Chapter 19: The First Glimpse of Dragon’s Might
It was quiet at night, with no insects chirping, only a few unknown creatures chirping occasionally from a distance, and the entire jungle was immersed in silence. In the sky, one or two strands of dim moonlight occasionally penetrated through the layers of tree canopies and fell onto the ground. The temperature was a little low and the surrounding air was a little humid.
Brandon walked cautiously in the forest. He had a serious face as he walked, paying full attention to the movements around him. The jungle was dangerous, even for the toughest creatures, but Brandon looked a little impatient and hastened his steps.
After advancing for a while, Brandon stopped. The place was densely covered with shrubs and tall trees were surrounding him.
Around him, similar tree roots were intertwined. Several intertwined thick trees grew in a strange shape, each one as thick as several people's arms. This kind of tree, which would be rare in other places, was very common in this jungle. The dense layers of long grass, various thorn plants, and other unknown plants nearby formed a natural shelter.
The bacon reserve in the cave was almost emptied. If he couldn't catch any more prey, he would have to eat the insects, and they didn't taste good. Thinking of this problem, Brandon seemed a little depressed. That disgusting taste of the insects had already faded away from his tongue, and he didn't want to relive the old nightmare again.
While he was thinking about something, a faint sound from a distance attracted his attention. He suppressed the ecstasy in his heart and crouched down to avoid being discovered, turning his ears and listening carefully. Soon, he felt a slight rustling sound, which seemed to be not far away.
Brandon tried his best to lower his body in the quietest and most standard posture, and slowly crawled forward into the plants. The dense leaves of ferns and intertwined vines shielded him well. The whole process was as standard as taken from a hunting textbook. He brought himself into an unprecedented state. The whole process only took a few seconds.
The scales all over Brandon's body showed strange colours, as if he was wearing a camouflage uniform. He lowered his whole body and crawled forward slowly, so slowly that he could hardly feel himself moving.
After a while, Brandon discovered that all the whistling sounds were coming from the trees fifty metres ahead. Brandon took a closer look and saw that it was a yellow-backed antelope chewing on grass late at night. It had no horns on its head, and its body was brown and black. The fine hair on its skin looked like it had been oiled, reflecting the faint moonlight, plus it looked fat.
Brandon slowly moved forward. He was already forty metres away. The antelope seemed to have felt something. It stopped eating and started to look around. Its hooves began to move a little restlessly, and his alert ears turned around.
Brandon quickly held his breath and lowered his head as hard as he could, wishing he could bury his head in the soil. The yellow-backed antelope observed for a while, but apparently found nothing, and continued to eat the tubers of the plants. Brandon continued to crawl forward.
When there were only thirty metres left, the yellow-backed antelope seemed to be frightened in some way. Its eyes were full of fear and it ran away without looking back. It fled taking a few jumps and then disappeared.
Brandon raised his paw and hit the ground hard, making a loud bang. This happened again! He had been in pain these past few days. He hadn't caught any prey for three days. Every time he tried to approach the prey within thirty metres, the prey seemed to have been frightened in some way and ran away.
At first, he thought it was a problem with the scales on his body. Bright colours are obviously easy to spot. So he painted its scales into camouflage and decided to take action at night. But it obviously failed, an inexplicable failure.
Brandon ran into the cave dejectedly. At this time, he noticed a commotion in the grass next to him. He pushed it aside and found that it was a hare. It was shaking all over, with a look of fear in its eyes, and its head was lying tightly on the ground.
Brandon curiously stuck his head out to observe. Soon, he discovered that the rabbit was afraid of him. Am I that terrifying? He looked at himself. Ignore it, my trip was not in vain anyway. He picked up the hare. The hare didn't resist at all, but trembled even more. He padded the rabbit. What a fat rabbit!
Brandon sighed secretly and started to run deeper into the cave. He returned to his place, looking a little tired, not only physically but also mentally.
The pressure in the past few days had been too great, and it seemed that some kind of inexplicable bad luck had befallen him, preventing him from catching prey.
Every time before he got close, the prey seemed to be frightened in some way and ran away quickly. Skyler had become a little afraid of him too. She was not as close to him as before. In the past few days, she had never landed on Brandon's shoulder like she used to.
He was lying in the nest and his eyes found that crystal again. It made him feel a little uncomfortable. He grabbed it and held it closer to his eyes.
Brandon vaguely seemed to have thought of something. This situation had started since the day he got the strange crystal, and Skyler seemed to be very afraid of the crystal and never got close to it.
Brandon began to analyse slowly, and he felt that what happened to him was definitely related to this strange crystal. He grabbed the rabbit and placed it next to the strange crystal. As soon as he put it down, the rabbit trembled violently, rolled his eyes and fainted.
It seems that this is indeed the reason. He had absorbed the heat flow of the crystal and had its strange aura on his body. Brandon Drake thought secretly in his heart, how to get rid of this effect?