Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off-Chapter 358: No Ground, No Sky to Hide

While the tribe leader was at the front, Su Qinglan was at the very back of the line. She was clutching Stove and keeping her eyes on everything.

Her husbands...Hu Yan, Xuan Long, Rong Ye, Han Jue, and Shi Feng...stayed with her, forming a wall of muscle behind the fleeing people.

Su Qinglan had insisted on being at the end. She had a gut feeling that if the attack came, it wouldn’t come from the front.

It would come from behind, like a predator chasing down the weak. If they were at the back, they could at least act as a shield to buy the others time.

Su Qinglan looked over at Lan Yue, who was riding beside her. Her heart filled with heartache.

Lan Yue’s stomach was huge; she was heavily pregnant and looked exhausted. She was only a few days away from giving birth.

Su Qinglan felt a surge of worry. Lan Yue was a mermaid. She needed water...specifically the sea...to give birth safely and comfortably.

But here they were, running through a dry, dusty forest with a horde of monsters at their heels.

"Lan Yue, are you holding up?" Su Qinglan whispered, reaching out to steady her sister.

Lan Yue wiped sweat from her forehead and gave a weak, forced smile. "I’m okay, sister. I just... I wish I could smell the salt in the air. This dirt is making my skin feel so dry." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Su Qinglan squeezed her hand, but she didn’t know what to say. They hadn’t found any sea yet.

She looked at the horizon, her mind racing. How was her sister going to survive a birth in the middle of a forest while being hunted?

Suddenly....

The terrifying sound of a fox beastman’s howl suddenly tore through the air from the direction they had just come.

It wasn’t a call for help; it was the warning howl of the scouts.

Everyone stiffened. The long line of people seemed to skip a beat in terror.

That howl meant only one thing: the scout team had spotted the beast tide. The monsters had already reached the Fox Tribe’s empty village.

"They’re there," Su Qinglan whispered, her voice trembling. "They’re at our home."

The realization was like a cold blade to the heart.

Only a few hours ago, she had been sleeping in her warm bed. Now, that bed was likely being trampled and ripped apart by mindless, bloodthirsty monsters.

"Run! Don’t look back!" Su Mingxuan’s voice roared from the front.

The pace changed instantly. The quiet, steady walk turned into a desperate, panicked sprint.

Almost all the males had already transformed into their beast forms. Huge wolves, powerful tigers, and agile foxes were now carrying heavy loads of food on their backs, with small cubs clinging to their thick fur and exhausted females riding on their shoulders.

Su Qinglan gripped the thick fur on Hu Yan’s neck as his massive tiger body lunged forward.

He was running even faster now, his muscles bunching and stretching with every powerful leap.

Beside them, Xuan Long’s serpent form flickered through the undergrowth like a dark shadow, his cold eyes constantly checking the treeline.

The terror in the air was thick enough to taste.

Every time a branch snapped or a bush rustled, the females let out small, stifled gasps of fear.

They knew that if the beasts had reached the village, it was only a matter of time before the fastest ones caught up to the end of the line.

Su Qinglan looked back one last time. She couldn’t see the village anymore, but she could imagine the black tide of evil creatures swarming over their houses.

She felt a deep, hollow sadness. They were homeless, running through the dark, with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a prayer that they could outrun death.

"Hold on tight, Lan Lan," Hu Yan growled, his voice vibrating through his chest. "I won’t let them touch you."

Su Qinglan buried her face in his fur, tears finally spilling over, even without realizing.

But her face stiffened when she heard something else....

The desperate sounds of running paws and heavy breathing were suddenly drowned out by a series of sharp, piercing screeches from above.

Su Qinglan looked up, her heart sinking. The sky wasn’t empty.

Dozens of large, dark shadows were circling low over the trees, their massive wings beating the air with a rhythmic thud-thud-thud.

It wasn’t just one or two scouts; it was a hunting party.

"Bird Tribe!" a fox beastman screamed, his voice full of hate and fear.

"Those bastards! They’ve come to finish us off!"

The bird beastmen weren’t just watching.

They dived low, their sharp talons scraping against the treetops. They were screeching at the top of their lungs, a terrifying sound meant to cause panic and slow down the fleeing tribe.

They wanted the Fox Tribe to stop so the beast tide could catch them.

At the front of the line, Su Mingxuan let out a roar of pure fury.

His red fur bristled as he looked up at the circling predators. He knew now, beyond any doubt, that the Bird Tribe had played the biggest hand in their demise.

They weren’t just neighbors; they were vultures waiting for his people to die.

"You cowards!" Su Mingxuan snarled, his voice echoing through the forest. "You hide in the clouds while the monsters do your dirty work! Have you no shame?"

A large hawk beastman dived toward a group of females near the middle of the line, his talons extended to snatch away a bag of dried meat...or worse, a cub.

"The food is ours! The females are ours!" the birdman shrieked. "You’re all going to die anyway! Why waste good resources?"

"Get back!" Hu Yan roared, swiping a massive tiger paw at a birdman who tried to dive toward Su Qinglan. The birdman barely dodged, losing a few feathers in the process.

The Bird Tribe was being incredibly cruel.

They knew the Fox Tribe couldn’t fly, so they stayed just out of reach, dive-bombing the line to cause chaos.

Every time a fox beastman tripped or a mother stopped to protect her child, the line slowed down.