The defeated black horse saw the strange creatures that chased after his subordinates, appear from the corner of his eyes, their wood sticks still had a few blood stains, which meant that his subordinates were... dead.

"So, you ended up catching him, little Kana", said the oldest of the three sisters as she saw Ember keeping the black horse in check with her hoof.

"Mm, big brother promised sister Ember that if one of the horses ran away, we could take it down and it just so happened that this guy is also the leader of that group", said the little girl as she got off Ember’s back to then take out a rope from one of the bags hanging at the sides of the filly.

After Kana tied the rope around the neck and mouth of the black horse so that he couldn’t make any loud sounds nor escape from the restriction, the little girl tied the other end of the rope around Ember’s chest, this way if the black horse tried to break free, he’ll choke himself while the weight would be distributed through the filly’s upper body meaning that she’ll be perfectly fine.

"It’s done, you can let him get up sister Ember", said Kana to the filly who nodded in response to then retrieve her hoof from the black horse’s neck, that being said the black horses out of defiance didn’t get up on the spot to which Kana shook her head as she said.

"You are not on the killing list sister Ember made, so believe me, it’s better for you to cooperate", Ember and her aunt had a list of the black horses that absolutely must die since their actions were irredeemable.

Don’t get it wrong, the original batch of black horses was composed of all those that willingly accepted to be converted by the former king of herbivores, however their actions after that are what was taken into account to decide whether they must absolutely die or if they could be captured, given how the mare and Ember as well as the other adult horses had seen Mule pay for his actions by being under Alice’s orders.

To put an example, Mule did eat some meat of other horses but only after the other party had died which might sound still wrong, but cannibalism is not that weird among animals, he also didn’t develop an excessive amount of aggressiveness nor desire for meat of other horses in specific, as of current he was allowed to eat fish if he fulfilled all the harsh tasks he was assigned by Alice, otherwise he had to make do with grass which still was enough to fill his stomach, though he would feel weak in exchange.

Some other horses were like that, mainly those that basically followed the king of fangs out of fear for their lives or simply because he is strong, on the other hand we have the cases of those that came to enjoy causing pain to their prey and went as far as to eat them alive, not to mention that a couple even aimed to eat the foals which is why the mare absolutely refused to accept the change of the former king.

Now you might wonder, how will Ember and Kana know which horses from the new additions have committed acts that earn them a sure death at their hands, and the answer is simple, the horses like that are invaded by bloodthirst that can be felt by a few among the group, namely Aster, Alice, Kana, the filly and her aunt as well as Guardian and the ligress girl, so there is no escape for them.

"Normally I would advise against telling the enemy that he is not in the killing list, before interrogating him, but honestly death will sound like a luxury after falling in "her" hands", said Mina to which all the other girls nodded in agreement.

The black horse couldn’t understand anything besides what Kana said, but there was this sensation of unease that invaded him which led him to ultimately get up by himself and start advancing while guided by Kana and Ember.

Imagine the black horse surprise when he saw more than twice the number of strange creatures which had fought against his group, appear before him after they had walked a few hundreds of meters more into the forest, naturally those were Aster and the others.

’T-There are this many of those strange creatures, damn it, the king must be informed of this, that damn filly really went this far to claim revenge!’, thought the black horse.

He didn’t know the relation between Kana and Ember, but since she was sitting on her and also because she saw that another one of the creatures had a "snake" coiled around its body, the black horse supposed that Ember had submitted to those strange creatures in exchange for help to get back at the king of fangs, naturally the creature that the black horse was thinking about is Aster whose body is being hugged by the little wyrm in her sleep.

"So, is he going to answer to our question or do we have to make him answer?", said Aster as he noticed the gaze of the black horse on him, which Kana translated to the black horse that committed the huge mistake of looking away with a rebellious light in his eyes, basically saying that he won’t speak, which made a certain wild dragon princess say with an amused voice.

