Elder Julia snapped back to reality and dived toward the wreckage that was the ground to gather the living weapons left by the rank 4 cultivators that had died during the storm.
The truth was that Noah's safety had the priority in her mind, so she hadn't thought about the living weapons until he resurfaced and proved his well-being.
Of course, Noah was far from good. His body was a bloody mess. Peaceful Storm's attack had broken his skin, torn his muscles, and damaged his internal organs. Only his bones appeared to be somewhat fine because they were resistant against that type of offensive.
He would have to spend months in seclusion and consume a large number of powerful beasts to recover from his injuries and fix the Demonic Sword. Yet, he could stand and even put up a fight if the situation required it.
The resilience of a hybrid was incredible, and Noah had smartly decided to rely on it only after using all his spells and technique to weaken the area of the storm that was aiming for him. With all those factors put together, it wasn't a surprise that he had survived.
However, that only applied to him and to the Elders that were aware of his abilities.
The cultivators of the Empire felt amazed to see him surviving an attack that would be deadly for most existences in the gaseous stage of the fifth rank. After all, Noah had just reached that level in their eyes, but he was already an entity able to survive the most potent attacks of cultivators that had been in that rank for countless years!
Most of them started to feel envious about his discoveries in the magical beasts' field because they believed that his incredible achievements came from his status as a hybrid. They couldn't possibly know that his darkness did most of the work in improving his abilities so that they could match those of his opponents.
Also, with the Divine Deduction technique at hand, he could create and devise diagrams and methods far faster than his peers, which prevented him from stepping on higher levels unprepared.
Elder Julia eventually gathered all the weapons dropped during the storm, but she returned to the sky with a sour expression on her face.
There were almost ten living weapons among the wreckage, meaning that the same number of Elders in the fourth rank had died due to Peaceful Storm's attack. Those losses weighed on the overall power of the Hive since it had spent the last decades gathering cultivators and nourishing them until the heroic ranks.
The positive trend that it had experienced in those years had ended at that moment, and it would take the same amount of time to recover from that.
Wars were necessary to balance the political power in the world whenever a significant event happened, and the cultivators needed that kind of struggle to improve. However, the weaker side would always feel its losses more than the powerful organizations.
The Empire had lost a lot in that battle. Still, Elder Julia couldn't help but reconsider if the Hive was ready for that war.
It would take a while before their victories started to provide real gains. Those territories only featured useful buildings in the end, and the Empire could always move its resources away from their valuable domains when it felt that it was about to lose them.
The invading forces would start to obtain valuable assets only when the entirety of the Empire's territories on the new continent fell, and the war moved to the old continent.
The sight of Noah casually eating the wolf's head and dropping a few pieces of its flesh on the Demonic Sword, steeled Elder Julia's determination. The Hive wasn't as strong as the other organization, but it had some of the best talents in the entirety of those Mortal Lands.
Its power wasn't in its weaker troops but its exceptional leaders. After all, creating cannon fodder was easy, but cultivators like Noah and Divine Demon's disciples were assets that even the other forces envied.
"I hope the Empire won't lose its cool next time," Elder Julia said as she shot a glance toward Peaceful Storm.
The troops of the Empire pretended not to have heard her and retreated without saying a word. There wasn't a city to protect anymore, so the battle had ended without winners. The Hive could only take it as a victory because it had obtained more lands to add to its domain.
After the cultivators of the Empire left, the Elders gathered around Noah, who had simply sat on the ground. Only Danielle didn't stay to check on him and returned to the Hive with a conflicted expression.
Noah had noticed her behavior, but there wasn't much that he could do about her. He technically was the leader of the hybrids in the Hive, but he couldn't give them moral support. He could only show them how to make use of their superior bodies and wait until they lost their unwavering faith toward the teachings of their ancestors.
"How long will it take for you to recover?" Elder Julia asked as she analyzed his injuries.
"I'd say seven months," Noah answered while dropping another piece of flesh over the Demonic Sword. "You should be fine for the battles in this region."
Elder Julia nodded at his words. She felt glad that he wasn't as wounded as it appeared, but there was another issue that they had to cover before he secluded himself to focus on healing.
"Do you believe that Danielle Duron will honor the oath?" Elder Julia asked.
The human assets deployed by the Hive were mostly hybrids that needed someone able to control them since their mental instabilities were too prominent on their level. There were leaders among them that followed Noah's orders, but they would need a replacement now that he was injured.
Danielle was the only available candidate for that spot since she could force them to behave as soldiers rather than as beasts. Yet, without Noah's presence in the battles, there would be no one able to stop her without triggering her oath.
Elder Julia was worried that her mental instabilities could lead her to break her pact with the Hive and kill her.
A hybrid in the fifth rank was too valuable to lose it due to a lack of proper containment methods. So, Elder Julia was asking the only one that could know something about that matter if Danielle could control herself without him on her same battlefield.
Noah had to admit that he couldn't control her too much, even if he were there since she was stronger than him. She had all the power needed to ignore his orders and just do as she wished.
Nevertheless, part of his deal with her was that she had to perform well in the war, and benching her would just slow down the improvements that she was making by following Noah's example.
"She should behave, so keep her in the attacking team," Noah answered before taking out another beast's corpse.