Chapter 843 Jungle's Balance: The Verdant Behemoth's Intervention
"That's the fourth one this week," Wolf said in a solemn voice before he suddenly brought his sword down, cutting deep into the titan's neck, causing the latter to fall down on its knees as it tried opening its mouth, only for its mouth to get full as Greenie slammed his hammer down on it.
The same happened to the drake.
Thanks to the immense aura that followed right behind the roar, both monsters had stopped what they were doing for a moment and that became fatal to them as their enemies didn't wait for them to recover.
"Yeah, it seems they are getting more frequent." Reign said as he arrived near Wolf who nodded his head at him.
It was just as they had previously believed. Deeper inside the jungle, Tier VI monsters truly did exist, and occasionally, some of them would get close to the areas where the Tier V monsters lived and play around with them, often using their immense strength to push the weaker monsters around and perhaps even broaden their own territory.
The monsters that did come were always amongst the weakest of the Tier VI monsters, but even the weakest Tier VI was a force to be reckoned with as they stood at the top of the Warrior Realm and could mop the floor with 99% of peak Tier V beings.
The team, finished with their battle, turned their attention towards the source of the powerful roar. The air crackled with energy as an enormous silhouette emerged from the depths of the jungle. A colossal figure, covered in scales that shimmered with an otherworldly glow, strode into view.
It was a Tier VI monster, a creature that stood at the pinnacle of the Warrior Realm, and this one, this one was definitely not a mere low-grade Tier VI monster. The jungle seemed to bow before its presence, and the very air quivered with its dominance. This monster, known as the Verdant Behemoth, could be considered one of the most powerful monsters in the entirety of the jungle.
The aura that was now being sensed by Reign and the others was so powerful, so immense, that even they had trouble standing normally.
Its massive form, towering at an astonishing height of 10 meters, exuded an aura of primal power. The Verdant Behemoth's scales, a breathtaking tapestry of emerald and jade, reflected the hues of the surrounding vegetation. Its eyes glowed with an ancient wisdom, and the crest on its head seemed to reach towards the heavens.
The team, experienced as they were, couldn't help but feel a twinge of trepidation in the face of this mighty creature as it suddenly appeared mere meters away from them.
The Verdant Behemoth, however, paid them little attention, its focus directed towards the fallen Tier V monsters. With a swift and decisive movement, it dispatched the corpses of the Titanthorn Drake and Arboreal Titan with a single swipe of its claws, their corrupted forms crumbling beneath its immense power.
Reign and the others slightly flinched as the monsters destroyed the bodies of the monsters they had killed so easily. Even though they had killed them and would get the exp and possibly some rewards, the bodies of the monsters were a treasure as well and they could be used to make good items.
Reign, Mia, and the others watched in concern as the giant monster stood silent in front of them. The jungle, once a chaotic battleground, now stood silent in the presence of this ancient and powerful being. The team's battle-hardened gazes met, sharing a collective understanding of the magnitude of the creature before them.
As the Verdant Behemoth turned its gaze towards the team, nothing happened.
It stared at them for a little while, looking into the eyes of each one of them before seemingly snorting and turning around, slowly going back to the depths of the jungle.
Along the way, any monster the Behemoth met was killed by one strike, and upon looking closer, Reign and the others were surprised to find that every monster it killed was a corrupted one.
It didn't do anything to the normal monsters present in the jungle, but any corrupted monster was dealt with, their bodies destroyed completely and the corruption gone, seemingly purified by the behemoth.
"What the hell just happened?" Shadow asked in shock as Reign and the others shook their heads.
"I have no idea, but … it seems like the big guy is on our side."
"Yeah, the only ones it had targeted were the corrupted monsters, no other monster was so much as hurt by it."
The team exchanged puzzled glances as the Verdant Behemoth continued its journey deeper into the jungle, leaving a trail of purified, lifeless corrupted monsters in its wake. The mysterious intervention of the Tier VI creature raised questions and a sense of awe among the team members.
Reign, with his heightened connection to Aethion, felt a peculiar resonance with the Verdant Behemoth. The ancient creature seemed to radiate an aura of benevolence as if it recognized the team's efforts in cleansing the jungle of corruption.
"I've never seen anything like this," Aelrinder murmured, his eyes still fixed on the retreating figure of the Verdant Behemoth. "It's as if the creature is here to maintain the balance of the jungle, eradicating the corruption that taints its essence."
"That could very well be the case." Reign said with slight vigilance as he stared at the depths of the jungle.
"We can't think of every single area in the world as the same."
"The monsters aren't all mindless killing machines, especially not the ones that have managed to reach a high tier, even though it seems most are this powerful because they are offsprings of other powerful monsters, which made their intellect lower compared to their parents and the monsters that had reached the tier by themselves."
"We have already met Magokur, an orc who was friendly, we have also met other monsters, especially recently, inside their own territories, that are intelligent and aren't hostile to every other being around them."
"This one might very well be here for the corruption."
"Perhaps that is the main point of this area, the corruption and the battle of the more powerful monsters against it."
"Don't forget, this has been made to somewhat mirror a game, and so far, the only thing that is similar is the fact there's a system, and that we get more powerful by defeating monsters, as well as the missions that appear."
"We have yet to come across an area that gives us a choice of joining one faction that is battling against another faction, right?"
Wolf and the others suddenly glanced at Reign with slight surprise.
"You mean, like in MMOs where a player can join a faction, and then fight against the NPCS and players of another faction, in a PVP map?"
"In a way, but of course, every place here can be considered as a PVP map, the only places safe for people are the safe zones, and now there are fewer of them in the world."
"I think that in this area, well, deeper inside the jungle, when we reach Tier VI and can explore it, we can choose whether we wish to help the corruption spread, or fight it with that monster, as well as some others."
"For now though, no need to think too much of it." Reign said with a sigh before getting up.
"We're not strong enough to meddle deeper in the jungle, we're high-grade Tier V combatants, which does place us high in the hierarchy of this part of the jungle, but deeper inside, we will barely be able to fight against the weakest monsters."
Mia and the others nodded at Reign's words before they all stared at the remains of the monsters they battled.
"I just wish that bastard didn't completely destroy the corpses, we got nothing from this, nothing!" Shadow yelled as he stared at what remained of the two monsters before sighing.
"All that work for only exp, why did it have to attack them, we already killed them?"
"Maybe because even killing them doesn't remove the corruption, I mean, the monsters here have no use for corpses except to eat them, so maybe the Behemoth destroyed them completely so that no other monster would eat the corpses and perhaps get tainted by the same corruption?" Beast asked the others who took a moment to think.
"I think that's quite possible, like you said, monsters have no use for corpses other than to eat them, so that could very well be one way the corruption gets spread around, for a bit, I believed those monsters were also controlled by the corrupted cores, only that they were released out so that they could spread out the corruption, but Beast's theory makes me think differently."
"If a monster kills a monster in the corrupted area, and then eats it, it gets the corruption, and if two monsters share a meal together, both get corrupted, and it spreads quicker."
"Well, for now, the only thing we can do is continue hunting more of them before being able to evolve, nothing else really matters as much."
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