Chapter 294: Cannibal territory.

Indeed, Nero laughed too quickly because, within three seconds, fresh grey bone plates rapidly bubbled up from the jackals’ skin, fully re-growing their armor.

"They regenerate armor and bone?!" Big Vince nearly tripped over his own feet. "What kind of cheat is this? I have never seen beasts with the ability to do this."

"Just run!" Hunter growled, pulling out his black dagger. A jackal snapped at his ankle; Hunter leaped into the air, spun, and drove his blade straight into the tiny gap between the beast’s neck plates. Dark blood spattered, and the beast collapsed. But its head was not separated from its body, and the bones started coming together again.

Hunter paused and ripped the head from the rest of the body. He threw the head at another jackal with such great force that the beast went tumbling down the steep cliff.

It was a literal marathon of madness_ slap a jackal, cut a head, dodge a jaw, run five hundred meters, repeat.

Suddenly, the dusty trail ended near a narrow pass. Stretched across the rocky entrance were thick, red threads tied to tall trees_ a boundary marker. They had come to a human settlement at last.

"In there!" Hunter yelled.

The team scrambled past the red strings, collapsing onto the dirt on the other side, gasping for air like landed fish.

Hunter turned around, dagger ready, bracing for the jackal horde to breach the line.

Except_ they didn’t.

The moment the front jackal’s paws hit the red string boundary, it froze. Its ears flattened. It let out a pathetic, high-pitched whine and shoved its tail between its legs. Within seconds, the entire fierce pack turned completely chicken. Whimpering in sheer horror, they scrambled over each other, desperately sprinting back down the mountain like they had just seen a ghost.

Big Vince’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the retreating dust cloud. "Uh_ are you guys seeing this?"

Nero wiped sweat from his forehead, breathing heavily. "They’re terrified of stepping foot in here, which is either really good for us or really bad."

Hunter and Nero exchanged a long, serious gaze.

"I guess," Hunter said, leaning on his knees to catch his breath, "we’ve officially arrived in the Corrupted Beast Territory."

The rest of the team swallowed hard and nodded. Nobody argued.

While the team collapsed on the rocks to catch their breath and drink some water, Hunter pulled out his link band and dialed Zyra. The signal flickered twice before connecting.

"Hunter?!" Zyra’s voice burst through the speaker, tight with worry. "Finally, you have decided to answer my calls. What happened to hearing from each other every after twenty minutes? Where are you? Are you okay?"

Hearing her voice instantly softened the harsh edge in his chest. "I’m fine. Just finished playing tag with some armored jackals. I saw your text which said you were home now. How are things at the valley? Did Achilles find anything?"

"Maverick is here," Zyra said quickly. "He’s poisoned, but Malia is treating him. Your grandfather isn’t dead. He and Maverick split up before the plane set off. He traveled by transport beast and he’s safe in the capital!"

Hunter froze. A heavy knot in his stomach completely dissolved, replaced by a wave of fresh energy surging through his veins.

"He’s safe..." Hunter let out a breathless chuckle, grinning like an idiot. "That tough old man. I knew he wouldn’t go down that easily."

"Just hang in there, we are coming." Zyra said softly.

"I have to say that we may need the reinforcements," Hunter said. "We have battled through six different groups of beasts since we arrived at the mountain. The beasts here are tougher than the ones in the jungle. More blood thirsty too. It looks to me like many have evolved Zyra, your magic trick is not new around here apparently."

She rolled her eyes.

He could not see her, but Hunter was sure she was rolling her eyes.

She cut the call and he took a deep breath, allowing all the exhaustion from the marathon to wash over his back. For ten minutes, the team refreshed themselves and ate something light.

Hunter looked over at his resting team, cracked his knuckles with a loud pop, and motioned forward into the dark, red-string territory.

"Alright, boys," Hunter grinned, his eyes gleaming with renewed focus. "Rest time is over. Let’s go clear this place out as the other team gets here."

They moved slowly and carefully, almost measuring every single step. A dried twig broke underfoot, and everyone froze instantly, holding their breath until the place settled. Every sound here felt dangerous.

Within the mountain was a crater forest. Unnatural, guttural growls echoed within it, followed by something even more chilling. Human laughter. Wild, unhinged, and echoing in the air.

The team followed the sound of the laughter and came to a clearing. A giant bonfire crackled. Figures painted in dark mud were dancing around the flames, tearing into raw chunks of meat with their teeth.

"Cannibals," Tessi whispered, voicing the horrifying thought everyone had in their minds.

It looked like some ancient, savage tribe straight out of old-world history books from before the apocalypse. Nobody could have imagined that a clan of cannibals lived in such a safe, rich, environment.

Taylor crouched low, pointing toward a row of wooden huts roofed with dry grass. "Fuck_ there are children down there too."

"Dammit," Hunter cursed under his breath. He turned to the team. "What are we supposed to do with them now? I am not into killing kids."

Nero wiped dirt from his forehead and grunted. "We take out the men. Leave the women and children. After all, it’s the men doing the looting and killing in the Wild lands."

Hunter gave a grim nod, zooming in on the village with his high tech helmet. As they kept watching, a bulky, scarred man emerged from a dark cavern entrance, carrying two heavy wooden pails of bloody hearts inside.

Hunter pointed straight at the cave. "That’s it. That has to be where they’re keeping the corrupted beasts."

Armillo checked his weapon. "Thermal scans from the helmet to link band say about, three hundred eighteen people. Half are probably adult males. Alright, boss. How do we move?"

Hunter quickly allocated everyone a battle position and pulled out their remaining stash of lock gun ammo. He handed out the last of their gravity bullets, his face dead serious. "We’re almost out. Make every single shot count. Let’s use lock guns to pin down as many as we can."

Nero double-checked his gear, repeating the strategy. "Plan is simple: clear the hostile humans as silently or quickly as we can, then blow up the cave, or the mountain as a whole."

"I’ll use my wind pressure to pin the beasts inside while you plant the explosives," Tessi added, her hands already glowing with white aura. "They won’t get past the entrance in one piece."

Hunter winced slightly. He hated leaving her to handle containment alone, but they didn’t have a choice as she had the kind of Soul energy they lacked. He turned to Taylor and gave a sharp nod.

Taylor pulled out the metallic noise-bang canisters Zyra had given them before the mission. He unhooked the pins and tossed them straight into the center of the cannibal camp.