After running through thick forests and climbing over many mountains, these two people arrived at a secluded dark valley between two mountain ranges and disappeared behind few rocks near a steep cliff that was towering over the valley.
"Their base is probably in some kind of a cave in there. Let's wait and see if they come out. If they don't, we'll investigate after the nightfall, but if they do come out – first let them go further from the cliff so they can't escape back to their base. YunYun and I will cover the escape route, while Snow and King Kong will wipe them out. Be especially careful if you see anyone in a dark red robe with a hood. This is no time to show off your arrogance even if you are many times stronger than those people!" Nick seriously looked at the beasts, "These people can play many tricks, including poisoning air or using rune formations to inflict damage. Right, during the attack hold your breaths in case they decide to use poison. Bambi, your task is less dangerous, but still important. You have to be on the lookout for the last fourteen people in case they return sooner than we expect. You might want to hide on top of a mountain a bit further back and inform us if you notice something – we don't need anyone attacking us from behind."
Bambi nodded and quickly disappeared between trees, but the rest hid while keeping the spot where the two men vanished in their view. To Nick's great relief they didn't have to wait too long – already half an hour later a total of nine people appeared and immediately ran towards the south east, of course, it was the spot where Snow and King Kong were hidden. The bad news was that two of those men were in red, hooded robes and contrary to the two men who came earlier in the camouflage outfits, the rest wore red robes as well, albeit without hoods.
Even though both beasts took Nick's warning seriously, they were not really afraid and, as soon as the nine men approached their hiding spot, immediately jumped out and soundlessly killed few closest with a couple of swipes. Unfortunately the reaction of the two hooded people was remarkable and they instantly fell back and dashed towards the hideout.
It was a common misconception of people to think that the beasts are roaring or growling when they attack. Of course, some simple animals might do that, but highly evolved ones like Snow and King Kong never made a sound and acted more like huge ghosts. The only sounds that accompanied them in battles were wailing of the dying enemies or panicked screams of those they hadn't reached yet. Even more, for some reason even the blood splashes from the mutilated and torn bodies sometimes didn't leave any marks on the fur of these two beasts.
When the elders escaped, it was Nick's and YunYun's turn to shine and, before the escapees could reach the rocks at the bottom of the cliff, two shadows appeared before them. Nick slashed one of them across the chest and even though he didn't manage to cut the elder in halves, it was still a deadly wound.
The one that YunYun attacked escaped with a deep cut on his left shoulder and retreated a dozen meters, holding a sword in the right hand.
At this point both beasts already cleaned up the rest and blocked all possible escape routes and the wounded elder found himself standing in the middle of the four attackers. He realized that the two people dressed in black already were difficult enemies, but the two beasts behind him were a clear death sentence. It was obvious that he will never leave this place alive.
"Don't go near him!" Nick suddenly shouted, seeing that the sword in elder's hand disappeared and elder put both hands in his pockets, "He's possibly the most dangerous formation master in the world! Don't go close to him to use any direct attacks – I bet he's already holding rank four or five beast cores in his hands and preparing to take at least one of us with him!"
Elder was visibly stunned and the four attackers took few steps back to keep themselves in a safe distance.
"So you know who I am?" Elder took out his hands from pockets and, indeed, he was holding two rank five beast cores, "Why are you attacking us? We are just hunting some beasts and not harming anyone else! Don't tell me there are some unknown limitations on where a man can hunt in these mountains?"
"Elder Dinnar, please don't take anyone here for an idiot." Nick laughed. As soon as YunYun attacked the old man, his hood fell off and Nick, of course, recognized one of his mother's murderers, "It's already embarrassing for an elder of the Holy Order to find himself in this situation, but at least in the face of death you could still have some dignity."
"In face of death?" Elder Dinnar grinned, "I don't know who you are, but if you know me, you realize that the first one of you who attacks me will die a terrible death! I don't have anything to loose!"
"That's true." Nick nodded and glanced at YunYun, Snow and then a bit longer at King Kong, "But you can't leave here either. And the fourteen Qi masters who are rushing this way are not likely able to change the situation even if we stand here for days."
"Why would we stand here? Just let me go back in and I won't come out ever again!" Elder squinted his eyes. He needed to be some twenty five or thirty meters closer to the entrance to have a chance to reach it.
"Hmm. You don't have much time to live, maybe fifteen or twenty years, but I doubt you have enough provisions for such period. And even if you had, what's the use of it? You don't have the technique to prolong your life like your former grand elder or his brother emperor Osman did." Nick grinned, "In addition, I doubt there are any people in there to become your sacrifices."
"Who … who are you?" If elder Dinnar was anxious and a bit confused from the attack and the weird setup of the attacking team, then now he was deeply shocked.
Nick put away Wakizashi and straightened himself, then raised both his hands in front and in a weak and low voice growled, "Baal! Obey me!"
