The rise of the pervert primordial

Having gotten the greenlight from the mare, Aster removed the lids from the containers and placed them in front of her, so that she could drink their contents, as a result of it, the next second the previously tired-looking mare instantly got up with renewed strength.

Of course, it was just a temporarily invigorated state achieved thanks to the energizing potion Mylene prepared, but that was good enough for the time being, that being said, the little wyrm looked into Aster’s backpack and took out a strawberry to then offer it to the mare.

“Hisss~”, Espi placed the strawberry on the ground in front of the mare who after giving the little wyrm a couple of gazes, ate the whole thing in a few bites, making Espi cutely gaze at Aster who nodded in response, understanding what she wanted to do.

“Sure, give her a few more”, he said to which the little wyrm looked into the backpack to take out a couple more of strawberries for the mare to eat.

‘Having something in the stomach will help diminish the shock once the effect of the energy potion runs out, so I was going to give her something to eat anyway, on the other hand that little girl of course didn’t do it with that intention, but because she wanted to cheer up the mare’, amusingly thought Aster to then pat the little wyrm’s head a couple of times.

“Hisss~”, which of course made Espi happily hiss while she rubbed her face against Aster’s hand.

Leaving the wholesome interaction between the little wyrm and the mare, the energizing potion had a time limit so Aster quickly explained the plan to the group, Mira included so that she could translate it for Guardian who explained it to the mare and the king of flying beasts.

And after making the last preparations the group started moving following the route stablished by the giant eagle, one had to admit it, having eyes in the sky was really helpful, but normally it wouldn’t have been enough with just the king of flying beasts for this plan.

Because she had to fly at a really high altitude so that the enemies on the ground couldn’t see her, and she couldn’t descend to communicate what she saw in order to not blow up her cover, so someone with really good eyes was needed to coordinate the signals she would be making, a role that Aster and his dragon eyes would be filling this time.

…

A dozen of minutes later a few kilometers away from the outskirts of the horse area where Aster and the others found the mare, a group of eighteen horses separated in three smaller groups of six, were surrounding a though larger quite battered group of around thirty horses who were laying on the ground, observing with incensed eyes how their captors took turns to bite on parts of their deceased friends and family members.

It’s worth mentioning that the horses that were eating the members of their race, all had characteristics in common, first and formal, their sclerae had turned slightly red giving them permanent bloodshot eyes, second, they were all male horses and last but not least, the hair that covered their bodies, including their manes and tails had started to change to an ashen black color at its origin.

And there was another thing they had in common, very much unlike their original herbivore and though wild still calm if unprovoked nature, the ash black horses now enjoyed making others suffer, judging by the amused expressions they had when they slowly chewed on the corpses of the dead horses while making sure to gaze in the direction of the normal horses, which of course made the latter grit their teeth and glare at them.

Unfortunately out of the around thirty from the group of normal horses, eight were completely unable to move as they had been poisoned, they were also the biggest and strongest horses that had survived which is why they were personally defeated by the former king of herbivores, not without buying enough time for their leader in other words the mare found by Aster and the others, to escape with the children thus frustrating the plan of the former king to wipe them out.

In fact, that’s the sole reason they are still alive, because they had more value as hostages than as food, for the time being at least, besides those eight who were basically on their deathbeds, six more were all beaten up due to the fight and could barely move, so resisting those black horses was out of question.

As for the other sixteen which only had minor wounds, they were all the remaining mares and mothers of the children that escaped, it’s not like they were particularly weak but their biggest concern was whether their children were captured or not, so they were preserving their remaining energy to try and give them another chance to escape, if that was the case, and their role in the group previous to this wasn’t fighting so to have a chance against a single black horse at least three of them needed to work together.

So, ultimately, they could do nothing but watch how their deceased friends and relatives were eaten by their former members of the same race, or at least that’s what they thought until a familiar valiant figure appeared within their sight, it was the queen which for them has become the new king of herbivores.

