Prime Originator

"Let's just say that we are even now, okay? I apologize for the rude remarks I said previously. I did not mean it," Soft Feather spoke apologetically, feeling pained at the loss of a few feathers—to say nothing in the least for an entire wing.

Nevertheless, Lilith shook her head, having gotten over this matter after regaining her ability to fly—and with greater freedom to boot.

"It's fine, it's fine…"

At the same time, Leon was slightly surprised, not expecting Lilith and Soft Feather, these two birds, to start getting along only during a moment of danger.

'Interesting. Better late than never, I guess,' Leon smiled slightly in thought, having thought Soft Feather was going to be stubborn until the end and never apologize.

However, she had taken the initiative to apologize to Lilith, proving him wrong.

'She's a good bird.'

Awrooo!

The Transcendent-level silver wolf's mighty howl was heard, but nothing could be seen with their vision obstructed by the dense clouds of black rats in all directions.

"How are you doing down there, Silver?!" Leon hollered while sweeping away mutant berserk rats that broke through Aria and Duna's line of defense.

After receiving another lively howl in response from the Transcendent-level silver wolf below, Leon was able to gauge Silver's situation and understood that it was not in immediate danger.

Boom! Boom!

From time to time, flashes of black appeared in the front, while flashes of white appeared in the back due to Duna and Aria's elemental attacks.

"I can keep this up all day, but the same cannot be said for Soft Feather—not as long as she is forced to cover for Darlene and Lilith. Soft Feather is too big for us to cover her completely. I'm afraid she won't last long enough for us to exterminate all these vermins."

"Why don't you send them back through the teleportation array and let us clean up the battlefield first before bringing them back after, Leon?" Duna suggested before adding, "Unless you have a better plan?"

"Hm? Are you showing concerns for the others?" Leon smiled in question.

However, Duna snorted, "Hmph, no. They are deadweights and holding us back. I just want to get rid of them quickly to focus on killing these vermins."

Darlene and Lilith's eyes dulled in response to Duna's harsh words while Leon smiled awkwardly at her dishonesty.

"I see…" Leon shrugged before consoling the two ladies, "Don't listen to her. She never speaks what she truly feels."

"Hmph, what do you know?" Duna quickly snorted again.

Nevertheless, she did not comment any further than that and simply obliterated the mutant rats in front of her in silence.

"These rats are at least 3-Star to 5-Star Ranked Awakener equivalent in strength…" Leon briefly gauged the strength of the mutant black rats in their surroundings.

Shortly after, he wondered whether they were a stronger species of rats than the Wingrats or they have simply grown this strong within a short period of time due to the Cataclysm.

Leon shortly shook his head of the idle thoughts and spoke, "There's no need to send Darlene and Lilith away. I will lure all these rats away from Soft Feather."

"Don't take any unnecessary risk, Leon."

"Right, how do you plan on achieving that? Can your little bit of flesh or blood be more desirable than our big bird here?"

Aria expressed her concern while Duna quickly doubted before Leon smiled slightly with an unconcerned attitude, "I have a bigger bird."

"Get lost."

Duna immediately rolled her eyes.

"Hahaha…" Leon chuckled softly before his eyes flickered with a solemn and sharp glint, "You'll see."

Shortly after Leon said this, he immediately sliced his own arm and allowed himself to bleed before a rich yet surprisingly pleasant scent of blood pervaded his body.

Swoosh~!

Leon quickly separated himself from the rest of the group while the noses of every flying mutant rat twitched before they squeaked and chased after him.

Squeak! Squeak!

Shinggg!

Leon made a sharp sweep with his Tier 4 Bone Spear, immediately bisecting several dozens of flying mutant rats in a single swing!

The blood spilled from bodies did not plummet out of the sky with their bisected bodies but froze in midair for a brief moment before they were absorbed and refined by Leon with the Everlasting Blood Mantra.

Swoosh~!

Numerous drops of Origin Blood were refined from the blood essence of the flying mutant rats before they were fused with Leon's blood, increasing his Origin Blood collection to 11 types of Origin Blood.

At the same time, the other duplicate Origin Bloods were transformed into vital energy that reinvigorated Leon, filling his body with a seemingly endless amount of vitality and stamina.

