Free Web NovelChapter 4: 04: The "Meal" Offers.
Ayra struggled to move, but her legs were firmly tied to the tree. Escaping from this impending chaos didn’t seem like something she could possibly achieve anytime soon.
She was dangling upside down, and it wasn’t comfortable in the slightest. Ayra feared that she’d probably end up dead if she stayed like this any longer.
Her eyes lingered around for a while, studying the faces of these beastmen surrounding her. They were all quite young-looking and, without question, hot. Ethereal-looking men in loincloths with animal ears and tails. Half-naked men whom Ayra figured could potentially have the same physique as that wolf beastman from before. And come to think of it, she didn’t see the wolf man anywhere here.
"Hello...?" Ayra forced a smile. "Excuse me... but can y’all please let me down? Maybe we can talk this out, okay?" She spoke, but no one bothered intervening.
The men stood there staring at her like a unique captured piece of meat awaiting its doom. Then again, she was like that to them in a way. A low-ranking female in a predator male beast tribe—she was clearly awaiting her death.
Ayra struggled to look around, catching a better view of the area she was in. Organized huts and cave buildings with some wooden ones. The arrangement of the place was rather decent and cohesive, at least. But that didn’t make the place clean—it was still littered with random stuff on the floor and around.
Ayra’s eyes went down beneath her to see the wood set up. It was clear that these men were planning to set her on fire soon.
She panicked as she struggled to move, but all she did was spin in circles at the spot she dangled from. "What the... Hey... Hear me out, you can’t do this to me... You all can’t burn me alive!"
She stared at the beastmen who still looked at her quietly like a specimen to be studied. There were a decent number of males present—around thirty of them or so. A good number were young and hot, a few were older beastmen, and some were just young teens or something.
She saw them muttering to themselves and saying something about her, but she clearly couldn’t hear from where she was.
"Hey! Let me down!" She kicked, insisting, but to no avail. Her body couldn’t even carry the weight of the protest, and her head was slightly spinning from where she hung.
"Should we set up the fire now?" She finally heard one of the beastmen ask. Panicked, her eyes shot in that direction.
"What?! No! You can’t do this to me!" She insisted, her voice piercing with panic.
They stared at her.
"The low-ranking female really is shameless..." One of them suddenly said from a corner. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
"After all she’s done, she still has the guts to sneak in here and make a scene?"
"I heard she was exiled from her tribe and they abandoned her. So they basically sent her here to die. We might as well just burn her up."
"The useless female is cunning and vicious. Her evil ways were bound to be exposed soon. And now she has nowhere else to go. Might as well just kill her as a monster trespassing on our land."
They nodded in unison as Ayra stared at them in shock. She hated that the memories of the host came at this point, because she recalled that these crazy male beasts knew this villainess too.
Not on a personal level, but this female had a terrible reputation even outside her own tribe. She didn’t only trample over people in her tribe—she did it everywhere.
Sometimes, people from her tribe would go down to the Netherwild tribe to take some resources from them in exchange for soothing pills. Since wild beastmen couldn’t be soothed by any female so far, they heavily relied on soothing medication from the upper tribes. They would hand them medications from time to time in exchange for these wild beastmen working like slaves for them—getting food and supplies, protecting them from beast monsters, and many other things. They were technically slaves.
Ayra recalled that the original host was shameless enough to come to this wild beast tribe from time to time, obviously with some guards she had bribed from her tribe. She came and bullied these men, insulted them, and made jokes of them. She’d sometimes come there to take their food without even handing them anything in return. And she’d always threaten them with the name of their tribe leader, who could punish them all if they touched her. Then she’d leave with a large portion of food to enjoy herself.
And although she only came a few times, some of these wild beastmen recalled her. Especially since she was famous because of her ill reputation across the beast tribes and all the mischievous evils she had done.
And now karma had become the bitch, because she was the one dangling, soon to become their meal for the day.
She cursed at this pathetic host as she said to them, "Please, I know I’ve wronged y’all, but please let me down! We can talk it out, okay?"
They didn’t seem to listen. They didn’t care to. Rather, they turned to themselves and said:
"This ugly female really is something. She even has the mouth to talk at such a moment?"
"In her dreams. Now that she has fallen into our trap, we should just end her. After all, her people won’t even care if she’s gone now. Throwing her here means they want her dead."
"True. So let’s just kill her off immediately."
"No... no... no," Ayra panicked as she watched one of the men approach with a stick glowing with fire, ready to set the wood beneath her ablaze. She moved endlessly like a dish, struggling to break free but to no avail.
"System! System! Come and save me, you stupid computer!" She snapped, panicking. She couldn’t die right now.
And just then, their attention was moved to a sudden commotion. Everyone turned to some men rushing into the scene, one of them carrying a gravely injured beastman.
Everyone paused, including Ayra, their eyes studying the scene. These males brought in another male and laid him on the floor closely. Ayra instantly recognized one of them—the wolf beastman from earlier. He was the one who carried the injured beastman and dropped him there. A flash of a smile beamed on her face at the sight of him.
Now, everyone gathered around where this injured wolf beastman lay. His body was covered with persistent blood, his face marked with deep cuts and injuries. He was barely breathing at all, with both eyes shut. And the worst part was that this was clearly a young man—a teenager.
"What happened to him?" Someone in the crowd asked.
"He was attacked by the beast monsters while on patrol," another explained.
"Oh dear. Such a young boy. It must have been a fatal attack."
"Isn’t he the younger brother of the wolf commander?"
"Yes, his bond brother."
Everyone stared in pity at the wolf beastman who was kneeling beside the injured young man, who was close to death.
An antelope beastman was summoned to the scene, and he ran some tests on the young man but simply shook his head.
"What happened? Can you save him?" A tiger beastman inquired, worry written all over his face.
The antelope sighed, shaking his head. "I doubt anything can be done... He is losing his mind, and his injuries are also too much... He can’t be saved."
The tiger looked terrified by the news. "Aren’t there any antidotes? Medications sent? Anything! Just save him!"
The antelope shrunk in fear of the dominating commander who was just staring without saying anything. The wolf commander just knelt there and listened. "Nothing at the moment... All is finished..." He shook his head, shrinking backwards.
At that moment, Ayra studied the situation. She watched and listened to what they said. She guessed the wolf beastman she had saved was actually a powerful commander in this tribe. And the young youth dying was pretty close to him.
Ayra figured that this would actually be a perfect time to save herself in some way with the situation at hand.
And just then...
[Ding!]
[New Task Alert!]
[Heal the injured youth.]
[Reward: Improved Beauty, Pheromones, and Soothing Capabilities stats!]
[Penalty If Failed: Death by burning.]
