Chapter 132 - King of the Forest (1/2)

The eerie quiet was scary, normally, fighting would quickly ensue following such events, but for some reason, no one was moving a muscle. From Ark's point of view, he was sure that the magical beast that had roared earlier was a prideful beast, and just taking an insult like this lying down was kind of weird. This part of the forest was probably part of that beast's territory, and someone creating a disturbance like this would usually result in fighting and bloodshed.

Because of the bizarre situation, Ark wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do. He wanted to know what happened really badly, he didn't want the cub and the mother to suffer for no reason, and if someone actually intended to do them harm, then Ark would make sure that they would never get the chance to. The silence was a little odd, but at the very least, it was pretty nice. Unfortunately, it wouldn't last very long.

Another wave of sound quickly washed over the forest, this time it was the sound of the bell again. Ark didn't move from where he was standing, and he just kept protecting the mother and her cub from the horrific soundwaves. This time was a little different than the first time though. Instead of one big soundwave that hit hard, this time it was like an unending tide of sound, and a constant loud noise rang throughout the forest.

Even though it was really harmful for most animals, Ark didn't really need to divert too much attention to neutralise the force of the soundwave. Before he could think too much about it, the ground inside of the cave started to lightly tremble. At first, the tremble was small enough to go completely unnoticed. But as seconds passed, the light trembling quickly escalated into rumbling, and it was more like a large scale earthquake rather than the ground just trembling.

The plants at the entrance to the cave were fluttering in the wind as well, creating a pretty serene atmosphere. Well, at least until you checked the surroundings, only to see absolute chaos. The originally strong and tall trees trembled to the point that some of them even fell, the ground was shaking uncontrollably, and numerous magical beasts were running around wildly. After a couple more seconds passed, something changed!

”ROOAAAR!”

The roar that he had heard earlier was almost incomparable to this one! Even though the earlier roar had shook the forest, this one was simply in another league! From the sound of the roar, Ark could guess that the roar was from another magical beast, but it was probably the same species as the roar from earlier, but this time, the roar was a lot more majestic, and it was filled with unlimited fury. If the earlier roar was to combat the sound of the bell, this roar was to challenge it!

Not only was the roar ungodly loud, it stirred up a weird sensation inside of Ark. The instincts that he had tried so hard to keep under control were beginning to show themselves, and his grip on his sanity was loosening as well. He didn't let this roar affect the mother and the cub at all, as he tried desperately to keep them out of harm's way, but the longer he tried to protect them, the worse his control over his instincts got.

His eyesight even started to blur a little, and his eyes started to glint with a red hue. Before it could completely take him over, Ark's mind was suddenly brought back to normal once he heard the voice of the mother behind him.

”Are you ok? You don't look too good.”

”I'm fine, thanks for the concern.”