The Rise Of A Tribal Deadbeat - Chapter 80

While Zok was busy chatting with the system, he did not register Kaira’s low growl. She had sensed someone or something was coming towards them and that certain someone did not have any good intentions whatsoever.

Cero immediately jumped in front of her while Shira hid behind Kaira. Just as Cero did that, a sharp arrow shot out of the bushes around them. Cero’s hide was thick enough for the arrow to bounce off harmlessly.

But if he hadn’t jumped in front of Kaira, she would have been the one to take the hit. The arrow might have ended up grievously harming her as her fur would not have been able to resist an arrow coming at her with such high velocity.

By this time, Zok finally became aware of the situation and brought out his spear before running up to his pets. Thankfully, none of them was hurt. Zok glared at the bushes around them and only then did he realise that something was off.

The bushes were unlike anything he had ever seen in the glades and were intentionally bunched up together by someone. However, he had just realised that the bushes were all around them and not just in front of him. Someone, whoever they were, had the four of them boxed in.

‘Fck, in the rush of getting away from the desert, I forgot to take a good look around the surroundings.’

They were surrounded and the enemies could come from anywhere around them. However, it would seem that his attackers had no knowledge about their powers. If they were, they would not have been foolish enough to use the foliage to hide.

‘Shira, can you use your abilities yet?’ Zok asked her through the Hivemind.

Shira shook her head. It seemed she had overused her ability while trying to slow down the beasts that had been chasing them. Thus, it was going to be a while before she would be able to use her ability once again.

It was the same case with Cero and Kaira. They were still tired from all that running they had done. Cero could still be used as a meat shield to protect Zok. But apart from that, there wasn’t much he could do. As for Kaira, well, it was better to leave her to protect Shira.

‘Unlike me, they don’t have a system that would inform them as soon as their abilities were off of cooldown and they could use them.’ Zok thought to himself while scanning his surroundings, ‘Cero, Kaira, can you sense where they are hiding?’

Both of them shook their heads. It looked like it wasn’t the first time for his attackers doing something like this. Which meant it was up to Zok to defeat those hidden bastards.

‘I was not planning on using it like this, but now that it has come to this, I don’t have any other choice.’ Saying so, he dipped his hands inside the inventory and dragged out the Scorrione’s severed stinger, ‘Now you have to come out. Everyone, get back!’

The next moment, Zok tightly grabbed the stinger in his arms and swung it with all his might in an arc. The poison from the stinger spewed out like a fountain and bathed the bushes. A second later the bushes started decaying, however, not before Zok heard a muffled scream.

‘Got you!’ Zok thought and lept in the direction from where the scream came from.

However, as he jumped over the bush, he couldn’t see anyone or anything. The place was completely deserted. But the following moment a huge wooden trap fell over him with a loud bang.

Dust was shot up as more than a dozen people jumped out of their hiding places with Naalnish leading them. All of them had weird weapons in their hands and they were shining brightly as if they were made of some mystical material.

Cero acted fast and charged right towards Naanish with whatever strength he had left. However, his strength was not enough because he collapsed even before reaching up to Naalnish. It was the same case with Kaira. It seemed as if both of them had been drugged into sleeping.

Also, even with her last bit of consciousness, Kaira tried protecting Shira by falling over her. If the Shamans wanted to get to Shira, they’ll have to get rid of her first.

“Oh… this bastard has found quite troublesome friends. Both of the creatures are aberrated. Not to mention… this thick-skinned beast is unlike anything I have seen before…” Naalnish sighed heavily, “If it hadn’t been for the incense sticks the Shamanka gave us, we would have had a hard time subduing them.”

“What should we do with them, my lord? It would appear he found another kid as well. She hid under the unconscious direwolf.” Tsula asked Naalnish.

“Leave her be. Finish the bastard first. We’ll think about the rest of them later. Kill the direwolf if you want. But prepare the other beast to be taken with us. The Shamanka would definitely like to conduct research on this new beast.”

“As you wish-”

Before Tsula could complete what she was saying, they heard a scream from where Zok had been ‘trapped’. Then they heard another one and another. All of them rushed over to see what was going on, only to see that the trap they had set up for Zok had been shattered into pieces.

But that wasn’t all. There were three corpses around the broken wooden cage as well. In an instant, three out of twelve shamans had been slain and all of them had one thing in common… their heads had been severed.

The rest of them immediately went to guard themselves while scanning their surroundings.

“Be careful!” Naalnish roared as all of them took their weapons out, “That bastard can attack us from anywhere. Don’t panic and protect each other’s backs.”

“You think protecting your backs would save you?” Zok’s voice echoed around them as yet another one of them was taken down in a flash, “It’s a good thing you came looking for me…. I was itching to fight someone.”