Chapter 438: Clash over a meal

The next morning the entire group all had a quick breakfast and were excited to get on the move once again. Observing the animals had been interesting and had been well worth the time since they were able to see several different creatures that they might run into while exploring the prairie, but at the same time it was incredibly tedious. The person that had it the worse the entire time was actually Lilly instead of the hotheads like Amy and Adrian who wanted to go out and explore more all day. The issue Lilly had was the fact that she had all of these different beast in front of her that she wanted to tame, but she couldn't do anything about it. The moment they took a step off the hill in the direction of all of the different creatures there was no telling how they would react.

There were a couple of good things that they were able to learn from their day of just sitting around and observing the beast throughout the day. The first was the fact that water sources in the prairie were like safe zones that could be used to rest without having to worry about having the beast trying to attack them. Even when Vince didn't have his illusion up none of the creatures came over to them or tried to attack them. They just kept a wary eye in their direction from time to time. This strategy of safe zones could only be certain in this prairie so they couldn't exactly rely on it when they went to different areas. After all there was no certainty that in other areas water sources were viewed as none violent spots for the beast.

The other good thing that they learned came from Joshua's aura sense. With it they were able to judge how far the beast considered the none-violence pact around the water source to be in effect. It took all the way up until the edge of Joshua's aura sense before Joshua could feel a bobcat starting to go after a group of coyotes. They had a brief fight with the coyotes getting away with their large dust clouds hindering the senses of the bobcat. Even so the fight took place far away from the lake. Both groups could sense the fight coming from the moment they left the watering hole since they left around the same time and the bobcat seemed to be following the coyotes.

This showed that even if there was an agreement not to fight around the watering hole it didn't mean you couldn't mark your next pray while hanging out around the watering hole. The bobcat was just too obvious about his urge to go after the coyotes which gave the pack a heads up about the danger. Joshua was certain that the snake probably would have pulled off a better sneak attack or maybe one of the bigger bobcats that seemed more experienced would have succeeded.

Either way Joshua knew that it would be best if they left the area with an illusion to hide them since they didn't want any of the predators following them out of the area. When they were leaving they decided to head in the same direction that the bison had left the day before since it would lead deeper into the prairie. At this point Joshua planned on actually getting into confrontations with any predators they came across as long as they weren't in giant herds. If they were able to tame some then that would just make things even easier for the group. They needed to gain some levels before they could even think of challenging the dungeon of such a high level area and there was no way they were going to do that if they didn't start actually fighting some of the creatures they came across.

When leaving the area Joshua was surprised to see that the porcupine seemed to have the same idea as them as it left ahead of them in the direction of the bison, but it didn't seem to be nearly as careful about leaving the area as Joshua's group was being. The porcupine had a natural defense against just about all predators Joshua had seen so far in the prairie. Even the owl wouldn't be able to snatch it off the ground unless it wanted to have its lower body skewered a hundred times over. There were some other beast around the watering hole that eyed the creature as it left, but none of the predators that remained there bothered following it. The only carnivores that would dare go after the porcupine would be ones on the verge of starving.

Joshua's group followed the same path as the porcupine from the watering hole since it seemed to be going in the same direction they had been planning to go in the first place. With Vince's illusion wrapped around them the porcupine didn't notice them nearby and just casually continued to stroll out of the area without a care. The tall grass that they were moving through didn't last for very long before they were met with another wide open area that spanned a pretty long ways of nothing, but short grass. Such a location would be extremely difficult for predators to hunt in and that was clearly the case by all of the different groups of beast that Joshua could see in the distance.

There was a large group of prairie chicken off to the side minding their own business as they chowed away at all of the worms in the short grass. There was another group of elk resting on a high hill in the shade underneath a tree. Joshua could also make out an area filled with much larger holes which most likely meant there were several prairie dogs in that area. All in all the area seemed to be a haven for herbivores in the prairie since it was easy for them to defend themselves against predators in such an open space. The only predators that Joshua could sense around the area at first were the large vultures that were flying high up in the sky looking for any dead bodies that they could freely scavenge.

