Aaron and the others turned a corner and found themselves in a huge underground hall occupied by thousands of small creatures that looked like baby pigs.

Pink, big-nosed, and cute, they were Two Star Psions. They had two half-tentacle half-antennae on their heads that seemed to glow with the amount of Mind Energy they had. Their eyes were filled with hatred at Aaron and the women.

As soon as Aaron saw them, the ceiling behind the ligurus, which were at the rear of the group, collapsed with a loud thud, leaving them trapped in the cave chamber.

"Psychotic Pigs," said Lana a moment before the pigs shot a veritable wall of Mind Energy at the humans. It slammed into Lana, rendering her unconscious instantly.

Aaron simply ignored the attack, which faded harmlessly because of his mental resistance.

Alys was also lying on the ground not too far ahead from them. He looked disappointed at her. She had been the first in line but hadn't even issued a single warning before she fell unconscious! Even Lana had managed to at least identify the enemy before getting hit. Alys, as a Four Star Sorceress, should protect her mind better!

Tia had also fallen unconscious, but Aaron expected nothing from the naïve One Star Qi Manipulator.

Fortunately, the spell Alys had used to create the globes of light didn't fade away when she slept, nor now that she had fainted. The detection spell, however, was gone. Not that it would do much good now if it hadn't worked against the pigs.

The beasts threw more Mind Energy against Aaron. This time, the heap of energy looked like an enormous soap bubble to anyone with energy sensitivity or the right tools, but the result was the same as before. His willpower attribute was at the maximum allowed in that world, after all.

Inspecting the chamber, he noticed that it only had one exit still open, which made the chamber a perfect place for an ambush. The Psychotic Pigs had chosen their place of attack well.

But they hadn't considered that the same place could be used against them!

Aaron threw Lana and Alys over his shoulders and took Tia under an arm. For a Three Star Qi Manipulator, carrying them was incredibly easy, as if they weighed nothing. Then he used the skill of his that seemed to be the most useful in this world.

Qi Martial Arts: Elusive Steps!

Now that he was using Three Star Qi, the skill made him even faster than before!

He dashed through the mass of pigs and stopped at the only exit from the cave. There, he placed the three women on the floor in front of him and took a dagger from his waist.

Then he released some of his death aura.

When it hit the pigs, they groaned loudly in panic. Some passed out, while the rest started running in circles. Aaron watched closely until he found their leader, a slightly more reddish pig, the only Three Star Psion in the group, who was faking panic with the others.

This was a situation where Aaron needed every advantage to beat his enemy, hence the use of the death aura. There were too many pigs, and he couldn't stop every one of them from running away. But now that he had located the leader, things got easier.

He retracted his aura, pointed the dagger at the leading pig, and focused Qi on his vocal cords.

"You tried to kill me," he said. The Qi amplified his voice so much it could be heard even over the pigs' grunts. "Normally, I would take your life for that, but I want someone to guide me through these caves. Submit and I'll let you live. Resist and I'll kill you."

He had avoided multiple traps by checking his surroundings and using his experience. However, doing only that much had failed him this once, so it might fail him again in the future. His power was simply too limited. It was better to get a guide.

The leader ignored the threat, and the pigs became even more agitated. Aaron snorted and removed an item from his spatial ring, a pointed dart made of black matte metal that didn't reflect light, perfectly balanced for throwing, the same one he had used to kill the last of the ten bandits and the last member of the Guardian Sword on the Clans Arena.

He put the dart between his thumb and forefinger, brought his arm back, aimed, and used another skill.

Qi Martial Arts: Precise Throw!

He didn't use just his arm, but his entire body. His stable base allowed him to flex and stretch his legs to get extra momentum on the pitch; the turning of his waist gave the dart more speed; his arm whipped perfectly to the limits of its elasticity without being injured, making the launch accurate and fast; and the rotation of his pulse increased the piercing power of the dart. Each movement was further perfected to the maximum due to his use of pure Qi in the exact measurements and patterns and his perfect harmonization with the secrets of the universe.

The dart immediately exceeded the speed of sound, but there was no sonic boom. It was in sync with the Laws of Space, the Laws of Vibration, and the Concept of Speed. Instead of bursting the sound barrier, the dart was welcomed by it as in a warm embrace, flowing with it.

That wouldn't work with a bigger or less aerodynamic object, but if Aaron was throwing something bit, stealth likely wouldn't be required anyway. Not that it was in this case either. The dart was simply the best throwing weapon he had.

It flew straight at the leader, but halfway through, a few pigs suddenly threw themselves in front of it.

Over ten pigs died, grunting in pain and despair as the darts went through each one of them. Only after the twelfth did the projectile lose momentum and fell to the ground.

Aaron was already expecting to fail to kill the leader. That had been just a warning shot.

"I hope I got your attention and proved that I'm not bluffing," he said, still using his amplified voice. "I located you and I can kill you. You can't escape. You have no choice but to submit."

As if Aaron's words were a challenge, all the pigs stopped running in circles, started floating above the ground, turned to Aaron, and flew toward him.

He took his sword out of its scabbard, locked eyes with the leading pig, and waited.

Qi Martial Arts: Absolute Zone!

