External defenses

"We had cut down more than ten square kilometres worth of trees when creating the barricades and defensive structures for the beast tides. We uprooted quite a number of tree roots and used the holes in which they grew to create deep pits filled with spikes and boiling oil....".

"The numerous rivers and streams that now flow through the Village can allow quick retreat from dangerous areas, so long as the waters themselves are not full of danger. The new landscapes and the new water biomes that exist throughout Winter Rain Mountain will be different from what we are normally used to....".

Many of the Rank 2 Fae Masters nodded after hearing the Clan Leaders words.

Niklos himself needed to memorize the outskirts of the Clan territories, in addition to their new inhabitants and new dangerous areas.

He had already come across an extremely large pond, that, despite its relatively small size, possessed an unfathomable depth to it.

With his enhanced eyesight, he could make out a could of fallen trees, including a strange red one, in addition to movement from a gigantic creature.

Niklos had already marked down this location as one that Fae Masters should not visit for any reason. Dominic and Leon, who were trailing behind him nodded at their Father's words.

"It is your jobs to protect the Village, and its inhabitants. From spirit beasts, and Fae Masters".

"Many of you have done scouting and patrols before, however, the amount of water saturation in both the dirt and the air will decrease the strength of most Fire Attributed Fae. Water Attributed Fae, Ice Attributed Fae and some Wood Attributed Fae may find their abilities strengthened as a result".

Niklos noticed one of the newly ascended Rank 2 Fae Masters have his foot sink into the ground by several inches before flicking his finger out and sending a beam of shadows towards the ground underneath his sunken foot.

A high-pitched squeal echoed throughout the forest before a monstrous black leech rose up from out of the ground and collapsed, a huge amount of crimson coloured blood leaking from a large wound.

The Rank 2 Fae Master paled, along with numerous others beside him.

If the Clan Leader hadn't noticed that just now, then that thing probably could've taken their legs from the knee down!

They shivered slightly before letting out a deep breath.

Things certainly had changed.

Niklos nodded.

"During this period of change, those insect and other bug species spirit beasts will be the most common. They can feed on most plants or small herbivores that can reproduce rapidly such as rodents and small mammals. Those amphibious spirit beasts, such as frogs, centipedes, flies and some small lizards will also become commonplace".

"I cannot tell whether or not the environment or the original ecological order within Winter Rain Mountain will ever return to what we are familiar with. And to be honest, I doubt that it ever will.

"As such, you all will need to adapt, and transform your combat styles to the new natural order within Winter Rain Mountain. Water Attributed Fae and Wood Attributed Fae have always been commonplace, but Fire, Lava or even the already scarce Yang Attributed Fae will become even more rare than they already are".

All of the Fae Masters present listened intently to the Clan Leaders words.

In their eyes, he wasn't just a Rank 4 Fae Master, the strongest and highest Ranked Fae Master within the Clan, but also a pillar of spiritual and social support within the Village itself.

Despite Niklos being more of a family man in private, in the eyes of many of the Fae Masters, and mortals of Parachenko Village, Niklos was a man of the people. He was just, fair, righteous, handsome and strong enough to protect them.

A perfect symbol of the righteous path.

Niklos led the group of Rank 2 Fae Masters, as well as a couple Elders towards a relatively open grove within Winter Rain Mountain. Within this grove existed a massive, ancient tree that towered over the vast majority of other trees around, allowing its root system and tendrils to burrow themselves deep and extremely far reaching.

'This tree hadn't been here before', thought Niklos.

Either there was something about the spiritual essence in the air that caused this particular tree to mutate, or it was the work of a Fae.

It could've been a Law, but the chances of finding someone with an actual understanding of Wood Laws was practically non-existent. Why in the world would someone like that come out all the way here, if they were just going to make a tree grow before leaving?

It was illogical, even for someone like Niklos.

The Clan Leader looked around somewhat before nodding and gesturing for everyone to take a rest. They had been hiking for more than four hours now, and even with their heightened stamina and endurance, many were unused to the extremely wet terrain.

