Beastmen: She Tames the Land-Chapter 150: Roc’s failure

They did not run away from the ceremony. Instead, they appeared to embrace it. Visha had just finished the last person of the former Cheetah tribe. Now, the ram people were the ones who needed the bonding ceremony.

While performing the bond on the first ram beastman, Visha felt the tug. She had never felt anything like this before. Even the person who had bled while the ceremony happened the previous night had never caused such a tug.

Visha, alert, quickly contacted the system while still performing the ceremony. She could not give the illusion that things were out of the ordinary. She continued the ritual while speaking to the system.

Can people resist the ritual?

[They can. If there is an artifact or they have strong enough willpower. They will be able to resist. However, the bond is not weak. It will backlash against them.]

Backlash? Will it be similar to what happened yesterday?

[Similar, yes.]

So do I need to do anything?

[Continue the ceremony, let the pack bond do its work. It is not as fragile as you think it is. If you feel there is still a problem, use your Rite of Viality on the bond to strengthen it.]

The conversation did not last long. Visha was almost finished drawing the symbol when the conversation ended.

When the last stroke of the sigil was made, the ram beastman was panting. Although he resisted the bond, he did not think of betrayal. He did not have the heart to hurt them. He was simply completing the task he was given.

When the other ram beastmen say it did not work, they did not give up. Each of them still tried to resist. At one point, Visha had to use the rite of vitality to strengthen the bond. When she did, she saw the system register the usage as EXP.

This made her happy because, since the last time she received a task from the system, she had not been able to get any additional EXP. So, to Visha, this was great fortune.

Visha had been dealing with the issue relatively well until she met one particular ram beastman. His malicious intentions were so strong that before Visha made a move, the bond itself struck. It acted like a whip. It struck the beastman’s mind repeatedly. At first, he appeared to be able to resist.

Then Visha added the Rite of Vitality, and everything shattered. She had only injected a small amount. But that small amount allowed the bond to snap back before landing a fatal blow.

Even Visha was shocked when it happened. She had not expected such a thing. The beastman’s knees buckled, his eyes went wide, and he started bleeding. Not just from his eyes and ears, as the previous man did. Rather, he started bleeding from his pores. His entire body was coated in blood.

Before anyone could truly register what just happened before their eye, the beastman fell to the ground, dead.

It sent a shockwave through the bonded and non-bonded people in the square. They had never expected anyone to die.

Roc stood by silently, watching the exchange. He was the one who told his tribesmen to try to resist the bond. He did not believe that such a bond was unbreakable.

His hand trembled when he saw the beastman dead. He had not expected any of them to die. Still, he felt no remorse. His eyes went to Visha, and something akin to respect flickered.

Visha, who had experienced the battle firsthand, watched the beastmen she had yet to complete the ceremony for. She could see their fear. She could see for the first time that they truly understood the risk they had taken.

Beastmen are people ready give their lives in a fight. It is for honour, their family, their tribe. They expect themselves to die glorious deaths in service. But what they saw was not a fight. It was a beastman dying for resisting a priest’s ritual.

For every beastman and female, priests are sacred people. The rituals they perform help the tribe. But this does not mean they are all respected. Respecting your own priest or priestess is a given. As for the priest or priestess of another tribe. No matter how precious they are, they need to prove themselves.

Male priests are beastmen; they can challenge other beastmen who have grievances with them. Female priestesses cannot be challenged, but they can find other ways to refute their priestess nature. Not overtly but covertly, with such as sabotage.

This was essentially what they intended to do with Visha. They wanted to show her as being incompetent. But seeing the body covered in blood, they no longer had any reason to sabotage. This would mean the end of their lives in an invisible battle.

To the ram beastmen, it was a disgrace for them to fall in such a way.

"Take him away," Xeno’s steady voice filled the open space. As soon as the body was removed, he said, "Continue the ceremony."

Before an objection could be made, Xeno grabbed the arm of a ram beastman and pricked it, causing him to bleed into the bowl. The ceremony continued.

After the beastman died, Visha did not experience resistance. The ram beastmen accepted their fate. The last to be bonded was Roc. Visha had expected a fight; unexpectedly, the bond was completed smoothly.

"I was wrong. Your pack is much more than I expected," Roc stated after his bonding ceremony ended.

He addressed the trio in his statement.

The trio saw his submission in this moment. Not because of the pack bond, but because he had acknowledged them. The trio did not deny his statement. The ceremony ended. Before they left, the trio made their announcement.

"Tonight, we will celebrate. We will perform the cleansing ritual tomorrow night. I hope all the new pack members will participate." Visha’s eyes scanned the pack that moved from thirty people to almost one hundred. "Many of you may find the answer you have been searching for."

With that, the trio dispersed the pack.