Contaminated

"Are you alright?" Alia's concerned voice sounded.

Akt stood up slowly, wobbling a little bit before steadying himself. He was quite spent after activating his Ability hurriedly. Of course, this was not to say that he was weak, but his [Analyze] Ability consumed most of his mental stamina when it performed beyond its normal limits. He normally would not be able to scan his surroundings that far, only limited to a meter, but he was able to do so under pressure.

He held his head in his hand before he spoke. "Yes, I'm alright. Just a bit dizzy. It really was an assassin bull. What the hell was that?"

Hearing his complaints, the group could only smile awkwardly.

"My bad. That's on me. I kinda messed up the first time we attacked it." Kark scratched the back of his head in shame. It would have remained as a Heart Demon and stall his cultivation if that bull had managed to kill the young porter.

"No," Shadow added. "It's not only your fault. I thought it was a done job after Dalt stunned it."

It was definitely true that they were partially to blame for this incident. They let their guard down due to the fact that their plan was fool proof in theory and that the initiative they held provided them an advantage. They did not bother to think about the follow ups and what-ifs, confident that they were capable of immobilizing the Green Bull in one stroke.

However, it was also a fact that the beast they fought had a higher cultivation base compared to them. While they expected the Green Bull to be nimble and more agile than them, they had not thought for it to be even faster than their expectations. If not for that, how else could they fail?

Dalt shook his head. "Okay, let's stop with the blaming game. We all admittedly underestimated it, alright. It recovered much faster than I expected when I hit it on the head."

He knew he also shared the blame for commanding a chase without regrouping. Still, he could not let the mood drop, so he could only turn to Akt and see if this white-haired junior was alright. "I have to say that you got lucky there, Akt. Good work for dodging that."

"For sure. I thought I was done for back then. Fortunately, I tripped, or else it would already be over." Akt chuckled monotonously.

He was not a proficient liar, but he had no choice but to come up with some silly excuse. He did not want to reveal that he had an Ability because he thought that it might serve as a trump card when some unusual situation arose. It might not be an offensive Ability, but it would not do him harm to keep it hidden and treat it as a hidden ace he could rely on at times.

Fortunately, the group believed his flimsy excuse. Or else, how would they be able to believe that a Pseudo Knight-class was able to avoid an ambush by a High Baron-class if it were not for some dumb luck?

"If you're alright, then that's good to know," Alia added. "Anyway, what do we do about this?"

She pointed at the hulking carcass of the Green Bull beast. It was definitely a waste to leave it there, but they did not have any storage artifacts or magic items with similar function like what Rosalyn, the shop counter receptionist from the Guild, had to store all of it.

"Let's just take the most valuable parts and leave the rest." Dalt decided. It pained him to leave a High Baron-class beast just like this as it was worth quite a lot, but they had no choice about this matter. They still had to proceed deeper into the forest.

Kark stared at the bull before saying, "You know. I still feel a little guilty about that mishap, so why don't we let Akt take something from the Green Bull corpse. He basically became the bait unknowingly in the middle of the battle, so that's the least we can do to compensate him. Plus, we can't carry all of it anyway."

Hearing that, the rest nodded.

"Alright. He might as well take something."

Akt was over the moon because of this. Maybe, having had to deal with the Green Bull's sneak attack was worth it after all. The reason why he joined this party aside from gaining experience was to earn money. If he had not ran out of money to buy his daily necessities, why else would he leave his room and not cultivate?

"Oh. Then, I won't be shy!" Giddiness powered his steps as he walked towards the carcass, a slight skip could be seen in his gait.

--

Swoosh!

An arrow swiftly travelled across the air, hitting the eye of a green-colored creature. The creature could only flail around aimlessly as it suffered from pain and loss of vision. Following that, a heavy armored man equipped with a towering shield and a sword charged towards it in a quick motion, bashing the heavy chunk of metal on its' head.

"Flank! Flank!" The heavy-armored man, Dalt, shouted.

Not a half-second later, two agile shadows— Kark and Shadow— appeared on both sides of Dalt and dashed towards the stunned Green Bull's sides. They raised their sword and daggers respectively and slashed in high-speed in an attempt to cut down the bull's joints in its hind legs. Their tactic this time was identical to the last tme.

