As the night grew deeper, what was happening in the land of Antroseda was no longer a hunt but a genocide.
Zhaldrekh divided his forces into dozens of small squads, each consisting of only three men who progressively raided the tyrannosaurus habitats.
Upon arrival, by coating their weapons with enhancement magic and using several offensive elemental spells, the tyrannosaurs were slaughtered.
Their eyes were pierced with arrows, their skin was burned, and their short arms were hacked off.
This power gap emerged due to one factor: the overly rapid development of magic.
Before the First Extinction, the alhamera could barely bring a mother T-rex to the brink of death using massive fireballs.
However, those were raw techniques. The curriculum taught by Lucas, the system, and the artificial intelligence from the floating home allowed the alhamera to use perfectly concentrated magic.
As a result, the amplified effects were not just two or three times stronger but tenfold more devastating.
This also applied to intangible magic like enhancement spells.
Where once a hundred men would struggle against the tyrannosaurs, now even in one-on-one combat, the alhamera were superior.
At some point, one of Zhaldrekh's squad members sensed a magical surge from the tyrannosaurs.
It was a signal to regroup. Nothing could block their signal yet, but Zhaldrekh was now facing the remaining horde of tyrannosaurs alone.
At least ten giant reptiles faced the alhamera's chief. Yet before the T-rexes could pounce, they fell into a steep pit trap that had been prepared earlier.
The T-rexes fell into the same trap, but this time the pit felt even more cramped as they were no longer alone.
When his troops were ready to deliver the final blow, Zhaldrekh stopped them.
Zhaldren never meant to try taming them — Zhaldrekh wanted the T-rexes left there to starve or resort to cannibalism.
A death sentence far more barbaric than anything their ancestors had ever done.
Lucas felt that if Zhaldrekh lived much longer, he would become a terrifying tyrant, ruling with an iron fist.
Zhaldrekh's methods might even serve as the basis for future torture techniques.
Lucas hesitated about whether to intervene.
In general, the alhamera, as his creations, could be manipulated at will, even without using the Divine Intervention token.
However, even this cruelty could lead to knowledge reforms, especially regarding anatomy and organ dissection.
If the alhamera began seriously studying their bodies, the likelihood of developing modern biology would grow.
And once empirical sciences like that had standardized certainty, it would...
Trigger a revolution of thought and ignite more abstract disciplines like mathematics, physics, and even philosophy.
So, Lucas held back his intervention, choosing instead to observe further.
Especially since something strange was happening within Zhaldrekh's group.
At least four squads nearby had decided to gather at the same point.
Yet, even after completing their task, Zhaldrekh had to wait until near dawn, with no one arriving except his own squad.
Lucas tried verifying the situation using his observational interface.
He had upgraded his interface with artificial intelligence assistance to detect lifeforms using colored dots on the map.
The alhamera were marked red, potentially dangerous animals with orange, and the tyrannosaurs as yellow.
At the start of the assault, Lucas noted that the alhamera's numbers were far greater.
The map was nearly filled with them, scattered among the forests and shrubs, while a larger group clustered in a giant circle at their main settlement.
Now, however, those scattered across the map had drastically reduced. They could be counted on one hand.
What had happened?
To confirm this wasn't just an assumption, Lucas summoned the system.
"Give me a comparison of the Alhamera population before and after the assault."
[Calculating and analyzing data…]
[Accumulated Data:
Population before the assault: 1800.
Population after the assault: 1100.]
"Wait, what? Isn't that a nearly 40% reduction?" Lucas stroked his chin.
What happened? Could the tyrannosaurs have found a way to fight back?
But the yellow dots were steadily disappearing, leaving only those near Zhaldrekh's recent position.
So, was this a wild beast attack?
But to cause such significant losses? What kind of beast—
[They were more coordinated than wild beasts]
"Huh?"
[While the alhamera focused on the tyrannosaurs, they failed to watch their surroundings or guard against other threats]
[Do you remember Khaovren the Butcher?]
Of course, Lucas remembered. Ever since being appointed Overseer, he had somehow gained infinite memory, even for the smallest details.
Khaovren had left the colony and was never seen again.
Lucas assumed that, having been separated from the group, Khaovren would not survive long.
[Over hundreds of thousands of years, life has continued to evolve]
[Of course, you don't have control over that, yet]
[However, nature sometimes has a will of its own]
[The name Hope you planted in the first microbes granted them a power even more mystical than magic itself.]
[Millions of years passed, and Hope evolved from a single-celled organism to complex primates and, eventually…]
[... into another species standing on two legs.]
[And now, after one of them interbred with Khaovren…]
[The Hope race has emerged as a rival equal to the Alhamera.]