"Hmph—"
Its dark, dense mane swayed slightly as a White-Hoofed Wild Ox, the most common beast on the plains, snorted.
Hot breath streamed from its nostrils. It chewed the half-digested fodder it had swallowed not long ago, regurgitating it from its stomach into its mouth.
Its round, dull eyes—the vacant eyes characteristic of wild animals—stared blankly at the wilderness ahead.
As a fully grown behemoth over three meters long and weighing more than a ton, there were few predators on these plains that dared to target it, aside from the rare and powerful monsters.
The two sharp horns atop its head, its sturdy hooves capable of crushing skulls with ease thanks to its weight, and its rock-hard muscles beneath its thick coat—all of these meant that even the tigers in the nearby mountains, or the savage and ferocious Brown Bears, would generally never risk hunting such an animal unless the circumstances were extraordinarily special.
Not to mention that they were herd animals. Even a weaker monster would have to think twice before attacking a small group like this, consisting of more than a dozen adult White-Hoofed Wild Oxen.
According to the normal lifespan of a White-Hoofed Wild Ox, this healthy bull in its prime could live another ten peaceful years at least, until a sudden illness took it away in old age, or its weakened elderly body became a breach in the herd and turned it into a meal for a powerful predator.
Yet now, the situation seemed to have changed.
"Moo!"
Accompanied by the wary calls of its kind on the outskirts, a sudden commotion erupted within the herd.
Many Wild Oxen that had been standing in place and leisurely chewing their food suddenly broke into a run, fleeing in the opposite direction.
The adult bull had not seen