Godfrey was also in the hunting team this time, but he was not with Jean, but in another direction with his servants.
Of course, the Autumn Hunting teams will definitely meet in the end, and under Liam's deliberate arrangement, Gene will be the first to foresee Darius' team.
As Jean spoke, he also pulled out his shotgun, "We've been chatting for long enough. Although it's just a private autumn hunting, we still have to hunt for something. It's a bit shameful to return empty-handed."
Liam nodded in agreement. Although the Autumn Hunt was just a formality, the process still had to go. If Jean met with other noble lords empty-handed, he would definitely lose face.
Although Jean was older, his skills were not inferior at all. At least in terms of hunting, Liam felt that he was far inferior to his father.
With Gene's skillful hunting skills, he quickly wounded a deer jumping around in the jungle. Then, the king's servants released several fierce hounds, and the tracker rushed into the forest with the smell of blood. inside.
Gene nodded to Liam, "Let's keep up, that deer can't run far."
Without thinking much, they took a few followers and walked deeper into the woods. On the road, they could still see the blood dripping from the deer as it escaped.
But the more they chased, the more Gene and Liam felt something was wrong. It stands to reason that with the size of the deer that Gene shot, it would not be able to run so far after being shot, and there were still several hounds around. Chase.
But now, not only did they find no trace of the prey, they could not even hear the barking of the hounds. The woods were silent, not even the chirping of birds could be heard.
Liam and Jean, who realized something was wrong, had already put their hands on the handles of the hunting knives at their waists. The followers saw their master's movements and looked at each other, not knowing what was going on.
Just when Gene and Liam were on high alert, a whine of a hound came from the woods nearby. Gene pulled his son and whispered, "Come on? Go over and have a look!"
Liam was stunned for a moment and then nodded immediately. They led their followers and tiptoed through the trees. Then, they saw half of the hound's body under a big tree.
Gene frowned, quickly stepped forward with the hunting knife in hand, squatted down next to the hound, looked at the wounds on the body, took off his gloves, and stained his hands with blood.
Liam walked to his side and helped him pay attention to his surroundings and behind him. At this time, the prince also glanced at the dog's body. He looked a little surprised. "This..."
"It looks like it was torn apart by brute force." Jean turned his head and glanced at the organs and blood scattered on the ground next to him. One can imagine what kind of tragedy this hound suffered.
"Is it some kind of beast? A bear... or a wolf?"
Genn casually wiped the blood on his fingers on the bark of a nearby tree, stood up, shook his head and said, "The wolves of Gilneas have long been extinct... As for the bears? It won't kill all our hounds in an instant. "
Liam followed Jean's gaze and saw several shocking blood stains spreading into the depths of darkness in the darkness covered by the trees.
The followers also saw this horrifying scene. They swallowed their saliva and tightened their grip on the shotgun.
After witnessing this bloody scene, Liam couldn't help but scan the surrounding woodland. However, apart from the strange silence, there was no other abnormality at all, as if these hounds had been dead here for a long time.
It happened to be like this, which made Liam's palms sweat. This scene was indeed a bit strange. The carefully cultivated hound was brutally killed like a small animal without threat, and... the surrounding forest was quiet. It's really scary.
Jean patted Liam on the shoulder and whispered, "Let's go quickly, stop hunting temporarily, and retreat to the edge of the forest. If it is really a pack of forest wolves, we will be in trouble if we encounter it."
Liam immediately waved to the entourage behind him, "Let's go quickly! Pay attention to your surroundings, especially those darker places!"
Jean's team quietly withdrew from the forest. Not long after the humans left, a few pairs of dark green eyes suddenly lit up from the darkness, followed by a thick and chilling sound. The sound of gasping and tearing of flesh and blood.
Genn, who rode a Gilnean mountain horse and quickly evacuated the forest, looked at the dense and gloomy jungle, and couldn't help but have an ominous premonition in his heart. He turned to Liam and asked, "Where are the other teams? You contact Come on?"
"I prepared flares and told them that if they see the flares, it means there is an emergency, and they will immediately come to the village on the edge of the forest to meet us."
Liam took out the special projectiles from his waist bag, but Gene waved his hand, "They also have flares?"
"Every team is equipped with one."
"Then let's first—"
Before Jean could finish his words, a bunch of red fireworks suddenly exploded over the forest, and the expressions of Jean and Liam changed instantly.
"Liam, which team's flare is this?!"
"It belongs to Lord Crowley!" Liam replied in disbelief as he looked at the signal flare rising into the sky.
"Darius?! Damn it, there's something weird in this forest," Gene cursed secretly, then immediately got on his horse, "Let's go and see what's going on!"
Liam immediately followed his father's footsteps, took out another flare from his pocket, and threw it to his cronies, "Shoot this out, everyone else, follow me!"
The henchman quickly took out his shotgun, loaded the special pellets into it, and then fired it into the sky. When the signal bomb exploded, he heard Liam shouting, "Gather the people here and come find us in the forest!" "
Gene and Liam led their troops and quickly rushed to the place where the flare exploded. Before they got close, they heard Darius roaring, "Who's there?"
"Darius, it's me, Gene!" Gene shouted and rushed out on horseback, and saw Darius in front of a cave, holding a blunderbuss in one hand and a hunting knife in the other.
"Jean?!" Darius saw the unexpected reinforcements. He was briefly shocked and then smiled imperceptibly. "It seems that I was really unlucky today. Not only was I attacked, but the people who came to help me... still you."
"Hmph, say a few words less - you said you were attacked, what happened?"
