Mystical Journey

After filling up their stomachs and the fuel, Garen and the team continued their journey tracking Duskdune Shura through his scent .

The White airplane flew above the sea of a forest for at least 2 hours until a white road could finally be seen . The number of lanes gradually increased until it’s so complex that it looked like a spider web .

The sky was slowly getting darker .

The plane descended slowly as it followed the directions from the airport’s control tower and approached a gray, oval-shaped airport .

"This is the place . Duskdune Shura landed here!" Celine said with affirmation .

Garen and Su Lin looked down at the airport and saw seven to eight airplanes of different sizes parked . Four of them were a small airplanes, one of them was pure blue in color whereas the rest were either brown or white .

Celine pointed at the blue airplane .

"That’s the plane . He must have left less than half an hour ago!"

"Let’s land here and we will tail him right away!" Garen said .

Without any hesitation, Su Lin quickly lowered the plane . At the same time, there were already people at the airport waving a white flag to indicate the landing position to Su Lin .

******

Sin Gerro

In the forest of the Pinehill City’s suburbs .

Night .

Noises among the trees could be heard periodically coming from the forest . An owl’s hoot came from the distance and the crescent moon was silently sitting in the sky, bathing the place in soft moonlight .

The dark green pine trees stood as tall as towers . Even the shortest one was about twenty to thirty meters . They stood pencil straight, like sticks potruding from the earth .

Although it was very spacious between the pine trees, the whole area was covered with dense, greenish yellow weeds .

Inside the forest, there were three dark figures wandering about carefully, going deeper in .

"Be careful, hold my hand Annie . And don’t step there! You’ll leave a footprint . " A male voice whispered .

"Joseph, what does this place have to do with the incident at central building?" Another man out of the three figures asked .

"We can’t stop them if we don’t come here . " Joseph looked his partners and continued, "The beasts will perform a hunting prayer, and the central building is the location for the hunting ceremony! We need to destroy their altar after they leave this place!"

"Altar?"

"Yes . Their ritual will be broken once the altar is no more . Hence it would be meaningless for them to keep hunting!" Joseph said with confidence, although his voice was shivering .

Annie held his hand tightly .

"Don’t worry Joseph, we will be fine…"

In truth, Annie and Johnson did not believe anything about the hunt or the prayers . They only believed in Joseph and followed his leadership . Although they didn’t believe in the beasts, they knew something was going to happen, looking at Joseph how sure Joseph was .

This was because Joseph was different, he was special .

Hoo!!

Out among the dense forest, a bonfire emerged in the spacious clearing between the pine trees . There was a big cattle skull on top of the bonfire . It was about for to five meters high and three two four meters wide . It seemed to be created from a multitude of bones .

The bonfire was getting stronger and stronger, it was so huge that the flame shot almost three meters high . There were fuzzy figures surrounding the bonfire; tanned male and females who were tall and muscular .

The males were bare from the waist up, whereas the females had a black cloth covering the chest . They wore black jeans below their waist, where long hairs spread wildly . Black marks could also be seen on their face .

The fierce fire reflected a similar expression on each of them . They took turns stabbing their own arms with a small knife, and smeared their blood gently onto their face .

After they had finished smearing their faces .

"It has been five centuries since the hunting tradition had been passed down before us . " An old man who stood by the bonfire whispered . "Do not forget our ancestor’s pride . Remember what I have just said . "

"Elder, where are the damned hound bugs? I smelled their scent behind earlier . " A strong man with braided hair asked .

"They have left, which is why I took this opportunity to organize the hunt, so that we will not be disturbed . " The elder replied .

"I would have killed all of them if not for the holy water! These damn bugs!" The braided man replied gloomily .

"Who is it!! Who’s there!" The Elder’s nose twitched as he smelled something . His head was facing at where Joseph and his two colleagues were hiding .

Bam!

A gunshot rang across the forest .

One of the figure beside the bonfire went down, but the rest of them spread out and came running towards them .

Bam Bam Bam!!

Three more gunshots were heard . However, it hadn’t come from Joseph’s party, but from the other side of the forest . In an instant, more than ten people with black coats came rushing out of the forest .

In their hand were hand grenades . In quick, swift motions, they kept throwing the grenades towards the bonfire .

Boom~~~!!!

The man who was initially shot stood back up all of a sudden, as his body started sprouting large amounts of black fur . In a blink of an eye, it had became a humongous wolf . The black wolf howled and ran towards the people with black coat in a rage

The crack of gunshots rang again and again, but the black wolf managed to dodge a lot of the bullets .

Ah!!

