Chapter 29

Divine noticed the disquiet and fear the goblins of the Lost Tooth Tribe were feeling.

With steady steps, he walked through the main cavern.

Many goblins gained hope, when they recognized him and the direction he was heading in. They hoped he would manage to kill the foxes or at least fend them off.

The goblins respectfully made way and some wished him luck, but none dared to follow him.

Halfway inside the exit tunnel, there was a gathering of goblins, that didn't dare to go farther.

From their clothes and equipment, they were the new chief's followers.

When they spotted Divine, they let him through happily.

Surprisingly, these goblins had so much confidence in Divine, that they followed him from a safe distance to watch the confrontation.

Warm sunlight streamed in from outside the tunnel.

Before Divine stepped into the light, he took a deep calming breath and gripped the handle of the Dancing Feather Sword, so that he could draw it in a moments notice.

The quickdraw was the move he had trained the most often with the sword.

Flaming Paw and three four-tailed foxes were resting in the sun not far from the entrance and snacking from ten half-eaten goblins.

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

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When Flaming Paw noticed Divine, he got up lazily and approached him.

Divine didn't detect any aggression, but he was ready.

Flaming Paw send his qi over and Divine kept careful watch as it reached him.

Was that a threat? With the devouring of goblins in the background, it defenitely felt like one.

Flaming Paw looked at him expectantly, waiting for some kind of affirmation.

Divine was sure the five-tailed fox was more than ready for a surprise attack.

The feeling he got from Flaming Paw's qi indicated it as well.

Except for going along or abandoning everything in the Lost Tooth Tribe, Divine could think of nothing else he could do.

Attacking the four foxes would definitely end badly for Divine, if he couldn't take care of Flaming Paw with one surprise attack.

And it looked like there was no chance of that happening in this situation.

Divine chose to follow the fox on his hunt for now. He could still escape later, if he kept his eyes out for ambushes and didn't suffer any surprises.

Wanting to copy Flaming Paw's qi communication, Divine extended a tendril of his spirit qi to the fox.

Now, he could sense Flaming Paw's qi much more precisely, the fox was burning with suppressed anticipation inside, but Divine didn't get the impression that he had communicated anything.

Divine sent another tendril, willing it to carry the word 'yes' and convey his confirmation by imbuing his intent into the qi.

Flaming Paw managed to convey his incredulousness clearly.

Divine nodded, trying again.

Suddenly Flaming Paw got all weird and started barking and yipping loudly.

It took a moment for Divine to get that it was laughter.

Flaming Paw communicated haughtyly, in a moment where he caught his breath.

The other three foxes started yipping too and only now Divine discovered that Flaming Paw was conveying his words to them too.

Challenge accepted.

Divine didn't believe that he couldn't learn the Magical Beast Language for a second and swore to himself, he would figure it out.

Flaming Paw presented Divine his back and wandered slowly downwards in the direction of the forest.

This time Divine noticed something.

Flaming Paw didn't built up a real connection with his qi, he was sending it out successively like a wave. So fast, it was really hard to differentiate.

Somehow Divine doubted that Flaming Paw was controlling these qi waves so minutely consciously. There had to be another primary component to using the communication technique, because it couldn't be qi control.

Flaming Paw stopped and turned around to look at Divine, who hadn't followed like the three foxes and was just standing there.

Divine shelved his considerations for now and focused on the present, vigilantly following behind the four foxes.

On the way down, there were some uneaten goblin corpses on the path.

[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

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[+1 Blood Qi Essence]

Many goblins, that had been outside and lucky enough to miss the foxes' arrival, were watching the group from individual hiding places a little way away from the path.

Since the foxes had eaten just now and had even left many left-overs, and Flaming Paw had already called the hunt, they just ignored the goblins.

Seeing that they were being left alone and even Divine was walking behind the foxes, the cowardly goblins still didn't dare to come out or even move about.

The goblins just cowered at their respective hiding places until the foxes were long gone.

The sun high up was a little blinding, but Divine enjoyed its rays warming his skin.

It had been too long.

Instead of his sight he just relied more on his qi sense.

Bathed in sunlight, everything felt a little different. Warm, lively, energetic.

When they reached the sun-dimming forest, Divine's vision cleared up.

The forest was brimming with life, but the many other creatures didn't dare to come near this unusual and powerful hunting squad.

Animals had really good instincts. And a magical beasts' intuition was even better.

Flaming Paw picked up the pace, but kept watch that the speed wasn't overly exhausting for the four-tailed foxes.

Divine had no trouble keeping up at all, even without using his qi and relying only on the strength of his body.

The foundation establishment realm was really another dimension.

Even after an hour, running by this speed wasn't exhausting Divine's stamina at all.

What was exhausting him was his constant vigilance warring with his worries for his attention.

Divine was keeping his senses primed for an ambush at all times. Be it from something hidden in the forest or from the team of foxes.

Additionally, he worried about their destination.

It didn't seem like a hunt for food. These four foxes had gorged themselves not long ago and they weren't enough to transport much prey back.

And the fact that Flaming Paw brought only four-tailed foxes and no one weaker was a clue too.

They were running through an especially lush part of the forest that was brimming with vitality, when suddenly, out of nowhere, Flaming Paw crashed... into... nothing?

With his speed, the crash was really violent and hurtful.

The three foxes following directly behind couldn't slow down anymore and crashed too, right into Flaming Paw.

It seemed like there was an invisible barrier between two big trees where the foxes had tried to run through.

A barrier that withstood the force of four consecutive and very forceful impacts.

Luckily Divine had kept a little distance from the foxes. He managed to slow down somewhat and dodged the heap of foxes.

He didn't want to run into the invisible barrier and planned to let his last momentum bleed out by catching himself on one of the tree trunks to the side.

Expecting a light collision, Divine stumbled, when there was none. He lost his balance and fell to the ground.

From his new perspective he saw the four foxes were lying before exactly the tree trunk Divine had wanted to catch himself on. The tree trunk showed signs of the recent crash and there was fox blood on it.

Where Divine had stumbled through, there was no tree. There was the gap the foxes had wanted to run through.

A trap. If Divine wasn't mistaken it was an illusion.

Was the caster still around?

Divine didn't see anyone with his eyes.

He closed them and focused on his qi sense.

It was subtle and faint, but there was a curtain of qi from the one tree to the next, spanning over the gap between.

The qi was soft and warm. It felt like sunshine.

Divine marveled at the feeling of genuine light qi.

He ran his qi sense along the light qi curtain and noticed a fold up above, near one of the treetops.

Poking at it with his spirit qi had no effect, but when he tried it with dark qi the whole curtain just dissolved.

Up in the tree, where the fold in the curtain had been, hovered a little fairy, looking at the heap of foxes and writhing with laughter.

It seemed the light qi hadn't only hid her, it had surpressed the sound of the fairy's musical laughter, too.

It sounded like happiness and mischief.

Divine jumped up to a branch right behind the fairy.

He scrutinized the fairy, waiting for her to stop laughing at the foxes and notice him.

The fairy had a height double of his small goblin hand.

She had light red-blonde hair, a slender figure and was wearing a green dress. Divine couldn't make out the material but it could possibly be some kind of leaf.

Like him, she wasn't wearing any shoes.

Not that she needed them, hovering in the air like that.

Her ethereal wings sparkled with every flutter.

Divine leant forward to look at her face.

She was really cute and pretty.