Upon rec her Qi, Tara decided to put her pn into motion.

  The Pikeakes attempted to force her into an advantageous position, with them seeming to realise the danger of leaving themselves vulnerable if they made a frontal attack.

  She realised as magical beasts, the fish were likely far more intelligent than they appeared to be, and she assumed they had experiening up against Iron Samanders and khey were at their most dangerous when you allowed them to trade blow for blow with their sharp cws ah alongside their regeion.

  The Pikeakes cked the fideo avoid injury with just the two of them, so they waited either expeg reinforts or until they eventually forced her to move into a more favourable position.

  Either of these options would be a rational decision for any intelligent being; after all, the Pikeakes must have entered plenty of Iron Samanders, and they would know all about their strengths and weaknesses.

  Unfortunately, Tara was not your typical Iron Samander, and the Pikeakes will soon find this out.

  It would not be advisable for her to wait for even more of the Pikeakes to appear, so she decides to act first since, with two, it would be a difficult battle but winnable if she utilised her skill set correctly.

  Luring the Pikeakes, Tara wao use {Metal Manipution} to attempt to defeat them from a safe distanbsp;

  To the Pikeakes, she would be uo reach them unless she was close since your average Iron Samander tacks fre, everonger ones, and the Pikeakes have likely never entered anything but a typical member of her species.

  Though she gleahis from the description of her species by the immortal and the way ical beasts treated her, she was fident her assessment was correct with the way the Pikeakes circled at what they assumed to be a safe difference. However, they remained perfectly in range for {Metal Manipution}.

  She began preparing the trait covertly, using a particur murky and covered area at the bottom of the s that still provided a clear path for her to unch a projectile yet did not leave her exposed.

  The Pikeakes seemed to notiething was amiss slightly, yet they remained so assured from their dealings with her species they did not reatil it was too te.

  Two sharp, gleamial spears shot towards them from out of nowhere. The Pikeakes were swift and agile, sensing the danger from deteg the movements ier. They mustered an effort to evade, but this was not enough.

  The overp Metal Qi that flowed from the metal spears made them travel like they were almost weightless ier. Tara does not know this, but any Qi Gatheri able to utilise Qi like this is the most feared and uable in the Qi gathering stage.

  Evero Iron Samanders ot usually utilise their Qi externally like this, with them only boasting their traits passively or using their Qi tthen their bodies and attacks.

  Magical beasts use Qi instinctively and el it to supplement their species' advantages. Humans are experts at utilising Qi externally in ways simir to skills and teiques. With most magical beasts g a foundation, society, they mostly get by with their instincts aloill, even this is dangerous enough for most human cultivators to deal with.

  Tara has no idea, but she would be sidered a nightmare for newbie human cultivators already, from being uable and having a variety of traits; Qi gathering cultivators are amateurs with little experience, so an oppo like her may be worrisome, yet teniuses she would still be very weak after all, mas with mighty bloodli and Tara at the moment is far beh them. Some human cultivators match them, so currently, Tara would be nothing to them.

  Yet, for a magical beast with a reputation for being simple, straightforward, and weak, she would be dangerous just based on the assumptions made about her by her species; uimation is the biggest downfall for many, and the Pikeakes currently bear the brunt of this.

  One of them got hooked up by the surprisingly swift and accurate spear; the other seemed wounded but had mao just about escape the worst of it.

  A bloodthirsty glean abruptly appeared in Tara's eyes, as now she had gone from being the huo being the hunter.

  One of the fish ractically crippled, and the other was injured, and with her injuries mostly healed with how swift her {Regeion} acted, she was fident to deal with them.

  Rapidly approag them, the Pikeakes seemed to panic. They looked at Tara like she was a monster. She thought she saw some fear and fusion in their red eyes for the first time.

  ‘These fish are bright. Well, intelligent for fish,’ Tara thought. Uhe very few, most fish don’t show intelligence like this oh. Yet, Tara felt this type of intelligence was the norm for beasts with a simir cultivation level, making the thought of a world filled with intelligent murder maes a chilling thought.

  It made her think just how deadly the humans had to be to adapt themselves to fight monstrous beasts that were not only unusually rge but far smarter, too.

  The Pikeake caught by the spear was injured so severely that it could not resist, but the one who mao get away with slight injuries remained dangerous. Yet Tara felt too determio fail.

