The Koekitsu did not take its eyes off Aris, even though those eyes were filled with madness.
Aris could not tell whether it had suddenly become overly excited at the thought of eating him, or whether it was going to enjoy torturing him for a long time.
The beast remained there. For a long time. Without moving, its four tails seeming to float under the effect of its excitement.
Aris, on the other hand, could not think.
"Should I fight it? Will I even be able to do anything to it? Should I run away?..."
A thousand questions crowded his mind at once, while he was unable to sort them out and think properly.
Everyone held their breath.
The group behind him did not seem willing to move either, waiting for the slightest action from one of the two.
Either the Mad Beast or the giant fox would survive, but regardless of the outcome, it was going to be a sight worth seeing. Even if it turned out to be their last day.
In the final minutes of their staring contest, as weather slowly began to flow normally again, the Koekitsu stopped smiling so wildly and displayed a lighter smile. It was still proud and demonic, but all the madness seemed to have dispersed.
Instead, it somehow appeared more cunning and more serene.
Slowly, it raised a paw to turn around, and during the entirety of that movement, Aris was more stressed than he had ever been.
Then it nodded its head, as if greeting the Mad Beast, before turning around and calmly, elegantly walking toward an unknown direction. Aris watched it leave, gradually disappearing into the thick darkness that now ruled over the western lands.
Night had returned. No one knew, neither Aris nor the group, how long it had lasted. But they all knew it had been long.
Then the Koekitsu completely disappeared from his sight. Only then did Aris finally release his breath, slowly letting the tension fall.
His heart had beaten too fast for too long. He was as exhausted as when he had fought the wolf pack.
He held his chest as if it would prevent his heart from exploding, but it changed nothing. Whatever was happening was inside his body.
All he could do was wait and calm down. And that was exactly what he did.
Aris calmly sat down on the ground, crossing his legs and holding his head in his hands. It was strange to see him like this after all the time spent wandering this desert.
The Mad Beast almost never rested. But on that day, even the former king needed rest.
"Damn it. Next time, I'll make sure I can kill you and all your kind."
Aris knew it. He was not yet strong enough to face a Koekitsu.
But he was not far from it.
All he had to do was eat beast meat, after all. He intended to hunt. Again and again. Hunt until he was drunk on it. Until he could destroy those beasts one by one.Hunt until he became strong enough to return home and...
What was he supposed to do again?...
Other than kill?...
Aris could no longer remember.
But he stood back up after recovering a stable heartbeat. He looked toward the direction the Koekitsu had taken.
Since he did not know where he was going anyway, he decided to make a small detour and come back later to kill that bastard.
He cast one final glance at the group before nodding toward the direction he was heading.
"Let's go."
Then, without turning around, without even knowing whether they would follow him or jump on him, Aris turned his back and left as well.
The group of beasts accompanying him, having already lost some of its former glory, remained there for a few seconds, staring at the Mad Beast.
Then the first fox followed.Followed by a fennec. And then, little by little, the rest of the group.
It was rare to see beasts form groups.
They devoured one another without mercy, slaughtering each other until not a single gram of flesh remained. The cleverest dominated territories. The strongest erased life of it. But under no circumstances did they form groups.
And yet, something had changed within this desert.
And little by little, the reputation of the Mad Beast, even among beasts, began to spread like wildfire...
And within a week, Aris once again had the equivalent of a pile of clothes at least four meters high and three meters wide made from nothing but beast hides.
It was still true that beasts were scarce at first. Aris had trouble finding even a single fennec. But he quickly understood that it was not really a population density problem.
In truth, it was his fault.
The beasts fled from Aris. From very far away.
In this region of the desert, the wolves had a vast territory. They had managed to turn it into a rather favorable hunting ground, a place where there were always a few beasts to feast upon. The area was ruled by the pack, and everything living there existed under the constraint that, sooner or later, the pack could find and devour them.
But the pack had been there for a very long time.
Eventually, whether they were foxes or fennecs, they had all learned to live within its territory while avoiding being killed by larger creatures trying to enter it.
The pack's territory had become both a form of protection and a trap for those who lived there.
However, they had all seen him arrive.
The day the Mad Beast stepped into the wolves' territory, every beast thought that another idiot had appeared and wandered too far.
The wolves were already waiting for him, and it did not take long before the battle began.
However, under the astonished eyes of every beast present, the wolf pack was completely wiped out by a single beast.
By itself, it had eliminated the rulers of the area, a pack of at least fifty wolves.
On top of that, they had discovered that it was accompanied by a terrifying group of scavengers that took care of the remains and the excess.
In short, there was not a single good reason why they would want to cross paths with such a dreadful beast.
So they retreated.
Every beast in the area that had knew about the massacre retreated from the wolves' territory to avoid crossing paths with the Mad Beast. And when one beats saw another running for its life, if the two were about the same size, it would run away too.
They had all backed away, and that was why Aris encountered no one.
In truth, beasts were not used to fleeing like this. But such a level of power could only mean that this beast, as strange as it might be, was on the level of those four-tailed monsters.
But as frightened and cautious as they were, as fast and restless, as agile and dangerous, Aris eventually found them.
He quickly understood the trick, and when he spotted a fennec fleeing in the distance, he launched himself after it without hesitation, intending to finish it quickly.
In less than a minute, despite several hundred meters separating them, Aris tore apart its leg with his bare hands, preventing it from running, then simply began devouring it alive.
The fennec still struggled beneath Aris's fangs, desperately trying to escape the hopeless situation. But Aris tore away a large chunk of its flesh, spraying black blood across his body, upon which he still had not put any proper clothes.
All he had left was something resembling a jacket, torn at the edges, a hide hanging from his shoulders that almost served as a scarf, a sort of pair of shorts hiding his family jewels, and numerous wires connecting his two blades.
They had also grown in size.
Aris had managed to make them three times larger.
What had once resembled knives were now true blades, as gray as these fallen lands, making them difficult for any beast he fought to see.
Aris no longer even had the presence of mind to try understanding the logic behind the cores and the threads connecting the incredible pastry that the beasts of the western lands actually were.
No. Instead, he was content to kill. Again and again. To become stronger by digesting monster meat. To increase the size of his group and keep them alive. And to continue moving forward.
Aris had become a machine, programmed only to hunt. His instincts had sharpened, becoming keener. His movements more precise. More powerful. Without hesitation.
Aris could now see farther. He could distinguish a hundred scents at once. He could hear from a kilometer away.
He was improved. Better. But he was unaware of it. Because in his state of mind, he could only focus on the next prey...
And one day, while hunting a fox that had come too close, he stopped because he had sensed something.
Not far away, to his left, there was a wolf pack.He had smelled them and they had smelled him as well.
Suddenly, a fragment of memory returned to the Mad Beast's mind. The memory of a wolf pack eating his leg and his arm.
It was a rather unpleasant memory. So, in exchange, to remove that thorn from his heart, Aris charged at them headfirst...