Leo’s idea was simple – if he marched directly ahead while counting steps, he could return any time by just turning around. After Elsa taught him the Angelic wind, he practiced it a lot and kind of developed his own movement technique. As a result he was pretty confident he currently could be the fastest creature in Greenland, similar to how he became one of the fastest back in Dreadlands – apart from Anna and, probably, the empress.
With these thoughts in mind, Leo leisurely walked through the thick grass, scaring frogs and smaller snakes, but before he counted to hundred he stumbled across a nest. His eyes widened witnessing the size of it and he immediately remembered seeing a similar one many years ago. The main difference though was that this had whole three eggs inside!
But then Leo’s heir stood on end. He realized that if the owner of this nest was a similar humongous chicken, the thing could fly and there was no way he would ever be able outrun it! And was there a chance for him to kill it if he got attacked? Was he strong enough already?
Back on the island with the two mutated beasts he was barely six or seven years old and the monsters seemed to be omnipotent. The battlefield they left behind clearly showed they could’ve been at least rank seven, but in that case … he could first observe the grassy field while remaining hidden in the trees, right?
Leo decisively turned around, but only a couple of yards away from him there were two large snake heads curiously observing him. The strangest thing was that their bodies seemed to stretch upwards and were attached to something big.
Suddenly a sense of mortal danger washed over Leo’s mind and he instinctively rolled to the side, but at the spot where he just stood the third snake clacked its jaws, missing him by a hair’s width. The youth didn’t even consider fighting the three monsters – he dashed away at full speed, but few moments later broke out in cold sweat hearing the sound of heavy footsteps following from behind.
It didn’t matter which direction he ran. Even if he got lost, it was better to be lost than to be eaten.
Fueled by this thought Leo ran so fast he had never ran before and from what it seemed he was gaining ground. The problem was that three or four hundred steps further he stumbled on another nest and almost tripped, breaking the huge eggs lying inside.
Even before he could make a guess if this was the same nest and whether he was running in circles, a piercing roar announced the presence of the nest’s owner and two large snakes bit at Leo’s position at the same time. He did manage to roll away again, but this time the evasive maneuver turned out to be clumsy and another snake smacked him off the feet the moment he got up.
After rolling a couple times in the thick grass, Leo somehow evaded few more bite attempts that came from the annoying snakes who for some reason kept multiplying in numbers. He dashed away into a random direction completely confused – how in the world did he manage to stumble upon a place that swarmed with giant snakes that were at least rank six? And then there were those enormous creatures whose steps were catching up to him – they were so heavy Leo could swear the soggy ground kept shaking after each stomp.
It would’ve been one thing if he saw or knew where he was escaping to, but from what it looked like no matter which direction he took, the whole grassland was filled with the annoying beasts. Leo continued to run, roll and jump, but no matter where he went, someone was always biting at him. He knew it was his own fault for coming here, but why couldn’t the inhabitants of this grassland be huge turtles? Why it had to be snakes?!
Soon Leo lost the sense of time how long was he escaping. He was out of breath and his legs barely could follow orders, in fact, he was surprised he held out for so long. The fog was already turning dark indicating the arrival of the night when finally he didn’t manage to evade one of the many weird slams the snakes did trying to knock him off the feet and from the impact Leo flew several yards and heavily landed on his back in … water.
Ignoring the fact that this was the first place, apart from the small pool on the dryad mountain, with an actual body of water he came across in this realm, somehow he managed to run around the grass the whole day and only now stepped, or rather – fell in it, but in the end it didn’t matter. It was clear that within moments he’ll find himself caught in jaws of one of those gigantic reptiles.
Even if he wanted to struggle, Leo realized he simply didn’t have any strength, but despite that he forced himself to find a foothold and stand up in the water that was slightly above his waist. Then took out the Cleaver, grabbed with both hands and prepared for the final stand, but for some reason there was no one on the bank and only rustling of the grass somewhere in the fog proved he was not alone around here.
‘Ok!’ Leo thought to himself in confusion, ‘I can stay here for a while if needed …’
But then he got a horrifying thought – what if in the water lived something even more dangerous? There had to be a reason why the snakes retreated!
He glanced around in panic, but there was nothing in the lake, not even a single ripple signaling the presence of another beast. In addition, for some reason he could see the other bank over hundred yards away … and the trees there were visible … and there was no fog!
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“What the hell?!” Leo suddenly cursed out loud.
He had seen this before and not only once! Except those times everything was of a smaller scale … besides the beasts that is …
The other bank he saw was actually an island and the trees – the familiar leafless trees with the purple lightning flashing between their branches!
In that case … Leo looked at the water and stinging pain caused a wide smile appear on his face. Earlier he didn’t notice the lightning flashes across the surface because the lake was much larger than the two lakes on the island with the mutated beasts and the one below the hill in the Oceandesert mortal realm. But this clearly was one of those places!
