Evolution Theory of the Hunter

Evolution Theory of the Hunter (ETH)
Volume 1 Chapter 71

I jumped toward the Splendense that was diving towards me. I could see its long horn. And we were face to face in mere moments.

"Go to h.e.l.l!"

I put all my strength into striking its horn.

Slam!

You’ve heard this.

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

Due to this, being the lighter of the two, I was pushed back almost 10 meters while it was only pushed back 1 meter.

I was the one who made the strike, but it felt more as if it had struck me.

The good news was that I had messed up its trajectory enough to have it crash to the ground – and it was 3 meters away from my party members. I looked at it. Its horn was hanging at a weird angle and one of its wings was folded up awkwardly.

Cho Youngoo and Jong Sawon hurriedly ran towards the fallen monster.

The Splendense looked as if it didn’t know what hit it.

At first glance, it almost looked so still that it seemed dead or unconscious. But if you looked carefully, you could see that it was slowly fidgeting as if trying to get a hold of itself.

But those two knew they couldn’t pa.s.s up such an opportunity as this.

Cho Youngoo advanced from the side.

Covering most of his body with his s.h.i.+eld, he stabbed out at the other eye with his sword.

Kyaaak!

The monster let out a shriek as it shook its head and tried to get up on its front legs. But Jong Sawon came out from behind Cho Youngoo swinging widely with his Rubicon sword.

Shwing!

The clas.h.i.+ng sound of iron against iron rang out as the Splendense’s front leg came away with scratches from the strike. It wasn’t something very noticeable, but the important part was that the sword had cut him – however little.

That meant it was susceptible to damage – even on its hard exoskeleton.

Jong Sawon’s blade s.h.i.+ned in the light, but the Splendense ignored it and stomped down on the ground with its legs.

I don’t know if it was having a hard time moving properly because of the sleep spell, the attack, or both, but none of its attacks were landing anywhere close to the two men.

"Hey…you think they’ll kill it?"

"Shouldn’t we try to go in and do something now?"

"Well…."

"But it was our monster from the start. It’s a waste to just let them kill it."

"Hey, we still have our pride."

"You know that item drop probability is super high around here though right? What if a skillbook or something else really crazy drops? If it’s a level 4 item, the starting price is 1 million."

Most of them were level 2s with some who had level 3 equipment here and there. But just because they had level 3 weapons like I did didn’t mean they could do what I was doing.

It seemed like they gathered a bunch of level 2 and level 3 hunters to bring down a level 4 monster…but they bit off more than they could chew.

To try and bring down a monster who was one level higher than you were was, quite frankly, suicide…no matter how many of you there were.

The moment they discovered this big guy, they should have run away without looking back.

But, unable to

Hearing that they were trying to get in at the end so that they could take possession of the drop items when they didn’t do any of the work…it seems they didn’t learn their lesson.

As I saw them starting to sidle in little by little, I dashed for the Splendense and raised my Honcheon sword in the air.

Having suffered through Jong Sawon’s attacks this whole time, I could see that its leg was now half severed.

Jong Sawon had set the table for me. I just had to eat my meal.

I gripped the hilt of my sword with both hands and cut through the air as if I were pouring every ounce of power into that strike.

SLAM!

My blade hit the monster’s front leg and exploded.

Though its thick leg would usually be able to withstand my sword’s attacks, in its half attached state, the black appendage flew off with the explosion.

The Rubicon Sword had severed it, and the Honcheon Sword broke it off.

I like that.

And from Jong Sawon’s look, I could see he approved as well.

Kiiiing!

Slam!

Kyaaa!

We used the same method to take care of the other front leg.

Now the Splendense was without its main weapon. All it could do was try and bite us with its relatively small mouth or sit on us to try and smoosh us to death.

And you can’t forget that my b.l.o.o.d.ysword was still at work, sucking away at its life source. Because it was so huge, we haven’t seen the effects of this yet…but it was only a matter of time.

This was the end.

All that was left was to kill it.

"Attack!"

As if they were waiting for just this moment, the standing members of Team Ezekiel yelled out and ran towards the fallen monster.

It looked like they were going to aim for the weaker looking hind legs.

But I wasn’t about to let them make a useless attack so that they could claim contribution.

Slam!

"Eut?"

"What!"

I slammed my sword into the ground in front of the running hunters. As it made a small explosion on impact, the men cursed out a few words as they stepped back.

I looked at them with a smiling face and said.

"It is dangerous so please stand back."

"That’s….we, we will help you."

A short but st.u.r.dy looking man responded.

I’m sure they were thinking I was higher than a level 4 hunter at this point.

"I do not want there to be any more casualties than there already are. There is a chance the monster will attack ever the more violently out of desperation, so it is advised to stay where you are."

Then I added.

"And if there is someone who insists of attacking this monster still, I will a.s.sume that your aim is to disrupt my fight."

Gulp.

I heard someone swallowing loudly in the small group.

I basically said in a roundabout way that that would signify an attack against me.

[+400]

It was only after 10 minutes or so that I was finally able to kill it.

Since it was so big, it didn’t die even after cutting off the head, scooping out its eyes, or splitting open its belly. It was a lot of work to finally get it to give up.

It was only after I had pretty much butchered it up that I finally got my reward points.

After recovering my b.l.o.o.d.ysword, my party members and I stood posted around the monster as we waiting for it to evaporate.

All the members of Team Ezekiel moved off to one side and started to tend to the wounded. Luckily, it seemed they had a healer, as no more of them died.

"Everyone keep on alert and stand by. We do not know how they will decide to act at any point. They might decide to do a surprise attack."

"Do you think they’ll go that far…?"

Bae Yeonkyoung asked.

"I’m hoping they won’t. But there’s nothing wrong with being careful…"

And one person from the Ezekiel team started walking toward us. He looked like he may be the leader.

"I am Team Ezekiel’s Kim Jaemin. Thank you for helping us with the hunt."

I could already hear his intention from those few words.

Helping with the hunt, you say? I can’t just let that slide.

"We were late on the scene because we were scoping out the situation. If we had been a bit quicker on the scene, we might have been able to save more people. I feel that that is all too unfortunate."

I said this as I looked pointedly at the 5 dead bodies.