22. Slaughtering the Hyenas

Sheri opened her eyes and the roof of the cart greeted her eyes. She turned around to see Alex, who was busy sorting out the things in the carriage.

"Alex..." Sheri said in a very weak voice.

Alex turned around and looked in her eyes.

"You're awake." Alex said in a voice devoid of any emotions.

"Where's my father?" Sheri asked, looking at Alex expectantly.

Lucas, who was outside the carriage, heard the voice and immediately came at the entrance.

"Miss Sheri, I am sure that Chi...."

Lucas wanted to console her, but Alex signaled him to keep quiet.

"Chief Blacaw stayed behind so that he could buy time for us and the villagers to escape. It is very likely that you can't meet him anymore." Alex said seriously.

"Are we waiting for him to catch up with us?" Sheri acted like she had not heard what Alex said, but tears began overflowing from her eyes.

"He will not be coming back."

"No! You are lying. He is my father. He ca.....he..he... he can't die..sob sob. He can't die." Sheri's cries and her miserable appearance could make even the sturdiest of hearts ache, but Alex couldn't let it reflect on his face.

Since he was playing the bad guy, he had to maintain an insensitive face.

" You will have to face this truth sooner or later, so don't delude yourself. It will only make things more painful. "

"Shut up! Shut up! Sh...uuu..t.....upp..waaaaa."

Sheri punched Alex's face with all her strength, but her punch was so devoid of power that it couldn't even leave a print on Alex's skin.

Sheri continued punching Alex's face with her weak punches.

Alex took her punches without moving.

Finally, Sheri gave up punching and grabbed Alex's hand.

"Waaaaaaaaa! sob....."

She continued to cry on his sleeves. Her painful cries caused even Lucas's heart throb in pain.

Lucas turned around so that they could not see his face and began to wipe off his tears, but to no avail. Tears rolled out of his eyes without stopping and he had to go behind the guarded side of the carriage so that Sheri and Alex didn't see him crying.

Lucas cried outside the carriage, supporting himself against the carriage wheel, whereas inside the carriage, Sheri tightly held to Alex's sleeves and cried until her eyes ran dry.

Alex allowed her to cry to her heart's content.

These two had lost their families, spiritual support and their homes in the span of one day. Alex had to agree that compared to them, he had only suffered what could be called a light slap on the back of his wrist.

Another thing became clearer to Alex. He finally understood that it was power that mattered in this world and only power.

It was always the stronger one who had the last laugh. He had been so fascinated with the speed of his growth that he had overlooked one thing.

Even if you were the greatest genius in this world, even if you had the fastest growth rate, even if you could go from level 1 to level 100 in one day, it meant nothing. It required only one person who had taken decades to reach level 101 to kill you the very next day.

The plots of all those novels he read in the previous life were too kind. The adversaries waited for the heroes to grow, but real life wasn't as kind. He didn't know if he'd run into a tier 10 mana beast the very next day. Louis didn't wait for him to grow stronger before attempting to take his life, so others definitely won't.

He had to grow stronger. Stronger than any adversaries he will face, stronger than anyone else. Only then could he ensure his safety to the fullest. He wouldn't find another Blacaw so easily, so the only option available was to grow stronger by himself.

A raging fire began to burn in his heart as he clenched his fists till his nails were sunk deep into his skin.

After some time of silence where only the occasional sounds of Sheri crying could be heard, the first foreign sound was heard.

"Howlll!"

A long howl was heard from behind the trees.

Alex immediately recognized this howl. Truly, enemies walked a narrow path and it was inevitable to bump into each other every once in a while.

Alex came out and looked around.

A group of around thirty Poison fang Hyenas had surrounded the carriage. They looked like they had been chased away by other mana beasts and were in a ragged condition.

Presently, this group was surrounding the carriage, but the presence of a tier 3 mana beast that was drawing this carriage acted as a deterrent to them.

Alex took out the sword made by Old man Dreron and got ready to make his move. Lucas was sent back into the carriage. According to what Alex knew, Lucas had never fought any mana beast, so he wouldn't be much help anyway.

Alex freed the Flame winged horse from the carriage and immediately charged towards the Poison fang Hyenas.

He had just fought them a few days ago and since then, he had grown exponentially stronger, whereas these Hyenas seemed beat down. But after his new realization, all the joy that he'd have gotten just one day ago on comparing their growth had disappeared in thin air.

[New Mission : The Poison fang Hyenas]

[Mission description : kill all the Poison fang Hyenas. ]

[Mission rewards : +200000 exp, +5 skill points, low level poison resistance, +1 skill learning card.]

Alex immediately charged in at the Hyenas. He cast a speed enhancement and abruptly appeared before one of these Hyenas.