Contrary to the past cases however, this Green Bull did not attempt to run away this time. Its rage was building up higher and higher as the pain from its injuries persisted. It charged in reckless abandon, forgetting to utilize its stealth and ambush capabilities, and made its way towards one of the figures who dared cut it like how a normal bull should.

The rest of the group were taken aback. Was not it supposed to run away and attack right after? If it was any other beast, it would have done the same thing and that would be still be perfectly normal. However, this was a Green Bull they were talking about!

Kark, the nearest to the bull amongst the group, widened his eyes as the horned creature made him its target.

"Kark!" Alia yelled and she pelted the Green Bull with arrows hurriedly. She managed to hit some but not enough to hinder the creature's assault, only slowing its momentum by a little.

Still, thanks to those arrows, it bought Kark enough time to get away. Learning from his mistakes earlier, he was able to react in time and avoid its direct hit, suffering quite a few injuries in the process. The wounds he sustained were not anything serious though. And that fact provided him some slight comfort as he cried in reply.

"Thanks!"

During that time, Dalt did not stand still. He rammed his heavy shield on the Green Bull's side and pushed it for a few meters. The creature lost its balanced from the momentum and the injuries it sustained on its hind legs earlier.

Without enough time to react, it could only let Shadow dive on its neck.

"Break!" The black-clothed man shouted.

Shadow's double daggers went deep into its neck, piercing it brutally. He did not hesitate to slash soon after, eviscerating the Green Bull's thick neck. Blood gushed out from its wound and spread on the soil below.

Akt watched their battle in appreciation seeing them emerge victorious. However, he could not help but notice something weird about the whole thing. This was the third Green Bull that the group had hunted. The first two cases that they had encountered behaved quite similarly to each other aside from small differences. And so, a premise was established from that similarity and the information gathered from the accounts of Kark and the others: It was that the Green Bulls had the tendency to avoid direct confrontations and escape the first chance they get. Then, they would hide themselves and attack from the blind spots of their enemies.

However, this last particular Green Bull was strange. The whole battle, it held no intentions to flee. It raged and appeared berserk when it felt pain and charged ahead unlike its kin. Therefore, it was either him who analyzed it wrongly or something might be wrong with this particular Green Bull. Clearly, the answer was obvious.

"What's on your mind?" Alia asked seeing him in contemplation.

Akt looked at her and asked. "Don't you think that Green Bull was weird?"

However, he was answered by a different voice.

"Certainly. It was quite weird when I think about it," Shadow chimed in as he glanced at Kark sitting further away from them, applying first aid on his wounds. "It did not run away when we attacked it."

"And it looked like it was in a Berserk state." Dalt added.

"Were there cases of Green Bulls behaving that way in the past?"

"Not that we know of," Kark joined in. "We also encounter them every now and then when we go in hunts, but I've never seen them go full frenzy like that one."

"So, discounting the possibility that we are wrong about these beasts, it could only mean one thing. Something's wrong with this Green Bull."

Dalt thought about it for a moment, his chin held in his fist. Soon after, he ordered. "Let's open up the corpse. We might not discover something, but we should still make sure to investigate."

--

In Dalt's hand was a core the size of two fists combined. It was the High Baron-class Green Bull's core. Its appearance was a bright orange sphere that seemed to shimmer under the sunlight. It was a beautiful object that contained the cultivation of the wild beast that they had just slayed. However, that beauty was tainted with tints of black, ruining the mesmerizing look of the core.

"This…" Kark muttered, his brows furrowing.

Akt inquired. "I guess that color black is not normal, right? The cores I sold to the guild didn't have them."

"Yes, this is indeed not normal." Alia's expression darkened.

"This is quite serious if this is what I think it is," Shadow said grimly as he looked at their captain. "Captain, we're thinking about the same thing, right?"

The shift in everyone's mood did not escape Akt's senses. The atmosphere was noticeably heavier than when Shadow brought news about the sightings of High Baron-classes. He was curious about it but did not speak. He knew he was going to get an answer sooner as he followed Shadow's sight.

Dalt inhaled then exhaled loudly, hesitating to answer. He felt unsure about this but replied, "Yes. I think it's contaminated…"