Chapter 164: The Hunt [8]

For nearly a full, agonizing hour, the peak of the mountain was transformed into a realm of pure, apocalyptic terror.

The relentless windstorms unleashed by Tribe Leader Agrea raged across the cliffside like an angry god’s retribution.

The howling gales tore through iron armor, shattered shield formations, and flung human bodies into the dark abysses below.

The mountain ledge was completely littered with hundreds upon hundreds of corpses, the stone painted in a thick, sticky layer of human blood.

Yet, every single human hunter who marched up those bloody steps knew their role in this grand, horrific play.

They were meat shields, living sacrifices sent by Kaelos City to wear down an A-class calamity.

And after an hour of non-stop slaughter... the brutal strategy worked.

Agrea’s heavy breaths grew ragged, echoing like hollow rasps against his chest.

His silver breastplate was dented, covered in soot and blood, and his muscular shoulders shuddered with intense fatigue.

A cultivator’s internal mana is not an infinite ocean—it is a reservoir bounded by the capacity of their mana core.

To command Nature continuously for an hour, unleashing high-tier elemental strikes without pause, forced Agrea to draw from the very bottom of his core.

Pushing past those natural limits placed a devastating, violent strain on his internal conduits.

Standing far in the rear, the hidden elder of the Glorious Mythical Sect watched with dark, gleeful eyes.

He had waited patiently for this exact moment—the precise second when Agrea’s mana core began to crack under the strain.

COUGH!

Agrea suddenly froze midway through a spear stance.

A violent convulsion wracked his muscular frame, and he coughed up a huge mouthful of dark, violet blood, splatter-staining the stones beneath his feet.

He staggered back two steps, his double-headed spear planting into the ground to keep himself upright.

His feline eyes widened in quiet horror as a cold realization washed over his mind.

He had overdrawn his power.

The internal mana threads that linked his primary mana core directly to his heart had gone completely ballistic, twisting and snapping under the extreme pressure.

The delicate connection he held over the Wind Nature severed instantly, leaving his spiritual channels burning as if filled with molten lead. He had lost control of the air around him.

Seeing the legendary Leopard-man stagger, the lead Martial Master commanding the hunt let out a loud, triumphant laugh.

His face twisted with absolute victory as he raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

"HE HAS COLLAPSED!" the commander roared. "FIRE! UNLEASH THE AERIAL BULLETS! RIDDLE THE BEAST WITH HOLES!"

The surviving Martial Warriors did not hesitate for a fraction of a second. They stepped forward in unison, focusing their remaining internal mana into their palms.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

A concentrated salvo of dozens of mana-amplified aerial bullets tore through the night sky, flying directly toward the staggering Agrea.

With his wind defenses shattered and his body paralyzed by backlash, Agrea couldn’t dodge.

The high-velocity mana bullets slammed brutally into his body, piercing his shoulders, thighs, and chestplate.

SPLATT!

Agrea was thrown backward, crashing hard against the stony threshold of the cave.

He coughed up another dark wave of violet blood, his vision swimming as intense pain flared through his organs.

He gritted his sharp teeth, his eyes burning with pure, unyielding hatred as he struggled with all his remaining strength to push himself back onto his feet.

The human Martial Warriors showed no mercy. They knew better than to underestimate a dying Martial General.

They channeled their mana again, firing salvo after salvo, raining dozens more aerial bullets down upon his bleeding form.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"ARRRGH!"

In a moment of pure, desperate survival, Agrea forced his broken mana threads to ignite one last time.

He threw his arms up, desperately trying to summon a localized tornado to deflect the oncoming barrage.

He managed to conjure a small, whirling gust that shattered the incoming bullets—but the internal cost was catastrophic.

CRACK!

A sound like breaking glass echoed inside Agrea’s chest.

The backlash was terrifying. More violet blood burst from his nose, eyes, and mouth as his internal core fractured under the unnatural force.

He stumbled back toward the cave mouth, desperately thinking of retreating into the deep subterranean tunnels to recuperate alongside his tribe.

FSHHHHHHH!

Before his foot could even touch the threshold, towering walls of roaring, crimson fire erupted out of the solid rock, completely encircling him!

The infernal barrier flared fifty feet into the air, trapping the bloody, broken Tribe Leader in a tight, inescapable cage of intense heat.

Step by step, a solitary figure walked calmly through the blazing wall of fire, completely unbothered by the flames.

The figure was still draped in the ordinary hunter’s uniform of Kaelos City, but his low hood fell back, revealing the cruel, arrogant face of the elder from the Glorious Mythical Sect.

His dark eyes flickered with intense, predatory excitement.

Agrea bit his lower lip so hard that fresh blood ran down his chin.

He stared at the human, his sharp perception easily recognizing the terrifying aura radiating from the man’s frame.

Agrea was merely an Initial-enlightened stage Martial General.

The human standing before him was a Middle-enlightened stage Martial General—a monster who occupied a vastly superior tier of elemental mastery and physical cultivation!

"You human scum..." Agrea spat, his voice a low, raspy growl of absolute fury.

He knew there was no escape.

He knew his life ended on this mountain tonight.

But as the leader of the Crimson Spotted Leopard-Kin, he refused to die begging.

Tightening his bloody, trembling grip on his double-headed spear, Agrea forced his broken body to move.

He igniting every last drop of his life force, accelerating forward in a final, suicidal charge!

"DIE WITH ME!" Agrea roared, thrusting his spear forward with every ounce of momentum he possessed, aiming straight for the elder’s heart!

The elder from the Glorious Mythical Sect stood completely still.

The lopsided, condescending smile on his lips never faded for a single second.

As the tip of Agrea’s spear came within three feet of his chest, the elder lazily raised his right hand, weaving a single, elegant hand sign with his fingers.

"Glorious Mythical Flame Technique..." the elder whispered smoothly, his voice cold and devoid of emotion.

"Flames of Mythic."

BOOOOM!

A colossal, sky-swallowing torrent of bright gold and crimson fire erupted directly from the elder’s palm!

The massive wave of fire spread outward like a blossoming lotus of destruction, illuminating the entire mountain range in a blinding, terrifying glare.

The surrounding human hunters shrieked in terror, scrambling backward and falling over one another to escape the radiating heat.

Agrea met the golden inferno head-on. Without his wind domain to protect him, his exhausted, blood-soaked body was completely engulfed by the chaotic, divine flames.

The agonizing heat instantly incinerated his silver armor, burning his skin and fur to a crisp in a fraction of a second.

Yet, the elder wasn’t finished.

While Agrea was trapped inside the swirling vortex of fire, the elder extended his right arm forward, opening his palm toward the sky.

FSHHH!

A ten-foot-long spear forged entirely from dense, condensed golden flame materialized out of thin air, throbbing with a destructive pressure that made the surrounding atmosphere groan.

With a casual flick of his wrist, the elder unleashed the flaming spear.

THUNDER-CRACK!

The flame spear shot through the center of the golden inferno at blinding speed, impaling Agrea directly through the center of his chest!

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A disastrous, mountain-shattering explosion detonated at the mouth of the cave!

The kinetic shockwave blew the surrounding stone walls to pieces, incinerating the threshold and burning through every last layer of defense the Leopard-kin leader desperately held onto.

When the blinding light finally faded and the roaring flames dissipated into thin air... only a charred, motionless form remained pinned to the shattered rock wall.

Agrea, the brave and noble Tribe Leader of the Crimson Spotted Leopard-Kin tribe, was dead.