Chapter 125 – The New Wolf Pack
Translated by Sunyancai
Ta’s hunting team was about to set out again. People in the tribe had been used to the presence of the unusual animal, which had been so far the only one that accompanied them on the Path of Glory.
In the beginning, it was beyond expectation that Caesar could succeed in joining the group to hunt for even several times in a row.
Caesar now had two scars. Although his wounds healed, the fur there hadn’t grown back yet so scars were very noticeable. They were caused by an adult giant-claw beast in a hunting mission.
Shao Xuan was terribly scared at that time, because if Caesar had reacted even a little slowly, he would have been cut in half by the beast’s gaint claw. After that they returned to the tribe, Shao Xuan intended to stop him joining the next hunt to rest. However, it turned out that he followed the group so actively that Shao Xuan had no choice but to let him join.
Fond of running in the woods, he enjoyed confronting a prey which was much bigger than him. When the hunting time approached, Caesar was especially excited. While resting to let the wounds heal, he was listless.
Now, the wounds had healed up, but the fur there did not grow back. Mai said that the fur around the two scars might be difficult to grow back.
Like the warriors in the tribe, the scars were the evidence for their combat achievements, proving that they had faced up to their overwhelming prey. That was why Caesar’s scars drew much admiration, rather than raise doubts about his ability.
This time, before entering the woods, several small group leaders had talked together for a while and mentioned Caesar.
The other four were very envious of Mai. Since Mai got Caesar, he and his group members had received much surprise, from the fire crystal to the rare herbs, which were found by Caesar thanks to his great sense of smell. What’s more, he could also assist them with assaults. How couldn’t they admire him?
“Well, Mai, pay attention to ferocious beasts and other beasts in the hunting area. Some changes may happen.” Said Cheng.
“Talking about this, I found that there were indeed some changes with the giant-antler deer herds, bison herds, and even wolf packs.” Said Mai.
“What happened?”
Several other group leaders also asked about this curiously. After all, the mountain was so big, and the hunting area was just a small part of it. Generally speaking, ferocious beasts and other beasts there did not arbitrarily change their habitats, unless when the season shifted. In addition, predators hunted in their fixed areas most of the time.
However, Cheng and Mai even said that the ferocious beasts and other beasts appeared in different areas. This was unusual.
“Anything abnormal happened there?” A group leader said, referring to the accident relating to the bats during the first hunting mission of the year.
“No, no.” Cheng shook his head, and said, “But it is related with the bats.”
The group of bats chased away all the ferocious beasts to occupy a larger territory, forcing them to find new ones, so the battle between them had continued until now. In addition to the threat brought by the group of bats, the surrounding ferocious beasts and other beasts had changed their habitats.
The birth of a strong could result in large-scale local restructuring.
In addition to the group of bats occupying the mountain, the giant pit witnessed changes.
Cheng also intended to go digging in the giant pit to see if he was able to find something useful. It turned out that he was unable to enter there again. The giant pit, stone crevices, and caves were filled with miasma. Originally, on the top of the hill there had been sparse grass, and now all was dead. The whole picture looked a bit dark and terrifying.
“Those bats are back?” Mai asked.
“I have no idea, but there were no bats to be seen.” Said Cheng.
“They can’t be back, the miasma is probably caused by dead bats and the other animals’ bodies.”A group leader said.
About one hundred bats in the middle of their metamorphosis stage died there, which possibly led to the miasma.
The first three missing members of Cheng’s group had to be treated for a long time after being sent back to the tribe, which told them how harmful the miasma was. The others didn’t stay there for a long time but still lost consciousness. It was thanks to Shao Xuan who took them out.
The awareness of the harm of the miasma made Cheng give up rushing in there with his group members, and even told them to keep away.
The mountain where the giant pit was and the territory occupied by the bats were not included in Mai’s hunting route, but their hunt would still be affected.
“Do not mess with those bats,” Said Mai.
“Of course, I get it.” Cheng understood, but couldn’t help complaining about it.
After entering the woods, the hunting groups set out separately, and Mai and his group members began to go to the holdout of their first hunting location.
Nothing unusual happened on the first day, but Mai told the other hunting groups to be cautious about the ferocious beasts which previously didn’t appear in this hunting area, and to pay attention to the beasts’ changes.
There was a giant-antler deer herd in the first hunting location where Mai and his group members went hunting.
“Mai, did you notice that in the recent hunting missions, we haven’t come across the pack of wolves which often attacked the giant-antler deer herd.” A middle-aged warrior in the group told Mai.