The mare’s appearance caused two different reactions, first and formal the normal horses had new life shinning in their eyes and second, the black horses started showing anxiety, because their leader had left to hunt down the mare and if she was here and their leader wasn’t, then there was a chance… she had somehow killed their leader.

Seeing his companions doubting, while the mare fiercely stomped her right hoof which had dried blood on it, a black horse which was slightly bigger than the rest snorted to then loudly neigh.

“Neeeigh!”, that meant something along the lines of “catch that damn woman”, in horse language, and in response four black horses whose eyes were bloodshot immediately charged at the mare who prepared to face them head on… or that’s what she wanted them to believe.

“Now!”, before the incoming four black horses reached the mare, a loud voice coming from a tree agglomeration, signaled the start of a calamity for the black horses, as a thick rope with rocks tied all over it, raised from the ground, getting high enough to make the legs of the four horses to clash against the rocks making them trip due to the impact.

“Booom!”, the four horses which had lost their balance fell to the ground and rolled on the ground disgracefully, but that was the least of their problems, the mare who was waiting for this chance to happen, rushed towards them and stomped on their necks, breaking them on the spot.

“Crack!”, the loud sound of bones shattering was clear for all the horses who were wondering how the hell did an obstacle like that appeared out of nowhere, the answer is actually quite simple, a certain little wyrm used her camouflaging ability to slid all the way from the tree agglomeration at the left side of the mare, to a single tree on the right, spreading the rope that had stoned tangled into it, to then firmly tie one side to that big tree.

After that, Aster and the others simply pulled onto the rope making it raise and tense, to make the horses fall, creating an opportunity for the mare to get rid of some enemies.

‘Tsk, I was aiming to get rid of one small group of six, but I guess four of them are good enough for the initial culling, now it’s those four’s turn’, thought Aster.

“Hisss!”, speaking of the little wyrm who made the previous possible, Espi suddenly dissipated her camouflage appearing in front of one of the remaining black horses to then fiercely smack her tail on the horse’s side.

“Neeeiiigh!”, the horse who felt as if it was hit by a giant boulder, let out a pained neigh as it was sent flying a few meters into the distance, to then violently land on the ground while vomiting blood, the impact had probably wounded his innards, all this while the little wyrm became “invisible” again.

“Grrrrr!”.

Naturally the sudden appearance of the little wyrm, made the other horses look her way, just like Aster expected them to, and taking advantage of that, with a loud growl, Guardian jumped out of a tree, using her weight and speed to tackle another horse by fiercely biting on its neck, to then pounce on another horse, landing on its back to then use her claws and teeth to make a mess out of it.

And she wasn’t the only “feline” that made her appearance, the ligress girl flashed out the top of a tree to then use her nails which had turned crystal blue colored, enlarged and turned pointy like claws, a trait she could use regardless of spirit energy, to slash the eyes of a pair of black horses blinding and making them lose control on the spot.

“Humph!”, the ligress girl saw the two horses going wild and attacking everything in the vicinity, including two of their companions, and snorted at their stupidity.

It’s worth mentioning that now that Mira had changed her nails into claws, she couldn’t change them back, because spirit energy couldn’t be used, it was similar to Espi who had to stay in her base four-meter size after she released her shrinking ability, the same would happen if she were to take out her ligress ears and tail.

Having incapacitated or at least distracted seven of the remaining fourteen black horses, the plan could continue to its next step, the mare which was waiting for the signal, charged at the bigger black horse which was obviously the one in charge of this group, making the latter also charge at her, accompanied by two of the other six black horses.

“Neeigh…”, the loud battle cry of the bigger black horse was interrupted by a loud scree as a giant eagle which was carrying a small bag with its claws, landed where the other horses were being held hostage.

“Scree!”, the giant eagle opened the bag, showing a few containers which had liquids of two different colors, those were the energizing and painkiller potions made by Mylene, Aster had packed a few for the king of flying beasts to transport through air, all the way to where the horses were being held hostage.

The mare which originally was supposed to clash against the black horse in command, actually avoided him, and instead rushed towards the survivors among the ones that fought against the former king of herbivores as she instructed the six wounded male horses that weren’t poisoned to drink the potions.

