Ocean Heart!

Neon Radiance!

With his passive abilities in full swing, Krune unleashed a beam of light from his two palms. Each beam struck the gates of the first and second village, alerting the populace inside those villages due to the sudden increase in brightness.

In the first village, there were numerous huts made from the bones and leather of fishes the respective dwellers had killed. In the center of all those huts, situated within a hut made from the bones of a fish on the same size as the Sonic Radar, was the Monster Gecko King, frowning the moment it noticed the place brighten up.

While inside it, it noticed the source of light streaming from the second village, grunting in response. For the past few months, numerous incidents began to crop up one after another. Its soldiers were becoming injured as the bone trees grew in their feet.

Thus, a lot of its fighting populace had been incapacitated. Moreover, the bone trees were nurturing fewer fruits than usual for some reason, causing a massive food shortage, weakening them as a whole. Thanks to said food shortage, the second and third villages usually targeted their Monster Geckos, using their blood to water the bone trees.

This way, they managed to grow enough fruits to sustain themselves. Unsurprisingly, its village had also done the same to the other villages.

Though the number of fruits grown by the bone trees had recovered to the usual amount in the past month, they were still on edge. Plus, the deep-seated hatred between the different villages continued to cause numerous conflicts between them every day.

The villages first crossed their boundaries to steal the fruits of other villages to weaken them. With that, problems continued to increase with the passing of each day. To bring it under control, the Monster Gecko King from the first village had even sent envoys to the other villages in an effort to converse with their Kings and control the situation.

But unfortunately for that King, its envoys were killed before they even reached the respective villages. Not only that, but they completely disappeared.

The Monster Gecko King did have suspicions that there was someone foreign in the place that was inciting all the conflicts. After all, even before this fight had started, some of the Monster Geckos had gone missing every day.

On top of that, it also sensed the presence of the third party a couple of times. After all, it had lost two mutants by now. If not for it chancing upon a massive fruit that birthed another Mutant in their village, they wouldn't have any Mutants with them right now.

But even then, their village was considered the weakest at the moment. After all, they only had two elites, the King and a Mutant, that recently became one. As for the remaining villages, the second village was also in a similar situation. As for the three other villages, they had three elites each, a King and two Mutants.

With that power backing them up, they were beginning to encroach on the territory of the first two villages.

Right now, the moment the beam of light landed on the two villages, it was able to confirm the presence of the third party, immediately getting up from its seat as it left the village, sprinting at its maximum speed to find the third party as soon as possible.

Rallying up the others would take time, and it didn't wish to let go of this chance.

The ground thundered as the Monster Gecko King sprinted at its maximum speed, heading straight towards the source of the beam of light that had disappeared within three seconds. Using its thermal sight, it searched the entire place, soon noticing a warm figure standing almost one hundred meters away from it.

The figure was standing still as its body radiated a bit of light. Without any hesitation, the Monster Gecko King punched at it, sending its body flying. Though, it frowned immediately, noticing a splash of fluid the moment it sent the opponent flying, unable to feel any struggle from the other party.

The impact of its punch had shattered the opponent's chest, causing numerous cracks in its bones. At the moment it crashed into the ground, it failed to get up. It seemed to be dead at this point.

The glow had disappeared not long after its punch as the Monster Gecko King stopped, looking with its thermal sight that the opponent's body was warm, unlike the Monster Geckos. Though, it did possess a similar physique as the rest of them. The only thing different was the lack of a tail.

Coincidentally, right at this time, another Monster Gecko King arrived. It was the King of the second village. The moment it saw the warm figure that lied on the ground, crushed, it realized that something had happened.

The two Kings stared at each other in vigilance before the Monster Gecko King from the first village talked. Soon, the two conversed, attributing the entire conflict to the enemy it had killed just now. Eventually, the two Monster Gecko Kings came to a consensus, deciding to rally together and come to an agreement with the three other villages.

