As he moved through the woods, he made sure to focus on his warrior senses — mostly his hearing and smell. They had both improved since his awakening, though not to the point where he could hear or smell everything in his immediate surroundings, but enough to pick out odd sounds and strange scents.
He also made a mental note of how the Dominion senses felt far more overpowered than his warrior instincts. Dominion senses was what he called the sensation he felt from his territory, and to him, it felt broken — with it, he could feel the very air itself.
As he delved deeper into the woods, he could feel his link with his territory dwindling. He tossed the thought aside as his nose twitched; he sniffed, catching a scent in the air.
Squinting his eyes to the left, he could tell that was where the smell came from. Crouching lower as he moved in that direction, he parted the plants ahead of him — only for the smell to become stronger and slightly nauseating.
"Don't tell me it's those ugly vermins again," Rael groaned, hoping it wasn't another wormrat nest, though he wouldn't mind wiping them out.
He tightened his grip around the longsword as his ears finally picked up some sounds. He couldn't make out what kind of sounds they were — they resembled snoring, yet different at the same time.
Following the sounds, since there was more than one, he came upon a cave. And at the outskirts of the cave was what could only be described as a gathering of black-furred warthogs — some as small as the ones from his past life, others the height of a cow. Clearly, they were Aether beasts.
He quickly hid behind a tree trunk as one looked in his direction, then turned back to whatever they were doing. And as for what they were doing… Rael realized they were mating — basically an orgy — which threw him into confusion, because pigs he knew never behaved like that.
Counting a total of six smaller ones and three cow-sized ones, he couldn't help but find their behavior strange.
'Strange behavior in Aetherbeasts can only be caused by the influence of a higher-ranked beast. Am I really that unlucky?'
Rael cursed his luck. He could tell the three cow-sized warthogs were all Savage-level Aetherbeasts, though they didn't give off the oppressive feeling he felt from the Hellworg Alpha. Facing them wasn't the issue — what concerned him was what brought them together and why they were behaving so strangely.
He looked toward the dark entrance of the cave, and as if to confirm his guess, a loud, grumpy grunt came from within. A hulking warthog covered in shiny fur and patches of moss emerged from the darkness.
Rael widened his eyes. This wasn't an Aether Warthog anymore — it was a Herculean Boar, a clear mutation of the species caused by Aether. While it surprised him and answered his doubts about the strange behavior, it also eased his mind; he could sense that the boar hadn't stepped into the next rank. But even though it wasn't ranked up, it still felt more threatening than the Hellworg Alpha.
He knew this was a challenge he could win — but only with caution.
'I can't face them head-on… hmm, or can I?' he thought, retreating slowly as a reckless idea formed in his mind. But before he could shape it into a plan, he heard a louder grunt — one that sounded more like mourning.
"Oh, so that's what it was," he muttered. He now understood: this was a harem, and the rest of the warthogs were all females.
"Well, enjoy it while it lasts," Rael smirked. He saw an opportunity. He'd prefer to strike while the boar was very, very busy.
A few minutes passed as the moon cast its glow on the forest canopies. Beneath the thick branches, Rael could be seen perched on a tree — one he had sneaked onto, seeing it as a good position to land an ambush on the unsuspecting beasts.
He crouched, gently pulling out the longsword before using it to cut his wrist a little — not too deep, but enough to draw blood.
Turning his attention to the increasingly disturbing grunts of the Aether boars, he couldn't help but make a disgusted expression.
"Tsk."
Rael couldn't bear to watch such a scene anymore. He leapt high into the air, and as his ascent disturbed the leaves, he swung the longsword in a downward arc, pouring Aether into it and performing the Blood Rend technique from the start. A crescent of red light burst from the blade as it accelerated downward, slamming into the thick hide of the Herculean Boar. It pierced the skin but vanished before cutting deeper, unable to break through its dense muscle. The beast grunted in pain and immediately whipped its massive, tusked head toward the direction of the strike.
But Rael had already landed, darting into the midst of the smaller Aether warthogs. He slashed through them within seconds before rushing toward a cow-sized one that had quickly realized his direction. It charged at him, but he instantly halted his steps and swung his sword in a vertical slash, sending out another red arc toward the creature, splitting it cleanly in half.
Just as he prepared to advance again, a furious grunt snapped his attention back to the Herculean Boar. It roared in rage at this intruder who dared to slaughter its mates and charged at him with astonishing speed. Rael widened his eyes and darted to the side as the boar's silver-like tusks brushed past him, sending him stumbling before he regained his footing.
He glanced at his Aether reserves.
4.9%.
He knew he only had two more Blood Rends left. Seeing the minimal damage his first strike had caused to the metal-like hide of the Herculean Boar, he narrowed his eyes and quickly turned toward the remaining Aether warthogs.
He needed to finish them while using as little Aether as possible — and he also started cursing his reckless nature once again.