"Hoh, looks like we have a feisty one in our hands", the black horse saw a creature with red eyes approach him with a wide smile on her face and though nothing had happened, his instincts screamed "danger!".

"Make it quick, there is a limit of around forty minutes in which these guy’s returning figures should become visible for the other black horses so we have to plan how to proceed and start moving before reaching that time limit", said Aster to which Alice nodded.

"No problem~", while the black horse was dragged away by Alice to then start getting beat up by the wild dragon princess, Kana couldn’t help but look at Aster as she asked.

"Big brother, wouldn’t it be faster if we used sister Vivian’s ability to make the horse answer in a short period of time?", it’s not that Kana felt bad for the treatment the horse was getting, because he did "bad" things, so this much of a punishment is normal.

It was more of the little girl not wanting Alice to give her that "Look I can do things that you can’t", gaze, on the other hand it is also true that if they used Vivian’s method, the black horse would answer to their questions faster.

"Normally that would be the case, but we could alert that horse, you see with the snakes there was not that much of a problem because that side of the forest is full with animals, so there was a lot of "interference" in the way of the anaconda’s senses, but besides the horses there are no other animals nearby here and when Vivian uses that method, her presence exponentially grows which would reveal ourselves to the enemy", said Aster to which the lynx nodded.

"Grrr", that meant something along the lines of "That’s why I didn’t suppress the horses and simply cut their way of retreat".

Due to the influence of the bear, the other side of the forest even if it was far from the west where the bear lives, is deprived of any animal races, if it was only Aster and the others here then the black horse wouldn’t notice it, but if Vivian’s aura leaked like that, there is a chance the other party would notice, let’s not forget that Vivian’s aura feels dangerous even for Guardian.

So, the problem is not that they could charge towards them, but for example that they might run away in the opposite direction and even if there are some among the group who had the stamina to chase after the horses for some time, they would ultimately lose in a long-term race against them.

Still, as arrogant as the horse might have grown, he didn’t dare to go out of his way to provoke Guardian, though that might have been the next phase once he had allied with the anaconda which is why this time Aster was planning to interrogate the enemy, unlike what happened with the anaconda.

"I see...", mumbled the little girl with a defeated expression on her pretty face, which made Alice who was returning with a smile on her face, giggle.

"Don’t tell me you dislike the fact that your "big sister" Alice also has a unique way to contribute to the team now~", said the wild dragon princess which made Aster sigh to his insides.

"Don’t tease Kana too much, how did it go?", he said making Alice pout, though it was childish of her to be competing with Kana over something like this, that’s Alice for you.

"Humph when she helps, she receives head pats, but when I do, I get scolded that’s not fair... fine, I’ll stop here", mumbled the wild dragon princess as she saw Aria and Sarina looking at her with "Did you seriously say that?" written all over their faces.

"Ahem, yeah that guy was all bark and no bite, even Mule had more backbone than him, so you can be sure he’ll answer to anything we ask", said Alice to which Aster nodded and he proceeded to interrogate the black horse, to then base their next course of action in that information.

...

A bit more than half an hour had passed since the king of fangs send a group to look at the border of the forest to see if the snakes had caught a wind of their current position, and the king had started to grow impatient since his subordinates were not within sight.

’What are those fools doing?’, thought the king of fangs, never did the idea that Mule had tricked him cross his mind, not even when a large number of unfamiliar figures accompanied by one that he did recognize, became visible into the distance.

"Neeeigh!", with a loud sound, the king of fangs called all his subordinates to the action, and all the black horses that were resting inside the hill, got up and came out to then stand behind of him, with the exception of the returning "prodigal son" Mule who was still too wounded.

A bit of a commotion could be heard among the horses that belonged to the original batch that firstly joined the now king of fangs as they also recognized the figure of one of the top priority targets that the king had set up for them, the niece of the mare that caused them such great losses.