Jean pretended not to care and snorted coldly, then asked Darius.
Darius's expression also became serious, and his tone was full of uncertainty, "I don't know what exactly attacked my team, but I lost two hunters. Those things were very fast, almost Everyone only had time to see a dark shadow, and they disappeared with the murdered people."
After saying that, the lord showed a look of fear on his face, "We had no time to react, and the shotgun couldn't hit those things. After realizing that something was wrong, I led people to this cave to avoid being in the woods. We are under attack from both sides."
"The black shadow...could it be the one we encountered just now?" Liam thought of the hounds they died tragically.
Darius was startled, and then immediately asked, "Have you met him too?"
Gene nodded, "The hounds we released were brutally killed. Liam and I realized something was wrong and took the people out of the woods. Fortunately, we were relatively close to the edge of the forest and did not encounter any encounters after that. What danger."
"It can kill several hounds in an instant...and the two people I lost. There must be a lot of these guys..." Darius's knife-like face almost condensed, and he lived in Gilneas. In his whole life, he had never known that there were such dangerous creatures in the dark forest.
"We'll analyze these issues later. We have to find a way to evacuate this forest first."
Both Genn and Darius have realized that the creatures that attacked them are not ordinary beasts: even wolves will walk around when they see such a grand autumn hunting team, not to mention the wolves of Gilneas are like According to Jean, it has become extinct long ago.
This was not the first time they came to the Black Forest to hunt, but it was the first time they encountered such a strange situation. Only then did they realize that the decrease in prey along the way was not entirely due to their large numbers, which frightened the herd. Instead, there are a bunch of scary things driving wild beasts in the woods.
But now, these people who call themselves "hunters" have lost their troops without even seeing the shadow of a group of "prey".
However, everyone knows that now is not the time to lose temper. The autumn hunting team is just for entertainment. There are many people here with their wives and children, who are supposed to be traveling. When encountering such a situation, it is best to retreat. the best.
Just like Darius, he also brought his daughter Lorna, but his daughter was not a helpless vase. On the contrary, the apple of his eye was also good with a shotgun, and Darius Lius's teachings may be more powerful than most of his followers.
But now Darius doesn't dare to put his daughter in danger, so she arranges Lorna in the cave to look after the others.
However, not long after Jean and Darius were talking, a scream came from the cave, followed by a chaotic noise, and finally, a gunshot made everything calm again.
After looking at each other with Jean, Liam rushed into the cave with a few guards. Darius and Jean followed quickly, walking into the cave that was not deep in three steps and two steps at a time.
"Lorna! What's wrong?" Liam saw Lorna holding a shotgun with a smoking muzzle, and hurried forward to ask what happened.
Lorna breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was Liam. She pointed her shotgun at the twitching hound on the ground, "I don't know what happened to this hound. It suddenly broke out and injured a dog trainer. In desperation, I just have to deal with it.”
Darius, who followed closely behind, heard the conversation between Lorna and Liam. He pushed away the crowd in front of him and walked quickly to the body of the hound, his expression changing again and again.
"Father?" Lorna stepped forward, not knowing what her father had discovered.
Darius' tone was low, and he looked at the people watching and said, "It's Liszt's hunting dog. There are still wounds on his legs from the last time he protected Liszt."
Everyone was shocked when they heard this. Only Gene, Liam and their people were kept in the dark. Liam asked Lorna, "Liszt?"
"He was one of the two hunters who was killed - his hound was guarding his master at the time, but he failed to save his master. Instead, he was slightly injured."
Lorna sighed, then shook her head and said, "This... this shouldn't be the case. In addition to being a hunter, Liszt is also a very famous dog trainer. His dogs have never bitten anyone."
"Perhaps it's because its owner is dead and it's a little aggressive?" Liam made a reasonable guess.
Lorna looked at the dead hound thoughtfully, but shook her head, "No...it doesn't look like that. The dog behaved like a beast completely controlled by bloodthirsty instincts - have you ever seen that dog?" Is this a mad dog that has been starved for a long time and completely exploded with ferocity? The performance of this hound just now was even worse."
Liam was listening to Lorna's story. Suddenly, there was a cry from the crowd. Everyone stood up and gave way to a middle-aged man who was covering his wrists with a look of pain on his face.
Is it the dog handler who was bitten by the hound just now? !
Lorna quickly stepped forward and grabbed his injured arm, only to find that the man's wrist was bloody and bloody, which showed just how crazy the crazy hound was.
However, although such an injury looks very miserable, it should not be serious enough to cause a middle-aged man such pain.
Liam also hurriedly knelt down next to the man and checked his injuries. After looking at it, the same doubts as Lorna arose in his heart. He and Lorna looked at each other and didn't have time to think too much. He asked, "Do you have any first aid supplies?"
"My entourage brought some emergency medicine and bandages."
While Lorna was talking, a fat, stout woman came out of the crowd carrying a small bag and handed the medicine and bandages to Lorna, who bandaged the injured person very skillfully.
"Please be patient for a while. It will be fine if you succeed. After we take care of it for you, go back to Gilneas and see a doctor. Everything will be fine!"
Liam thought the man behaved like this because of excessive psychological pressure. While calming the man's emotions, he helped Lorna hold down the man's twitching body.
But gradually, Liam discovered some problems. He actually saw the hair on the man's hands slowly getting longer. Liam rubbed his eyes in disbelief and found that he was not dazzled.
"Lorna——"
"What's wrong?" Lorna focused on the bloody wound on the man's wrist and didn't notice his changes.
"Look at his hair...has it grown longer?"
