38 Chapter 38

"Wow, someone has been having fun around here," Naz said while nearing the corpses of the beasts to examine them.

"This may have something to do with the stampede that we suffered yesterday. The culprit behind these corpses could be the same as the one that made the rest of the beasts flee from this place, so we should try and learn everything we can from this. " Agathe said while she began to examine the corpses too.

As they began to investigate the scene that they had just discovered, the group quickly divided the various tasks among themselves, with the Esvert cultivators in charge of examining the corpses and the various damages to the surroundings, and the Guburg cultivators in charge of patrolling the area and ensuring that no beast disturbed the investigators' work.

Not long after, they had a general image of what happened there, and to explain it to the Guburg cultivators, Agathe approached one of the corpses and began to talk.

"Do you see this corpse? Maybe you know about this species, maybe not, but this is an air-cutting mantis. As its name suggests, this beast is a type of gigantic mantis. The average can reach a meter and a half in height, and its main characteristic is the rapid movement of its arms, which makes them capable of creating air slashes to attack enemies that are normally out of their reach. " She explained as she pointed at a mantis arm that was on the ground, separated a few meters from the body." The thing is that this species of beast is pretty territorial, even with those of their same species, so at first we thought that maybe there was a fight between this specimen and a group of other beasts that became so dangerous that it caused the stampede yesterday.

"And it was not?" Naz asked while tilting his head.

"We think not. We have reasons to suspect that this was not the culprit. The first reason is that even though this type of beast can create air slashes, they don't have the power to cut stones and trees like we have seen, and much less in this quantity. The second and most important reason is that the corpse of this air-cutting mantis has the same kind of wounds. Our main hypothesis is that another specimen of this kind of beast has managed to achieve a breakthrough, breaking the balance of power on the mountain and managing to claim it whole as its territory. The other hypothesis is that another kind of beast with high cutting power has recently moved to the mountain, also breaking the balance of power in the territory and scaring most of the beasts around them until they flee the place." Agathe explained her hypothesis.

"So, what is the plan? Do we find that new beast and kill it, or do we simply leave it be? " Naz asked.

"Leaving it alone is not a possibility as it could grow even stronger and expand its territory until it reaches our village, becoming a potential threat to us. The best solution possible is to hunt it down as soon as possible, as it would probably become stronger as we let it stay there for more time. " Agathe continued explaining her plan.

"And I suppose that you already know where that creature is, right?" Naz asked with a smile.

"Well, it is only a guess, but when a beast claims territory, it tends to stay on the central part of it, the peak of the mountain in this case, and my people have already found some strange energy movements there, so I would suggest that we start looking there," Agathe said with a smug face.

"Let's get on track then. I still want to get to the village today. " Naz replied while bursting into laughter.

Like that, they quickly picked up the different instruments and tools that they had been using to investigate the area and continued with their walk.

As they neared the peak of the mountain, it became even clearer that something was happening there, as the damage to the environment and the signs of battle only increased as they climbed more.

When they were finally reaching the peak, Agathe suddenly turned and asked the rest of the group.

"Is it only me, or does the energy around here feel weird?" She asked while looking confused.

"I was thinking the same thing. It feels like it could cut me to pieces at any moment, "replied one of the Esvert cultivators.

"Me too," said another.

Soon every Esvert cultivator and even some of the Guburg cultivators, including Naz, agreed, which made them a bit worried as they didn't understand what was happening.

"I guess we will understand when we reach the peak," Naz said while he continued walking.

Reacting to his words, everyone resumed their walk, and in less than half an hour, they managed to reach the peak.

When they arrived, they found what looked like an air-cutting mantis but was much bigger than the others, reaching a height of at least two meters. And what caught their attention the most about the mantis was how its arms were attacking every single drop of energy around them, making them grow a few more centimeters with a layer of green energy, making its arms extremely sharp.

"Am I hallucinating or is that beast using martial arts like cultivators?" Agathe asked, her eyes wide open.

Suddenly, the mantis released a high-pitched sound that made the cultivators need to cover their ears. When the sound stopped, the mantis began to move at high speed toward the group.