There were not that many demonic beast in the world that ran around in a pack, but the ones that did were terrifying. Fighting one or two wouldn’t be much of a problem to an average EXO user. However, things changed when you were going against ten or more.
You no longer had to watch the movements of one or two, instead you needed to strengthen your senses. If not, you’d try to use your eyes to keep track of the beasts movements which was wrong.
A person's eyes could only take them so far, if you relied on it all the time you’d never be able to increase your fighting potential. Nick knew that well from personal experience growing up.
‘Tsk. I keep telling you to stop watching my body and instead feel the change in the air, notice the shift of the ground. It’s these small changes that turn you from an average person into one of the elite!’
‘I don’t understand what you’re talking about at all sensei! How does a person feel the change in the air? That doesn’t even make sense.’
‘This is why… nevermind let’s continue.’
It took him a long time to understand what his sensei meant, but its not something a person could learn overnight. It was a skilled that needed to be learned.
In all honesty, it was like a sixth sense. You didn’t think about it, your body just reacted to the motions. The hair on your back stood tall as all the muscles in your body tightened.
That's how Nick’s body felt right now as he remained calm despite the numerous eyes focused on his squad.
The demonic beasts that surrounded them weren’t normal, anyone could tell that by the essence they were radiating from their body. It was more dark, more corrupted. Almost as if they were drunk on something.
“Be careful, we are outnumbered. Stay on guard and let’s see what they are going to do.”
Thomas said in an authoritative tone as he looked at the pack of demonic lions.
He had a bad feeling inside his stomach and he did not know why.
“What are demonic lions doing in Ohio? This isn’t right… they are only found in Australia.”
“That was never confirmed to be a hundred percent true. They were only found there, but there has never been reports of other sightings. So naturally everyone assumed they were only located there.”
“Still… it’s the first time i’ve seen one like that. They are different than i’ve heard. Gray fur, blood red eyes, spiked tail… even those paws of theirs don’t look normal.”
“That’s because this is a pack of Alpha’s.”
Thomas said as he could tell the strength of the demonic lions with ease.
“Alphas! What? Since when do lioness have the strength of an Alpha? Whoever wrote the encyclopedia on demonic beast is a fraud. It clearly stated that they had the strength of an Omega while the male lion was an Alpha.”
Thomas realized why he had a bad feeling. It was because the demonic lions in front of them were only female. Although there were only ten of them, they were used to hunting with each other.
The females in the pack always went out hunting together, and most of the time they’d take down beast ranked higher in strength than themselves. The male was the protector, but most importantly all demonic male lions were tyrants. They fought constantly and took what they wanted, as long as they had the strength to do so.
There was no way the leader of this pack would leave his females. He had to be close by, somewhere watching them.
The disturbing part was that Thomas had no idea where it was.
While dealing with a pack of Alpha ranked demonic beast would be a problem, he felt they could do it with a few casualties. However, the male was always stronger than the female in this scenario, so if the females were already Alpha rank then that could only mean he was a Demon ranked beast.
Judging by the expressions from his squad, Thomas could tell that no one understood that was they were more worried about the ten female lions.
No! That wasn’t correct.
Thomas grinned, there were a few that had the saw worried expression as him.
‘Seems there is hope for the future generation after all.’
Rachel summoned her lance as she stared at the demonic lions. She knew if she was at the peak of her strength taking out a few of them wouldn’t pose a problem to her. Unfortunately, her strength was still sapped from her match with Nick.
Summoning her lance was no problem, but doing a full transformation was asking too much.
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From the corner of her eye she spotted Nick seemingly calm, but she wondered how he felt about their situation. How was he faring to her in terms of remaining strength?
Was she worried about him? No. She just did not want him to cause a problem if he was lacking in strength due to their duel. Considering she had around thirty percent of her essence remaining, she figured he’d have around twenty percent.
She snickered as she thought about it.
Indeed. She was superior to him.
“Sitting here doing nothing won’t accomplish anything. At most they’ll just wait for us to starve then attack us when our strength is weakened.”
“He’s right. The longer we sit here, the worse it’ll become for us. We need to act first.”
Thomas heard his squad members complaints, but his mind was elsewhere.
“Don’t do anything stupid. This isn’t the time to be questioning our leaders leadership. This is a battlefield so you must obey your superior.”
Rachel said as she looked at the men voicing their opinions with disgust. She disliked them. They were trying to sway to squad over to their side by tossing the blame on the squad leader. She could understand where Thomas was coming from, as the most threating beast has yet to bare its teeth.
