We soon passed the forest where the Sand Golem had attacked me with dead wood, and the place where it had planned to ambush Top and me in the overgrown valley.
Finally, we arrived at the location where we had spotted the wildebeest, but we didn't find a single one there.
Bone fragments were still faintly visible on the ground, suggesting that many predators had visited the area afterward.
Looking at the teeth of varying sizes scattered all over the ground, one can tell that many animals died after the Sand Beast, all thanks to the highly toxic aconitine.
It's better that they're not around; that means we'll take less detours and can travel much faster.
After passing through this place where life and death once raged, and emerging from this forest, the view suddenly opened up considerably, with waist-high thatch and some sparse shrubs as far as the eye could see.
This kind of densely overgrown area is the perfect ambush spot for predators; in the past, traveling through this terrain would have been very risky.
But now, with Pat's aerial vision, I feel like Genghis Khan has acquired Eagle Eye as his first skill.
The grass where the falcon flies will be patrolled; no animal can escape Pat's aerial vision. If there's a large animal below, Pat will immediately call out to me.
"An army is raised for a thousand days, but used for only one." Now is the time for Pat to shine. I lifted Pat in my hands and gave him a command.
"Pat, patrol!"
With a command, Pat flapped his wings and flew towards the patch of reeds I pointed to.
I stood there watching Pat hovering in the sky, patiently waiting for it to bring back a message.
Although Pat is usually rather lazy, he is quite serious when it comes to doing serious work.
Pat's patrol was very fast, and after circling around for a while, the area directly in front of me was clear of any large animals.
Just as Pat surveyed the bushes to my left, Pat's sharp eagle cry rang out from the sky.
Upon hearing the eagle's cry, I instinctively pulled up the pneumatic coupling lever fixed to my arm to charge the air, putting it in a ready-to-fire state.
Then I cocked the shotgun and held it in my hand, giving me double protection and the confidence to fight back no matter what came my way.
But the next moment Pat flew back to my side. Judging from its somewhat panicked appearance, it must have encountered a large predator, and one that was quite agile.
At this moment, I could see the grass about twenty meters away from me swaying gently.
This movement is clearly not caused by the wind. If the wind were blowing, it should be blowing in one direction, not swaying from side to side.
The creature in the bushes has spotted us and is now following us, drawn by the scent of our bodies carried by the wind through the grass.
For safety's sake, as I always say, if I can't take a risk, I will absolutely nip it in the bud.
I figured I might as well play it safe; you can never be too safe. I kept a close eye on the movement in the bushes to my left as I slowly backed away.
Not far from me, about fifteen meters away, there is a nice big tree.
Once I'm on that tree, I don't care about anything else, whether it's something I can climb or something I can't.
The limited space in the trees greatly restricts the opportunities for these ferocious beasts to unleash their full potential. They can exert their full fighting power on the ground, but once they are in the trees, they can only use about 20% or 30% of it.
Now that I have a shotgun and a pneumatic automatic hidden dart with double safety, nothing can get close to me while I'm waiting in ambush.
Perhaps sensing my intention to escape, the thing in the bushes clearly started running faster toward me.
At this moment, I could clearly see the grass on both sides swaying rapidly, and the movement was like waves crashing hard in my direction!
Holy crap!
I cursed angrily. I had intended to slowly retreat to the tree and then climb up. Unexpectedly, the creature in the bushes didn't play by the rules and launched a direct attack!
Seeing this, I shouted to Top beside me, "Top! Run!"
Top realized something was wrong and quickly ran back. He ran very fast and soon reached the tree, ready to climb it.
Even though I temporarily threw my basket on the ground, I still couldn't catch up with Top, who was running at full speed. We're both primates, so why are you so outstanding?
The distance between me and that thing in the bushes wasn't far to begin with, and it attacked first. I lost the initiative in terms of speed.
Even if I run towards that tree as fast as I can, I'm only about three meters away from it. I can even see Top anxiously shaking the branches.
But it was too late, because by then I could see the mottled patterns on the animal's body, especially its pair of saber-like fangs, which made the beast stand out.
It turned out to be the Destroyer Saber-toothed Tiger we encountered here before!
I was lucky; the saber-toothed tiger only appeared after I dealt with the wildebeest. By then, I was already up in a tree, so it posed no threat to my safety.
But this one is clearly different. It must be starving and in a hunting state right now. It has finally waited for my prey to arrive, so how could it bear to let my feast go?
I knew it was too late to climb the tree. Even if I could climb a short distance, a feline's jumping ability would easily pull me down from the tree.
I had previously witnessed a battle between a saber-toothed tiger and a sand beast up close. The sand beast, which was only slightly smaller, was swatted in the back by the saber-toothed tiger's claw before it could even make a single turn.
I don't want to test how its saber-like fangs pierce my body again.
I immediately turned around sharply, my eyes meeting those of the destructive saber-toothed tiger almost simultaneously.
The time had come to test the effectiveness of my weapon. Since they wanted my life, I didn't hesitate any longer. I raised my arm, aimed at the saber-toothed tiger that was lunging at me, and immediately pulled the trigger.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
Almost simultaneously, three poisoned darts were fired from the gun barrels I had concealed inside my python-skin sleeves.
But the saber-toothed tiger was moving very fast and couldn't stop in time. I heard a muffled thud, a sound I recognized; at least one of its limbs had pierced the other's body.
Because I turned around and paused for a moment, the saber-toothed tiger had already caught up completely and pounced on me.
I was immediately thrown two or three meters away by the enormous inertia. I have to say, it was a mistake that it didn't use its claws to swat me directly.
Perhaps in its worldview, my abilities are utterly insignificant. Maybe I'm just like those monkeys, only capable of climbing trees.
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