The Rise Of A Tribal Deadbeat - Chapter 85

Zok had never stepped a foot out of the Wilderness, not had he expected to do so ever. But thanks to Naalnish, he was forced to do the unexpected. Sofina sent him out of the Wilderness using the last bit of her magic before she disappeared… just like Adrion.

Zok didn’t know whether she was gone forever or just waiting somewhere to be resurrected. He was hoping for the latter because Zok did not want to think someone died to help him. As for Cero and Kaira, they were stored safely within the Book of Master Tamers.

As soon as Zok had placed the creatures inside the book, the book itself integrated with his body. Meaning he could summon Cero and Kaira in and out of his body upon will. As much as Zok hated that his pets were not around him all the time, he found solace in the fact that they were still safe within him.

AS for Shira, she could not be stored inside the book as she was not a beast. The Book of Master Tamers only allowed the tamed beasts to be kept inside, and nothing else. Well, it was better that way as loneliness would have driven Zok wild in a place he knew nothing about.

Thanks to Sofina, Zok and Shira had both been teleported out of the Wilderness before the shamans could show up. But as the saying went, you trade one villain for another, Zok was sure he would have to face new enemies in that foreign place.

He looked around himself… he was still in some kind of forest, but this place was nothing like the forests Zok knew about. Everything appeared to be familiar yet… peculiar. The trees and plants were the same as before, but something was missing.

It didn’t take long for Zok to realise exactly what was missing… the beasts. The forest was strangely quiet. Just then there was a huge explosion somewhere close. It was unlike anything Zok had ever heard and thus he was shocked as well.

Shira immediately wrapped her hands around Zok’s chest and pushed her face deep within his chest. She was scared more than anyone was. However, before any of them could compose themselves to analyse what was happening there… suddenly Zok sensed some movement in front of him.

‘Shira, hide behind me.’ Zok communicated using Hivemind before pushing her back.

After that, without wasting a single moment, he took out his spear and prepared for what was to come. But boy, he wasn’t ready for what he was about to witness.

There was someone in front of him, just like Zok had assumed. But it wasn’t just anyone or anything. It was a creature that even he had not been able to tame yet.

‘An Abelion… what the hell is something like it doing here?’

Abelion was a giant creature. Something Zok had only ever seen once when he was visiting the enclosure of beasts of his tribe. These gigantic crimson coloured six-legged creatures were only ever tamed by Skah.

They had four life-threatening tusks which protruded out of their faces as they looked down upon Zok and Shira who was hiding in his shadows. (Author’s note: Basically a six-legged elephant with four tusks and two trunks.)

There wasn’t just two or three of them either. But an entire herd! Even with the help of Cero and Kaira, Zok wasn’t sure he would be able to take them down. But the surprises weren’t over yet.

On top of their gigantic heads, multiple grey-skinned people were sitting as if they were the ones controlling the beast. As more and more Abelions burst out of the forest, Zok realised that all of these creatures had been tamed.

Several of them had a firmly secured wooden structure on top of them. Within these ‘rooms’ more of the grey people could be seen carrying weapons like Javelins, bows and arrows. These rooms also provided protection from thick branches of the trees, to the occupants as the beasts progressed through the forest.

‘Who the hell are these people!?’

Zok might not have been the most intelligent person in the Wilderness, but he was fairly knowledgable when it came to beasts. And even he could sense that these people were much better tamers than anyone Zok had ever seen.

His eyes were still fixated upon the Abelion leading the others when suddenly it slumped down to its feet and the walls of the room fell sideways. The others followed and at least 60 people walked out of the rooms. Fully equipped with weapons and armours.

They carefully charged towards Zok with unknown motives. Zok, on the other hand, could sense nothing but hostility leaking from their bodies. Just with one look in their eyes, he knew these people were not here to take prisoners, but to end him.

‘We have to escape while we still have the chance.’

Thinking so, Zok reluctantly summons Cero and Kaira out of his shadow who immediately started growling at the people. They might have been within a subspace, but since they were linked with Zok’s Hivemind, they knew exactly what was going on there. Thus none of the beasts wasted a single moment before baring their canines towards the enemies.

However, as soon as the grey-skinned men saw the two beasts emerge out of Zok’s shadow, they dropped their weapons. This confused the heck out of Zok, but their weird behaviour didn’t stop there.

The next moment, a couple of them started banging their heads on the ground as if they were trying to punish themselves for something. As fun as it was to see them doing weird stuff like that, their behaviour actually started to freak Zok out a bit.

‘I should get out of here and look for answers later on… what the hell… why is my head spinning… all of a sudden…’

Zok was too busy watching the fools in front of him that he couldn’t even notice the pricklish pain in the back of his neck. He reached to his neck and pulled out a dart… He had been sedated using the dart.

‘Who….’