Chapter 156: Over the Hill (2/2)

It was because the moment he reached the top of the hill, he saw an army.

One shouldn't mistake these words to mean that a group of humans were below. No. Each and every one of those 'soldiers' in Leonel's line of sight were beasts.

They were separated by their species. One group of a few dozen was led by large bear that stood at over five meters tall with brownish gold fur. Another was led by a tiger no smaller than the bear, except its stripes were a bright red-gold instead of the normal black. Yet another was led by a snake over ten meters long, covered in black scales…

As if these three weren't imposing enough, there was still another three.

There was a spider with vicious steel incisors and countless beady red eyes. Its size was the smallest at just three meters in length, but such a thing hardly stopped its grotesque visage from displaying its full might.

The next was a lemur, a monkey like creature with a zebra striped tail. It was far larger than it should have been, standing no shorter than the red-gold striped tiger…

However the last was maybe the most shocking of all. It didn't seem to be a beast at all. Or rather, it was, but had been stripped of all its flesh. It stood on all fours not much unlike an ape would. From head to toe, it was nothing but bone.

Its body was covered in a faint transparent light that seemed to reflect the vision of an armor, but it would often flicker and disappear as though lacking the ability to maintain its own form.

These six creatures were easily the most powerful. However, what truly shocked Leonel were the orderly 'soldiers' to their backs.

Each of them had a troop of their own, neatly arranged as though they truly were an army of humans rather than beasts. Each took control of their own species, wielding absolute authority.

The golden brown bear had a troop of bears. The red-gold striped tiger had a legion of tigers. The black-scaled snake's troop filled the air with endless hissing… Each had their own centers of power. Even the bone ape had a legion of apes, though their flesh and blood was intact.

Leonel quickly tried to calm his breathing. However, any hopes he had of not being noticed had already long since been thrown out the window. The instant he had made it to the top of the hill, he found six pairs of eyes trained on him.

The bestial, murderous intent made it feel as though a bucket of ice water had fallen onto his head. His heart beat involuntarily slowed.

At that moment, the brownish gold bear roared and turned its head toward the spider legion. To Leonel's dismay, the spider's numerous beady red eyes landed on him once again, its mandibles snapping together in what looked like a response.