After the fight with the Heart of the Blazing Lion army everyone was tired, but nobody could rest soundly. There was no way that they could sleep like nothing happened.
Everyone was restless. They had felt the great power of their enemies and how big the gap in their strength had been. Clearly, the Untamed Army had been at a disadvantage. Their numbers didn't even reach one-tenth of the Heart of the Blazing Army and they didn't have a single Higher Lifeform in their rows.
Despite everyone's doubts and worries, Michael decided that everyone should rest a little bit.
He wasn't ready to rush his people from one major battle to the next. That would cause more harm than good.
Instead of rushing into the next battle, Michael decided to use the following days to honor those who died to protect the Untamed Jungle and his territory. Like many others, Michael didn't feel like celebrating the win against the Heart of the Blazing Lion army, but he decided that it was only fair to honor the dead.
They gave their lives to protect everyone.
Michael chose to keep a low profile in the next few days and allow his subjects to think about what had happened and to grieve as much as they had to. Michael didn't join them. Instead, he focused on the Savannah Region and the war between the Trilance – which struggled to survive now that they had only two Lords left – and the Council of Xylon with a massive pool of 106 Lords.
'I would rather fight those 106 Lords than the Heart of the Blazing Lion army...'
The Council of Xylon, as a whole, was unlikely to have more than 300 Higher Lifeforms. In fact, it would surprise Michael if their combined forces managed to get close to 100 Higher Lifeforms. However, the most important was that the Council of Xylon didn't have any Peak Tier-4 Awakened.
They could ask for reinforcement from their Clans and the Government, but it was not possible to bring true powerhouses to the Savannah Region. The Lords would have to be at a higher Tier than the reinforcement to transport them to the Savannah Region, after all.
Michael sighed deeply when he thought about the Council of Xylon. The movements in the Savannah Region had been quite confusing for a while now. Michael would much rather attack them before his opponents used dirty tricks to kill more of the Untamed Army's treasured powerhouses. Unfortunately, it was not like Michael's subjects were strong enough to deal with the forces of 106 established Lords.
Even if they didn't have many powerhouses, the 106 Lords were well-established and likely to have close to 100,000 combatants respectively. Their territories were also not small and certainly not easy to trespass.
'Most would be Tier-1 and Tier-2, though...' Michael thought before slapping his cheeks to calm down his nerves.
He would attack the Council of Xylon at some point, but his people had to rest first. Rushing into the next battle would cause more harm than good.
At the end of the day, Michael decided to analyze the movements of the High Beast Horde, or what was left of it. At least, that was the plan.
He found the whereabouts of the Crysalis Deer, but most of the other monsters had disappeared. They ran away as if they had joined the High Beast Horde merely to defend the Untamed Jungle.
'Using them against the Savannah Region won't be possible then. I should have expected that.'
He didn't want to be idle, but his Body, Mind, and Soul were too exhausted to do anything. Michael decided to rest for the first time in forever.
He went to sleep early and was still tired even after he woke up late the next day.
His entire body felt like a mess, but it was a little bit easier to walk around.
Michael left the wooden manor where he encountered Master Tigris with the other Silverfangs. They greeted him but avoided his eyes in discomfort.
Even if it was not their fault that so many people died, the Silverfangs felt responsible for the high casualty rate against the Heart of the Blazing Lion army.
The six Silverfangs had emerged from Legendary Scrolls, a Scroll that ought to summon powerful Legendary Summons that had the potential to help their Lord. At least two out of the six Legendary Summons would have been related to combat, granting them enough power to change the outcome of the battle.
That was how Legendary Scrolls usually worked. They would always give you something you want or need – even if you didn't know that you might need them.
But the six Silverfangs were either too weak to battle or just too bad at it.
Michael didn't think that they did anything wrong, but he wasn't going to play nanny and pamper to the Silverfangs. He had other business to attend. Their struggle against the Zentika Empire and the Council of Xylon was not yet over, after all.
It didn't take long for Michael to reach the warehouse where he picked up two spatial pouches. One pouch was filled with the Blazing Lion army's Soldiers whereas the other spatial pouch contained the bodies of 16,000ish monster corpses.
Michael retrieved the monster bodies first and began to loot them using Extraction.
Since he didn't have to focus on extracting SoulStar Fragments and the like, the removal process was rather simple and fast. Michael acquired a total of 464,239 Summoning Scroll Fragments, 11,680 Ordinary Summoning Scrolls, 9,633 blueprints, and 915 Artifacts.
Most Artifacts and plans were of low quality. Only two Artifacts were 4-Star Tier-3 and 3-Star Tier-4 Artifacts. They were worth a small fortune. Not a single blueprint was overly valuable for Michael. They were Agriculture-type blueprints, which was good for the Bartholomew Corporation.
'At least, I can earn a small fortune..I guess…'
Michael shrugged and retrieved the bodies of the Heart of the Blazing Lion army.
The Untamed Army and the High Beast Horde managed to eliminate a total of 85,249 members of the Heart of the Blazing Lion army. They killed 124 High Lionhearts and 853 Awakened.
It was slightly unfortunate that most Awakened they'd killed had a low Tier, but some of them had been at a higher Tier, just like the Commander.
Michael hadn't been fortunate enough to sight any intact bodies near the crater where the Zentika Empire's military camp had been located, otherwise, he would have more Lionheart corpses to extract.
He spent the next hour plundering as much loot as possible from the Lionheart corpses. The gains weren't too bad.
"1,619,731 Summoning Scroll Fragments, 45,182 Ordinary Summoning Scrolls, 25,575 blueprints, and 1442 Artifacts."
Procuring more than two million Summoning Scroll Fragments, 57,000ish Ordinary Scrolls, 35,000ish plans and more than 2,000 Artifacts from a single battle was a great haul, but Michael wasn't satisfied. They lost too much in yesterday's battle.
Not even the 57,345 SoulStar Fragments and 109 Soultrait Symbols he'd extracted were enough to brighten his mood.
He had extracted the Memory Orbs of the Lionheart Awakened as well, but Michael didn't want to see the death of his subjects through the eyes of his enemies at this moment. Michael knew that he would have to consume their Memory Orbs sooner or later to find out what the Zentika Empire had up to their sleeves, however, he was not ready to do this right now.
'Maybe, in a few days.'
Michael took a deep breath and forced a wry smile on his lips.
It was about time to reward his subjects for emerging victorious against the Zentika Empire.