"I see, so it was you the one who led the snakes our way, what are those creatures that accompany you though?", asked the king of fangs to Ember whose gaze was ice cold as she saw the one who killed her mother and ate the heart of her father alive, while he used his body to block the king so that the children could escape.

Similar to the black horse from earlier, the king of fangs thought the previous because Espi was coiled around Aster’s body, so while he didn’t recognize humans, seeing a "snake" made him think that they were working with the anaconda, as all snake races are subordinated to her.

"I, as well as those of us who survived that day are a part of their "herd" now, and I have come here to claim revenge for the deaths of my parents and race members whom you not only murdered but also humiliated even in death!", said the filly as she tapped her right hoof on the ground a couple of times, making the king of fangs raise an eyebrow at her.

"Humph, so you want a duel against me?", he asked to which Ember snorted in response.

"No, what I want is to utterly destroy you, I’ll defeat your so-called new power and then my "herd" will completely crush the subordinates you have gathered so painstakingly, everything you have worked to achieve will crumble in front of you and you won’t be able to do anything about it", said the filly, of course this was all translated by Kana as in reality it was an exchange of neighs.

"Neeeigh!", the eyes of the king of fangs got bloodshot as he ordered his subordinates to watch from the side, while he walked towards Ember who was also advancing to meet with the king head on.

Speaking of the king, he saw the small creature sitting on the filly’s back but he didn’t say anything, "Another small enemy doesn’t mean anything", he thought as he opened his mouth, then his fangs which were already prominent enlarged taking a shape that one wouldn’t see in let alone a horse but even an herbivore, those were the fangs of a carnivore predator without a doubt.

"Neeigh!", the horse proudly showed his fangs which were the proof of his tittle as he said "What do you think, I know you and your aunt are some of the rare cases of females having fighting teeth in our race, but I originally had them like most males and now I have these fangs which can snap prey in half!".

Though this wasn’t a duel, the filly and the black horse still followed the initial etiquette of one, approaching each other to then start making turns while glaring at the other, the black horse was the first one to make his move.

"Booom!", the king raised his large upper body to then let it fall stomping in Ember’s direction, naturally the filly dodged by moving to the side and at the same time Kana took the chance to slash her spear at the black horse’s leg.

"Crunch!", there was a loud crispy sound as the edge of the spear reached the hair on the horse’s leg... the metal edge actually had a hard time passing through it, to reach the enemy’s skin where Kana felt the blade getting stuck unable to open a wound on him before she had to retrieve her spear as the black horse was aiming to bite off the staff.

With a perfectly timed quick jump, the filly put some distance between them to then gaze at Kana to make sure that she was fine.

"Don’t worry sister Ember, his hair and skin seem to have grown tough but the spear can still work on him, let’s try again", said the little girl to the filly, while the king of fangs observed the small creature sitting on Embers back with wariness in his eyes.

’What is that, a stinger like the one of that animal, I ate in the desert?’, he thought referring to an scorpion the size of a palm which he had fought and killed to then consume it back then.

He confused the spear with a stinger since Kana was wearing gloves so the king of fangs thought the spear was attached to her arm, still while the enemy’s "stinger" could reach his body it got stuck on his skin and he wasn’t worried about venoms, as he himself produces a highly venomous substance within his body.

"Hssss!", speaking of which, drops of a black-green liquid fell from the upper fangs of the black horse, producing sizzling sounds as they touched the ground, it was different than with the anaconda though, that wasn’t caused by the venom being acid that corroded the ground, the thing instead seemed to react when it touched the ground producing a short-lived but strong release of heat.

"It’s not lethal but watch out for that venom little Kana, it absorbs the cold from its vicinity which raises the temperature for a short moment, the venom might also cause cold burns as well", said the white-haired girl Vivian, as one would expect from someone that could become the queen of all poisons and venoms, she could instantly tell how the king’s venom worked just by seeing it once.

