God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Chapter 323: Local Hegemons.

A few minutes after they headed back onto the road, they came across a lack of wild aether creatures that became feral the moment they laid eyes on them,

***

{Savage Tigers}: Level 70(Elite)

Strength: 700.

Agility: 900.

Defense: 110.

HP: 12,000/12,000.

Aether: 7,000/7,000.

Skills: Frenzy, Blood Strike, Wing Tunnel, Wind Claws.

***

These creatures were bipedal, eight-foot-tall, muscular, furry tigers with two horns sticking out from behind their ears.

'From their description, they seem to possess two attributes. Blood and Wind.' Cain glanced at the entire pack. Although tigers were known to be creatures that preferred to hunt on their own, this pack seemed to be accustomed to moving together as a group.

'Still...'

They were simply no match for Cain and Evangeline. The difference was so unfair, it could be considered bullying.

There were about twenty of them, so Cain took it as an average-sized pack, just for reference.

"Let's..."

Before he could say a word, Cainr realized that Evangeline was no longer standing beside him. Rather, she was already in the midst of the roaring and snarling creatures, tearing them apart.

Cain's eyes twitched when he saw this,

'This girl...'

With a sigh, he decided he would simply observe and attack from the back. With a wave of his hand, a few magic circles appeared behind him. Since he was no longer fighting against the {Chaos Goblins} that were naturally resistant to magical attacks, he could attack as he pleased without having to worry about wasting mana.

"Flame Orbs."

Balls of condensed flames blitzed out of the magic circles like bullets toward the {Savage Tigers} that were still standing.

***

{Congratulations to host... You have slain a Savage Tiger}.

{+1 to Agility}.

{+1 to Stamina}.

***

Cain shrugged. Since they were much lower in level than him, it was only natural that he received the minimum stat points. He was even lucky he got any at all.

He threw Evangeline a glance, "Leave some for me next time, would you?"

She shrugged, then turned her back at him,

"Don't be dramatic. There will be more battles to come."

With a sigh, Cain chose to ignore her. Walking forward, he stooped down and began to inspect the dead creatures. They had all been drained of their blood by Evangeline, so he didn't have to worry about getting his head dirty with it.

Cain nodded to himself, "They have good meat on their bones. Their claws are quite sharp as well..."

Since their inventory spaces were limited, Cain decided they would take only a few of them and leave the rest behind. However, he declawed every single one of them brutally.

Although he didn't need the claws now, something told him it would be a smart choice to harvest such good treasures and keep them.

And so, they marched on. They kept encountering more and more creatures as they walked further. Although the majority of the creatures they came across were {Savage Tigers}, there was still variety, which told Cain that they weren't the absolute hegemons of the area.

There were two other aether creature breeds that made up the population of aether beasts in the surroundings of the forest. These groups of creatures were also as strong as the wandering packs of {Savage Tigers}.

They were the {Dusk Canaries} and the {Earth Beetles}. The {Dusk Canaries} were aerial aether beasts and were the second hardest to deal with among the three groups of creatures.

These creatures were beautiful but very dangerous. Although their defenses were not very trying, their attack power was quite impressive. The tips of the feathers on their wings were made of metal, which they could control.

They mostly attacked from high up in the sky, which meant that they couldn't be harmed with melee attacks. Their attacks consisted mainly of bombarding their opponents with their feathers from high up in the sky.

Although these attacks wouldn't outright kill him, they could still damage him nonetheless. So he always had to be careful when dealing with them. Luckily, their defenses were terrible, and he could take an entire flock of them out with a single {Blue Lightning} spell.

The hardest to deal with, was without a doubt, the {Earth Beetles}. They were rather large bug-like aether beasts that dug through the ground with their sharp mandibles.

Their defenses were strong, but what was even stronger, was their cowardice...

When they attacked, they attacked in droves. However, once a certain number of them had been killed, they dug into the earth faster than one could blink and disappeared without a trace. Every time this happened, Cain couldn't help but grit his teeth.

What made things even more frustrating, was their ability to sink the earth in and create sinkholes by eating through the foundations of the earth and making underground tunnels.

