Chapter 32: Shot

The boy in green at the front took out a flare from his backpack, and raised his hand to fire it. However, in his panic, his hand shook and the flare flew out diagonally, hit a tall tree trunk and missed the air above the trees.

“What’s wrong with you?!” The boys behind him, their faces red with anxiety, shouted.

“Stop it, get ready to fight.” The other boy had a shiny dagger in his hand, and looked cautiously at the incoming path.

Twelve hyenas ran up to them and surrounded them. The four men’s faces tightened, as they looked around while standing back to back. The hyenas’ eyes glowed with greed, and there was a low aggressive sound in their throats.

“I’m so fucking sorry. Just for 100,000, maybe my life will be on the line!”

“Julos said they were here, but they’re gone all of a sudden. We’ve been played!”

“Shut up,” the boy who hadn’t spoken scolded. “They’re moving.”

As soon as his words fell, the hyenas around them pounced on them, and for a while, the scene became chaotic.

Soon, the smell of blood spread through the air. The four men in green, and the hyenas were all wounded.

Not far away, as he crouched in the bushes to watch the scene, Xie Sen subconsciously held his breath, his face slightly white. This bloody scene reminded him of the beginning of the apocalypse when civilians were surrounded by zombies.

A sudden warmth touched his shoulders. Xie Sen turned his head, and saw Maine’s worried look in the dim light emanating from the fight. His heart suddenly settled, and he smiled to signal that he was okay.

Bai Jiao spoke up, “They can’t hold out much longer.”

The four boys were all male contract beast masters with good fighting abilities, but they were still no match for a pack of hyenas three times their size.

Maine’s eyes were cold as he looked at the fight. His voice wasn’t warm, “Wait a little longer.”

The four men in green had more and more wounds on their bodies. The speed of their attacks was gradually slowing down. Two hyenas were killed by them, while the remaining hyenas attacked more fiercely. The whole field was a harsh howling.

Suddenly, a boy in green was pounced on by a hyena, and fell to the ground. The hyena lowered its head, and bit him on the neck.

Xie Sen’s eyes widened abruptly. He reflexively summoned the chili pepper bush, exchanged chili peppers, and mentally ordered the chili peppers to scurry towards the hyena and explode into powder.

Only after the order, the hyena had a dagger in it’s head. It didn’t even wail as it fell to the side.

Xie Sen hurriedly commanded in his mind, “Come back.”

The chili branch that scurried next to the hyena instantly retracted. Xie Sen turned his head. Maine stood up, and looked down at him. “You wait here.”

The hyenas wailed as he ran out with Long Teng at his side, and the two men struck fast and hard.

The hyenas soon realized that their opponents were very strong, and divided four of them to deal with the men in green, while the other six were divided into two groups to deal with Maine and Long Teng.

Xie Sen looked at Maine nervously. Suddenly, he felt a chill down his back.

In the dense forest behind them, a row of green eyes appeared.

He hurriedly grabbed Bai Jiao’s arm, and gulped nervously. “Back…Behind.”

Bai Jiao, whose attention was on the battlefield, turned his head to look and his face changed. “We have to get out of here. The smell of blood is attracting the beasts.”

He said that and stood up. Xie Sen also followed him to stand up.

Bai Jiao took out a spray bottle from his space. “This is special for beasts. I’ll try it.”

Xie Sen pulled him back. “I’ll do it!” This battle was a melee, it was too dangerous.

He gave the chili pepper bush the order to scurry towards the hyenas that were attacking Maine, and quickly exploded a chili a third of the way up each hyena’s nose.

“AWOO!!!” The chili pepper bush was extremely fast. Almost simultaneously, the three hyenas let out a scream as they bounced about with their eyes closed, and their tails between their legs.

Maine took the opportunity to finish them off, looked in Xie Sen’s direction, and resumed the fight.

Xie Sen exchanged another chili pepper and gave the same order as before, only this time the target was the three hyenas around Long Teng.

The canines’ sense of smell was extremely developed, so the moment the spicy chili pepper exploded in their noses, they couldn’t help but wail, their voices high and mournful, and the surrounding beasts attracted by the smell of blood subconsciously retreated.

Long Teng and Maine cleanly finished all the hyenas. The four men in green were covered in blood. They gasped for breath, and looked embarrassed to thank the two men.

Bai Jiao looked curiously at the chili pepper bush that floated at Xie Sen’s shoulder. “Is this your mimic beast? It’s so deadly!”

Xie Sen said vaguely, “It’s more useful for creatures with a keen sense of smell.” He put the chili pepper bush away.

Bai Jiao smiled. “I’d like to study it sometime.”

Xie Sen hesitantly nodded. “Okay.”

The two arrived at the battle site. The heavy smell of blood was very uncomfortable. Xie Sen looked at the boys in green with his hands on his chest. “We just took a walk after dinner, and you guys made the place we rested for the night look like this. That’s really great.”

The four faces twitched in unison, A walk? In this kind of place, an after dinner walk was also too much, as for the latter ‘really great,’ that really let them feel the pain.

Bai Jiao’s index finger hooked around his long hair, and a faint smile was on his face. “You guys were looking for us on purpose?”

“No, no…”

“How did Julos know exactly where we were?” Maine interrupted the denial, and straightforwardly asked.

