The mutated cheetah suddenly lifted its head and looked in the direction of the wolf howl, its fur bristling and throat emitting threatening growls.
Zhao Lian felt a chill in her heart, and an inexplicable sense of foreboding arose. She said to Zhou Quchuan, "Let's hurry back."
But as soon as the two turned to leave, they heard rustling sounds from the forest ahead, and a gaunt, gray fur wild wolf suddenly jumped out of the bushes, casting a fierce gaze over them and onto the mutated cheetah, growling menacingly with bared teeth.
At the same time, four equally skinny wild wolves emerged again from the bushes, hunching their bodies, tucking their tails, and slowly forming a semicircle to surround the two men and a beast.
These gray wolves looked similar in size to ordinary wild wolves, but each one had several sharp bone knives of varying sizes growing on their backs, all of them were mutated beasts!
Zhao Lian only felt a chill in her heart, as she touched the gun at her waist, she steeled herself, quietly took the gun in her hand, and pulled the safety catch.
Fortunately, in anticipation of the unforeseen circumstances, she had already reloaded the bullets.
Out of the corner of her eye, Zhao also saw Zhou Quchuan holding a small submachine gun in his hand. She felt a slight sense of affirmation in her heart as she looked at the five mutated gray wolves in front of her, suddenly gaining a bit of confidence.
After all, they not only had guns, but also a mutated cheetah.
Just then, a second wolf howl came from the nearby woods. Upon hearing this howl, the five gray wolves surrounding them moved! Two of them charged towards the mutated cheetah, while three charged straight at Zhao Lian and Zhou Quchuan.
"Bang!" Zhao Lian raised the gun without hesitation and pulled the trigger, but the first shot missed. She kept retreating, shooting as she went back, finally hitting the wolf in the chest as it charged towards her within two meters, but the wolf whimpered and did not fall, instead becoming more fierce as it lunged at her!
Zhao Lian felt a little panic, but remained forcing herself to stay calm. In that instant, her focus became concentrated, and the next bullets struck the wolf's face, finally killing it.
"Da da da! Da da da!" Zhou Quchuan's sound of using the submachine gun came from her ear, as it was a three-round burst, the rhythm of the shots was intense.
His marksmanship was obviously much stronger than Zhao Lian's, hitting one of the wolves as soon as he opened fire, causing it to whimper and fall to the ground. The second wolf, which was very fast, had already charged to within a meter of Zhou Quchuan and was about to bite him, but was shot in the mouth with a burst of bullets.
Amidst the bloody mess, the second wolf charging toward Zhou Quchuan did not even have the chance to whimper, and fell to the ground. These mutant gray wolves were obviously not strong, or rather, the mutation in their strength was not enough. Faced with firearms, their defenses were not much different from ordinary wild wolves.
Of course, if they hadn't been lucky enough to just have gotten a few guns, they would probably be the ones lying on the ground now.
On the other side, a mutated cheetah, which was clearly not in the same league as the gray wolves, easily took care of the remaining two wolves, killing one by biting its throat and the other by striking it directly.
However, the mutated cheetah did not relax, but instead snarled, staring at the bushes behind it, its fur standing on end, and its threatening growl growing louder.
Thinking back to the two previous wolf howls, Zhao Lian knew that a wolf pack generally had a wolf king directing from the background, and seeing the strong reaction of the mutated cheetah, she knew that the as yet unseen wolf king was probably not easy to deal with.
Just as she thought this, she saw a shadow flash in the depths of the forest. She was alarmed, but when she looked more closely, she saw a giant gray wolf emerge from the bushes, bounding toward them in a single leap.
This wolf king was actually as large as the mutated cheetah!
Zhao Lian swallowed nervously and was about to raise her gun to shoot, but was grabbed by Zhou Quchuan. He pulled her, and the two of them slowly retreated step by step.
However, whether it was because they appeared too weak, or they felt that the threat from the mutated cheetah was greater, although the wolf king noticed the two wanted to escape, it didn't even look at them.
When the two of them retreated to a range of ten meters away from the original spot, the mutated cheetah roared first, and rushed towards the wolf king.
The two equally large mutated beasts instantly engaged in a fight.
After the apocalypse, though a small number of "power-users" and "mutated beasts" appeared, in reality, these were quite different from the concepts in novels and movies. They did not spit fire and water, nor did they have magical skills; mainly they showed a physical enhancement.
