Contrary to Michael's expectations, the Savannah region was like a vast, golden sea of grass that stretched as far as he could see. Shrubs of grasses and thorny bushes swayed gently in the breeze, creating an illusion of soft waves that rippled across the land.
The ground was mostly flat, offering little to no hiding spots for monsters and others. However, one could also spot some low, rounded hills every now and then. It was just that there were so few of them that one hardly noticed them.
In the distance, Michael found scattered trees that offered patches of shade to the monsters of the Savannah region. These trees had long, slender branches and leaves that rustled softly in the wind.
Flying through the sky on Icarus' back, Michael's gaze moved across the brilliant blue of the sky high above them. The sun hung high up in the air, casting a warm golden light on the land. It was a simple landscape with its beauty being the openness and the feeling of endless space.
But it was also a place full of death and danger. The Savannah had many predators traveling through the vast openness to hunt their next prey to feed their families. However, there was also Michael and his people. They didn't travel to the Savannah region to witness the beauty of the vast expanse. They came for blood.
While flying high above the ground of the Savannah region, Michael was able to pinpoint various things. He saw many small farm houses in areas that looked like gated communities. Fences, towers, and guards protected the farms from wild monsters and other invaders. For a moment, Michael considered attacking these gated communities to burn down the fields and eliminate everyone, but he quickly decided against it.
He noticed that no Kitsun was working in the fields, and that the Guards were actually Awakened, who belonged to another race. Amid hundreds of slaves, only a handful of Kitsun could be seen voicing out orders while swinging black whips through the air in a threatening manner.
The slaves of other races were Summons of the Lords who were defeated by the Kitsun Lord in the past. The Guards of these gated communities were the Awakened of those Lords who had been defeated and eliminated. The Awakened had been forced into submission by the Kitsun Lord.
Though Michael wasn't sure how exactly the Kitsun Lord forced the Awakened into submission. But it was highly likely that the Kitsun Lord promised to not kill them and their people if they accepted the Soul Pact that bound them to him and his territory.
The Kitsun Lord was thus able to create several structures that used the slaves as free workers, and the Awakened as cheap guards. Only a handful of Kitsun Summons were required to manage everything, thus creating a large source of food for his entire territory.
Michael felt like throwing a few Glacicles into the farmhouses to pierce the throats of the Kitsun and free the slaves of the other races, but he didn't want to expose his location to the Kitsun Lord right now.
Chances were that the Kitsun Lord was already informed about the two Greater Eagles flying across the Savannah region, but it was not as if the Kitsun Lord could teleport his reinforcement to the other side of his territory in the blink of an eye.
Even if the Kitsun Lord had a plan up his sleeve, Michael was not afraid. After all, he spent his time on Icarus' back coming up with a batch of plans as well!
["How is the plan progressing? Did you already encounter the reinforcement, or are you still splitting up?"] Michael asked Sun Demos telepathically.
Since Sun Demos and the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys would be easily exposed in the Savannah region, Michael had decided to split up their groups.
Sun Demos and his troupe were the strongest, fastest, and deadliest in places such as the Untamed Jungles. The environment was perfect to initiate swift attacks before disappearing in the densely grown jungle. The monkeys could move rapidly, using their long and flexible arms to grasp tree branches and change their movement pattern in the blink of an eye.
That was why Michael decided to order Sun Demos and his troupe to stay in the Untamed Jungle and to split up. Even if it was better to stay in a large group to ensure that their enemies couldn't overwhelm them with numbers, Sun Demos and the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys were not exactly hard to pinpoint as a group of nearly 1,000 individuals in a place with hardly any cover to hide them.
Instead of moving ahead as one big group, the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys were split up into 200 groups with five monkeys in each group. The number was perfect for swift attacks to disrupt a few enemies, potentially kill one or two Kitsun in the progress, before they would retreat at once.
Given that the Kitsun Lord had several small settlements across the Untamed Jungle and the Savannah region, giving him a much bigger span of land to control than Michael, it wouldn't be easy to safeguard most parts of the Untamed Jungle with only 1,000 individuals. Fortunately, Sun Demos and his subordinates didn't pay much heed to control. They traveled through the Untamed Jungle to ambush scattered groups of Kitsun, and the reinforcement sent by the Kitsun Lord.