They couldn’t move until they found his location, at least then they could plan their movements accordingly.
Nick’s hazel eyes turned icy blue as he scanned the area. It wasn’t long before he spotted a beast hiding behind one of the buildings. Just because it was behind the building didn’t mean it could escape Nick’s eyes.
He could tell it was the male, the essence it was emitting was three times as strong as the rest of the pack. It was a Demon ranked beast, but Nick couldn’t tell what its rank was exactly.
“Behind the third house on the left, i’m not sure if its waiting on a moment to emerge or if its sleeping. However, there is something there more deadly than the others here.”
Nick said as he placed his hand on his sword.
Thomas nodded his head. He couldn't tell if Nick’s information was true or not but the most he could do was trust in him. In a situation like this if they didn’t have the correct information then a wrong move could cause them all to perish.
There was no way he’d say something like that without being sure of himself.
“Celia and Charles, you two take the two in front of you. Nick, i’ll leave the one on the left to you, as for Rachel…”
Thomas started giving out orders to the squad members, but he kept most of the forces to the opposite side of the male lion. As long as they cleared away the females on this side, they’d at least have an escape route if things went wrong.
Granted, Thomas felt that if it came to that then they were all as good as dead. They wouldn’t be able to outrun a Demon ranked beast, but as he looked at those three youngsters he gritted his teeth.
If, and only if it came to that situation then those three had to survive no matter what.
As everyone moved at Thomas’ command he kept his eye on everyone’s life force. There was a healer by his side, he hoped that she would be able to be useful.
She barely said a word the entire time they were together.
The female lioness’ all attacked together once Thomas’ squad started to move. They were quick on their feet with lightning fast reflexes.
The female lioness Nick was facing swiped her paw at him but he was able to dodge it. Her paw crushed the house wall behind him with ease. It was like the wall was paper.
‘I don’t have enough strength to block or parry, I can only dodge. The moment I slip up its over for me. It’s best I keep my distance for a bit before I can get a grasp on its movements or wait for an opening.’
Nick thought to himself before he quickly glanced over at Celia and Charles. He wanted to know how they were faring, but he barely caught a glance.
The beast in front of him wouldn’t let him, it just continued its onslaught of attacks.
Nick jumped up and summersualted over the lioness in front of him. The spot where he was just at was now occupied by another lioness. Nick saw the ground crumble beneath her feet.
If he didn’t move when he did, he’d have been crushed.
‘When your opponent has the advantage over you, whether its in strength or numbers they always feel superior. You might have to sacrifice your body for a bit, as you let them think they have the edge over you. That’s when it happens, they make a grave mistake letting you turn the tide of battle. Doesn’t matter if its a human or a beast, we all make mistakes.’
Nick’s mind was thinking of the advice his sensei gave him long ago.
He continued to dodge the two beasts attack, but just by a hair's breadth. The two female lioness never gave up their endless assault. In fact, to Nick their movements were slowly becoming more reckless.
Almost as if they were toying with him. They had him cornered, they felt it. This human was theirs, it was only a matter of time before his back was against the wall.
‘Do you know the difference between a predator and prey?’
‘One hunts the other flees.’
‘Yes, but its more than that. A true predator can pretend to be the prey, they are always watching and waiting. Only making their move when it is necessary and the odds of them catching their prey is above eighty percent. A predator who survives off nothing but instinct is the easiest prey. Their mind is locked onto one objective, its hardwired into their system. See, a prey is just that, a prey. It’s always running and hiding. It’s mindset is set on escaping and surviving, always thinking of ways to escape the predator, it does whatever it needs to as long as it survives. Even if that means becoming the predator itself. Yet, for a predator whose known nothing but how to hunt, the moment it becomes the prey itself it doesn’t know how to react. The first thing that comes to its mind… Hey! Why the hell are you dozing off!’
‘Ouch!’
Both the female lions pounced towards Nick, but he stood still.
As his mind was filled with his teachings from his sensei, his body was in a trance. His hand on the hilt of his sword, his eyes closed.
The two lioness were coming closer by the second but Nick’s body still did not move.
A black arc emerged in front of Nick.
His body moved on its own, he was surprised by his swift movements. His eyes drifted to his sword that was covered in black flames.
‘This…’
This never happened to him before. He could never use his Ninetails abilites when he wasn’t transformed before. Why could he use this now all of a sudden?
The moment he thought about it, the black flames covering his sword vanished.