Finished with their talks, they soon parted ways. And, once the Monster Gecko King was halfway towards the first village, dragging the corpse of the creature it had killed, it stopped, feeling pain in its feet as it hurriedly lifted its leg, noticing a few bone trees had sprouted, numbering in the dozen.

Since these bone trees were absorbing the immense vitality in its blood, they were growing at a pretty fast pace. In a hurry, it pulled them all out, struggling to do so near the end as the roots of a couple of bone trees came out with a significant chunk of its flesh.

It had even lost a couple of leg bones in the process, bleeding profusely. As both its legs had suffered the same fate, it wasn't able to pull them out fast enough. In the end, its legs were severely damaged, preventing it from being able to run or even walk properly.

Barely managing to limp by balancing its body using its tail, the Monster Gecko King eventually arrived at its village, soon returning to its tent as it sat on its throne, immersing its legs in a pool as it relaxed.

This pool had been artificially built since they knew about the healing properties in the ocean water. So, every day, a team of Monster Geckos headed towards the ocean and brought in some water. They formed two of these pools in their village, one for the general populace to heal their injured foot and the second for its personal use.

Immersing its feet in the water, it frowned, unable to put a handle on the emotion it was experiencing for the first time in its life.

Similarly, the Monster Gecko King from the second village was also in a similar state, having injured its feet due to the traps. Only now did it realize that when it dashed towards the light source. As it arrived closer, its legs were pricked a lot.

And now, it understood the cause, grunting as it also relaxed its feet in a personal pool built for its use. After suffering from bleeding feet for the past few months, they managed to create these pools.

A couple of minutes after the two Monster Gecko Kings had left, near the protruding roots of a large bone tree, a small platform opened up as Krune peeked out. The handle to lift the platform was a small piece of rock that he had carved out from the ground.

"Soon, there won't be any scope for diplomacy since they just had one now. When the same thing repeats tomorrow, their trust would completely collapse." Krune nodded as he closed the platform, smudging some of the rock dust he had scattered over it as camouflage.

He had set up the place more than a week ago, biding his time until he completed the boat. After digging under the roots of a relatively large tree, he drilled a narrow path before connecting it to the surface in a relatively wide-open place.

It was a place with an open route towards the first and second villages. So, it was the perfect place for his plan. Once he finished digging the narrow tunnel, Krune installed a tube in it, making its end peek out of the ground. He then emitted his Neon Radiance from within the hole, sending it using his index finger that he inserted into the other end of the tube.

He then peeked out from the hole, noticing that a considerable extent of the light was emitted in the place. After finishing his plan, Krune stood at the place and unleashed the beam first, keeping it active for three seconds.

He then replaced himself with the body of a Monster Gecko whose blood had been completely drained out. He kept it in the place as his dummy and retreated into the hole. This way, his body wouldn't be visible in their senses.

On top of that, he didn't rely on his Sonic Radar to see for the time being, only keeping his ears on the surface of the hole to feel the vibrations. Knowing that they were able to sense it somehow, he wasn't able to use the Sonic Radar, not to mention in such proximity.

He emitted light through the tube and caused the dead Monster Gecko to glow.

Moreover, without its blood, its body looked warm in the eyes of the Monster Geckos, something he had confirmed a couple of times before in his experiments. Plus, no Monster Gecko looked warm in the eyes of others. So, it would be treated as an outsider.

Krune knew that the Mutants were smart while the Kings were even smarter. So, he used their smartness against them. And thus, the following scene played out.

Based on the Monster Geckos he had killed daily, if the Kings thought about it carefully, they might realize that the outsider might only be one individual. And that exactly played along to his strategy.

After they left the place, Krune exited his hole and slipped back to his cave. After that, he continued to hunt the Monster Geckos daily for his needs, soon being able to sense that the unrest in the villages had further increased.

And just like that, the diplomacy established between the two villages crumbled as the sense of trust between each King vanished. They began to assume it was the other party that was using any excuse to hunt their own.

Soon, as he had expected, the tension increased so much it went up in flames, igniting an all-out war between the first two villages.