The rise of the pervert primordial

Seeing the keeled rat snakes stop their charge in cold, Espi casually made her way towards them, the group of forty snakes not only unconsciously opened way for the little wyrm, but they even lowered their heads, whether they wanted it or not, which made the stripped wood snakes victoriously hiss.

“Hissss!!!”, that was the snakes cheering the little wyrm, which of course made Espi gaze at Aster with a proud expression on her pretty face, she so obviously wanted to be praised for her victory.

“That wasn’t even a challenge for you”, jokingly said Aster which made the little wyrm pout, on the other hand she agreed with Aster that the old snake had zero chances of even being a threat to her, that didn’t prevent Espi from getting a bit moody over not getting complimented though, so Aster was still going to pat her head as she wanted.

But then one of the keeled rat snakes committed the stupid mistake of revealing a hint of killing intent towards Espi as she was returning back to Kana’s side.

Which resulted in the little wyrm suddenly stop advancing towards Kana, she was here trying to be like Aster and completely suppress the whole battlefield and then that snake ruined her chance to impress him, it made her feel “angry”.

‘Now I for sure won’t be complimented by Aster’, thought the little wyrm which made her glare at the snake which ruined her feat.

The naturally threatening aura radiated by Espi suddenly spiked up and also concentrated in that snake, making all the other ones shiver in fear to then press their heads onto the ground while the snake in question started foaming from its mouth.

“Hishssh!”, the other keeled rat snakes saw in horror how that guy writhed on the ground while letting out clearly pained sounds for couple of seconds before it stopped moving… it was dead.

“Hey, that wasn’t natural intimidation, did that white snake just use lineage suppression?”, asked the saber young master with a confused voice to which two different people shook their heads in response, the first one was naturally Aster, while the second one was surprisingly Guardian who understood the concept of Cayden’s question because she recognized the words “lineage suppression” as she had heard them too many times from humans a long time ago.

And in case you wonder why is the previous amazing, that’s because mortal ranked beasts can’t use lineage suppression, regardless of race, some are able to use “intimidation” instead, for example if normal humans were to be face to face with an adult lion of course they would feel pressured, they’ll grow anxious and even scared it’s an instinctive natural response.

That’s what the little wyrm used on the snakes at first, after revealing her strength by killing the old keeled rat snake, she established herself as a predator while the keeled rat snakes were the prey, that’s intimidation.

Then we have Lineage suppression which on the other hand is something spirit beasts use, it allows a spirit beast to rule over other spirit beasts, it doesn’t even have to be from the same or similar races, so long as the lineage of the spirit beast in question is of a higher rank than the targets, of course it’s easier if there is a relation between the target and the user, for example how Aster took control of that lizard back at his playdate with Kana and the little wyrm.

Of course, Espi is normally able to use it, she is a dragon after all, however that’s not a “natural” ability like her capacity to camouflage herself, therefore now that she is limited to be a mortal rank beast, she shouldn’t be able to use it, not to mention that given her young age it’s not like she can do it as she please, but it’s more bound to her emotional state, if she is angry it will be triggered more easily.

And yet, the keeled rat snakes pressing their heads onto the ground was a result of it, Aster knew it because the little wyrm didn’t “want” the other snakes to show any sign of resistance after that snake did so, and so the other snakes ended up pressing their heads onto the ground in order to obey her will.

And here we make a small pause on Aster’s point of view and change to that of the lynx, who though looked surprised was more interested in Espi, because she was similar to her.

That’s right Guardian could use lineage suppression as well, but that’s not what made her “similar” to Espi, but the fact that she obtained it without becoming a “king” as she was about to explain to Aster with a soft growl.

“Grrrr”, that meant something along the lines of “Some kings past a certain point are capable of that, however so far only I was able to do it without being one and I wasn’t as young as her either when I obtained this ability, not to mention that I don’t know what she did at the end”.

Like previously mentioned, lineage suppression is a mean of control, not an attack, if the one in control directly orders the controlled to die, it won’t work, so that’s not what caused the death of the snake.

While Guardian was really curious about it, Aster did have an idea but he had a hard time believing on it and he wasn’t the only one, after a couple of seconds Vivian was the first to speak.

“Mmm, could it be something similar to what my blood does, I’m pretty sure that if I let go of all the brakes, the threatening sensation I would naturally radiate should be enough to make some animals get panic attacks, if I bleed a bit they might faint as well”.

It was amusing that the innocent looking white haired girl could say something like that with such a harmless voice, also what she said is true, the lynx could give testimony of it since even she felt threatened by Vivian’s blood, which is a lot to say considering that she is used to deal with kings of beasts.

Unfortunately, the white-haired girl was wrong this time, as Eris’s next words suggested.

“It’s different than that, in your case that’s a side effect of your body constitution’s trait, which is why you are able to do so even without the need of spirit energy, it’s similar as to why Espi can still camouflage herself at mortal rank, what she did on the other hand felt more like “aura”, perhaps it was a combination of natural intimidation and lineage suppression which was then amplified to result in something akin to a “soul attack”, I don’t know how she pulled it off at the mortal rank though…”, she said.

