After spending a while in his mind space to give his master some time to calm down, the two eventually exited, returning to the present.
Now, they were standing next to one another, looking at the group of beasts below them as they moved around erratically within their cages, "So, which one do you want me to release?" Sofia asked.
Torus stared at the group of beasts, thinking deeply on which ones would be the most beneficial to him, 'Hm, weaker beasts would be useful in showing to me how something weaker chooses to fight against an opponent with overwhelming strength in comparison.
They should also be able to show me how beast's use tactics as weaker beasts typically need to employ them to win battles.
While stronger beasts will give me a better understanding of the mentality behind beasts, whether they're complacent in their strength and arrogant toward those weaker than them or whether they choose to grow stronger, treating every opponent with a cautiousness belying their strength.'
Eventually, Torus' eyes flashed as he came to a decision, "Master, open the side with the Goblins and release a small group of them and choose their opponent to be the Twin-Headed Lion," Torus finally decided on, a look of intrigue on his otherwise taciturn face.
What Torus had finally come to a decision on was to witness the strategies employed by both groups. Yet, even though he chose to witness both the weak and the strong fight, he knew that any of the truly strong beasts would instantly crush the weaker ones.
As such, he chose the strongest of the beast's he had managed to capture himself, the Twin-Headed Lion, and one of the weakest yet most intelligent of the beasts, the Goblins.
Even still however, the difference in the ways the two fought couldn't properly be determined without allowing them to fight in their optimal state, this being in a group for the Goblins and individually for the Two-Headed Lion.
Staring intently at the impending confrontation of the two, Torus was looking for anything that inspired a new method of attack for him to use.
As he watched on, it didn't take much time for the Twin-Headed Lion to rush out, knowing that it needed some food source soon or risk dying of starvation, and choosing to settle on the puny little Goblins while it had the chance.
As it lunged forward at the group of Goblins, Torus watched its every action carefully. He noticed no small amount of arrogance within its gaze; yet, he also realized that it never seemed to let its guard down even while fighting against such a clearly inferior opponent.
The Twin-Headed Lion rapidly approached the seemingly cowering group of Goblins, its mouth opening wide as it planned to use its signature attack.
As Torus watched on further, he could see as flecks of flame started to appear within its maw, a large gathering of fire becoming apparent soon after contained within the beast's throat.
As he watched this large attack being built up, Torus couldn't help but to let out a small shiver. Seeing as he was the one to capture this creature, the reason he shivered could easily be determined - he had faced this attack beforehand!
Knowing how terrifying this attack was, Torus watched carefully to see how the cunning Goblins would withstand such an unbelievably violent force.
He noticed as the seemingly cowering Goblins finally turned around that they weren't truly turned in fear, but rather turned away so as to keep their prepared attack hidden from the eyes of the Twin-Headed Lion until this moment.
Torus watched on as the Goblins huddled together to launch a spear as one, increasing the speed to such a degree that it would be hard for the Twin-Headed Lion to dodge, the tip seemingly covered in a dark purple substance.
It seemed that the target of their attack was the mouth of the Twin-Headed Lion, "Interesting, so their plan is to disrupt the attack of the Twin-Headed Lion by attacking the inside of its mouth. This is a very good plan considering that the Twin-Headed Lion has very tough skin that their weapons cannot penetrate, only the inside of the beast is weak enough for their attacks to damage.
Besides this, if the lion chooses to divert its attack, as long as it's past a certain point, then the lion will still suffer internal injuries by its own fire." Torus muttered to himself, taking mental notes of everything going on in the battle.
Suddenly, his expression shifted into a weird look as he noticed something, "Well, in the end it won't matter. They took too long to bait the Twin-Headed Lion into an all-out attack. There's no way that their attack will hit its throat in time," Torus reasoned. Having previously been on the receiving end of this brutal attack, Torus knew just how long it took for it to charge up.
Along with this, Torus noticed the ruthless look within the lion's eyes, showing that it still planned to go through with its attack even after seeing the incoming attack from the group.
As he watched this, it did confirm to Torus that beasts gave little care to the damage they would receive as long as they felt the damage they could put out would be higher or equal to the damage they sustained.
While this was a rather primitive way of fighting, it made sense considering that any and all battles within the wilds could be interrupted by a third party at any moment, meaning they needed to finish their fights in as quickly a time-span as possible.
As he continued watching on, the scenario played out exactly as he had anticipated.
With no time to react after launching the spear, the Goblin's which were forced to group up in order to launch such a large spear, were all subjected to the brutal onslaught of flames that encompassed them, burning them all to a crisp in a matter of moments.
However, in return, the lion suffered a counter-attack of its own. The launched spear continued on its previous trajectory, not even the flames able to stop its forward momentum.
As the spear connected, the lion let out a roar of agonized pain, a large gash being left on the bottom of its mouth as blood began to flow from it in rivulets.
Watching this scene however, Torus shook his head, "Even with this attack, all it's done is make it so the lion is incapable of using its fire breath anytime soon, not actually doing any lasting harm." Torus analyzed, resting his hand on his chin as he tried to figure out what the cunning Goblins were planning.
In torus' mind, based on what he had seen of the fight, he viewed their attack to not be worth it. If he were to die, he had to at the very least insure that whoever killed him dies as well. However, as Torus watched on, his expression shifted as he noticed something.
After the fight had concluded, the gate for the Twin-Headed Lion's pin had opened, and even though it was moving sluggishly, it still made its way back to its cage with its head held high. However, as it was about halfway there, blood began to pool from its orifices, a look of dawning horror appearing on its face.
However, what didn't go according to the Goblins plans was that, after this had occurred, the lion would fall on the ground in a state of paralysis, its body seeming shaking yet staying in place at the same time.
After a moment of this, the lion seemed to get over whatever had come over it, slowly gaining movement in its limbs once more before shakily standing back up, wobbly making its way back into its pen.
The reason for its survival was rather simple - the fire the Twin-Headed Lion had released - while not powerful enough to simply eradicate the spear altogether, the fire had managed to burn off a majority of poison from it.
Even with the miscalculation on the Goblins parts and the technical 'win' by the Twin-Headed Lion, Torus couldn't help but to widen his eyes, feeling as if he had learned far more from them than from the winner of the fight.
Sitting in stunned silence for a moment, an epiphany seemed to suddenly hit the prone form of Torus as he subconsciously exclaimed, "Poison!" Torus nearly shouted, the words coming out before he could consciously stop them.
Sitting in contemplative silence, Torus thought to himself, 'How could I have forgotten such an important asset used by a number of Vicious Beasts? Poisoning an enemy is one of the easiest ways to overpower an opponent that's stronger than you!' As he thought about this, Torus rapidly turned away from the arena, rushing through the forest and back to the village, a moment of inspiration striking him.
Specifically, Torus was looking to enter the archive once more, scouring it for any poisons that were used by ancient animals as well as studying the brain further.