Chapter 10 – Strange Beasts (2)

Roarrrrr!!

A terrifying sound echoed in the surroundings of the forest.

Many small animals were escaping from the place where the roar originated, scared of any creature that could’ve been responsible for the commotion.

There, a young man and a young woman were confronting a ferocious boar-like beast. In the surroundings, the bodies of two identical beasts could be seen lying dead in the cold ground.

With a careful inspection, it was possible to notice that both bodies possessed exactly the same wound. A clean cut in the neck was enough to send both beasts to the afterlife.

Different from the dead ones, the other beast was actually uninjured. However, the boar situation was not better despite the lack of wounds. A great number of white threads were tying it, making it impossible for the beast to move freely.

Compared to them, Aiden and Lia were in excellent condition. Though Lia possessed a few more scratches than before and her clothes were in an even more pitiful state, her physical condition was good. Aiden, on the other hand, was completely unblemished, with even his clothes completely unstained, contrasting completely with the chaos in the surroundings.

Constantly trying to escape from its ties, the boar was roaring and moving savagely. Pitifully, its body looked every time more entangled and new threads were being added at its body with every passing second.

Lia, standing in front the giant boar, was looking to it intently, doing her utmost to control the threads and immobilize its body.

Five hours passed from the moment when Aiden and Lia found the first giant boar and the afternoon sun was already preparing to give space to the soon to reach night.

Different from the first beast that Lia fought, the current giant boar had a cultivation of around the late stage of core-forming. The fact that Lia was able to take care of it by herself without any injury was proof enough of her fast progress during the last few hours.

After Aiden killed the first group of two boars using two attacks from his saber, the pair was attacked continually for waves of beasts, the weakest of them being at the initial core-forming stage while the stronger ones were very close to the peak of core-forming.

So, intending for Lia to use the opportunity to learn how to control properly her powers, besides the ones in the clearing, Aiden chose to leave at least one beast of each wave for Lia to kill every time.

Thanks to it, the capacities of Lia to control her threads increased for leaps and bounds during the course of the different battles; and though there were various occasions where Lia was almost injured, thanks to Aiden’s presence, she never received any damage beyond single scratches.

The current beast was the best proof of it. Different from the first fight where Lia ended panting despite the enemy being three sub-realms weaker than her, the current Lia only have two beads of sweat even after suppressing a boar with a cultivation only slightly weaker than her.

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Seeing the boar unable to continue resisting, Aiden nodded and signaled for Lia to end it.

Lia agreed in understating and moved one thread around the neck of the beast to strangle it.

After a few seconds of whimpering and resisting, the boar finally began to lose its strength until finally dying.

Once the boar died, Aiden walked towards Lia and congratulated her.

“Truly impressive. And to think that a few hours ago you didn’t know how to kill a chicken and now you are able to kill a late stage core-forming beast easily. I would not have believed it if I don’t see it myself.”

Lia looked downwards shyly and replied softly.

“Young master! don’t tease me! I’m far from being comparable to you…! …And the only reason because I don’t know how to kill a chicken is because I’d never tried it before…”

Hearing Lia increasingly softer words, Aiden laughed amusedly and answered in a joking tone.

“Hahaha, if you want I can take you to a farm when we get back…”

“Young master!!!”

Laughing a bit more, Aiden indicated for Lia to sit and rest before sitting beside her.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Aiden took advantage of the moment to think carefully about his encounters during the day.

Frowning deeply, Aiden could no help but worry about the high number of giant boars in the surroundings.

Giant boars, in its core, were solitary beasts that only on rare occasions tended to group. However, even in the cases where giant boars were grouped, normally the size of the group doesn’t surpass five members. Compared to the current situation where Aiden and Lia encountered six waves of enemies with at least two individuals each, the differences were too great.

Not just it, but during the various fights against the groups of boars, Aiden noticed a few strange points.

Calming his thoughts, Aiden opened his eyes and chose to share his worries with Lia after hesitating for a moment.

“I think we have a problem.”

Hearing the serious voice of Aiden, Lia turned towards him waiting for his next words.

“The number of boars in this part of the forest is too exaggerated. No just it, but it looks like they are cooperating for some reason.”

Pausing for a moment to organize his thoughts, Aiden continued.

“To be sincere, I noticed a few strange points in the previous fights. You remember the first boar? It was trying to get a spirit herb when we found it. You see, I saw traces of spiritual plants in some of the other boars we fought, and I doubt that spirit herbs are so common as to find so many traces of them in only a day.”

Listening to Aiden’s words, Lia could no help but frown slightly.

“Young master, are you saying that the beasts are being commanded…?”

“Un, and not just it. Had you noticed? From the moment when we entered the forest till now, with exception of a few small animals, we hadn’t found any big animal or beast apart from the boars. We had almost two days in the forest and I don’t remember hearing the howl of a wolf yet.”

Thinking carefully, Lia noticed that certainly Aiden and she had to not heard the howl of a wolf or come upon another kind of beast during their stay in the forest. It was like if they didn't exist.

Waiting for a moment so Lia can process his words, Aiden continued.

“Moreover, among the boars that we had fought till now, four of them were at the late stage of core-forming. If beasts with such strong are only being used to do chores, then, how strong is the leader? Peak of core-forming? Stronger than it?”

Catching the implications behind her master’s words, Lia gasped.

“Young master, are you saying that there is a demonic beast commanding the giant boars!?”

“To be sincere, that is the best of the possibilities. My biggest fear is the probability of a human commanding the beasts. In reality, I don’t think that a low-level demonic beast is smart enough to command a group of boars to search for resources.”

Wearing a serious expression, Aiden told Lia about his theories. Hearing about it, Lia put a worried expression and asked.

“Young master, do you think that a spirit user is behind it?”

“I don’t know… Sigh, forget about it, we cannot do anything speculating here. Let’s go, it’s already late and the sun is going to hide soon. We need to find a place to camp before night.”

“Yes, young master.”

Urging Lia, Aiden proceeded to gather the proofs of hunting the boars and kept the bodies in his pouch. Once it was done, the pair began to walk searching for a place to spend the night.