Apexion, who was currently dissecting a shark-like creature at the veteran rank, turned his gaze toward the direction of the two battle. He released the dead creature, then zoomed towards them. A few minutes later, Apexion arrived at the battle scene.he concealed his presence .
a kilometer in front of him where the two were fighting,
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Their clash produced huge shockwaves creating whirlpools, massive cavitation bubbles, and small tsunamis.
Apexion didn't intervene; he watched silently, analyzing their attack methods and pinpointing their weaknesses. The barbarian was a middle-aged male, 8ft tall, with a muscular body clad in armor that seems to be crafted from beast parts, long and wild black hair. He mostly used his fists as a method of attack.
The sky clan member was also a middle-aged male, he was also clad in armor that seems to be crafted from a bird type beast. slim built with long blue hair and wings; he mostly used his wings as a method of attack. They battled each other with hatred in their eyes as if each had killed the other's mother. The battle lasted for four minutes; the sky clan won in the end.
Apexion appeared behind the sky clan member and stopped concealing his presence.
The sky clan member, sensing the presence behind him, was startled. His wings flapped, his body blurred, and he appeared 200 meters from where he previously was.
He was panicking inside; anything that could approach him without him noticing was something far stronger than him. He was hoping it wasn't a barbarian, or he would probably die here. He turned around scan to see what was behind him but didn't see anything.
He panicked even more, then he felt something behind him once more. This time he attacked behind him with his right wing. BOOM! His wing hit something hard and was grasped by what ever he had hit; it was a paw. He tried to pull his wing away but it was futile, and then he felt a will wash over him.
King!
He gave up resisting and accepted his fate.
Apexion grasped the sky clan warrior's wing and spoke via his will, his voice cold. "Now tell me why would two enlightened supreme ones be fighting each other to death?" He was curious why they would want to kill each other, after all, the enlightened ones were known as allies.
The sky clan warrior knew that he had no choice but to answer apexion truthfully; he hoped Apexion would let him go after he told him what he wanted to know. He was also puzzled why this king-rank beast in front of him didn't know. But he answered anyway, "Don't you know? The sky clan and the barbarians are at war."
'War'
"What caused your race and the barbarians to go to war?" Apexion asked in a calm tone.
"It's the barbarians who initiated the war on the premise that we killed their first prince," the sky clan warrior replied quickly.
Apexion's eyes shone brightly, many ideas flashing through his mind, and then he asked, "What about the ruk race, the beast race, what have they done?"
"Except for the beast race intervening here and there, the ruk race has stayed neutral," the sky clan warrior answered.
Apexion released the sky clan's wing. "Other than the war, tell me the current major events that happened in the inner forest."
The sky clan warrior, having his wing released, felt relief. He thought there was a high chance apexion would let him go. He dug into his memories of all the major events. He stared at Apexion and then started updating him.
A few seconds later, Apexion was fully up to date on most events, from the destruction of the Adonist empire, the splitting of the three races after, the barbarian queen going mad and slaughtering most of the beasts on the continent, the beasts coming together and forming an alliance, small battles between the four races, the period of peace, to the current war.
The sky clan warrior, feeling that he had told Apexion all he wanted to know, asked in a weak voice, "Could you spare my life?"
Apexion gazed at him, then spoke in an amused tone, "You should have asked me earlier….because you are already dead."
'?'
The sky clan warrior was puzzled. He looked at his body and everything was fine, then it happened right after: his upper body started to slide from his lower body. His eyes widened in shock; he stared at Apexion and muttered weakly, "How? When?"
Apexion looked at him with an indifferent expression and replied, "From the first time you sensed me behind you."
'Impossible. How could he have dissected me from that long ago without me noticing? Unless... unless he was an emperor, but when did the beast race gain an emperor?' He wanted to say something, but his body was too weak to say anything. A few seconds later, his consciousness sank into darkness.
Apexion grabbed the dissected corpse and started to examine it. He didn't feel anything about killing the sky clan warrior since, being stronger, it is his natural right to kill a weaker creature if he wanted to. If those that he killed wanted to blame someone, they should blame the world and not him.
Would he complain if a stronger creature killed him? Yes, why wouldn't he? After all, he didn't wanted to die, but he would accept it. If he was to die to a stronger creature, he would only have himself to blame.
Plus, what is a more perfect research material than a supreme-rank creature's body?
He felt that if he understood the inner workings of enough creatures, he might find a clue on how to transcend the supreme rank.
A few minutes later, his figure blurred, leaving behind ashes.
After a while, he shot out from the depths of the water. BAP! He landed on the soil of the inner forest. He scanned the surroundings.
'More primal.' Everything felt wilder, and more primal. The trees were fewer but larger, their trunks dozens of meters in diameter and their height hundreds of meters, and the ascension particles were two times denser.
He could see the aftermath of the battle of the two Supremes from earlier. Wanting to have a better sense of his surroundings, he stood on his hind legs, raised his head, and took a deep breath. His ears twitched as he smelled and listened to everything within a hundred-kilometer radius.
Blood, he smelled the blood of creatures ranging from beasts and barbarians to skyclan. Right then, he opened his eyes and turned his gaze in a direction; he felt something calling him via his blood. He concealed his presence and blurred towards the calling.
He had traveled hundreds of Kilometers
After a while, he arrived near the location where the call came from. . He gazed at the scene in front of him with a calm expression.
Dozens of rabbit-like creatures stood in a clearing; one was a veteran rank, while the others were novice rank. They had fearful expressions plastered on their faces. In front of them stood a three-meter tall, two-headed, veteran-rank, yellow wolf.
...
With a menacing look, the wolf growled, "Where is the offering?"
The veteran rabbit grabbed a smaller rabbit who stood by him, "Here it is, my lord," then threw it in front of the yellow wolf.
The small rabbit squealed in fright, "Please no, not me, please someone el-"
Chomp!
The wolf bit the rabbit's head off, silencing its ravings. Crunch! Crunch! With a delighted expression, the wolf devours the rabbit's entire body.
The rabbits witnessing this trembled; some even wet themselves.
"More!" the wolf commanded.
" my lord, the rule states that all unfit tribes are only required to offer one offering per week," said the veteran rabbit in a trembling tone.
"Roar!" The wolf roar, revealed his fangs, the ground beneath him started to crack. "Do not cause me to repeat myself!"
The rabbit gritted its teeth, then scanned the surroundings, after which he grabbed the weakest rabbit then threw it in front of the wolf.
. . .
"Weak! Unworthy!"
Those were the two words that came to Apexion's mind as he view the scene before him.
How such a weak and worthless species gave birth to him. Weak in mind, having zero courage to figh or escape even though they had the same rank and greater numbers. If it was a supreme-rank wolf, he wouldn't have anything to say because that would be the natural order of the world, and he might have even help them…
"No value! "
With that in mind he turned around and blurred in the opposite direction...
A few minutes later, he came to a stop in front of a huge valley. There were currently hundreds of creatures battling - barbarians and skyclan. It was like a small apocalypse, but what really stood out to him were the two king-rank Skyclan and barbarian warriors. They stood at opposite ends of the valley, with the expression of looking down on the world, each gave out commands to the warriors below them.
Watching them apexion awakened a new desire within him; he felt that was how he should be, high above ruling over the weaker creatures below, commanding them to do his bidding.
Whoosh!
His body flashed in the direction where he came from, leaving afterimages behind him. After a while, BOOM! He landed at the clearing in front of the wolf and rabbits, creating a deep crater.
EEEEEEEEK!