“How do you know Julos sent us here?” one of them shouted. “Have you guys been watching us in distress all along?”

“Wow, we just saved your lives. How dare you shout? You don’t understand the situation!” Long Teng stuck his chin out, and pointed at the man.

Their plan had been perfect, to lure the hyenas there, force Maine to send a distress signal and give up the game.

They would never have thought their purpose wouldn’t be achieved, and thanks to Maine their lives were saved. They would definitely be laughed at.

“Answer my question.” Maine reminded in a cold voice.

The rest of the three looked at the boy in green, who said, “I’m not really sure. I just know you have a locator on you. I asked Julos because I was curious and he said, ‘That fool keeps babying what his uncle gave him. Of course I know where he is.'”

Maine’s palms suddenly clenched into fists. His face became extremely ugly, his expression grim. “He really said that?”

The boy in green gave a cold shiver. “Yes, that’s what he said.”

Xie Sen grabbed Maine’s arm, worried, “What’s wrong with you?” Maine’s expression was really frightening.

Maine turned his head to stare at him. Xie Sen felt the cold feeling rise from the bottom of his feet, but he didn’t release his hand, and still held Maine’s arm as he stared at him.

After a while, Maine’s expression returned to normal and his voice was dry, “It’s okay.”

Bai Jiao reminded them. “We have to get out of here quickly. The smell of blood is too heavy,” he said, and looked around with a serious face.

In almost every direction, not far into the dense forest, there were eyes belonging to beasts that emitted greedy lights.

Maine opened his bracelet, and pulled up the map. “Follow me.”

“What do we do?” The boy in green asked in a hurry. “Can we come with you?”

“No.” Maine refused outright.

Bai Jiao asked rhetorically, “Do you still want to continue to compete?”

The boy in green looked bitter. “We can’t send a distress message.”

Xie Sen knew perfectly well that the reason they couldn’t send a distress message was because Maine had tampered with the signal. In fact, he suspected that if it weren’t for the league rules against harming people, Maine might not have come to their rescue at all.

If the four in green were killed silently by the hyena pack, the organizers would definitely investigate. After all, everyone could send a distress signal and it would be unusual to die without sending a signal.

They all swiped their personal bracelets before the start of the race, so everyone’s location was known to the organizers. As long as the investigation began, it would be easy to investigate their heads. When it came to distress messages, as the first place person in the Information Department, Maine, would definitely be suspected.

Xie Sen thought about this, opened his bracelet and cut to the distress page. He extended his arm, and pointed to the red button. “You can send a distress message. You guys wouldn’t be so scared that your hands are shaking, right?”

“Huh? It’s really possible!” The boy in green opened his bracelet again, surprised. He looked at his teammates who were in extremely poor condition, and didn’t hesitate to send a distress message.

Maine knew Xie Sen was doing this on purpose for him. He gave Xie Sen a deep look, and led the way deeper into the dense forest. He had an information detector to spy on the real-time road, and accurately avoided the beasts to safely reach another clearing.

They quickly built a fire, and Maine said, “Long Teng, you keep them safe. I’ll leave and come back soon.”

Xie Sen hurriedly asked, “What are you going to do?”

“Throw something.” Maine’s tone was extremely light. After he finished, he turned around and left the way he came. In a short while, he was gone.

Xie Sen looked worriedly at the direction he left. He considered what the boy in green had said, and understood that what he was discarding must be related to the uncle Julos had mentioned.

This wasn’t the first time he’d mentioned this word. When Maine said he would pay half of the deposit upfront, Julos had suspected that Maine’s money was given by his uncle. In this way, this uncle should be a good person to Maine, or Julos wouldn’t be so suspicious, but such a person placed a location tracking device on Maine!

Xie Sen thought about it, and couldn’t help but worry more.

Maine soon came back. His face was a bit gloomy, and he didn’t say anything as he leaned against the trunk of a tree and sat down casually.

Xie Sen moved next to him, and Maine turned his head to look at him. He smiled. “Being next to you at night is warmer.”

Maine’s voice was warm, “Yes.”

Long Teng saw this, and moved to Bai Jiao’s side. He was smiling and showing his bright white teeth. “We are also next to each other. It’s warm.”

Bai Jiao looked at him and smiled. “Just in case, it’s best to arrange for someone to be on night duty.”

Maine said, “I’ll watch the first half of the night, and Long Teng will watch the second half of the night.”

“Yes, no problem!” Long Teng answered.

Xie Sen looked around. While it was an open space, it was only a little more spacious than the road, less than ten square meters in total. Maine and Long Teng had fought not long ago and used up a lot of energy, especially Maine, who had carried him during the day. It was impossible not to be tired.

Suddenly, he had a flash of insight. “I have an idea. Let’s rest together. No need to keep watch.”

He summoned the potato plant, exchanged for four potatoes, commanded four roots to bring them to the four directions and then reduced the density. The potatoes grew bigger and bigger, and eventually became four walls, which formed a space and enclosed them inside.

“Wow! So amazing!” Long Teng jumped up. His eyes were shining as he touched the potato walls. “What is this thing?”

Xie Sen said solemnly. “A new type of outdoor tent.”

If he told Long Teng, he was sure that these walls would go into Long Teng’s stomach.