Chapter 23: The bestial ways.

Dez and Zenayah were flying above the grasslands moving to the deeper areas when they saw a group of about 100 mad spike warthogs sleeping around and eating in that grassy area.

"Harkan, kill them!"

Harkan who heard Zenayah's words let out a soft growl. In their own way, he was giving his instructions to his pride.

Following that, 5 of the royal winged lionesses that were just following behind Harkan and Lorcán flew forward; they had a distance of about 20 meters between them and they flew in a well-trained manner.

When The lionesses reached right above the mad spike warthogs group Dez saw that around them the wind started to rotate.

At first, it wasn't really notable but later it became strong and violent.

Looking at their move Dez already was excited to see what would happen next.

One after another the lionesses descended.

It was like seeing 5 tornados descending from the sky.

At the very tip of this tornado came the lionesses leading the descent.

The group of mad spike warthogs didn't even realize it when it happened.

From the sky, they came with the force of the wind in their wake.

They fell and hit directly on the biggest mad spike warthogs they found.

Their impact was so strong that not only did they instantly kill their target but the power of the wind that followed ripped their enemies in the surrounding to pieces, blowing the warthogs apart.

The wind explosion shot out wind blades and cut the surrounding spike mad warthog killing some and injuring most.

The group of beasts was in absolute panic and went into their mad state.

The younglings on the other hand tried to run away in fright. But the lionesses didn't waste this chance, they attacked with great ferocity. Jumping and biting the nearest mad spike warthog they found.

Their claws like blades ripped apart the skin and dug deep into their flesh.

One of the royal winged lionesses was especially brutal. She was one that seemed to take the initiative and went for the biggest mad spike warthog that was left in the group.

She moved fast like the wind, she jumped and went right for its throat, feeling his prey's pain and desperation she bit her teeth deeper and yanked the throat ripping it apart.

When she was done with that one she went for another.

And like that they kill their way around the mad spike warthogs.

The warthogs weren't totally hopeless or defenseless.

Some of them coated themself in armor of dirt and rocks and tried to charge the lionesses but sadly for them, the lionesses were very nimble and also could fly if needed.

They had great strength in their legs and simply jumped away or took to the sky.

The mad spike warthog created earth spikes and shot them at high velocity at the flying royal winged lionesses.

But the royal winged lions are all born with high wind affinity.

Seeing the spikes coming their way they defended themselves with windshields and later descended again from the sky down in tornados of wind that blasted the beasts apart.

What Dez saw was not a fight, it was pure brutality.

He saw the lioness attack mercilessly. They bit whatever they could, ripping it off; Neck, ears, legs didn't matter. They use their wind abilities around their claws to cut through even the stoney armor and rip the flesh out of their enemies.

Dez saw that not even the younglings were spared when they bit their necks and shook their heads violently, splattering them apart.

"That was …"

"Excessively cruel… "

Dez could help but murmur those words in a daze.

Dez's sister was sitting on Harkan but still managed to hear his words. "Do you have sympathy for them?"

Zenayah, who has come to hunt with her lions, has not only seen but also participated in hunts like this countless times.

That tornado attack that ended in a wind explosion was even her idea. It was a brutal attack that could even hurt the user if done wrong.

Her ways have been a great influence on the fighting style of her pets.

She didn't even know how many times they broke their legs and needed healing before they could master that move.

"I'm baffled. I don't know what I'm feeling right now but... that was really brutal."

Dez was sure he didn't have sympathy for his enemies. But there are different ways of doing things and he would have done things differently.

"I can feel their pain and their cries all the way up here... And I'm not sure I like that, that's all." Zenayah look silently at her brother and tapped twice on Harkan's back telling him to descent.

"It's ok brother, later fights we will do it differently." Said Zenayah after thinking about it for a moment.

"Don't worry sis I never said that. You can always be your honest self around me." After hearing the story behind his sister he understood her personality a lot better.

For she who has not been 100% human had to tame her own wild nature for years to fit in. That is why she never liked being around others other than her direct family.

Dez could say he had a stronger bond with his sister even stronger than that of his father but he never tried to change her unless what she did was outright an evil atrocity.

After giving dez a smile she nodded. "You guys can go and feast." After saying that all the lions present went to feast. There were meat and body parts thrown everywhere.

When Harkan went to take a bite of a warthog that seemed quite intact, Zenayah slapped on his back.

"That's mine."

After saying that she jumped off Harken's back and went to the corpse.

Then she saw that Harkan was still standing there and let out some pitiful sounds.

"You want me to share it with you ?"

Narrowing her eyes she looks at him with a dangerous aura around her.

"I said this one is MINE, go get your own there are plenty to eat around."

"Don't look at me like that. Ok ok, when I'm done eating you can have the rest." Feeling sad, Harkan rolled his eyes like a human and went to eat his own.

Even though Lorcan was happily eating Dez was still on his back. No matter what he told his sister Dez was still processing what just happened moments ago.

It's not that he didn't kill before, it's that he has never seen a fight like that before.

Dez has been training and studying the anatomy of different organisms that also include the dissection of human and beast corpses. So he was accustomed to seeing and handling the dead.

What shocked him was the pain and agony.

"Dez, I brought you some meat, take this I'm sure you have not eaten yet."

Dez looked down and saw his sister standing there with a piece of roasted meat. She had a whole 2-meter-long oven working and roasting meat nonstop for her.

"Dez, don't you want to go around the world? Don't you want to explore the unknown? What you saw today isn't too different from what any other beast out there could do to you." Said Zenayah out of the blue.

"Here, eat this. Later when the warthog horde comes, we won't have time to take a break so you better eat now. If it bothers you so much I can let them take you back home."

Dez took the meat from his sister. "Relax sister you worry too much I'm fine, there is no way I'm going back why are you worrying so much."

Before dez could finish his own piece the area around them was totally cleaned up. not even the bones could be seen, everything was devoured, even his sister ate a whole male adult mad spike warthog close to 4 meters in height.

Dez only ate a single piece of meat but his sister ate meat after meat to no end.

"Sister, how can you eat so much?" I'm always hungry, no matter how much I eat it never feels enough. Dez was surprised about that. Didn't she get nutritious supplements from her father? And she is still hungry?

"And the supplements?"

"O… those, that last very short nowadays. So I rather go out to hunt and eat." Dez and the group went to look for more warthogs.

like they did before they easily killed 2 more groups. More than 300 mad spike warthogs were already killed that morning.

"This is unusual." Hearing his sister Dez was curious.

"What is so strange?"

"Well, we are already in the core habitat of the mad spike warthogs. But we have yet to encounter the horde and his leader!"

"There are supposed to be 3 gold rank male mad spike warthog and many silver ranks too but all we found was bronze rank and 1 or 2 silvers so far." Pointed out Zenayah

"There are tens of thousands of them normally, and why are the mad spike warthogs spread out in small different groups like this. Don't you think it's strange?"Then Dez realized that indeed the leader did not show up yet even after all the warthogs that died and the number didn't match up. There is no way he had not realized their presence yet.

Zenayah continues to explain. "The mad spike warthogs are very territorial beasts too; they should have immediately come to attack us."

"Maybe something happened out here in the grasslands and they are fighting somewhere?"dez shared his idea.

"Maybe we should fly further in?" Asked Dez.

"Maybe but not too deep, finding a beast above gold rank will be a danger to our lives. If we can't find anything in 1 hour we will have to go back and report this." Dez had to agree with his sister, so they decided to look around a little, and if nothing they will return.

After some time of searching.

"Sis, look over there…"

"Is that… sand?"