Two weeks later, at the stronghold.

The joint hunt would start the next day, and Quinn’s hunting team was a big part of it. So, they had to design their formation and such.

When he arrived at the meeting room, everyone was there already. He had to keep them waiting for a while as Lucy ordered him to arrive early. When he walked in, Lucy snorted in displeasure, “Why are you late? Even the commander was waiting.”

“Panned out,” Miles answered lazily and sat on the only empty seat. Lucy’s face went red and wanted to say more, but Quinn stopped her.

“Since we all are here, let’s talk about hunting. We will join tomorrow.” She started as she sent documents to everyone’s AI watches.

Miles opened the folder and looked at the folder. On the first page, was a picture of a monster. The monster was a legendary Naga-like creature. It had a lower snake body with a human upper body. It was actually a semi-humanoid monster.

The skin of the monster was all grey, like a sculpture made of stone. It had two giant wings behind it. The picture was from some distance away, so the face and other details couldn’t be seen, but there was a giant battle-axe in the monster's hand. All in all, it looked strong.

“As you can see, the target is a semi-humanoid monster. It has a battle axe monster-artifact that can cleave small hills into two. Tian Ling’s men clashed with it once and lost several men. The monster is pinnacle-tier and stronger than most at its rank.

This time Tian Ling spent a giant amount of resources to hunt this monster and will have the artifact and the orb no matter who lands the final hit. We agreed to it in exchange for a pinnacle-tier orb. I as the commander have the first choice of the orb, if I don’t want it, Miles here has the second choice, and if he doesn’t want it, Lucy will have the third choice, so on and so forth. You all know how it goes.” Lucy explained.

When Miles first joined the team, he was given the privilege to choose any orb acquired by the team as long as Quinn didn’t want it. Since he was in the second line, he could get the best of the orbs hunted or earned by the team. But it didn’t mean he was at a loss. If Quinn were to accept the orb this time, next time she would be last in line, and Miles would be the first to choose. If Quinn took the orb this time, and next time the orb was something worse, Miles could always choose not to take it and would be first in line until he found something he liked.

“Since we have to deliver the artifact and the orb doesn’t matter who finishes the monster, we will not work hard in the killing. And Tian Ling knows it too. The team’s mission in this hunting is supporting fighters from the back. We will attack from a distance with bows and guns. Tian Ling might supply the ammunition. In that case, some of you might be in charge of it, but nothing is certain yet.

Tomorrow, don’t risk your life and keep your distance from the monster. Attack as you will, but don’t work so hard. We will get our reward even if Tian Ling fails, and we only have to support them.” Quinn reminded them and told them that they were dismissed.

“Miles, can you stay for a while,” Quinn asked as Miles was about to leave too. Miles looked at her and Lucy and noticed something amiss. He sat back and listened.

“Tian Ling wants you to be one of the tanks in tomorrow’s fight. I agreed with him but will ask you anyway. If you refuse to join, I will cancel everything.” Quinn looked at him and kept her eyes on his. Miles looked at the dark beautiful eyes.

“You know he is plotting something right?” Miles asked. Tian Ling hated his guts and would try to kill him. Since Quinn knew it as well, why did she agree to Tian Ling’s offer?

“I know, but you know too,” Quinn said and smirked.

“Tian Ling will not dare to do anything to you as long as I am there. All you have to do is be careful and tank a few attacks from the monster. He will lend you a high-tier shield, and you can make use of it any way you like it. Then you can retreat. What do you say?” Quinn smiled, and the mischievous girl deep inside her revealed herself. Miles looked at ebony beauty and smiled back.

“I agree.”

————

Miles looked at the crowd in front of him with marvel. Quinn’s team had a handful of people, but Tian Ling brought close to fifty. Mihr Orril, who also had a few dozen people on his team, was there too.

Miles didn’t know what he had promised, but it shouldn’t be more valuable than what was promised to Quinn. After all, Quinn was a pinnacle-tier hunter, and Tian Ling wanted Miles in his team for revenge.

As the strongest person at the stronghold, Quinn was the best hunter in this formation. Thus for a hunt required so many people, Quinn’s existence alone was vital. It wasn’t strange for Tian Ling to offer a pinnacle-tier orb while hunting another. After all, even in the same tier, orbs had different powers, elements, and effects that could fit a person better. If Tian Ling had a pinnacle-tier Orb he had no use for it, if it was perfectly normal for him to exchange it with Quinn. And Quinn knew the compensation Tian Ling would give to her team wouldn’t be best among pinnacle-tier orbs, but it was still better than any high-tier orbs.

Miles walked with his team, keeping his distance from Tian Ling’s men. Knowing that they were plotting against him, he would not give them the opportunity as best he could. After all, Tian Ling’s man could poison him slowly if he were to approach them too much. Not enough to kill him but weaken him, so when Miles fought with the monster, he wouldn't be able to put up a fight and would die. No one would be able to blame Tian Ling either, so Miles thought it was best to keep some distance.

But Miles wasn’t counting only on this. Tian Ling had a big influence over the military thanks to his grandfather. Even Quinn couldn’t do much to him, and while hunting, Tian Ling would make things harder for Miles.

Miles was surprised to see Tian Ling was still oblivious to his identity for such a long time. Even though he didn’t reveal it, he didn’t hide it either. If Tian Ling were to look for his background, it would take little to no time to find Miles’s family. After that Tian Ling wouldn’t dare to act against him, but since he didn’t, Miles wouldn’t use his family name to threaten him either.

Close to a hundred people walked together, and it drew too much attention. There were people who knew the ins and outs of the joint hunt, but the regular hunters were still oblivious. When they saw three groups walking, they followed and joined the fun. At the end of the walk, there were more than 300 people in the group following.

