To the Meat-toothed Beasts, who revered the strong, strength defined a person's worth, while prey reflected their abilities.
In the eyes of outsiders, these Meat-toothed Beasts were savage, uncouth, and beyond civilizing. But Yuan Chen thought this pure belief in might made them better suited to this chaotic age... At least, as long as you could demonstrate your strength, you would earn everyone's respect.
Even those who still resented you would keep their tempers in check and obey your orders—because you were stronger.
After taking down more than a dozen Meat-toothed Beast hunters in a row, Yuan Chen was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. It had taken sheer physical strength and fighting skill.
The sweat clung to him as he looked around. Yuan Chen thumped his chest. "Am I worthy?"
"You are! You are!"
The wildness in Yuan Chen's words stirred the Meat-toothed Beasts around him into cheers—they were easily swept up in the mood. If one Meat-toothed Beast looked down on you, the others would soon follow suit.
But now that Yuan Chen had proven his strength, they all realized he was no pretty-faced weakling.
Seeing this, Mordas smiled and said,
"Whatever the final outcome, you've earned the respect of all of us. Now, to welcome our guest, get ready for a grand bonfire feast, everyone!"
Mordas boomed, "At the very least, we'll show this human that when it comes to eating meat, we Meat-toothed Beasts are the best!"
"Of course we are!"
The Meat-toothed Beasts cheered, while Yuan Chen discreetly used the Water Element to wash himself off—Ionians liked to stay clean, and the fine sweat clinging to his body was terribly uncomfortable. The Meat-toothed Beasts didn't comment; they, too, put a lot of effort into grooming their manes.
As they brought Yuan Chen into their hunting camp, Mordas whispered to him along the way, occasionally falling silent as if pondering something.
Though they looked more like beasts, the Meat-toothed Beast tribe's camp was far from chaotic. In preparation for their upcoming Dragon Hunt, they had divided the camp into distinct areas to make it easier to manage and maintain.
Herds of cattle and sheep were penned behind wooden fences. Along with the domesticated poultry from Ixialian villages, there were also many common Pack Beasts from Shurima and the borderlands of the Valoran Continent.
The storehouse on one side was piled high with fodder. Clearly, the Meat-toothed Beast hunters planned to prepare thoroughly and settle there for a long time before completing their hunt.
They had also felled a great deal of timber, which they had roughly worked into a series of large hunting devices using thick ropes and chains...
Yuan Chen narrowed his eyes, a hint of surprise crossing his gaze... The thing covered by that straw mat looked like a siege crossbow. Weren't those military supplies? How had they gotten their hands on one?
Noticing Yuan Chen's surprise, Mordas nodded. "We didn't come up with this on a whim... We've been preparing to change the state of our tribe for a long time."
Yuan Chen nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe we should have a proper talk."
"Of course. We have plenty of time."
As he spoke, Mordas patted Yuan Chen on the shoulder and headed toward the camp. "Light the bonfire! Let's enjoy this hard-won freedom! For the tribe's future! For the Meat-toothed Beasts!"
"For the tribe's future! For the Meat-toothed Beasts!"
The young Meat-toothed Beast hunters growled their approval. Many of them thought their skills surpassed Mordas's, but Yuan Chen was certain that when it came to fighting for the tribe and for the Meat-toothed Beasts, these hunters were remarkably united...
The League of Legends lore had mentioned this before, and it was worth looking into further... Who wouldn't want a band of born hunters and assassins on their side?
Dusk fell, and the bonfire was lit, its flames driving away some of the dampness in the air. Sitting around it, the Meat-toothed Beasts skewered chunks of meat on sharpened branches and roasted them over the fire.
Their bodies were built differently, and their digestive systems were clearly stronger than those of humans. Raw or cooked, they swallowed their meat after just a few bites, without worrying about the strain that half-cooked food might put on their stomachs.
"Why did you come here to hunt dragons?"
Sitting beside Mordas, Yuan Chen cut his half-cooked meat into smaller pieces and put it back over the fire. "Does becoming chieftain mean that much to you?"
"You don't know our tribe's traditions." Mordas shook his head. He tore his meat into strips and ate slowly, keeping his eyes on the dancing flames as he explained:
"In our tribe, the elders hold almost absolute authority."
"..." Yuan Chen said nothing, listening quietly. He really didn't know much about the Meat-toothed Beast tribe's customs.
Mordas continued:
"You humans call us natural-born hunters... That's wrong.
"Not every Meat-toothed Beast is passionate about hunting. Most of the time, we're just like you humans. We have our own strengths, and we want to see more of the world."
"But the elders won't allow it."
"They believe that any pursuit or ideal beyond hunting is an excuse made by cowards. They think that if Meat-toothed Beasts give up hunting, we'll lose the fangs we're so proud of...
"They believe weakness is a sin Meat-toothed Beasts must never have. My younger brother and sister were both too weak, so when they were young, they were cast into the jungle and left to fend for themselves..."
As he spoke of his siblings, Mordas clenched his fists and continued, his voice tight with anger:
"They couldn't even hold a knife steady before those elders threw them into the jungle, telling them to 'prove themselves'... I'll never forget the disgust and shame in my father's eyes when he looked at my siblings.
"But we had no way to fight back... In our tribe, the elders' authority cannot be questioned. They can even kill their own children as casually as they would dispose of their possessions."
