Predator and prey

I didn't react right away after hearing this voice.

There was a trace of hesitation that filled me when I thought about what I should do, but in the end…

I had the Scavenger Rabbit go away since it wouldn't be able to help in a fight and went in the direction of the scream with the Echo Bat on my shoulder.

But after taking a few steps, I realized my mistake and pulled out the Summoning Flute to call out the two Fanged Wolves. I got onto the back of one of them and had the other scout ahead to see if it could find the source of the screams.

It didn't take long for them to find it.

These Fanged Wolves were predators that hunted prey all over this Mist Forest, so they were good at tracking. 

It was especially easy with all of the clues that were being left behind as those people chased after the person they were chasing. They didn't seem to hold back at all as I could see bits of broken trees left behind in a trail of destruction.

It seemed that they were confident that nothing would be able to stop them and they didn't seem to care that anyone could see their trail of destruction.

It really made me curious who these people were.

Since they left behind this trail of destruction, I had the Fanged Wolves follow them until we caught up. We were much faster than them since I was riding on the Fanged Wolves and they were on foot.

But it also seemed like they were holding back for a reason when I saw the ones that were chasing.

The way that they attacked, it was almost as if they were playing with their prey.

They seemed even happy about the way that they were acting as the predator.

It made me think of the way that Wang Teng had acted back then and I couldn't help feeling disdain for these people.

These were the kinds of people that I disliked the most.

In that case…

I didn't make a move right away as I watched them since I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss out on any of them. There was the chance that they might have someone hiding in the shadows protecting them, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss any of them.

The most important thing was my own life if I were to do this.

But during this time, it seemed that the ones that were doing the hunting were losing their patience. It seemed like they were done having their fun and they were planning on ending it all.

After confirming that there was no one else around, I started making my forward towards these people.

I positioned myself so I was right behind them.

When the hunters lost their patience, they started spreading out to contain the amount of space that the one being hunted could run in. With them surrounding their prey like this, there was nowhere left for that girl being chased to run and in no time at all, she was trapped by them in a clearing.

With the way that they surrounded the clearing, it didn't seem like there was a way for her to escape.

Since she was trapped, the only thing that this girl could do was face the leader of the hunters.

"Yu Xiang, why are you doing this? We agreed that we would work together to clear this dungeon and now you turn on me like this?" The girl said in an accusatory voice.

"Ha, ha, ha, that's what you get for trusting people too easily. You should already know that with your status, there are people that want to hurt you. If you come into our hands, just give up and become our pay." The one called Yu Xiang said while laughing.

The girl who was in the center of the clearing deeply knitted her brows before asking, "Then at the very least, before you kill me, can you tell me who it was?"

Yu Xiang didn't say anything as he just looked at her with a smile on his face.

With the way that he looked at her, it seemed like he wasn't fooled at all by the way that she said this.

It was clear that he could tell that she hadn't given up yet.

The girl furrowed her brows even more before saying, "Then don't blame me for this!"

She pulled out a red glowing gem that she raised above her, but it only glowed once before turning dim. The girl had a dazed look on her face as she looked at this gem before turning to look at Yu Xiang.

Yu Xiang had the same smile on his face as he looked at her.

Seeing her look in his direction, Yu Xiang said, "What's wrong? Is your trump card not working? What do you think is wrong with it?"

The girl once again gave a deep frown upon hearing this before saying in a heavy voice, "What did you do?"

Once again, Yu Xiang didn't answer this question and instead taunted her by saying, "What's wrong? Do you not have anything else?"

The girl didn't say anything in response as she just looked at him with the same deep frown on her face.

Yu Xiang saw that she had no tricks up her sleeves, so with a confident smile, he said, "If we chose to hunt you, do you think that we really wouldn't have prepared anything? Just give up and let yourself be taken out. We'll give you a painless death if you don't struggle."

The girl had an unwilling look on her face, as well as a trace of regret.

It was as if she regretted trusting this group.

When he saw that she wasn't going to do anything else, Yu Xiang raised his hand and said, "Alright, finish her…"

Before he could finish, there were two large Fanged Wolves that appeared out of nowhere and chomped down on the two standing beside him.

In one move, he had turned from predator to prey.