Having no one else to fight for it, the alpha rok engaged Blake in close quarters combat. It swiped its claws and tried multiple times to tear him up with its fangs, but he couldn't get its hands on him which enraged it.
It went on for sometime before Blake surprise it with a fireball to the face, before giving it a bone-deep cut to its arm reducing it's movement and fighting capabilities.
AWOOOO!
The alpha rok howled in pain, as it pulled back, but Blake wasn't letting it go anywhere. He threw out knives aiming for its eyes and hands. It was quick enough to dodge those heading for its eyes but was slow to dodge the others.
…
Several meters underground, nature's energy was chaotic as they all gathered at the center of the cave, forming a pillar of energy, and at the center of it was a drax.
If the system was here it could easily tell that it was an evolutionary process, which knight rank beasts would have to undergo to become king rank beasts.
For beasts to evolve they had to undergo a different process that would help refine their genes, which will, in turn, strengthen their physical bodies, and depending on their evolution, grant them powers.
"Just a little longer…" The drax gritted its teeth in pain as its bones and muscles were forcefully being destroyed and reformed into new shapes and sizes. The pain was 10 times what it had ever gone through in its entire life.
The only reason it hadn't lost its sanity to the pain was because of its ambitions and sheer willpower.
"No no no, something is wrong!" The drax screamed in despair as the whole process was going out of control.
"I can't die like this!" The drax screamed in desperation, its consciousness began slipping away as its entire life flashed before its eyes.
...….
The drax was the spawn of a sklade, so it started off as a magical beast, but unlike most of its brothers that were hunted down by predators, it managed to survive. With enough food and time to absorb enough nature's energy, it became stronger than its pairs and attained the chief rank.
With its strength it subdued a number of sklades in the area, forming its own lounge and after many near-death battles with other beasts of the forest, it finally obtained its own territory which beasts below the chief rank dared not to trespass.
After a few decades of absorbing and refine nature's energy from both corpse of beasts and the environment it underwent its first evolution and evolved into a Cerate. Its new evolution possessed scales that were 3 times thicker than the previous evolution and the most important part of the evolution was that it gained poisonous abilities.
A century later it went through its second evolutionary process which is its current form a drax. It underwent many physical changes; like its bones became lighter hence its speed increased, its venom was more deadly, and most importantly it got wings that gave it the ability of flight and an affinity to the wind element.
With every evolution it underwent its life span increased, but after a few more centuries its life span was nearing its end but it hadn't attained the required gene purity to evolve to the next rank.
Just like most living things that have tasted power, it was unwilling to die so as a last-ditch to elongate its life span it forced the evolution process with hopes that he could pull through.
...….
The end of the unsuccessful evolution was marked by a loud bang when the pillar of energy exploded. When the cave returned to normal, an unconscious wyvern was on the ground.
A few hours later the body began writhing before it got on its feet.
ROAR!
The wyvern roared in anger as it charged out of the cave's only exit.
When the process failed, the body of the drax evolved into a wyvern but its consciousness was gone. The body was now that of an insane beast whose eyes were filled with madness and anger.
…
Back to the battlefield.
The alpha's fur was died red from the multiple cuts inflicted by Blake's katana. Because of its injuries, the rok was losing its vitality and ability to fight by the second.
It looked around the battlefield and saw that all the members of its pack had become corpses. Some had been scorched to death, one had died in the clutches of thorny vines, some had so many cuts all over their bodies that their mothers wouldn't be able to recognize them.
Seeing that it wouldn't be receiving any support, the alpha accepted its fate and charged at Blake with the intention of trading its life for his.
'A cornered beast shouldn't be underestimated.' Blake said with a smirk as he welcomed the rok's charge.
With a confident smile on his face, Blake lunged forward at the beast fearlessly. Upon arrival, the alpha stomped the ground, pouncing at Blake, but it was well within Blake's expectations.
'Idiot, you are defenseless in mid-air!' Blake chuckled lightly.
Gripping his katana firmly with both hands, Blake slide under the beast by thrusting upwards, thereby splitting its belly wide open.
"Well, that was easy..." Blake said as he lightly knocked off the dirt on his shirt with his hands.
Even though he was the victor of this battle, he couldn't help but feel anxious since their battle may have attracted the attention of other beasts nearby.
"Gather the loot let's get out of here, we can't afford to waste any more time here..." Blake said to his team as he placed the corpse of the alpha rok into his dimensional space.
They quickly moved to a different area. After scanning the area for any hidden danger, the team set up camp and began talking about how to share the loot.
"Like we agreed the loot goes to those that contributed to killing the beast." Blake's reminder prevented anyone from getting funny ideas.
Blake took the corpse of the alpha and normal rok he beheaded, while Luciano took that of the beta. The rest got themselves normal roks, but then came the question.
"How are we meant to harvest the beast core." Esmeralda stared helplessly at the ok without having any ideas of how to handle it.
'That's my queue.' Blake made an evil grin in his mind and decided to capitalize on this opportunity.
This was the reason he tried to persuade them on the first day to hunt with him, but it seemed them needing his help was inevitable.
"I can help you guys, but what's in for me." Blake maintained an indifferent expression to make them feel he had no use for them.
"You can take meat but I get the beast core." Esmeralda tried to bargain, but Blake didn't give her the chance.
"If your rok was sold in the market, it would only worth a few gold coins. Your plant vines messed up its body. So, here's my proposal, I take the beast core and you take the meat to supplement your stock." Blake gave a counter offer.
"Damnit! Alright!" Esmeralda unwillingly agreed to his offer.
[I must say you have grown to be a scammer.] The system applauded his successful scam.
"Layla, would you prefer the best core or more food?" Like a sniper, Blake hit her weak spot immediately making her yield.
"You can keep mine, not that I have any use for it." Luciano's decision to forfeit the entire corpse left the team flabbergasted, but only Blake could understand his reason.
'Maybe it's a form of payment for my advice.' Blake thanked him before gathering the corpses.
"Alright let's get to work." Blake wanted to move out to a different location but was stopped by Ansgar.
"What about mine?" Ansgar was waiting for Blake's offer but never got so he had to ask.
"The beast core or no deal." Blake didn't care to sugar coat his offer since he was dealing with Ansgar.
"But…" Ansgar wanted to mention how good his rok was, but when he saw Blake walking out he immediately agreed to the offer, since it would be as good as useless if he didn't get anything out of it.
'Am on a roll!' Blake grinned from ear to ear, before returning to his indifferent expression turning back to collect the loot.
…
Three days later, in a different side of the forest…..
At the center of a clearing stood a youth with black hair, slightly pale skin and an indifferent look on his face as he gazed at the dead jackler, a hyena type beast. His black leader jacket bearing the school emblem fluttered in the win, revealing his white shirt and a black pendant hanging loosely across his neck.
"I guess its time I meet up with the others" Damon muttered as he pulled out his two short swords from the body of the beast. His eyes narrowed as he looked towards the general direction where his team should be camping.