Naturally, at this point the black horse in charge realized that there was something wrong ongoing, so he turned around to try and attack the mare from behind, but both him and his two subordinates had their way blocked by strange bipedal animals with strange extremities made out of wood, which he had never seen before.

“The legs are their weak point, aim for them!”, shouted Aster, those strange bipedal creatures were the remaining members of the exploration team, who were all using clubs, piercing through the skin of a horse with a wood spear might be possible, but it’s for sure not easy.

However, their legs are susceptible to blunt force and so the clubs were perfect to deal with them, of course it would have been a completely different thing if they had metal weapons, which is why Aster really wanted to make them, with spears that had metal heads they could have simply stabbed the horses on their necks and that would be the end of it, but since that wasn’t possible as of current, he had to rely on much more complex strategy.

“Hunting a horse with a club, even for me who trained in the jungle territories of the Barbarian Heart sect, this is a first hahaha!”, Erick violently smacked his club which he was wielding with his two hands against the right frontal leg of one of the two subordinates of the bigger horse, while Sophia aimed for the hind left leg.

“Crack!”, the result was both a shattering sound coming from the club and the legs of the horse who collapsed on the ground while neighing due to the pain of having his legs broken.

This scene repeated on the other subordinate, thanks to Nerissa and Lieze attacking his frontal right and hind left legs with their clubs, respectively, as for the bigger horse he had his path blocked by Aster and Tiana on the front, while Agnes blocked his way of retreat.

Speaking of the bigger black horse, he saw the six male horses suddenly get up, followed by the mares who had decided to fight as well and immediately gave the remaining capable four black horses the order to run.

“Neeeigh!”, they had to go look for their leader, who took the strongest members of the group with him, so that they could take revenge for what happened here, the bigger black horse trusted that once his subordinates started running, they would be really hard to catch.

Which is true, the mare managed to escape her pursuers in part because she had an advantage over the former king of herbivores, unfortunately for him, Aster already expected this outcome and had a perfect way to prevent the leakage of the information about what happened here.

In what way you might wonder, well, a sudden intimidating aura spread through the area where the four horses were, making them freeze on the spot, giving enough time for the mare and the previously held hostage horses to swarm them.

The origin of the intimidating aura which made those four black horses to be unable to let alone escape but even move, was a pretty white-haired girl who had used a needle to draw out a small drop of blood from her index finger, that was of course Vivian.

It was harder to prevent the black horses from escaping than fighting against them, because of their high mobility, if they were determined to escape it was going to be a headache for Aster and the others to catch them, but thanks to Vivian’s suppressive aura, the pursue ended before it even started.

“That’s enough, thanks Vivian, the rest of you don’t kill the horses yet, we need to prepare the scene for the former king of beasts, we can’t have him look for the “guilty” ones blindly in the forest, can we?”, said Aster with a smirk that gave the bigger black horse a bad premonition.

Unfortunately, when he tried to break out of the encirclement, he suddenly lost his balance and fell to the ground, courtesy of a pretty white snake that used her tail to make the black horse trip and fall face first on the ground, to then have its neck grabbed by the little wyrm’s tail.

“Neeeigh!!!”, the pain made the bigger black horse retort on the ground, but no one paid him any attention, in fact after a threatening hiss with which Espi warned him that she would snap his neck in half, the bigger horse stopped resisting and simply remained on the ground.

Which made Aster chuckle at the little wyrm acting like a thug, to then change his focus, the timer was ongoing and the scene had to be prepared, after all Aster had a perfectly frameable target in mind.

“Hold those guys on the ground”, said Aster to Guardian and the others, to then take out a wooden stake with a tip that bent downwards and approach Vivian whose pretty index finger was still bleeding.

“Are you sure this doesn’t affect you?”, asked Aster as he placed the wooden stake in front of Vivian, to which the white-haired girl nodded in response.

