While Rick and company began their journey to leave the forest and travel to the Clans, two different battles that had been raging on for two days now was finally reaching the breaking point.

  Due to all the power that had been thrown about with absolutely no regard for the life of others and the state of the forest.

  There was nothing but devastation for miles on end in and around the lake.

  Craters, eviscerated trees, fires, blood, dead bodies, water, and all manner of things could be seen throughout the area.

  And the individuals that caused most of the destruction hadn’t been able to avoid the some of the same suffering they had brought on the area.

  If one was to compare the sound of the battlefield now versus when it initially started, they would quickly realize one thing in particular.

  There was distinct lack of powerful flaps of wings being generated by the Rygern who had laid claim to the skies above the battle.

  Instead of flying high in the skies and raining down all manner of attacks on the Serpent below, it was now bleeding profusely from all over its body.

  Yet most of its wounds were negligible in the eyes of the Rygern.

  What now pained it the most, wasn’t the many scars, some new, some old that marred its body…it was the lost of its left wing.

  It was quite literally ripped from its body by the maws of the Serpent, and it had only barely escaped with its life.

  A life that was now hanging dwindling as the blood continued to poor out of its body in droves.

  Painting the forest around it a weird brownish red, due to the fact that the blood of a Tier Seven Rygern would be heavily tainted and blended with Earth Mana.

  The Serpent, not without wounds of its own, stared at the bleeding body of the Rygern with nothing but the desire for murder in its eyes.

  It barely flinched as wounds seemingly endlessly piled up on its massive body throughout the fight. Dodging was not at the forefront of its mind when it came to fighting. Especially when it came to fighting creatures it deemed weaker than itself.

  It’s lustrous scales were either outright destroyed or deformed beyond recognition. Yet the Serpent remained firm and it didn’t plan on wasting time staring at the bleeding Rygern amidst all of the destruction in the forest.

  There was no need to delay its death any further.

  Of course, the Rygern realized this too, and although it had been willing to fight the Serpent in its deal with the War Chief, it knew from the very beginning that it would not be able to kill it.

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  The War Chief was supposed to finish his business with the Goblins before both of them would work together to kill the Serpent.

  Cowards.

  That is what an outside party who had no knowledge of the situation might’ve thought about the actions of the Rygern and the War Chief.

  Both of them were Tier Seven creatures just like the Serpent, but as Rick had proved previously in fights with other things in the same Tier as him, that Tier didn’t tell the whole story.

  But the War Chief, the Rygern, and even the Fox knew full and well about the terror that slept in the lake.

  The Serpent was old.

  Very old.

  The War Chief, the Fox, and the Rygern, had all been alive for many years by now.

  They were noy ‘young’ by any means.

  Yet, all three of them knew there was one thing that hadn’t changed from the time they were born and until now. The Serpent was always this powerful.

  It had always dwelled in the lake, and for the most part it did nothing but sleep.

  Sometimes it slept for a short while then woke up, wandered around the forest before returning to its slumber.

  Other times it would sleep for a very long time. So long that some of the newer dwellers in the forest would never have heard about it and didn’t know of its existence.

  Yet, it was always only a matter of time before the Serpent would once again awaken, and every now and then, destruction that was akin to a natural disaster would follow in its wake.

  Destroying anything and everything that it either didn’t like, want in the forest, or a foolish enemy picking a fight with him.

  The Rygern was one such opponent some time ago.

  It barely lasted one exchange before having to run away with its tail tucked between its legs. Never returning to the forest until now.

  This was supposed to be the moment it finally got rid of this shadow on its heart. Ripping the Serpent into pieces and using it propel itself forward and hopefully into the next Tier.

  Yet it wouldn’t get the chance to do so.

  The Rygern panted continuously as it bled. Staring venomously towards the approaching figure of the Serpent.

  “You…you vile creature…if…if it’s…if it’s the last thing I do…” The Rygern paused a bit to catch its breath further.

  “I will take you with me…”

  The Serpent who had initially plan to finish off the dying Rygern paused for a moment.

  Then it opened its maw to speak and the deep mana enriched voice of the Serpent resounded in the area.

  “The last thing you do? Take me with you? Foolish rat. You are not worthy of such a thing. You all think you know what power is. What real power is. You have never seen power, you have never experienced the weight of the world coursing through your body.

  “You know not your place in the world, and the little of bit of strength you have managed to gather means nothing. Nothing!”

  What remained of the forest in the area show as the Serpent pressed its full weight down on the area around it.

  “You are just a whelp, who tasted a bit of strength and decided to forgo his upbringing to be a rat. I spared you once out of respect for the clan you ran away from, but you returned when you should have known better.

  “Your father and the others before him, would be ashamed to call you kin.”

  The Rygern who had been trying to gather as much of its remaining mana as it could looked up at the Serpent with rage in its eyes.

  “DO NOT SPEAK OF MY FATHER SNAKE!”

  BOOM!!

  With the Rygern being too weak to resist, the Serpent slammed the full brunt of its presence solely onto the back of the Rygern.

  “The time for you to speak is over. You spineless coward. Die.”

  Before the Rygern had time to trigger any form of explosion, the Serpent manifested a blade of water and sliced off the head of the Rygern.

  It stumbled and bounced on the ground a few times before coming to a stop.

  A Tier Seven creature was dead just like that.

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