At the moment Ava found her life flashing before her eyes.

Watching her Father handle the goons over and over gave her renewed hope that they get through this despite the circumstances.

However now the Snake-kin simply cruised through the resistance like nothing, its predatory eyes stared at her with such hunger despite it appearing like a humanoid snake-person she couldn’t associate it as anything else but a beast. 

As its mouth opened up and it became muttering to consume her, she felt her mind lose all reasoning, she felt agitated, afraid making her desperation turn into her trying to pull anything, just anything to save her from this fate. 

She was not ready to meet her end just when things are beginning. 

And that was when it happened, she found a strange power erupt inside her coursing through her veins.

Unknown to Ava at that time her body began to glow a bright light, her veins became a bright-violet purple as a strange ancient aura filled the room. 

Farrox hungry eyes seemed to register the strange event for the first time, but instead of fear of the unknown he merely looked at her in confusion.

He did not see how such a weak child could threaten him, he merely was interested in the unique power that flooded her veins.

It allowed him to awaken from the ravenous state the bloodline connection left him in and for moment stare at Ava.

Xandas also looked bewildered at the sight, suddenly Ava eyes began to glow the same violet-purple as her features began to contort in anger as she suddenly gazed at the Beast-kin with a mystical light. 

Cense was also staring at her in wonder, ‘The power of the Astral, she’s drawing it from her body… all those years built up for one burst of power…’

Cense couldn’t even finish his thought as Ava an a mist started to rise up from her body.

Farrox didn’t even move he was just appreciating the beauty of the magic, his slit-like eyes reflecting the glow of the magic. 

However he would soon find that was a mistake, he should have run the moment this started as all this energy began being pushed crazily into him.

At first the Snake-kin felt an intense power like nothing he had felt before filling his veins, making him feel a warm feeling. 

It made him smile he felt comfortable, he felt true power yet as the energy grew more and more intense he realised something.

‘Why am I going numb? I can’t feel my arms…’ Farrox just looked slowly down as he saw his hands, arms start to disintegrate right before his eyes. 

He had long lost his grip of the child, yet she continued to hold him as that strange energy kept pouring through his body. 

‘I feel so weak.. what is this brat doing to me… am I going to die?’ Farrox found the situation so strange.

He a powerful ninth tier Warrior, among the top fighting force among the four continents was about to be ended by a weak little girl. 

“What are you?” Farrox said bitterly as at that moment the cunning intelligent Snake-kin noble returned, the influence of the bond faded for a moment as his body continued to break into pieces before their eyes.

Ava didn’t even notice the Snake-kins death she was lost in the feeling of the Astral.

The Astral Qi spoke to her and it was hungry, it wanted to devour. 

Xandas had already started crawling to his daughter seeing her alive and well made him full of joy, he did not care how the Snake-kin died he just knew that they still lived and this crisis was over. 

He was so jubilant he wanted to approach his daughter then and there, but suddenly became conscious of the glowing light still surrounding her, deciding to wait until it ended and Ava regained consciousness. 

Ava felt the energy continued coursing through her, she was focused on this moment on one thing, she knew the Astral Qi was limited, the feeling of unlimited power was merely an illusion, yet it was enough to end the life of a Warrior many tiers beyond her. 

But she knew this was not over yet, as the hungry feeling filling her body never faded.

‘Astral plunders, Astral devours.’ A strange conscious feeling filled her body, like she knew what next actions to take.

Farrox’s body had already turned into this strange-mist like energy after being affected by the Astral Qi. 

Ava instinctively knew she had to draw this back into her and after a little hesitation at the unknown, she followed her instincts and drew the mist back into her body. 

At that moment a wave of intense power filled her.

‘What was plundered shall be received.’ The strange instincts filled her as she felt a wave of power suddenly fill her body.

Her stagnant soul power that had been growing ridiculously slowly lately suddenly surged as if it was injected by steroids.

It was an addicting feeling to see something rise so quickly with it usually being an incredibly laborious process, this was her current feeling as her soul surged past the Tier 2 standard before finally stopping at the Tier 3. 

Her mind felt even clearer and more refreshed than before. She thought it would be many years before she hit Tier 3 after finally achieving Tier 2 yet now she has already progressed to it just like that. 

And this was not just it, a warm feeling spread through her body as she suddenly felt her strength surge.

Her body seemingly grew stronger, in an all-around way, she felt like her fitness had taken another leap and this was not it as an unfamiliar energy surged through her veins. 

She instantly knew what it was even without experiencing it before, ‘Battle Qi’, however at the moment the energy was dormant, it had no active method to harness it and therefore just slumbered in her body awaiting to be directed. 

‘Astral has the power to absorb, steal talents and adapt the biology of the user. Soo fascinating…’ the spirit suddenly said in her mind.

Cense was examining her body in detail and continued, ‘Now now although it doesn’t look like it, there are many more changes than a benefit to your cultivation, your physiology seemed to have completely changed in one moment, it is stronger, more sturdy, your flexibility has increased ridiculously, it’s like you have taken the racial traits of the Snake-kin race and adapted them to your own… it’s simple incredible.’

‘What? But that’s insane…’ Ava responded she couldn’t even form words, she knew the strange feedback from the mist changed her, but this was too much, she grew concerned she would become addicted to such easy power ups but Cense just laughed instead. 