Two of the accompanying Elders came forward and stood beside Niklos who was glancing around this large mutated tree.

"Is there something the matter Clan Leader?".

Niklos shook his head before narrowing his eyes slightly and turning back, in the direction of Parachenko Village.

"How far roughly do you think is it back to the Village? Time and distance".

The elderly female Elder narrowed her eyes for a moment before responding.

"It took us four hours to get here, and that was at a Rank 2 Fae Masters pace without the use of Fae. Perhaps an extra hour or two for a Rank 1 and probably half the original if one were to use Fae. In terms of distance..... probably about 35-36 kilometres? Why?".

Niklos raised an eyebrow before turning in the other direction. They weren't travelling towards Falling Snow Famous River, but out of the Winter Rain Mountains.

"And how fair again from our current position until we exit the Winter Rain Mountains?".

The other Elder, a middle aged man nodded.

"Approximately 370 kilometres, give or take 5 either way".

Niklos nodded slowly before taking out a map from one of his Storage Fae and opening it up fully for the Elders to see.

It was an extremely detailed map of the Winter Rain Mountain, far more detailed with extremely minute letterings near certain areas. Just by looking at the map, both of the Elders automatically knew that it was the Clan Leader's personal creation.

From the top right, a winding river that twirled and curved like a sleeping dragon could be seen flowing down all the way past the middle bottom.

This section of water was obviously the Falling Snow River, and the length of it on the map exceeded eight thousand kilometres.

This was only a small portion of the Falling Snow Famous River as well. The entire length of the river exceeded 100,000 kilometres.

And... it was only Ranked 9th....

Niklos gestured to a small little dot in the easterly regions of the Winter Rain Mountain. The dot itself was probably only about three or four millimetres in size, and was much larger than the vast majority of little dots on the map.

A small circle could be seen around the dot although some areas of the circle had huge bites taken out of them, making it appear more like a half-eaten donut more than anything else.

"This is Parachenko Village. Within the Eastern Regions of the Winter Rain Mountains, we are King. There also exists the Marina Clan in the North. The Dostoyevsky Clan in the South and the Rasha Clan in the West. All three of them also possess the combat strength of a Rank 4 Fae Master".

"Out of the four of us, we are the only Clan whom possesses a Rank 5 strength".

Niklos knew that this estimate was inaccurate, as an actual Rank 5 Fae Master would be able to destroy Niklos, even with his Transformation Attribute Control Skill. Unless it was the weakest, most untalented, most useless Rank 5 Fae Master of all time, Niklos would have absolute no chance against them.

After all, those who had reached Rank 5 were almost allowed to touch the boundary between mortal and Immortal. If they were defeated by just any old Rank 4 Fae Master, they would be considered a laughing stock.

The distance between each Clan was more than a thousand kilometres, yet the Elders knew, that someone like the Clan Leader could cross that distance in an afternoon.

With flying Fae it would be even easier.

"There is too much distance between us and both the Marina Clan and the Dostoyevsky Clan to have effected the terrain or the environment. The Rasha Clan might've been affected, but damage would be minimal in comparison to our own losses. From now, until the foreseeable future, we need to set up small forward operation bases short distances from the Clan. He have done so before in the past, but during this time we need to be able to defend ourselves from outside attacks".

The other two Elders nodded. Both of them were considered members of the Clan Leaders faction, so they would without question agree to most of the proposals that Niklos would consider.

Niklos gestured to points on the map between Parachenko Villages western and northerly directions.

He spoke of teaching the Fae Masters, both young and old about the new territories outside the Clan. They needed to memorize safe areas without dangerous spirit beasts, and methods of crossing certain rivers or streams without alerting others to their presence.

Perhaps trying to cultivate, or gather a group of aquatic Transformation Attributed Fae in order to make use of these new waterways, without being noticed.

Defensive measures and the possibilities of incoming attacks from all directions.

Niklos had learned a valuable lesson during the previous two beast tides, and despite his age, picked up a few things during the battles between Fae Master and spirit beast.

However.... what Niklos failed to comprehend wasn't the possibility of an attack from outside the Village, but one that came from within.