One of the man with the black coat was taken down as half of his body was ripped apart by the black wolf’s claw . As the wolf sunk his teeth into his victim, the man’s grey matter was torn open .

Soon, chains of howls rose through the forest floor . The remaining people near the bonfire had transformed into werewolves, and all of them rushed towards the men black .

"Damn! It’s the Thukk Tribe!!" The leader of the black coat panicked slightly .

Soon more people in black were shredded into pieces by the werewolves . At the same moment, others started screaming as black smoke rose from their bodies . They shrivelled and dried rapidly; some fell off and died with teeth still sunk deep into flesh, and became a puddle of black water .

"It’s the Thukk Tribe! Everybody retreat!!" The leader of the black coat started to panicked as he shouted . They hadn’t enough holy water . The Thukk Tribe is much more resistant to the holy water compared to other similar species . The amount of holy water needed to purify one Thukk Tribe members could purify three other ordinary werewolves . These beasts’ true potential would be unleashed once there was no holy water nearby . They would be twice as strong! The Thukk Tribe was unstoppable once they were not restricted .

"Retreat! Retreat!" The group of men in black fired their guns as they stumbled backwards Under the lead of the braided werewolf, werewolves continued their onslaught . Both parties were at war inside the Pine forest with both parties sustaining heavy casualties .

*******

On the other side of the pine forest .

Garen and Su Lin were following Celine closely as they moved deeper into the forest . If not for the night sky, the three of them would have looked like tourists with their attire .

Celine kept sniffing with her nose as she lead the way .

"Duskdune Shura went through this place . He must be right in front of us . "

"You have brought us through a lot of detours already . We’ll go directly to the Ancient Ruins tomorrow if we can’t find him . " Su Lin yawned as he replied .

"Absolutely not . We will definitely lose him if we don’t can’t find him now . I wasn’t sure at first, but I’m confident to say that Duskdune Shura is definitely not heading to the Ancient Ruins . He had other objectives!" Celine affirmed .

"Other objectives?" Garen was confused .

"There’s someone in front!" Celine lowered down her voice as she focused ahead .

A man with a black coat walked towards them slowly out of the darkness . .

"Who are you people? Up ahead is a protected area of the national security agency . You may not enter . " The man said as he furrowed his eyebrows .

Garen and the rest were skeptical . Garen kept took a stepped in front as Celine and Su Lin slowly backed off .

"Did you not hear what I just said? It’s very dangerous up front! You may not proceed any further! And you! You too! Leave this place immediately!" The man in black coat said to the big pine tree in front of Garen and his gang .

A humanoid figure slowly came out from the branches of the pine tree . His gaze was calmly focused onto Garen and the gang .

Garen and the gang stared back at him in the same manner .

THe four of them did not bother to pay any heed towards the arrogant man in the black coat, as all of their attention was now focused on each other .

"You people are persistent . " Duskdune Shura spoke under his cloak . His voice was hoarse and deep .

"Hand over the Golden Sword Throne . Though I know that’s probably not happening, I’ll say it anyway" At this moment Garen had became the leader of the three man group as his vision was tightly locked onto Duskdune Shura .

This man had once defeated two generals from the federation when he was heavily surrounded . He was the at the pinnacle of strength, being able to escaped from an ambush from all directions .

Although he had became stronger, he did not dare underestimate his enemy .

"You’re here for the Golden Sword Throne as well?" Duskdune Shura was amused, "Do you think you can stop me all by yourself?"

"I won’t know if I don’t try . " Garen replied .

"Hmph!"

Duskdune Shura sighed before he pointed his toes and swiftly leapt backwards, disappearing into the darkness .

Garen immediately went after him . With his speed increased by 0 . 3 points, he was as fast as Duskdune Shura .

Celine and Su Lin were not slow either . They followed Garen closely from behind and disappeared into the darkness with him

The man with the black coat was left alone in the dark, in a rage .

"A trained fighter? Does being a fighter make you all that? This is no longer my business . You guys are the one who did not heed my warning . Even a fighter would have the same fate if you do not have holy water! These beasts had already killed dozens of fighters! You guys are digging your own grave!"

*************

Deep inside the Pine Forest .

Joseph’s party watched the battle between the men in black and wolves in terror . Blood was shed from both parties . It was a scene of horror . This was especially so for Johnson and Annie, having not seen anything like this in their lives . They were so rooted in fear they failed to move even an inch from where they were .

"Jo . . Joseph . . Tell me… What… What is going on?? Am I dreaming?" Johnson stuttered as he asked .

"This is reality Johnson . If I’m not mistaken, these men in black coat are there Demon Hunters . The enemy they are facing now are the legendary werewolf clan . "