The First King of Beasts
Chapter 37 Scape Goats

"HEY! Benny!" "Be fast!" "Come over!" Multiple voices yelled out to the only man stuck in the middle of the river at that point.

Before he could think of heeding their instructions however, the shark started showing signs of movement again. He quickly swam back to the closest side of the river as his hands moved like engine boats in the water.

'No, I can't listen to them! Go forward? That's suicide!' The man, Benny, thought, as he headed for the side of the river they came from.

The shark seemed to be following disturbances in the water, as it completely abandoned the free food close to it and moved with good speed towards Benny. His misfortune only grew by the second.

"Faster Benny! Faster!" Voices shouted from the other side.

Luckily for Benny, the shark had only missed him by a margin as he quickly ran out of the water and unto land. 'That was close! Too close.' Benny thought, just before getting hit by the obvious realization which side of the river he was on.

"Now, how-how am I, going to get to the other side? Surely, they would wait for me, right?" Benny blurted out nonsense out of desperation. But, that didn't last for long, and he came back to his senses the next second. "No, have I gone dumb? Even on earth that's impossible."

Just as he was processing what to do next, a voice cut through his thoughts. "Benny!" Nathan shouted from the other side. "You do know what this means right?!"

'Of course. This snake.' "..." 'I shouldn't be cursing him, not after everything. It's nobody's fault, just bad luck.' Benny said in his mind while remaining silent.

Both sides stayed silent for a while, before Benny broke the silence. "Push on! I'll meet you sons of bitches at the red marker!" Benny said, with a crude smile etched on his face. It was obvious, even he didn't believe in his words. Though, no one would be able to notice the smile because of the distance, they didn't believe his words either, and some even started mourning for him.

The two brothers after a short while turned their backs on Benny while wishing him luck. With all their equipments, against the monster in the river, there was absolutely nothing they could do for Benny. Everyone, one after the other turned, some with frowns on their faces cursing their strength, while others sad. Today, they had lost some of their members, and abandoned one. They felt defeated in a sense, and the cruelty of their current world further edged into their being.

"now that their gone, what next?" Benny asked.

He was a bit capable when it came to fighting monsters, so survival wasn't that big of an issue, and replaceing food would be relatively easier. The only problem was a way to get to the other side. Two months had already passed at this time, and with every second that went by, the time seemed to be speeding up.

As he had no other choice, he camped close to the river that night, and the next, and the next. It wasn't until almost a week after the initial incident that some groups started appearing at the scene. Obviously, as everyone who came after met Benny there, they checked with him the situation, and why he hadn't attempted to cross the river.

Benny generously shared with them the information he had, and the ones who asked started camping with him, not daring to even attempt the cross. Though, as everything goes, this didn't last for long.

Two days after the first group arrived, making it one week after Benny was left there, a unique group arrived at the scene. This group was made up of only women, and they weren't just some pleasing to the eyes type. They all looked like the type of women that a guy would avoid, because of the air around them.

After scanning the various groups of people staying beside the beach, one of the women directly walked up to one of the groups and requested information about why people were gathered beside the river. Though her manner of approach was rude, the answer she sort was given unto her. With a belittling scuff, she ran her eyes through the crowd of people, then returned to her group.

They didn't waste much time around, and headed straight towards the river. All eyes were on them as they walked, each of their steps carrying pride. Without even bothering to take off a bit of clothing, all 10 of the women entered the river, and when it was enough started swimming.

Everyone kempt their eyes on the women, to see if there really was something in the river so fearful. If the group was able to cross safely to the other side-

"Mr. Benny. What do you think about their actions? Shouldn't we at least warm them?" Kane, the leader of the first group to arrive there asked Benny, as he too fixed his eyes on the women.

"Heh. Kid, in this world, minding your business is always the safer route. Just sit here and watch." Benny said with a dull look on his face as he lazily replied to Kane.

To be honest, Kane had gotten the impression that Benny was part of some group of killers or something, and was just setting a trap to maybe, rob and kill people? He wasn't sure, but he didn't trust him a hundred percent, not even fifty. Though he had this suspicions, he also wasn't ready to take the risk of crossing the river. There was no way to tell whether Benny was telling the truth or not, so he could only wait for those that would be used as the experimental subjects.

And surely, after two days of waiting, such generous volunteers had shown themselves. Of course, it wasn't only Kane who thought like this, rather, everyone there did. As for Benny, he just could care less.

Everything was going smoothly for a while as the women reached the middle of the river. There was absolutely no disturbance like a monster attack or anything, absolutely nothing. The people watching were starting to think if the story about a monster being in the river was only a made up tale by some sicko, but soon after, their curiosity was alleviated.

Just as the first woman reached shallow waters where her feet was a couple feet from touching the river bed, something changed. They didn't notice it as it happened, but every other person, does that were watching did. The water to their left formed a pattern on top, like an object under the surface was moving close to the surface, and it was big. At that moment, the fate of the women was already sealed. Now, what everyone wanted to see was the kind of monster that would emerge from the water.

*Bash! Boom!

The sound of water suddenly being smashed against a large substance echoed, as the woman in front of the line who also happened to be the leader turned back to look at what was happening. What her eyes saw caused her to freeze on the spot, unable to move an inch. Blood polluted the surface of the river, as three of the women were nowhere to be seen, and all she caught sight of was just the later parts of the giant fish monster as it went back under water.

Every other person watching remained with their eyes wide open and mouths unable to speak, as they had fully seen the entire monster's body, all except Benny.

Except for the leader, the remaining women entered a state of panic as they struggled to get out of the water, but even then their plan didn't work as well. In the end, only one of the women survived, and she was not the leader.

For those that witnessed the scene, it was simply impossible to dream of killing that monster. With such bodily proportions, height of almost three metres tall and a length of almost 8 metres, with proper girth to fit, it was way above their league.

While everybody stared speechless, Benny was the only one with a smile on his face.

"M-Mr. Benny, why are you smiling?" Kane asked, confused as to why anybody would be smiling in such a situation. 'Did he have such a twisted personality and taste?' Kane could only wonder.

"Oh? It's because I've seen the way to cross of course." Benny said in a low voice, while Kane's eyes looked in surprise and anticipation.