"Neeeigh!", the king of fangs let out a pained and angered sound as he retreated on the spot, leaving behind a few stains of blood on the ground as well as a piece of his broken right fang.

Once again, the black horse didn’t bleed past the initial moment when he suffered a wound, but at the same time his broken fang didn’t regenerate, though judging by how the black horse didn’t seem worried, his fang will recover with some time, so the previous hurt his ego more than his body.

’What the hell is that stinger made of, my fangs tore through moose’s flesh and bones with ease!’, he cursed to his insides, finally recognizing Kana as a dangerous enemy, now imagine his expression as he heard the little girl’s next words.

"For someone that calls himself the king of fangs they are surprisingly easy to break, Espi’s ones can destroy large boulders", said Kana as she saw the broken fang on the ground next to where she landed before she took out a piece of cloth to then wrap it in it as she hopped on Ember’s back again, throwing the piece of cloth at Aster.

The black horse who saw the sign of his pride being taken as a "trophy" by the other party, had his eyes become bloodshot.

"Neeeigh!", with a loud guttural sound he veins on the black horse’s legs bulged, clearly he was preparing to do "something", so the little girl directly pointed her spear frontwards as she prepared to charge at the black horse.

After all, one of the many lessons she has received from Aster said that she shouldn’t give her enemies any time to rest, therefore with a slight tap from Kana’s ankle, the filly who was all smiles as of current charged towards the king of fangs.

"Crack!", the black horse who was interrupted in the middle of "powering up" gritted his teeth forcefully accelerating whatever process he was undergoing, as a result his legs got thicker and the ground below him cracked while strong popping sounds came from his legs as the black horse applied pressure on his frontal legs before the king of fangs... clawed at the incoming filly.

"Clang!", since her reach was longer than that of Ember, Kana used the spear to block the "hoof" of the black horse, as if a horse making a clawing motion wasn’t strange enough, the hoof in question had changed growing four spikes with curves similar to the claws of a predator.

Now, in principle that doesn’t sound as crazy as you might think, after all both hooves and claws are made of the same material which is keratin, however the fact that the hooves were changed at will by the black horse was strange.

What’s more, horses have a limited range of motion when it comes to side-to-side movement, since their legs are designed for forward, speed and endurance rather than flexibility.

’Heh, so this guy has the ability to control his body at will, there should be some limitations like the "energy" needed for it, but this also explains why the wounds on the black horse don’t bleed past the moment when the wound is inflicted’, thought Aster.

If the king of fangs had the capacity to alter his body to grow claws and muscle that modified the range of motion of his legs, forcefully stopping his blood from leaking out of a wound would be like child’s play, that being said this is for sure not the territory of a mortal rank beast, not even a special one like Guardian.

In fact, even the little wyrm who belongs to one of the most "magical" spirit beast races that exist, namely a dragon, has that kind of ability at mortal rank, well, her vitality is high enough that her wounds do stop bleeding quite fast naturally, but it’s not something she can control at will, it’s her body working the way it is supposed to instead of a conscious choice she can make.

Back to the fight, Kana felt her hand going a bit numb due to the previous clash, even with the protective gloves she was wearing and the spear basics she had learned from Aster and the spear wielding girls, like Camilla and Tiana, she felt the impact, which means that the horse’s strength has increased.

"Humph", with soft snort, the little girl smacked the spear slapping away the now clawed hoof, revealing a slight dent left behind by the spear’s blade, since the steel spear head was still stronger than the claws of the black horse.

However, unlike with the broken fang which seemed to be slowly growing back, the claw repaired instantly, but at the same time Kana saw the bloodthirsty expression on the black horse’s eyes, intensify.

"Be careful sister Ember", said the little girl to the filly who jumped backwards to avoid the left "claws" of the black horse from reaching her, to then dodge to the side.

"Crack!", not even a second later, the black horse who had "pounced" at Ember landed where the filly was standing earlier leaving hoof-shaped dents on the ground due to his weight, once again those weren’t movements a horse should be making.

Untrained horses rarely jump more than a meter in terms of height, but the king of fangs just propelled his large and heavy body more than two meters into the air, for a second there he looked like Guardian when she jumped towards a black horse to bite its neck back when they met the mare.

"Clang!", Kana who thrusted her spear at the black horse’s neck heard a metallic sound as the enemy turned around to block the spear with his claws, apparently the horse had learned his lesson and was now wary of Kana’s "stinger".

With a swift maneuver Kana retrieved her spear, barely avoiding the bite which the black horse used to try and destroy the sole thing that made him wary about the small "creature" sitting on the filly’s back.

"Thud!", speaking of Ember using the opportunity that Kana had created by distracting the enemy with her spear, the filly raised her right leg and then stomped on the hoof of the king’s right hind leg.

"Crack!", under the disbelief of the black horse, the four "claws" that had grown on his hoof were instantly destroyed by Ember’s stomp, which made a bit of blood leak out from the base of his hoof.

The filly originally had strong legs and she had been training with the manuals so similar to how Mule had become a proper meat shield, Ember gained powerful limbs and knowledge on how to use them to her advantage, though since it hasn’t been long since she started practicing with her manual, she only knew "Stomp".

