'So... should we fight?'
Cassiel speculated that in the next area, somehow, it was to make them stronger. And if the magical beasts here were the same as in his world, then devouring and killing each other was the normal way.
So when he was shoved into a much larger room with a very high ceiling, along with seven other beasts, with no indication, he wondered if he should start.
Of those he could see, there was a blue wolf, two white tigers, a white rabbit, a black (or rather, very dark blue-scaled) lizard, a large bear with purple fur, and what looked like a white sheep with ice horns.
Cassiel stopped, He thought that if the goal was to make him stronger, they couldn't throw several beasts at him. He thought about it, and this unconventional variety was so rare that there was probably another target.
It didn't take a genius to figure out the rest. Perhaps this area was to study how trained beasts react to each other.
It was a pity it wasn't what he thought, but he knew that if he was patient, it would eventually pass. He had faith in humanity's insatiable greed for more power.
So in the end he did nothing and emitted no intent, though he almost let it slip a little, as he unconsciously planned to attack the rabbit, which seemed the easiest prey.
When he just entered the room, their reaction and sensitivity to intentions made them realize that it was probably another successful experiment.
He saw no reason to have them kill each other; it wasn't efficient. Still, he braced himself, as he didn't know what they were capable of.
Time passed and in the end none stepped forward. They were only wary of each other, Cassiel especially of those two tigers and the bear, as he seemed to be able to overcome it easily.
It was then that a door opened and in walked now four guys in white coats. They were usually guarded by two or more guys with electric batons, but now they were surrounded by four people with armor and swords.
Cassiel's magical sensitivity at that moment was so low that she could barely understand how strong they were. he only knew that they obviously had mana.
On the other hand, her instincts told her that these were far more dangerous people than the ones holding the electric staffs. Cassiel didn't have a standard yet, but that wouldn't change anything.
"Well, mistakes aside, it's certainly a breakthrough. These beasts didn't attack each other, even some being predators of each other."
"Even without any orders, they were cautious and were not rash."
"Well, with this it can be confirmed that Area 4 performed its job correctly. It's time to start ours. Open the gates."
At this point, Cassiel, listening as usual to the guys in white coats ,who all seemed to be in the habit of talking loudly about things, had no complaints, as that always helped her understand everything faster.
The next moment, one of the many doors on the sides of the wall opened. It was a very large double door, one of the largest doors in this place. Cassiel thought a huge beast would come out, but the next moment...
'Rabbits?'
What came out were rabbits, at least twenty of them, white furred like the one in the room. When he saw them, Cassiel knew immediately what they were, and if it was what he thought it was after all, which made him very excited.
"Listen, now everyone start and you will work as a group to hunt those rabbits. You have five minutes to do it."
'How the hell do we measure time?'
Cassiel didn't know what the researchers expected of them, being that he could easily measure time if he set his mind to it, but if he was a beast with hints of reasoning like the rest, it should be impossible.
"The counter is up, don't let us down."
Saying that, the investigator pointed to a high spot on one of the room's walls, and sure enough, there was a counter.
'Wait, how good is the intelligence of these guys?'
Cassiel had so far been guided by the she-wolf he had lived with, so he thought the standard would be to just pick up simple commands.
But now they were being given complicated orders. He glanced at the rest of the beasts to see their reactions and....
'Damn, they obviously don't understand.'
All the beasts, as should be obvious, were left not understanding the orders, or rather, they only understood the first part and some looked ready to jump on the rabbits.
Cassiel found it funny that one of those ready was, in fact, the white rabbit. Somehow he found it amusing.
He attached curiosity as to why he was the only one with an ear tag. Maybe it was another experiment to see if the beasts could tell things apart by details.
But leaving that aside, the guys in white coats should understand better than anyone else the limits of the beasts. So that order seemed a bit out of place and pointless.
Still, Cassiel decided to think about it later and comply with what they were asking.
'They clearly want strength, intelligence and obedience from us. Let's see...'
Now that he was sure that all his thoughts were mostly correct, Cassiel was beginning to see a way to escape this damned place.
