Gradually Logan's flexed muscles went back into his body. He was breathing heavily when he saw David standing up.? Apart from a few splashes of red blood and black goo on his robes, he looked perfectly fin in Logan's eyes. The same couldn't be said to Logan himself as he wanted to stop fighting the urge to faint.

Logan bent down, clenching his knees to support his body from falling down. The rest of the team was too spent to gawk at Michael in surprise.

"Keep your shit together big guy, we have one more thing to take care of" Michael gave a shot pat on Logan's shoulder before walking towards the rest of the group.

On his way, Michael picked up a crossbow bolt from the ground. They all wondered what's he doing

Bam!N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

Their bodies again tensed up when they saw Michael lift Jessie by his neck and slam him against a tree. The tree trembled as leaves and twigs blasted away by the force,

Marcella immediately raised her crossbow at Michael while the others also had serious looks on their faces.

"What the hell are you doing?!" H shouted,

Instead of answering, Michael just stared at the masked face of Jessie for a few moments.

"What..." Jessie tried to speak but words barely escaped through against Michael's clutch.

"Did anyone notice that the black panther never targeted Jessie or attacked him?" They were all confused by Michael's question. In the heat of the battle, they never noticed anything weird.

"He stayed out of its target range, so what?" Marcella growled, refusing to let Michael manhandle Jessie like this. She knew and trusted Jessie more than Michael

Giving no answer to Marcella, he just ripped off Jessie's cloth covering his arm. The moment H and everyone saw Jessie's right forearm, they took a step back from him. Marcella's eyes went wide as her body jerked in shock.

Jessie's forearm had a two-inch diameter circle bite mark. The area around the mark was riddled with yellow and blue veins.

"It's...nothing..." Jessie mumbled,

"He was already infected when the battle started, that was why the panther never targeted him, that was why he was stumbling on the way"

The first thing that raised the suspicion on Jessie was when he stumbled down. If Jessie was here, it was obvious he's an expert thief. Otherwise, Ross or H wouldn't have hired him. A single misstep would cost a thief's life hence they trained themselves to take each step with utmost care no matter where they are. For an expert thief like Jessie, falling down clumsily was pretty unusual.

The next thing was when the team fought the panther, although it focused its attacks on him, Logan, and Marcella, it never seemed to target Jessie. Besides, he also kept scratching his forearm instead of throwing the throwing knives hidden inside his cloak.

"How long?" H asked, gently patting Michael's hand, wordlessly telling him to loosen his grip.

Michael did loosen his grip but didn't let go,

"Grhh" only a menacing growl came out of Jessie's mouth. Jonah cautiously stepped towards Jessie, adjusting his glasses to examine the wound.

"Judging by the color around the wound, I'd say three hours"

"That's approximately the time we faced the undead monkeys," said Brownie. Thinking weak undead such as the monkeys managed to bite Jessie, he just shook his head in disappointment.

"If my guess is right...he will turn undead in...one hour" he stuttered in fear. The reality of someone he knew will be undead in a matter of time freaked him out.

However before the drone could fly deeper into the forest, he controlled it to fly around them, making a rustling noise.

"Something's coming" Michael quickly stepped out from the darkness of the tree. H shouted at the team as he had nothing to do with the noise,

zzzhhhhhhh

The noise immediately stopped the arguing.

"We're moving" This time everyone followed H, leaving Ross and Maria behind. They didnt think Ross would be dumb enough to stick around, burying Jessie. Digging a grave for Jessie at this moment was equal to digging two more graves for him and his daughter.

"You're coming with me" Ross grabbed Maria by her hand and started moving. She was still stupid enough to struggle but this time, she couldnt escape Ross's hold.

Michael followed them behind while the drone kept making noises by flying around them. Looking at the speed they were running, he wished he used the drone earlier which would have saved them some time.

They continued to run as fast as they could. Even after a couple of hours, they never dared to stop. Eventually, after running for so long, Michael heard the sound of water flowing.

"The river is closer," H reminded them.

"Human, we have a problem" suddenly, he heard Gaya's voice. What she said slowed his pace of running,

"What is it?"

He whispered,

"It wasn't one team hunting for the artifact, it's two. One group was already dead when I tracked them down"

"Where?"

The thickness of the trees suddenly declined as they stepped out of the forest to see a beautiful river.

"Near a river on the south"

Gaya answered but he already knew the answer. The shore was filled with almost twenty bodies. Their blood painted the golden sandy shore red.

"What happened here?'

The sunlight entered in abundance due to the lack of canopy above them. It reflected on the dead bodies and the broken ship parts floating on the river.

The team cautiously took steps forward towards the dead bodies. Everyone was on their guard. He wished he sent three more drones so one would have surveyed this direction. The drone he sent unfortunately covered the forest quite some distance from this place.

After slowly approaching the sight, they came to the first dead body on the shore. It was of a middle-aged man. He wore a toga just like the two southerners Michael met on Lars's ship. He wondered what a nobleman was doing in a dangerous place like this.

Michael squatted down beside the dead body to study the wounds inflicted on the body.

"Gaya was right, he wasn't killed by an undead but a human" looking at the clean-cut across his throat, he could tell it was the handiwork of a human. No undead would kill with such precision or leave the body untouched.

"They were killed by humans" Marcella came to the same conclusion as Michael.