Chapter 32: Hunting novice
Monsters squealed and screamed in fear as they heard the gunshots, and the arrows pierced into a young one’s skull.
A fully-grown, angry Odringo had jumped up to attack Joonbum. It wielded amazing power as it quickly closed the distance.
‘It’s coming.’
Joonbum calmly aimed and pulled the trigger. The shot was fired at the Odringo, blowing its head off. The headless body dropped to the ground.
“Ugh.”
He felt his mouth become salty. His eyes were red and his heart pounded – he had never been his tense before. It felt like every part of his body down to his cells was stiff. He felt the adrenaline surge through him.
“Be careful!”
“Shoot calmly!”
Gunshots rang out and screams echoed throughout the area. The smell of gunpowder and blood was everywhere. It was a chaotic sight mixed with tense excitement and fear.
Joonbum moved more quickly. He reloaded his gun without a single error and glanced around eagerly. He was no longer a clumsy shooter. He now knew how to read the area and kept firing calmly.
Every shot fired meant a dead or wounded Odringo.
Doral smiled at Joonbum’s skills. Joonbum just finished reloading again and shot another Odringo. Its shoulder and part of its head exploded, scattering blood and flesh around. The screaming continued as gunshots kept going off.
Then there was Galfus, howling from the distance that drove the Odringos away.
Some of them ran toward the forest, but they came back, only to be hunted down by arrows. The number of Odringos started waning as the shooting frenzy continued.
“Ugh, it stinks.”
The thick smell of gunpowder pierced Doral’s nose as he scowled, grabbing his nose. He then shouted while holding it.
“It’s the cubs! It’s almost over!”
Guns were fired at small the Odringos that came out of the bushes. The bloodied cubs writhed in pain as they bled to death on the ground. It was a terrible sight.
“Stop!”
Joonbum stopped at the sound and looked around. Howen carefully raised his hand. Joonbum breathed heavily, not being able to calm down as quickly.
“Let’s clean up the area.”
Joonbum tried to move as Howen spoke, but Doral stopped him. Doral shook his head while pointing to Joonbum’s arm.
“Joonbum, don’t let your guard down. They are monsters. Some of them are still alive. They can feign death and bite you.”
“OH!”
Joonbum could not understand all of Doral’s explanation but he was surprised to see a decapitated head of an Odringo still hanging onto his arm.
‘When?’
It seemed it had been biting him throughout the battle. What was more surprising was that the eyes were moving, meaning that it was still alive without its body.
“They are persistent. You can get killed after thinking that you won. That’s what monsters are.”
Doral pointed at the warriors who walked down. They were using long spears to pierce every Odringo head lying on the ground. One out of three screamed or jumped to attack. They sure were persistent.
Joonbum took out a big knife and thrust it into the head biting into his arm.
“Stay dead,” Joonbum muttered as he put the knife into the Odringo’s eye. He felt the knife pushing through the brain as the Odringo’s eye stopped moving and opened its jaws.
Joonbum realized why they were called monsters. They were different from animals. He looked to the bottom and saw that the area was filled with Odringo blood. Joonbum’s rifle blew the bodies of these monsters, so his area was more severe in its state. The smell of blood was thick.
“We’ll have lunch when we’re done with…”
“Ugh!”
Joonbum started throwing up as Doral was speaking to him. He threw up everything he had inside him. All the smells, from the blood to the monster’s feces mixed into a disgusting smell.
“Haha, it’s all the same when it’s your first time,” Doral told him while he patted Joonbum’s back.
“You will get used to it soon. Don’t worry.”
Joonbum tried to say something in return but he went back to throwing up. His first hunt was over. Or he thought it was.
It was far from over. The Ainos quickly cleaned the area, skinning the Odringos’ colorful fur coats in one place. They hung all the coats on one of the trees afterwards. It was an eerie sight.
The unskinned bodies were piled up in one place.
“Bait. These will work as bait for the other monsters.”
Doral continued explaining until Joonbum understood that the corpses would be used as bait. Doral grinned as Joonbum barely nodded.
The Ainos finished eating their jerky and water before the moon rose up and hid above the tree, readying themselves for an ambush. Silence fell in the area. They still did not stop preparing as they cleaned off any substances that remained on the arrows and checked to see if they were still sharp.
As for Doral, he was cleaning the Gladius sword Joonbum had bought from Jinchul’s shop. He wiped all the blood and flesh off and examined for any damages to the blade. It was easy to see how much he cared for the blade.
This made Joonbum happy.
‘Their swords aren’t that good.”
The iron crafts they had were all pretty crude. It was natural for Doral to be overjoyed at such a gift.
‘Maybe I should give swords to all of them.’
Joonbum closed his eyes as he was thinking about various things while touching his Beretta.
“Joonbum, they’re coming!”
He widened his eyes as Joonbum shook him and alerted him with a low voice.
“What?”
“They’re coming. Slowly.”
Joonbum turned his eyes to the forest and saw something moving. The sound of branches breaking could be heard everywhere.
‘How did he find out?’
Joonbum was becoming curious when he smelled a disgusting odor coming from that direction. It was as if someone had peed all over and it was never cleaned.
“Ugh!”
Doral grinned as Joonbum pinched his nose at the disgusting smell.
“Smell.”
A monster, or a Kerox, started showing up through the bushes where the smell was coming from. They sniffed at the bodies of the dead Odringos and let out whines.
They closed in on the bodies and soon dove into them, feasting on them. There were about seventy corpses, but they fought with each other as they ate them savagely. They kept on fighting with each other even they started eating, stopping in between to fight. When an increased number of Keroxes covered the entire pile of corpses, the whistle of an arrow pierced through the sky.
The arrow pierced one of Kerox’s bodies. They started screaming and tried to disperse, but they were soon attacked by a rain of arrows. The Ainos rained their attack upon Keroxes and more than a hundred arrows were fired in a minute.
Joonbum also started shooting. Loud gunshot noises rang through the night sky, covering up the Keroxes screams. The loud noise confused them more than the attack itself, preventing them from running away into the forest. The Ainos took up the chance to attack.
Joonbum breathed heavily. He felt as if a storm had swept through him. It was very different from what he felt earlier in the day. This only took about a minute.
“Hold!”
The Keroxes’ whining and screaming continued. They moved desperately to run away, but the Ainos did not kill them off or chase them.
“Why don’t we finish them off?”
“It’s dangerous right now. There might be more Keroxes hiding in the forest.”
“What?”
Doral pointed toward the darkness.
“Some don’t abandon their younglings or packs. Those stay hidden, looking for a chance to grab the youngling or exact revenge. You don’t want to encounter these in close combat as they don’t die easily. One bite can mean death.”
Joonbum barely understood anything Doral said. But he was able to understand the words, dangerous, bite, and death Just like Doral had said, a Kerox jumped out of the forest and grabbed a youngling with its mouth and ran away. An arrow was shot, but it missed.
“See?”
Joonbum nodded at Doral. He shivered at the sight of the Ainos, the sharpest of shooters, missing the target with a bow. He let out a long sigh.
“Let’s rest. It’s a bit noisy but we have to stay here until morning.”
The Ainos started leaning against trees and rested. They started eating jerky or drank water while some even started smoking or consuming alcohol.
They were enjoying it freely.
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