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The Gillian that Wayne had marked walked faster and faster.
Wayne had no choice but to use Shadow Step to close the distance directly, and after grabbing hold of the black hem of its robe, he folded a crease of fabric around himself and tucked in.
Judging by the situation, this big creature was moving with such urgency that it had no attention to spare for him.
Gripping the fold of cloth, Wayne made his assessment.
Perhaps it had sensed the summons of some Adjuchas.
If a war had broken out, the journey could not possibly be this calm, the entire Forest of Menos would have been boiling over.
So at this stage, the more likely explanation was that it had received an Adjuchas summons.
Sure enough, after several dozen minutes of travel, the large creature slowed its pace.
It continued walking forward while letting out a series of shrieking cries, and those cries seemed to carry a faint thread of fear.
At that moment Wayne chose to detach, falling back to follow at a distance from behind once more.
Just moments ago, he himself had felt a massive Reiatsu fluctuation, an intensity almost identical to that of the shark Hollow he had encountered when he first entered Hueco Mundo.
It was now clear to him that the shark Hollow Beast he had met at the very beginning must have been an Adjuchas-class Menos Grande.
Perhaps at that time it had just finished its advancement and was preparing to head toward the Inner Circle.
But times were different now; the Wayne of today was far, far stronger than the one who had first arrived.
Facing a Reiatsu of that caliber, Wayne no longer had that sensation of his very soul being crushed under the pressure.
He could even vaguely sense that he had some capacity to maneuver against it, he certainly couldn’t win a fight, but at the very least he wouldn’t be killed in an instant.
Looking at the Reiatsu he was sensing right now, Wayne could confirm that whoever was releasing it was definitely an Adjuchas.
Analyzing the nature of the fluctuation, this was likely a Hollow that had dwelled in the Forest of Menos for a long time without ever pushing toward the Inner Circle.
There were generally two types of Hollows that stayed in the Forest of Menos and had no desire to enter the Inner Circle.
The first were those that had never come across a Garganta leading from the Forest of Menos to the Inner Circle, what was commonly referred to as the sand ground.
This situation was not especially common, since in the core zone such Gargantas were plentiful beyond count.
The second type was exactly what he was looking at now: the weaker Adjuchas that lingered around the outer edges of the Forest of Menos, or the Adjuchas that were simply not suited for combat, staying here to accumulate Reiatsu bit by bit by preying on Gillians.
At the Adjuchas level, Hollow Beasts crossed into a new threshold.
Within this rank, Adjuchas were likewise divided into lower, middle, and upper tiers, and each tier could be further split into early, mid, and late stages.
This alone illustrated just how wide the gap in strength could be within the Adjuchas rank.
The Reiatsu Wayne was sensing right now was roughly around lower-tier mid-stage Adjuchas.
In the past, Wayne had no real frame of reference for this level of strength, because they had all simply seemed overwhelmingly powerful to him.
However, ever since Wayne reached the peak of the High Hollow rank and fought that chase battle against Yammy, something in his subconscious understanding of Adjuchas-level strength had made a significant leap.
Perhaps, as people say, combat is the best measure of one’s true strength.
“An outer-ring Adjuchas — why would it summon Gillians?
Is it really just for the convenience of feeding?” Wayne muttered to himself as he followed from behind.
Although he was still at the High Hollow rank, his own Reiatsu had already reached Gillian-level intensity.
When facing an Adjuchas, so long as he wasn’t locked onto by an upper-tier one, against a lower-tier Adjuchas the same rule held: he couldn’t win, but running was no problem.
This was a different situation from being chased down by Yammy before.
Inside the Forest of Menos, Gillians and Adjuchas were everywhere.
No one would spend a significant amount of their own Reiatsu chasing a High Hollow as insignificant as an ant, because one moment of carelessness could easily turn you into someone else’s meal.
After moving forward for a stretch, Wayne’s body suddenly gave a sharp jolt.
Not far from the first Reiatsu signature he had sensed, the Reiatsu of a second lower-tier Adjuchas was also slowly bleeding out.
“Two of them…
huh?” Wayne’s alertness spiked instantly.
One he might still be able to run from, but with two, he would basically have no chance of escaping.
“But why would two show up?
And there’s no Reiatsu fluctuation from any fighting between them at all.
Could they be hunting together?” Adjuchas-class Menos Grande had essentially all awakened their Sentience by that point, the only difference was in degree.
The possibility of cooperative hunting was understandable.
But why would two Adjuchas summon Gillians?
And quite a few at that.
Around him, in the direction of the summoning, roughly seven or eight Gillians had already gathered.
That kind of number would demand caution even from a mid-tier Adjuchas, let alone two lower-tier ones.
Yet when Wayne crept carefully to the place of the summoning and laid eyes on the ones doing the calling, he understood the situation immediately.
It turned out this was nothing more than a game between two Adjuchas.
Several hundred meters ahead lay a conspicuously open clearing, yes, conspicuous, as though someone had cleared it by force, entirely out of place with the surrounding forest.
