"AAHH SON OF A BITCH"
As the team of mercenaries was searching for tracks through the forest one of the men suddenly jumped up in fright cursing out loud drawing the attention of the other men around him who gave him weird looks before one of them spoke up.
"What the hell was that about Jon …"
The man now known as Jon gave him a stink eye before replying "Look and see for yourself." Before Muttering under his breath about how this forest gave him the creeps.
Ignoring him the man used the tip of his rifle to push aside the foliage to see what made him so freaked out only to immediately be hit by the smell of decay and rot making him recoil in disgust.
"Fucking shit.."
Some of the other soldiers glanced from over his shoulder to see what it was, only to soon regret it.
A man or at least what reminds me of him, his body stuck to the floor with a metal pole but that wasn't the problem; their profession exposes them to a lot of death so they are far from having weak stomachs.
It was the state of the corpse, the eyes were gone, only the sockets remained, his skin a sickly green with constantly moving around and stretching with what were probably maggots eating the flesh underneath.
Even to those who were used to seeing the bodies of colleagues and enemies alike this was a tough sight to see.
"HEY, what are you doing standing just around.."
They snapped out of their daze when the rough voice of Shao Shoushan reached their ears as they turned to see him walking towards them as the others stepped out of his way.
Only Jon, the one who originally found the body, spoke up gesturing towards the body.
Shao Shoushan took a glance, frowning as he did "We are getting close, keep moving, and stay on guard unless you want to end up like this bastard".
The men did as instructed and started moving ahead once again this time much more vigilant than before while Shao Shoushan stayed behind as he took a closer look at the body focusing on the iron pole that was going through its chest.
'This may be more trouble than it's worth
~~~~~~~~~~
It was a quiet night in the Wu clan's residence, a large Chinese-style mansion with multiple floors and surrounded by beautiful gardens.
Tonight was a full moon so the surrounding gardens and ponds looked especially beautiful illuminated by moonlight.
Inside the master bedroom, Wu Gang was sleeping the head and only Wu living inside the mansion as he forced his sons to live a more modest lifestyle outside of the Wu clan's wealth out of fear of them becoming entitled and spoiled by the wealth in their early years.
Their exile had been lifted a long time ago with them only living outside the mansion to raise their sons and daughters.
His peaceful slumber is to be interrupted however by a tapping sound waking him up from his sleep.
"*groan* what is that sound" standing he started looking around searching for the source of that annoying taping so he can shut it up.
Observing the room he saw nothing out of the ordinary, just his usual traditional if a bit old-school styled room.
He saw nothing out of the ordinary as he looked around until he spotted something by his door. A shadowy figure was standing there impossibly tall and wide yet completely covered by the shadows.
He froze in fright before he frantically started searching for the light switch keeping his eye on the figure.
It didn't take long for him to find it even in his slightly panicked state before he flicked it with *CLICK* with it changing the whole atmosphere of the room.
"Oh thank the heavens it was just my imagination" he put his hands on his chest letting out a sigh of relief seeing that no giant was standing by the door.
"ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴛɪʟʟ ʜᴇʀᴇ"
Wu Gang jumped faster than even some young men were capable of. In just a second he was standing up and facing the source of the noise but he wished he hadn't when he turned around.
Now Wu Gang was by no means short even if he seemed so to most duo to always standing next to his bodyguards so when he turned around he was expected to at least be face to face with whoever was in his room but not this way.
It was down on one knee yet it he stood face to face with the figure from before but now it was much clearer not because of the light falling on it but because of home much, its body stuck out in comparison to the rest of the room.
It wasn't that the shadows were covering it before, no it's just that dark normal you can still see the colour black but looking at it it was like something cut a hole into the void in the shape of that thing no face, hair or anything indicated that this thing was human.
"GUAAAARDS"
Wu Gang shout came more out of habit than a conscious want, a habit he is lucky to have at this moment as the rushing sounds of the 10th of footsteps could be heard rushing through the hallway towards the room.
They rushed in as soon as the door was opened taking a single glance at what was happening before they carried Wu Gang out of the room and charged the intruder dog, Pilling, Pilling on him as Wu Gang was moved as far away as possible.
He was barely out of the mansion when he snapped out of his daze "what the hell was that?".
"Don't worry sir we will get you out of here safely" Wu Gang ignored the bodyguard's words instead, straining his ears trying to listen to the muffled shouts of the bodyguards inside the mansion.
The muffled voices were strangely getting louder despite him moving further away and it soon became apparent why one of the bodyguards came crashing through a wall before Rolling onto the grass In Front of him and the 10 bodyguards that were escorting him.
Taking a glance through the hole he came through he saw all his men laying on the ground dead or unconscious he didn't know a single more pressing question on his mind.
'where did it go?'
THUD*
turning around at the sound he saw 5 of the men guarding him on the ground with two more in the things arms struggling for air.
In the moment he took to look through the hole half of his men were out and two more are about to join them.
Two others charged at it going for its legs but the didn't even come close to it as they were hit by the now two unconscious men that it had choked out being knocked out in the process.
"Stay behind me sir"
The last man standing held his grounds wither to call him brave or stupid is up for questioning but in the end he didn't do anything more then buy him a single extra second a single bonk on the top of his head knocking him out.
The seen would have looked comical if it wasn't for his circumstances as he finally managed to gather the courage to speak up through labored breaths.
"Wh..*gulp* what do you want?"
"ꜱᴛᴀʏ ᴀᴡᴀʏ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱɴᴏᴡ ᴍᴏᴜɴᴛᴀɪɴ ꜰᴏʀᴇꜱᴛ"
at that his old body couldn't take anymore as he collapsed to the floor a distinct pain in his chest.