He stepped forward. The tigers had already gone ahead and each had killed a rabbit. He and the other wolf, being the second fastest, also arrived.
But by this time, the rabbits had already understood the danger and began to scatter. Still, Cassiel, who by this time had become sufficiently accustomed to his new four-legged form, ran after one.
He went towards the one who foolishly ran into a nearby wall. The rabbit realized too late this bad move and instinctively tried to change direction to save his life, but Cassiel, who was coming without slowing his momentum, only made a slight change of angle.
Before the rabbit could regain speed, it was already on him, biting his neck.
CRUNCH!
He didn't hesitate a moment longer and closed his jaw hard, causing his sharp fangs to finally end the rabbit's life.
Now that he had acted, did she feel any different? Cassiel did a quick self-assessment inside, especially in the area where she felt that small trace of mana before.
Honestly, he didn't feel any difference, but to some extent he expected it. He had to kill more than that to notice anything.
After all, even a beast that has hunted for many years isn't necessarily strong if it only hunts small prey.
Maybe the change was so minute that he didn't notice it. It was better to keep trying. With that in mind, he looked around the rest of the place, which was in chaos.
The rabbits were scattered about and the anomalies like the bears, lizards, the sheep and, obviously, the rabbit, were having a hard time killing anything.
The first two, because of their lack of mobility, and the latter, because of their lack of killing ability.
Or so he thought when he saw the sheep impaling a rabbit with its horns. Still, there were more than ten left, and even predators like tigers were having a hard time catching a second rabbit, as they were too alert.
'They said teamwork, huh? Well, let's try...'
"Woooo" (Wait!)
Cassiel howled. From him interaction with the the mother and son duo, he understood that there was obviously no structured language between the beasts, but they were sensitive to will and intentions.
So, instead of trying to speak, he channeled the intent to impede, so that they would stop and listen to him.
And it was not in vain as immediately, the blue wolf stopped and seemed to hear him, coming in his direction.
The rabbit, which had been unsuccessful in any hunt, also approached, along with the sheep. Both seemed a bit intimidated and seemed to obey him out of fear.
"Roooar" (Why should I?)
The bear, who was the biggest one there, growled back, obviously, Cassiel didn't understand but was beginning to understand through intent and body language.
Apparently, it was one thing for humans to give him orders and another for him to give them. Apparently, the species hierarchy wasn't going away, but so....
"woooooo" (catch all the rabbits, idea).
Cassiel tried to convey it as best he could, he didn't know how well it would get through to them. Curiously, the tigers, the lizard and the bear looked at him as if they were thinking.
"Raaawr ." (okay)
The first to seem to understand were one of the tigers, who seemed to speak for both of them.
"Ssshhh" (I join in).
The lizard, though a bit harder to understand, also responded in a way that Cassiel took as acceptance.
"Pffhh."
The bear, seeing that the rest seemed to accept Cassiel's offer, snorted, but it seemed he was willing to accept, for now.
'Well, as I thought, they have more reasoning than I thought... humm... this experiment seems dangerous...'
Cassiel thought about it from the researchers' point of view, and if he thought about it right, this might be more dangerous than he had imaguined , but it seemed that the people running this thought they were in control. To Cassiel, this was a good and exploitable thing.
Quickly, through his iistinct and willpower conveyed by his grunts and howls, he began to give simple commands such as "you go there" or "don't let them overtake you", and when there were only 30 seconds left on the clock, they had caught all the rabbits.
Cassiel even thought the rabbit on him side trying its hardest was funny and deserved something, so he left a half-dying one for the rabbit to finish.
Truth be told, he didn't know if he was doing something good or not, but he simply did it because he thought it was fun.
He managed to kill three rabbits himself, he didn't overdo it, as he believed that wouldn't be the last thing and it was better to gain the trust of all the beasts.
'haha!.... well, give me more, when I have enough mana, I'll kill them all... Hahaha!'
Cassiel was starting to get excited when she thought about finishing off those hateful guys in white robes.