Chapter 39: The Hunt Begins

Zhang Lie's strategy wasn't all that complicated: he simply informed them about key points they would need to be careful about. Except for Zhang Lie, all of them were facing a superior-grade lifeform for the first time, and he didn't want any of them to die during this hunt.

After ten minutes, Zhang Lie, along with Fang Yi and Sun Mengmeng's teams, found the two fighting lifeforms in a large, mountainous valley: a multi-colored speckled dreadtoad, as well as an antlered thunderfur polecat.

Each of the two lifeforms had sustained substantive injuries, reflecting how serious the fight was. Their fighting had stirred up such a dense cloud of dust that the gathered hunters could only barely see their figures from the outside, and they had no idea how the fight was progressing.

"All this for one roasted pig?" Fang Yi was stupefied at the scene.

"Could a single flamewind pig lure out so many lifeforms, even a superior-grade dreadtoad? It seems to me that you aren't much smarter than the roasted pig! Of course our captain had to have added some sort of special spice to it! Can't you tell?"

Sun Mengmeng's banter with Fang Yi made Zhang Lie recall certain images from his past life.

"Haha, in that case, doesn't that mean that we'll have an easy fight? To think our captain's planned for all this in advance!" Fang Yi was quite a good bootlicker.

Zhang Lie laughed. "If you have time to praise me, why not think about how to deal with the aftermath of their fight? Given our team's strength, even if I did do something to that pig, and even if they're both battered from the fight, we can only hunt one of them down. Of the two lifeforms, which would you rather hunt?"

Sun Mengmeng immediately replied, "The thunderfur polecat, of course! After all, the aural attack from that dreadtoad's far too hard to handle."

Fang Yi thought for a moment before replying, "Great minds think alike, and I agree with you. However, in order to deal with that polecat, we need to think of a way to slow it down. Otherwise, we might well end up with nothing! Captain, I'm sure you must have thought of a strategy by now, haven't you?"

Fang Yi's bootlicking was starting to discomfit even Zhang Lie. He blinked, then shook his head.

"No, you were both wrong from the beginning. Our prey should be the dreadtoad, not the polecat. This valley is extremely large, and the dreadtoad's aural attack will be dramatically weakened in such an open environment. Furthermore, as a toad-type creature, it only has limited means of attack.

"On the other hand, the thunderfur polecat is a sly creature that can move rapidly, and it's not certain that we'll be able to stop it from running away even in its wounded state. Thus, to be safe, our target will be the dreadtoad. Go and make your preparations!"

Zhang Lie would be the main attacker for the fight, and since he had decided on the dreadtoad, the rest of the team would naturally defer to him. After all, he was the one who would be leading the attack. Furthermore, his skill and knowledge was certainly greater than theirs, and his analysis allowed them to see the errors in their judgment.

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In truth, what they would be able to do against these two superior-grade lifeforms was very limited. However, they might have to face more than just lifeforms during the fight.

Just as they had discovered the two superior-grade lifeforms, others could easily do the same. In order to avoid any sudden ambushes by other teams of hunters, Zhang Lie would need sentries to keep guard.

As a barrage of lightning struck a curiously dark wave of sound, the force of the explosion and the resulting outpouring of genetic energy made a mess of the greenery about the valley. Even from a distance, one could hear the cries of a toad and the roars of a beast.

As expected, both lifeforms were brutalized by the fight. The right half of the dreadtoad's face was charred black, and a hole had opened up by the thunderfur polecat's stomach.

The lifeforms both began to flee, as if they had simultaneously come to their senses and decided that the fight wasn't worth it. The only reason they had started fighting was for that roasted pig. By this point, they both knew that their opponent wouldn't be easy to deal with, and if they were to keep fighting, they might well lose their lives.

Any lifeform—regular or mutated, terrestrial or otherwise—would try to flee if its life were in danger, not continue to fight. As long as they were alive, they still had an opportunity to grow stronger, but if they were dead...

"Our plan starts now! Disperse!" The next moment, Zhang Lie activated his venombane-scorpion soulshard and vanished from sight right in front of the other hunters' eyes.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Following his shout, Fang Yi, Sun Mengmeng, and the other hunters immediately began to attack. Sun Mengmeng, who had long since nocked an arrow, fired her shot immediately.

The arrow, burning with genetic energy, flared like a firebird as it flew toward the dreadtoad. Perhaps because the dreadtoad was simply too injured, or perhaps because this arrow had flown in from its injured right, Sun Mengmeng's arrow landed directly on its face, stunning it and exploding in a baptism of fire.

The right half of its face, already scorched, now began to char, turning even blacker.

However, because Sun Mengmeng didn't possess any superior gene fragments, the damage she could deal to superior-grade lifeforms would be rather limited, and all that her attack managed to do was to draw the toad's attention.

The moment the dreadtoad turned to Sun Mengmeng, half a dozen flying knives and spears flew toward its face.

In the dimensional world, every hunter had to prepare at least one long-ranged technique, be it arrows, flying knives, spears, or even thrown axes. After all, under many circumstances, hunters couldn't face bestial lifeforms directly. In that case, they would have to rely on long-ranged attacks to accomplish their objective.

The dreadtoad destroyed this slew of attacks with an aural wave. Even though they did no damage to the dreadtoad, they successfully enraged it.

Its fight with the thunderfur polecat was against an opponent of equal bearing, but this fight now, against these pitiful humans, would be perfectly one-sided. The punishment for these puny humans who dared provoke it would be death.

It jumped toward where Sun Mengmeng, Fang Yi, and the others were located, evidently trying to take out its frustration with its previous battle on them.