The Martial Unity

Generally, predators were too hungry to bother in doing anything else asides from consuming their meal once they hunted their prey. These beasts were already entirely lacking in any significant self-awareness and self-restraint to be able to resist their hedonistic urges. In a state of heightened hunger, it was almost certain that consuming their prey to satiate their hunger would be their priority.

Apparently, the target of his mission disagreed. He knew the carcasses were likely the remnant of the target of his mission. They did match the intelligence provided to him.

The intelligence provided by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment stated clearly that the target devoured almost every ounce of flesh of the carcasses of its prey. The pictures provided by them matched the sight of the carcasses he saw.

Rui sniffed the air. There was a faint acidic odour in the air, this also matched the traces of a corrosive acid detected on the carcass and the soil beneath. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment had concluded that the beast target of the mission likely had an acidic saliva that it used to aid in the digestion of the carcasses of its prey.

If that was the case, then Rui had genuinely begun to give more credibility to his first conjecture that the beast was able to consume the carcasses of its prey at an incredibly rapid speed. Acidic substances were able to degenerate and decompose organic matter incredibly fast and thoroughly.

Still, there were many more oddities at the scene.

Rui looked around the environment and the corpses, frowning.

There were several things of note.

First, this was a section of the Shaia plains with very few trees and only short grass. Meaning it was an open part of the plains. It was basically impossible to hide.

was paying attention to was the ground. It was comprised

hoof-prints that matched what one would expect from six-legged deer. But what surprised him was that there weren't any footprints of the predator in the distance that led

reach them in the middle of this open field without

every step left a footprint, even moreso when you're moving faster and stepping harder, without leaving

as he processed through all the

the Ministry of Environment and Ecology as well as his own observations and

that there were no footprints visible entering and exiting open plain mean that either they were never

beast erasing its own tracks? Furthermore, even if it erased its own tracks, how did un-crush the grass that something

didn't it erase its footprints from when it rested and consumed

head; it was far too unlikely in the face of

that the tracks had never

the least absurd options; The first option was that it had the ability

and thus did not

place just happened to be the primary habitat and home of the animal and the deer had unwittingly stumbled upon it, which

not as though the other options were without issues. If it was light? Why did set footprints after entering? Rui wondered about this as he stared at a stange footprint he had seen among the hoof-prints of the deer that matched the descriptions of the creature, and

wings were extremely common in the animal kingdom, after all. But none of the eye-witness accounts mentioned any wings. Furthermore, the