Godfrey was also in the hunting party this time, but he wasn't with Genn; instead, he led his servants in a different direction.
Of course, the autumn hunting parties would eventually meet up, and under Liam's deliberate arrangement, Genn would first encounter Darius's party.
As Genn spoke, he drew his hunting rifle, "We've chatted long enough. Although it's just a private autumn hunt, we should at least catch something. Returning empty-handed would be quite unseemly."
Liam nodded in agreement. Although the autumn hunt was just a formality, the process still needed to be followed. If Genn were to meet other noble lords empty-handed, he would certainly lose face.
Genn was indeed old, but his skills were by no means inferior. At least in terms of hunting, Liam felt he was far from his father's equal.
Under Genn's skilled tracking, he quickly wounded a small deer that was leaping through the jungle. Afterward, the King's servants released several fierce hounds, which rushed into the forest, tracking the scent of blood.
Genn nodded to Liam, "Let's follow them. That deer won't run far."
They didn't think much of it, taking a few attendants and heading deeper into the woods, where they could still see the drops of blood left by the fleeing deer.
But the further they chased, the more Genn and Liam felt something was amiss. Logically, given the size of the small deer Genn had hit, it shouldn't have been able to run this far after being shot, especially with several hounds in pursuit.
However, now they not only found no trace of their prey, but they couldn't even hear the hounds' barking. The forest was silent, with not even the sound of birds chirping.
Realizing something was wrong, Liam and Genn already had their hands on the hilts of their hunting knives at their waists. The attendants, seeing their masters' actions, exchanged glances, unsure of what was happening.
Just as Genn and Liam were on high alert, a hound's whimper came from the nearby woods. Genn pulled his son closer and whispered, "Let's go take a look!"
Liam paused for a moment, then immediately nodded. They led their attendants, tiptoeing through the bushes. Then, beneath a large tree, they saw half of a hound's carcass.
Genn frowned, gripping his hunting knife, and quickly stepped forward. He knelt beside the hound, examining the wounds on its body, and even took off his glove to touch the bloodstains.
Liam walked to his side, helping him keep an eye on their surroundings and behind them. At this moment, the Prince also glanced at the dog's carcass, his expression somewhat surprised, "This..."
"It looks like it was torn apart by brute force," Genn tilted his head, glancing at the scattered organs and bloodstains on the ground, making it clear what kind of tragedy this hound had suffered.
"Is it some kind of fierce beast? A bear... or a wolf?"
Genn casually wiped the blood from his fingers on a nearby tree bark, stood up, and shook his head, "Gilneas's wolves have long been extinct... As for bears, they wouldn't instantly kill all our hounds."
Liam followed Genn's gaze. He saw several shocking bloodstains spreading into the dark depths of the shadows cast by the trees.
The attendants also saw this horrifying scene. They swallowed hard, tightening their grip on their hunting rifles.
Witnessing this bloody scene, Liam couldn't help but scan the surrounding woodland. However, apart from the continued eerie silence, there was no other abnormality, as if these hounds had been dead here for a long time.
Precisely because of this, sweat continuously broke out on Liam's palms. This scene was indeed somewhat eerie. The carefully trained hounds were cruelly killed like defenseless small animals, and... the surrounding forest was terrifyingly quiet.
Genn patted Liam's shoulder and whispered, "Let's leave quickly. Stop the hunt for now and retreat to the edge of the forest. If it really is a pack of forest wolves, we'll be in trouble with so few people."
Liam immediately waved to the attendants behind him, "Hurry! Watch your surroundings, especially the darker areas!"
Genn's party rustled as they withdrew from the woodland. Not long after the humans had left, several pairs of dark green eyes suddenly lit up from the darkness. Immediately after, a chilling sound of heavy breathing and tearing flesh followed.
Riding Gilneas's mountain horses, Genn, who had quickly retreated from the forest, looked at the dense and eerie jungle, and an ominous premonition couldn't help but rise in his heart. He turned to Liam and asked, "What about the other parties? Can you contact them?"
"I prepared signal flares and told them that if they saw a signal flare, it meant there was an emergency, and they would immediately come to the village on the forest's edge to rendezvous with us."
Liam took out a specially made projectile from his waist pouch, but Genn waved his hand, "Do they also have signal flares?"
"Every party is equipped with them."
"Then we'll first—"
Before Genn could finish his sentence, a red flare suddenly exploded in the sky above the forest. Genn and Liam's expressions instantly changed.
"Liam, whose party's signal flare is that?!"
"It's... Lord Crowley's!" Liam looked at the signal flare soaring into the sky, answering with some disbelief.
"Darius?! Damn it, there's something strange about this forest," Genn cursed under his breath, then immediately swung onto his horse, "Go, let's see what's going on!"
Liam immediately followed his father's steps, and incidentally took out another signal flare from his pocket, throwing it to his confidant, "Shoot this one off. Everyone else, follow me!"
The confidant quickly took out his hunting rifle, loaded the special projectile, and aimed it at the sky. As the signal flare exploded, he heard Liam's shout, "Gather forces here, then come back into the forest to find us!"
Genn and Liam rushed their men to where the signal flare exploded. Before they even got close, they heard Darius's roar, "Who's there?"
"Darius, it's me, Genn!" Genn shouted as he charged out on horseback, seeing Darius standing in front of a cave, holding a pistol in one hand and a hunting knife in the other.
"Genn?!" Darius, seeing this unexpected reinforcement, showed a barely perceptible smile after a brief shock, "It seems I'm really unlucky today. Not only did I encounter an attack, but the person who came to help is you."