He made his footing even more stable and created a zone of absolute defense around him, as the name of the technique indicated. He focused Qi on his legs, arms, and the other muscles of the body necessary for his movements. Qi was also in his eyes, making them perceive even the smallest movements, in his ears, making them listen more accurately to nearby sounds, and in his skin, making him feel the slightest movement of air around him.

A few hundred pigs passed him to escape the place, and he ignored most of them. Just a few escaping wouldn't be a problem, and he didn't want to waste energy on them. Other pigs tried to run over him and the women on the ground, only to be cut by his sword blade without mercy.

Though the Psychotic Pigs were thousands of Two Star Psions and their leader was a Three Star Psion, they were physically pathetic. Their strength was greater than ordinary piglets, but they didn't even reach the strength of a human child. Their natural defenses were also practically nil, just a thin layer of soft pink skin with a little fat underneath. And although they could fly relatively fast, they couldn't maneuver perfectly at high speed and were unable to dodge Aaron's attacks.

He easily repelled any who posed a danger to himself or the girls, filling the floor with dozens of bodies. The exit from the underground hall was only three times as wide as he and about his height, which made his defense even easier.

In the middle of the cave, he would have had a hard time defending himself against thousands of pigs physically investing against him from all sides, no matter how weak they were. Since they could fly, they could cover him completely, and if all of them threw themselves at him, their sheer weight might crush him or hold him long enough for one of them to steal one of his weapons and use it against him.

But there, at the narrow exit, he held the advantage. Ancient Earth knowledge already stated how favorable ground could be the difference between victory and defeat, and he was the living proof of it.

Of course, even there, if the pigs all attacked him incessantly from all sides, he would be in danger. But survival instinct was part of every living being, and as he killed more and more pigs, the ones who he let pass by him would simply run away. Unless, of course, the leader forced them to continue attacking, since beasts that used Mind Energy were known for their hive-mind societies.

Yet, even if the leader forced the escaping pigs to come back, Aaron would simply escape with the girls while killing the ones coming from behind, until he could focus on the ones in front of him again.

Everything had been under his control from the moment the beasts trapped themselves with him in there!

The pigs kept fleeing for a few minutes, with a minority of them trying to attack the women or Aaron head-on. The leader tried to escape twice, but Aaron intercepted both attempts, and it was forced to retreat.

The third time, it grunted loudly and went to the center of the cave. All the remaining pigs did the same, enveloping it and creating a huge globe of flying Psychotic Pigs.

A thin line of Mind Energy left the group and came to Aaron. He could guess the leading pig's intention and allowed that thread to connect to his mind. A horrible and hoarse voice sounded in his mind.

"Human bad. We tolling. You killing."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. Was a beast that attacked him unprovoked trying to make him feel guilty?

"The blame is all yours," he replied aloud, not through the mind connection. "You wanted me to pay a toll against my will. I wanted you to be my guide against your will. It wasn't my fault that you sent some of your people to attack me and my subordinates. I only killed those who attacked us and allowed the others to leave."

The pigs grunted, and the voice spoke again in his mind. "You block passage! We want get away!"

"You also blocked the passage when my subordinates and I just wanted to go our way. Because you attacked first, I also attacked to further my new goal of getting myself a guide."

More grunts. "Human bad! We no kill!"

Aaron snorted. He hated having to repeat himself.

"Some of your pigs attacked me and my subordinates with lethal intent, I just defended myself. Not to mention that you attacked us with Mind Energy before even charging for a toll."

"Toll is little mind power! We need make humans sleep to get mind power!"

Beasts were different from animals and humans. Psychotic Pigs, for example, could use Mind Energy even without cultivating Qi previously, as humans needed to do; they were born adapted to that type of energy. It was no surprise that a Psychic Beast could feed on Mind Energy instead of organic food.

However, depending on how much they took from a living being, it could be lethal. As it was just a natural feeding process for them, it didn't make them carnifexes. Still, Aaron didn't believe for a second that hundreds of pigs charging a toll would be healthy for the girls and himself.

"Consuming our minds without our permission is a direct attack, no matter how noble feeding thousands of pigs might be. But enough of that. Lead me or die, I tire of this stupid discussion."

They grunted again for a long time. Then an enormous amount of Mind Energy tried to invade his mind through the connection already established for communication.

Aaron couldn't see the attack, but he felt it as soon as it formed close to the pigs. As much as he could theoretically resist it even without breaking the connection because of his mind resistance, he preferred not to risk his life unnecessarily. So he shook his head and cut off the connection before the attack reached him.

At last, he sighed and removed eight darts from his spatial ring, holding each between two fingers, four in each hand. The leader pig didn't have the mental capacity to understand that whoever attacks must expect being attacked as well. Even if it did, its instincts apparently didn't allow it to submit.

It was time for Aaron to take his own toll for the attack he had suffered. This time, the price was the leader's life.

Qi Martial Arts: Precise Spinning Throw!

Just like he had done with the first dart, he threw four more at the leader, one perfectly behind the other. His body spun, and he released the four darts in his other hand. At the same time, he had already removed four more darts from the spatial ring and placed it in his free hand.

Spinning, he launched the four new darts while taking four more on the other hand. And so he kept doing until he finished sending out all ninety-nine darts that he had in his ring.

He was like a human typhoon, spinning and throwing metallic darts over and over again.