Cornered

"What should we do?" Emily asked Yeon in worry.

Their expressions were tense as they looked at each other with their weapons sheathed. Mia was tactfully letting the two talk between themselves so that they could quickly come to a decision.

Her usually helpful gut feeling was nowhere to be seen and all she could feel was her stomach squirming in anxiety. She understood the severity of the situation and was worried for Emily and Yeon's safety.

'What good is having a sixth sense if it doesn't work when I need it to the most!'

She felt upset and disappointed with herself for not noticing their pursuers before they had gotten close enough for Yeon to discover them.

She didn't know how it worked, but it usually did. If she couldn't even do this for them, then what could she even do? All she did was eat Yeon's food and follow Emily's instructions.

"It's ok Mia, there's no way for you to have known," Emily spoke out in a caring tone to Mia as she saw her disappointed and angry expression.

"Although it's a wonderful gift, intuition is just that at the end of the day, intuition. There was no way for you to have known so don't beat yourself up over it. It's silly to do so."

"That's right," Yeon said while rubbing the top of her drooping head, "It's my job to be on the watchout for these things since I'm the strongest and I shouldn't have let us go so far into the danger zone. It was my decision to follow your wishes so it's on me."

"Mmm" Mia mumbled, her heart warmed by the concern of her two friends who comforted her even when they were in such a dangerous situation.

They had been constantly on the move even during their previous conversation and they were quickly making their way down the mountain.

"I think that instead of facing them directly, we should keep moving down the mountain into the safe zone. They have been keeping their distance but they're still following us. I think they're planning on ambushing us when we encounter another magical beast in combat," Yeon explained.

"How many are there?" Emily asked Yeon, all the while expertly navigating between the trees. It looked like she was simply floating over the large roots that others might stumble over.

"There are five level 0 magical beasts that are following us. I think they're Sub-Kanjus since we've been hunting them in large numbers."

"That's not too bad…" But looking at Yeon's serious expression she knew that their pursuers didn't just stop at those 5.

"I think there's another magical beast with them. Presumably, level 1 or higher since I can't detect it properly. It's very faint but I can tell it's with them and it's much stronger than the other 5. I think that he's the one in charge, coordinating their movement."

"…" Mia and Emily were both silent at the news as cold sweat dripped down their backs.

This was the first time that they truly felt that their lives were in danger. The difference between a level 0 and a level 1 magical beast was just too large.

Just like human cultivators, when magical beasts surpassed their limit, they underwent a qualitative change not just a simple improvement in their strengths.

Magical beast formed a monster core from level 1 onwards whereas human cultivators only formed a core during the 3rd Mortal Tempering Realm, the Core Formation realm. This meant that magical beasts from level 1 onwards could outwardly manifest their qi while human cultivators at the same level could only strengthen their bodies.

This placed the trio at a huge disadvantage since the strongest opponent they could face could use qi manifestation attacks to empower physical attacks, as well as launch ranged attacks.

Yeon was rapidly running through possible scenarios while swiftly guiding the other two. He created a general plan of action and quickly began explaining it before their battle began.

***

The three of them managed to safely arrive at their camping spot…

Mia and Emily were sitting on their usual logs that had served as their seats for the past 3 weeks while Yeon stood guard over them.

The sun had long since hidden away under the horizon and only the eerie light of the waning moon acted to light up their surroundings. They didn't have time to properly set up a campfire since they had only just arrived.

'I hac accounted for this scenario but still…'

He looked at the fatigued expressions of the duo.

They had been in a state of constant tension during their journey back and they were both mentally and physically tired.

'Clever…' Yeon couldn't help but think to himself.

Was it the hunting instincts of an evolved magical beast or was it just a fluke?

They had been chased all the way down the mountain and they had been lucky enough to not encounter anything on the way down.

Yeon had thought that they would only attack when he alongside Mia and Emily were engaged in another fight but that didn't seem to be it.

'Poor lighting. A weary mind. We have the river behind us so we can't run away. They're trying to corner us…'

But he didn't mind.

He had also been leading them to this place where they were most familiar with the surroundings.

An area with few trees to reduce to the mobility of the Sub-Kanjus as well as a complete lack of any trees in the area behind them so that they didn't have to worry about the Sub-Kanjus swinging into their blind spot.

'We're sword cultivators, we fight on the floor. You've come running to my arena…'

*BEEEEEEEP*

Emily's alarm loudly rang out and-

*CLANG*

Yeon sliced an incoming stone that flew towards him at breakneck speeds.

