As the sun hid behind clouds, days passed without a hitch.
On the ground Zatu and Illya hunted relentlessly, with most bodies being left on the ground to rot.
Many more weird encounters were found by the two.
High tier breasts in strangely small packs.
Lots of encounters with weakened and starving individuals.
That to Zatu's surprise tended to fight desperately even as his blade fastly approached their necks.
But more surprising than anything, this worry was pushed aside in his mind.
Pushed aside by the growing rumors Schalt had told him.
Rumors that even Maira had come to tell him about last night.
Sadly with his Grandpa already busy these last few days and him being only a tier 1 combatant, there wasn't much he could do about it.
Of course he could wield Arbo's authority and go boots on the ground after these rumors.
But would he risk wasting time he could use getting stronger trying to solve a problem Arbo might be already looking into?
And with only a year before the Beast waves?
No. He'd rather squeeze every single moment he had into amassing power.
And that he was doing.
During these brief days his level grew fast and his body changed rapidly.
What once he needed his full stock of sword intent to kill, by now could be done by using only a few points.
A difference brought forth from the combined efforts of his increasing strength and the property that Intent type resources had of growing stronger as their max pool increased.
Even then he wasn't satisfied, for he could feel he still lacked something.
And for that, on his rest day he and Illya found themselves in one of the rooms of Blue Dream inn.
Purely to review his fights and results…
Surely that had nothing to do with the fact that he kinda liked her company…
Or that he felt strangely invincible when she was present…
Or that Illya felt a large amount of curiosity about his life as of late…
This was purely and simply… A serious review of his combat during this week.
*
"Your fundamentals are good, like in this fight were you counter-attacked into a decisive blow instinctually." She points to an illustration of him fighting a lizard-like beast while leaning on his side. "If I had to point out one area where you lack the most is reading their intentions."
"How come?" He asks, eyes glued on the book in her lap.
Struggling a little to not stare into her chest.
'Damn from here even this dark green hide armor can't hide from this angle.'
He cussed in his head, a little embarrassed she might have noticed his earlier glances.
"Like, in your first fight, at one you knew you could win a frontal clash and the wolf matched your advance letting you get a certain win." She pulls another book from the side and opens on the page with the right drawing.
"But instead of using your sword intent to just win, you choked and it locked up your sword, forcing you to use that power burst skill of yours, great skill by the way you should level it some more too."
Zatu smiles a bit proud.
"Not a skill actually, just something that happens when my sword intent and mana mix."
"You're a lucky one huh." She chuckles before shaking her head. "But you get the main point right?"
Her emerald eyes lock onto his.
"Yeah." He answers through half lidded eyes before shaking his head, now was not the time to get distracted.
This was a serious and vital part of his progression as an awakened.
"I just can't get my head around them making stupid decisions, like that wolf, it should know better than to advance, since I'd kill it in a direct confrontation."
Illya tilts her head, a questioning look reaching her eyes.
"Did it want to live tough? What was its true desire? Remember the leader of their small pack was dead at that point and the three had shown themselves while I was still with you."
Following her logic gave Zatu a stop, if the beast wanted to live the decision it made was one of the worst ones and from their brief but clear pack tactics they shouldn't be that stupid.
Instead it should have either feinted or retreated as the other 'wolf' harassed him.
And yet when he looked back that was just not what happened, that added with the fact that three rank one beasts squared up against a rank 3 awakened lead him to a single conclusion.
Illya was right, their goal clearly wasn't survival… if beasts could even be considered to have goals.
'If it wasn't survival what was driving the three beasts to attack us then?'
Closing his eyes he pulled himself back to that day.
In the ground lay a dying tier three, its mana presence intimidating Zatu's deepest instincts.
At the side a cat's meow pulls him out of the worry, another warning from the valiant Sir Howard.
Around them three beasts show up, brown metallic scales and weak mana signals that couldn't compare with their dying kin.
Weak enough for him to fight them.
'Were they after me?' He thinks before discarding the possibility.
His mana core might be special, but simply he was too weak as he is to be worth squaring off against Illya for.
In the same vein he discarded them being after Illya or Sir Howard, since again, Illya was just too strong for the young creatures to dare.
And yet, they still dared.
'Why? Why would they do this? Weak beasts like them move on instinct and feeling alone, which instinct could possibly be larger in their heads than self preservation?'
He thought and thought some more, and yet no answer came to his tongue.
Soft fingers touch his cheek, as those emerald eyes pull him back outside his head.
"What are you spacing out about? Talk to me."
Her words strut their way into his ear, authoritative, but warm and kind.
Taking a deep breath Zatu gathered his words.
"I just can't make sense of their decisions, with you there they had no chance of victory and they should know that. So why engage? It's not like we were hunting the three smaller ones."
"Thinkg back to when they first showed up Zatu, what did it look like?"
Zatu closes his eyes once more, shifting his mind from the warm Inn room with the distant mumbling of customers to that late afternoon amidst the rubble.
The scaled wolves had just circled them, even though on the ground what he could only call their leader lay on the ground dying.
They had no chance and from their slow careful steps he could tell they knew it just as well as he knew his sword.
And yet they weren't running, but instead growling and showing teeth to him and Illya.
If Zatu had to describe it in one word they seemed…
"Angry, that's what I remember before the fight started…. But…" Zatu frowns a bit. "Were they mad we killed their leader?"
Illya shrugs.
"No way to know why really, beasts rarely talk. But you got the important part." the corner of her mouth lifted up, her eyes narrowing with a sharp look. "They were angry, not calm, cold or confident, or just tense, but angry."
In the background the noise from the murmurs from the Inn's floor seemed to grow as Zatu's mind flashed with understanding.
"They weren't hunting us, they were coming to avenge their killed packmate, even if it cost their life… even if one would have to die to open me to a follow up hit."
'Damn, I really should read their emotions before fighting.'
With shining eyes he stares back at those emerald pools.
"Any other tips…" He started to ask before a desperate high pitched scream echoed from the floor below.
Illya instantly glances at Sir Howard, finding him on top of the pillow sleeping like a rock sunbathing on a riverbank.
'Not a beast.'
She concludes, as the two get up from the edge of the bed.
Her head turns to Zatu to warn him she is going down there to see the situation, but finds his blue eyes locking on hers before her mouth can even open.
With no words needed they nod at each other before she sinks into the shadows.
Zatu walks to the door, casting a glance onto the sleeping pet before deciding he should be probably safer here.
Not like he had shown any form of combat capability till now anyway.
'Hopefully there won't be any combat happening anyway.' Zatu frowns, worrying what could make someone sound so desperate right here in his best friend's Inn.
A building inside the Inner Area, one Arbo himself had registered under his position name in the tower.
A place where no one should have the courage to cause trouble, where Zatu hadn't seen a single brawl in all of his years knowing Schalt.