They arrived at a desolate mountain, and Tian Ling’s men surrounded and guarded the paths scaling to the mountain top and some of the key parts where people could climb. The crowd looked at them and frowned.

“What is the meaning of this? Are you closing down a mountain?” Someone with pinnacle-tier Power asked. As a strong person himself, he wouldn’t step back against Tian Ling and his men.

Tian Ling didn’t answer and looked at Quinn. Quinn walked out of the crowd and talked to the people following them. “Folk, I am the Stronghold Post Commander, Quinn. The Military spotted a dangerous creature at the top of the mountain and planned a hunting mission. The people chosen for the mission were hand-picked by three factions of the stronghold, and it is so to reduce the casualties.

Please be more understanding, and don’t try to breach into the mountain, or your lives will not be protected by the army.” After Quinn said, the angry crowd calmed down and waited from a distance. Miles looked at Tian Ling and praised him for his cunningness. He really thought about everything.

The group climbed up to the mountain and Miles looked around. The mountain was split into two from the middle, and the other part was too steep to climb. It was akin to a straight wall. The one they were climbing on the other hand was cordoned by Tian Ling’s men, so no one could enter without their notice or fly directly.

After climbing close to an hour, a roar came from the top of the mountain. A silhouette flew through it and stood in the sky. It was just like in the picture. It had a snake lower body and a humanoid upper body with a giant battle axe in hand. The monster was close to 2.5 meters and the battle axe was longer than 1.5 meters. Its whole body was grey like a gargoyle. The monster looked down arrogantly at the pests intruding its territory and roared to warn them.

Many felt their knees turn to jelly. They shivered uncontrollably against the monster's thirst for blood. Killing intent seeped into their body by breaking away their courage. Many took a step back but felt that they couldn’t run away since the monster was able to fly, while they could only slowly climb down.

Miles felt his back go cold. He ran away from a Frenzy-Rank monster before, but he felt this monster was stronger than the eagle despite its lower rank. Maybe it was because it was half humanoid, so it had some intelligence. Monster’s red bloody eyes were burning with an inferno. The temperature reduced, and everyone felt cold.

Miles removed the orb from his bag and Coin charged it. A turtle shell-like shield appeared in his hand taller than Miles. Since Orbs were light, Miles could carry it without a problem. And the shield was high-tier. It could, in theory, guard against the monster, but Miles still didn’t know how strong the monster and the artifact were. If the impact was too strong, it didn’t matter how strong the shield was, Miles’s organs would explode with the impact's aftershock.

“Tanks, take the front!” Tian Ling shouted and ordered. Many people walked out of Tian Ling’s and Orril’s group, and only Miles walked from their team. Some had shields in their hands while some had weapons. Miles spotted a person with iron-like skin. But all of them were meat shields.

The monster looked at the approaching hunters and roared once again, before diving down with great momentum. The giant fell on the tanking team and the battle axe hit one of the men in the tanking rank.

The battle axe clashed with one of the tanks wielding a weapon, and cut it into two with one attack, but the battle axe didn’t even slow down. The sharp edge of the axe reached the man’s head and split his skull and brain. Blood splashed everywhere, and only then did the monster left.

The horrendous scene made everyone’s hair stand. The first fight ended with one of them dead, in such a gruesome way. Tanks shivered with trepidation, but at this point, they could do nothing but defend. If they were to run, they would be hunted, even if they survived, their leaders would kill them.

“Attack!” Tian Ling ordered and archers and gun masters attacked one after another. Gunshots and arrows whistled, and many of them hit the monster’s stone-like skin. The ammunition and arrows had many different elements, and all exploded on impact. Explosion with rainbow colors appeared on the monster's body. When the smoke dispersed, and the monster was revealed, there wasn’t even a dent on its body. It didn't hurt at all. It looked at people from the sky and dived once again. This time to attackers.

Gun masters, especially in G-Circle, were rare. Because of expensive ammunition, and shortcomings of explosive power, gun masters would use other weapons instead. But there were still some using guns instead of arrows.

Previously, Miles would hear about gun masters with great achievements in other circles and didn’t know the underlying reason for it. But now that he knew the energy was essential in F-Circle and further, he could more or less guess the reason for it. But here, they were still underpowered.

The tank team fell back to stop the monster, but since it could fly, there wasn’t much they could do. Many picked stones from the ground and attacked the monster with them to draw its aggro, some used their ranged attacks. Once they taunt the monster successfully, they once again lift their weapons or shields to defend themselves. The monster flew through the formation, and Miles felt a circle around him get vacant all of sudden. He looked around and noticed people of the other two functions left him alone in the middle.

“Son of the bitches!” Miles swore and lifted his shield. The battle axe arrived in front of him and clashed with the shield. Miles felt a great load on the shield and felt like a mountain succumbing him down. He felt something familiar from the attack and understood immediately.

“Gravity element!” The battle axe had a gravity element making it a lot heavier on impact. With its great momentum, the impact sent Miles flying, and Miles flew to the edge of the mountain. The shield had a giant crack on it, and it couldn’t defend against another attack, but a monster was flying towards him.

Miles had no time to think about others. He knew Tian Ling would target him, but he never thought all of them would isolate him to die against the monster. Perhaps he didn’t think Tian Ling would go so far as to kill him in such an obvious way while Quinn was there, but since it happened, he could only blame himself. He knew Tian Ling wanted to kill him, still, he thought nothing of it, now he was alone against the strongest monster he had ever faced. But it didn’t mean he was accepting his death.

“Attack!” Quinn shouted with all her might, and the wind started to gather around her graceful body. Her black hair fluttered in the wind and her eyes looked sharp. She raised her hand and a sound cut through all the noise. The invisible wind traveled at the speed of light and arrived at the monster before it could hit Miles.