Which by the way made Aster frown, he wasn’t worried about Kana and Ember, just that wasn’t enough to put those two in danger, what he found interesting is that the king’s venom worked in a similar way to how ice and fire element cultivators can produce opposite effects to the elements they control.

If a fire cultivator where to absorb the heat from its vicinity, that would lower the temperature in the surrounding area and the same applies the other way around with an ice cultivator, why do they not do it you wonder, easy, the process is too complex for simple ice and fire cultivators so it’s not worth the hassle.

Only those who have a knack for yin and yang oriented ice or fire, like Aria for the former, could give an efficient application to such a thing.

’A male horse is using a yin oriented venom, while not being hit by side effects that a strong yin in its body should produce’, thought Aster.

Yin is abundant in women and Yang is abundant in men, that is the norm, it’s not impossible for the opposite to happen, but signs of it would be visible, a man with abundant yin would tend to show a "delicate" appearance and in cases where this is not natural, like those rare exceptions of men with yin body constitutions or yin related lineages, severe reactions like impotence, high-pitched unnatural voices and the like would become present.

But the horse didn’t seem like that, he even had a bigger frame than other male members of his race, and here you might think of Aster as he can produce Rigel’s flames like Aria, but that’s not the case, the ligress girl who grew sensible to yang energy confirmed that while his flames are not hot and can in fact boost the freezing property of Aria’s ones or produce a less strong ice in comparison by themselves, they are actually yang based, which is still mystery by the way, but let’s leave that for later.

"Crack!", the filly charged towards the king this time, with a loud sound produced by her hoofs landing on the ground she drew his attention as she aimed to bite his back but it was all a distraction, while Ember was moving, Kana actually got up and stood on her back to then thrust her spear at the horse.

"Neeeigh!", the overconfident black horse let out an angered and pained sound as Kana did manage to wound him this time, the reason was simple, unlike with a slash where the impact produced by the spear is spread through the edge of the blade, with a thrust all the force is concentrated on the tip of the spearhead, so the little girl managed to bypass the hair and the tough "hide" of the king to reach the flesh below of it.

That being said, the spear stopped after piercing around four centimeters into the king’s back, before the black horse tried to raise his body in order to throw Kana out of balance to then trample her to death.

"Humph!", of course the little girl whose last hurdle in terms of riding as of current is to maintain her balance while standing on Ember’s back as she jumps, already expected as much.

With nimble feet, Kana held onto the spear as she jumped up and backwards, retrieving the spear to then make a small backflip, graciously landing on the ground a few meters away to then get on Ember’s back once the filly retreated to reunite with her.

"Show off", mumbled Alice as she saw Kana looking at her from the corner of her eyes, which made Sarina softly laugh at her daughter’s cute competitive attitude.

The black horse on the other hand looked at the small puncturing wound on his back and got angry, luckily unlike with the anaconda his wound didn’t abnormally heal on the spot.

On the other hand, he didn’t bleed as he was supposed to, there was only blood coming when Kana pierced his flesh and when she retrieved the spear and that was it.

"Well, he certainly isn’t a normal animal, but no problem, I bet the anaconda was the same and Espi still defeater her", said Kana as she gave the signal to Ember who charged towards the king of fangs, this time the filly raised her body to stomp on the black horse’s side making the latter do the same, since with his bigger frame he towered above the filly.

Only for a little smile to appear in Kana’s pretty face as Ember swiftly lowered her body dodging the king’s hoofs while she transferred the strength to her lower body, "throwing" Kana off her back.

The little girl then thrusted her spear at the king’s neck while he was still midair, which basically meant that it was impossible to properly dodge.

"Clang!", that being said, the black horse managed to throw his head back while forcing his body to descend faster, which resulted in the spear hitting one of his fangs instead of his neck, producing the sounds of metals colliding, followed by a shattering sound.

"Crack!", that was the black horse’s fang breaking while also letting a dent on the spear by the way.