‘Do this repeatedly? You won’t be able too for a good long while at least, it seemed the remnant energy of Astral Qi laid dormant and was storing up in your cells, it is the dregs of what you have not been able to fully absorb from tempering your body, and all this energy, years of building it up has been depleted from what you just did, you won’t be able to do what you did today for a good few years at the very least, maybe in the future when you have a stronger grasp of the Astral but even then this was an extremely rare chance of events, when else would a Ninth Tier Warrior just stand there and let you power up like that. This only happened because the Snake practically lost his mind and vastly underestimated you, he could have easily avoided this if he wanted too, but this set of events allowed you to leap frog ranks and integrate an opponent many times your strength with the Astral Qi ability and even still it’s only a small portion, you only benefitted so much in terms of cultivation because of the rank difference, I’m more interested in these other changes instead…’ Cense said in his ramblings making Ava feel a sense of relief.

At least she was not at risk of turning into a power hungry creature due to this power, she was concerned her impatience over her lack of talent would seek her to abuse this power to fast track herself but just like Cense said it was impossible to repeat such things over and over. 

She’d have to find an enemy who out ranked her multiple times over and over, getting them to stand still and let her target them which was simply impractical and unrealistic. 

At that moment Ava found herself being disturbed by a big embrace as her Father brought her to his sturdy chest.

“Father…” Ava mumbled in fear for a moment, would he be afraid of what she just did?

But she soon found her concerns for nothing.

Xandas the same as he always was, his gaze filled with love didn’t change as he said, “It’s alright, I will protect you from anything, it doesn’t matter what this is, you’ll be all right.”

Ava couldn’t help but realise she was shivering at this moment in time making her discover just why her Father looked so concerned as he was comforting her.

Deciding to let go she just relaxed into his embrace, all before she wanted to get into using her limited water magic to try and heal the damage caused by the Snake-kin.

Meanwhile Ava didn’t just realise the significance of the death of the Snake-kin and how it set many things into motion. 

Arwen who was battling for his life in the river, found himself surrounded by the ravenous creatures of the river, the Mutated River Serpent with dragon blood used its power as the king of the river to call upon its many denizens as they swarmed around him. 

Despite its strength increasing heavily and it being in its own territory it still felt the Fiend Bear was a challenge so was whittling him down by sending distractions to him as it hide the true deadly strikes. 

Arwen was irritated. In his prime he could have dealt with such a Serpent simply even it had been mutated with dragon blood, yet his injury caused his true strength to be sealed, he could erupt with the power of a Monarch for a moment but it would leave him in a severely weakened state and he was afraid the cunning Snake would slip away as soon as it discovered anything amiss. 

At that moment however the arrogant looking Snake suddenly shrieked in pain, absolute agony as if wailed as if it was experiencing the most horrific torment.

Arwen didn’t realise what exactly going on but knew it was his opportunity.

Suddenly he erupted with new-found power, his size increased greatly until his bulk far eclipsed the Snake, grinning the Fiend Bear was ready to maul the stupid Snake once and for all.

Charging towards it the Snake was in too much pain to even react as it suddenly felt a colossal strength grab ahold of it.

It could make little resistance as a Fiend Bear, a magical beast known for its colossal strength got a grasp of it, and a Monarch level one like that, it was set in stone the moment its jaws and claws got ahold of the Snake what will happen.

Ascending to the surface the waters suddenly become heavily bloodied as the bandits cheered believing it was the fall of the Druid.

Yet the sight that emerged from the water terrified them as a large Snake was suddenly dragged out by a colossal sized bear, large chunks of its flesh has already been torn off and it continued to shriek in agony.

The Druid deciding to finish this display used his powerful jaws and claws to clumsily tear the Serpents massive head off throwing it towards one of the Bandit ships.

The Bandit screamed in hysteria as at the sight and as the Bear turned its eyes toward them, Arwen stared to move towards their ships and began battering into them, as he leapt out of the water collapsing the Bandit ships surrounding the Quinte one by one.

The Bandits began to run for their lives as all fighting on the Quinte stopped as they jumped off the ship to try and escape, swimming towards their comrades in the distance.

The Quinte crew cheered loudly as they shouted, “Praise the Druid! He saved us!” 

Yet these cheers suddenly turned silent as the large bear seemed to tire, it boarded the large deck of the Quinte that seemed far less spacious with the bears increased size than before and suddenly collapsed, the bear shrunk before their eyes turning into an old elven man who appeared fatigued and exhausted. 

Slowly, he walked to the railings as he took a seat down, wordlessly he didn’t seem to have the energy to continue as his eyes began to close. 

The Bandits in the distance who were on the brink of retreat suddenly noticed such a weird change in their spy glass. 

They decided to remain, now that many of them have died, it just meant more for them, all the experts are basically spent, the Quinte was there for the taking and they refused to let such a juicy target go.

The Quinte fell to despair again as some of them wanted to desperately shake the Druid and tell him to scare them off, but it was no use as an elven woman limped over shouting for them all to back off.

Althaea who had lost a lot of blood to the wound, had managed to stabilise her injuries through some potions and the generosity of others water magic suddenly sat beside Arwen.

There was tears in her eyes but she still forced herself to sit upright as she said, “It’s alright I will stay here with you, I won’t leave you… I can’t lose you too.”