Second wave

"Lith is a unique name. What does it mean?" The child enquired.

"It means stone."

"Oh!" The child nodded in understanding and walked towards the baby mammoth.

She couldn't resist the fluffy, cute creature. Her hands crept forward to pat Lith's head.

Lith didn't sense any danger, so he didn't avoid her hand.

"My name is Maya. Happy to meet you, Lith," she said with a gleeful smile.

'She was talking to a spirit beast as if they were human. Sigh! Kids…'

Nonetheless, Maya had no bad intentions. So, he let her be.

'I should leave and do my thing.'

Aru was not used to resting. His mind was always thinking about future possibilities and coming up with ideas.

However, before he could walk away, he noticed Maya taking something from a small leather pouch tied to her waist. It was a red, small, and round fruit that looked like a cherry.

She then proceeded to show the fruit to the baby mammoth.

"What is that?" Aru immediately asked.

"This! It is a honey cherry fruit. I heard that stone mammoths like these."

"But can they be eaten by the baby mammoths?"

Aru's question caused Maya to fall into silence. She observed him with a look of suspicion and replied.

"Yes."

As soon as she replied, Lith happily grabbed the fruit with his handy trunk and devoured it. He enjoyed the sweet and savoury taste of the fruit.

Aru, on the other hand, was relieved to know that there was food the baby mammoths could eat. So, Maya's suspicion of him went unnoticed.

"Where can I get more food that baby mammoths can eat?"

Aru decided that it was worth a shot and decided to ask.

He was currently feeding the baby mammoth with spirit energy to sustain its life. But that was not an optimal solution.

Real food was needed for the mammoth to grow and maintain its health. So, this was his chance to get more information about it.

"You can buy honey cherries from our clan's city. If you need some, I can give some to you," Maya touched her pouch while speaking.

The honey cherry was a fruit produced by a rank 2 spirit plant. Although a little costly for normal people, she could get as many as she wanted. Even now, these were the fruits she was using as snacks.

"That would be kind of you."

Aru was elated.

Unexpectedly, one of his problems was solved through Maya. He was now kind of happy that he met the child.

However, Maya was having different thoughts.

She could see that Aru lacked knowledge about caring for a spirit beast. He didn't even know what to feed it. Her mind began to paint a picture of Aru as a potential abuser of spirit beasts.

"Hmm… May I ask what you were feeding it before?" 

Maya asked carefully. She didn't want to anger him.

"Nothing yet. We saved Lith from demons while we were coming here. But didn't have any food to give it." Aru explained. 

"Oh!" Maya breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, Aru was not an animal abuser.

"Then, Can I feed Lith some more and play with it?"

Aru was surprised.

'I think it is my lucky day.' Aru was internally happy but showed a little hesitation outside. 

When he saw the smile of the Maya disappear due to his hesitation, he decided to accept her proposal graciously. 

Like that, Maya became attached to Lith and began to follow him around.

Aru took this time to walk around the camp and scout the area. 

—

A few hours passed quickly.

A hundred rank 3 warriors and around two hundred warriors rank 2 and below arrived as reinforcements for the Ice Phoenix clan.

Not all of these warriors were members of the Ice Phoenix clan. A hefty portion of the reinforcement was made up of warriors from allied tribes of the clan. 

When the Ice Pheonix clan notified them of the possible dangers of the demons, they came to show their support. All the tribes in the north wanted to maintain a close relationship with the Ice Pheonix clan and it was their opportunity to receive some goodwill. 

Meanwhile, Aru was gobbling down food like crazy. And he was also using the spirit energy.

That's when a trembling came from the ground. The water in the cup nearby shook creating a small ripple inside it. 

It didn't stop there. As time passed, the ripples began to intensify.

Everyone noticed it immediately. 

"The second wave is about to begin, get ready everyone," Deva commanded. 

His command woke everyone from their stupor and made them react. Quickly, the warriors began to surround the demon well. 

The opening to the demon well was about 30 meters wide. All three hundred or so warriors that came as reinforcement took their position around the demon well. 

They intended to not let even one slip by them.

They were ready to kill every demon.

However, due to Aru being among them, the people from the Boulder tribe decided to stand at the back. 

*Tremble*

*Tremble*

*TREMBLE*

The ground began to shake irregularly. 

*Thud, Thud*

*Growl*

Soon, from within the fog, they could hear footsteps coming. The clattering noises and shrill screams of demons and infected spirit beasts greeted their ears. 

Hundreds if not thousands of demons were climbing up the demon well. 

"AWOOOO…"

With a bloodthirsty scream, something jumped out from the pitch-black crater. 

It was a gigantic wolf.

"A rank 4 wind wolf?"

The perplexed cloud was able to gauge the strength of the wind wolf due to the aura it exuded. 

But the shock didn't stop there.

Hundreds of scaled, dog-like creatures with hooked claws began to climb out from the demon well just after the demonic wind wolf. 

*Shrrrreeeee*

Blood-curdling screams came from these creatures as they followed the demonic wind wolf out and attacked the warriors.

Fortunately, the demon hunters were expecting a strong demon to come out first. The leader of their group, Deva immediately stepped in to attack it. 

Meanwhile, the remaining warriors charged forward to confront the demons emerging from the demon well.

Aru, positioned at a safe distance from the chaos, stood atop a tree alongside Tia, observing the battle below.

Tia was assigned the duty of guarding him while the other warriors engaged in combat on the ground. As an archer, she could provide assistance from the elevated vantage point if needed.

The baby mammoth, Lith, remained with Maya, the young woman from the Ice Phoenix tribe. Aru made this arrangement to ensure the safety of it. He was confident that being near Maya would be the safest place for Lith.