It was a puzzle with missing and damaged pieces, without any right answer.
'I could run past them all, distract them so the rest of the barbarians can move through but...' he looked towards the bird monster and the sleeping humanoid monster. Something told him that even if he managed to avoid all the others, those two would definitely catch him.
And it was not like they could just walk through...
'Wait a second, why are they not attacking each other?'
Other than the four of the five Ether beasts that took one corner each and the last bird beast took the entire ceiling for itself, there were tens of thousands of other smaller beasts here.
Most of them were very different from one another so there was no way they would just get along with each other like this.
'Are they...being controlled?'
That was the only logical explanation. But then why were the Ether beasts keeping them under control?
No matter how much Hao Xuan tried to think about it, he couldn't come up with a good enough answer.
From the looks of it, each of the five ether beasts came from very different worlds with their own followers but were now calmly minding their own business ignoring all the others, for what reason?
Other than the previously mentioned three, one of the remaining two was an amphibious beast that looked like some kind of grossly mutated toad and the last one was just a smelly worm beast.
Both of them were out of the way and minded their own business so Hao Xuan didn't need to worry about them much. The smaller beasts that followed each Ether beast resembled them to an extent, the humanoid monster being the only exception as its followers seemed to be from all over the place.
While the bird beast was completely alone, claiming all the air for itself.
"What do we do now? Fight?" Isak asked in a hushed voice, waking Hao Xuan from his stupor.
He quickly shook his head, putting down the idea before it could take root in their minds.
"Absolutely not. If you pick a fight with any single group the rest of them will attack together. We are the outsiders here."
"Then...?"
"Let...me go first," Hao Xuan hesitantly spoke, and before they even had the time to digest what he had said, Hao Xuan had already jumped down.
He nimbly landed on an empty space, among the teeming beasts underneath. Right now he was in the territory of the humanoid ether beast.
Hao Xuan had prepared himself to be attacked but it appeared that his ability to lay low was just as powerful here as it was in the darkness.
Keeping one eye on the humanoid ether beast to his right and the other on the bird beast hanging from the ceiling, Hao Xuan moved through the various quadruped beasts that made up its entourage. Most of them looked like they would be herbivores but that didn't mean they wouldn't be aggressive.
The stench of bile and excrement was so strong down there that it was almost disorientating for someone like Hao Xuan who had such an acute sense of smell.
Slowly and carefully he moved through their ranks until the quadruped horde ended and the almost identical-looking canine beasts started. Hao Xuan had yet to step into their territory when the two-headed canine beasts that patrolled the area's outer territory detected something was a miss and became alert.
Hao Xuan froze mid-stride, watching their movements with narrowed eyes until half a minute later when they resumed their routine not having detected anything strange.
'These guys will be a problem too...'
The entire third floor was neatly divided into four sections and crossing from one territory to another would be no small task. Let alone the overseeing Ether beasts, even the smaller ones would pick up on so many of them trying to sneak past them.
Not to mention that the barbarians weren't exactly inconspicuous. They stood out like sore thumbs in this place.
After going over a few different options, the best one by far was also the most dangerous one, yet it had the highest chance of succeeding.
'Without some disorder and havoc among their ranks to spread confusion, we won't be able to move through. If they all started fighting with one another that would be best...'
**
Hao Xuan returned some 15 minutes later with an expression full of uncertainty and reluctance.
"What? Just say it!" Burak only needed a single glance to know that whatever idea Hao Xuan chad would not be very....sane.
"I tried going past them but the dogs detected me even before I got close so there is no way you can get through that easily.. Our only option is to create a ruckus so we can move through them while hiding in plain sight."