High Beast (2)

While Shui studied the Four Elements Technique, Cin quickly reached the high beast boundary. While evolved beasts could cultivate just by living longer, it was possible to fasten the process by absorbing things rich with energy. For example, other beast spirits.

By relying on the supply of beast spirit meat hunted by his followers, Cin was ready to break through in four days. On the day of his breakthrough, Shui was called outside the cave, where he saw Cin and the rest of the pack.

"So, are you going to break through here?"

"Yeah, unlike humans we have to make our breakthroughs out in the open so we can better absorb the essence of nature."

While evolved beasts could also use nature energy, what they needed to boost their cultivation was a fusion between energy and force. This was why evolved beasts were normally stronger than humans at the same level.

"Got it, I'll make sure you can make your breakthrough without being bothered."

Before Cin started, Shui could already sense several eyes watching them. Among them he could sense three high beasts, one in the north, one northeast and one northwest. Even so, neither Cin nor Shui felt pressured.

Cin stood at the center of his followers while Shui was facing north in front of them.

"Awoo!!!"

Cin's howl not only invigorated his followers and antagonised his enemies, it also attracted faint red energy that captured him in a sphere. With this, Cin's body would be restructured and he would be reborn as a high beast. But, only if he was alive by the end of it. While Cin didn't fear the high beasts, he was completely defenceless while breaking through. However, he now had the perfect shield.

Once they confirmed that Cin had started his breakthrough, Shui heard three distinct roars. Maybe it was part of the knowledge that was being downloaded into his brain, or maybe it was because he was in beast form, but for whatever reason he could understand what the roars meant.

"Attack!!"

Reptiles, big cats and bears quickly charged out of the forest and came right at them. The fur on the backs of the wolves' stood up as they prepared for the first clash, but Shui would delay it. He sucked in as much air as possible, before screaming at the top of his lungs.

"!!!"

It was definitely loud enough to make them flinch, but this attack was much more than that. While he was strong enough to slaughter the beasts in front of him, if he killed off this group too quickly then it would get harder to protect Cin from any hidden threats. Therefore, Shui's plan was the dangle the hope that they could win in front of them for as long as possible so that they continued to believe they could accomplish something with a frontal assault.

The three high beasts, still unaware that Shui was treating them like mere puppets to follow his script, were only momentarily distracted by his scream, but their subordinates were different. At first, they were only stunned, but then they started attacking each other with reddened eyes. This was unexpected but the high beasts were all over one hundred years old, so they quickly figured out that Shui's scream was actually a mental spell that caused confusion. None of their bloodlines gave them access to spells which could nullify this effect, but one of them had something that would at least direct them towards the correct enemies.

Another roar covered the battlefield, and while the incoming beasts still had red eyes, these eyes were now directed at the wolves.

'Hmm, did that roar direct their attention?'

Shui quickly tried to analyse what just happened while preparing to use another mental spell to hamper his foes. However, this time, dark figures walked past him. He didn't know why at first, but their firm steps as they faced the incoming wave of enemies made him understand.

'Fine, I'll stick to support then.'

They were vastly outnumbered, but Shui didn't think they would lose with his support.

"Eeek, eek."

As an evolved beast, support abilities were also more effective when voiced so Shui applied 'Energize' to them through it. While 'Strengthen' or 'Hasten' would make them much stronger, the drawbacks weren't worth it in this case. Besides, it wasn't as if he needed to simply strengthen them.

As wolves ripped their enemies apart, Shui covertly hit them with curses. Most of his curses only slowed down their movements or stole their vision for a short period, but that was fatal in a battle to the death. While they were still wary of this golden monkey, the three high beasts that were hiding thought their forces would be able to dominate the wolves. Unfortunately, before they knew it, they lost their numbers advantage and soon the wolves would be dominating them.

'Damn it!'

Their original plan was to slaughter the wolves and then kill Cin while limiting their losses, but now that wasn't possible anymore. If they didn't take any actions, even if they managed to kill Cin, the casualties would be too great. Since they knew that keeping this up wouldn't work in their favour, the three high beasts stepped forward.

From the northwest was a golden brown lion, with stone lining its back, that stood at ten feet tall. This was a stonehide lion, a species with high birth rates but also high infant mortality rates due to their cruel custom of throwing their young into danger zones. From the north, came a large green lizard with a body that was nearly three cales long. It was known as a flail lizard due to the black spikes that jutted out from its round tail. Lastly, the beast from the northeast was a dark blue bear as tall as the lizard was long, and nearly surpassed the trees in height. The silver line of fur above its eyes proved that it was a waning moon bear, a descendant of the Silver Moon Bears that were legendary beasts which could eat natural satellites to boost their power.

The moment these three beasts made their appearance, their followers cheered with a war cry and fiercely fought back against the wolves who barely stopped themselves from stepping back due to fear.

'Already impatient, huh?'

Shui was hoping that they would sit back and let this drag out for longer, but since they got up off their lazy butts he had to welcome them. He stopped cursing the small fries and instead growled at the three of them.

They didn't know where this golden monkey came from, but they were sure it wouldn't be able to stop them. The three high beasts turned to each other and nodded before the lizard pounced at Shui while the other two jumped towards Cin.

With their sizes, it would be hard for Shui to stop them from falling towards their destinations even if he killed them. Therefore, he decided to use force to beat force.

Shui stretched out his hands and thought, "Enlarge."

Using mutation control, his little monkey hands became giant walls that blocked the high beasts. To prevent them from crushing those on the battlefield, he then threw them back into the forest. None of them were harmed by this, but they were still stunned. They knew that this monkey was weird, but they didn't expect that it would have enough strength to pick them up and fling them away. Even the waning moon bear, who was the strongest among them, didn't think it could effortlessly carry out the same task.

"We need to get rid of that one first." said the flail lizard.

The flail lizard was originally planning to hold it off while the other two made quick work of Cin, but the monkey provided more resistance than they expected. Although they could have one of them target the wolves to draw Shui away from Cin, they didn't team up with each other for such a unreliable plan. If others knew that they had to resort to such a devious method after teaming up to fight one beast spirit, then they would have no face in Malirin Forest. It wouldn't be weird if the great beast that they served kicked them from its umbrella at that point.

Therefore, they had to defeat Shui and then crush Cin before he was too much of a threat.