Bloodhound’s Regression Instinct

Chapter 6

Dawn was breaking.

Yan stared intently at one spot from the top.

The place he was looking at was the opposite cliff.

There were footprints scattered there to shake off the pursuit of the instructors.

As expected.

“They’re not idiots who think I jumped off the cliff, are they?”

Yan sighed as he saw the instructors hovering over the cliff.

Of course, he had left the footprints on purpose, but… he felt a bit uneasy.

Maybe he still had some affection for the special forces?

Yan took his eyes off there and looked elsewhere.

He saw smoke rising.

“By the way, those bastards, I told them not to light a fire in the mountains… Ha!”

It was probably Jake or Todd’s side.

A brief pity flashed in Yan’s eyes.

But it soon disappeared quickly.

This was not the time to worry about others.

The reason he brought them here?

To use them as bait, not to escape with them because he had feelings for them.

Yan took out a few pieces of meat from his pocket.

He had caught some rabbits that came here without knowing, skinned them, and dried the flesh to make jerky.

There was no seasoning, so the smell of blood was strong, but he chewed it without any problem.

“I wonder how far Roman went?”

He was the only one among the three baits who was moving smartly.

“It doesn’t seem like he’s been caught yet.”

There were only two instructors chasing him.

The rest seemed to have all gone after Roman.

“The net seems to have loosened a lot. Maybe it’s time to get out.”

As the net tightened around Roman, there were more routes for Yan to escape.

Yan shaded the sun with his palm and looked around carefully.

Then.

“That way, I can get out easily.”

Yan’s mouth curled up.

The place he was looking at was one of the entrances to several mountain ranges.

And a place where the number of instructors was very low.

* * *

Ding-ding-ding-ding! Ding-ding-ding-ding!

The training camp, which was always solemn and quiet, was noisy today.

“How many trainees have escaped?”

“Four, four of them!”

“These damn bastards! You can’t even manage one kid properly!”

The oldest instructor among the ones left in the training camp gritted his teeth.

Ten instructors had gone out for the chase, but it had been a day since they left, and not a single person had returned.

And this happened when the chief instructor was absent.

The senior instructor bit his lip and turned his head sharply.

“How many instructors are inside now?”

“Tw, twenty of them!”

“Call them all except the minimum staff, I’ll join the chase team too…!”

Just before the senior instructor finished his sentence, someone interrupted him.

“Wow~ How can such a fun incident happen as soon as I leave my seat?”

A voice that didn’t feel any tension at all.

At that moment, cold sweat ran down the senior instructor’s forehead.

And then he twisted his body and bowed his waist at a right angle toward the direction where the voice came from.

“I’m, I’m sorry, chief instructor! I’ll catch them for sure!”

The chief instructor, who should have been in the palace by now, was here.

He didn’t know why, but this was not the time to be curious about that.

“I saw it on my way here, but the ten instructors are searching hard, aren’t they?”

“Yes, yes! It won’t be long before we can bring them all back without any trouble.”

The chief instructor laughed softly at the confident tone of the senior instructor.

“How can you bring them back without any trouble when the incident has already happened?”

“…Th, that is!”

“And for those who are searching hard, not a single one has been caught yet?”

He hit the nail on the head.

The senior instructor had no choice but to lower his head.

Seeing that, the chief instructor sneered and called the other instructors.

“Oh, and who was the instructor who was in charge of the bloodline?”

At the chief instructor’s words, one of the instructors who had just been scolded by the senior instructor raised his hand.

“I, I, I am!”

“Ahaha, you are?”

He was a new instructor who had not been assigned here for long.

The chief instructor looked at the new instructor who was swallowing his saliva with a grin.

Thud, thud.

“You don’t even know that the trainees you’re in charge of are digging an escape route secretly.”

The new instructor shivered and lowered his head.

The senior instructor behind him bit his lip and looked at the new instructor with a pitying expression.

Thud, thud.

“You don’t even know that they’re secretly gathering and planning this. You don’t even know that they’re stealing the supplies they need for survival.”