“Um.” Mai nodded.
On Caesar’s first hunt, he did not encounter that wolf pack. Everyone in the hunting group had been worried that Caesar would encounter the wolf pack, but he didn’t confront the pack this year. The first encounter was caused by their deviation from their hunting route. And at the second one, they just saw several wolves from a long distance, those wolves didn’t look very well.
Until now, they hadn’t even seen a wolf, and they thought that this was abnormal. The wolf pack should have always been around the giant-antler deer herd, but…
“Everybody should pay attention,” Said Mai.
No wolves competed with them, so the hunting group could catch many giant-antler deers every time they came.
Something whizzed past.
Caesar’s presence distracted two giant-antler deers and a few spears appeared.
Lang Ga and several people dragged the giant-antler deers aside and quickly dealt with them to make it easier to bring them back later.
Jumping on a stray old deer’s back, Caesar bit its neck. However, compared to the giant-antler deer, Caesar’s size didn’t have much advantage. Even though the deer was old, its power couldn’t be underestimated.
Getting rid of Caesar, the deer ran away so fast that Caesar failed to catch up with it. After chasing it for a distance, he slowed down and saw it run away farther and farther.
While dealing with the prey, Lang Ga and the others kept an eye on what happened there, and found that the deer bitten by Caesar was just a small shadow now. They intended to comfort Caesar, who, after all, did help a lot in the previous hunting missions. In addition, he never caused trouble like the cubs in the tribe. Therefore, he left such a good impression on them that they were not so afraid of him.
Thinking about what to say and fixing their eyes on what was to happen, Lang Ga and the others stopped their work. In particular, Caesar was about to look back, but did not expect, before he turned back, the deer was suddenly bitten by a large wolf.
The sudden attack made the deer stagger and fall down, it struggled to stand up, but the reality did not give it an opportunity to do so. The second and third wolves arrived…
A pack of wolves surrounded the deer. In spite of looking at them from afar, Lang Ga could still see torn bloody meat flying through the air.
“Those wolves…” Lang Ga had an intuition that something bad was about to happen.
“Not the old wolf pack.” Mai looked slightly grave.
Each hunting group knew something about the preys and predators in their respective hunting areas, especially the wolf packs. It was natural that they were clear about what kinds of wolves were active there.
In spite of standing afar and seeing vaguely, they could judge from the hunting style that this pack was crueler than the old one. Instead of biting it to death directly, they gnawed it.
Caesar stared at the wolves in the distance, puckered his wrinkles on the nose, exposed his fangs, and growled.
“Caesar, come back!” Shao Xuan shouted.
This pack of wolves was dangerous to Caesar, similar to the previous wolves, Shao Xuan could not let Caesar confront them. On one hand, he was outnumbered. On the other hand, even if he fought against one of them, he might not win, because the wolves were generally larger and vicious. If he confronted them, it was more likely that he would be the loser.
When going there for hunting, warriors in the hunting group avoided provoking the wolves, for they were very vengeful. Once provoked, unless they were all slaughtered, they took revenge.
Since the new wolf pack emerged, the hunting group hurried to leave with the prey to return to the cave before it was too late.
“Caesar, stop looking, go!” Shao Xuan cried, having found Caesar was looking back.
Glancing at the wolf pack from a long distance, in the end, Caesar followed Shao Xuan and ran back to the first holdout.
At night, all the group members were having a barbecue while chatting in the cave. The entrance of the cave was blocked by a large stone, and wind blew in only through some gaps and vents. After the Thorn Black Wind accident, Mai took this cave as the new holdout.
Mai stopped talking, so did the others. All were listening carefully.
There were some wolves howling.
The howling didn’t come from afar. Those with poor hearing might not notice that but those present had much stronger sense of hearing than ordinary people.
“They are those we saw today, right?” Tu said in low voice.
This was Tu and Jie Ba third hunting mission with Mai’s hunting group now. Their appearance didn’t change, but their temperament was totally different. They were no longer the two warriors who lived in the cave and fixed their mind on food!
“Be more careful about the new wolf pack tomorrow. The wolves that were here before may have been defeated…” Said Mai.
There was an area shared by two packs of wolves, in which wolves from different groups might be seen. However, this area wasn’t where they got together.
And now, a pack of wolves showed up at the foot of the mountain, it was obviously that the previous wolves were either defeated or dead.
When everyone was talking about the new wolf pack, Caesar kept an eye on what happened outside the cave.
Aware of Caesar’s intention, Shao Xuan thought he had to pay more attention to him in the following days.