บท 36: Chapter 36: Transcendence I
With Herbert's exit from the cave, countless White-Horned Snakes charged out of the cave and followed them. This time, under the leadership of a Transcendent level monster, they became wild and unruly as if a large dosage of bloodlust had been injected into them yet they still somehow exited the cave in some form of formation that could be viewed from above.
At his command, Herbert maintained a formation that utilized all three dimensions of space. Although none of the people that Herbert had brought with him were at the Transcendent level, they were still able to fly with the help of their bloodline power as a Ravenmoon. With Princess Amelia and her entourage being affected by the illusions, Herbert no longer felt any inhibitions towards showing off the real strength of the guards that he had brought along with him.
With a lot of them being awakened with around the same rank as him, none of them could become his match as they were nurtured in ways that were far too different from each other. The attention given to Herbert was far more than his guards which resulted in him having a natural advantage over them.
Spreading their wings, Herbert and his guards took a defensive position wherein they could immediately switch to an offensive maneuver if needed. This was the benefit of being awakened with a Ravenmoon bloodline which helped boost the military power of the family in the first place. Even if their flight speed is not as fast as that of a Transcendent who can fly, the mere fact that they can use the air opens up a lot of maneuverability in their tactics.
Boom! Bang! Crash!
From the mouth of the cave came the booming sound of Herbert's main target for this hunt. For the first time, the hunter and prey had finally gazed into each other's eyes. However, at this point, it was still unclear who was the hunter and who was the prey.
Seeing such a majestic-looking creature in front of him, Herbert marveled at the sight. In front of him was such a beautiful creature, yet he found it a pity that it would soon die in his hands.
Compared to the other White-Horned snakes, on its forehead, it had two horns that curved upwards instead of the lone straight horn that others had. With its pure white scales that reflected off the light from the sun, it kept its gaze at Herbert but it did not move any further. Due to its high rank, it has developed intelligence that was incomparable to that of the previous rank 9 Three-Headed snake that he had faced off before.
"Human, why have you come here."
The White-Horned snake at the Transcendent level became cautious and decided to first probe Herbert's intentions. If possible, it also didn't want to continue a fight where it wasn't confident of winning a complete victory.
Hearing its deep and breathy voice, Herbert did not flinch. He already knew that monsters of a higher rank would become capable of speaking the human tongue. Although he had internally questioned how the snake could speak without having the same kind of voice box as a human, Herbert just attributed it to the author of the original book being lazy in writing and chucking it all up to magic.
"I came here to k- Wait. Why are you a male?"
Hearing his sudden question, even the normally expressionless guards of Herbert couldn't help but have a funny reaction as they looked at Herbert with widened eyes.
This did not make any sense in Herbert's eyes. The protagonist was supposed to fight a Transcendent White-Horned snake that had heterochromia and grab its egg after killing it. In the original novel, the snake leader was supposed to be a female White-Horned Snake that had gone berserk and had decided to join the monster tide which led to the Northern Region becoming even more chaotic.
After taking a good look, Herbert noticed that the Transcendent White-Horned Snake in front of him had the same eye color. Herbert couldn't help but have the sudden thought, did he pick a fight with the wrong snake? According to the map that he was given, this was the only White-Horned Snake lair in the area and there shouldn't be another that has a Transcendent level leader within this region.
Although the White-Horned Snake was not sure how to answer Herebrt's question, it did not lower its guard. Perhaps this was a trick that the humans have to make it drop its guard so that it could launch a surprise attack.
Even though the snake had been angered because of the death of his fellow snakes, it did not let anger cloud its head. After seeing the wings on the backs of these humans, it understands that they would be in a far more advantageous position if they were to force the fight deep in the cave.
"Don't play games with me human. State why you have come in here and invaded my lair. For a very long time, my tribe had not joined those mindless monsters in their yearly rampage. There should be no reason for you to kill my kin."
Herbert frowned. This wasn't supposed to be the script. He then raised his sword once again, it did not matter if the Transcendent level snake was a male or female, it was already in front of him and enraged.
The White-Horned Snake was not stupid enough to just let him go after he had finished provoking it. Besides, the cost of the expedition would only be worth it if he had finished the mission that he had set himself to do. After all, the Silver Moon Leaf that they were using had cost him a lot, it would only be right to recoup his losses from acquiring the Monster Cores that dropped from this battle.
"It doesn't matter. Today will be the day that you will die."
"Human, I will make sure you will regret your decision."
After they had finished their cliche lines of threatening each other, the two soon broke free from their standstill.
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