The smell of blood hit us before we saw anything. That much we'd half expected. What we weren't prepared for was the sight itself.
The beast was feeding on what had once been a person. What was left was barely recognizable — blood soaked into the ground, pieces of what used to be a human being scattered around it like the beast hadn't even noticed. The air was thick and wrong, heavy with the kind of silence that follows something violent.
Liam turned away immediately. I didn't.
While he struggled to keep himself together I watched the beast carefully, waiting for the right moment. It was large and dark-furred, shaped roughly like a bear but longer in the body. Liam composed himself after a while — it might have been the first time he'd seen something this gruesome, but it wasn't the first time he'd seen someone die.
We waited. Eventually the beast settled and went to sleep.
That was our opening.
I went for the skull. Liam aimed for the heart. What I hadn't accounted for was how hard the skull was — my knife barely penetrated it. Liam's strike landed but only partially. Not enough to kill it.
The moment it woke up it launched us both back.
I watched the ground coming and tried to brace for it. Didn't help much. Still hurt. Back on my feet before Liam, I came around to the beast's back and drove my knife in as deep as it would go.
"Get up!" I shouted. "Hit it now while it's trying to get me off!"
The beast thrashed trying to shake me loose. Its arms were short — that bear-like build working against it — so it couldn't fully reach me, but it wasn't clean either. By the time Liam was back on his feet I had a collection of scratches across my back.
He delivered the fatal blow. The beast resisted for a moment then went still.
Liam bent over catching his breath. I checked myself for serious wounds — nothing deep, nothing that wouldn't close on its own. A 1st tier cultivator healed fast enough. The scratches would be fine.
I moved straight to harvesting the valuable parts. First time doing it properly and it showed. My calmness kept it from being a complete disaster but the quality of the harvest was probably no better than if I'd left it untouched. At least it was practice.
Liam came over once he'd collected himself.
Before he could say anything I spoke first.
"It's my fault. I didn't account for how resilient it would be."
He'd probably been planning to let it go. But hearing me say it out loud seemed to irritate him more than the mistake itself.
"Just admit it. You went straight in thinking it would be easy because it was asleep."
A moment of silence.
"You're right. It was my fault. I should have played it safer."
"Just admit it already — you were overconfident."
A longer silence this time.
No argument came. No way to negate it either. The only thing left to say was, "You're right."
Something in him settled after that. Then shifted toward something else.
"I'm sorry for getting that angry. A mistake like that can happen to anyone."
"Happening on a mission like this is the problem," I said. "I can't keep making excuses for my own faults."
He looked at me for a moment, then exhaled.
"Alright. Let's just go back, collect the rewards, and get you a better knife. So something like this doesn't happen again."