The mana beast jumped backwards to evade the incoming attack, but it was a second too late. Alex slashed his sword and the lower abdomen of the Poison fang Hyena was slit open.

Immediately, all those Poison fang Hyenas became wary and began to use corrosive spikes, their long range moves.

But under the effects of the second level Aronith's constitution, they weren't even effective on Alex.

Immediately, a big orange coloured fireball came from the opposite end and tens of Poison fang Hyenas were reduced to ashes.

Alex also had a level 3 fireball spell, but it was nowhere as powerful as the Flame winged horse's attack.

All the poison fang Hyenas were trapped between Alex and the horse.

Alex also distanced himself and sent out multiple wind blades and fireballs at the Hyenas.

In just a few minutes all the Poison fang Hyenas were already dead.

Alex checked the system interface and immediately withdrew his rewards. He had killed all the Hyenas that had surrounded his carriage, but when he had cast an Area scan earlier, he had also found another presence which seemed a bit strange and was at the peak of tier 1 hiding tens of meters away in the forest.

"Howwllll!"

As if confirming Alex's suspicion, a long howl ensued and a silhouette charged towards Alex from the shadows of trees, while avoiding the Flame winged horse's attack range.

[Mana beast : Poison fang Hyena (mutated)]

[Level:40]

[HP: 5065]

[MP : 7500]

[Skills: poison fangs, poison scratch, howl of death, corrosive spikes. ]

[Abilities: heightened intelligence, true leader. ]

[Strength: 276 Agility: 292

Endurance: 250 Intelligence: 527]

Alex was surprised. Just six days ago when he had encountered this leader of poison fang Hyenas, it was still a regular mana beast and was at level 36.

But now, it was already at level 40 which was the true peak of tier 1.

Mutated mana beasts were very rare, but also very dangerous. While it took several decades for a mana beast to ascend its tier and many died before reaching the peak of the tier they were awakened in, it wasn't the case with mutated mana beasts. In most of the cases, mutated mana beasts showed speed comparable to or greater than the humans who grew at the fastest rate.

Most of the mana beasts which weren't originally Tier 10 were mutated mana beasts who had the potential to reach tier 10 or above.

Also, these mutated mana beasts were better than regular mana beasts due extra stats that they gained during mutation.

The insanely high intelligence of the hyena leader in front of Alex was an example. It had higher intelligence stat than any other mana beast at level 40 and also much more MP.

Alex also realized that due to the effect of the true leader ability of this poison fang Hyena king, these Hyenas were freed from the influence of the beast domain and did not take part in the beast wave.

While Alex was thinking all this, the Poison fang Hyena king was already charging at him with all its speed and the distance between them shrunk at a very high speed.

Seeing that Alex was not moving, the poison fang Hyena king immediately pounced over him, but before it could reach its target, Alex disappeared in thin air.

As the Hyena began descending to the ground, a sense of danger hit his mind and it began feeling cold at its stomach.

Alex came out of the shadow of the mana beast and immediately swung his sword at its stomach.

The poison fang hyena was able to react just in time to avoid any severe injury and the sword pierced its stomach.

Although no internal organ was hurt, the wound of the swing itself was a bit scary. The poison fang Hyena was scared out of its wits and immediately began retreating, but Alex didn't allow it to run away much. Alex cast his speed enhancement and arrived in front of the mana beast.

Seeing Alex block its escape route, the poison fang Hyena immediately cast a series of poison spikes at Alex.

Alex quietly dodged using his intermediate battle awareness ability and arrived near the poison fang Hyena which was attacking him frantically.

Alex swung his sword in a downward arc, but the Hyena dodged the attack. Taking this opportunity, the Poison fang Hyena king decided to snatch Alex's weapon and immediately struck its fangs near the hilt of the sword.

Alex was a bit shocked at first, but a smile crept on his face. This mana beast had unknowingly spelled it's own doom due to the higher intellectual abilities than its peers.

Alex had never used a fire stream in front of the Poison fang Hyenas.

It's move of trying to snatch the weapon would have been very effective against any other human wielding a sword while being weaker than this Poison fang Hyena king because they couldn't possibly hope to overcome its bite force. But against Alex, this move only spelled its doom.

A black coloured flame immediately emerged from the sword and covered the body of the poison fang Hyena. A series of debuffs appeared on it.

While the Hyena was feeling weakened, Alex covered his sword with a wind blade that was greenish in colour due to the reverse mana of these Poison fang Hyenas and slit the throat of Poison fang Hyena king.

Poison fang Hyena (mutated) killed.

+32,000 exp.

After some rest, since none of the three was in a mood to eat anything, Alex took out a map that Blacaw had left in the carriage. This map marked the route that they were moving on and had details about various landmarks on the way. It had been carefully prepared so that they knew exactly where they were and distance from their destination, The Lightwell City.