Such as greater strength, faster speed, heightened senses, occasional winged flight on land creatures, or birds growing fish fins to swim underwater, and so on.
The most common mutations were creatures like the cheetah and wolf king fighting it out, growing in size, with their speed and strength far exceeding those of regular wild animals.
Seeing the surrounding trees completely devastated by the two mutated beasts, Zhao Lian directly pulled Zhou Quchuan out of the woods. It wasn't that she didn't want to lay in ambush nearby to give the wolf king an extra bullet, but the speeds of the two mutated beasts were too fast, and she was not a sharpshooter. She was afraid of accidentally hurting the cheetah, which would be troublesome.
Moreover, with their strength if they were hit by accident, they would become a burden to the cheetah.
Every now and then, wolf howls and leopard roars could be heard in the forest, along with the sound of trees being struck and broken. However, after about two or three minutes, accompanied by a long, mournful howl from the wolf king, the forest returned to calm.
Zhao Lian felt her heart pounding and her intuition told her that the mutated cheetah had won, but she wasn't sure.
After hesitating for a while, upon hearing the somewhat weak wail of the cheetah, she hurriedly ran into the forest with Zhou Quchuan.
They only saw the place they had been in before was in a total mess, as if it had been devastated by a tornado.
The gray wolf king lay on the side, with only a last breath, and the mutated cheetah stood by, one hind leg covered in blood, indicating that it was seriously injured.
Zhao Lian felt a slight pang and quickly went forward to take her backpack, taking out iodine and gauze.
Having watched "Animal World" when she was young, she knew that for wild predators in nature, it was very dangerous for them if they got injured. Because they couldn't get injections or take medicine, they could only rely on their own immune system and resistance to pull through. If they encountered other natural enemies at this time, they would have no chance; even if they weren't bitten to death by other predators, they would often die directly from infections as the wounds worsened.
The cheetah was obviously very close to them and, seeing Zhao Lian approach, it seemed to understand what she was about to do, obediently lying down without making a sound to allow her to tend to its injured leg.
Its pair of golden yellow eyes looked toward its subordinates lying not far away. The wolf king weakly lifted its head toward Zhou Quchuan who was approaching.
Zhou Quchuan squatted down beside the wolf king, nodding slightly at it, and the wolf king's eyes showed a human-like look of relief before it breathed its last breath.
At that moment, the fur around the wolf king's neck suddenly moved and two small heads emerged.
Zhou Quchuan already knew what had happened, but now he pretended to be surprised and turned to Zhao Lian, and said, "Lian Lian, look quickly."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Lian looked over and saw two small puppies stumbling down from the huge body of the wolf king. Without any shyness, they immediately began playing around Zhou Quchuan.
—No, not puppies, but new-born wolf cubs!
Zhou Quchuan picked up one of the cubs and took out his dagger to gestured at it a few times, and then hesitantly asked her, "Should we cut the grass and get rid of the roots?"
Zhao Lian immediately put down her pack and rushed over to snatch the dagger from his hand. She took the opportunity to reach out and unafraid, wanting to scratch the cub with her little paws, and said, "No! They're still so small, they don't understand anything!"
As she spoke, she picked up the other cub, only slightly bigger than her palm; at this moment, it was happily licking and nibbling on her outstretched hand, barely able to break the skin on her fingers. Instead, it left her fingers itching. The sight of the two cubs almost instantly melted Zhao Lian's heart.
After looking at the wolf king that had already died, and then at the two wolf cubs she was carrying, she sighed and squatted down to place the cubs on the wolf king.
The little cubs didn't know that their mother had already passed away, and after playing on the wolf king's body for a while, they fell asleep in the fur around the neck.
Although the wolf king was an enemy, seeing this scene, Zhao Lian still felt uncomfortable and reached out to touch the heads of the two cubs. She intended to adopt them, but in the current situation, she was barely able to protect herself and didn't know if she could take care of them in the future.
On the other side, Zhou Quchuan stood with his hands in his pockets, quietly watching Zhao Lian's silent reluctance, and did not intervene.
The mutant cheetah lying beside them glanced at Zhao Lian, then at Zhou Quchuan, a hint of doubt in its eyes. It couldn't understand why the wolf king, who was already heavily injured, had come looking for trouble, or why, at the moment of his death, he had entrusted his cubs to this terrifying man.