"Neeigh!", angered due to pain, the king of fangs aimed to viciously bite the filly’s neck just for a spear to block in front of his opened mouth, which made the black horse stop, he still hadn’t forgot about the pain of his fang breaking.

With a dull sound both horses retreated to regain their standing, by the time the black horse landed the claws he lost had already grown back, it’s worth mentioning that it’s not like Ember’s hooves are stronger than steel, she could break the king’s claws easily because she obviously can exert way more brute force than the little girl with her powerful legs.

However physical strength is not everything and Kana does have her own way to contribute to the fight, with a sequence of light taps from her right ankle, the little girl communicated what their next movement would be to Ember who nodded to then charge towards the horse.

The king of fangs snorted, in a direct confrontation he was sure to crush the filly, which is why they had been evading and launching "petty" ambushes from the side.

’Humph, let’s see who blinks first!’, thought the king of fangs as he charged at the incoming filly, only for a disdaining smirk to appear on Ember’s face as she changed her trajectory at the last second.

Kana who suddenly stood up on Ember’s back midway through the charge, jumped towards the king to then... slash her left hand at him.

"Neeeigh!", the black horse only saw a flash and then red color and pain assaulted him, the little girl had cut his eyes.

’What the hell is this, the stinger was on the other side!!!’, he screamed to his insides as he started jumping and trashing around in a try to trample the enemy to death, unfortunately Kana had safely landed a few meters away and was immediately taken back by Ember who put some distance knowing that the black horses was going to go crazy over the previous.

What happened was simple, Kana used a dagger which she had hidden on her waist to blind the black horse, as to where did the dagger come from when the girls from the sect had only created spear heads all the day, it was the dagger which Aster made and gifted to Blair.

Like previously stated, all the girls from the sect treat Kana as their little sister, so the dark red-haired blacksmith lent her precious reward to Kana so that she could better protect herself during today’s exploration.

Of course, it’s not like Blair ended up with the shortest end of the stick, she had done the heat treatment, sharpened the dagger and made the handle, but when it came to testing, she rather preferred to use her time to forge.

Therefore, she asked Kana to use the dagger and give her detailed feedback about how the dagger performed, this way both benefited from this, though Blair indeed wanted her dagger to help the little girl remain safe.

"Now sister Amber tackle him from the right side so that I can finish him of", said Kana, which made the king of fangs whose eyes were closed poisonously think.

’Come, I’ll kill you as soon as you get close to me’, the black horse didn’t know why, but he could understand what that small creature said though she for sure didn’t speak his "language", of course he kept quiet about it for a situation like this.

Unfortunately, the strong impact from the right side that he was prepared to block, didn’t come, instead a puncturing concentrated amount of pain assaulted his left abdomen, as Kana thrusted her spear there.

The little girl cunningly gave the black horse a fake hint to then attack him in a different way and a different direction, of course she knew that the black horse could understand her words, because she made it so it was like that, Kana can choose when to communicate with animals and when to not, so she prepared this simple trap and the black horse fell for it like a sucker.

As to why she didn’t go for the neck, that’s because the king of fangs was more likely to notice if the attack could actually threaten his life, so she instead decided to play it safe and weaken the horse.

"Neeeigh!", in fact the little girl managed to stab the spear once again before Ember retreated in order to dodge the frenzied retaliation coming from the king of fangs in the form of his claws slashing their way.

Also, once again veins bulged on his body, but this time instead of his legs they were the ones on the side of his neck, though they returned to normal similar to before when the black horse legs changed to gain muscles and to break out of the original motion range of a horse.

"What happened to his eyes...", mumbled Kana as she saw the eyes of the king of fangs which had actually moved so that they faced frontwards, giving the horse an unnatural appearance.

The clawed hooves were weird, but they could still be passed as a mutation of normal hooves, the change in the composition of the legs and the increase in the motion range didn’t produce that much of an external change on the horse, however those eyes were different.

Like most herbivores, horses have sideward eyes which give them a better panoramic view, something that is used to be aware of predators thus enhancing their survival capacities, but now the black horse... well, it is questionable whether he should still be considered a horse or not, the king of fangs had forward looking eyes that allowed him to focus on the prey in front of him.

"Neeeigh!", with a slightly pained but more angered sound, the teeth of the king of fangs cracked before they changed from the normal shape to a spiked one, they didn’t grow in size and actually perfectly matched between upper and lower rows.

"Not even predators have teeth like those, how unsightly", said Kana as she saw the new chape that the black horse’s teeth had taken, the little girl has the ability to get along with the world, be it spirit energy, animals or plants so long as they don’t have ill intent towards her, she likes to be friendly with them.

Even those that don’t see her in a good light, have a chance to get along with her, from her point of view at least which is why she originally was prompt to be tricked as in her eyes "everyone" could become her friend, it was only after she met Aster that the little girl learned that the previous doesn’t mean everyone is worthy of her friendship.

After all, given the correct circumstances she could earn some goodwill from a piece of trash like Robert who ultimately tried to sacrifice her for some benefits, but it would only be a momentary lapse in their usual scummy behavior.

