As Liam prepares for tomorrow, Gabriel and two of his companions went into the forest, one of them was Cletus and the other was called Charles, the two of them were middle-aged just like Gabriel.
Gabriel let out a sigh as they step foot inside the forest that was now silent as a graveyard, it seems like the trees themselves have refused to shake given the whole forest a deadly silent vibe that caused the hunters to panic and swallow every minute that passes.
Nevertheless, when the two say Gabriel walking forward they started rushing after him as though he was there only hope in it.
Two hunters in the scouting group has been imprisoned for trying to run away, another one was executed for going against the hunter policy.
Gabriel was bold enough to enter the forest today because he has transferred his family over to a new house in another place.
Even if he died today, he won't be sad in the afterlife knowing that his family was doing well on earth.
He would only be sad if they aren't and also because he won't be with his young daughter as he has always wished for.
Soon, they got to a point in the forest where they were able to hear the sound of grass rustling and the ground vibrating as soon as they closed the distance between themselves and this point.
The other got scarred and fell on the ground, Gabriel took this as a hint for their mission, they don't have to kill it, their job was just to see how it was.
He used a grappling hook and reached for the top of one of the trees, it was a warm afternoon, the sun was up there doing what it knows how to do best while the hunters tried their best to do what they can.
He was looking faraway from where he was but he was unable to catch a glance of anything out of the world causing his eyes to shrink in disbelief.
He sighed, just now his job seemed easier but immediately turned to a tricky one when he found out there wasn't any clue here other than the ground vibrating and the rustling of grass that continued for as long as he was there, not even pausing for a second.
With his instinct he was able to tell that it was causes by something crawling, like a serpent and coincidentally they were looking for a serpent but an evolved one.
"Wait up." The two hunters let out as they too used grappling hooks to reach Gabriel, Gabriel sighed, the two were younger so it was unavoidable that they are afraid of death, no body wants to die so young.
The three of them used the grappling hook once again and reached for the tree nearby, they moved from the top of tree to another just to find this mysterious serpent which they still could not find after crossing so many trees while the rustling sound started getting louder and the vibration getting louder.
"This is the serpent queen doing for sure." Cletus let out fearfully, the others could only nod to his words while they watch the distance.
"We should be glad about the new invention sent by the emperor himself to aid us in this." Gabriel let out as he took out a small round object from the small bad tied around his waist, the others nodded their head in approval as they brought out their own as well.
The device was called the photo transmitter by the builder, once willed with qi essence the user will be able to send a photo to whosever they want to.
It can also be used to store image so that one will be able to display it to anyone at anytime.
With this even if they end up dying during the mission they will still be able to send a message down to the other person before falling into the unfortunate pit of death.
The three of them kept it back inside and used their equipment to start reaching for the cause of the sound, they reached fast flowing stream flowing with clean water, they stopped to have a drink and refilled their water cans then they went back on the journey.
Now they have to cover their ears because the sound was getting too loud, and also grinded their death as the vibration got even more intensed.
Soon they reached a place where they saw a very gigantic body with numerous tentacles, counting it was impossible because of the way they spined around the other tentacles.
The smallest of the tentacles was as big as biggest snake on earth while the medium was at least ten times that of the biggest on earth.
There was this mysterious sound coming along with the rustling sound this time and it sounded more like an old lady whispering into the air to pass across a mysterious message that sent thrill down their spin.
Charles was so scared that he fell down from the top of the tree, attracting the deadly predator towards them, Gabriel eyes was widened as he saw Cletus and Charles falling.
Now he was left with two options, jump with them and try to save them or get the job done by losing his friends.
The two will lead to death anyway so he choosed the second option and quickly took out the device, willed it with essence and then he took the photo and sent it down to the hunter guild immediately.
Unfortunately, the stuff made a weird sound of something ticking, he saw one of the tentacles aiming toward him, out of fear his foot lost balance and he started falling head first towards the ground.
His eyes let out a regretful glint as he shut them, nevertheless he was soon awoke by the surprised cry of his comrades.
"What.. I'm flying on something.''
"What... what is this."
He opened his eyes only to see his comrades flying toward him, from his perception it was as though they were flying, but in a weird way as though they were sitting on something.
Liam's wind devouring tiger soon made itself visible scaring the two on him and causing the one that it was going to save to let out a fearful shriek as though he has just seen the devil who promised to serve him death on the day he loses his virginity.
The wind devouring tiger neglected their cries, it was here just to save them in case of danger and that he was doing now as he took the three of them and flew toward the end of the forest.
Nevertheless, it wasn't that fast at flying, most times it landed on the ground and took off once again.
This caused their eyes to roll back, and Cletus fainted from shock.
The wind devouring tiger lived up to his name because of it's speed that completely shocked them and it was above what they could manage.
Nevertheless, it wasn't against them and was weirdly helping them.
They did not even have the chance to notice that it was not like the wind devouring tiger they knew because of the difference in skin color, the normal one has orange fur and dark blue spots in it's body while this one was purely white and has blue spots in it's body that was sparkling as the beautiful afternoon sun shone on it.
Of course, the predators whose identity hasn't been confirmed yet did not just stay there lazing around as her enemy flew away, no she didn't.
The monsters sent out all of her tentacles after them while her real body in the middle of the tentacles was moving slowly.
The tentacles of the snake was moving very fast while the main body of the serpent queen which took the form of a human female body was moving slowly, nevertheless she was so advanced in a sense that she could feel and see through all of her tentacles at the same time.
She is also so strong that when one or ten of her tentacles are chopped off it would be just like removing hair from the head, like barbing and it doesn't hold much significance neither did it bring any pain.
As the tentacles sped through her domain, even the strongest trees were unable to stop her causing they fell to the ground and was devoured by the tentacles coming from behind.
The wind devouring tiger let out a loud roar as though it was angry or calling out for back up, nevertheless after the roar the people on top of it felt that it's speed has increased even more as it created a gap between them under two seconds.
Cletus was supported from falling off the wind devouring tiger since he was still unconscious.
Gabriel felt something in his heart, as he doubted if the wind devouring tiger was doing this to save them or was it just stealing food from the serpent queen.
...
Merry Christmas everyone
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