Cain had fallen into one of these sinkholes, and it was a very terrible experience...

Compared to the others, the {Savage Tigers} were only slightly stubborn cats. This got Cain wondering...

Just how were the {Savage Tigers} able to survive, when their main opponents were a bunch of cowardly ambushers and flocks of archers that kited you to death?

Soon, he got his answer...

On the evening of the first day, Cain got to witness something that stuck with him for a long time. Although power and skills were important, what was the most important, was having the knowledge and intelligence to apply them accordingly.

He got to witness the way the {Savage Tigers} dealt with the {Dusk Canaries} and {Earth Beetles}.

The {Savage Tigers} made use of one of their skills, {Wind Tunnel}, to combat the {Dusk Canaries}. {Wind Tunnel} was a skill that created a funnel of air from one destination to another. It was very similar to his {Wind Weaver} skill and could be used the exact same way as well.

However, the only difference between them was that {Wind Tunnel} focused more on increasing movement speed. It also didn't need to surround the activator of the skill, and could be kept active longer than {Wind Weaver}.

Rather, it could surround anything at all. As such, the {Savage Tigers} would create spears using the wood from trees, or bones from large creatures. Using {Wind Tunnel}, they turned these spears into super projectiles.

Cain had seen the speed of these projectiles and had been beyond shocked, to say the least. The way they made use of their abilities further reminded Cajn that humans were no longer the only intelligent creatures he could come across. As such, he had to be extra careful.

As for the {Earth Beetles}, they simply baited them. If the {Earth Beetles} saw an opportunity to feed, they would turn from cowards, into starved piranhas.

Hence, the {Savage Tigers} usually killed a lot of prey and threw them into a particular sinkhole in order to summon the {Earth Beetles}. Once the cowardly creatures took the bait and swam towards the surface, the {Savage Tigers} killed them swiftly until the entire herd of them was extinguished, or they realized what their intentions were and fled.

This was only possible because the {Earth Beetles} were not very sharp creatures. They could bring down most large creatures with their superior numbers, but manipulating them was relatively easy.

Observing the behaviors of all these creatures and how they made use of their skills to strive for dominance over a tiny portion of an island in the fragmented realm opened his eyes to a few things...

'While absolute power is important, the intelligence required to use this power is even more so.'

Take the {Earth Beetles} for example. If they were even a little bit smarter, they would become the absolute rulers of the land, and the {Savage Tigers} would either be forced to go extinct or migrate to another part of the island.

Because they were dumb, cowardly bugs, all they knew how to do, was eat and run away. Cain despised them for this...

'Not my problem...' Cain thought to himself as he stomped on the hard exoskeleton of one of the {Earth Beetles} he had killed just now. The thick rocky carapace exploded into bits, splattering blood, pus, and organs all over Cain's feet.

He made a disgusted expression as he rubbed his feet against the ground and looked up. Evangeline was standing beside him, blood dripping from the tips of her short swords.

"Their numbers have been increasing steadily. Especially the beetles."

Cain nodded, "The closer we get to the forest, the more likely we are to run into trouble. For some reason, these aether beasts seem to be attracted to the forest. However, a lot of them don't get to go in."

Cain's expression changed when he noticed something something approaching from the horizon,

"Looks like we have company..."

Dust stirred in the distance as a rather large group of {Savage Tigers} ran towards them, their vibrant yellow eyes filled with killing intent.

The plains were wide, meaning a large number of creatures could attack all at once from all sides. The {Savage Tigers} were smart enough to take advantage of the fact.

Snarls and howls filled with wild plains as they charged at the most recent invaders of their territory. They were the rulers of this land, and they would defend it to their deaths.

Just when they were a few hundred meters away from Cain and Evangeline who had not made a move yet, they split up into two streams.

'They want to surround us, huh.' Cain was amused.

The aether beasts kept increasing their speed until they had locked Cain and Evangeline in a tight circle. Immediately, half of them activated {Wind Tunnel}, sending all sorts of projectiles flying at the duo.

Cain and Evangeline glanced at one another and nodded. Light flashed at the edges of their blades as they drew their blades and dashed in opposite paths.