Aron and the others looked around the marsh as they were being led to the aforementioned "Gragar," which the creatures had before referenced.
Not one of them had ever let their guard down.
They were no longer moving through murky waters, but rather standing on soggy grass and other vegetation with slimy cuticles as they continued to move.
The number of trees with overgrown branches and leaves made it difficult to estimate the size of this area of land that was not under water.
It wasn't odd for a swamp to have some areas with firm ground; yet, Aron wondered whether this race was divided like the Panthera.
He's answer soon came in the form of an even more primitive settlement than the one he had seen the Panthera living in.
In these settlements, a tree was covered with a few patches of leaves and branches that served as a shelter.
Aron was unable to determine whether this was a result of the weather because he had not yet noticed any significant precipitation in that area.
"Gragar!!"
"Gragar!! Tulsa brought here!"
Jagu, who was positioned at the very rear, was shoved by one of the creatures as it roared out.
"I'm going to kill this idiot." Jagu growled irritably but made no moves after receiving a side glance from Aron.
After turning his head away, Aron saw that there weren't many members of this specific Komi subrace in the settlement.
He couldn't even see any females, so he assumed that perhaps the two sexes only interacted during mating season before dispersing.
A loud splash could be heard in the distance while he was evaluating everything; it was probably coming from the other side of the exposed land.
"Gragar called!!"
Even more horrifying than the current creatures, the drowsy booming voice boomed out from the distance.
The owner of that ear-ringing voice soon materialized as an even greater being.
"I assume you're the dominating or alpha figure around here." Aron addressed it without seeming the slightest bit alarmed.
He stared down at it even as he spoke because, despite its size and bulk, it still paled in comparison to Aron's.
"We are Yurg! Yurg Gragar best You! Strange, eat! Fill Gragar."
Aron was annoyed by the Yurg named Gragar's difficult-to-understand speaking pattern. He could tell nothing useful could be gleaned just from this.
Instead, these Komi subspecies were well muscled and lacking brains.
"This was a waste of time. Jagu, go ahead." Aron came to this conclusion and gave the order to proceed.
The next instant, Jagu charged at the closest Yurg with startling speed, aiming for its broad nose.
Although he was plainly stronger, his clawed attack failed to pierce the creature's thick scaly skin.
"What the-"
"Dodge!"
Jin forewarned Jagu of a second attack coming from behind before he could be caught off guard by the fact that his attack hardly caused any damage.
"Gragar eat!"
The largest Yurg decided to get involved after witnessing the ensuing mayhem and attacked Aron, who was nearest, in order to do so.
Nevertheless, Aron was able to anticipate its gradual motions and avoid the attempted grapple.
He merely tripped it by extending his leg after it had past. Due to its huge upper body, the slight imbalance distortion caused it to topple over.
Aron stood on its back to prevent it from rising when its body struck the ground forcefully.
He reached for its snout and seized the borders of its mouth, opening them slowly in different directions while it pulled violently in an attempt to escape.
The other Yurg sprang to the large's aid when it started to howl strangely in fright. However…
Nove l B(in).C OM
"Evanora commands you to stop." Everyone in the area of Evanora's line of vision fell to the ground nearly instantaneously as soon as she said, as if a hidden power had been holding them there.
This was mostly Yurg but even Jagu had been caught by it and couldn't stand, leaving Jin to face four other Yurg who weren't struck.
Woosh!~
Fortunately for Jin, Lady Rose's scouter sped past and smashed three of the Yurg's heads.
She chose to compensate for her uncertainty about whether their skin was harder than the material the scouter was made of by moving with great speed.
She could see from the findings that the scouter's substance was harder, which was a comfort because it meant she wouldn't have to immediately duplicate them using better, stronger materials.
Crack!~
They heard a snap come from Arias's direction as they were finishing up. Additionally, he had finally defeated their dominant member.
"Physically they're limbs are weak but the amount of power in their jaws is tricky to deal with."
At his words, Evanora let go of her enchantment and Jagu was able to move once more. The Yurgs that was left decided to flee after witnessing their most powerful member suffer a crushing loss.
As soon as Aron gave the order, Jagu pounced alongside Jin, and Rose's scouters quickly dealt with the remaining foes, putting an end to the brief battle.
When this was finished, Jagu collected all the bodies and arranged them in front of Aron, who appeared to be paying attention to something else.
"Do you smell that Jagu?"
Aron pointed out all of sudden causing Jagu to sniff the air in Aron's direction.
As he did so, he scowled and made a small nod. "It smells like rotting flesh."
After getting the go-ahead from Jagu, Aron went northwest, towards the general vicinity of where the stench was coming from, a few hundred meters away.
When he arrived, he discovered an abundance of moist, stacked leaves that towered above him by at least five meters.
However, Aron could already smell a dreadful rotten smell emanating from that pile of leaves.
He extended his hand and began to pull back some of the leaves when all of a sudden, what appeared to be an arm emerged from the foliage as if it were being held in place by the leaves.
One could tell by looking at it that the owner had died because large portions of the person's skin and fingers were missing.
"What kind of preservation method is this? it won't stop it from rotting." Jagu questioned as he gradually removed more leaves and twigs from the stack to disclose the repulsive scene below.
"I think it's to prevent the smell from being widespread and attracting other predators, just look at how long it took us to notice it's presence." Aron came to a conclusion while scanning different areas of the pile.
With the exception of Evanora, who had no objections whatsoever, the others who had come to witness what these two were doing were immediately repulsed by the sight.
In addition to Jin and the other humans in particular, Rose also expressed her discomfort at the sight and did not enjoy the foul fragrance.
"Those are… "
Looking at the pile of dead bodies, Mrah and Kalel had pale faces. Just by looking at the dead people's clothes, it was obvious that many of them were just regular people who hadn't even put up a fight.
They could only speculate that this would be their fate if they weren't with Aron's group.
They both quickly turned aside, with Mrah clutching her mouth to keep herself from throwing up.
When there were no more leaves, Jagu and Aron stopped removing them and disregarded these two. Aron then turned to face Evanora and nodded at her.
"Burn all these bodies till only ashes remain." He gave a nonchalant instruction and walked away.
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