  She instinctively felt it would be bad news if she let one of them get away, so she attacked the one who could still escape in a frenzy, who, luckily for her, was relut to leave its friend to the point it tried to fight her off fiercely.

  By doing so, this only pyed in Tara’s favour; despite the valiant effort, the Pikake fought a losing battle. Yet, the look of sadness and defianever faded from its strangely expressive eyes.

  Tara had never paid much attention to the Pikeakes before, yet she realised she had been looking past that they weren’t just simple predatory fish.

  She had no idea if it was the lizard or, should she say, samander blood, but she found this did little to ge her cold, apathetic attitude toward the fish; in fact, the desire to sughter them remained as strong as ever.

  ‘They dare to trample on my dignity? To treat me as their prey.’ Tara thought, a raging he filling her bones as she began hag into the fish at an even angrier, frantic pabsp;

  The Pikeake shrieked even louder as it seemed to gaze relutly at the other before trying to escape, but Tara refused to let it leave. Digging her cws deeply into the Pikeake, she began ripping into its soft innards. The fish shook in even mony as it attempted to dissuade her by biting her back fiercely.

  Yet Tara seemed to be under a haze of bloodlust at the moment and did not respond to the damaging, hurtful bite of the Pikeake at all as the fish put up its final futile resistance. With it finally breathing its st, the other fish, watg with a look of sadness, simirly soos end as a bloodied but triumphant Tara ehe sound of the notifications.

  [You have defeated {Sikeake}, gaining 20 EXP. You are now 67/1000 intressing to Level 4.]

  And the quick following of another.

  [You have defeated {Sikeake}, gaining 20 EXP. You are now 87/1000 intressing to Level 4.]

  Tara felt extremely satisfied, but given how sensitive these fish were, she knew more would be ing and o act fast.

  She had an idea after eating as much of the carcasses as possible.

  Tara knew she could not remain still since, with the Pikeakes' intelligehey would eventually reise something . Yet, using this strategy, couldn’t she effectively use the popur strategy in role-pying games of ‘kiting’ the fish using their weakness of le bat?

  There seemed plenty of them around here, and as long as she did not get too greedy, the Pikeakes were a treasure trove of EXP.

  With her {Metal Manipution} and mobility, she could move around stantly, waiting for her Qi to recover before pig them off.

  ‘It’s not just because you want to it a Pikeake massacre.’ Tara mumbled, irely vinced ihoughts.

  She had no idea why she hated the things so much, yet the thought of them stantly threatening her seemed to hurt something deeper within her —her pride.

  Feeling hot-tempered and needing to vent, she decided to it to her pn. As such, she heard another notification after what felt like endless hours and dozens of dead Pikeakes ter as she tore another Pikeake into pieces.

  [You have defeated {Sikeake}, gaining 20 EXP. You are now 627/1000 intressing to Level 4.]

  After this, the Pikeake began to act strangely, as if they were responding to something and making odd movements.

  ‘I should have known I would set off somethiually, with their obvious intelligend apparent kinship…’ Tara thought; however, even she did not realise the magnitude of what she set off in motion.

  Instead of Tara, the real culprit, the Pikeakes, the undisputed rulers of this se of the s, had identified the group responsible: Iron Samanders.

  None dared to attack them in droves for a reason, as they would group on whichever species did so, and magical beasts were intelligent enough to back down against a superior force.

  There was a fragile baween the magical beasts here, with the Pikeake’s exteerritory and aggressiveowards the other species a signifit cause of flict, yet Tara’s onesided massacre had provoked a response.

  The Pikeakes o set an example for the daring magical beasts who had killed them in droves.

  They have already been targeting Iron Samander clutches to reduce the popution of the highly territorial and aggressive species.

  Pikeake sidered Iron Samanders weak, though they were numerous. Additionally, they showed a ck of submission and were irritatingly plex to kill. Thus, their hatgs were frequent targets to keep their numbers in check.

  Yet it was clear that the elder Iron Samanders had made a move against them.

  It was time to move out in forove them from their territory ond for all.

  With the Pikeake horde moving towards the Iron Samanders' den, Tara unwittingly drew closer to the location.

  She does not realise that she will be reuniting with not only her kin but also a bunch of angry fish who are thinking of extermination.

  Tara had already seey of carcasses of Iron Samanders half eaten by the Pikeakes, so her motion of Pikeake sughter was already embedded in her mind, though maybe she did not realise the sheer scale of what she had uionally caused.