The chief instructor’s boots came into the new instructor’s eyes as he lowered his head.

Then.

Chin.

He grabbed his shoulder. It didn’t feel very strong, so he felt a little relieved.

But the chief instructor’s words that followed made the new instructor’s eyes tremble violently.

“Do you think there’s any reason for a calf like you who doesn’t know anything to live?”

He kicked his shin while holding his shoulder.

“Kuk!”

The new instructor who fell backwards grabbed his shin and screamed.

It was too painful.

“Ah… noisy.”

The chief instructor’s tone changed completely from before.

“You think I don’t know who’s behind you?”

A cold and piercing tone that cut through the inside.

The new instructor lifted his head in surprise.

The chief instructor’s eyes, which always smiled at the instructors, were now looking at him like trash.

“…Sa, save me.”

The new instructor opened his mouth without knowing.

But the answer was a boot that was shoved into his mouth.

The chief instructor narrowed his eyes and said.

“It would be nice to see you die with a smile, even if you die. But you only show me an ugly sight until you die, you do.”

As the boot slowly reached his throat, the new instructor’s eyes were filled with fear.

And then tears and snot flowed out.

“Ha, halryeohuheu…”

He begged for his life, but.

Squish.

The pressure on his neck increased.

And finally…

Ugh.

The boot pierced the new instructor’s neck and touched the ground.

After that, blood flowed out.

The chief instructor lifted his foot and rubbed it on the ground as if it was dirty, then turned his body sharply.

“Well, enough chit-chat, let’s get to work now?”

The other instructors were afraid to see the chief instructor smiling as if nothing had happened.

“Tell the instructors outside to come in. I’ll take command of the capture operation from now on.”

Looking at the smiling chief instructor… the instructors had no choice but to close their mouths and nod their heads.

* * *
“Where the hell did this guy run off to?”

“Judging by the footprints, he must be around here somewhere.”

Two instructors who had followed the trail of 974 looked around.

But at some point, they had a hard time finding any other traces.

It was not raining, so it was hard to find them unless he erased them himself.

“I underestimated him because he was 974, but he’s not ordinary.”

It was very difficult for a 15-year-old kid who had not received any training to erase his own traces while being chased.

He had to predict what traces the chasers would follow, and… more than anything, it was almost impossible to have such a thought while running away unless he was relaxed.

He thought he could catch him easily because he was a bottom-ranked trainee.

But it seemed to be much more troublesome than he expected.

“Tsk, he’ll be caught anyway, why doesn’t he just give up?”

But even so, he was just a kid after all.

“There’s only one place he can go from here, so let’s go that way… Oh, before that, I’ll be back in a minute. I have to pee.”

“Dirty! Go after we finish.”

“I’m about to burst. I’ll be back soon. It’s just a small thing.”

The instructor turned his head away because he didn’t want to see the dirty sight, and thought about the routes that 974 could have escaped.

Did he cross the mountain range and escape?

Or did he hide nearby and wait for the instructors to give up and return to the training camp?

‘Whatever it is, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s annoying.’

The instructor lifted his head with a strange feeling.

“Why isn’t he back yet?”

He didn’t notice because he was lost in thought, but it had been more than five minutes.

It took too long for him to pee.

The instructor looked at the bushes where his colleague had gone and shouted.

“Are you done yet? I’ll be up all night at this rate!”

But there was no answer from that side.

The instructor’s eyes narrowed.

He wasn’t joking, why wasn’t he answering all of a sudden?

The instructor walked toward the bushes with an annoyed step, and soon opened his eyes wide.

“…!”

Blood was flowing out of the bushes.

The instructor quickly drew his sword and walked slowly, muffling his footsteps.

And right in front of the bushes.

Slash-!

He swung his sword and blew away the bushes.

At that moment, the instructor’s face turned pale.

“Ma, Mark?”

The colleague he had just been talking to was a cold corpse.

There was a red dot in the middle of his neck.

