After more than an hour of hunting, almost every member of the hunting party carried a game animal; although these animals were not enough to feed the entire party, they were more than sufficient to fill the stomachs of those noble lords.
Although Linde's hunting skills primarily involved setting traps and he was not adept at tracking prey, he possessed extraordinary sensory perception; relying on his exceptional hearing, sight, and smell, he could easily find suitable prey even in the rain.
The only drawback was that his archery skills were slightly lacking; if it weren't raining and they were in an open area, he might be able to hit the prey, but in the current situation, hitting prey was purely a matter of luck.
Fortunately, there were archer hunters in the party, otherwise, it would have taken them much longer to catch enough prey.
"Let's go! Let's head back," Linde nodded, agreeing with Raul's suggestion.
Perhaps thinking of the warm bonfire they could roast by upon returning, and the chance to change out of their wet and heavy clothes, everyone's steps became lighter, and they even began to joke around.
"Stop, everyone be quiet! Be on guard," However, after walking for about ten minutes, Linde suddenly stopped, called out to everyone, and then looked towards a dense thicket to his right.
Because everyone had already witnessed Linde's powerful searching abilities, when Linde gave the order, they all stopped, silently put down their prey, and took out their bows and arrows, ready to draw and shoot at any moment.
At this moment, Linde looked at the dense thicket ahead with some confusion, concentrating on finding the unknown presence that made him feel dangerous.
Just now, Linde suddenly had a strong sense of danger; the hairs on his body even stood up because of it, which made him immediately order a halt to their movement, to stand guard, and at the same time, carefully search the dense thicket that had triggered the intense feeling of danger.
Although he searched carefully, Linde found nothing, and even the sense of danger disappeared; just as he thought it was merely a hallucination, his extremely sensitive hearing seemed to pick up a faint breathing sound coming from that dense thicket.
"Be careful, be on guard!" The moment Linde sensed the faint breathing, he also saw the bushes under the dense thicket begin to tremble slightly; this trembling was not due to raindrops, but because something else was passing through that dense thicket; realizing this, Linde immediately warned the others and drew the twin swords from his waist.
Immediately after, a large, blurry black shadow darted out from the thicket, rushing at an incredibly fast speed towards the hunters closest to it; before the hunters could react, it passed through the gaps between them, then snatched a small deer from the ground and charged into the forest on the other side.
Everyone was stunned by this scene; they never expected a black shadow to rush out of the dense thicket, and for its target to be a dead deer.
Although due to the cover of darkness and rain, even those who brushed past the black shadow couldn't clearly see what it was, only vaguely discerning it as a beast, Linde saw it clearly: the black shadow looked like a large black panther, and the only animal with such a form in Linde's memory was the legendary Shadow Lynx.
Although the Shadow Lynx is predominantly black, the black in its fur is not entirely uniform, giving its coat a striped pattern, much like zebra stripes.
"What was that just now?" Raul asked, his voice slightly trembling, looking at the direction where the black shadow disappeared, still feeling lingering fear.
"A Shadow Lynx," Linde answered truthfully.
Upon hearing this, everyone gasped; being hunters themselves, they knew very well what the outcome would be if they encountered a hungry Shadow Lynx in the dark forest; at the same time, they were extremely fortunate that the Shadow Lynx did not attack people just now, but instead took a prey animal, which meant that the Shadow Lynx should not reappear, and they would not have to worry about being attacked by it again.
"You all go back first," Linde said to the others, setting down a wild boar he had been carrying on his back.
Everyone was stunned upon hearing this, believing that Linde wanted to hunt a Shadow Lynx, as for a hunter, successfully hunting a Shadow Lynx was definitely an honor.
Additionally, among hunters in Westeros and Essos, there has always been a legend: it is said that if a hunter can hunt ten powerful game animals, that hunter will receive the blessing of the Old Gods, eventually gaining the power to hunt dragons.
Although the names of the ten beasts varied, mountain bears and Shadow Lynx were always on every list, so everyone subconsciously assumed that Linde wanted to complete that legendary hunting list and become a legendary hunter capable of hunting dragons.
"You want to complete that legendary hunting list?" Raul asked Linde, curious.
Hearing Raul's words, Linde felt a moment of confusion, then quickly realized that everyone had misunderstood, but he did not explain, merely motioning for Raul and the others to return quickly, and to report truthfully if anyone asked about him.
Seeing this, everyone said nothing more; Raul became the leader, re-shouldered the game, and reminded Linde to be careful before continuing towards the camp.
Although in the half month since leaving Bitterbridge Castle, Linde had been demoted from a knight's squire to the most arduous scout team, none of the Tyrell's guard warriors, servants, or noble knights believed that Linde had lost his standing; they knew very well that Linde's demotion to the scout team was actually just a test, and it wouldn't be long before Linde returned to his rightful place.
For those low-ranking warriors, this was instead a good opportunity to befriend Linde; when Linde became a formal knight in the future, as Linde's friends, they would more or less receive some benefits; at the very least, as Linde's friends, they would no longer be bullied.
Thus, many guards voluntarily offered to join the scout team and work with Linde; for example, Raul, who had a good relationship with Linde among the guards, was one of them.