Book: 2: 162

Book 2: Chapter 162

An eerie wind blew through the pitch-black forest, causing those who felt it to be filled with a primal fear.

This feeling was magnified by the fact that they still didn’t know exactly what the being trying to take their lives was.

‘If only it wasn’t so dark.’

Then they wouldn’t be as panicked as they were now.

As she had that thought, Ashstar looked up. The night sky was barely visible through the thick leaves of the trees around them.

“How many are left?”

“Four of us, including you, Squad Leader.”

Ashstar almost clicked her tongue when she heard that answer.

When they first entered the forest to begin their search, their party had been made up of nine members. But now, five of them had disappeared without a trace. In other words, only less than half of her group remained.

‘There were already more than five screams from the darkness.’

In this situation, even the brightest optimist wouldn’t be able to feel hope for the survival of those missing members.

Trying to get rid of her cynical thoughts, Ashstar opened her mouth.

“Did anyone manage to see it?”

“I only saw a shadowy blur, but... It wasn’t as big as I expected. At the very least, it was smaller than a flying dragon.”

“That’s strange.”

Normally, Dragonlings’ strength was proportional to their size. If it was smaller than a flying dragon, then even if it was larger than Dragonmen, it could only be a normal Dragonling.

It wasn’t a group either. They were at least certain that it was only a single being that was tormenting their group.

For just one being to deal such devastating damage...

Ashstar frowned.

“...no, it makes sense that it’s small. Otherwise it wouldn’t be able to maneuver among the trees and toy with us the way it is.”

After pondering for a moment, she spoke in a heavy voice.

“We need a fire.”

“Wouldn’t that just give away our position?”

“From what I can tell, that monster doesn’t have any problem with the darkness. Since it can find us without any light, making a fire won’t change anything. Do any of you have cloth?”

“Yes.”

Firewood by itself wasn’t enough to make a torch. Instead, they needed cloth soaked in flammable liquid to wrap around the end.

Luckily, one of the squad members happened to have one such piece of cloth.

Fwoosh.

When the torch was finally lit, their surroundings instantly became brighter. Their situation hadn’t gotten any better, but at the very least, they felt less panicked now that they weren’t surrounded by darkness.

Of course, this didn’t mean that they let their guards down.

Ashstar decided to look around first for any clues that might help her figure out exactly where they were. But there weren’t any. There was no way for her to tell which part of the forest this was. In the first place, this forest was so large that it was given the name ‘Great Forest’ so such a result was kind of expected.

Just as she thought that.

Crunch-

“Dammit!”

By the time the other Dragonmen tried to reach out to him, it was already too late.

“Sa-, save me...!”

Frix dug his fingernails into the ground, but he only left deep gouges as he disappeared into the bushes.

The other Dragonmen tried to run after him, but Ashstar’s voice sounded like a crack of thunder.

“Don’t move.”

Her words caused the Dragonmen to freeze in place.

Ashstar clicked her tongue.

In the current situation, everything would only get worse if she allowed them to break formation. So she had to avoid that as much as possible.

Of course, it wasn’t easy for her to keep her cool either.

Ashstar bit her lip hard as she looked at the bushes where Frix disappeared.

Crunch, crunch...

From it, the sound of flesh and bones being slowly chewed was clearly audible.

When she heard it, she clenched her fists so hard they began to bleed.

‘Fucking bastard.’

It was eating him so close to them on purpose so that they could hear it. It wanted them to be scared. It was clearly staged, but it still managed to get the reaction it wanted.

“U-, uh...”

“Frix is...”

Fear quickly began to spread through the group.

The squad members Ashstar had selected were all talented individuals who could be called elite in their own right, but they were not so cold-blooded as to keep their calm in a situation like this.

‘He’s the only one that’s able to remain calm.’

Ashstar glanced at the man standing beside her.

He continued to look in front of them with sunken eyes, not showing the slightest hint of fear or restlessness at the terrifying sounds that drifted from the bushes.

Headsmasher Bargan.

She’d heard a few rumors about him.

He was an outstanding fighter who stood out even in a place like the Lirua Arena. But she heard that one day, he suddenly stopped being a fighter in the arena and instead became a wanderer.

When she first heard the rumor, she thought he’d just run away because he got rusty or was afraid of fighting, but now that she saw him for herself, she didn’t think that was the case.

Suddenly, Bargan muttered.

“It was its tail.”

“What?”

“The thing that just dragged Frix away. It had a long prehensile tail.”

“...”

Of course, knowing that didn’t make much of a difference.

The monster had finished its meal and it would soon hunt again.

They had no way to deal with it either. It was clear from the start that their enemy was many times stronger than them.