"Boom! Crash!"
The clear blue sky suddenly echoed with the rumble of thunder, and dark clouds surged in.
Kaelen hurriedly stuffed the handful of Fiend grass into the basket on his back, quickly looking for a place to take shelter from the rain. Just as he found a vine-covered rock overhang, the sky immediately poured rain; the raindrops grew larger and larger until they turned the entire sky a blinding white.
The place where Kaelen stood could not completely shield him from the rain, so he tried to press himself deeper inside, and accidentally discovered a small cave entrance hidden behind the vines. Parting the vines to look inside for a moment and feeling no danger, Kaelen immediately dropped the basket and squeezed his body in.
Only, he did not expect that there was just a tiny foothold, and it was covered in moss. Kaelen could not stand steadily and instantly fell down. Kaelen thought that he was definitely dead this time.
"Splash!"
Kaelen did not fall to the ground but fell into an underground river; perhaps this river connected to the river outside the cave. He quickly swam to the shore, afraid that if he was a bit slower, aquatic magical beasts would rush over to eat him.
Achoo! Achoo!
[So cold!] Kaelen thought.
He hugged his body, jumping up and down continuously to warm himself up, then groped in the darkness to find a way up. This place was very far from where he had fallen, and the rock ledges were all very slippery, making it very difficult to climb up. Kaelen had to go look in another direction.
Walking a short distance away, a little light began to appear in the cave. Rainwater fell through a hole in the cave ceiling, forming small puddles. Feeling the direction the wind was blowing from, he thought it was probably the direction of the cave entrance, and carefully stepped forward. After a short distance, Kaelen's eyes suddenly widened.
Under the faint light, he saw a person covered entirely in blood leaning against the rock wall. That person seemed to be heavily injured.
Was it a Beastman from his tribe?
Kaelen took step after step closer, squinting his eyes to see clearly who the person was, when that man suddenly looked up. Cold gray beast pupils stared fixedly at Kaelen, making his hair stand on end.
The injured Beastman raised his head, and Kaelen also recognized who that person was. It was Sane, one of the strongest warriors of the tribe.
Kaelen did not often interact with the young people in the tribe, but he still needed to know the people he should know. His Obsidian Tribe used to be a large tribe; after the war with the Cipher Tribe, the previous generation of warriors and beastmen had almost all fallen, and quite a few Sub-Beasts and young Sub-Beasts had also been snatched away. Currently, the tribe only had over three hundred people left, among which there were only sixty-seven Sub-Beasts (including young Sub-Beasts), one hundred and twenty warrior beastmen, and 133 normal beastmen (including cubs).
Among these 120 warriors, only three people—Chief Jaxon, Sane, and Zale—were Level 3 warriors, ten were Level 2 warriors, and the rest were entirely Level 1 warriors. Because Sane was so outstanding, Kaelen naturally noticed Sane too.
Even though he was a defective Sub-Beast, was unable to speak, and the cinnabar mole indicating the ability to bear children was so faded it was almost invisible, that completely did not affect his admiration for a strong warrior beastman.
While Kaelen was flustered, Sane also recognized the newcomer. In the tribe, the only Sub-Beast with such a sloppy and untidy appearance was Kaelen. A wave of disgust rose in Sane's heart, but his body was getting increasingly hot and dry, seemingly about to explode. The faint scent lingering on this Sub-Beast's body further stimulated the turbulence in Sane's heart.
"Get lost!" Sane growled.
Kaelen was yelled at, startling violently, and his footsteps unconsciously took two steps back. However, seeing Sane's condition, his heart became even more conflicted. [He is injured so badly, the blood is still flowing. Will he die?]
He gently bit his lip, cast a glance at Sane, then bypassed Sane, and ran toward the direction the wind was blowing. There was wind, so it must be the cave entrance. He was so close to Priest Nyx, so naturally, he had also learned how to identify some types of hemostatic medicinal plants. They were everywhere; hopefully, there would be some outside the cave entrance.
Seeing the Sub-Beast had left, Sane's entire body relaxed a bit. Only, just as he relaxed, the berserk energy inside his body instantly seemed to have its shackles removed, beginning to ravage wildly.
"Gra Aa!"
Sane couldn't hold back a scream, and heavily smashed his head against the rock. His scream made Kaelen's footsteps stagger. Kaelen's eye sockets turned red, tears swirled within, and he ran even faster.
[He is in so much pain. Must be faster! Even faster!]
Seeing the cave entrance, Kaelen immediately rushed into the curtain of rain, searching around. The rainwater lashed against his body with a stinging pain, and his disheveled hair stuck to his face. Kaelen endured the pain on his body, rubbing his face while bowing his head to search among the weeds.
Found it. It was hemostatic grass, and there was also pain-relieving grass. Both of these types had sharp thorns, but Kaelen did not hesitate to grab them and pull them up. The medicinal thorns pierced his hands with a sharp pain; Kaelen only furrowed his brows slightly, then hurriedly pulled up a few more plants, turning around to run back inside the cave.
By this time, Sane had fallen into a semi-berserk state; his entire body was burning hot, and his beastification traits were gradually revealing themselves.
"Thump, thump!"
The sound of footsteps echoed in his ears, like hammer strikes pounding into Sane's heart. The Sub-Beast that he thought had left had now returned, bringing along a body soaked in rainwater and a faint smell of blood. Sane shouted:
"GET LOST IMMEDIATELY! LEAVE THIS PLACE!"
Kaelen was terrified by Sane's yell, hesitating for a moment. In the brief moment Kaelen hesitated, Sane's fangs grew longer; Sane let out a scream and fell down onto the ground. The joints on Sane's body let out cracking sounds, and his entire body twisted.
Kaelen's eyes widened, hiding an unconcealable terror in their depths.
[Run, run away quickly!]
Thinking like that in his heart, he still could not move even a little bit. A massive shadow descended, and Kaelen's pupils reflected a gigantic silhouette.
A large dark green snake reared up, its forked tongue flicking in and out, its blood-red eyes locking tightly onto its prey. This prey was exactly Kaelen.
Kaelen's eyes glazed over, his entire body losing sensation, until a cold, slimy feeling wrapping around his waist woke him up; Kaelen finally panicked, struggling with all his might.
Only... it was already too late.
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The author has something to say:
The work will be officially launched on April 10th, and I hope it will receive the love of the readers. Thank you all very much!