Alex's heart sank as his worst fears came true. 'These bastards are going to send a beast horde into the Stepstones tribe,' he thought.
Or worse, they already had.
'I need to go back,' Alex thought. If he could go there before they were attacked, he could save them.
He used Heaven's Impact on that young man and made him unconscious. Then, he took him over to the hall where Scarlet was enjoying the Qi.
"Make the fire again, Scarlet. We need to leave," he said.
Scarlet tried to argue, but Alex gave no grounds for any arguments. The people were in danger and he wasn't going to waste any more minutes.
So, after Scarlet lit up the sacred flames again, Alex dumped the young man close to it and forgot about him. With how hard his Heaven's impact had hit him, it was likely that the young man would be asleep for days.
With him being so young, he didn't feel right to simply kill him outright, but he wasn't going to let him get away with it either.
He walked close to one of the houses that were barely standing and dumped a lot of the beast corpses he had in his storage ring.
After that, he ran back toward where the Bonehead tribe's people were waiting for him.
He ran back faster this time around, and it only took him half an hour or so to return this time around. Seeing him arrive, the man named Han quickly approached him with a face that expected nothing but good news.
"Brother… our tribe… is it?" he couldn't bring himself to ask properly.
"I've killed all the beast there. None remain any more," Alex said.
The people in front of him started cheering, celebrating, and even crying when they heard the news.
Alex continued speaking. "The tribe is all but destroyed. The houses have been mostly destroyed, but the Sacred flame remains. I'm sure you can remake everything and start anew," he said.
"Also, I've left some of the beast corpses back in the tribe while taking away some. Use the beast corpses however you can," he said.
The people only celebrated harder after hearing that.
However, the man named Han couldn't find it in himself to celebrate after seeing Alex's downtrodden look as well as his look of a hurry.
"Is something wrong?" he asked curiously.
Alex looked around, unsure if he should say it. "Come with me," he said and walked over to the side. Li Yun followed as well, wondering what was happening.
"Do you know the Arrowhead tribe?" he asked after they were more or less speaking in private, away from prying eyes and ears.
"Arrowhead tribe? I believe it's one of the tribes by the Blueheart Oasis a day or two travel away towards the northwest. Why do you ask?" the man replied.
"Arrowhead tribe, along with members of the tribes surrounding the Blueheart Oasis are most likely the ones behind the attack in your tribe," Alex said.
"What? They are the ones that—"
"Quiet down. Yes, they are the ones. They have been wounding beasts and forcing them to find a place to heal, in this case, your tribe. I learned it from a kid from the Arrowhead tribe. He's unconscious in your Sacred flame hall. Keep him there even after he wakes up. I will need to ask him more questions later," Alex said.
The man was starting to get angry. If not for Alex saying that he wanted to question him later, he would've most likely killed the young man when he saw him.
"Why later? You can just wait for him to wake up, can't you?" the man said. "I want to kill that person."
"You can do what you want after I question him in a few days," Alex said. "For now, I must leave." He turned towards Li Yun. "Those people have begun their attack on the Stepstones tribe as well."
"What?" the girl's eyes went wide in shock and horror. "They're attacking our tribe?"
"Yes, the young man told me," Alex said.
"We must go back right now then," Li Yun said.
"I agree," Alex said and turned towards the man named Han. "Don't kill him until I say so."
Han's eyes were serious. "I won't. You should leave right now."
"Yes," Alex said and turned to Li Yun. "I'm afraid you will have to stay behind as well."
"No way in hell!" she cried out. "I'm going to fight for my tribe too."
"You will only slow me down if you went with me," Alex said. "Please understand."
Without even waiting for her to reply, Alex sprinted away. He knew he had already wasted some time talking with the Bonehead tribe, but that was something he couldn't skip out on.
If they let the young man leave, he wouldn't have any way of learning more about who exactly was involved in this heinous conspiracy to destroy a few tribes and their people.
Alex ran without stopping even the slightest bit and even used the Qi he had kept without using after eating the beast's cores. His movement technique aided him greatly as his speed was much higher.
It was already late in the morning by the time he left, so even after running way past noon, Alex had only gone back half the way.
At this pace, he was going to reach the tribe early in the evening. Hopefully, that was enough time. But then again, the young man had to have left quite early to reach the Bonehead tribe so soon.
'No, don't think about it. Just focus on running,' he thought. He wished he could fly, as that would've been must faster, but with the little Qi he had, he would be able to barely fly for half an hour.
At least while running, he could run for the entire way through and still have some Qi remaining at the end.
As expected, it was around when the sun started to set that Alex finally saw the Stepstones tribe in his senses.
Unlike what he had hoped, however, the tribe was currently being attacked by the beasts. He could see many different beasts fighting the many people from the tribe.
And they were all struggling.
Alex ran even faster, burning all the Qi in his body as he arrived at the tribe half an hour later.
He felt tired. Not only had he spent a whole day walking over to the Bonehead tribe, but he had also fought the beasts that were in that tribe, and then ran all the way back here.
After all that, it would be more surprising if he wasn't tired at all. However, that wouldn't stop Alex right now.
The moment he arrived, he brought out Midnight and struck the very first beast that he encountered. The lizard had barely turned its head when Alex's sword fell it from its body.
Blood sprayed out of the open neck, and Alex was doused in it, but he still kept going.
He encountered another beast that came at him. Alex saw the side of this rabid meerkat and recognized the wound from being attacked by something sharp.
Alex also recognized the non-vital part of the beast that was wounded, which meant that this beast hadn't been attacked by any of the people from the Stepstones tribe, but rather the one from the Arrowhead tribes and the other ones.
Alex felt his anger grow hotter as he cut the beast in a single slash and continued further.
He killed around 5 or so beasts before he arrived by the canyon itself. When he arrived there, he finally saw the situation firsthand and realized how dire it was.
From his senses, looking at the overall battle, it looked like the tribe was struggling, but doing well enough that they were holding on. He thought that with him here, they would perhaps even make it out well.
However, when he saw the many corpses of the people lying by the corpses of the beasts that were killed, he knew the situation was worse than what he had first thought.
The chief found him and looked around.
"What are you doing here? Where's my daughter?!" he shouted at Alex.
"She's fine," Alex said. "I left her behind and came to help you."
He slashed behind him, killing dozens of smaller beasts at once as his Sword aura struck down a path and killed everything it touched.
He swung once again, and more beasts died. However, the beasts just continued coming one after another.
'Dammit, not all the beasts are even here,' he thought. 'More are continuing to come.'
He could imagine the people from the other tribes rallying the beasts before sending them this way, and if he left, he could most likely find them, but he couldn't do so now.
He needed to stay behind and help these people.
Alex swung his sword again killing even more beasts, but the beasts were way too many, and way too spread apart to continue using Sword aura to attack.
Furthermore, there were people that were mostly in the way of his attack and he couldn't hurt them.
Alex tried using Heaven's Impact a few times to save the people that were in danger, but that too couldn't be used for long as there were just too many beasts.
Hundreds could die and hundreds would remain still. He needed more than just himself if he wanted to save as many people as he could from the jaws of death.
So, Alex decided to bring out some help.
He brought out the Blood God's Manual.
