Chapter 32 - Poisoning

　　"See see, I told you it was an infinitely worse decision." The automatic handwheel spun in Lucy's fingers as the glow of the gun's veins receded by degrees, leaving two faint golden halos in the night before disappearing like a bubble. Lucy retracted the gun into a holster on her side of the waist, picking up the previously grilled cutlet with her dagger instead and eating it slowly and methodically.

　　She ate carefully, a steak of meat going straight for a good 20 minutes before patting her stomach and preparing to leave. Lucy covered the campfire with mud and sand, and looked at the two corpses before turning back to leave. But after walking two steps, she suddenly let out a soft cry of "ouch", and her hand holding the trunk of the tree actually trembled a little.

　　Just now, her stomach was cramped, and a bit of blood melted even more in her mouth. She couldn't help but open her mouth and cough lightly, actually coughing out a few strands of blood. The blood splattered on the white palms, fishy red with a purple glow color luster. Lucy frowned, this is not what eat bad stomach, but poisoning!

　　But she couldn't figure out when exactly she had been poisoned.

　　The night passed and the day came quietly. Still the morning sun, a piece of mist moving with the wind, like a light veil in the mountains between the gap between the trees leisurely flow. Oriental white, everything is waking up, lazy morning light to the forest leaves coated with a layer of white-golden luster. A few morning light drilled through the leaf gap of a high fir, gradually sliding down to the bottom of the tree. There is a cluster of bushes at the bottom of the tree, and the bushes are gently brushed by the morning breeze, swaying slightly, revealing a deep and dim space behind them.

　　It turned out to be a tree hole.

　　A saber-toothed wolf jumped down a short slope and lowered its head to sniff something on the ground with its sensitive nose. The saber teeth that came out from under the wolf's lips pulled out two shallow traces on the ground, whether it was leaves or soil, when the saber teeth were slightly carried over, they would quietly crack. The Tyrannical Wolf came all the way to the side of the shrub, suddenly raised its head, and then used its two front paws to peel away the shrub, revealing a man-high hole in the tree behind it.

　　Inside the hole in the tree, a figure was vaguely visible curled up.

　　Alan opened his eyes suddenly, a feeling of extreme danger crawling up his mind like a small snake. That cold, slippery touch made him lose whatever sleep he was feeling.

　　Then he saw the dimly glowing pupils of the Storm Wolf's beast.

　　With almost no consideration, the tactical longsword turned into a bolt of lightning and stabbed straight into the eyes of the Storm Wolf. No matter what dangerous species, the eyes were always one of the few soft spots. The Tyrannical Wolf was no exception, this Tyrannical Wolf had just found its prey and was not yet happy. Suddenly, the prey attacked, and the long knife stabbing towards the eyes made the Tyrannical Wolf jump back in shock.

　　Allen took the opportunity to burrow out of the tree hole, pointing his long knife forward and holding the hilt of Mad Butcher in his other hand in reverse. He slightly lowered his body, bowing forward, his feet sawing the ground, in a posture ready to pounce. This posture made the Storm Wolf feel familiar, and suddenly it realized that the prey in front of him didn't feel like a human, but rather like its own kind, or some kind of close relative.

　　That's the posture of a snow wolf before it pounces!

　　Saber-toothed wolf, a dangerous species of the third level. Strength and speed specialization, hollow saber teeth with poison sacs inside, releasing nerve paralyzing toxins when it bites its prey. Information about this dangerous species quickly passed through Alan's mind, the source of the information was naturally the Biological Atlas that Hughton had slipped him. Naturally, Allen focused on the most dangerous pair of murderous weapons of the Storm Wolf.

　　Sabertooth!

　　The storm wolf growled low, it was hungry. In the past week it had only hunted one antlered deer. It had been over 5 days since it had last fed, and in those days it had been filling its stomach with water, its fat was dropping fast in the starvation fire, and it was nearing the danger warning line. If he can't eat anything else, he'll soon starve to death.

　　The human teenager in front of him didn't have a lot of meat in the Storm Wolf's visual estimation. But he was well-proportioned, and his muscle fibers would be more abundant by ordinary prey. More muscle fibers meant that it could be converted into more energy. Eating this teenager was enough for the Tyrant Wolf to survive another week.

　　Though the teenager made it feel equally dangerous, yet hunger overpowered that feeling. And so the ring of fur between the storm wolf's neck suddenly exploded, a signal to attack!

　　Alan's pupils dilated slightly, and his body lowered even more. In this instant, the Storm Wolf pounced, and its speed was even a point or two faster than the Joe who excelled in the tactical longsword yesterday! Almost at the same time, Allen suddenly shifted sideways, but a bloody light still soared from his shoulder. Clothing ripped, and his shoulder gave way to several gouges. The Storm Wolf missed with a single blow, and then nimbly jumped and pounced, it adopted a zigzag pattern of movement, and was faster than lightning between movements!

　　Another powerful lunge, this time, Allen used a spinning step. His body turned like a gyroscope, and he managed to dodge through the track of the Tyrannical Wolf's pounce. Allen's eyes were cold, and his Tactical Long Lightning stabbed down, sticking on the left paw of the Tyrannical Wolf and nailing it to the ground along with the pad of meat under its paw.

