The anguished cries of beasts only became more and more prominent as time went on. Countless beams of various colored lights as well as waves of formless essence infiltrated their ranks and reaped their lives.
The pristine scenery of the jungle in a 1,000-meter radius had become dyed in blood and estranged body parts. In fact, the commotion had grown large enough to attract even more beasts over, but seeing the proceedings they quickly left the area.
Zara's agonizing howls had also ceased at some point during the battle, but neither the beasts nor Damien and Ruyue noticed this. There were simply too many thunderous sounds that collided against each other in the surroundings, drowning out the once-piercing cries.
Damien once again looked at the destruction being wrought and smiled. He knew there were more methods he could use to handle the situation, but none seemed as feasible as the one he was using now.
For instance, he had yet to use Starfall and rain hell in that way, but there was a reason for this. He simply didn't want to attract too much attention.
While it may have sounded contradictory considering that the current situation was already calling plenty of attention towards them, his thoughts were on a different matter.
Starfall required him to summon an astral body from space, and he most of the time chose random debris instead of any significant objects. But no matter what he called, its origin would be the same.
Even if he used his Celestial Authority to influence the summoning, for it to do proper wife scale damage it had to gain a significant amount of momentum, meaning the actual summoning would take place hundreds if not thousands of kilometers in the air.
Such a scene would obviously be in plain view even from the far reaches of the mountain range, and rather than the 3rd class beasts that noticed the commotion at this point, it'd be the various experts who lived in the mountains who took note.
And this was what Damien wanted to avoid.
If it was 3rd class beasts, even if he and Ruyue couldn't slaughter them all, he at least had confidence to flee. But if any of those Beast Kings were attracted, it'd be game over.
His storm trait was different in this regard. Although it was similarly eye-catching, it would only raise interest of those within a 10,000-kilometer radius at best, and those experts on the mountains wouldn't sense it.
Even if they did, he doubted they'd take serious interest after seeing it. After all, it was a trait. Traits, while not entirely common, aren't necessarily rare enough to stand out. Even if a Beast King noticed that the trait was in use, they most likely wouldn't care.
His storm trait, while definitely being among the more destructive traits he's seen, wasn't unique enough to belong to only a single beast type.
This particular iteration of it belonged to the sea dragon, but many other variations of it could exist in other beasts, especially in locations such as the 3000 Beast Mountain Range where talent was congregated.
Plus, those Beast Kings weren't like Damien with his devour ability, so there was no way for them to take it for themselves. The only thing Damien was concerned about was whether those Beast Kings would be interested in recruiting the user of the trait as one of their own.
It was impossible for factions not to exist within the mountain range, and through Damien's brief interactions with the Beast Emperor and Empress on Apeiron, he was well aware that those Beast Kings didn't distinguish between races of beast when it came to recruitment.
Luckily, even for this kind of recruitment, the physical presence of a Beast King was too much. Instead, those who noticed would only send envoys.
Still, even with all this he knew there was no guarantee of complete safety, so he proposed a bet to motivate both himself and Ruyue to clean up shop as fast as possible.
And now, that bet was slowly coming to an end.
Most of the crowd had already been dealt with, and the only thing left was the central area that they left untouched. At that place, it was still only beast on beast battle taking place.
With the two of them working together, it wouldn't take long to wipe out these few hundred remaining beasts, but the competition would end based on who arrived at that point first, not who was able to wipe the central area the fastest.
And seeing the excited glint in Ruyue's eyes, Damien could only shake his head wryly.
'Ah, whatever. I can't dampen her mood when she's looking so excited, can I?'
He could've teleported over immediately if he really wanted to, but he had long since developed a soft spot for this outwardly cold yet inwardly soft-hearted woman.
The fact that he was able to see her cheerful and exuberant side while others were faced with a massive wall was enough satisfaction for him.
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Turning his attention away from her, he teleported over to the last few remaining beasts on his side, opting to fight them head-on instead of bombarding him as he did before. Though, he still left his storm trait active to keep up the image that he was trying his best.
And only a few minutes later, he saw Ruyue dashing towards the center at top speed.
He quickly wrapped up the battle, grabbing and crushing the last beast's head with a spatial distortion before teleporting over.
When he arrived, he saw a smug-looking Ruyue gazing at him in amusement.
"Weren't you so confident that you were going to win? What happened to that?"
"Hmph, whatever. You were only a hair faster than me anyway, so why do you look so proud?"
"You can teleport, duh! I beat someone who can teleport in a competition of speed, why shouldn't I be happy?"
"Okay, you're definitely twisting the events now. Since when was this a foot race?"
"It is what I say it is! Don't you know? The winner gets to make the story while the loser can only sigh in despair."
Damien once again shook his head wryly. It seems he couldn't let her win too often, lest she become too arrogant for him to handle.
As the two conversed, their respective area of effect moves migrated onto the crowd of beasts in front of them and brought judgement upon their enemies. Even without doing too much physical work themselves, they quickly razed the beasts until none remained.
"Alright, now that that's over, what did you want for your favor?" Damien asked with a slight smile on his face. He had developed enough trust in this senior sister of his that he knew she wouldn't cause him too much trouble. That was part of the reason why he didn't mind giving her the win.
"Hmm, I can't decide right now," Ruyue said as she brought her finger up to her lip, seemingly deep in thought. "I'll keep this favor on hold until I really know what I want."
Damien let out an exasperated sigh at her "pretending to be mysterious" attitude that mirrored a certain senior he knew.
"Fine, keep that favor on hold then. But since we're done with this, I think it's better if we move."
Ruyue's expression became serious at his words as she nodded. "Right, our position has been exposed. Even if the massacre will ward off beasts for a bit, it's not a permanent solution."
Damien turned his attention back to the cave as they spoke.
He was only able to joke as he did since he hadn't felt anything notable from his mental connection with Zara, but he could tell that her mental state was slightly jumbled. It wasn't a problem, per se, but he wasn't able to feel comfortable until he saw her condition for himself.
Arriving back inside, he immediately went over to Zara's side. By the looks of it, she had collapsed from exhaustion or something of the sort, but she was still fine and breathing. None of her previous painful expressions or bodily changes were present anymore.
However, he noticed that her fur was much sleeker than it was before, and her wings had experienced a slight change too. Now, along with their massive wingspan and speed, he could see the feathers had taken on a razor-sharp component. They were able to cut through his finger with ease when he ran it along their edges.
He injected his mana into his eyes, trying to sense any abnormalities in her aura, but once again there was nothing out of the ordinary. Still, it was clear that she was experiencing some sort of evolutionary process, since her aura kept fluctuating and expanding.
Signing lightly, he brought Zara into his shadow. The process she was going through seemed extremely gradual, and he couldn't be sure when she was going to wake up.
Shaking off his concern, he turned to Ruyue. It was time for them to decide their next move.
"For our primary goals in the future, we have two options that seem most viable to me."