They moved slowly through the forest. As per the 'crazy' idea from Ben, they were moving towards the animus.
The reason they were going with this idea was because Ben informed them of the habits of a leo. The animus version of leo was a semi-solo creature which would normally be like a hidden leader to a pride. It will not get in the way of regular happenings in the pride. Its sole reason to come down to a pride would be to mate and make the next generation during mating season. Leo also does not attack until and unless it is either attacked or it was hungry.
As they were moving, they saw a group of tellu beouf. The herd was moving towards a lake. The group contained about 20 of them. Ben and friends waited. The herd reached the lake and began to drink water. Jim found a plant called venenum flor. This was a plant which could cause lose of consciousness and weakness. Tellu beoufs soon completed drinking water. Then they began to rest for a while. No other animals were there. Ben and Saarsh observed them. Rais, Roshin and Jim were preparing a way to use the plant. Jim suddenly remembered something. He said in a hushed tone :
"Guys I know something. Venenum flor has only a slight smell, which is so negligent that it is common for some herbivores to accidently eat it and fall asleep. But the thing is that it grows in a solitary manner as it sucks all the nutrients from the surrounding area. Other species of shrubs does not grow near by them. That thing is avoided by the more experienced members of the group and they will teach the young to avoid it. That is how the entire herd survive. I think we can just throw it in their direction and when they see it, they will eat it. They will fall unconscious and we can kill them." The others looked at each other. Roshin said looking at Ben "Is it contagious? He is talking about nerdy stuff."
They did not have much time. So, the group suppressed their laughter and covered their noses and plucked the plant. After drinking the water, the beoufs began to graze the nearby grass. By this time Ben and the group had put these plants in between this grass. The creatures did not suspect anything. Even the experienced members of the group did not suspect a thing because of the lack of smell for this plant. One by one they began to fall asleep. Ben and his group looked at each other. The difficult and riskiest part of their plan was going to start now.
They soon tied up the young and small unconscious beoufs using plant ropes which they sourced from the forest. From the forest they cut four sturdy tree branches and used them to transport the calves. They did not kill the other beoufs. Next second their devices updated their hunt. 60 points for the team for hunting two beouf calves. They smiled. But still they were nervous. Ben was more nervous than others. This was his plan, if something went wrong, he would be putting the lives of his friends in jeopardy.
The group travelled in the direction of the animus. The leo was unconsciously releasing pressure. It did not care about other life forms being affected by it. Normally when teachers released pressure, there was a control to it. They did it so that students did not suffer any dire consequences. The leo did not have any such qualms. The group gritted their teeth and moved forward.
The leo had sensed the approach of the group. To it these creatures were of little interest. So long as these creatures did not disturb him, the animus had no problems with the group. It was also not that hungry.
Ben and his friends moved towards the animus. The leo saw them. It was on a higher ground outside of its cave. When they understood that the leo saw them, they put down the calves and ran away. The leo looked at the calves and the group that was running away with interest. Then it came down from its adobe. It smelled the calves and made sure nothing was wrong with these. Seeing that the calves are alive it manipulated the nearby vegetation like a conveyor belt and moved the unconscious calves to its cave.
They group was hiding not that far. Soon they heard the cries of those calves. They were not too happy about it. But they had to. The most difficult part of the plan was over. The leo did not attack them. The team waited for some time. Seeing that the leo did not seek them out, they heaved a sigh of relief.
Soon they found a place that was inconspicuous and set their tent and sleeping bags. They also needed to create some things to prevent predators from coming near them. It was a tedious process. They were physically and mentally fatigued after all the work that was done. Still they had divide among themselves as to who will guard at night. Saarsh and Roshin were guarding for the night and Roshin will guard during the day and Jim and Ben would go for hunt during the day. That was the plan for tomorrow. They had to check the behaviour of the leo.
The next day, Ben and Jim went out to hunt. They caught four canins, small hopping creatures with large ears and one Ciervos, medium sized herbivores which could run fast. The canins were caught with the guns and were killed. The Ciervos was caught by drugging it with the venenum flor.
Jim cooked the canins by using the nearby spices. They used a fan to disperse of the smoke so that it did not rise that much. This was another thing they were trying out. Soon they took the meat of one of the canins and a tied up ciervos to the last spot they gave the leo its meal. In a short while, they again heard the cries of the creature and then silence.
With this they had 100 points. Then something unexpected happened. They were the first ones to be get to the 100 point mark and this was announced to all the teams. As soon as Ben's team saw it, they knew they were marked. Though the location of them was not given out, it was only a matter of time before one of the other 3 teams found them. Now they had to accelerate their plans. The other teams could attack them or try to steal their kills or sabotage them. They had to move fast.
At that time an unexpected thing happened. A group of flamma lupis came near them. The group was 40 in number. The group was on the other side of a stream and looking at them. The one which looked like its leader first growled at them and then grunted at its pack. As soon as they were about to cross the stream, they simply stopped. Ben and his friends were confused. They looked behind them , nothing was there. But when they looked closely, they saw that the lupis were bound by some plants preventing them from moving. Ben smiled and looked in the direction of the animus and said, "Long live the king".