Squeak! Squeak!

The flying mutant rats went crazy at once due to his rich and overpowering scent of blood as he failed to contain all the vital energy and allowed it to leak out of his body to capture their attention.

"Come to me, vermins!" Leon welcomed the mutant rats without fear.

"Leave these berserk mutant rats to be and find an opening to break out from their encirclement! I'm going to use their blood to practice my Everlasting Blood Mantra!" Leon shouted to the others shortly after.

"Be careful!" Aria warned.

"I will!" Leon spouted before reassuring, "Don't worry, these rats won't be able to harm me!"

The dense clouds of flying mutant rats surrounding Soft Feather and the others quickly thinned out as they soared in pursuit of Leon.

Duna's eyes immediately flickered.

With a wave of her hand, a wave of destruction reduced hundreds of flying mutant rats ahead into scattering ashes, revealing a clear sky on the other side.

"This way!" Duna hollered to the others.

…

Meanwhile, in another region of airspace, Leon pulled the dense clouds of flying mutant rats away while swinging his bone spear left and right, cleaving away hundreds of rats at a time.

Then, he descended towards the surface and fight on the ground.

He did not use any other power available to him—only relying on the physical prowess granted by his powerful Body Cultivation to slay the mutant rats with brute force while drawing their blood for practice.

Awrooo!

Silver's howl was shortly heard as Leon sensed its presence, moving towards his location with excitement while mowing down the mutant rats obstructing its path.

In a short moment, the Transcendent-level silver wolf's figure was revealed, bursting out from a sea of mutant rats with its big furry body soaked in the blood of its prey.

"You want to fight by the side, huh? Fine, let's do it! Kill them all, Silver! No treat if you kill any less than me!"

"Awrooo!"

After giving a mighty howl, the Transcendent-level silver wolf dived straight back into the sea of berserk mutant rats, incited to hunt them all down in a frenzy.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Berserk mutant rats were slapped left and right by Silver's powerful tails, shattering bones and crushing organs before they were blown away by the force of its tail blows.

At the same time, Leon never stopped swinging his bone spear, reaping dozens to hundreds of lives with each sweep and blowing their scattered parts away while their blood quickly soaked the earth.

Nevertheless, the flying mutant rats' form made Leon furrow his brows in thought, especially their wings that looked like bat wings but made of bone and crystallized blood.

'These rodents can still be recognized for now, but if they continue to mutate, would they still be considered rodents or recognized as such?' Leon mused while forming piles of carcasses under his bone spear before they were blown away by the wind pressure of his swings.

Suddenly, Leon was reminded of the fleshly abomination.

'What did those things used to be, I wonder?'

…

"Let us hold our ground here, where we can still see Leon in the distance," Aria suggested while slaying a few lingering flying mutant rats in the sky after the group broke out of the rat tide's encirclement.

"Sounds good to me. I can finally catch a breather," Soft Feather spoke before descending to the ground where she could inspect the state of her wings.

Thud!

Soft Feather landed shortly on an enormous black mountain with a heavy thud, causing the entire mountain to shake unstably and rumble before it started to deform.

Countless black bodies rolled down from the top of the black mountain before everyone realized it was not an ordinary mountain but a massive black mountain made with an unfathomable amount of rodent carcasses!

The ladies all quickly furrowed their brows in disgust due to the pungent stench before they each used their own means to eliminate the horrible smell from the region.

"The number of carcasses here is even greater than the Western Frontier… Evidently, a great battle had been fought here…" Aria commented while inspecting the surroundings on one of her flying ice-lightning swords.

Shortly after, she turned to Lilith and asked, "How much further until we reach your Desolate Crow Clan?"

"Not much further, I think?" Lilith answered with uncertainty.

"This region of the Wildlands was changed so much I am unable to recognize where we are… The amount of carcasses here is simply too horrifying…"

"But reasonably speaking, we should have already arrived at my Desolate Crow Clan by now…" Lilith added with a frown.

Duna hummed with a low tune before nonchalantly asking Lilith, "Any chance that so-called Desolate Crow Clan of yours is buried under this endless heap of rodent carcasses?"

"This…"

Lilith's expression froze before her heart was shaken by Duna's question.

"That might be possible..."