　　The Storm Wolf ate the pain and growled as it tried to break free. At this time, a black arc of light flashed in his eyes, and the rage-filled hunger melted away like snow. No matter how angry a beast is, when the head falls to the ground, naturally there is no way to get angry. Allen's hand holding the Mad Butcher was as stable as a mountain, and the black sword's String Moon Chop cut off the entire head of the Storm Wolf.

　　The wolf's blood sprayed Alan square in the face, and he could even feel the hot beads of blood sliding across his face and dripping.

　　The flames in the brilliant red pupils gradually went out. Allen exhaled, put away Berserk Slaughter, and pulled up the long knife that was lodged in the beast's claws. Walking over to the tyrannical wolf's head, he used the dagger to raise the two saber teeth that were more than twenty centimeters long. The saber teeth of the Tyrannical Wolf were very sharp, and could be completely used as short knives, and could also be used to set up traps. Especially the poison sacs in those teeth were even more valuable.

　　He took out his traveling bag from the tree hole again, put away his saber teeth, and continued his journey without even wiping the wolf blood. The wolf blood on his body would retain the smell of the Tyrannosaurus Rex for a certain period of time, and the smell of a tier 3 dangerous species would cause most low level dangerous species to take a detour, so Allen could save himself a lot of trouble.

　　The forest grew denser as they continued to advance toward their chosen location. Two bells later, Alan climbed up a short slope, the sunlight poured down from behind him, forming a golden patch on the grassy slope, illuminating the trees on the slope and casting long shadows on the ground. Allen hid himself in one of the shadows, crouched down on the grassy slope and looked down, and a familiar figure slipped into his eyes.

　　Lucy.

　　The blonde girl, with a double ponytail, was sitting in the grass resting against a tall arbor. She didn't look too good, a faint greenish tint to her pale face, and even her hand holding the pistol trembled lightly from time to time.

　　Alan frowned, stepping away from the shadows and sliding down the grassy slope.

　　When she heard the commotion, Lucy immediately raised her gun, her reaction not slow at all. If you didn't look at her face, you wouldn't really be able to tell that she was different. After seeing that it was Allen, she lowered her gun in relief and revealed a forced smile.

　　"Are you hurt?" Alan walked over.

　　Lucy shrugged her shoulders and spread her hands, "Properly speaking, it would be poisoning. You look worse than I do though, are you alright?"

　　The wolf's blood on Alan had dried to a dark red smear. He looked at the wound he had caught out for the storm wolf, where he had sprayed it with hemostatic spray. The wound was now slightly closed and had long since stopped bleeding. He shook his head, "Skin wound, nothing. It's you, how did you get poisoned?"

　　"That's the problem." Lucy smiled bitterly, "I can't remember when I was poisoned, let alone know who did it."

　　"Tell me about your current situation." Alan said as he crouched down.

　　"The poison is very insidious, and I reckon it's a chronic one. Before I fought with the two idiots last night, I remember very clearly that my body did not show any condition at the end. But after the fight, the poison kicked in. Now that the toxin has been mixed into the blood, I used my own source power to suppress it, but it shouldn't last long. If the toxin enters the heart with the blood,...," said Lucy, making a throat-slitting gesture.

　　Ellen looked at her in dismay; even at this point, Lucy still had this big grin on her face.

　　"How much time is left?" Alan asked.

　　"Since the poisoning appeared last night, I've been constantly using my source power to neutralize the toxin. Roughly, it was still able to last for like 15 bells, thanks to the fact that the toxin wasn't strong enough. Otherwise, with my little source power." Lucy snorted with a self-deprecating look.

　　"The other party doesn't dare to use a poison that is too powerful, otherwise, your mentor will realize it in advance. It's a chronic poison meant to kill you only in the death ring. That way, that person can harvest your points." Alan stood up and glanced around, "The time of the poison's onset should be clear to the other party, judging from the onset time, the other party won't be too far away from you, and the distance should be controlled to be within a day's journey."

　　"Speaking of which, though, how is the person who poisoned you going to be able to pinpoint your location? Unless ..." Allen murmured, "the other party knows where you're going!"

　　Lucy leered, "You mean Emily?"

　　Ever since Mike had set out to waste Alan before the deathmatch began, Lucy and her little group had broken up, and only Emily remained around. Likewise, only Emily knew how they were assembled. What's more, so far there's no word of Emily being taken out, nor has she shown up yet.

　　In that case, it was she who was the most suspicious.

　　Lucy was a little unable to believe it, but not naive enough to deny the possibility. Even though Emily seemed kind and harmless, which child who could represent a borough in a deathmatch would be simple material. If she really was that innocent, she would have been taken out long ago during training camp. It was just that Lucy couldn't figure out how on earth Emily had managed to do it.

　　"Stay here and don't move, and you'd better find a secluded place to hide so no one picks up the slack. Take care of yourself, I'm going to find that person out." Alan said, "Normally, the other person should still have the antidote on them so that they can still threaten you if needed."

　　"Actually, the best thing for you to do right now is to leave me alone, if you get involved because of this, I'm afraid that even you will be in danger." Lucy shrugged her shoulders, "In the end, our alliance only lasted until we took out the others. And right now, it's hard enough for me to fulfill the duties of an ally."