However, the chance was still there, the black horse in front of her on the other hand had zero chances of becoming "friends" with her, which was a first for Kana.

’The other black horses aren’t like that, I wouldn’t like to play with a bad guy like him, but I bet big brother would reward me if I learn why, it is like this~’, cutely thought the little girl more interested in the head pats she’ll receive rather than in learning more about her mysterious ability’s dynamics, which is why taking a page from a certain wild dragon princess’s book, Kana said with a disdaining voice.

"All those sharp teeth and you couldn’t grow that fang back, perhaps I should break the other one to help you get even",

The king of fangs who understood Kana’s words from earlier, had his eyes become bloodshot as he shouted.

"I have entertained this nonsense too much, all of you kill these bunch of prey and consume them!", and thus the one-on-one fight was over, so the remaining fifty black horses rushed towards those two, only for their path to be blocked by the other "creatures"

"Finally, I can kill something, I was getting annoyed to see that little girl showing off, what do you say ice princess, the first to defeat their enemies gets the first turn tonight~", said Alice whose red eyes had a wild light shinning in them, she wasn’t exactly in the best mood right now, so someone was going to suffer.

"Humph", Aria’s answer was a soft snort, as if she didn’t consider that something worthy to answer, though on the inside she was thinking.

’Dream on, Aster already said that Sarina will go first and next is me’.

"Ahem, don’t let them bother Kana and Ember, try to restrain them but if they resist too much outright kill them, our safety is the top priority", instructed Aster who had the little wyrm coiled around his body as he rolled the spear in his hands.

"Got it", answered in unison the now large group resulting from the merge of exploration teams one and two, which consisted in currently, Aster himself, Alice, Aria, Camila, Eris, Mira, Tiana, Agnes, Dahlia, Cayden, Valentina, Nerissa, Iris, Mina, Lina, Nina, Erick, Sophia, Sandra, Amanda, Brenda and Violet, for a total of twenty-two people, against forty-five black horses, since the remaining five were the new lovers that the king had taken from the desert adapted horses and weren’t fit to fight.

"Neeeigh!", with a loud war cry the horses divided in pairs which charged towards each of the enemy, they didn’t think much of them since numbers were on their side, and just to fight their king the filly who was among the top fighters in the original group had to collaborate with one of those creatures, so in their minds a single creature against two of them was nothing.

This was especially so in the minds of the remaining five seconds in command who picked their enemies, choosing a tall girl with silvery-white hair, one with blond hair and purple eyes, another one with also blond hair but with blue eyes, a girl with honey light brown hair and red eyes and lastly a black-haired youth with golden eyes who had a sleeping pretty white snake coiled around his body.

Those were Mira, Valentina, Agnes, Alice and Aster respectively, as to why they chose them, the seconds in command felt that they were the most threatening out of the bunch, well Alice was chosen because her eyes were full of unfiltered disdain, otherwise the seconds on command would have targeted Eris instead, but the heavenly rose clan’s young miss had a much more refined natural demeanor, so in the eyes of the black horses she wasn’t as "strong".

"These guys are looking down on us", said Tiana as she saw Alice being chosen, while she was reelevated to fight two normal black horses, the energy constitution daughter is quite a competitive girl, especially when it comes to Alice and Aria who were her first female friends by the way.

"Clop-Clop!", while the pairs of black horses were charging at Aster and the others, the king of fangs met with a single black horse who had slipped away to pair up with him, the interesting part is that it wasn’t a particularly strong horse within the group, in fact it looked rather weak in terms of strength, but certainly it was quite fast.

Considering the fact that the black horse in question was holding onto a large bone which had meat on it with his mouth, he should be the errand boy of the king of fangs.

"Crunch!", the king of fangs immediately snatched the bone with meat from that black horse and directly munched both the bone and the meat, swallowing the crushed bloody mix the next second.

"Get lost, I’m going to personally kill and eat them!", exclaimed the king of fangs making the errand horse rush towards the hill while avoiding the battlefield.

The king of fangs then turned to see Ember and eerily smiled showing his spiked teeth as he added.

"I have to recognize it, your family is really a thorn in my hooves, first your parents stopped me from transforming a part of the herd, then your aunt diminished my subordinates and stopped me from achieving a perfect form in a single go and now you are making me rush my second transformation, forcing me to adopt this crooked appearance, well your end will be like theirs anyway, I’ll kill you or consume you".

"Don’t listen to him sister Ember", said Kana, she knew how saddened the filly was due to the death of her parents, but while the filly looked at Kana with a warm smile in her eyes, she also proudly rose her head as she said.

"Don’t worry, my parents lived and died as heroes of our races, mourning their deaths would be an insult to them, so I’ll instead avenge them by bringing their murderer’s head to my aunt".

The king of fang’s pupils contracted like needles, Ember was an enemy to be wary of in his mind but she is too young to be a threat in the short term, however his former mate had the chance to become a king, especially because a part of the original herd chose to follow her, which is why he was absolutely decided to kill her back then.

And now, listening to Ember’s words, it would appear that she was still alive, which both confused and worried the black horse.

’How the hell did she survive!’, he exclaimed in his heart.