'Beatrice never lost, and Adil was cursed. Who am I to lose to mere beasts?'

"Get up the two of you. It's time."

He looked down at Adil's practice sword which had chipped by the attack.

'So this is qi manifestation… I would have died if that hit me'

It was the stone itself that had triggered the formation meaning that its qi density was on par with a level 0 magical beast!

But Yeon was completely unfazed, on the contrary, his face was colder than ever. A completely deadpan expression with vacant eyes that held no emotion.

*CLANG* *CLANG*

Two more rocks were thrown, this time at Mia and Emily, which Yeon promptly cut down.

With every stone that flew towards them, his sword became more and more damaged.

'This can't go on…'

Luckily the magical beasts decided to expose themselves instead of holding the advantage by swinging into their camping ground.

As soon as Yeon saw the leader, he understood why.

The level 1 Kanju was now fully releasing its oppressive aura to pressure the three of them, its smirking face oozing with arrogance as it looked down on his opponents. Mia and Emily were struggling under its pressure whereas Yeon was relatively less affected due to his higher cultivation.

The first thing that he immediately noticed was its superior size and darker colour.

Sub-Kanjus had long lanky arms with a light brown fur that adorned its entire body. It used these long arms to swing between the branches and navigate between the trees, moving up and down the mountain in this way.

However, they also came down from the high branches to feast on the herbs and berries that existed on the floor or to hunt wild game, which was when the trio would then ambush the magical beast, pressuring it to prevent it from running away back into the trees.

However, compared to its lanky subordinates, this level 1 Kanju was much thicker in every sense of the word. Its back was hunched under its huge muscles and its shoulders were as huge as boulders.

Its towering height that exceeded 2 meters was held up by huge arms that were as thick as tree trunks. It looked like a silverback gorilla with longer arms that were used to prop up its torso vertically.

Its disproportionately huge and long arms gave it a grotesque image that matched well with the saliva that dripped from its fangs that extended past its underbite. It looked entirely animalistic and savage as its eyes shone in anger and excitement.

As Yeon met this Kanju's eyes, he knew exactly why he was being hunted. There were plenty of easier prey to hunt in the mountains than 3 human cultivators, but this particular magical beast wasn't lusting after human flesh but rather these 3 specifically.

Yeon could immediately recognize this level 1 magical beast through its eyes.

Unlike its right eye which was black, its left eye was dull or blind as it was unfocused. Its colour was also different as it was a dull white or pale grey with a small circle of scarring surrounding the wounded eye.

'It's the one we let escape…'

"Yeon isn't that?" Emily asked, noticing how abnormally fixated the beast was on Yeon.

"It's him. I think after it was hit in the eye by my throw, it escaped deeper into the danger zone and had a fortuitous encounter that allowed him to evolve," Yeon replied without taking his eyes off the Kanju, "And it wants revenge."

It smirked at Yeon before slowly pulling his stocky arm back, then like a whip it swung it forwards towards Yeon.

Yeon could feel the disturbance of heaven and earth energy in the air, more specifically in the moving fist of the Kanju, before another stone filled with qi was propelled towards his face.

*CLANG*

Yeon maintained eye contact with the beast while he struck down the oncoming stone that had been made using its internal qi. The feral glare of the beast was met with vacant eyes that seemed to be sucking in all the killing intent exuded by the Kanju.

If the Kanju was a Sun that constantly burned with bloodlust, then Yeon was a black hole that accepted that bloodlust and remained completely unperturbed. Mia eyed Yeon with concern, noticing his change in nature that was more pronounced than before.

'They're both scary…'

While the other 5 Sub-Kanjus were spreading out to form an encirclement to trap the trio, the Kanju repeated his futile ranged attacks.

*CLANG*

'He's taunting me…'

The Kanju's lips kept curving up to cover its entire face into a mad smile that exposed its fangs and sharp teeth. It knew that its attacks were futile, but it kept doing it to prove a point.

'He's only been aiming for my left eye…'

"How cute," Yeon muttered in a flat, cold voice. It was a much more distant and spiritless tone than his usual soft voice.

Emily and Mia were huddled behind Yeon to form a triangle formation waiting for the battle to properly begin.

The magical beasts were slowly approaching them with the Kanju as its centre, the semicircle they formed around the three becoming smaller and smaller.

It was a battle of nerves to see who would move first while the Kanju periodically mocked Yeon by throwing a rock made of qi at him.

Now that the two groups were dangerously close, Yeon warned them one last time:

"Stick together"

And before they could reply, Yeon began his attack.