Chapter 257: First Night: Pursuit

I was stunned by the scene before me. Before I could react, Fatty, holding a gun, rushed over to me and shouted, "Bullets! Bullets!"

I pulled out a handful, and he immediately snatched it away. He tucked the gun under his armpit, held a torch in one hand, loaded the bullets with the other, and then jumped into the bushes and chased after it.

He ran a few steps, saw that I wasn't moving, and cursed loudly, "Follow me! If you stay here, where am I supposed to find you later?"

I cursed, slapped myself, then immediately tightened my backpack and followed close behind.

Bursting into the bushes, walking was extremely difficult. I gritted my teeth and forced through the thorns and vines, chasing Fatty's torch. Soon all my clothes were torn. After a few dozen meters, in a flash, I saw the canopy ahead shaking violently. The thing dragging Panzi had clearly gone up a tree. The commotion was huge; obviously this thing was a behemoth.

Fatty rushed to the foot of the tree. We saw scratches on the trunk made by something. The trembling leaves in the canopy were moving toward a neighboring tree, obviously it was about to jump to another tree.

We weren't monkeys; there was no way for us to track it through the trees. But following it on the ground was truly impossible. Fatty, panting, took a few more steps, then had no choice but to raise his gun and aim in the direction of the shaking leaves.

I immediately yelled at Fatty, "Damn it, be careful not to hit Panzi!"

Fatty gritted his teeth and said, "Either way we're dead! Let's take a gamble!" As he spoke, he raised his hand and fired a shot.

The gunshot was deafening. Fatty was an excellent shot, but under these circumstances there was no target to aim at. No idea if it hit anything. In the distance, the canopy continued to shake. This thing moved faster through the trees than on the ground; it was rapidly getting away.

"Damn it! Useless rifle, too small a caliber." Fatty cursed, then gritted his teeth and chased forward a few more steps, firing four consecutive shots, emptying his bullets.

I clearly saw the fiery trails of bullets shoot into the darkness, but still no effect. By the time Fatty had reloaded, the thing had already left our field of vision. Catching up was impossible now.

"What do we do? What do we do?" I cried out in panic.

Fatty was also pacing around in a panic, but after turning just one circle, he noticed something. He shone the torch on the tree, and we saw that the trunk was covered in bloodstains.

Fatty hurried a few steps, shone the torch on the next tree, and found the same.

"We've got a lead!" he shouted, and immediately handed me the torch. "Damn it, now it's in trouble. Let's follow the blood trail to its lair. Even if we can't save Panzi, we'll make it pay."

This might be the only hope to save Panzi. Without thinking much, I nodded immediately.

Fatty told me to give him all the bullets. Panzi's bullets were stored in a cigarette box; he hadn't brought many, and we had already used a lot along the way. I took them all out and found less than one and a half boxes. Fatty cursed again, "Next time if there's another joint expedition, I'm not coming unless I have something with a caliber above 5.56!"

"Fine, next time I'll get you a rocket launcher. Stop blabbering and chase!"

Fatty poured out five bullets, put three in his breast pocket, bit two in his mouth, and jerked his head: "Let's go!"

I went ahead using the torch to check the trees, while he held his gun ready for cover. We followed the blood trail deeper into the darkness.

The blood trail extended all the way. There were no bloodstains on the tree trunks, but they were on the bushes and ferns. The more I looked, the more I felt it was bad. These bloodstains were definitely Panzi's. With so much blood, it might be an artery wound. If that was the case, even the greatest immortal couldn't save him.

But we needed to see him alive or his body dead; there were no absolutes in this world.

We chased for about five or six hundred meters. We could no longer hear any commotion in the canopy ahead. We could no longer care about direction or the strange sounds from before. All we knew was that as long as there were bloodstains, we had to follow them.

The bloodstains were intermittent and became fainter and fainter. My heart grew more and more uneasy, not knowing whether the bleeding had stopped or all the blood had drained out.

Fatty watched the treetops warily, moving quickly while starting to yell, "Son of a bitch! If you've got balls, come back and snatch me, your Fatty, too! Let's see if your teeth are sharper or my hide is tougher!"

I quickly stopped him, "What the hell are you doing?"

Fatty said, "Beasts like to eat when they feel absolutely safe. When it hears me shouting, it'll be alert and won't start on Panzi so quickly."

I said, "Alert my ass! Don't attract other things!"

He said, "Haven't you watched Animal World? A hunting animal this big has its own territory. There won't be many large beasts in this area. The best thing is to lure it over, so we don't waste time chasing."

I still thought it was very inadvisable, but Fatty did his own thing, continuing to run and shout, "Son of a bitch, the one you grabbed has AIDS. Eat him and your guts will—" Before he finished, he suddenly tripped over something and tumbled to the ground.

I helped him up and shone the torch. On the fallen leaves lay Panzi's backpack, covered in blood.

Fatty immediately became alert. I wanted to speak, but he made a "quiet" gesture and signaled me to raise the torch higher to look at the canopy. As I straightened up, I saw a huge black figure silently lowering itself from the tree behind him.