Aura might be a power from the body cultivation path, but that doesn’t mean a mortal can use it, it’s not impossible but without the help of any spirit energy the difficulty for a mortal to reach that point would be the same as a cultivator to reach the Heavenly realms.

‘It would have been easier to accept seeing her breath fire honestly, Eris is right that was closer to “Aura” or in this case “Dragon Aura”, the problem is how did she do it, even I who actually have Dragon Aura can’t make use of it, unless I’m willing to break the rules of this place and it would take a lot of effort and Annihilation to do so’, thought Aster.

He also found incredibly interesting what Guardian told them, she didn’t mention it because the enemies they were facing were uncapable of using lineage suppression, which would explain why the anaconda uses the other major snake races to control the reptiles as well as to why the moose rebelled against the former king of herbivores, they can’t forcefully control their subordinates, though they can indeed intimidate them.

The fact that she was willing to tell them about such an important ability and even confirm that she possessed it, meant that the lynx had stopped seeing them as just enemies of her enemies, and has started to consider them “teammates” instead, but let’s leave that aside for the moment and focus back in Espi.

‘It might be a change brought by she consuming that peacock’s meat, or it could be because of the “Companion” manual, which allows her to develop in the same aspects I do, in any case this is beneficial for her, so let’s leave the complicated part for later’, thought Aster, he ultimately concluded that if Espi was allowed to do that without being sanctioned, then it was probably within the rules set up by the blue flaming board, so there was no need to worry about it.

Also, it’s not like Espi was now able to just kill with a glare like that, she did so unconsciously and the ability was gone as soon as she used it, in fact she even stopped being able to use lineage suppression, so she couldn’t directly order the snakes like before, though her previous order remained active as a sign that she indeed used lineage suppression.

Seeing the snakes not daring to raise their heads, the little wyrm softly snorted to then happily slide towards Aster as she gave him puppy eyes, clearly asking for a head pat.

“Fine you smug little girl, that does indeed deserve a reward”, said Aster as he patted Espi’s head a couple of times.

“Hissss~”, the keeled rat snakes felt the urge to cry as they saw from the corner of their eyes that white snake change so much in a matter of seconds, going from terrifying to happy and bubbly like that.

Once head pat time was over, the little wyrm jumped towards Kana, landing on her lap the next second.

“Hissss!”, that was Espi giving the greenlight for the group to keep advancing, surprisingly or not really considering how afraid the keeled rat snakes were of Espi now, they silently followed Aster’s group from behind, at a respectful distance.

“That was amazing, you have to teach me how to that while we are here~”, said Kana to Espi who cutely nodded in response despite the fact that she obviously had idea how she did it, Kana should be able to use lineage suppression though given her roc lineage.

And just like that, Kana just sparked a competition between Sarina, herself and Alice to see who could figure out how to use lineage suppression without manifesting their beast traits, Mira was able to do so as soon as her nails changed to claws.

Those forty keeled rat snakes, well thirty-eight now, are the largest and strongest adult ones from the whole group that lives in this area that used to belong to the stripped wood snakes, so while the other keeled rat snakes were confused to see their enemies crossing through their territory while their strongest race members followed them from behind, no other conflict erupted.

Of course, the young and hot-blooded keeled rat snakes almost committed the mistake of jumping in to fight, but the adult ones immediately glared their way as if saying “Stop you fools, do you want to kill us!”, which made the stripped wood snakes even happier.

Of course, revenge wasn’t the main reason as to why they passed through this territory, as the group realized once they had crossed it only to reach a “dead” area, as in there were no animals living here.

Which is weird because they were already within the inner part of the forest where resources are abundant, one thing are hidden places like Guardian’s den where they found the high-quality iron ore, but this was just a normal and perfectly habitable area in the open.

“I didn’t know that there were unoccupied areas in the inner part of the forest”, said Aster to which the lynx growled in response.

“Grrrr”.

“So, it’s because of the race that lives in the next area”, said Aster as he translated what Guardian wanted to say, coincidentally the “troublesome neighbors” mentioned by the lynx were exactly the ones they were going to pay a visit first, one of the four major snake races of the forest and also the race from which the previous king which the anaconda defeated to take the throne, came from, the king cobra race.

“Everyone besides Vivian and Espi, drink one of the antivenoms now, I don’t think it will be needed but better be safe than sorry”, said Aster as he took out a small glass contained with a green liquid to then drink it in a single go.

In case you might think it’s a waste, king cobras are the largest venomous snakes among mortal snake races, being able to reach almost six meters of length, not to mention that their venom is really strong and they deliver high volumes of it, a single bite could kill around twenty humans.

Unfortunately, their strongest weapon is useless because the antivenom created with Vivian’s poison after being refined by Mylene is enough to inoculate the one drinking it for a whole day against up to ten different venoms or poisons, unless of course they are stronger than Vivian’s, but there is absolutely no way that could happen.

Mylene had to actually dilute Vivian’s blood for this elixir in specific since it contains to many different kinds of poisons after all.

