The next day, Winston went to the cave. After glancing at the females huddled up in their animal skin and reluctant to come out, he went straight to the innermost corner for Rosa.
Smoke floated at the entrance as a large pot of thick ginger soup brewed on the fire. Of course, the person attending next to the pot was the only doctor in the village—Harvey.
Harvey decided to stay next to the cave as he was worried about the females. He looked towards Winston and Rosa.
“I have something to ask you.” Winston crouched down beside Rosa’s nest and stared at her with a torch-like gaze. “Are the floating beasts here for you?”
Even though Rosa couldn’t speak, he gave her an opportunity to clarify her position.
If Rosa was only being made use of, he could still somewhat tolerate it and send her to other villages as per their original plan. But if Rosa was intentionally putting Bai Qingqing and the village in danger, he would see to it that she suffered a fate worse than death!
Seized by panic, Rosa shook her head vigorously.
Winston said with his eyes staring intently upon her, “On account of our past ties, this is the last chance I’m giving you.”
Rosa froze. Recalling that she had already stopped bleeding today and was in the most intense period of her estrous cycle, she shook her head resolutely once more.
The floating beasts must be even crazier now. How could she admit to it when the fun was just about to begin?
If she confessed, she would most certainly be abandoned. Only by denying would she have a shot at survival.
When the floating beasts swarmed in later, males would definitely step forward to protect her. She would still have a chance to live.
“I hope you’re not lying,” Winston said with a look of pity, then got to his feet. “Send the females not in heat to the mountain opposite.”
“I’ll make the arrangements immediately,” the tribal head responded, then instructed some beastmen to escort the females there.
Winston walked to Harvey’s side and said, “Your sense of smell is the keenest amongst us. Help me do something.”
Though surprised, Harvey instantly followed him into the rain.
Hidden within their shells thickly layered with filth, the sexual organ of female floating beasts gave off a repulsive stench. Hence, beastmen couldn’t easily distinguish the odor they gave off when in heat (From this point one could see that floating beasts had a sharper sense of smell than beastmen).
He had captured a female floating beast that was in the midst of mating and so asked Harvey to go over and sniff it.
Harvey edged closer to the floating beast’s tail and sniffed at it. The smell was so pungent that he furrowed his brows right away.
“How is it?” asked Winston.
“It’s an awful stench.” Harvey was speechless, for he wasn’t a male floating beast who was attracted to such a smell.
“Don’t you find the smell familiar?” Winston asked. He wasn’t sure if it was because Harvey’s sense of smell wasn’t sensitive enough, or if he was investigating in the wrong direction. His expression was so serious that it induced fear in others.
“What?” Harvey sounded confused. Though, now that Winston reminded him, he seemed to recall smelling something similar somewhere.
Harvey paused in concentration, and Winston didn’t press him either, merely staring fixedly at him.
Suddenly, Harvey’s countenance changed greatly, and he gasped. “I remember now! Rosa gave off an identical scent to the floating beast when she was in heat! It’s just that there wasn’t that stench of water accumulated over a long period.”
Winston inhaled deeply and closed his eyes.
Bang! A deafening crash resounded.
The irascible floating beasts managed to push down a gigantic piece of rock at the city wall. Now that the defense barrier was broken down, the floating beasts started swarming in with an unstoppable force.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
The tiger beastmen roared as the floating beasts gushed in, yet all they could do was to helplessly retreat.
Completely soaked in the rain, from the way they didn’t dare to attack despite having encircled the floating beasts, their attitude made clear that the situation was hopeless. The only thing they could do was to make an empty show of strength by bellowing at the intruders. This was more or less the same for the eagle beastmen—though their signature tactic when it came to dealing with these floating beasts was to poke at their eyes, merely blinding one or two of them wouldn’t help matters since there were so many of them.
But the floating beasts seemed to have lost all rationality, and the only thing they knew was to charge forward.