Elder's eyes almost popped out from disbelief, but before he could say anything or react, a huge boulder slammed on his head and rolled further away, leaving a bloody puddle at the spot where one of the greatest rune formation masters of the world once stood.
"Hahaha! Good one, King Kong!" Nick laughed.
"U u uuu!" Ape laughed along side of others and hammered fists on his chest.
While elder Dinnar was shocked over and over again during the conversation with Nick, King Kong managed to understand the meaning in Nick's gaze and silently disappeared from his spot to appear few moments later with a boulder in his hands. When the elder was struck with the last realization of his life, King Kong simply threw the boulder at him to end the annoying conversation.
"King Kong! That was great!" YunYun ran over to the excited ape and fist bumped him, "Usually are a rascal, but this time your quick wit helped a lot!"
Snow roared in satisfaction as well, or maybe to call Bambi over, or to relieve his stress. Nick looked at the remains of one of the murderers of his mother and fell silent for a moment. Then pulled himself together, went over tho the puddle of blood and fished out two large beast cores.
"Alright, good job everyone. If I'm not wrong, you guys would like to have these, correct?"
Both beast kings became serious in an instant. A small core of a rank two or three beast was a laughing matter for them, but this was a whole different story.
"Don't worry, these are your spoils of war. I was just wondering – maybe you want to eat them when we get back to valley? Then you can digest the cores in peace and even hibernate a bit if you need." Nick smiled.
Both beasts thought for a moment and nodded.
"Good. I'll keep them for now and return to you after we get back." Nick picked up the elder's meteorite ring and searched the rest of the bloody cloth that was mixed with pieces of bones and innards, but there was nothing much in there. Then he went over to the other hooded person, but to his surprise only a foreign face with bulged out eyes was looking back at him.
'Of course! One of the remaining elders became the new grand elder and I killed elder Ernest in Olava. That means there are two new elders … well, I mean, were.'
Nick carefully checked the body, but couldn't find anything useful. Unfortunately this elder didn't even have a storage ring.
'Sigh, seems like it really is a rare treasure, even for those psychopaths.'
"Snow, could you relieve Bambi and watch our backs? When those guys come, you can freely went your anger if you still have some left." Snow growled back at Nick, but it seemed like he was almost grinning, "Let us pile up the corpses at the side for now. It's important to get in there because the place might contain information about what these bastards planed on doing on this continent."
With YunYun, Nick and King Kong joined efforts, everything quickly was neatly cleaned up. Of course, that was in relative terms since a place where a bloody massacre just happened couldn't be perfectly restored.
Nick and YunYun carefully paced around the rocks and the cliff wall where the people from the Holy order disappeared and appeared afterwards.
"Any ideas?" Nick asked.
"There is definitely a cave, otherwise these people could not appear from a thin air." YunYun furrowed her brows, but after searching for few minutes, they still couldn't find anything.
"King Kong, when these people showed up, did you hear a strange sound, for example like that of a rock moving?" Nick asked his huge friend and the latter nodded and confirmed with his usual 'u'.
"Maybe we shouldn't run all over the place and just let one of them check by the smell?" YunYun asked.
"Of course, how did I miss it?" Nick was annoyed at himself, "King Kong or Bambi, can one of you check where exactly these people came out from the cliff?"
Bambi wanted to come forward, but big ape was already bored sitting around and rushed towards the cliff, "U u u!"
He sniffed around and suddenly grabbed a larger rock that was close to the cliff with intent to push or pull it.
"Wait!" Nick shouted and King Kong already managed to lift it when a soft explosion blasted all four back. Nick, YunYun and Bambi were further away and only got away with a bit of fright, but King Kong was raising the large rock above him at that time and awkwardly fell on his butt, dropping the rock behind him.
Seeing that everyone was fine and mostly surprised by the incident, Nick sighed, "That's why I warned everyone to be careful over and over. The bastard you killed, was a great formation master and the rock you just removed was a part of sealing rune formation that acted as a gate for their hideout."
YunYun was more considered and went over to the visibly upset King Kong, "Are you alright?"
King Kong got up and punched ground a couple of times and then started grabbing nearby stones and throwing them at the cliff.
"Stop! Stop it!" Nick shouted, "If the cave collapses we will need days to dig through the rubble. I have a better idea. King Kong, did you hear the old bastard when he said that he just wants to enter their hideout and never come out again?"
Seeing ape nodding, Nick continued, "That concept was a plain lie and there is probably at least one more exit. Since you have some free time now, you could search for it. You can try to get it open like you did with this one if you want some fun."
'Fun' was probably the correct keyword and King Kong's eyes lit up as he started checking nearby cliffs for another entrance.
"King Kong, the entrance is probably further away in some secluded place where a small human can get out unnoticed. We are at the main exit, but the second should be much smaller. Think of it as an exit from a rabbit's hole that it uses in case of emergencies." Nick suggested and while ape kept himself busy, he beckoned at YunYun to come inside. Bambi was left alone and glanced around in confusion, but then lied down near the cliff and became almost invisible.