The Martial Unity
chapter-153

Rui used Seismic Mapping to search for the largest source of seismic radiation and began heading towards it as fast he could. After some time, he ran into a herd of deer numbering hundreds, which was quite large. And he tailed them at a distance, careful not to alert them of his presence, which was easy enough when one considered that they were resting.

Now he just had to pray that this herd would be targeted so that he could get a close look at it for once.

As time passed by, his hoped grew more and more dull. He waited, but nothing happened. His patience wore off and he felt tired from simply waiting and doing nothing.

In a way, he had come to develop respect and admiration for predators. Predators often had to endure agonizingly long waits before a realistic possibility of a successful hunt occurred. That respect extended to hunters as well. These Martial Artists that regularly took hunter-class missions were definitely not to be trifled with.

('Well, even bodyguard missions can be long period of patience-draining waiting.') Rui realized. Though he had never gone through a rigorous long-term bodyguard mission quite yet. His only two major bodyguard missions were quite short compared to the norm.

As Rui began to delve into his thoughts a bit, a sudden abrupt shift in the seismic radiation he was sensing with Seismic Mapping drew his attention.

He sensed what appeared to be a lot of seismic radiation from one particular source away in the distance, he was too far away to be able to assess exactly what the source of all this seismic radiation was, but he could not ignore it.

It didn't make sense for such seismic turmoil to occur normally. Most animals were resting, furthermore the only species that were had enough weight and numbers to produce the seismic noise he was sensing were the herbivores.

('A herd of deer or gazelles are running.') Rui realized in excited anticipation that he might actually be detecting an ongoing attack by the target of his mission.

Of course, this wasn't necessarily the case. There were other predatory animals that hunted at night what he detected might be an ongoing hunt by another native predator species of the local ecosystem of the Shaia Plains.

Still, he couldn't let it go. He immediately got up and began sprinting towards the source of the seismic radiation he had detected; his abrupt speedy movements had shocked the living daylights out of the large herd of deer that had had no idea that Rui had been stalking them for pretty much the entire night.

Rui sprinted excitedly, getting closer and closer. He thanked the fact that the target of the mission was largely nocturnal, this was truly beneficial to the Seismic Mapping technique. Nights were quieter, and generally had less seismic radiation and noise running through the land than during the day, making it easier for Rui distinguish the noise quite well.

It was the equivalent of the difference between standing in a hall saturated with people talking and a hall with only two people.

In the former, it would be a miracle if anything could be properly heard and distinguished across the room, in the latter one would be able to hear even soft sounds from across the room.

As Rui sprinted and got closer and closer however, he noticed that the seismic noise was reducing.

('Wait, why is it reducing?') Rui panicked. ('Is the hunt ending?')

That was terrible news. He began sprinting at even higher speeds, pushing himself to the absolute limit. Using the conjunction of Parallel Walk, Balanced Direction and Outer Convergence, exceeding his speed limits, this was a bit haphazardous on his part since Outer Convergence was not a technique optimized for maneuvering, and it's not like he had massive amounts of experience with it either.

Each step sent him flying meters at a time almost causing him to fall at times, but the speed boost was definitely worth it.

As he got closer, he began to panic even more. This was because he was able to sense the source of the seismic radiation with much greater clarity than before.

BOOM

He landed hard, stopping abruptly as he skidded across the mud and grass. He quickly scanned his surroundings carefully.

A large herd of gazelles fleeing away.

Corpses of gazelles.

But nothing resembling his target, or even any predator at all, really.

('Damn!') Rui cursed. ('Where the fuck is it?')

Rui had so many questions.

There was something hunting the gazelles just minutes ago, and now he couldn't sense any animal resembling it on land at all?

What were the odds that it escaped at the precisely last moment?

Rui felt truly frustrated, it was genuinely horrendous luck.

He quickly got up and began scanning the area for any clues that might give him greater insight into the target of his mission.

He glanced over at the skeleton carcasses, there was still fresh acidic saliva over some of the leftover flesh, sizzling as it rapidly melted the flesh and skin into a gooey sludge that dripped into the ground. This confirmed that it could eat at incredibly rapid speeds, something he and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment had already suspected.

He looked around at the ground. The soil was indented with the footprints from the hooves of gazelles, pairs of footprints with three long claws, which was identical to the previous footprints he had seen as well as the information provided by the Ministry.

Yet once again, the footprint trail of the herd of deer as well as his own, could be seen coming and going and there was no incoming or outgoing trail of footprints that indicated the creature came and went by land.

He stomped the ground in frustration, using Outer Convergence to vent. A tiny reverberation spread through the ground, just enough to shift the closest carcass by half a foot.

Rui briefly glanced at it, and just as he was about leave, something caught his eye.

A strange indentation in the ground just under where the corpse had been a second ago.

Rui kicked the skeleton carcass away, as he crouched to get a closer look. The mud was uneven and grass had been disheveled and thoroughly crushed and uprooted.

Rui frowned as he sifted through the mud, digging deeper and deeper as recognition struck him like a lightning bolt.

"This place... has been dug up and refilled extremely recently!" Rui exclaimed. The mud was at an unnaturally uneven height, it was wetter and darker and the mud was easier to dig up, with no resistance.

These were all classic tell-tale signs of very recently dug up and hastily refilled mud!

"Wait..." Rui realized immediately. "Don't tell me..."

Rui realized he just might have figured out the ley to the mystery!