Rex spent a few moments considering his options and what to do in the current situation. In the end, he was far too interested un the reptilian race he had encountered. They were both intelegent, as well as incredibly powerfull. Doubly so when compared with the people of the non dungeon world. He logically concluded that if the hunting party had individuals with the power level of SS cleas, even if only early stages, there must be even more powerfull individuals back at their encampment, or city, or whatever else they had for a base.
Sure, he could just stand by and watch as the events unfold, but then he would lose quite the oportunity that had been presented to him. he had no guarantee that the hunters could survive on their own and get back to their home once they were dispersed, and more than once of them chomped down on by the larger reptile. And after the whole Echlisiarchy campaign, he was more than happy to have some friendly, hopefully, interactions with this group of people, and maybee even their race.
So, logicaly speaking, what he did next was only natural. He adorned his blood mage getup, succesfully concealing his features, constructed quite a few large scale mana spears and the moment the enourmous snake appeared in his vision, on a dirrect path towards the nearest fleeing person, charging with its huge maw opening in a preperation to swallow the poor girl whole, he shot them forward. Moments later, the snake had the unfortunate pleasure to taste the hardened mana spears pelting its body. Even worse was that one of said spears landed dirrectly in its mouth, penetrating the soft tissue, pinning the beast to the ground, its forward motion flipping the rest of its body over the pinned head, creating a rather messy and chaotically squirming mass. The pain was more than anyone would like to feel, the mana spears powerfull enough to not only pierce the softer tissue within the monsters mouth, but also its skin, creating a rather large version of a pincusion. Then, more of the mana spears followed, ensuring the monster could stay there.
The rather large commotion had caused more than a single hunter look back, stopping in their tracks, jaws wide open in sheer bewilderment of the scene before their eyes. The terrifying monster was nothing more than a wriggling mass, being impaled by more and more of the dangerous looking, and feeling, spear like objects, thought they had never actually seen any spear of a similar design. The spears, had a rather odd, blood colored handle, quite a few rune markings spread along its lenght and from what little glimpses they got of the spear blade, it seemed to swallow the light around it.
What they could not have known was, that that was exactly what the spear tip was doing, infused and strnghtened by Rex extensive understanding of the laws of space. It was exactly this infusion that allowed his mana constructed spears to rather easily pierce the snakes skin. The spear shafts were infused with the laws of blood, ensuring a rather paralyzing effect once the innitial penetration was achieved, thanks to the spear tips incredible penetrative power. The result, as witnessed by everyone turning back to look at the snake, was quite impressive, ending the life of the snake in mere minutes.
With the entirety of the hunter squad, a combination of two smaller groups, as indicated by their two SS class leaders, all staring at the unreasonable sight before their eyes, Rex moved with a decent speed, though nothing much greater than the fastest of the hunters in their panicked retreat. It would not do to terrify them with more than overwhelming power. Were he to show speed and agility far beyond their own, he was more than asured there would even more fear and distrust dirrected his way than it already was. Besides, Rex wanted to maintain as much of his power hidden as the situation allowed him to.
With such measures taken, he was noticed rather soon, as he moved towards the corpse of the snake. He did not pay too much attention to the hunter group, as if prioritizing his quarry. The first thing he did as he stood before the snake was inspect its meat. Luckally, the meat of the snake was good. Heaven grade even, so he wasted no time whatsoever, stashing the monster away in one of his storage rings. That action had the slack jaws of the hunters drop even lower, Rex joked to himself that they were about to touch ground, as he noticed their reaction out of the corner of his eye.
"You gonna continue to stare and gawk at me, or what?" he asked as his head slowly turned towards the group, his hoods opening stopping on the woman that had been the snakes first planned snack.
Now that he was quite close he could see a few more details that his previous vantage point had not shown, a matter of the angle and the rather puffy leather cloak each and ever hunter wore. Sure, they were quite pretty, each and every woman he had checked out, just as the men were more handsome than your average man, but the woman in front of him sported quite the proportions, and with a quick glacnce around, so did the rest of them.
"Damn, humans would die of jelousy over those genes." Rex chuckled to himself, once again interrupting the current dead drop silence. "Most of them, anyways."
His last words seemed to jolt one of the two leaders out of their stuppor. While the SS class lizard male was still gawking at him, the woman managed to get a sad excuse of a smile on her face, as she meekly waved her hand at Rex.
"Hello?" an akward and meek first word followed, and noticing the small reaction to her word from the hooded man, that in no way showed any negative reaction, much less agressive stance, she continiued. "Thank you for the assistance. Without it quiet a few of us no doubt have perished trying to flee."
