Chapter 46: Beast with the golden marking
The loud roar rippled through the air as a strong bloodlust came bearing down on us. I was immediately on guard. I reacted, expecting a monster, except it was a bear that made the loud roar. It was the largest bear I had ever seen. It was bigger than me when I was in my wolf form.
Not only that, but I could feel a murderous killing intent coming from it. It should’ve been impossible, as only supernatural creatures have killing intent, but then I noticed something. Beneath its brown fur were golden markings. It was the same type of beast that the alpha wanted us to kill.
Seeing the giant bear, Allison immediately hid behind me. The bear continued to growl at us before it charged at full speed. I nimbly evaded its attack and slashed through its flesh. The bear roared in pain before snapping at me with its sharp fangs.
Its speed was unreal for a creature its size. Every movement it made was savage and lethal. I dodged its attacks and tore through its flesh. Blood trailed down its brown fur as the beast roared in pain. My claws ripped through its thick flesh with ease, causing it to bleed out until it was eventually weakened, but just as I was about to land the killing blow, bones and flesh exploded from its body.
I reacted instantly, leaping back several feet to get away from the monster. I didn’t know what was happening, so the first thing that came to my mind was retreating. I was on edge ever since I was given this task. I knew that something was off when they asked us to hunt animals. I knew it couldn’t be an ordinary animal.
Blood and flesh rained from the sky as a dense fog covered the entire area. I activated my thermal vision skill, but it was too late. I felt a giant hand grab me by the foot throw the fog. It was then followed by a primal roar.
Before I could react, I was hurled into a cluster of trees, which collapsed on impact.
"Liam!" I heard Allison scream my name, and soon the fog cleared.
I spat blood as I slowly climbed to my feet and stared up at the beast that had just thrown me. It was a giant gorilla that stood at least seven feet tall.
’But how? A few seconds ago, I was fighting a bear.’
With no time to think about what was happening, I prepared myself as the beast charged at me. Its giant fist pummeled through the air and created a large crater in the ground when I sidestepped it. The monster roared in frustration as it tried to crush me under its massive fist once again, but this time, instead of dodging, I held out my hand and caught the blow, which created a small explosion as it came in contact with my palm.
The gorilla’s eyes were seething with rage as it drew its fist back to fire another blow, but before it could act again, my claws slipped through its chest cavity and grabbed hold of its heart ending our brief fight instantly. Its eyes flickered as the life slowly drained from them.
"GHHHHHkkhhhhhrrr–hhhuuurrrk..."
The beast released one final roar before its body fell to the ground, creating a loud crash.
"Liam!" Immediately after the beast fell, Allison ran toward me and gave me a hug. "Are you alright? You didn’t get hurt too badly, did you?"
"I’m fine. Don’t worry."
Just then, a glowing light grabbed my attention, and suddenly the dead beast began to change form once again. Only this time, it turned into a human. It was a handsome man with brown skin and curly hair. Even though he was dead, his golden tattoo wouldn’t stop shimmering.
"It’s a man?" Allison faintly muttered.
The both of us stared at him with obvious questions on our mind until a system notification popped up and made everything seem crystal clear to me.
[Congratulations, you have defeated a Level 13 skinwalker.]
"A skinwalker?" I mumbled in disbelief.
"A skinwalker?" Allison looked at me in disbelief before slapping herself on the forehead. "I should’ve known it was them. The only thing werewolves hate more than vampires are skinwalkers."
"Why is that?"
"That’s what happens when two territorial races are forced to live side by side. This entire forest is home to different packs of werewolves and tribes of skinwalkers. The two races make it a game to hunt each other."
In truth, I knew very little about skinwalkers other than the fact that they exist. I only knew that skinwalkers were a type of witch who had the ability to turn into animals.
"So this is what they really wanted us to hunt: a skinwalker," I mumbled. I couldn’t help but sigh. I had defeated the beast but now I had to drag its dead carcass by with me.
"Would you mind taking it back for me, Alli? My back still hurts from being ragdolled." I asked seeing if Allison would grant me the sympathy of carrying the dead creature back.
"Wha! You would ask that of a girl, to carry a corpse on her poor fragile shoulders?"
"Huh? Why not?"
Allison stared at me with puffed-out cheeks and folded her arms.
"Hmf! You can’t even be a proper gentleman."
"Are you guys alright?!" Suddenly, I heard a voice calling out to us, and I turned around to see Derrick limping from tree to tree with cat-like agility. It surprised me a bit, but it made sense that his agility had increased since he was leveling up too.
Liora and Isabella followed shortly after and quickly overtook him. When it came to agility, Liora was truly unmatched, and her prowess only seemed to increase.
"What is that? What happened?" Liora asked with a frown as she saw the mangled corpse of the skinwalker lying on the ground.
"It’s a skinwalker," Allison explained. "This is what they expected us to kill."
"Oh, you’re right. It does have the golden markings the alpha told us to look out for."
"So, what do we do now?" Isabella asked. "Do they expect us to bring the corpse back with us?"
"This is a letdown," Derrick said, shaking his head in disappointment. "I’ll carry it back. It’s the least I can do since Liam was the one who killed it."
Derrick bent down to pick up the corpse, but just then, I smelled something.
"Krrk...tik-tak...krrk"
"Krrk...tik-tak...krrk"
"Krrk...tik-tak...krrk"
A loud string of clicking sounds erupted around us, and I quickly activated my thermal vision.
"What is that?" Isabella asked with a puzzled look.
"More skinwalkers. We’re surrounded."