The Legendary Female Strategist

Chapter 48 - The Truth Intertwined with Despair

She wouldn't have been able to make it that far without the creature noticing her.

Feng Yao immediately turned back to study her surroundings. If the girl was hiding, then she had to be somewhere around here. Taking care to not miss a single detail, she scanned the area in front of her once more.

Suddenly, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

From underneath the pile of corpses a few feet away from the creature, there seemed to be a small corner of a cloak sticking out from the side. Although it had long become stained in blood, it was an undeniably familiar fabric. 

Wasn't that what the girl was wearing on our way here?

Nearby, the creature let out another ear-piercing shriek, but Feng Yao ignored it. Her eyes were focusing solely on that specific spot with the corner of that cloak.

If you're there, then please just give me a sign...

It was at that moment that Feng Yao's eyes narrowed as she noticed an incredibly faint, almost imperceptible, tremble from the bottom of that pile.

It's her! She must have hidden herself under the corpses.

Finally finding the person, Feng Yao let out a small sigh of relief. But her expression soon darkened again. 

The problem now was figuring out a way to rescue the girl. How was she supposed to get the girl out without allowing the creature to see them?

She looked down at her trembling hands before clenching them tight.

I don't have enough strength to fight. I'll just have to make a distraction.

Quietly, she crawled around the mass of bodies to a spot that would give her a better line of sight before grabbing a few random items out of the snow. Feng Yao's frozen fingers moved as quickly as she could to fiddle around with the items, taking care to glance every so often to the other side to make sure the creature had not yet noticed her presence. 

Being unable to find the girl, the creature had already gone back to tearing apart limbs with its teeth. Wildly reaching  about without any direction, it continued to grab fallen bodies around it before madly feasting upon their mangled arms and heads. 

The icy cold air had long already covered the dismembered body parts in a layer of frost, but the creature didn't seem to care. Its teeth continued ripping away at each piece as if it was a thick fatty slice of meat.

Feng Yao could almost feel each violent crunch of bones grinding against her eardrums, each unnatural grunt and growl crawling up her skin like maggots. But she quickly forced herself to ignore the sounds, focusing on her hands until she finally finished tinkering.

Suddenly, a blood-curdling roar pierced through the empty night. Alarmed, Feng Yao raised her head.

Why did it stop?

The creature had its face tilted up towards the night sky, sniffing as if it had picked up on an unusual scent. 

Is it me? 

But I made sure to cover myself in blood. My scent shouldn't be as strong as before.

She paused just before her head whipped around to look on the other side of the field.

The mass of corpses that the young girl had been hiding in was starting to crumble. Although it wasn't yet noticeable, it was only a matter of time before the entire thing tumbled and crashed onto the ground.