Chapter 21. Finally

Early the next morning... In the outer regions of the Origin Forest, one could hear loud screeches of almost twenty creatures. One could wonder what could have had the ability to anger these beast to such level. These beasts were known to get angered easily but to see a whole bunch of them was something shocking. These beasts were lizards. About one and a half meters tall and bodies of around three meters with tails almost five meters each.

One thing these beasts had in common was their fiery eyes and that they were all heading to one direction. These beasts would some day become fire affiliated beasts if they were lucky. From the beasts perspective, one could see what they were all chasing. A boy of height 6' with jet black hair. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a white T-shirt and white rubber shoes. On his back was a black backpack. One could see to black metals protruding from it.This boy seemed to be running too fast for his size. It was a testimony that he was not using any technique to boost his speed and yet these beasts had not caught up with him.

This only infuriated them further and it made them screech again and again. They seemed to be in a great urge to stop him from heading to that direction for they would oftenly stick their tongues out trying to catch him but he always seemed to avoid them. This boy actually Alaric.

"Dammit!" He cursed the hundredth time. He could not dare look back or he would bump into a tree. Why they were chasing him was pretty obvious. He had murdered and fed on their leader. All that time it had been screeching it had been calling for help. When the twenty beasts appeared out of nowhere in one direction he immediately had packed and started running. This was the second hour and these foolish beasts had not given up the chase.

In about thirty minutes, he would have entered the areas stacked with beasts of the cryptic plane. He had thought that by choosing this direction, they would fear and leave him enter the dragons den on his own but that was not hapening. It seemed they were willing to sacrifice their lives if that meant they would capture him. Alaric moved his head to the right as a blood red tongue passed an inch away from his ear. He knew that he could not sustain his energy continously for hours that was why he was saving it as a life saving measure once he got to the areas with beasts of early stages of the cryptic plane.

He could form an array but that would at least take five minutes. This was a major disadvantage of arrays in fights. Your opponent would not give you time to form the array. Even if he managed to create an array, the beast could easily destroy it and his efforts would be futile. He jumped as a tongue slid at where his legs had been touching. He could feel that his stamina was running out. Maybe he would only last twenty minutes. He could only hope that the lizards would give up by then. Alaric rolled as his clothes accumulated dry leaves but that could the least bother him.

Alaric decided to use lightning to escape but that was when he saw a beast in the distance. It appeared like a hyena that stood around three meters tall. It was in the first stage of the Cryptic Plane. The beasts behind seemed to have not noticed it or maybe were not afraid to die for they did not stop. Alaric who was twenty meters away from the lizards reached his backpack and removed an axe. The hyena which was around thirty meters away saw the approaching group. To it,it seemed that they were so eager to die.

Alaric swung his axe and threw it at the hyena. The axe landed cleanly on the head causing the hyena to look at them. It was greyish black in colour but its eyes were blood red. It roared revealing its sharp fangs and stared at the incoming group which did not seem to stop. This only angered it more as it angrily started charging at them. Yet they did not stop. Even bloodline suppression which was supposed to enable it impose fear to beasts of lower class like these lizards did not seem to work. It seemed they had all lost their minds.

What angered it even more was the fact that a human dared to attack it. Alaric had now finished his culculations and he was sure that by the time the hyena reached him, his plan would fall into action. It was seconds later that they were meters away from the hyena and the lizards had managed to close the distance to about five meters. Alaric had been having a bad time trying to avoid them. It was then that something shocking happened that caused the lizards to freeze in place.

The person they had been chasing for hours suddenly disappeared and infront of them was an angry hyena. Though it still had a shocked expression. The lizards froze in place when the Hyena's eyes landed on them. A horrified look appeared in them. Bloodline suppression. They shivered as the hyena attacked and after few minutes they all had been eradicated. The hyena moved around not willing to leave the human but he was gone. It then left leaving the dead bodies of lizards on the ground.

Few minutes after the hyena left, Alaric appeared. He had created a concealing array to trick the beasts. He heaved when he saw the dead bodies and he proceeded to pick one for his next meal.

"Finally I got rid of them," Alaric said to himself as he started slaughtering the lizard.

He climbed on a tree and cut some wood then dried them. He then lit a fire and started roasting his new hard earned meal. But who knew that he had made the biggest mistake in his life. After hours of roasting he started eating it. He had to replenish his energy before he started the mission. He had thought that he would fight several beasts without cultivation before proceeding to those with cultivation but his plans had hit a dead end.

If Alaric had good perception, he would have felt the pairs of eyes locked on him the entire time. Just as he thought of leaving, he heard cracking of dry branches as he tilted his head to the left. He had retreived his axe and he now held them in his hands ready for whatever would come. He waited for about a minute but nothing came but just as he was about to drop his weapon, a pair of red eyes appeared from a bush and a creature towering three meters appeared. Its fur greyish black.

Alaric swallowed hard. Just when he thought that he was safe did it turn out that he was not even close to being termed as safe. Alaric smiled sheepishly as he looked at the hyena which had its eyes boring into him like it could see through him. Alaric knew that there was no way he was ready to fight the hyena. The only option was to run but it seemed that it was not going to give him the luxury to do so. He also knew that there was no way he could manage to outrun it. His only option being to fight it.

Alaric could only imagine how tough its body was. It seemed that beasts were feared for a reason. It would take time for one to pierce through their armor like bodies. The lizards had yet to start cultivating but they were already tough. What about this hyena which was already in the first stage of the Cryptic Plane? Even with the help of his lightning he was sure he would barely cause it any damage or harm. This hyena had defeated the twenty lizards he had been running from without breaking a sweat. What was he infront of it? Nothing but a mere ant to be trampled on.

To make matters worse, he had a broken rib. He could tell that within almost a week he would be healed but to do so he had to survive. The hyena pounced and landed half a meter away from him. Alaric held the axes firmly as he readidied himself to start futile attacks but the hyena raised its foot and slammed it on Alaric sending him flying almost twenty meters. He felt two extra ribs break. Only a fool would wait for such a beast. No one knew where he got the strength to stand but the next instance he was running away.

He could not care about reserving his energy. He mustered all power he could and he disappeared in a flash. The hyena saw him disappear into the distance. It was a water elementalists and there was no way it could defeat a lightning elementalist. It turned away in disappointment and also disappeared into the woods in the distance.

Alaric stopped after almost two kilometers of continuous running. He had gotten rid of the hyena but he had received damage. He vowed to take his revenge on it if they ever crossed paths. He lay his back on a tree trying to catch his breath. His hand on his stomach. He slid and sat at the base as he contemplated on how unprepared he was. To think that he came here having learnt not a single technique. Also with zero mastery of the weapon he chose. There was also the fact that he did not have any healing pill with him. If he continued this way then he would not last in the forest. If he had a pill by now he would have been having his organs being healed up and if he had any axe skills he would have at least land a single blow. Also if he had a technique then he would not have ran away. But he just comforted himself that this was his first time.

He then ridiculed himself. So what if it was the first time? What if he made a mistake of a lifetime and caused himself irreparable damage. He was arrogant but he could not afford to be ignorant. After calming himself, he walked around and came to a desolate cave where he decided to camp for a day or two. He struggled setting up an array to alert him if someone got into the cave. He then sat in meditation position as he started feeling the faults in his body. He had three broken ribs and some internal organs wounded. He knew that if he cultivated for at least three days then he would be ready for the battle and be in time to report for the completion of his mission.

Alaric could not help buy wonder why he was able to only use the silver lightning when he had five but the voice that had been dormant spoke this time...