"Hmm, dont sweat it. Though it is odd that with the amount of hunters you have, the beast was noticed so late, making this situation as dire as it would have been without my presence. And no, before anyone of you gets the idea I had anything to do with its appearance, I assure you, I have no need of the beast to take out such a small hunting group as yours. As you have already witnessed. And since this is in no way related to me, I would watch your backs, were I you, that is."
Rex noticed the few odd glares that were dirrected towards him as he had spoken, so he decided to clarify the situation. he had no interest, or desire to act benevolent and take shit from some blockheaded or plain old grumpy reptilian-kin.
"By the way, what are you? Species I mean. Havent seen your kind before."
This question of his had much more of a reaction from the group than his previous words, with most of the heads shooting in his dirrection and locking onto him, no doubt trying to gleam anything about his features, and failing all the same, his clothing doing perfect work to obscure his features from them.
"Are you not dragonkin, S-sir?" the same woman asked, even more unsure how to adress or deal with him, at the ned akwardly tacking on the 'sir' for good measure. Never hurts to be extra respectfull towards someone who can apparently take you out easily and from a range that was scary in and of itself.
To that question Rex semi turned his side, his hand gesturing towards his lower back and the butt. "No tail, as you can obviously see." he paused for a moment, then continiued, as if musing loudly. "Dragonkin eh? Well, I suppose it actuallt fits. Dragonkin it is then. Say, lady, would I encounter your kind often around these parts? And what is your attitude towards the tigermen that exist around these parts? Dont want to accidentally run into another of your groups and do something untoward, should they respond with aggresion. Your people seem civilised enough. So?"
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With his question out and about, Rex waited for the woman to respond. It was clear she was mulling over how to proceed, not entirely sure of it herself. That little hesitation on her part was what finally brought out of his stupor the other leader present on the dragonkins side. With a few quick steps, almost half leaping, the male leader stood next to the woman, leaning in and whispering into her ear something he was sure Rex could not hear. Unfortunattely for him, Rex's hearing was just sharp enough to hear each and every word of the man.
"Carefull with what you speak, Mora. he seems suspicious to me. Who knows where he came from, even less of what his objectives here are."
"Tone down with your vitriol Argul. He just saved our asses big time. The least we can do is give him the benefit of the doubt. That said, its not like I am about to call him in for a rite of Hool-Koupla." Her words earned another scoff from the male leader, but at the very least the man was smart enough to keep that crass behaviour of his quite toned down and between their own kind, so to speak, or at the very least he believed he did.
"Just look at that firepower of his. The very least we can do is ensure that what the man wants to avoid does not come to pass. Better for both us, especially if he can become a friend of potential benefit in the future."
"Huff" unhappy snort escaped Arguls nose "Do what you want. Its on your head if we suffer from your actions." and with that the man stepped a bit back, leaving the woman at the front, clearly giving her the reins of the situation.
"My apologies, S-sir." Mora spoke again, this time her words dirrected towards Rex, once again the 'sir' akwardly added at the end. The young woman clearly was not used to adressing anyone with such respect and caution. "We are quite far away from the ussual hunting grounds of my kind, so unless you plan to travel in that dirrection for a couple of days on foot" she spoke as she pointed towards the direction where Rex could see incredibly large mountains in the far distance "there should be no danger of you encountering any of our other hunter squads, causing any possible misunderstandings."
Rex nodded his head in acknoledgement, noting the information. "I will try to avoid that dirrection for the time beig then."
"Emm, what was that about the tigermen you asked sir?" Mora the asked in return, the 'sir' finally did not feel so akward, though the question itself felt rather nervous, at least as far as it seemed to Rex.
"Not too far away from here, maybee an hour or so in the opposite dirrection ran into a group of over hundred of them." His words caused a large gasp, coming from quite a few of the hunters, fear apparent in their now trembling forms. Rex also saw Moras arm clench, as well as her biting her lip in nervousness.
"If I may ask, which dirrection did the group moved towards?" she asked a moment later, having come to a decision regarding something. Rex, feeling a lit playfull, for whatever reason pointed his finger down, not adding any other gesture or words. Though his one action was quite exagerated, ensuring that the hunters did not miss it. Still, his gesture did fly above their heads, most likely not a way to they reffer to the demise of any creature. 'Do they not bury their fallen?' Rex wondered in his head for a moment, though his small introspection was interrupted by Mora.
