After calling Blanca out to help me, something she hesitantly did since she was about to go to sleep, we walked through the forest in the direction of the feeling I had sensed barely half an hour ago.
As we walked, I could not help but glance at the groggy snake in a human form beside me. While I hated to admit it, Blanca's scent was heavenly even without having any cologne in this world. In fact, I hadn't seen her use any type of perfume or plant to make her smell better, leading me to one conclusion.
'This is her natural odor…' I silently mused with a slight smile on my face that I quickly masked with another thought that scrunched my face up significantly.
'This must be her ploy!' I inwardly roared, but even after my facial expressions changed every few seconds, I did not see Blanca's expression change one, nor did I see her eyes glance at me.
Instead, she was looking forward with the same groggy expression. Finally, her eyes lit up when she felt something in the distance that I could not sense with my current prowess. After a slight moment of her eyes lighting up, she knitted her brows as a small smile scrunched her forehead, making the rune on it also turn deformed.
"What is it?" I asked with a raised brow
"I can sense a strong beast in that direction. I am almost confident that I can beat it on my own, but with you around, it might try and target you, therefore forcing me to protect you. I suggest you go back to the cave for now-." Her words halted in her throat as she no longer felt me beside her.
A look of horror flashed within her eyes before they darted in a specific direction, trying her best to find where I was.
"Crap!" She shouted out and flickered from her spot.
I on the other hand stood almost two hundred meters on the top of a tree, analyzing everything below me with scrutinizing eyes.
"I guess this is where the energy was coming from..." I mumbled under my breath as I looked at two things that caught my eye.
Closer to where I lay a leopard, clearly sleeping on the ground yet at the same time, I could tell that it was guarding something, a conclusion that I made from the aura it released as well as the slight twitch in its ear whenever the wind would blow or a tree would rustle.
I knew that it was at its peak defense even though on the outside, it was just another sleeping beast with an overwhelming aura.
On the other hand, I could see something behind it, something that drew the urge to move forward and snatch it for myself. I knew that the thing over there would be immensely beneficial when it came to my rise in power, even though I didn't know exactly how it would be beneficial.
However, I was not stupid enough to not listen to my instincts, the very thing that had helped me survive until this point.
My eyes had narrowed further at the sight of the gleaming star behind the leopard. While most of the leopard's body was outside a small cave created on a nearby large cliff, this was only because the gleaming star was right behind it, and as if it didn't want to agitate or do anything to the star, the leopard did not move any further back.
[Blood Eyes Activated]
Eventually, I activated my blood eyes and clearly saw everything around me, even the things that I couldn't see earlier. It was only then that I fully understood what Blanca was talking about when she said that the creature was far out of my league since now I could clearly see the power it emanated.
'Every single one of its muscles is brimming with mana. Of course, it is a far cry compared to the power of Blanca, especially if I were to compare it to what I had seen from her when she fought against the gorilla a month or two ago... But I can tell it's way too powerful for me to fight against it alone.' I thought in contemplation.
After a few moments of my mind going silent, a resolved look appeared on my face while my eyes shone with brilliant confidence before I finally muttered.
"But even though I can't beat it, I am more than certain that I can evade death... It's probably better if I let Blanca handle-" My words got stuck in my throat before being swallowed down in an audible gulp. Dread overcame me, one that I felt when having fought against the T-Rex for the first time, however, unlike that time, I was not intimidated by it and instead felt my battle intent soar.
I knew that what I was about to do next would be completely out of character for someone like me, however, I could not help but feel as if I was being challenged.
No... To say that it was my own feeling would be inaccurate. It was a feeling that emerged from deep within me, as if the gaze of the leopard that was now looking at me, was a calling to it. A calling of war. A calling that was screaming at it and asking if it dared step back from a battle.
However, instead of charging in without a plan, my rational mind stopped the battle maniac side of me from exploding out in both power and rage after having been provoked so openly by a creature that I deemed to be lower in me.
'Lower than me? It's clearly much stronger than me so why am I thinking of it as something...' I paused for a second and narrowed my eyes.
"Lower than me?" I asked, somewhat uncertain of the words that left my mouth, however, before I could do anything else I saw the leopard stand up and slowly stroll toward the tree I was situated at.
"I see..." I muttered and jumped down the 50-meter tall tree, releasing an enormous boom as I landed on the ground and kicking up a dust cloud in the wake of my landing.
"While I don't know exactly when you woke up... Let's just say that this won't end too well for you."
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