Chapter 197: Hunting the Moonlight Wyrm

Zhang Lie hung up amidst six shocked faces, then activated the teleportation array to send them all to the dimensional world. With a flash, Team Zenith appeared once more in the Blacksteel settlement.

As expected, no one was present when they arrived.

"Captain, wasn't that Commander Yan Long? Are you sure it's alright to just hang up on him like that?" Fang Yi asked cautiously.

"There's no problem at all—at worst, we'll apologize to him tomorrow. It's far more important that we manage to take down the moonlit wyrm today."

They passed through the Blacksteel settlement and found, to no great surprise, no hunter at all present.

"Captain, you were right—there really is no one around!" Sun Xiaowu exclaimed.

"Of course! The Void Cup happens only once every five years, and it's a massive event both in the real world and the dimensional world. This is particularly true on the eve of the worldwide stage, and essentially all hunters will be taking this opportunity to relax and watch the tournament. We should be thankful for this—otherwise, it really wouldn't be easy for us to hunt down the moonlight wyrm unnoticed." Perhaps because everything was going according to plan, Zhang Lie patiently explained the thought process behind his decision.

The hunters encountered no one else at all as they traveled to their destination, the Moonlit Pond.

"Alright, everyone, get in position!" Zhang Lie whispered. The hunters of Team Zenith split into two groups, flanking the Moonlit Pond from the left and the right.

As they had planned, the left flank would harass and distract the wyrm, and would comprise Yang Ze, Li Feng, and Zhou Ying. The right flank would focus on auxiliary damage, and would comprise Fang Yi, Sun Mengmeng, and Sun Xiaowu.

The main attacker, Zhang Lie, was hovering by the top of the waterfall. After confirming that everyone was in position, he retrieved two large potion bottles, one an acid green, the other speckled with dark flecks. He poured both into the Moonlit Pond. The green and black potions dyed the clear water a ghastly dark green.

At the same time, Zhang Lie began to circulate genetic energy throughout his body, preparing for the moonlight wyrm's emergence. The rest of Team Zenith did the same.

Moments after the potions filled the pond, a huge bubble of air emerged from its center, and the prepared hunters immediately vanished from sight.

An enraged roar shook the whole forest. The next moment, a pure-white wyrm emerged from the pond within sight of everyone. Its scales seemed like white jade, and it had a small horn sticking out of the top of its head. Its rage and anger were evident on its face.

The moment it headed out of the surface of the water, Yang Ze, Li Feng, and Zhou Ying immediately began to strike. Zhou Ying would be leading the attacks, with Yang Ze and Li Feng aiding her from behind.

Activating her devil-face spider, forest wolfman, and blood ant soulshards, she cried out, "[Avatar of the Fae: Dance of the Earth Dragon]!"

Two jade-green dragons darted out of her hands like two beams of light. When the moonlight wyrm, its pure-white scales already starting to be speckled with black, discovered her presence, it shot out two arrows of water to counter her attack.

The two wood dragons splintered, but the momentum of the water arrows was hardly reduced. Yang Ze and Li Feng hastily stepped forward, intending to counter the blow.

"[Avatar of the Fae: Earthbound Prison]!" Zhou Ying stomped on the ground, her feet seemingly becoming rooted. The patch of ground beneath and all around her began to glow green, and hundreds of jade-green roots flew into the air, rushing toward the moonlight wyrm.

Although the water arrows were strong, the sheer number of roots managed to overwhelm the attack, causing the arrows to disperse into mist in mid-air.

The moonlight wyrm roared at Zhou Ying, its tail whirling around the surface of the water, generating countless miniature black wyrms to strike back at Zhou Ying's roots. As the attacks clashed with each other, slivers of wood and splashes of water flew toward each of the hunters.

As expected of a peak-grade lifeform, even with the aid of Li Feng and Yang Ze, Zhou Ying was ultimately unable to deal with the moonlight wyrm's attack, and dozens of the remaining black wyrms rushed toward Zhou Ying.

However, Zhou Ying had planned for this eventuality. The trees around her suddenly began to wither, their mass forming into a gigantic forest wolfman tens of meters tall. He was formed out of solid, dark-green wood, with golden, resplendent armor covering his body and spikes protruding out of his flesh. From appearance alone, he was a force to be reckoned with.

As he howled, a pair of golden swords suddenly materialized in his hands. He smashed apart all the black wyrms heading in his direction, then turned to the moonlight wyrm and sent a few slices of sword energy in its direction.

The dramatic rise of the forest wolfman instantly caught the moonlight wyrm's attention. This time around, instead of using a technique, the moonlight wyrm met him with its body, all its attention focused on this newfound foe.

It smashed apart the forest wolfman's attack with its tail, but the moment it did so, the three hunters on the other side of the pond made their move. A bird's cry pierced the skies as a tricolored firebird appeared behind the moonlight wyrm. It was doused in wind-, fire-, and thunder-attuned genetic energy, with an aura no less strong than the wolfman from before.

The moonlight wyrm instantly recognized the threat.

At the same time, Zhou Ying continued launching even more attacks. A dozen wood dragons launched out of the earth by the side of the gigantic wolfman. The golden swords in his hands turned blood-colored: it was evident that the three hunters, currently seated by the top of the forest wolfman's head, had activated their mutated blood ant soulshards.

With wood dragons by the surface of the pond, a bloody greatsword by its front, and a firebird coming from behind, the moonlight wyrm seemed to be in dire straits. The next moment, however, the water in the Moonlit Pond suddenly streamed out of the pond. The force of the water splintered Zhou Ying's wood dragons, and it even forced the three hunters' combined sword technique back.

The tricolored firebird was quenched instantly, but the arrow still managed to break through countless layers of water and strike the moonlight wyrm's flank.

It howled in rage at the fact that it had been hit by a lowly hunter's attack; despite the fact that Sun Mengmeng's arrow had only barely scratched its skin, the moonlight wyrm was enraged that it had managed to achieve even that much. It roared up at the skies, then summoned a huge torrent of genetic energy with which it seemed poised to launch at Sun Mengmeng.

However, just as it was glaring at Sun Mengmeng, another figure appeared between its eyes. With this figure's appearance, the glowing moon in the sky was replaced by its bloody twin. A winged tiger roared; as bloody ripples spread through the air, the moonlight wyrm, whose body was starting to feel numb, suddenly felt a sense of unease.

"[The Boundless Blade: Requiem of the End]!" That moment, a violet-black shooting star headed toward its right eye.

As expected of a peak-grade lifeform, it was able to react even to such a sudden attack, but its hasty defenses were no match for the blow that Zhang Lie had been charging up for ever since the start of the battle.

As Zhang Lie thrust Venombane into the moonlight wyrm's eye, the sword technique composed of three elements rampaged its body.