"Emm, sir, I am not familiar with the gesture. Could you please elaborate." She was biting her lip even more now and Rex was worried she might soon start to bleed, it it continiued in the same pace.
"First, relax a bit lady. You are about to chew that pretty lip of yours off." These words caused her to act like a deer in headlights, her small and delicate jaw slightly parting, then a rather large blush spread across her face. The sky blue scales on her cheeks making the blush all the more apparent.
"As for the tigermen, if you are worried about them reaching here any time soon, dont. In fact, forget about that group entirely. Not like they will ever surface anywhere again."
"IMPOSSIBLE!" a shout of disbelief came from Argul "No way a hundred Savga-Tirog were taken out by a single person. No matter how strong they are. We are talking about the Savga-Tirog here, not some boars or anything."
Rex scoffed at that, quite annoyed by the male hunter butting in their conversation. He also did not hide his dispelasure regarding the fact. "Dont butt in our conversation when you have clearly given up your right, covering for your own ass. Grown ups are talking here." For good measure he even shaked his palms in a shooing manner, indicating for the man to get lost. It was quite the treat, seeing the scowl of the man deepen, yet once again, his brain overcame his stupidity, the sight of the poor snake still clear in his mind, so the man wisely moved away, though Rex could see the grtted teeth. The man was clearly annoyed and probably insulted by his actions, though Rex reasoned it was coming to him. Dont give up your place in the conversation and then butt in whenever. It was common sense. With the annoyance out of the way, Rex refocused on Mora, a smiple hand gestire for her to continiue.
"So, that group exist no longer?" she asked timidly, though there was quite a lot going on in her mind at the moment.
"Yes, me and my companions took care of them. That was all we could do. There is little to no civilised mind behind those creatures. Pure savagery and instinct. Not much of a conversation can be held with the likes."
"Did you notice any other groups in the vicinity?"
"Of the tigermen? No, that was the only one within a days walk, I suppose. Cant say much more than that though. Why, they a problem around these parts?"
"Yes, a problem and a half." A sad and pained smile appeared on her face."And that group is likely the first of many. Damn, the horde should not move for another decade." she cursed under breath, but loud enough for Rex to hear.
"Hooo, do I hear a possible work avenue? Say lady, what would your people be willing to pay for stopping this horde of yours?" clear interest resounded in his voice, and that not only got Moras attention but the atention of every single hunter around.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS? THAT WOULD BE TENS OF THOUSAND OF TIGERMEN?" she half yelled in obvious shock, still not able to comprehend the person in front of them.
"IF the reward is right, EVEN THAT. So, tell me girl, who I have to talk about that? I asume you dont have the rank or influence among your people to negotiate something like that. Nor experience, I would asume."
Mora quickly shook her head, indicating Rex correct asumption. A rather large furrow of the brows marred her face as she thought over their predicament, then coming to a decision, she once again bit her lip, but for just a moment, then she spoke.
"Would you acompany us to our home? This has to be decided by the Elder council."
"Sure, as long as you keep the grumpy away, we should be able to have a rather pleasant journey towards your home." Rex replied, then moved his hand behind his back, clasping them and walking towards Mora, his posture indicating that he was not at all worried about her suddenly attacking. Either that, or she did not even register on his danger sense. She decided that it was the former, her draconic pride would not take quite the beating if it was otherwise. She wisely did not ask for the answer, deciding it was better to not know.
A few shouted orders and couple minutes later, the two groups, with Rex besides Mora, moved out, their destination clear. As they walked, Rex engaged Mora in a conversation, finally 'learning' the womans name. In response, Rex gave his own name. He had utilized magic, not close combat arts, thus making it the obvous choice, besides there was little, if any worry that anyone else from Blythe could ever reach this deep. There were no info on any floor past thirty fourth for a reason. Rex was just too much of an anomaly to be measured by the normal standarts of the world. Indeed, quite a few of the Gods would classify him as a demigod already, even without the spark of the divine elevating and transforming his soul.
The following two days were rather monotone and boring for Rex, save for the occasional conversation he had with Mora. Her fellow leader was kept at a safe distance, for everyones sake, so he used that fact to involve himself with other tasks, such as ordering a part of their group to do some side hunting of the lesser game that was encountered on their way back to their home. Rex noticed that no other dragonkin interacted with him either, most likely an order from Argul, or just like him they just did not want to be held responsible, should anything go wrong. Eventually, Rex saw some building spires in the distance, his keen and extremely sharp eyesight once again coming in handy.