Starting Out As The God of Beasts

The cool evening air of Yeren City brushed against the sandstone facades as Alisa and Eurenia walked side by side down a wide, lantern-lit thoroughfare.

The crowds were thinning, but the vibrant, gritty energy of the evening market still hummed in the background.

Eurenia walked with a new, terrifyingly fluid grace, her posture carrying the absolute weight and confidence of a Martial Master.

Her cimson-furred ears twitched, absorbing the ambient noise of the city, while her hand rested casually near the hilt of her blade.

Beside her, Alisa moved like a weightless shadow, her expression calm and analytical as she mentally logged the patrol routes of the local Leopard-kin guards.

”The Mandraxx network is already rooting itself into the lower tiers,” Alisa spoke smoothly, her voice a low murmur that barely carried past Eurenia’s ears.

”But Yeren City’s intelligence is heavily monopolized by Governor Vance’s Shark-kin. If we want to fully control the eastern information flow, we will need to squeeze his networks tightly.”

”Remember Master Jarden said they might resist his demands and try to renegotiate” she added.

”Let them try to resist,” Eurenia replied, her golden eyes flashing with an unyielding, fanatical light. ”Under the Apostle’s design, their monopolies are nothing but cardboard walls. If they do not bend, we will break them.”

Before Alisa could respond, her long Rabbit-kin ears suddenly stiffened.

A distinct, heavy scraping sound—the unmistakable drag of thick, scaly tails against the dirt floor—echoed from a intersecting alleyway up ahead.

Four towering figures stepped out into the amber glow of the street lanterns, effectively blocking their path.

They were Crimson-skinned Lizardmen.

Their bodies were covered in coarse, muddy-green scales, their yellow, slitted eyes fixed entirely on Alisa with an unsettling mixture of greed and malicious recognition.

They wore mismatched, rusted chainmail and carried heavy iron scimitars at their waists—typical low-tier thugs from one of the nomadic desert tribes that frequented Yeren’s slave blocks.

The leader of the group, a heavily scarred Lizard-kin with a missing horn, let out a wet, guttural hiss that smelled of sour ale and raw desert meat.

”Well, well... look what crawled out of the luxury quarters,” the leader sneered, his thick tail slamming against the sandstone wall behind him.

He stepped forward, his slit pupils dilating as he tracked Alisa’s sleek, high-grade dark-grey leather armor. ”I knew that pretty face looked familiar. Lads, it’s the fragile little rabbit we bought from Tempest few months ago.”

The other three thugs chuckled, a low, clicking sound rattling in their throats as they fanned out, aggressively trapping the two women against the edge of a closed fabric stall.

”You’ve grown quite the pair of claws since you escaped our chains, little slave,” the leader intimidated, leaning his massive, reptilian snout dangerously close to Alisa’s face.

He looked around the immediate area, his yellow eyes scanning the emptying street, completely ignoring Eurenia, whose crimson fur was partially obscured by her heavy travel cloak.

”But where is that arrogant human who bought snatched your chains? The little master isn’t here to protect his property tonight, is he?”

He reached out a heavy, clawed green hand, intending to roughly seize Alisa by the chin. ”In Yeren City, unescorted rabbits don’t stay free for long. Maybe we should take you back to the pens and sell you off to the highest bidders.”

Alisa didn’t flinch.

She didn’t even draw her weapon.

She merely stood there, her expression entirely detached, looking at the heavy hand approaching her face as if it were a minor system glitch.

Beside her, the air pressure around the alleyway violently plummeted to absolute zero.

Crack.

Before the Lizard-kin’s claw could even graze Alisa’s skin, Eurenia stepped forward.

The movement was so blindingly fast it left a silver afterimage in the dim lantern light.

Her hand shot out like an iron vice, clamping around the leader’s wrist with a sickening crunch of fracturing scales.

”Who permitted you to speak to the Director of Mandraxx?” Eurenia whispered, her voice vibrating with the terrifying, suffocating density of a Martial Master.

”A-A Cultivator!!” the Lizardmen shrieked in fear.

An explosive wave of silver-white martial aura erupted from Eurenia’s mana cores, slamming into the four Lizard-kin like a physical hammer.

The sheer kinetic pressure forced the three supporting thugs instantly to their knees, the stone pavement cracking beneath their weight as they gasped for oxygen under the crushing weight of her spiritual sea.

