Chapter 114
Chapter 114 – The Vampire Bats
Translated by Sunyancai
Of the warriors that came to them, the leading one was called Cha. Cha was almost the same age as Mai, and he was the second strongest person in his hunting group, which meant that he was of great importance in that group. He was also an old experienced hunting warrior. Among the five people, he was the least wounded.
“You lost people in your group?” Mai said with astonishment. It was just the beginning of the hunting trip… apparently, it was extremely abnormal to lose someone.
“We lost three warriors. When we arrived at the first location to rest, they went to fetch some water, and then they never came back.” It was hard for Cha to say this out aloud, for obviously, that incident was a great strike to the whole hunting group. It was not like when someone got killed during a fierce hunting mission. Someone went missing, without knowing why. Even their bodies hadn’t been found, and that was something unacceptable! No one was willing to give up.
“The water-fetching spot was also up in the mountain, not far away from the cave that we spend the night in. Dangerous animals like ferocious beasts were rarely seen in the nearby region. However, until night, these three never came back. Ah-Cheng took a few men to look for them, but they only found some traces and marks that they left around the water-fetching spot. We waited for another half a day, and people split up to look for them…still, no news… We did encounter a lot of those things while we looked for our missing men.”
Cha rubbed his tired face, and pointed to the dead bat on the ground, “They actively attacked the hunting group… in the daylight! There were dozens of them, and they wounded quite a few of us. Ah-Cheng told me to come ask you for help. But I did not expect that they had already came to you before we did.”
Shao Xuan heard him talking, but in the meantime, he noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with Caesar. He checked his wound, only to find that the injury did show any signs of being bad at all. The blood was still fresh-red, but Caesar looked extremely tired and dizzy.
In the front on a flat grassy area, four roebucks stood there, facing four different directions. Their ears were standing up straight, and they looked very tense.
Whoosh.
Black shadows flashed in the sky, and promptly, they landed on the grassy area.
Not just one bat… There were a total of eleven bats that landed on that spot, surrounding the four roebucks.
For most bats, it was very difficult for them to walk when they landed on the ground. When they walked, they were slow. However, when these bats landed and retracted their wings, they seemed to have very strong long legs and forelimbs.
Any one of the eleven bats seemed to be bigger than the one that Mai slaughtered.
When the eleven bats landed around the roebucks, they quickly ran towards their prey.
The roebucks tried to jump out of the siege, but as soon as they made a leap, they would hit against a giant bat that jumped up as well.
One giant bat got slammed back for a few meters, but it rolled over on the grass, and stood up on its feet again to start another attack. Their sharp teeth were like razors, and they tore down a piece of skin of the roebuck.
Blood began to spread.
The roebucks were becoming slower and slower after they got bitten by the bats. At first, they did not manage to get out, and now, even the chance of survival was slim.
Four roebucks all got bitten on their bodies, and one of them was starting to have soft legs already.
Those bats did not start another round of attack. Instead, they waited with patience.
When finally, the last roebuck hit the ground, the bats began to grab the roebucks who had fainted with joint efforts, instead of having a feast right there. Two or three bats grabbed on one roebuck, and flew away with their wings wide open.
After the bats left, people from the hunting team gathered under a tree. Everyone was feeling sour and sad at the same time.
“It seems that they have no intention of eating their prey immediately.” Said Mai.
Cha responded with a gloomy face, “That’s why Ah-Cheng said that we should find our missing men as soon as possible. At least, now we have seen that thing’s behavior. Since they were not eaten on the scene, it’s possible that they are still alive.”
“They are behaving as if they are trying to store food. But winter is already over.” Some older warrior said, “Then, to whom are they serving the food?”
The crowd fell into a silence.
“Let’s find the missing men first.” Cha sighed.
When Cha guided Mai and the others to their first holdout to meet with their hunting group leader, Ah-Cheng, Ah-Cheng was applying herbs on some wounded warrior.
“What’s happened? Another strike?” Cha hurried to them to check on the wounded warriors.
“It’s not bad. No one has a grave injury.” Ah-Cheng walked towards Mai with a slight smile on his sad face, “Finally, you’re here.”
Ah-Cheng looked over and set his eyes on Caesar, who was standing beside Shao Xuan, “Unexpectedly, we need to rely on it this time.”
When the two hunting group leaders were exchanging information, Shao Xuan observed the situation in the cave.
The hunting warriors were so high-spirited and energetic when they set off from the tribe. However now, the crowd could not have been droopier. Perhaps, deep down, they were all worried about their companions’ inexplicable disappearance, and the crisis that might come later.
Everyone had wounds on their bodies. Luckily, most of them were scratches, and few got bitten.
“A fortune in the misfortune is that we did not bring those young lads with us, or else…” Ah-Cheng did not continue, but everyone knew what he was talking about.
If there were any newly awakened warriors in this hunting group, they would be the ones that received most of the attacks, just like Shao Xuan last year. Newly awakened young warriors hardly had any experience in hunting. Any careless mistake might end up with a dreadful death.
“Ah-Xuan, we need to rely on you and Caesar next.” Said Ah-Cheng.