Birth of the Demonic Sword

The rank 4 Saber-toothed tiger in the upper tier released angry roars as it struggled to free itself from Noah's clutches.

On the other hand, Noah tried his best to break those sharp fangs but to no avail, he wasn't able to crack them even with his full strength.

The other weaker tigers neared the battle when they saw that Noah and their leader had reached a stalemate, Noah knew that he had to act soon or he would be forced to retreat in the air.

His skin caved in as the nourishments inside his body were consumed at a high speed, his muscles condensed as the secret art was activated.

Noah felt a surge of power filling his body, his fingers finally managed to stab the fangs after the activation of the secret art, countless cracks spread over curved fangs of the beast as the strength behind Noah's grip increased.

Then, the fangs fell apart and the tiger released a shriek.

The leader was furious, its fangs had just been broken, it turned its head to stare at the invader only to be swept by a wave of pale-gray flames.

The power behind Noah's flames had increased since his fusion, they had yet to reach the power of those of the rank 5 Cursed dragon in the Granite Abyss but they were a powerful attack nonetheless!

The leader of the pack endured the flames, almost all its fur was burnt along with part of its outer skin but its muscles and internal organs remained unharmed.

The tiger tried to roar in anger but a punch fell on its nose and broke part of the skull behind it, Noah had directly charged and punched the beast!

Noah jumped and landed on the back of the creature, the beast felt dizzy after the last blow and couldn't react, Noah could safely reach its back and cross his arms around its neck.

The tiger began to struggle as soon as Noah tightened his grip around his neck, cracking sounds resounded as its bones broke under the power of Noah's body.

Then, one last crack resounded and the tiger died, falling lifelessly on the ground.

A skeletal figure jumped off the huge beast, Noah felt a bit weak as the effects of the secret art dispersed and his metabolism returned to a normal speed.

'I can defeat it with my secret art but I would probably need to reach the peak of the middle tier before challenging a beast in the upper tier without it.'

Noah evaluated in his mind as he tore part of the leader's skin and put it in his mouth, munching sounds resounded in the area as Noah began to eat the defeated beast.

The stares of the weaker tigers moved between Noah and the corpse of their leader, Noah could feel the greed behind those intense gazes.

However, that was his prey.

Noah turned to look at the other tigers, he knew what they were thinking, they were trying to understand if they could defeat Noah now that he had been weakened by the fight.

A low growl came out of his mouth, Noah sat on the corpse of the tiger and tore another piece of his skin as he continued to stare at the pack.

The tigers hesitated, they had lost their leader and returned to a disorganized state, none of them wanted to be the first to charge at the human.

Noah continued to eat the tiger under him.

His body slowly returned to its normal state as the corpse was consumed, its power even rose slightly after eating that powerful creature.

Saliva fell from the fangs of the tigers, anyone would be able to understand how hungry they were.

Yet, they didn't move, they simply watched as only bones remained of the corpse of their leader.

Then, Noah stood up and walked toward the azure bushes, leaving the remains of the tiger behind him.

The tigers waited for Noah to be enough far away before charging toward the bones of their leader, a battle occurred behind Noah but he couldn't care less, his eyes were fixed on the azure bushes.

'The upper tier tiger has appeared only after I went after these plants, they must have been its personal food.'

Noah inspected those shining plants, he crouched next to them and even smelled them while his consciousness searched for any threat.

He didn't sense any danger coming from them so he simply put one leaf inside his mouth to try it.

The leaf was disgusting, Noah was almost about to spit it when the "Breath" contained inside it entered his body and he could clearly feel its quantity.

'I wondered why something that radiates so much energy has remained untouched among so many beasts!'

Noah thought as he guessed why the azure bushes hadn't already been eaten by the pack of Saber-toothed tigers.

'I bet that this awful taste is the defensive mechanism of this magical plant, the leader of the tigers could only force itself to eat a bit of it from time to time. Well, I need to wait for Elder Laurel's opinion to be completely sure.'

Noah stood up and tore many bushes before storing them inside his space-ring, he would bring samples to his group and eat the rest of them if Elder Laurel confirmed their harmlessness.

'This area can be colonized with the help of a few heroic cultivators, there doesn't seem to be any rank 5 creature here.'

Noah flew in the air as he noted that place in his mind.

He knew that the Hive would ultimately choose to create a stable foothold there just as the other three big nations were doing, there were simply too many resources and the archipelago was already four years late in the exploration, the Hive needed to act quickly if it wanted to seize as many benefits as possible.

Noah's eyes and consciousness swept the areas surrounding the azure plain: A mountain range became visible far away toward the east, part of the poisonous rivers and traces of the desert could be seen south, and nothing changed to north, the plain seemed to extend far away in that direction.

'I'll travel till the mountain range before reuniting with the others, I should find a few powerful creatures that can raise the rank of my body.'

As he thought of that, Noah flew east toward the mountains in the distance.