“Everyone, careful, I think we’ve got something.” just when Glenda Grimes warned everyone of the team about potential monsters of beasts being attracted to them due to the scent of blood in the air, Dorothea Clarkson called out to the team using magic, which delivered her words to the team’s ears without making a sound: “One of the tar pools in front of us - something’s in there.”

“Ready your spells and weapons.” Professor Kapur immediately ordered.

The tar pool referred to by Dorothea Clarkson was not too far from them, and right now, there was a constant stream of bubbles coming up to the surface from below. And right on the surface of the tar, was a pair of small reptilian eyes.

The team halted their footsteps and started backing away from the tar pool, if they were to go by their previously planned route they would get quite close to it. And now they would have to circle around it just to avoid whatever creature that was lying inside the pool.

While they were circling, the pool grumbled and growled like a filthy creature’s stomach, the pair of eyes floated higher, revealing more of its head: a wide jaw, no neck, and a small part of its warty body.

It seemed like a giant toad, one that had its eyes fixed in a certain direction. Even when the team of five went around the tar pool it was residing in, it didn’t turn at all, and just kept floating up.

But in less than ten seconds, the toad’s body seemed to have been turned over by something underneath, and its entire body floated up to the surface of the tar, or to be more precise, what was left of its entire body.

The toad only had one claw - its left front claw, and almost no parts of its torso. It had a grievous and gruesome wound just right below its fat neck, its bones and spines all broken, torn up, to splinters and what was left of its insides were exposed and floated along with it.

Each of the team members let out an exhale in relief, but then was struck with a pretty scary thought: something else was around this place just now, at least not too long ago, something more dangerous and more powerful.

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“We better hurry.” Professor Kapur frowned.

“We should check the body.” Tony Barnes said.

“No way, are you crazy?! That’s too dangerous.” Dorothea Clarkson objected: “We should leave this place right away! The blood and the smell will attract other creatures here - and probably not just regular scavengers.”

“No, we should at least check the body out. Whatever did that to this toad could still be out there. We at least gotta know what we’re up against.” Josephine Wong insisted.

“I agree with Josephine.” Tony Barnes thought for a while and said: “Something’s here, we at least need to have an idea on what it is. If it’s too dangerous, it won’t be too late for us to pull back.”

“What do you think, Glenda?” Professor Kapur thought for a moment and asked the last of her students in the team.

“It’s a risky move, if we could be quick and conceal our scent and the traces of our magic I suppose we can try.” Glenda Grimes sighed and said: “Concealing spells - we’ll need more of them, and we’d better be careful.”

Dorothea Clarkson scoffed in disbelief, but she was still ruled out.

The team swiftly gathered around the tar pool, and each with a simple spell, they pulled the body of the toad monster out of the tar pool and onto a piece of solid ground.

Professor Kapur tried to examine the terrible looking wound, but the moment her examination spell touched the body of the toad, her spell faded into the air and dissipated.

Professor Kapur gasped lightly and leaned a bit closer to the body: “This… this is some kind of terrible magic - I’ve never seen magic this malicious, this… full of grudge and ill will.”

Tony Barnes constructed a small light dagger and tried to poke the wound with it, but the blade of his light dagger was immediately corrupted by a dark blue energy. The amount of residual energy was not enough to completely ruin the blade or harm Tony Barnes through it. But it did reveal what vengeful and spiteful power that still lingered on the body.

“What kind of magic is this?” Tony Barnes was also alarmed at the sight of his light dagger: “I’ve never seen this kind of magic - it’s… well, evil’s sorta not the right word, it’s angry, and dark, and full of grudge.”

“Well, the good thing is we don’t have to worry about wiping our tracks.” Josephine Wong also examined the residual energy signature on the toad and said: “It seems to be radiating some kind of destructive and disruptive force field, normal magic would not have much effect while this kind of power still lingers. In fact, I have reasons to believe this whole body was deeply affected by this magic, which means...”

“Our time estimate could be wrong - we don’t know how long this body’s been here.” Glenda Grimes nodded while exchanging looks with Josephine Wong: “It could be as early as since the first team’s scouting.”

“But still, we should leave.” Dorothea Clarkson rushed everyone: “If whatever did this is wielding this kind of terrible magic, we’d be no match for it if it sets its eyes on us.”

“The question is, should we still continue on our way like what the map shows?” Glenda Grimes asked: “These tar pools and swamps - they’re not on the map. Which tells us that things have changed since the last team’s been here. If we are to continue, the map could only serve very limited use. We will be faced with more unknown.”

“Let’s find a place to regroup first.” Professor Kapur sighed.