Chapter 101: Taking Action
Sam and his teammates didn't move at all. And they aren't the only ones that didn't move yet. There are still some people who just stood there without moving.
Some of them are alone and some of them have their close friends or trusted teammates with them.
But they are not more than thirty people who are just in place.
The remaining 90 people went on search.
Why are these thirty still here? Well, for Sam's teammates it was because they controlled themselves on Sam's orders, but the remaining people, they also realised that this isn't that simple mission.
If not for the fact that all the teammates are in a state of paranoia due to the incident with the food, they would have realized that the mission just won't end as soon as they caught the tokens.
Because, the announcement clearly stated that the token holders by the end of the third day will be the ones that will decide the food allotment and there is no guarantee that the person who caught the beast and obtained the token will be the final token holder.
All the people standing here are going to take the easy way after the chaos broke out.
But Sam has another reason.
Right now, he is staring at the wall at the front door side.
From outside, he could see that the wall is two thousand meters high. Even though, he wasn't able to clearly see the whole wall, he was sure that the wall is completely in his field of vision albeit vaguely.
But from inside, he could see the wall was only a few hundred meters tall.
Initially, Sam didn't particularly take notice of it, but when the food was sent by the bird type beasts, he noticed that the wall isn't that tall from inside. How is that possible? He doesn't know and he isn't very adamant about knowing it.
At this moment his main thought is, how did they send the ten beasts inside.
Even though, they are bit far from it, the main door is still in their field of vision and they didn't see the door opening and the beasts coming inside, that is the reason is a bit confused. This fact, is not only noticed by him but also by other people who are still standing.
After more two hours, the whole area was completely searched by the ninety people and they weren't able to find any beasts at all.
This made them feel confused. Even the people who didn't move at first and thought of reaping the benefits without much effort are also confused.
Every candidate started to become worked up, some of them are even thinking if the announcement was a prank. But they knew that it was impossible to be a prank.
So, they picked themselves up and started searching again. This way, the first day of the first mission everything is chaos in the special branch zone.
The candidates are in a frenzy as they kept on searching, even the stream wasn't left alone, but by the end of the first day, they couldn't avoid giving up the search.
After all, they already searched almost every nook and cranny, but apart from the useless trees and some large rocks, they weren't able to find out anything.
So, the first day of the mission came to an end with all the participants tired and going to rest.
The next day, something peculiar happened.
Some people who woke up early to again search for the beasts came back to the place all of them gathered by afternoon to see if any of them has found anything.
Sam and his teammates are also there looking at the group of people who searched.
Sam is also a little impatient now that the half time of the mission has already passed and there are seemingly no clues at all. He also wanted to look around.
Just as everyone was in deep thoughts, one of the people who went to search in morning walked towards the nearest person and punched hard in the face.
"You bastard. Why did you hit me?"
The person who got hit immediately shouted. The other person didn't say anything and just ran away. The one who got punched immediately became even more furious and followed the other party.
Just as everyone is feeling peculiar about this, same incident happened. A girl in the group hit the person beside her and ran away immediately without even saying anything.
And soon, same incidents repeated again and again.
Everyone became curious what is going to happen and why did these people hit others.
So, everyone divided into groups and followed the people who ran in different direction.
Even Sam and his team mates went to look and they went in the direction of the first attacker.
By the time they entered the scene, they saw that the attacker is laying on the floor with blood flowing out of his mouth while the one who got punched by the attacker is standing there panicking.
The people who came along with Sam and his teammates are the ones who are from the same city that the attacker and the one who got punched came.
The scene immediately made them serious.
"Why did you attack him so viciously?" A young man who seemed to be the leader of the team asked seriously.
"N- No, I di…"
Just as the guy was about to explain another girl interrupted.
"You don't have to kill him for this small conflict right, you can save your explanation. We will report this incident to the Count when we get back."
"No, I didn't attack him, by the time I came here he is already like this." The guy who got punched in his face tried to explain himself. But the rest of them didn't listen to his pleas and left after they picked up the guy on verge of death off the ground.
Sam felt that something is off about this situation. After all, even though they didn't follow the duo immediately they still aren't that far off and they didn't even hear any sounds of fight. They only saw a person laying on the ground and another person standing there.