The leader’s yellow eyes dilated in absolute, primal horror as his knees buckled, his entire arm trembling as Eurenia’s grip slowly began to pulverize the bones in his wrist.

They had thought they were intimidating a defenseless slave; they hadn’t realized they had walked straight into the jaws of a apex predator.

The leader of the Lizard-kin let out a high-pitched, wet shriek as Eurenia’s grip tightened, the distinct sound of fracturing scales and splintering bone echoing down the narrow street.

The other three thugs were pinned flat against the dirt, their chests heaving as they suffocated under the crushing, crimson pressure of a Martial Master’s aura.

Eurenia’s golden eyes burned with an unyielding, fanatical light; one more second, and she would have pulverized the leader’s arm entirely and painted the sandstone walls with their blood.

”Please... wait—!” the leader choked out, his tail thrashing uselessly against the pavement.

”Amusing,” a smooth, low voice suddenly resonated from the entrance of the alleyway, cutting through the thick layer of martial pressure like a razor through silk.

”I leave you two alone for a brief walk, and you’re already breaking the local merchandise.”

Eurenia’s terrifying aura instantly dissolved, vanishing back into her core as if it had never existed.

The four Lizard-kin collapsed into a heap on the ground, gasping violently for air, their yellow, slitted eyes darting toward the source of the voice.

Walking calmly out of the amber glow of the street lanterns was Roy.

His tailored black coat swayed slightly with his stride, his hands slipped casually into his pockets.

His dual-colored, golden-crimson eyes glinted with a dangerous, loitering amusement as he looked down at the pathetic scene.

”Apostle Jarden,” Eurenia intoned immediately, stepping back and bowing her head in absolute reverence.

Alisa simply shifted her posture, her long Rabbit-kin ears relaxing as she gave a slight, respectful nod to her master.

The Lizard-kin leader, cradling his mangled, bleeding wrist against his chest, looked up at Roy.

Recognition flared through his panicked mind—this was the very ”stranger” who had effortlessly bought Alisa’s papers, the mysterious powerhouse trailing the upper administrative tier of the city.

But his face was a mask of confusion, he recognized Roy but at the same time he didn’t.

That mysterious golden haired stranger was human.

This man standing before him is a crimson-furred wolf man.

Yet his bestial instincts told him they were the same. He flinched at the sight of Roy’s gaze.

Roy stepped over one of the prone thugs, his boot coming to a stop mere inches from the leader’s snout.

He tilted his head, his golden-crimson pupils flaring with a faint, systemic luminescence that made the reptiles’ natural instincts scream in primal terror.

”You have five seconds to clear your garbage from my sight,” Roy murmured, his level voice carrying a chilling indifference that was far more terrifying than Eurenia’s explosive aura. ”Before I let her bathe in your bloods”

The leader scrambled backward like a panicked desert crab, his heavy tail slamming into the fabric stalls as he hoisted himself up.

The other three thugs, suddenly finding their legs, desperately hauled their leader backward into the safety of the wider thoroughfare.

But even as they retreated into the shadows of the main avenue, the leader’s pride and deep-seated malice overrode his fear for a split second.

He turned his scarred head, his yellow eyes burning with venomous rage as he spat a mouthful of dark blood onto the pavement.

”You think you own the streets, stranger?!” the Lizard-kin hissed loudly, his voice trembling but laced with bitter defiance.

”You and your pet rabbit won’t leave Yeren City alive! The Voka Tribe has hundreds of spears in the back alleys, We’ll remember your faces! We’ll get our revenge when the dusk settles!”

”Just you wait!” he roared.

With that final, desperate threat, the four thugs sprinted blindly into the dark, their heavy footsteps fading quickly into the distant noise of the evening grand marketplace.

Roy didn’t bother to give chase.

He merely let out a soft, dry chuckle, turning his gaze back to Alisa and Eurenia.

”The Voka Tribe huh?......” Roy mused, a sharp, predatory grin spreading across his face as his internal system interface flickered with a new faction target.

”They were the ones who bought Alisa from Tempest” he inhaled deeply, ”Filths will always be filths”

”Perhaps they’re the perfect test subjects to demonstrate the judgement of Lord Varanus, the God of Beasts” he chuckled softly.

”For now I’ll let them be” he turned around, ”Once we have established a trade agreement with Yeren City”

”They will feel the wrath of God”