Everyone's breath caught.
Xu Zhi barked an order: "What are you standing around for? Run!!"
Screams and the crunch of fallen leaves underfoot erupted into chaos.
The thing behind the tree sprang up with a low growl.
By the faint moonlight filtering through the gaps between the trees, Lu Mi took a quick look.
It had fangs dripping with saliva and sharp claws, but it looked neither like a wolf nor a tiger. He had no idea what it was.
Lu Mi zigzagged around the trees. The thing turned and chased a young man who looked close to exhaustion.
With a splash, the young man fell into the water-
And escaped disaster because of it. The beast bared its teeth at the water's edge for a while, then ran off to chase someone else.
"Ow!"
It was Xu Zhi's voice. "I tripped over a rock... Someone, someone help me!"
Neither the newcomer Zhao Huai nor Lu Dalu, who was always calling him "Brother Xu" and "boss," came.
That was only natural. Everyone had their own survival to worry about.
What puzzled Lu Mi was that Xu Zhi, a veteran, hadn't anticipated even this.
"You bastards..." Xu Zhi got up, dusted himself off, and kept running. His muttered curses were very much in keeping with how he acted when he lost his composure.
The next second, a force from behind slammed Xu Zhi to the ground, and he let out an agonized scream.
His cry for help had drawn that thing to him.
Between discovering the beast and Xu Zhi being caught, many of them hadn't managed to get far. Every last one heard his screams.
And the sound of the beast tearing into and chewing human flesh.
Together with the wind rustling through the woods, it made their scalps prickle.