["I found the reinforcement a while ago. My subordinates struck them from the side and the back, killing some weaklings. Two young Blood Oath Demon Monkeys sustained minor injuries, but it's not worth mentioning."] Sun Demos reported to Michael.
Michael was glad that the Guerilla Warfare worked once again. Using this kind of tactic in the Untamed Jungle was efficient yet also dangerous. A single mistake and the whole strategy would fail miserably. Fortunately, nothing went wrong.
Over the course of the next ten minutes, Sun Demos and his people found a few small groups that had separated while traveling from the main group of the reinforcement and were a bit further. They targeted such groups, struck them from all sides, killed almost everyone and disappeared the moment the warning sounds reverberated through the surroundings.
After that, the Guerilla Warfare was halted for a few minutes to organize the groups and strike the enemies where they would never expect it.
The Greater Eagles, on the other hand, reached the second Beast Ranch. The Beast Ranch was at the other end of the Kitsun Lord's territory – close to 150 kilometers away from the Untamed Jungle. Michael and the others passed by a few Beast Ranches on their way to this particular Beast Ranch, but that didn't matter. They would burn them down sooner or later, either way.
Upon reaching their destination, Opars released Energy Imprint two times to fill the Elemental Empress with energy as she created the ring of fire around the Beast Ranch. The searing flames flickered brightly as they burned the dry grass in the vicinity. Afterward, the Elemental Empress pushed the flames of the ring of fire inward, burning down everything that entered the path of flames.
Michael, Tiara, and Lilica jumped down into the center of the Beast Ranch once again to deal with the horde of bloodthirsty monsters as well as the Kitsun managing the Beast Ranch. Mika and the others readied their bows and arrows on the back of the Greater Eagles, patiently waiting for the horde of bloodthirsty monsters to charge into the center of the Beast Ranch.
Michael broke the locks of the iron gates that held the starving bloodthirsty beasts imprisoned with a wave of his hand before he manifested several enhanced Qi Glacicle Swords. Each of them was strong enough to not only cut through the strongest defenses of a Late Tier-2 Monster, but also the starving and weakened bloodthirsty beasts. Not even the abominations that were born through the ritual of blood and death were strong enough to survive Michael's Qi Glacicle Swords.
They tried to evade the attacks, but using Spirit Disturbance with Eagle Eyes and Spirit Gaze was enough to disorient the abominations and land a hit.
'There are more abominations inside this Beast Ranch. Was the Ranch in the Untamed Jungle new, or did they intentionally nurture more abominations in this place?' Michael wondered, only to realize a few seconds later why the Beast Ranch had six abominations.
"We killed the Kitsun. A dozen Awakened and a hundred combat Summons," Tiara came back to report, ignoring the warm blood that trickled down her hands. She smiled vibrantly at Michael with a map of the Savannah region in her hand.
"Look what I found!" She exclaimed excitedly.
Michael looked at the map while continuing to control the Qi Glacicle Swords around him. His attention fell on the black marks located in the territories of the rival Lords. There were a total of six marks with each of them being located quite deep in the enemy's territory.
'The Kitsun Lord is really a bastard. Blessing his enemies with those abominations and bloodthirsty beasts…"
Even though the abominations were only Tier-2 Monsters, they were mutants working with the power of death – if Michael was right about their powers. If they were able to grow into Tier-2 Monsters within the Beast Ranch, Michael didn't even want to know how quickly they could advance to Tier-3 killing machines upon claiming freedom. They would feast and regain their peak strength before growing stronger by devouring their enemies.
Last but not least, the abominations were extremely intelligent. They would avoid their enemies until they were strong enough to face them head-on. Or they would avoid attacking them head-on forever, focusing entirely on using sneak attacks to exhaust their combat power by attacking their weak spots when they least expected it.
One way or another, it was a good thing that Michael got rid of the abominations. He wouldn't want such a deadly beast in his territory either.
