For a split second, nobody moved. The crackling of the fire was the only sound in the camp.
Then, the ground began to vibrate.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
It was the exact sa heavy, earth-shaking rhythm they had heard at the secluded watering hole the night before.
Hei Yan’s purple eyes widened in instant recognition. He shoved Qiu Qiu gently into Xin Yi’s lap and leaped to his feet, his arms imdiately shifting into massive, fur-covered panther paws.
"It is the peeping tom!" Hei Yan roared, his fangs fully extending as he stepped directly in front of Xin Yi’s blanket.
Sha Chen kicked his stool back. "Whatever it is, it is about to beco a rug."
Qing Lin, finally finding a valid excuse to completely abandon his role as a toddler climbing fra, aggressively dumped Mao Mao onto the grass. The Azure Snake King glided forward, his dark green robes billowing as his lower half shimred, threatening to shift into his colossal python form.
"Hide behind , my light," Qing Lin hissed, his golden-green eyes glowing with toxic intent. "I will lt it into a puddle."
Even the hyenas jumped into action. Gou Sheng, Er Gou, and Da Sha dropped their at, baring their yellowed teeth and forming a scrawny, trembling, but incredibly loyal barrier around Xin Yi and the two lion cubs.
"We bite the monster’s ankles!" Da Sha whimpered bravely, though his knees were knocking together.
RROOOAAARRR!
A deafening, terrifying roar ripped through the night air, completely obliterating the peaceful atmosphere of the camp. It was so loud and so full of unhinged agony that it made Xin Yi’s teeth rattle in her skull.
A massive figure stepped into the firelight.
Xin Yi gasped, clutching the two terrified lion cubs against her chest.
It was a lion beastman, but he looked absolutely nothing like Jin Xuan or Chief Jin Hai. This beastman was colossal, easily a head taller than Hei Yan. He was in his human form, but he looked completely feral.
His golden hair was severely matted and tangled with dirt and dried blood. His skin was pale and stretched tight over bulging, unnaturally large muscles.
But the most terrifying thing about him was his eyes.
They weren’t golden. They were glowing a sickly, blood-red color, completely devoid of any sanity or intelligence. Thick, foamy drool dripped from his descended fangs, sizzling as it hit the dirt.
He didn’t look like a beastman anymore. He looked like a demon.
"Uhhh....." Xin Yi squeaked, her grip tightening on her glowing Bone of Discipline. "That is a very big, very angry cat."
The feral lion locked his glowing red eyes onto the steaming iron pot of antelope stew.
He let out another wet, heavy grunt, taking a lumbering step forward.
"Stand back!" Chief Jin Hai bellowed, drawing a massive bone club as he and his twenty warriors quickly ford a defensive wall in front of the tribe’s females.
But as the firelight fully illuminated the feral beastman’s scarred face, Wan Ning, who had been hiding behind a pile of rocks, suddenly let out a strangled gasp.
She dropped her wooden water bucket. It hit the ground with a loud clatter, spilling water everywhere.
"No..." Wan Ning whispered, her yellowish eyes going wide with absolute, paralyzing horror. "It... it cannot be!"
Xin Yi peeked out from behind Qing Lin’s waist. "Wan Ning? Do you know this guy?!"
"Isn’t that..." Wan Ning stamred, pointing a trembling, mud-caked finger at the monster. "Isn’t that Jin Ze?! Jin Xuan’s older brother?!"
The entire camp collectively gasped.
Jin Xuan, who had just shifted his hands into lion claws, froze completely. The Lion Prince stared at the massive, feral beastman, his golden eyes shrinking in disbelief.
"Brother?" Jin Xuan whispered, his voice cracking. "But... but you died!"
"He is not dead!" Chief Jin Hai yelled, his face turning entirely pale under his thick beard. The massive Chief took a terrified step backward. "The madness did not kill him!"
Xin Yi looked back and forth between the terrified lions and the drooling, red-eyed monster.
"Wait, wait, wait," Xin Yi shouted. "Older brother?! What do you an ’the madness’?! What happened to him?!"
"He ran mad!" Wan Ning cried out, clutching her head. "Several years ago! His beast core beca corrupted! He started attacking the tribe, so.....so we just abandoned him in the deep wilderness to die!"
Xin Yi’s jaw literally hit the floor.
She stared at Chief Jin Hai in disgust.
"You did WHAT?!" Xin Yi shrieked. "Your son got sick, he needed help, and your solution was to just throw him in the woods and forget about him?! What is wrong with you people?! Do you have rocks where your brains should be?!"
"We are beasts!" Chief Jin Hai argued defensively. "The weak and the mad are left behind! It is the law of the savanna!"
"It is the law of absolute garbage!" Xin Yi yelled back.
GRRRRRR.
The family reunion therapy session was abruptly cut short.
Jin Ze, the feral, abandoned older brother, let out a terrifying, earth-shattering screech. He didn’t care about his father. He didn’t care about Jin Xuan.
His glowing red eyes completely bypassed the Golden Mane lions and locked directly onto the source of the delicious, intoxicating sll in the center of the camp.
He lunged straight for the iron pot of stew.
"Stop him!" Hei Yan roared, launching himself forward to intercept the massive feral lion.
"Don’t let him near the female!" Sha Chen barked, sprinting to the side to flank the monster.
"I WILL BITE HIS EYES OUT!" Qing Lin hissed, his lower half completely exploding into a massive dark green snake tail as he slithered forward at terrifying speed.
The feral lion collided with Hei Yan mid-air. The force of the impact created a shockwave that sent the campfire embers scattering into the night. Hei Yan, the strongest Panther Alpha in the forest, was actually thrown backward, skidding through the dirt.
"He is incredibly strong!" Xin Yi panicked, scrambling backward on her woven blanket and pulling the two cubs with her.
The cheetah beastman, Su Ye, who was still kneeling in the dirt, looked at Xin Yi with tears streaming down his face. "He has been chasing for two days! He wants to eat my tail!"
Xin Yi didn’t have ti to comfort the crying cheetah. She grabbed her glowing femur bone with both hands, her heart hamring frantically in her chest.
System! Xin Yi scread in her mind. System, ergency! What do I do?! Do I bonk him?! He’s infected with sothing! Give a tranquilizer gun! Give a giant net! Give so magical beast antibiotics! Anything!
A bright blue screen popped up right in front of her face.
[Ding!]
[(⊙_⊙) System Scan Complete!]
[Target: Jin Ze (Corrupted Lion Beastman)]
[Threat Level: APOCALYPTIC!]
[Status: 100% Feral. 100% Hangry. 0% Rational.]
I know he’s hangry! Give a solution! Xin Yi ntally shrieked as Jin Ze violently swatted Sha Chen’s spear away like it was a toothpick.
[Ding!]
[Processing Solutions...]
[( ꈍᴗꈍ) Solution Found: Host is advised to imdiately deploy the ’Run Away Screaming’ maneuver!]
WHAT?!
[System Notice: Magical antibiotics have not been invented yet! Tranquilizer guns violate the Primitive Tech Tree! You are on your own, Boss!]
[System is logging off for a mandatory maintenance break! Good luck not getting eaten! Byeeeee! (≧▽≦)]
The blue screen shattered into tiny pixels and completely vanished.
"SYSTEM, YOU ABSOLUTE COWARD!" Xin Yi scread at the empty air, raising her glowing bone into the air as the feral, red-eyed lion let out a demonic roar and completely broke through the Alphas’ defensive line, charging straight toward her and the stew pot.
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