Supreme Magus novel Chapter 73

Author’s Note: the [] marks beasts speaking beast tongue, not human language.

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The Scorpicore was a monster big enough, to make any sane man willing to face it rethink his life choices, no matter how brave he was. _{freeωebnovēl.c૦m}

Its shoulder height reached almost the three meters (9’10"), it had a scarlet red fur and mane, with shades of white, black, blue and yellow. Actually, there were also red shades, even though only an interior decorator could have noticed them.

The monster had the body and the head of a lion, bat-like membranous wing coming out from his back and the tail was that of a scorpion.

From one of its pocket dimensions, the Scorpicore took out a gold rimmed pince-nez, that as soon touched the snout, grew big enough that each of its lenses became the size of 17" screen.

["Let’s see where are the nearest playgrounds."] Thanks to the magical glasses, the monster gained an ability that closely resembled Solus’s mana sense, paired with the ability to zoom in like a telescope.

["One group is near the green spring, another in the river clearing..."] Despite the great distance, it was able to locate the groups of five unknown mana cores, identifying the students’ drop spots.

["Order and chaos, these humans have no imagination. Everything is identical to the last time! Where’s the fun in that?"]

While grumbling about mankind’s lack of originality, the Scorpicore started sending teams of three magical beasts to intercept the humans and banish them from the forest.

["Rules of engagement?"] M’Rook asked.

["Same old, same old. Make a roar, growl, po*p on them, whatever. Let them somehow notice your arrival, otherwise everything will be over before we can say ’order up’. As long as the Headmaster doesn’t break the rules, we’ll play along."]

["The who?"]

["By the Great Mother, M’Rook, you are an excellent second in command, but you need to start to pay attention to human’s hierarchies. The Headmaster is the boss of the castle, the thing you call made-mountain."]

It had almost finished dispatching the clean-up teams, when it noticed a pleasant surprise.

["Wait a minute, there is one group of six mana cores instead of five. I call dibs on that!"]

["What’s a mana core?"] Asked a Cron, a hawk evolved in a magical beast, the size of a small piper plane.

["You are too young for that, Sentar. Survive another twenty years and I’ll teach you how to evolve again."]

["Boss Scarlett, you are making no sense, we are already at the pinnacle, right?"] Sentar tilted its head diagonally in disbelief.

["Yeah, right, and I was a born a Scorpicore. No dimwit, magical beasts are just a step. Before evolving in a Scorpicore I was just a Shyf (AN: see chap50), and before that I was a cute and cuddly house cat."]

Scarlett rolled on its back, exposing the giant tummy to the sun, purring like a muscle car. Despite all its efforts, it was more disturbing than cute.

["You are joking right?"] Asked M’Rook.

["No, I’m not. It’s not like only you forest folk can turn into magical beasts. And if you keep doubting my word, I’ll rat you out to one of my dragon friends that once was a lizard.

I’m sure he will be happy to have you all for dinner, with some good red wine."]

The various magical beast preferred swallowing down their incredulity. Boss Scarlett told them the most ridiculous stories all the time, yet every single one of them turned out to be true.

["M’Rook, Termyn, Sentar enough chatting, follow my lead!"] With a single flap of its wings, the Scorpicore took off. Only Sentar was able to follow it, while M’Rook and Termyn, a Cingy (boar type magical beast), could only stare up.

["What a d*ck."] They said as one, while the Scorpicore was laughing its a*s off.

["Have you seen their faces? This joke never gets old. They are too serious. They need to learn how to sit back and relax. When I was your age..."]

Sentar stopped listening to the Boss’ rantings, just nodding from time to time and giving a random answer.

Meanwhile, Lith’s group was still arguing. Everyone wanted to be the leader, to prove themselves being as good as the so-called top tier students. Lith could only think of them as four caged hungry dogs, with only a piece of meat.

The problem was that the cage restricted only them from harming each other, it offered no protection from real threats. Every second they spent yelling and arguing, was like setting up the table for all the beasts in the proximity.

He had already tried all the diplomatic approaches he and Solus could come up with, but with no result. Him being a top tier, made them dismiss all of his proposals as attempts to rack more points at their expenses.

Sick and tired of their childish behaviour, Lith summoned a strong gale, that took them by surprise, making them fall butt first on the ground.

"Listen up, you idiots." If being nice didn’t work, he could as well return to his original demeanour.

"Do you see that, that and that?" He pointed at several claw marks on different trees nearby.

"Those are not rustic decorations to embellish the landscape. Beasts use them as territorial marks, meant to warn intruders they are trespassing in their turf.

If you take a second to look away from your ego, you’ll notice that this area is being contended by several magical beasts. Each of them is capable of leaving claw marks the size of a book, and your rantings are alerting them all!

This is a group survival test, we are supposed to get along, put aside our differences and work as a team. I want anyone watching us know that if we get wiped out before even an hour, it’s all these idiots’ fault!"