"Hmph, say less—you said you encountered an attack, what exactly happened?"
Genn feigned indifference with a cold snort and asked Darius.
Darius's expression also became serious, his tone full of uncertainty, "I don't know what exactly attacked my party, but I lost two hunters. Those things were very fast; almost everyone only managed to see a black shadow. They disappeared with the victims."
After speaking, the lord's face even showed a look of lingering fear, "We didn't even have time to react, and the hunting rifles couldn't hit those things. After realizing something was wrong, I brought my men to this cave to avoid being attacked from all sides in the forest."
"Black shadows... Could it be what we just encountered?" Liam connected it to the several hounds they had seen brutally killed.
Darius froze, then immediately asked, "You encountered them too?"
Genn nodded, "Our hounds were brutally killed. Liam and I realized something was wrong and withdrew our men from the forest. Luckily, we were closer to the forest's edge and didn't encounter any danger after that."
"Able to instantly take down several hounds... and those two men I lost, there must be quite a few of these guys..." Darius's chiseled face almost solidified. Having lived his entire life in Gilneas, he had never known such dangerous creatures existed in the Black Forest.
"Let's analyze these problems later. We need to figure out how to withdraw from this forest first."
Genn and Darius had both realized that the creatures attacking them were not ordinary wild beasts: even wolf packs would usually steer clear of such a large-scale autumn hunting party, not to mention that Gilneas's wolves, as Genn said, had long been extinct.
This wasn't their first time hunting in the Black Forest, but it was their first time encountering such a bizarre situation. It was then that they understood that the decrease in game along the way wasn't entirely due to their large numbers startling the herds, but rather because a group of terrifying things were driving the beasts in the forest.
And now, these people, who prided themselves as "hunters," had suffered casualties without even seeing the shadow of their "prey."
However, everyone knew that now was not the time to be temperamental. The autumn hunting party was originally just for entertainment, and many people even brought their wives and children, treating it as a trip. In such a situation, choosing to retreat was the best option.
Just like Darius, he also brought his daughter, Rona. However, his daughter was not a helpless flower vase; on the contrary, his beloved daughter was quite skilled with a hunting rifle, and with Darius's guidance, she might even be more capable than most of the attendants.
But Darius dared not let his daughter be in danger now. Rona was arranged by him to stay in the cave, looking after the others.
However, not long after Genn and Darius began conversing, a scream came from inside the cave, followed by a chaotic clamor. Finally, a gunshot brought everything back to silence.
Exchanging a look with Genn, Liam rushed into the cave with a few guards. Darius and Genn quickly followed, entering the shallow cave in a few quick strides.
"Rona! What happened?" Liam saw Rona holding a smoking hunting rifle and quickly went forward to ask what had happened.
Rona, seeing Liam, breathed a sigh of relief. She pointed her hunting rifle at the still twitching hound on the ground, "This hound, I don't know what happened, suddenly went berserk and injured a dog trainer. In a panic, I had no choice but to deal with it."
Darius, who followed closely behind, heard Rona and Liam's conversation. He pushed aside the crowd in front of him, walked quickly to the hound's carcass, his expression changing repeatedly.
"Father?" Rona stepped forward, wondering what her father had discovered.
Darius's voice was low as he looked at the onlookers and said, "It's Lister's hound. There are still wounds on its leg, left from protecting Lister to the very end."
Everyone was startled by the news, except for Genn, Liam, and their men, who were kept in the dark. Liam asked Rona, "Lister?"
"He was one of the two hunters who were killed—at the time, his hound stayed by its master's side, but it couldn't save its master. It even got a bit injured itself."
Rona sighed, then shook her head as she said, "This... this shouldn't be. Besides being a hunter, Lister was also a very famous dog trainer. His dogs have never shown any signs of biting."
"Perhaps it's because its master died, and it became overly agitated?" Liam offered a reasonable guess.
Rona looked thoughtfully at the dead hound, but shook her head, "No... it doesn't seem like it. That dog's behavior just now was like a beast completely controlled by bloodlust—have you ever seen a mad dog that's been starved for a long time, completely erupting in ferocity? The hound's behavior just now was even worse than that."
As Liam listened to Rona's account, suddenly, a wail came from the crowd. Everyone immediately moved away, revealing a middle-aged man clutching his wrist, his face contorted in pain.
Was it the dog trainer who was bitten by the hound just now?!
Rona quickly stepped forward and grabbed his injured arm, only to find that the man's wrist was already a bloody mess, showing just how frenzied that mad hound had been.
However, although such an injury looked very gruesome, it shouldn't have been severe enough to cause a middle-aged man such intense pain.
Liam also quickly knelt beside the man, examining his injuries. After seeing them, the same doubt as Rona arose in his heart. He and Rona exchanged glances, and without time to think further, he asked, "Do we have any first aid supplies?"
"My attendant brought some emergency medicine and bandages."
As Rona spoke, a slightly plump, sturdy woman emerged from the crowd, carrying a small bag. She handed the medicine and bandages to Rona, who then skillfully bandaged the injured man.
"Please bear with it for a moment. Your hand will be fine. After we've treated it, and you've seen a doctor back in Gilneas, everything will be alright!"
Liam thought the man was behaving this way due to excessive psychological stress. While comforting the man, he helped Rona hold down the man's continuously twitching body.
But gradually, Liam noticed something. He actually saw the man's arm hair slowly lengthen a bit. Liam rubbed his eyes in disbelief, realizing he wasn't imagining things.
"Rona—"
"What's wrong?" Rona was focused on the man's bloody wrist wound and hadn't noticed his change.
"Look at his arm hair... Has it gotten longer?"