The usual scouting range for typical scouts is around three to five kilometers from the caravan, mainly depending on the scout's abilities. Qiqi is not an ordinary scout. As a cat person, she is naturally agile and possesses the innate skill [Spirit Wind], which grants her exceptional speed, a larger scouting range, and faster reconnaissance.
Proud of her skills, Qiqi calls herself an elite scout.
In no time, Qiqi had covered eight kilometers without detecting any dangers along the way. This section of the route seemed safe to pass. They were still within Seadot's protected area, where the Seadot guards patrolled, deterring troublemakers.
Thus, Qiqi continued her advance, sprinting until she was out of the protected zone. However, just five kilometers out of the zone, she spotted the danger.
It was a group of foraging tusked wild boars.
These tusked wild boars are common magical beasts on the continent, widely distributed. Their rank is typically around bronze when they mature, though occasionally some can reach silver, depending on their size.
Among the boars, one was notably large.
"Meow! Is that big boar a silver one?" Qiqi wondered, hiding in the treetop and observing.
This group of boars was a large family, numbering around twenty to thirty. The largest one was over two meters tall, and its body was streaked with silver, indicating it had likely reached silver rank. Additionally, there were seven or eight large boars at bronze rank, with the rest being smaller boars, not yet reaching bronze rank.
While this group of boars posed no threat to the caravan, the problem was their attack method, [Boar Rush]. Though the guard team could handle them, if a boar accidentally rammed into a cargo-laden cart, it would be troublesome.
So, Qiqi decided to divert the boars away, as long as they stayed off the trade route.
Determined, she summoned a green light around her, surrounded by wind, and dashed towards the largest boar, striking its forehead with the sheath of her short sword.
"Thunk!"
The strike, neither too light nor too heavy, hurt the boar, successfully enraging it.
"Chase me, silly boar!" Qiqi teased, making a face at the boars and then sprinting away.
The large boar, enraged, led its family in pursuit of Qiqi.
Slowing her pace to keep them on her tail, Qiqi ran for several kilometers before accelerating and losing the boar group. She then circled back to the trade route.
With the boars dealt with, she resumed her scouting. Brave Qiqi, unafraid of challenges, onward she went~
With light steps, Qiqi agilely leaped between tree trunks, her speed impressive.
However, as she ran, a breeze brought a scent that made her twitch her nose and furrow her brows.
Blood?
Something seemed to have happened ahead.
Courageous Qiqi decided to investigate.
She traversed the forest and climbed a grassy slope, eventually finding the source of the blood scent.
Qiqi's mouth fell open in shock.
On the other side of the slope, the grass was lush and dotted with white and yellow flowers, beautiful. But beyond the slope, the grass and soil were stained with blood, and large horned cattle lay disemboweled, their guts strewn across the ground.
Some carcasses were even dismembered, pieces scattered, the intense scent of blood stinging Qiqi's sensitive nose to the point of tears.
What on earth happened here?
Qiqi dared not approach and observed from a distance.
These horned cattle seemed to be free-range livestock, as they had leather ear tags, and some had bells around their necks.
From the wounds on the cattle, it looked like they were attacked by some magical beast.
Qiqi speculated that it must be a ferocious and powerful magical beast. Judging by the massive ripped wounds, the attacker must have been large.
Hmm... it must also have a big mouth, as one cow's neck was bitten clean through in one bite, with just a bit of skin holding it together.
However, if it were a magical beast, it wouldn't make sense. While magical beasts do hunt livestock to eat, they usually kill one and drag it away, rarely continuing to slaughter, and certainly not leaving so many corpses behind.
Magical beasts know the danger humans pose and would not foolishly linger to eat on the spot.
Here, the entire herd was slaughtered, roughly counted at thirty or forty cattle.
Moreover, while horned cattle are only bronze-rank domestic beasts, they are large and, when threatened, would gather and charge. A collective charge from a bronze-rank herd would even deter a low-silver-rank magical beast.
But here, it was a complete massacre.
Qiqi speculated that this might have been caused by a high-silver-rank magical beast gone mad for some reason!
It could even be a gold-rank magical beast!
A gold-ranked magical beast... Captain Geoff is only a nine-star silver rank. Although before joining the guard team, Qiqi had heard that Captain Geoff once led a team to successfully hunt a gold-ranked magical beast, it came at a great cost. They lost three teammates, and the scout of the original team died in that battle, which is why Qiqi could replace him as the new team scout.
Therefore, Qiqi thought that if they encountered a gold-ranked magical beast, it would be best to avoid it if possible. However, making decisions was the captain's task. Qiqi decided she should report back first.
Qiqi had a bad feeling, so she decided to return and see if she could persuade the captain to take a detour. Although it would be a longer route, the chances of encountering the terrifying creature that shredded the cattle herd would be much smaller.
With that in mind, Qiqi turned to head back. Just then, a foul wind blew past, making the fur on her tail stand on end and her pupils contract sharply. Almost instinctively, she leaped away.
In the next second, a huge claw mark appeared on the ground where she had just stood, sending soil flying.
Without pausing after landing, she sprang back several meters like a spring, retreating rapidly and stopping only dozens of meters away.
Qiqi's chest heaved as she stared in terror at the creature before her.
It was a three-meter-tall monster, standing upright, covered in black, needle-like fur with a blood-red "X" mark on its chest. It had a huge wolf's head with an unnaturally large mouth that stretched almost to its ears, with fangs dripping blood-tinged saliva.
What kind of monster is this?!
A werewolf?!
But werewolves don't look like this!
Qiqi had seen werewolves before; they were a type of beastman, but none were this terrifying.
The creature before her didn't look like a beastman. It seemed more like a magical beast standing on two legs, exuding a menacing aura.
Having missed its initial strike, the wolf-headed monster seemed surprised but more amused.
Its gaze made Qiqi's tail fur stand on end.
She understood the meaning in its eyes.
It was a gaze filled with bloodlust and the desire to kill, not for survival, but for the sheer pleasure of killing.
The monster's grotesquely large mouth kept stretching back, almost to the back of its head, revealing a "smile" so sinister it made Qiqi's scalp tingle.
There was no way she could win this fight, not at all...
Qiqi cautiously moved back, hoping that the further she got from this monster, the safer she would be.
In fact, it was true.
The monster didn't move but kept its eyes locked on Qiqi.
Suddenly, its foot twitched, and in an instant, Qiqi turned and ran, not caring about anything else.
Green light shimmered on her body as she pushed her magic to the limit, fleeing at top speed.
As Qiqi moved, so did the monster, lunging at her with a low growl, but it missed again due to Qiqi's rapid reflexes.
Failing twice, the monster grew even more violent, chasing Qiqi on all fours.
Qiqi didn't dare to stop, pushing her magic and blood energy to the extreme to run even faster.
"It's over, meow!"
"I'm going to die, meow!"
"Captain, save me, meow!"