On the left and right flanks of that clearing, two Adjuchas radiating intense Reiatsu fluctuations stood facing each other, though there was no clash of Reiatsu between them.
Instead, they held their positions as if by prior arrangement, one to the left, one to the right.
Behind them, dozens of Gillians were slowly closing in on the clearing.
The spark of battle needed only a touch to ignite, a mass melee, on the verge of erupting.
“Clever.” Wayne let out a murmur of admiration.
“Using the Adjuchas’ intimidating pressure to force a battle royale among the Gillians, then sitting back to reap the spoils — quite the convenient method.” He smirked as he began moving closer, all the while carefully observing the two Adjuchas on either side.
To Wayne’s left floated an Aberrant Hollow of roughly spherical shape, suspended in midair.
It had no arms or legs, only several bone spikes along its back that swayed constantly, apparently keeping it balanced.
Its enormous Hollow Mask consumed nearly half its body, and beneath the mask its two eyes flickered with a red glow, carrying what seemed to be a hint of amusement.
On the other side was a half-human, half-serpent Adjuchas.
Its powerful arms rested lightly against the ground, and its eyes were filled with boundless greed, as though it meant to swallow every last Gillian in the clearing in one gulp.
The actions of the two Adjuchas confirmed Wayne’s suspicion.
Dozens of Gillians faced off in pairs, Reiatsu condensing in their mouths as dozens of Ceros prepared to burst forth.
The next second, a streak of dark red light fired first, then a second, then a third, and the explosions that followed, the dull thuds of impact, and the acrid stench of scorched air all arrived one after another.
“Holy shit, this is insane.” Wayne couldn’t help but feel awe at the colossal energy collision before his eyes.
This was the most powerful exchange of force he had witnessed since coming to Hueco Mundo, the combined might of dozens of Gillian Ceros.
At the same time, Wayne quietly suppressed his Reiatsu.
Once the smoke from this barrage dispersed, he intended to make trouble for these two Adjuchas.
After all, the creature he had been following this whole time was still somewhere among those Gillians.
One moment of carelessness and everything he had worked for would be lost.
The smoke had barely half-cleared when Wayne stepped onto the battlefield.
Using his Reiatsu mark, he located the Gillian he had been tracking all along.
“Oh?
It seems a little insect has crept onto our dining table.” The moment he set foot in the arena, Wayne’s presence was detected by the Aberrant Hollow.
It was an entire major rank above him, after all.
For Wayne to slip past its detection was essentially impossible.
But Wayne didn’t care.
To beings of their standing, his presence could not affect the ultimate purpose of their summoning.
“Ha, an ant trying to scavenge scraps, is it?” The serpent-man Adjuchas on the other side let out a cold laugh.
“Too bad it came in too early — otherwise it might have actually managed to sneak off with a piece or two.” “Hey, Niji, let’s make a bet.” The Aberrant Hollow suddenly took an interest.
“A bet?
On what?” asked the serpent-man Adjuchas called Niji.
“Let’s bet on which side’s Gillians kills this ant first.
The wager: seven Gillians.
How about it?” “Hmph, I knew you didn’t have good intentions.” Niji said with irritation.
“Kaslandin, don’t think I don’t know — your Reiatsu is a bit lower than mine, but your attacks are mental in nature.
Your control over Gillians is considerably stronger than mine.
Betting on those terms, I’d be throwing the win away from the start.” “Then how do you want to bet?” Kaslandin’s little scheme had failed, but he was gracious about it and dropped the matter without a second thought.
“A bet should come down to luck.” Niji flicked his tail.
“We both stay out of it, and we bet on how many rounds this little pest can survive in the crossfire of the Ceros.
How about that?” “Hmm…
that’s actually interesting.” The Aberrant Hollow Kaslandin’s enormous eyes narrowed slightly.
“Fine, I’ll take that bet.
I say he doesn’t make it past the third round.” “Then I’ll say five rounds.” said Niji.
“Oh?
You have a soft spot for this little pest?” “Of course not.” Niji said coldly.
“I just noticed the first round is already over.
The second wave of Ceros is coming any moment now, and that pest’s Reiatsu hasn’t wavered in the slightest.
By the volume of it, he’s probably close to advancing to Gillian.
So I’m guessing he can hold out a few more rounds.” “Ha, fair enough.” Kaslandin laughed.
“There’s no shortage of Gillians anyway.
Even if I lose, it’s only seven, I can always go catch more.
You’re on!” And so the two Adjuchas made their wager on how long Wayne could survive amid the afterblasts of the Ceros.
As for Wayne himself, caught between the two Adjuchas, he had of course heard every word they said.
But Wayne didn’t panic in the slightest.
As long as these two Adjuchas didn’t personally intervene, he was in no danger.
As for the Cero afterblasts, a direct Cero he might still need to dodge, but afterblasts?
Wayne trusted that with his current strength, the odds of tanking the irregular blast radius of an aftershock head-on were actually quite high.
With a faint smile on his face, Wayne began weaving through the dozens of Menos Grande, waiting for the moment to make his move.
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