“Mm, my blood is indeed poisonous, but it’s strongest effect is to amplify the effects of other poisons, so a single drop should suffice for this”, she said as she poured the content of a small vial on the stake to then let a single drop of her blood fall on it.

“Hsssssss!”, sizzling sounds were produced as the mix of that poison which Vivian herself had extracted with Mylene’s help yesterday, mixed with her blood made contact with air, Aster was worried that she might suffer from blood loss if she had to use too much of it, but if it was a single drop for a stake which he calculated was enough to kill four black horses, then everything would be fine, he just needed to hunt something to give the white haired a girl a nice meal to help her replenish her energy later.

“And now…”, Aster approached one of the horses and skillfully stabbed the wooden stake on its neck twice, at a very specific distance and with perfect symmetry, in case you haven’t realized it yet, Aster was going to frame the king of water beast for this slaughter.

And those holes with poison which he punctured on the black horse’s neck, looked exactly like a big snake’s bite.

“Neeighhh!”, the black horse started foaming and retorting before its eyes rolled backwards, after almost ten seconds of torturous pain, he died while having blood coming out of his mouth, eyes and nose, to which Aster nodded.

“Yeah, it looks pretty convincing, let’s go along with the plan, besides that big guy, all the others will die due to being bitten by a large poisonous snake”, he said as he started repeating the process on the other horses, making sure to not make the fake biting marks on the exact same parts of the horse’s bodies, but keeping an identifiable attack pattern.

Surprisingly, the normal horses didn’t show the slightest sympathy towards their former fellow members of the same race, despite how much they seemed to suffer while dying due to that poison being mixed Vivian’s blood.

And once all the black horses besides the bigger one had been dealt with, it was time to deal with a much harder situation… the eight normal horses that have been poisoned and couldn’t move at all.

“How is it?”, asked Aster to Vivian who has been inspecting the eight horses and taking blood samples from all of them, only for the pretty white-haired girl to shake her head.

“If they had a bit more time left and we were at the camp, with sister Mylene and the elders from the Orange Lotus’s help we would be able to create an antidote to slow down the decay enough to develop a proper cure, or if I could use my body constitution, I could counter this corpse poison with a yang poison, but…”, Aster stopped Vivian from continuing by placing his hand on her head and stroking her pretty white hair a couple of times.

“That’s enough, in that case let’s peacefully send them away”, said Aster to Vivian as he took out a new wooden stake with the same bent downwards tip, to which Vivian nodded and took out a different vial and poured it all over it.

“Mm, unlike the pain-inducing poison of earlier which’s effect caused a horrible death, the paralyzing one combined with my blood will make them fall asleep before their hearts stop beating…”, mumbled Vivian.

Which was translated by Mira to Guardian who passed the message to the mare, which did the same for the other horses, there were some who clearly were resilient to the idea, they were their fathers, husbands or older brothers who had fought against the now monster-like former king of herbivores so that their children could escape, after all.

But after being told that they would stop suffering the slow and painful death that corpse poison gave to its victims, they actually lowered their heads towards Vivian, of course Aster was the one who did it, because he didn’t want Vivian to kill innocent living beings with poison, not when her goal is to create antidotes.

Just like Vivian said, the eight horses stopped suffering as their eyes closed before their hearts stopped beating, unlike the black horses which died in horrible circumstances, those ones looked as if they simply had fallen asleep.

Feeling Aster’s gaze on her, Vivian smiled as she showed him the blood samples she had taken.

“I’m fine, I’ll make sure to develop a proper antidote so that this situation doesn’t repeat in the future, I’m the proof that a poison for everything exists so an antidote for everything must exist too~”, she said, which earned her another head pat from Aster.

“Let’s leave at once, we have to get far from this place before those other guys return, otherwise this would be for nothing, let’s have the horses reunite with their children before deciding our next course of action”, said Aster, something that the mare and all the other horses agreed with.

“Luckily we have some extra manpower to help us carry all of our backpacks now”, said Aster as he glared at the sole remaining black horse, to which Espi tightened the grip around its neck, making the black horse to not even dare to gaze at Aster the wrong way.