The instructor quickly approached the corpse and checked the cause of death.

‘He waited for him to relax and pierced his spine in one shot.’

A penetrating wound that looked like it was pierced by something as sharp as a needle.

But there was no sign of a dagger or a hidden weapon around.

When he realized what that meant.

Shiver.

He suddenly felt a chill.

‘He’s… hiding around here.’

Not only that.

He moved so stealthily that he couldn’t even notice, and even retrieved the hidden weapon.

The instructor clenched his sword and shouted around.

“Who are you? I know you’re around here! Come out now!”

He knew that he wouldn’t come out by saying this.

But if he didn’t do this, he felt like fear would take over his body.

The cricket and mountain bird sounds that he didn’t care about until a while ago felt eerily sinister.

‘Wh, who is it!’

The instructor’s eyes trembled violently.

Was it an invasion from outside forces? Or a surprise attack from another country? If not, could it be…?

The instructor quickly erased the thought that came to his mind.

“No. If it was 12, maybe, but how could 974…”

The instructor bit his lip.

But why was he so anxious despite his words?

Cold sweat ran down the back of his neck.

Then.

Swoosh.

Something caught his neck.

He tried to reach for his neck with his hand at the strange feeling, but.

Squeak.

“Ku, kuh!”

The rope around his neck mercilessly lifted him into the air.

The sword he was holding fell to the ground.

He raised his mana with a pale face, but he couldn’t put any strength into his arms.

He struggled to get free, but his vision only turned white.

“Kuuk, uuk.”

The instructor’s eyes began to lose focus.

His flailing movements became quieter as time passed.

And when he was completely suffocated.

Thud!

The corpse fell to the ground with a thud.

“That was not easy, really. Even though he strengthened his body with hardening technique, I still have a long way to go.”

An annoyed voice.

It was 974, Yan, who had been ignored by the two instructors all along.

He had several layers of rope made of vines around his waist.

The vine was connected to the corpse’s neck over a thick branch above.

Blood was dripping from Yan’s hand.

It was the price of forcing himself to use his strength and using the incomplete dragon’s breath.

“There should be some medicine around here.”

Yan approached the corpses of the two instructors and turned their clothes over.

He searched for a while and found bandages, ointment for wounds, a dagger and a few hidden weapons.

“This is pretty good.”

Yan nodded his head with satisfaction as he saw the sharp edge of the hidden weapon.

He had used a sword as his main weapon in his previous life, but his body became younger and it was uncomfortable.

He thought it would be better to use a hidden weapon as a dagger, so he liked it, and he happened to find some good ones.

The same was true for the other items.

Yan applied the ointment generously to his reddened belly and wrapped it with a bandage.

When he tied the end tightly, a sharp pain rose.

“Ugh… But now that I’ve taken care of all the chasers, I can relax a bit, right? I was worried about my seniors, but maybe it was better when I led them.”

With this, he had killed all the ones who were chasing him, so the remaining escape didn’t seem to be that difficult.

* * *

“But what do I do after I get out of here…”

He thought he would return to his clan, but he had no clue how to do that.

Squeak.

Yan felt the touch of the pendant in his pocket.

‘Can I find the way with just this?’

He was confused by the uncertain journey ahead.

Then.

Rustle, rustle.

Suddenly, he felt a presence around him.

‘What? Were there others?’

Yan quickly lowered his body to the ground and hid among the bushes.

“Team 3 and 4 will stay here!”

They were the instructors who had formed the chase team.

Yan frowned.

Did Roman and Jake and Todd get caught already?

‘Are the instructors that good? Did I underestimate them?’

But after a short thought, Yan shook his head.

‘No. That’s too fast anyway. It doesn’t make sense unless someone is behind it.’

No matter how good the instructors were, it was hard to build such a meticulous net in a short time without someone’s command.

And they moved so stealthily that they even fooled his attention.

That meant only one thing.

There was someone with the skills of the chief instructor or the special forces leader!

At that moment.

Yan’s eyes sank deeply.