A Wild Chase

Noah dashed out of the Palace's safe area once the sun disappeared. His speed was much faster than when they arrived as he was running alone this time.

He didn't fight nor rest as rushed past the desert, reaching the forest just as morning arrived. He had managed to shorten an 8 hour long journey into about 6 hours.

Noah used this chance to rest a bit before continuing west. He made sure to avoid the sun by using the shade of trees and would once in a while stop to place essence cores in the ground. Proceeding with these actions, he continued his walk to the west region of the forest. A few hours passed and he was finally able to see an area with a large amount of trees growing atop the land. These trees were so much that their branches and leaves were actually able to completely block out the sun's rays allowing its inhabitants to move around in the day. Their huge sizes served as the homes of their inhabitants.

These inhabitants were Wild Flame Apes, the smallest spanned about 3 meters tall while the largest could reach a baffling 7 meters. The beasts possessed muscular fore limbs that boasted massive strength and ferocious fangs that would scare most people. Sensing their auras where even the smallest possessed 5th Level Novice Stage strength, anybody would feel goose bumps and immediately turn back.

But Noah wouldn't.

He glanced around the tribe of prancing apes, going about their business and his sight was finally set upon a particular tree bark. There was a hole within it that was created as a sort of living quarters.

Looking at the ape who frequently moved in and out of it, Noah was sure that the hole was for the Chief of the Wild Flame Apes. And within it, were the weak life forces of two future ape babies still in their eggshells. What better way to stir up the hornet's nest than this.

He calculated and decided that if he led the army of apes all the way to the Sun palace, it would be day by the time they got there. That was all he needed to know.

He had arrived at the forest by day, so he still had to wait for night to arrive again so he simply laid there on a faraway tree, coldly studying the apes.

Night fell once more and it was at that Noah struck. The apes were helpless.

Noah at the Novice Stage and Noah at the Intermediate Stage were two different people. Although he couldn't use the Azure Dragon Art completely, he could still use it better now, knowing that as long as he didn't push himself well over the limit, he would be alright. So at the moment he could burst out with about 50% of the Martial art's power, much better than the measly 20% he was forced to squeeze out before.

The Azure Dragon Art's Dragon Steps got him to the Chief's 'room' within a second. What greeted him was the sight of the ape and its female counterpart going at it on the makeshift bed.

Noah barely registered that scene, not like he would want to. He flashed and picked up the two eggs at the corner of the beast's room and directly used Flicker to get away.

The world grew silent for a bit.

The dumbfounded 7 meter tall ape was stunned as it looked at the empty spot before, the 5 meter female ape beneath also stared stupidly.

Then a loud roar permeated the surrounding as the wrath of a peak Adept Stage beast showed itself to the world.

This roar woke up the slumbering beasts and made them set their bloodshot eyes upon the short back of the human fleeing far away.

A shocking scene then unfolded. Behind the fleeing Noah, beasts numbering about a hundred, with ranging auras from the Novice to Adept Stage chased ferociously.

Noah's secondary Martial art, The Flood Python Art was displayed in its fullness as he used its quirky moves to dexterously move about in the forest.

This was not easy as Noah had to make sure he put a large distance from the chasing apes, dodge the fire type attacks they launched at him from time to time and stay within shade so as to avoid the sunlight from that accursed sun.

Whenever the beasts seemed to be getting close, they would always seem to encounter a flood of chaotic essence that threw them off for a bit. The essence barely affected most of them, only the Novice Stage beasts suffered a bit, but it was very annoying to the beasts. Noah only served to increase the enmity between them with this method.

But that was what he wanted.

This chase lasted about 5 hours. With only a few minutes before day time, the Chief ape roared in anger, humiliation and a bit of dread.

It directly rushed forth with increased speed and caught up to Noah. They were already in the desert and he wasn't dumb enough to place essence cores here as those Desert Scorpions would immediately sense them, unlike how he could hide it in the forest.

And because of this, the beast caught up. But Noah seemed to expect this.

He held the two eggs in one hand and swung his sword with power. His Twin Battlesouls flashed into existence as he activated both the Silver Dragon Eyes and the Gravity Force.

Noah deftly avoided the fiery claw stretched at him with the Serpent Dance and struck the chest of the beast, with his essence coated sword.

Limit Break! Vertical Cleave! Gravity Force: 600kg! Drill Thrust!

Four moves were used at once as Noah desperately attacked the Peak Adept Stage beast. Luckily the beast had not put in too much of its strength, probably because of the fear of hurting its child, he was able to send the beast flying.

And it was at that moment that the sun rose above the horizon, spreading its baleful rays upon the Earth.

The Apes screamed in fear. They were like the Desert Scorpions and as fire type beasts they could withstand the sun to some extent, but not forever, so they still feared it. This fear almost doused their anger but the roar of the Chief Ape filled with anger and humiliation rang out once more. The beasts had their eyes turn bloodshot as they glared daggers at Noah.

But he merely smirked under the cover of the carapace. Beneath his feet was the reason the beasts were angry. It was a liquid goo that emitted a waning life force. An egg! It was the Chief Ape's egg!

What sun? What soul damage? The All-for-one Apes were driven crazy as they chased the fleeing Noah once more.

As they were close to the palace when day arrived, it didn't take long to reach it. On the way, Noah had to flash out the egg to keep the Apes chasing him every once in a while.

Soon they reached the area close to the Palace's safe zone. And by now the Ape's numbers had dwindled quite a bit. Most of the Novice Stage beasts had died because of the sun's rays during the chase. The Apes felt the Exalt Stage aura but simply didn't care, even though they could tell that they might die soon so they might as well die trying to kill that damned human.

A roar soon reached them, this one more powerful than the Chief Ape. Arrogantly standing at the periphery of the safe zone, the Exalt Stage twin headed beast could be seen blasting one fire ball after another at a figure in the sky.

The carapace covered Alyssa soon sighed with relief as Noah arrived. She only had the job of leading the beast to the border, but that was insanely hard as the beast in question was at the Exalt Stage!

'Enjoy this present of mine!' Noah smirked as he fished out the last egg in his hand and threw it at the Twin headed beast. With the flying egg, flew a simple Cannon Fist that splattered the egg's content on the beast's face.

With a bit of intellect naturally came some pride. And that pride made the beast burn hot with embarrassment as it smelled the foul stench assaulting its nose.

At that moment, Noah had actually hidden within the wave of Apes, risking death. But this also made the beast focus on the Apes judging them as the culprit.

A thrilling war soon unfolded.