In the night stained with the colour of moonlight, the flame of the campfire continued to flicker.
Three wolves' bodies lay on the ground.
One body with its belly cut, one with its head severed, with the rest of its body, and one with a stabbed wound at its chest.
The bandit boss, with his sabre, pointed towards the darkness looming in the forest.
"Come out! Face me."
"Heh... are you scared of me?" the boss provoked, his voice cutting through the dark. "Can't face me by yourself?"
He said with a cold laugh.
Maybe it was provoked, or it was coincidental, the dead and wounded bodies of the wolves moved.
Their legs began twitching, and their bodies were convulsing. It was as if a puppet was trying to move itself, even if its body was severely damaged, even if its body parts, like its hands and limbs, were missing.
Now they were standing on their legs. But the number didn't match up. Only two were standing up.
He quickly looked to the third body, and there he saw it. Its body remained motionless with its head severed.
"So I just need to sever their heads to kill them once and for all." He said in a low voice.
'It's clearly undeniable that the beast had intelligence. It was clearly targeting the weak person first and then regrouping to take me down.'
The next movement baffled him. He clearly didn't expect it from them.
The wolf with a stabbed wound jumped, ran, and launched at him as if it were trying to cover the other wolf.
The other wolf with the belly cut walked towards the other direction. No, it was more like it was dragging its body.
The bandit boss blocked the jaw attack from the wolf with his sabre.
Clank!
The wolf bit the sabre— it was mindlessly biting it.
He kicked the wolf in its chest. The wolf flew and fell on the ground, rolling two or three times before landing on its feet.
He took a quick glance at the other wolf— it was still dragging itself.
It was dragging itself towards the inner ward of the camp where the campfire was situated. He had no idea where it was going, but he knew it must be something important, something tied to his survival.
He quickly sprinted towards the wolf to stop it from whatever it was trying to do.
The wolf with the stabbed wound followed up to him quickly and bit into his legs. His legs got caught between the wolf's body while it was biting his leg.
He fell, his face hitting the ground.
But the pain from hitting the ground didn't stop. With his quick thinking, he quickly kicked the wolf's head again and again, freeing himself from the wolf's bite.
He pulled himself back up quickly, unfortunately, the wolf didn't give him enough time to get back up. It followed up with an attack towards his neck.
The bandit, because of his years of fighting experience, quickly reflexed, and he grabbed the neck of the wolf with his left hand. The wolf was still trying to bite him, opening and closing its jaws, stretching its neck to reach his flesh.
He rolled over to his left side, the wolf was pinned on the ground by its neck, and he was on his knee with the sabre in his right hand.
The wolf was still standing on its legs, but its head was still pinned to the ground. It tried to free itself from his grasp by shaking its head. It scratched his left hand with its claw.
He held high his sabre and struck down.
Shunk!
The blade sheared through the neck, the head stayed trapped beneath his palm, its jaws still snapping mindlessly still trying to bite, but the rest of the body was severed and now lay motionless.
He wiped out the dirt from his mouth with his right hand.
He didn't waste time— he chased after the remaining wolf. It was still dragging its body. It was near the campfire.
His leg was dripping with blood, and his left arm was also wet from the blood. He couldn't run at his usual speed. He was limping and still chasing.
His breath was heavy from all the fighting. But he had no time to rest.
He chased and chased when it was only a distance of 5 arm lengths left between them. The wolf did something that shocked both the bandit boss and Nile, who watched from the tree.
It went into the campfire, burning itself with the fire. It rolls its body in the fire over and over, burning its body and extinguishing the fire in the process.
The last flame in the night went dim, completely extinguished.
This act stunned the bandit boss.
'Why the fire?'
'Why burn itself just to extinguish the fire?'
The night may be dark, but it was not that dark. They only light up the camp with the campfire for warmth and to scare off wild animals, not for light.
The silver moonlight was more than enough to see and travel. It was like a full moon night. NO, it was bright and more radiant than a normal full moon night.
So, the question kept asking in his mind, 'Why?'
The question in his mind fermented, and his attention was pulled away by the sound of leaves rustling, twigs snapping under its feet.
From the darkness shrouding the forest, a figure walked.
It walked into the open field, clearly exposing its features in the moonlight.
The silhouette was a vaguely humanoid form. It possessed long, asymmetric arms that almost dragged on the ground when it walked. Its nails were sharp, which looked it can directly cut and tear flesh. Its spine was deformed by a massive, protruding hunchback. Its chest was bigger than that of a normal human. On its chest, a long vertical scar can be seen.
The skull was elongated into the skeletal structure of a goat.
On the left side of its face, there was a single bulbous eye, and on the right, two separate eyes were crudely fused together into a dual-pupil mass.
Its skin was dark ash-grey, with matted fur around its chest, shoulders, and crown.
Heh-heh-heh-kak-kak
Its voice was hoarse.
It looked at the person who was holding a sabre.