As Mordas spoke, the Meat-toothed Beasts who had been chattering nearby fell quiet. They turned to look toward him, the bonfire reflected in their eyes, its restless flames flickering in their gaze...
"For a while, I wanted to run away. Then a hero returned from the jungle."
"A hero?"
Hearing Mordas, Yuan Chen raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
"Rengar."
"Rengar?"
Yuan Chen froze. He knew Rengar well, of course, but he couldn't quite understand how the big cat had become a hero... Did they consider him a hero? Did Rengar even know that?
Mordas spoke with renewed vigor. "Rengar was the chieftain's son, but unlike us, he was very frail. His build was completely different from his father's—he wasn't even as tall as I am."
"Just as tradition dictated, Rengar was cast out into the jungle. But he didn't die. He survived, learned powerful skills, and returned to his people!"
"But his father still considered him a disgrace to the tribe, so he exiled him again..."
"And demanded that he bring back the head of a Void Creature? But he didn't bring one back, and he lost an eye in the process?"
"..."
After a moment of silence, Mordas raised an eyebrow in confusion. "How do you know that?"
"Would you believe me if I said I dreamed it?" Yuan Chen spread his hands.
"When Rengar returned to camp, his father mocked him instead of praising him for surviving, all because he'd lost an eye.
"But Rengar noticed that his father's weapons and trophies in the house were covered in dust. He realized that his father hadn't hunted in a long time, so he attacked him and killed him in the fight. His father was the tribe's chieftain, right?"
"..." Mordas rubbed his chin, eyeing him suspiciously. "Have you met Rengar?"
"No... But I really can see the fates of certain people. They may only appear in brief fragments, but those fragments include both past and future."
"You're a seer?!" Mordas's eyes widened. "Why didn't you say so earlier? If you had, we wouldn't have needed to fight!"
"You never asked." Yuan Chen spread his hands. "And there was no way to prove it, anyway."
Mordas stared at him for a moment, then returned to his seat and nodded in understanding. "True... No wonder you found us. It seems fate guided you here."
No, it was because Nedeli had shown him the way.
Yuan Chen kept that to himself. It made him seem more credible as a seer, and why not take advantage of that?
Now that he knew Yuan Chen was familiar with Rengar, Mordas didn't go into much more detail about his past. Instead, he summed it up:
"He survived the jungle and returned to camp. He was the first Meat-toothed Beast to survive, and the first to kill his own father.
"We all saw how strong he was. Though he was a little smaller than us, his explosive power and unyielding fighting spirit left a deep impression."
"At first, the tribal elders wanted him to lead the tribe, but he was so disappointed in the tribe that he chose to leave alone. So the tribe began holding elections for chieftain—
"The candidate with the most, biggest, strongest, and most valuable prey and trophies would win."
"We can't become solitary hunters like Rengar, but we still want to change things in our tribe.
"We don't want our children and our siblings to become people like them. We want Meat-toothed Beasts to have more choices than hunting or death..."
Mordas said with conviction, "Those old fogeys have probably realized what we're trying to do. They won't let us defy them, much less surpass them...
"We may hate to admit it, but they really are better hunters than us, and they have more trophies.
"So if we want to change all this, we have to take a risk and win the most valuable prey of all."
"A dragon," Yuan Chen said, seeming to understand. "So you want to win the trial by hunting a dragon, become chieftain, and then change everything?"
"Yes."
"Then why not just do it outright? Drive them out of the tribe, or leave and start a new one."
"Their ideals have plenty of supporters. A direct conflict would only create even more hatred and chaos." Mordas shook his head.
"I've read your humans' books. I don't want the Meat-toothed Beast tribe to split into two hostile factions. Leaving would mean running away. We want to change the tribe from within...
"The chieftain is the authority in the tribe. Even the elders can't disobey the chieftain's orders...
"If we can become chieftain, then even if the road ahead is still difficult, at least we can gradually change the way our people think. We can stop children from being cast into the wilderness and jungle just because they were born frail."
Hearing what Mordas hoped for, Yuan Chen couldn't help teasing him. "Oh, so there are bookworms among the Meat-toothed Beasts, too~"
"Don't make it sound as if our tribe is nothing but a bunch of beasts." Mordas shook his head. "Besides, our proper name is Vastaya, isn't it? If we weren't bound by tradition, our civilization might not be any less advanced than humanity's."
"That's true. There are plenty of old fossils among humans, too..." As he listened to Mordas's worries and hopes, Yuan Chen shrugged. He couldn't help thinking of the elders in Ionia's Eternal Hall, and sighed. "Every family has its troubles..."
"What do you mean?"
Mordas perked up at Yuan Chen's remark and asked, "You're a seer, aren't you? Is there really something that gives even you a headache?"
"That's because you've never been to Ionia."
Yuan Chen shook his head. "Ionia is isolated from the world, with no land connections to anywhere else. And the boundary between the spirit realm and the material realm isn't very clear where we come from, so living in harmony with all things is a deep-rooted tradition for us."
"I saw the future. My homeland was invaded, its people were displaced and driven from their homes, and they suffered oppression and humiliation at the hands of the invaders. Tens of thousands died beneath their iron hooves.
"But when I wanted to prepare defenses, train our people, and guard against invasion, guess what the elders of the Eternal Hall said?"
"What did they say?"
"They said my ideas would disturb Ionia's harmony, bring shame upon the generations of scholars from Placidium, and sully my extraordinary talent. They told me I should reflect on my own mistakes instead."
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