The war of the underground expanse

The natural energy contained within the water spread around Cyril's body as soon as he drank it.

He controlled the energy to let it only strengthen his physical body... soon, his cells reinvigorated and steam seemed to exit his body as it shone a little in green light.

'The energy within the water is as good as the one within the mushrooms… Maybe I should just stay here until I become strong enough to hunt for some meat.'

He wasn't interested in eating insect-type creatures unless necessary for his survival, besides, there were a few other more delicious-looking creatures like the velociraptor-like beasts.

After drinking enough water, he turned around and searched for a good resting place to assimilate the natural energy within the water in his stomach.

Soon, Cyril laid near the wall and analyzed the surrounding velociraptor-like beasts… There were only around a dozen of adults and aside from the biggest that looked like the leader of the group, the others were around 1.5 meters tall (4,92 ft).

Between the adults, a few younger velociraptor-like creatures played around, they were around 0.5 meters tall (1,64 ft).

The leader was 2 meters tall (6,56 ft) and aside from its size and colour that was a bit darker than the others, there was no other apparent difference.

In Cyril's eyes, however, the difference was as clear as the day...

That beast looked like a beacon in the darkness since it was the only one in that area that was circulating energy within its body.

That creature was on a different level compared to the other creatures near it, it was already a spiritual beast, a common beast that evolved once and learned how to use energy within its body to improve its overall combat power for a short time.

Aside from the velociraptor-like beast leader, there were also a few other spiritual beasts in the other parts of the rocky outer ring...

A giant spider was hidden on the ceiling near a large cobweb that housed a hundred or so smaller spiders.

There were also spiritual beasts that stood alone like a 3 meters-long (9,84 ft) amethyst armoured centipede, it was 1.5 (4,92 ft) meters tall and just above its mouth, there were black ant-like sharp mandibles.

Many other spiritual beasts could be seen in the rocky outer ring and Cyril didn't doubt that there were as many lurking within the lake.

As Cyril rested while assimilating the energy within the water in his stomach, the amethyst armoured centipede stood up and went near the water to drink.

Just after the centipede finished drinking and turned around to return to its area, the water in front of it became darker.

In an instant, an enormous open maw appeared accompanied by a splashing sound and closed with a loud clang, the shriek of the panicked centipede soon reverberated across the underground expanse as all the spiritual beasts near it stood up and dashed toward it.

The centipede used all the strength that its many legs granted it with the help of natural energy to distance itself from the water.

The aquatic creature was thus forced to reveal itself to keep its struggling prey restricted with its maw… It was a giant crocodile.

More precisely, it was a Moonlight crocodile, Cyril recognised it straight away as it was a famous spiritual beast that many nobles of the southern part of the humans' domains in the Primordial continent sought after.

It was 6 meters long (19,69 ft), covered in pitch-black scales that looked more like rocks than actual scales, its back was also covered with little spikes whose tips shined in blue light as it used natural energy to strengthen its maw and legs.

The centipede continued to struggle in vain as it couldn't escape, it couldn't attack the crocodile with its mandibles as the crocodile was biting the part of its body just behind its head, even the legs that kicked endlessly at the reptilian couldn't do anything as they weren't strong and sharp enough to pierce the crocodile's defences.

Meanwhile, dark blood continued to flow out of its wounds as its carapace cracked and it felt like its strength was abandoning it.

The battle started less than 10 seconds ago, yet the winner has already been decided…

Fortunately for the centipede, the velociraptor-like spiritual beast was coming toward them at high speed.

As soon as it arrived, it jumped over the struggling centipede and slashed its right scythe toward the right eye of the crocodile.

The crocodile closed its eyes, and tilting its head, caused the scythe to miss and only leave a shallow white mark on its scales.

The crocodile pushed its legs with all its strength and returned with half of its body underwater carrying the surprised centipede that didn't expect the velociraptor-like spiritual beast to be so useless.

Even if all of them were spiritual beasts, their power was worlds apart… The moonlight crocodile was clearly older, its reserves of natural energy were larger and more importantly, its body assimilated far more natural energy in the prior years.

The velociraptor-like spiritual beast stopped its assault and limited itself to look coldly toward the moonlight crocodile that was disappearing underwater together with the unlucky centipede.

The other spiritual beasts that were coming stopped and turned around one after another as if nothing happened… They may have lost a battle today, but the outcome of the war was still to decide.

Cyril was already expecting something like this to happen when he noticed that the cave dwellers didn't attack each other, still, he didn't expect to see a moonlight crocodile here.

'Since the moonlight crocodiles usually live on the surface, this lake must somehow be connected to the surface… Good, it looks like I will understand where I am sooner than expected…'

Time passed uneventfully as Cyril continued to assimilate natural energy, a few fights broke out between the cave dwellers and aquatic common beasts, but nothing as impressive as the first one.

As time passed, more and more beasts left while others entered, Cyril searched for some time before finding a few preys that met his requirements, that being, being alone, or in a small group, and with weak defences.

It couldn't be helped, as young as his new body is, it's already a miracle that he is as strong as he is now, other beasts at his age would probably still be learning how to walk, let alone assimilating as much natural energy as he did.

Finally, Cyril stood up and "sneaked" out of the underground expanse, only to be "unfortunate" enough to be sighted by a velociraptor-like common beast that was walking around with a few hungry little velociraptor-like younglings near Cyril's area.

The three younglings stared at their elder with puppy-like eyes as if imploring it to permit them to eat a free neck.

After looking at the "pathetically weak prey" for some time, the elder started walking toward the cave where the prey entered.

Seeing their elder's movements, they immediately started to chase down the prey as the elder followed them, making sure that nothing would go wrong.

As the younglings chased their prey, they realized that the prey was almost running as fast as them but this was far from enough to make them give up.

As their chase continued, their elder noticed the anomaly but didn't think much about it.

After all, even if the prey is a little faster than expected, should they stop because of that? Of course not.

Soon, after multiple turns in different tunnels, the younglings almost reached their prey as it made one last "desperate" turn in another smaller cave on the left.

The elder, however, felt an increasing ominous feeling as he neared the cave where the prey and the younglings just entered.

As the elder slowed down a little, it reached the cave, but just as it was about to enter, its mind went blank.

A fear that it never felt before took over his body as he couldn't move anymore, the fear that it was feeling now was many times stronger than what he felt from spiritual beasts like its leader.

The elder's brain started working again only when it heard the shrieks of the younglings.

Hearing them, the elder steeled its mind and made a decision…

It turned around and ran faster than it ever thought possible, the only thought within its mind being 'Run as far away from this ancient monster as possible!'

As for the younglings, the elder thought that they were already in the ancient monster's belly.