast took a swipe at the nearest soldier and tore of a large chunk from the man's leg leaving him in agony. Immediately it bit another soldier who was too terrified to even move and dragged him into the dense foliage never to be seen again. In total ther was one casualty and 2 men being crippled as one couldn't walk while the other had his ribs crushed.
"Captain Durid we don't have any medical supplies to treat the wounded and that fat f*** of a noble didn't allowed us more then 2 days of provisions", a soldier complained to the captain but was met with a response he could've never expected.
Durid didn't bothered to reply and simply walked over to the man with the crippled leg who was bleeding profusely and stabbed his heart with his spear, all the soldiers were simply to stunned to even speak but that wasn't all as Durid repeated the same with the other cripple and ordered his men
" We have very limited time to complete the task at hand and if you little cunts don't want to die that take these corpses and prepare to make a bait", the soldiers had no ther option but to oblige with their captain's command.
While the humans were making a makeshift trap with their old companions as a bait I could only chuckle as a creature has already caught the scent of human blood.
This creature was a large crow with a wingspan of 5 meters and had a serrated beak with pitch black feather along with knife like talons. It immediately took flight and headed directly towards the group of soldiers but it didn't attack but rather it chose to fly over head where the soldiers can't notice it. Corvids like crows and raven in general are quite smart with an estimated intelligence of a 7 year old but the crow which lived long enough to grow this large would probably be even smarter. The large crow silently over saved the group for around 5 minutes looking for an opportunity and it finally got one.
One of the soldier had sprained his ankle while carrying logs to make a bonfire and fell upon the ground. With one fell swoop the crow dung Its talons into your poor soldier's neck ending his life and carrying him away. The entire interaction took barely a minute and the soldiers were stupified even the battle hardened Durid could barely conceal his anxiety.
It was clear that humans weren't ment to exist in this part of the world. Durid cursed Judas as only now he realized that he didn't send them to gather provisions but to reduce the amount of mouths to feed. The entire mission of this expedition was to locate suitable land for settlement as their empire was confined only to a one island and couldn't travel beyond as the sea's were turbulent and the ships couldn't sail beyond a few kilometers. That's when the king appointed Judas to lead an expedition to this savage continent in hopes of finding a new place to expand even though there were legends of monsters which haunted this land.
At night time when the soldiers were sleeping with only 3 guards keeping night watch I came closer to them in my astral from/spirit form and entered their dreams. Yes I can enter the dreams of sleeping creatures and even control them if they have weaker willpower then mine just like possession. This new ability of mine was something that I discovered while experimenting in my astral form as one day I wanted to see what would happen if I passed through an animal's body.
I chose a little duck as a test subject and found that i had entered the poor bird's body and could now control it. This ignited my curiosity as I began the test the limit of my ability. The emd conclusion was that I could enter the bodies of less intelligent creatures and even control them for limited period of time as extended periods gave me headache but I knew I could extend the time period if the practised more. I tested the same thing on Giaia but found that I Can't end her her body which caused me to try it once again while she was sleeping. This is when I saw her memories and felt her feelings.
Now I understood the extent of my ability as i can only enter the bodies of intelligent creatures when their mental guard in lowered which only happens when they are sleeping. I can see their dreams and read their memories while in this state.
Whenever I used this ability I could only feel like a wicked creature as to read someone's memories or even control their body without consent is simply evil in nature. The last time I used is evil ability was on Giaia after which I decided to never use it until today.
After exploring the memories of various soldiers I finally got an idea about this environment. These humans are from the Cadian empire which's located on an isolated island which is surrounded by turbulent ocean which prevents them from exploring further and the Only safe passage leads to my continent which is filled with danger and no explorer has ever returned from here.
The river where my lair is located opens into the samw oceanic passage from where these people sailed into.
These humans can't be allowed to stay here any longer as once they settle here and establish supply routes they'll start bringing in their armies to subjugate this land while destroying every organism which would threaten them including myself.