An elephant-sized high-level Magic Rat commanded her core rat swarm to flee west. Though the Magic Pattern Tiger had not pursued them, her heart pounded violently, as if a pair of eyes in the southern forest were always watching her.
Ahead lay a river. What had once been over two meters deep was now less than half a meter. Once she crossed it, the Rat King would be safe. With the magic patterns now on her body, all she needed was half a year to breed another hundred or so intermediate Magic Rats and tens of thousands of ordinary rats.
The intermediate Magic Rats carefully waded across the river with their queen. Yet less than a kilometer upstream, an ice dam was gradually collapsing. Mere seconds later, a flood mixed with ice shards surged down, sweeping away Magic Rats great and small alike.
As the floodwaters slowly receded, Magic Rats of every size had been completely frozen within blocks of ice, abandoned along both banks of the river.
In the southern forest, five or six Frost Wolves and dozens of Wind Wolves traveled north along the river, herding the Magic Rats together. Knights rode on the wolves' backs, with Fang Dante and Greyhound Dante, father and son, leading the way atop two wolves.
Upstream, two larger White Wolves led a group of Knight Apprentices from Gallop Academy down over the ice. They joined the members of the Frost-Wolf Knight Order and admired the spoils of this ambush.
This was Sangji's first time witnessing Totapara hunt. Before this, she had not understood why a Magic Wolf on the verge of becoming high-level would lower himself to serve a human lord. But now she understood. Totapara had willingly cooperated with the Human Race, raising his wolf pack to an entirely new level.