The hunger of a magical beast was the feeling that drove most of its life.
The winged creatures that had remained in their sacs after the leader's orders were simply too weak to reach the surface.
Also, due to the peculiar features of their species, they couldn't feed on the other specimens of the pack unless the leaders allowed it.
So, they had been forced to remain in their dormant state for all that time, awakening only when the ground absorbed part of the nutrients contained in their bodies.
Yet, when they saw something that they could eat right in front of their eyes, their hunger exploded.
Low growls began to resound in the underground area as the winged beasts tried to use their feeble forces to come out of their dormant state and break the membrane around them.
Of course, most of them didn't have any remaining power in their limbs, they couldn't even point their claws toward the internal surface of the sacs.
However, there were a few exceptions.
Some of the rank 4 creatures at the peak of the upper tier had enough strength left to pierce the membranes, but they could only fall toward the bottom of the area when their foothold was broken.
They couldn't even spread their wings, let alone flying and hunting two heroic cultivators.
The same didn't apply to the rank 5 beings though.
Their bodies weren't strong enough to fly to the surface, but they could still launch a few attacks after they pierced the sacs.
Noah felt a sudden sense of danger filling the air around him, it was as if a subtle vibration had invaded the atmosphere and was reaching for him and June.
'As expected, mental attacks!'
Noah quickly retracted his consciousness and activated the secret art to prepare for the incoming shockwave.
June did the same with her mental waves.
Noah had shared his understanding of the winged beasts with her, she was more than ready to defend against that attack.
Of course, even the joint force of those attacks couldn't match the real power of a healthy rank 5 creature.
Years of weakening had anthropized the capabilities of the horns of the two rank 5 beasts that had managed to free themselves from the sacs.
Their joint attack was enough to cross the power of the fourth rank, but it wasn't able to completely reach the fifth rank.
It could barely be considered a quasi-rank 5 attack.
Noah didn't close his eyes and stared at the two humanoid beings at the bottom of the underground area.
Their horns released soft vibrations that made the walls of his sea of consciousness tremble, and it seemed that their ability was connected with their line of sight.
The vibrations spread randomly but gathered in his position after a few instants, increasing in intensity as they accumulated in the air around him.
'I can't fight them yet.'
Noah gave up on the idea of exploiting their weakened state and decided to retreat.
The tremors that filled his mental sphere became more intense as time passed, the soft vibrations around him were slowly becoming sharp needless that tried to shatter his mind.
He was sure that he would only last for twenty seconds in that situation, which meant that he had to escape from the range of their attack before that.
Noah quickly turned and took June in his harms before shooting toward the ceiling.
June was doing her best to fend off the mental vibrations, but her mind was far weaker than Noah's, she was already reaching her limits.
She barely noticed that Noah was flying at high speed toward the surface, not even the shockwaves released under his feet were enough to break her concentration.
Noah flew in a straight line toward the surface while using his martial art and secret art.
He didn't even bother to change his direction to fly toward one of the tunnels previously created by the winged beasts that had woken up a few months ago, he simply headbutted the azure terrain of the ceiling.
The power of a rank 4 hybrid in the upper tier that used a secret art was incredible, not even peak rank 4 beasts could match his physical strength in that state.
The rocky terrain above him shattered, and cracks spread whenever he kicked the air to sprint again.
The ceiling of the underground area under him became unstable, and large boulders began to fall from it.
Noah had utterly given up on sneaking back in the territories of the Hive and was betting everything in one full-speed escape.
He didn't have other options, the dormant beasts had been awakened, and they could use their mental capabilities, their position had been discovered.
Noah was sure that an army of winged beasts would soon converge there, so he decided to face them on the surface where he would have more room to escape.
Also, they were under the azure plain, which meant that the forces of the Hive had to be nearby.
As minutes passed, June managed to stabilize her mental sphere and open her eyes.
The sight of Noah using his head to excavate a tunnel toward the surface seemed incredibly reckless, but the warmth spread by the arms around her waist made her ignore that detail.
She felt happy to be with him in that dangerous situation.
The duo had long escaped from the range of the mental attack and was reaching the surface at high speed, only a few hundreds of meters separated them from the plain.
Then, they came out in the open again, creating a trail of terrain and debris as they kept on rising in the sky.
They had finally resurfaced after months spent underground!
The azure terrain of the plain filled Noah's vision, and he could immediately understand how intense the battles on the surface had been.
Countless corpses, body parts, and red puddles filled the plain, it seemed that thousands of magical beasts had died only in that territory.
Nevertheless, Noah didn't even have the time to think about gathering those spoils since hundreds of winged figures gathered in his position and filled the sky around him and June.
The winged figures kept on accumulating, Noah could see that the number of rank 4 creatures almost reached one thousand!
There were even thousands of rank 3 beasts among them, it seemed that the forced reproduction that Noah had predicted had already begun.
The scene was quite disheartening, an army of humanoid, winged beasts encircled two heroic cultivators in the gaseous stage.
No rank 4 creature could match a rank 4 cultivator, but there were simply too many of them.
Also, they could fuse their metal attacks, making that species extremely threatening when its packs were so populated.
The winged beasts didn't hesitate, they began to release soft vibrations from their horns that gathered in the air around June and Noah.