CHAPTER 254: BREWING CHAOS

A crazy idea flashed in Hal’s mind.

It was difficult to make it work, but if he could somehow pull it off, then he could break the balance in the central region!

’Should I do it?’ he pondered.

He could see himself succeeding...

He just needed to see which of the two tribe leaders was more ferocious, and it didn’t take long for him to find out.

Although outnumbered in males, the tribe leader of the losing party fought like a berserk beast, beating back the younger males of the other party, along with their leader, despite suffering numerous, harrowing wounds.

The losing tribe leader suffered more damage for sure.

However, the Alpha Leonid was actually winning the intimidation battle, making it difficult for the other tribe to completely take over.

Hal had decided that he would support the losing tribe simply because their leader was more ferocious.

Perhaps it was only their small numbers that forced the tribe to remain in the outer regions.

But if he could tip the scales a bit and merge these two tribes under one alpha...

Hal immediately got to work, creeping closer under the covers of invisibility.

Feline monsters and beasts had the most sensitive of senses, though, so he didn’t dare close in too fast.

He also made sure that his advance was as silent as possible.

If he could merge the two tribes, then their numbers would rival those of the largest Leonid tribes in the central region.

Hal wasn’t sure how this ferocious leader would fare against the leaders at the center.

However, the fellow would at least be able to shake, perhaps even ruin the power dynamics there.

It was a plan worth trying, for sure.

Hal didn’t want to reduce the number of younger, beta males in the currently winning tribe, as they would bolster the merged tribe’s strength.

He only had to assassinate their leader.

’It shouldn’t be too difficult...’

In such a ferocious battle for survival, there should be many negative emotions at full throttle.

Anger, dread, uncertainty, desperation, shame, and perhaps even regret.

All these would empower his [Dreadmaw].

Imagining multiple ways to slaughter the rival tribe leader, Hal thought to himself:

’I’m quite suited to be an assassin, aren’t I?’

He took his time, leaving two [Frost Traps] and one [Chrono Trap] in front of him, mana disturbance undetected.

Then, once he was ready...

Hal quickly used [Spatial Swap], changing positions with his target tribe leader.

The momentary switch confused both parties.

But of course, he wouldn’t throw himself in the middle of a literal tribe of lion monsters for no reason, [Blink]ing out of the skirmish and in front of the tribe leader frozen in time and ice with a massive black maw in his forearms.

With a punch, he chomped the rival alpha from the torso up, activated [Tailwind], and sprinted out of the area like a thief in the night before the skirmishing tribe even realized what happened.

Truly a case of ’must’ve been the wind. ’

The next thing they knew was that there was a human sprinting in the distance faster than a darned Pantheran, and one of the alphas was dead.

Even the ferocious tribe leader of the losing side was dumbfounded for a few moments before trembling in excitement.

Why would he care about the human when he had an entire tribe in front of him for the taking?

With this, he would have enough forces to fight for a spot in the central region of the savannah!

The remaining alpha quickly got to work, threatening to kill all the beta males, and those who courageously fought were finished off.

The rest could only submit.

Hal watched from a distance as his plan worked wonders, inwardly praising Hao and himself for researching even the temperaments and nature of the creatures that inhabited the savannah.

He wouldn’t have been able to think of this plan if he didn’t know how Leonids lived their lives.

Just a little over a minute later, a new tribe was formed as all males and females of the leaderless tribe willingly prostrated themselves in front of their new alpha.

What fascinated Hal was the smooth transition.

It was as if the leader he killed didn’t exist in the first place, as the females of the submitting tribe wholeheartedly accepted their new alpha.

Hal couldn’t help but see it as a lack of loyalty, finding it difficult to understand the hearts and minds of the Leonids.

His blood ran cold at the thought of the forgotten alpha.

This place was indeed brutal, and on a multitude of levels.

In any case, he accomplished his objective, ensuring he wasn’t being followed before returning to the burrow.

"Hal!" Liora called out in delight as she watched her comrade enter. "H-How did it go?"

Hal summarized what he saw:

"There were two tribes of Leonids in an all-out war earlier, and one of the alphas won, successfully merging both tribes. They should be heading to the central region soon to claim a small territory for themselves. The new leader and the beta males were quite heavily wounded, though, so they probably would rest for a few days to recover.

In the meantime, let’s continue observing the beasts and monsters at the center every morning. We hunt for beasts in the periphery of our burrow in the afternoon. I have a plan."

Hal indeed had another plan. A rather devious one.

Liora nodded, and the three proceeded to leave the burrow, observing the warring groups of beasts and monsters in the morning from atop the Baobab Tree.

At noontime, they would return to their base of operations and have lunch, proceeding to hunt beasts and stock up on meat.

They did this for three days.

In the mid-morn of the fourth, his [Spirit Sparrow] spotted a huge tribe of Leonids entering the central region from the east, numbering a bit more than the expected forty-five.

Hal’s heart raced in excitement at the sight.

It seemed that the ferocious leader had recovered quite a lot and had even managed to gather a bit more members before the big move.

Finally, after three rather fruitless days, it was time to execute their plan.