Of course, Chita was carried back by the Gorge Swift Crab.
Due to his severe injuries, Rhode specifically asked the River Crab to slow down a bit to avoid jolting.
At this point, Chita's wounds had been simply treated with the hemostatic medicine and bandages Rhode carried, and a cleaned wolf skin was draped over his waist.
Rhode and Natsu didn't bring extra clothes when they went up the mountain, so they could only cover him like this.
The downside was that the weather was really quite hot, but fortunately, the journey was not far.
As soon as they entered the village, he naturally attracted onlookers.
Chita was the best hunter in the village; everyone thought he had already perished, but unexpectedly, he was rescued and brought back!
In the crowd, Rhode saw familiar faces and quickly said:
"Mr. Mastiff, is there a doctor in the village? Please take us to him; his injuries are quite serious."
Hmm, and we caused them.
"Ah, yes!" Mastiff immediately found someone to guard the door for him, "Please follow this way!"
Someone else naturally went to notify the village chief.
...
The doctor carefully treated Chita's injuries and asked the village chief to carefully carry him back home.
The doctor would go regularly to help change the medicine over the next few days.
Being one of the most respected figures in the village, the old doctor stated that in his decades of practice, he had never encountered such a mess of injuries.
There were beast bites, sharp cuts and piercing wounds, blunt force injuries, and burns caused by flame...
And each one was so severe.
The most baffling thing was that he still survived.
The doctor wanted to ask if he went up the mountain to hunt or was testing weapons for someone.
At the scene, Rhode and Natsu looked up at the ceiling, thinking it wasn't our hard blows but we had to strike hard to wake him.
The reason this guy survived was mainly due to receiving the Beast King's strong physical and resistance capabilities.
Conversely, without such a strong body, he couldn't withstand such hard hits...
A deadlock, simply bad luck on his part.
Chita woke up when it was nearing dusk.
Natsu and Rhode were in the village chief's yard studying battle techniques (fighting).
Rhode wanted more talking and less fighting, but Natsu was really not good at language teaching.
So after agreeing not to use magic, they wrestled like crazy in the yard.
Hapi and Warm sat at the entrance eating snacks and enjoying the show.
"Snacks are really delicious."
"Hoo~~"
"But we want to eat fish."
"Hoo?"
"Indeed, fish is the tastiest."
It's quite hard to see how these two cute creatures communicated.
At one point, Rhode and Natsu both stopped because they heard sounds inside the house.
"Daddy!" Claudie's excited shout.
"Dear, you finally woke up!" Sino's joyful voice carried a sobbing tone.
Thump! Panser poked the floor with his cane, then squeezed out a 'hum' from his nostril.
Also a grumpy old man.
In a scene where a family nearly experienced separation by life and death, such an atmosphere made people reluctant to interrupt.
They waited at the entrance for quite a while until Panser asked, "Do you remember what happened?"
Only then did Rhode and Natsu knock on the door, and upon receiving a response, they walked inside.
"Thank you, Mage sir, thank you..."
These words were heard many times at the doctor's house, so Rhode hurriedly helped the village chief sit down, asking him to not be so polite.
Natsu rubbed Claudie's head, letting her go to her father's side.
Rhode found Natsu seemed quite skilled at comforting children.
"In fact, we want to know about Chita's experience. This matter concerns the beast raid the village faced this time, so it's rude to disturb at such a time, my apologies."
Rhode's attitude remained polite.
"Please don't say that. If it weren't for you, this silly son of mine might not have come back."
The village chief was even more polite, but when facing his son, his attitude changed immediately, "Hurry and speak!"
"Yes." Having just gone through such an ordeal, Chita no longer contradicted his father and carefully recounted his experience.
"That day, after arguing with my father, I impulsively went up the mountain with weapons alone and found the Beast King.
I dared not act rashly and waited until it fell asleep before shooting it with an arrow.
That arrow hit its hind heart. If it were a regular beast, it should die quickly from such an arrow, but the Beast King...
Its skin was so tough; the arrow only barely pierced, not only failing to kill it but also angering it, and it immediately charged at me...
It snapped my bow instantly, I drew my hunting knife to battle it, but the knife got knocked away too.
Then it pinned me down, attempting to bite through my throat..."
Chita was still a bit frightened as he spoke.
Panser's face showed no emotion, but his hands gripped the cane tightly.
Sino and Claudie seemed to visualize the scene, scaring them to embracing each other.
"Then I knew nothing, felt like I was dreaming.
I dreamed of becoming the Beast King, drinking from the stream when thirsty, hunting beasts when hungry.
At that time, it seemed I couldn't think; a voice urged me to fight, fight, fight, kill, kill, kill, destroy, destroy, destroy.
I couldn't figure out what to fight or destroy, thinking made my head ache again.
But the voice kept shouting, I kept thinking, kept aching, not knowing how many times it hurt, suddenly I thought to protect the village, to kill the Beast King.
Back then, I didn't know what a village was, what the Beast King was, so I kept searching for the Beast King on the mountain.
To kill the Beast King, I attacked lone beasts, hunted the strongest in a wolf pack..."
Natsu, Hapi, and Sino mother and daughter were all a bit touched.
But the village chief and Rhode looked at Chita with different eyes.
This person, even while losing rationality, remembered to protect the village and hunt the Beast King, proving his good heart.
Just his actions were a bit troublesome.
Turns out, those beasts running down the mountain into fields, raiding villages, were all driven by this guy!
No wonder Rhode found, upon deploying the River Crab for patrol, many beasts just passed by the village, seeking new habitats.
Turns out, they simply couldn't survive on that mountain anymore, and coming or not to the village depended entirely on whether they took big or small roads after descending.
Before he went up the mountain, the beast attacks were due to some beasts being forced down by the Beast King, occasionally coming down to try their luck.
After he went up the mountain, it turned into the Beast King's massacre, forcing hunted beasts to flee downhill.
And thanks to his efforts, the number of fleeing beasts was overwhelming.
"Daddy is awesome!" Claudie felt her father hunted so many fierce beasts alone, it was amazing.
"Hahaha..." Chita was carried away by his daughter's adoring gaze.
Panser felt a bit itchy in his hand, the cane in his hand always wanted to hit something.
No, no, benefactors are here, must be polite, and the kid's wounds aren't healed yet, wait until he recovers.