As to why Aster told Vivian and Espi not to drink it, well, in Vivian’s case the reason is obvious, in Espi’s case is because she is the “champion”, therefore she is to face the cobras in a fair and square fight if she wants to convince them to support her claim to a duel with the anaconda.

Of course, Aster wouldn’t put the little wyrm in real danger, though she didn’t take the elixir created with Vivian’s blood, she is naturally resistant to venom and poison because she is a dragon, in fact the same stands for Aster and Alice, so even if they were bitten, it wouldn’t be fatal, but it would indeed be annoying.

Not to mention that it is still a mystery whether the king cobra’s fangs could pierce through the little wyrm’s scales, so as you can see while the incoming conflict looks “fair” on the outside, Aster planned it so Espi had all the advantages possible.

“Hissss!”, the moment the group took a step into the territory of the king cobra race, a loud growl-like hiss came from a black and yellow snake which came from a random bush to then stand in front of Aster’s group.

The king cobra in question raised a part of its body and that was enough to see Aster to his eyes, as it flattened its neck to form the characteristic hood of its race as it menacingly hissed at the group.

Despite the previous, unlike with the keeled rat snakes, the little wyrm didn’t seem angry, for a good reason, the king cobra was not looking down, threatening nor insulting them, it was just telling them to stop and state their business for coming to this place.

“Grrrr”, with a soft growl, the lynx made the king cobra notice her presence and that was surprisingly enough for the cobra to somewhat loosen its defensive stance by retracting its hood, though it still kept its upper body high enough to look at Aster and the others right at their faces.

“Even those guys gathered forty of their members to welcome us, so why is there only one cobra waiting for us, not to mention that it’s “only” a four-meter sized one?”, asked Tiana to which Aster said.

“There are not that many of them, I would say that their whole group should be around sixty to eighty cobras in total and the large sized adults might not even reach a third of that”.

Needless to say, but the energy constitution daughter couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow to then say.

“I know I’m going to regret it, but how do you know that?”, if Guardian had told him, then Aster would have shared that information with the group already, so this should be something Aster learned himself.

“There is a cobra still hiding in the bush out of which that one came from, judging by its scale pattern being jet black with white bands, that’s a juvenile one of around two meter something at most, so if only an adult and a young member of a territorial race like theirs are protecting such a large area at the border of their territory, it has to be because they have no other option”, answered Aster with a smile, which Tiana found slightly annoying to see, though the explanation was indeed something else.

Aster extrapolated all that information, with the help of his especially good sight only, which was enough to amaze Tiana, she simply refused to compliment that teasing black haired dragon youth.

And here something interesting happened, the moment Aster mentioned the word “cobra” while also looking in the relative direction of the bush in question, the adult king cobra immediately placed itself in between the group and the bush, instead of in between the entrance to the territory.

“We are not here to fight with them, tell them that we just need their leader to support our claim to a duel”, said Aster to the lynx.

“Grrrr”, with a soft growl, Guardian simplified the previous into “We only want to discuss something with your race’s elder”, which made the cobra narrow its eyes towards the group, which made both the stripped wood snakes and the keeled rat snakes slightly tremble, until the little wyrm jumped out of Kana’s lap to then land in front of the group, blocking the stare of the cobra from reaching the other snakes.

The reason for the stripped wood snakes and the keeled rat snakes fear is simple, king cobras are an Ophiophagus race, they mostly eat other snake races, in fact they are optimized to hunt them, given that they are immune to a lot of venoms, add to that the fact that they grow quite a bit and that they are venomous themselves, and basically, they are a nightmare for other snake races to deal with.

Still, unlike what the previous might suggest, king cobras are actually shy and prefer to avoid confrontation unless cornered or… if they are defending something, normally their nests, but it could be extended to a young member of their race like in this case.

“Hisss”, seeing the little wyrm proudly standing up for the other snakes, the king cobra eased up and with a soft hiss, he called the young cobra which was hiding in the bush as it was told.

Just like Aster had said, the second cobra which came out from the bush had a different scale pattern than the adult one, given its young age which was around the same age as Espi.

“He says we can come in”, said Aster as he saw the little wyrm nod at him, with the adult cobra guiding them while the young one occasionally stole gazes at the group, Aster and the others advanced through the outer area of the king cobra race’s territory, which similar to the dead area from before was basically empty.

“This is definitely not what I expected from the race to which the previous king belonged”, said Agnes as she saw the small heads that peeked out from the cobra’s nests, there were only babies here with an occasional young cobra looking after them.

That was the case until they reached the center of the king cobra’s territory, where they cobra guiding them stopped in cold as three angry hisses came his way.

“Hissss!!!”, this time three king cobras around five meter large each blocked the way of the group, the reason being that ahead of them was the nest of the sole pregnant female cobra.

Luckily, before those three could complicate things more, a much calmer sound came from within the nest as an older looking king cobra came out, this one was almost six meters large and that was the leader of the race which Espi had to meet.

‘The leader is guarding a single pregnant cobra, they must really value their offspring’, thought Aster as he gazed at Guardian who came out from the group to meet the leader of the king cobra race.