Sam didn't leave the place and just stood there along with his teammates. He started observing the place and soon found out something. There are traces of person struggling to get out of a grip or choke hold.
He thought of something and when he was about to ask the person who was believed as a killer, he was nowhere to be seen. He was in a distance walking towards the camping place.
Sam immediately turned around and was about to follow him, but suddenly the person disappeared as he turned around a tree and the tree blocked him from his field of vision.
"Stay as a group. Don't stray off and everyone hold hands with at least one person." Sam said as he also held hands with Jasmine and walked slowly with his group. When he arrived at the spot where the person disappeared, he immediately frowned as he looked at the same traces of struggle.
"Sam, he is there." Philip said as he pointed at a distance. Everyone turned to look at that direction and saw that 'killer' is walking towards the camp. His walking seemed stiff and rigid at the same time very slow as well.
Sam didn't follow him immediately and looked around. Then behind a bunch of rocks, he found the unconscious body of the killer.
When the group saw it, they immediately had Goosebumps. If the young man is here, then who is the one that walked away. This is the only thought in their minds.
Sam immediately examined the young man's body and he found some, scaly patterns on the torso.
He stood up and seemed a little frustrated.
Sam immediately ran after the 'young man' who is walking towards the camp.
When they are still half way there, Sam caught up to him and immediately jumped at the 'young man' directly.
Both of them struggled in the grip of each other. Sam activated elemental fusion. His hands which were choking the young man suddenly lit up with golden flames and the 'young man' immediately started struggling even harder.
By this time, the rest of the teammates also caught up with him and when they saw the struggle they don't know if they should attack or not.
Suddenly, they saw something that gave them chills.
As the flames around Sam's arms intensified, the 'young man's' body suddenly started making some cracking sounds and in front of their astounding gazes they saw him turning into a big scaly figure.
Sam didn't leave his grip and instead tightened it around its neck. The scaly beast's tail started whipping around and finally wrapped it around Sam's torso.
But Sam didn't leave the beast alone. He tightened his grip and forcefully pried open the beast's mouth and put his hand inside. Before the beast could do anything, he immediately shot small fire balls continuously.
The beast started making whimpers, but soon it came to rest as a burnt smell spread across.
Sam finally stood up and the rest of the team, quickly came forward to support him. But he rejected.
"Don't touch me." Sam said and went towards the beast. He used a wind blade to cut open the beast and soon found the token.
"Don't touch the carcass. Get back to the camp."
Sam gave out the order and immediately ran towards the stream and jumped into it without a second thought. He started swimming around and scratching his whole body at the same time. He only came back to the camp after an hour.
And the camp is completely in chaos by the time he came.
He saw some people fainting in the place and some people having blood oozed out of their mouths. He went to their camp and saw that his teammates are all inside.
"What happened? What type of beast is that?" Philip is the first one who asked as he saw Sam's half n.a.k.e.d body fully red due to scratching.
"That beast is called Myriad mirage Chameleon. This beast is normally not that powerful, but at a situation where the spiritual energy is scarce is a nightmare.
These beasts are a bit peculiar compared to other chameleon type beasts. Mostly chameleons roam alone, but this one will travel in groups.
Their abilities are also completely peculiar.
First ability is, it can change into any form depending on the cultivation level. The beast I took down is in Level 3 which is equivalent to a Novice
Second ability is that it can immediately disappear and blend into surroundings. It takes a lot of effort to find it as they don't make any sounds at all.
If we attack it from long range, they can sense it and dodge it. Even in short range, their defence is quite high and if they aren't killed in a single punch, they will immediately disappear and blend into surroundings. So, the only way to attack is either one hit kill or grapple. The current scarcity of energy doesn't grant us the liberty to attack it with a powerful skill to perform a one hit kill.
Third ability is illusion. That is why a lot of people are unconscious outside.
The final ability is, on its last breath, it will leave a certain odour on the killer which will attract the killer, that is why I immediately ran away from you guys and washed away until I almost bled.
Even more dangerous thing is you will be poisoned if you eat that meat. That is why I didn't want you guys to touch it. By this time, the rest of the beasts must have gone near the dead body.
"Don't you think it is better to tell the rest?" Hawk asked.
"No need. They will learn of it soon. If I am not wrong some of them must have realized that a beast is behind the peculiar incident, so they will take action." He said slowly.