For some reason Leo suddenly felt like home and without a second thought stored the Cleaver in the amulet and swam across. Despite him being deadly tired and the fact that upon reaching the island he was in excruciating pain because of the muscle cramps in both legs, he was still smiling.
He crawled out while giggling like an idiot and lie down on the back. To his great surprise he could actually see the sky – there was no fog nor mist, but only few flickering stars one after another appearing because the sun had just set.
‘Probably because of the trees …’ Leo thought, ‘Right, what was the name of these … Divine tribulation trees, right?’
And then he passed out.
When Leo woke up he felt fully recharged and ready to kick the buts of the big snakes, if they had such, of course. With a smile he confirmed he didn’t hallucinate last night and actually was on an island with three leafless lightning trees, one of which seemed to have six buds that might bloom any day.
Just like yesterday, the thick fog refused to form above the lightning waters and the island and that could only mean … actually Leo had no clue what it meant. Be as it may, ignoring the pain he greedily drank from the crystal clear waters of the lake and continued to leisurely lie on the back while watching the blue sky.
It wasn’t long since Leo woke up, but he already had a plan! Now that there was a base he could always safely return to, he’ll exterminate all the snakes in the surrounding grassland, cook their eggs and then leave after savoring the fruits of the lightning tree. It might take some time for them to ripe, but there were many snakes around here and Leo knew he’ll be busy for the upcoming months. He still have plenty of antidotes to neutralize the toxicity of the snake meat, thus he actually was looking forward to killing the damned beasts.
The first thing Leo decided to do was to get an egg to boil for breakfast. Since he was about to swim all the time, he took off the wet tree bark clothes and wore simple linen underwear – one of the few things he had left after making bandages all those months ago. Then he swam over to the shore, stealthily climbed out and entered the grass.
The main thing to remember was the way to the lake thus once again he marched straight ahead in the fog. It didn’t take too long for him to find a nest, but there was a problem, a huge one. In the nest lie something big, probably in a size of a small house and before Leo could react few snakes appeared from behind the creature. They stood straight up like cobras, except they didn’t spread the hood, but just as they seemed to get to the highest point possible, the huge body that lie in the nest suddenly got up as well.
To his great horror Leo saw that the snakes, five of them, for some reason were coming directly out from the creature, almost as if they were growing inside of it, but this time he didn’t linger. He immediately darted back to the lake and swam over to the island before the strange mutated beast got to him.
This time, while already in the water, he got to observe the beast walking back in the fog and it became clear these were the beasts the dryads were afraid of. And rightfully so – they were as big as elephants and had multiple heads! And they were fast – Leo still had no clue how he managed to escape last night.
They clearly were high ranked beasts, but in that case – their eggs should be delicious! And he craved cooked food!
A while later, after few unsuccessful attempts, Leo finally managed to steal one egg and, after storing it in the amulet, returned to the island for a feast. The lighting waters here worked similarly to how he used the ones back then and after boiling the egg in them, it turned out to be as tasty as he imagined.
From that moment on he became the self appointed king of grasslands. Of course, the king was constantly on the run, at least for now, but he still was on the top of the local food chain.
During the day Leo hunted eggs and spend the nights meditating under the three Divine tribulation trees. Obviously he remembered master Shaw’s words that his elemental mutation had the peculiarity that allowed him to accumulate Qi much faster compared to the other cultivators. For that he had the self invented solution – he tried to continuously release the Qi whenever he could thus alleviating the pressure on the pathways and reducing the risk of rupturing them.
In addition, besides hunting he meticulously practiced the modified Angelic wind. He had an excellent method for that as well – he was trying to step on water the without his feet sinking in and, truth to be said, even before he could successfully do it, he thought of the perfect name to replace the embarrassing feminine original – the ‘Lightning dash’!
Time flew by and after living under the lighting trees for two months, Leo was forced to realize he had probably stolen most of the snake-headed beast eggs and it was time to turn towards the next delicacy – the beasts themselves. Obviously all of them knew where the little egg thief lived and angrily attacked the moment he was spotted, but for the new plan the youth thought of, himself being a living bait was perfect.
He started by luring one of the beasts closer to the lake, then grabbed the Cleaver from the amulet and swiftly cut off one of the heads. Afterwards all that was left was to escape and return when the angrily roaring beast left.
After thoroughly cooking in the lighting water, the soft meat on the long neck not only lost its toxicity, it was also rather tasty and as a bonus each head contained a beast core – usually rank five. As a result the once feared monsters quickly became the source of food and wealth and another month later there were quite a few with only one or two heads remaining.
Another observation Leo had was that the lighting waters not only purified the meat and eggs he cooked in them – his nails returned to the nice, pink color and that could only mean that every time he swam across the lake, he was taking a detox bath! No matter how much he disliked the annoying purple lightning within the dantian, the lightning in the waters seemed to have the power to purify everything.
Of course, Leo was probably the only one who could enjoy this bonus, because just like the goldenglow tiger back in the day felt excruciating pain by just touching the water – everyone else would feel the same way.