Chapter 181: The Devotion of the Fire Bear
Ignis, dragging himself across the blood-stained gravel due to the deep gashes on his chest, approached the motionless body of the Eagle King. The fire bear raised his eyes toward Kellar, keeping his gaze locked on his master as he awaited permission.
"You did well, Ignis," Kellar said, stepping closer to stroke the bear’s back. "Eat until you are satisfied."
Upon hearing the command, Ignis lunged for the winged monster’s head. With a ferocious bite, he shattered the remnants of the beast’s skull and licked through the brain until he extracted a small, glowing green sphere that radiated with mystical light. The bear held the core gently between his jaws, walked up to Kellar, and deposited it into the palm of his hand.
Upon contact with the sphere, a display opened before the shaman’s eyes:
[Green Eagle King Core]
Kellar smiled with gratitude and patted Ignis’s head, prompting a low rumble from the bear. Without wasting a second, the bear returned to the carcass and began devouring it with fury, as though exacting vengeance for the punishment he had endured during the battle. Ignis ignored the steel-hard wings, tearing into the fallen sovereign’s heart and viscera.
As soon as he began swallowing the mana-infused meat, the bear’s body began to glow with an intense red aura.
Lennis, Grok, and the other hunters approached, watching the scene with astonishment painted across their faces.
"Shaman... what is happening to Ignis?" asked Lennis, shielding her face from the heat radiating from the animal.
"Ignis is evolving," Kellar replied, never taking his eyes off his mount.
The red glow enveloped the bear as his bone structure and muscle mass expanded. From his original eight meters, his body stretched until reaching fifteen meters in length and eight meters in height. While he still looked small compared to the Eagle King’s wingspan, his sheer volume comfortably exceeded that of an intercity bus.
The transformation did not stop there. His old fur molted away in flakes of ash, revealing rough hide etched with dazzling fiery runes along his forelegs and arms. His fangs grew inches longer, turning sharper and curved, like combat blades.
With his new form, Ignis let out a roar that echoed through the canyon before resuming his feast on the Eagle King’s flesh. Once no internal organs remained, the bear began roaming the slope, devouring the other fallen eagles scattered across the mountain.
Kellar watched the beast’s appetite and turned toward his troops.
"Go gather some of the fallen eagles before Ignis finishes dining and leaves nothing for us," ordered Kellar.
Lennis watched as the giant bear bypassed the outer meat, focusing solely on the soft, mana-rich organs of the beasts.
"He’s only devouring the viscera, Shaman," Lennis pointed out, gesturing toward the intact wings. "We should take them. Their feathers are as hard as steel; they’ll make material for forging shields and new armor."
Kellar looked over Ignis’s evolved bulk and framed a smile.
"Let’s do that," Kellar agreed, nodding. "We’ll strap them to Ignis. Since he ate them all, he might as well serve to carry them back."
The soldiers allowed Ignis to finish his feast in peace. After devouring dozens of specimens, the fire bear lumbered back toward the group, thoroughly satiated, his runic hide glowing with warmth as he held his head high in satisfaction. Kellar stepped forward and slapped the bear’s thigh.
"Well done, but now you have to work," Kellar told him with an amused tone.
Without wasting time, the troops began tying the massive wings and bodies of the eagles using reinforced transport ropes so Ignis could haul them down the pass. Since the mountain was strewn with hundreds of fallen beasts and the contingent’s strength was decimated, taking every corpse was impossible. Under Kellar’s orders, the hunters focused on gathering the largest specimens with the most beautiful feathers before setting off on the journey back to the village.
As they marched down the pass, Kellar played with the two mystical cores in his hands: the green one from the Eagle King and the red one from the Great Red Ape.
He could still see the warning on his interface about the danger of exploding if he consumed them directly.
"There must be a way to use them safely," thought Kellar.
"System, how can I consume them?" he asked in his mind.
Instantly, the system displayed an array of possibilities before his eyes:
[Forging: The material can be used to add elemental power to weapons and armor. If fused with a weapon, the weapon will absorb the elemental destructive power. If fused with armor, you will obtain elemental defensive power.]
[Elemental Potion: Through a specific formula, elemental powers can be granted to people via alchemy.]
[Runic Matrix: Runic engraving depends entirely on the fusion of beast blood and elemental cores.]
Kellar stared at the options displayed on the interface with a smile before stowing both cores into his leather pouch.
"Damn, it seems they are valuable..." Kellar muttered to himself, stroking his chin. "I wonder if the merchant caravan knows this. If so, they must be looking for cheap cores from the stronger tribes."
He paused for a second to reflect as he looked back at the mountains fading behind them.
"However, if these cores only come from the kings... do the smaller beasts have them?" thought Kellar.
Turning toward his officers, Kellar raised his voice to break their focus.
"Lennis, do the smaller beasts have cores?" Kellar asked.
Brak, walking beside him while adjusting the ropes securing the eagle wings onto Ignis, chimed in before Lennis could answer.
"There should be some in a few of them, Shaman," Brak said. "We didn’t check every corpse, but the ones we butchered didn’t have any."
"In all the time we’ve fought against the red apes, we haven’t found any either," Lennis added, shaking her head.
"Nor against the crocodiles," Kellar mused aloud, picking up his pace. "It’s strange... Is there a special condition for them to form, or do they only spawn in ruler-class beasts?"