The porcupine seemed to realize the open space was perfect for it to stroll through without a care and find something to eat. "Looks like this area isn't going to be somewhere we can find predators to fight against. Everything here outside of the porcupine is in large groups and I doubt we want to deal with those." Henry said with a frown.

"I don't think I'd want to deal with the porcupine either." Adrian said with a sigh. "Us close range fighters can't even approach it without taking a lot of damage and who knows would tricks it's hiding since it seems so carefree in comparison to the other beasts."

"I don't think we're going to have to worry about finding something to fight from what I'm sensing coming from the tall grass over there." Joshua said as he grabbed his scale blade in preparation for battle. "There's a pack of coyote coming this way, but their killing intent isn't focused on us."

The pack of coyotes started to rustle the grass as they got closer to the area. With his aura sense Joshua could tell there was around ten of them, but unlike the pack they had seen at the lake this group's aura seemed to be wavering. It was as if they were on their last legs and desperate at the moment. It became clear why that was the case the moment they popped their heads out of the large grass.

Most of the coyotes looked thin considering their larger frames. It was to the point where you could see the ribs of their chest and the bones of their shoulders pushing against their skin. This pack was extremely malnourished and hadn't had any meals for a long time judging by how they looked and acted when they came into the large clearing. Most of the other large packs of animals only glanced over in the coyotes' direction for a moment before ignoring them. They were all in large healthy groups that could easily fend off the weakened and desperate coyotes.

"I think I know why the vultures are hovering over this area now." Aito said while examining the sickened creatures. "They can see a meal coming up. Damn things could probably take the coyotes down right now if they wanted to, but they're not willing to risk getting hurt."

"Yeah it looks like theses overgrown dogs have seen better days." Victor said with a shrug as he pulled out his swords in preparation to fight if the group of coyotes came after them.

"It doesn't seem like they're going to come are way." Joshua said as he held up his hand to signal everyone to stop and avoid attacking the creatures. The pack of coyotes stumbled passed Joshua's group since they were still under an illusion. They were so tired and malnourished that they couldn't even notice the more obvious illusion that was right next to them. Instead it seemed like the pack of coyote were planning to surround the porcupine that continued to just stroll ahead without a care.

The leader of the pack of coyote barked out an order and four coyote rushed ahead of the porcupine causing it to stop moving forward and glance up at the creatures that were getting in its way. Once it noticed that it was getting surrounded all of the quills on its back stood on edge and flared out so that they pointed in all directions around its body. The coyotes had no clear spot in which they could go in for the attack outside of from the front at the head of the porcupine.

After surrounding the creature the coyotes all let out dust clouds at the same time blinding the porcupine and covering the entire area. Joshua was only able to see what happened next because of his aura sense as two different coyotes charged at the porcupines head, but instead of biting down on its neck they were stopped in their tracks as the porcupine leapt to the side in a quick burst of speed impaling one of the poor coyotes on its massive quills. It then turned to the side so that the other coyote was welcomed with one of the quills that was closer to the porcupine's neck. The quill pierced clean through the creatures head as it slumped over and fell to the ground.

Soon the scene of the two dead coyotes became clear to all as the dust cloud disappeared and now there were only eight coyotes circling the porcupine. If the coyotes took a moment to think instead of being so desperate for food then they would have backed away and waited for the porcupine to leave before eating the bodies of their dead companions, but they were so blinded by hunger that they were locked in on the porcupine. Sadly that was the biggest mistake they made in their lives. The porcupine seemed to be waiting to see if the coyotes would leave it alone, but when they didn't it started to huff and suck in air as its body bloated up.

The second the porcupine stopped bloating itself up several of its quills shot out into the surroundings and skewered all of the coyotes around it killing them on the spot. It had lost a few quills but Joshua could see that they were already growing back at a rate that was visible to his eyes from far away. One of the quills was launched so far that it slammed into the ground right in front of their eyes sending dirt up into the air. The quill was covered in blood from whatever coyote it had pierced through and was the sign that the lopsided battle had come to an end.