Quiet Beast

The big guy certainly looked pretty strong and plenty experienced, looking very much like a grizzled war veteran, as for the two girls accompanying him, they didn't even look like to be of a profession that would venture into the woods for anything, and especially not during winter of all times.

This party seemed somewhat suspicious, so Edrick continued to silently stalk them, they were moving deeper and deeper into the forest anyways, so it was a win for him, the further they went, the less help they could potentially receive, and the more distant their escape would have to take them if they managed to run.

But he was starting to wonder if it would really be a good idea to engage them like he had done with those before, no matter how much they walked, uphill, downhill, through snowy clearings, none of the three seemed to be getting especially tired, despite the appearance, the two women must also be used to this sort of activities, so perhaps they were actually cultivator that had simply taken measures to retain their soft-appearances, like how Ku Xing and Ting Zhenniao looked like beautiful young women despite having ages that might actually be in the triple digits, or at least approaching it.

Not being a cultivation master capable of sensing it in other people by a mere glance, Anoteros took note and decided that he would strike only if they made themselves vulnerable in some way, but although he was coming to terms with the fact that the trio wasn't an ideal group of victims to play with at his current strength, Edrick continued to follow them.

Rather curious in what they were seeking, his current status as basically transformed into a sasquatch granted him incredible stealth amongst other things, so he might as well make use of it.

They spoke quite a lot, but as it turns out, they weren't speaking in Nimeri, which should be the common language of the continent, and neither did they seem to be speaking in a language Edrick might recognise anyways, and Hui had spoken much about languages with him.

His third wife was just so adorable when she started rambling about her stuff, so he always had a nice discussion with her before a one-on-one session, naturally, after she didn't have the brain capacity to speak much at all.

Still, despite all that, he had no idea what tongue they were using.

This only nudged his curiosity some more as he tailed them for two more hours before they finally seemed to have reached their destination, which was a rather deep-looking cave whose entrance was suspiciously lacking in snow despite not having any trees to block its descent.

Anoteros could guess that they had come for this one specifically as there were a few other similar caves in the area that they could see, but had instead headed straight for this particular one.

As aforementioned, trees were sparser around here, so he had to keep his distance a bit as the three seemed to discuss a plan of sorts, making big hand movements, which allowed him to somewhat assume that they were trying to agree as to what to do.

The big man seemed to be willing to go with anything, whilst one of the women, the dirty blonde-haired one, garbed in a big coat, seemed intent on wanting to barricade it down for some reason, whilst the second woman, a brunette whose entire body was obscured by a white cloak that melded nicely with the snow, seemed to want to rather lay down something at the entrance.

So unless he was grossly misinterpreting their body language and general vibe they gave off considering the place they were in- They were here to hunt down whatever might be hiding within that cave specifically, the blonde wanted to lock their prey inside and starve it before striking, whilst the brunette wanted to lure it out and catch it in a trap.

Both plans weren't bad, and the big man seemed to agree, and they all seemingly decided to do both, first weaken the beast by keeping it stuck inside the cave, and then lure it to what would look like easy food to swiftly take it down with an ambush.

And it seemed like his assumption was correct as they gathered wood, which one of the women just pointed at to turn into durable planks, the man carried over some big rocks and they tightly shut the cave's entrance before beginning to dig a pit a distance away.

Had it been him, Edrick would have smoked it out and cut it down as it tried to escape outside, but he had no idea what they were after here, so perhaps their plan was the best one.

Anoteros watched them intently for another hour, all that work had been done swiftly, but not without costing them much energy, as they were all looking rather tired, although night fell much faster already during this season, dark claimed the woods even faster than that and they all retreated into tents they had erected only a little ago, surroundings a campfire, they had settled down away from the cave entrance, probably not wanting to be anywhere close when the owner of this cavern realised that they had been locked inside of their own home.

Edrick wasn't that interested in that however, and instead slowly creeped up onto their camp, his eyes, at least when totally transformed into this state, where slightly better, just a little bit more able of catching into light, so the darkness that fell upon the forest wasn't that bad for him.

The big man took the first shift, the two women rapidly growing still inside of their tents, only their feet visible, lit by the campfire, the guy with the oversized sword checked if they were asleep and sighed, looking rather tired as well, he stood up and walked just a few steps away from the camp, the sound of him relieving himself onto some snow was clear to hear.

Edrick, with a most silent and casual stride, arched around the camp, out of the campfire's light and slowly walked up to him, picking up a nicely-shaped rock that fitted nicely in his palm.

Not quite certain how resilient the fellow might be, he aimed carefully for the back of the head, and put all of his strength into the strike, since there were two other people around, it wouldn't matter that much if this guy died because of the strike.

Directing one of the more pointed sides forth, the man masquerading as a sasquatch struck right as the man finished and was busy getting his important part back into the warmth of his pants.

And with a dull sound, collapsed forward into his own filth.

'I suppose a good rock can always be effective' despite seeming pretty strong, the man had lost consciousness, although it was clear that he was in a much better shape than most would have after such a strike, so clearly, Edrick should probably avoid letting him swing that big sword of his.

He turned around, checking if any of the other two had heard anything and woken up, but they were still sleeping soundly.

'I'll get done with this quickly, can't miss dinner too often'