Chapter 34

A-level flying beasts can cover over two hundred kilometers in just ten minutes, and their hunting and diving speeds are even faster.

Xu Qiao and her companions, along with the fire scorpion, hadn’t even gotten a good look at the flying beast targeting them when the enormous black shadow was already looming right in front of them.

At the moment when the sharp, powerful claws of the flying beast tightly grasped the head and tail of the fire scorpion spirit, it was the slowest instant of the beast’s speed.

Three energy bullets simultaneously shot toward the beast’s head.

The shadow flickered as the flying beast darted back into the air, and all three energy bullets missed.

Meng Li withdrew the fire scorpion spirit.

Xu Qiao looked at the flying beast, which was still rising due to inertia, and said, “It’s a tiger-patterned hawk.”

A type of mutated vicious bird resembling an eagle, with feathers covered in tiger stripes.

While awakened humans have taken their abilities to impressive heights, mutated creatures have evolved to an abnormal extent.

Sun Fushan hurriedly tossed an A-level armor set to Meng Li. As for himself and Xu Qiao, they were already wearing C-level armor, and there was no time to change now.

Sun Fushan had something he wanted to say but couldn’t get it out. Xu Qiao stepped in front of Meng Li, saying, “I’ll buy time for the captain; you hurry and change!”

It was difficult for the energy guns to hit the tiger-patterned hawk, and among the three of them, only B-level Meng Li had the strength to battle it, provided she could set up defenses first.

Given the situation, Meng Li took the armor and ran toward the nearby woods.

The tiger-patterned hawk swooped down again, its sharp eagle eyes locking onto Meng Li, clearly knowing that this human was the fire scorpion it had just been about to eat.

Xu Qiao blocked Sun Fushan, who was raising his gun to aim, while running away and releasing her spirit.

This time, she went all out, creating a vast expanse of misty water that spread out from her as the center. The layers of vibrant green lotus leaves towered higher than the trees above, obscuring everything beneath the leaves with a thick veil of white mist.

The two of them managed to hide under a lotus leaf just in time.

They couldn’t see Meng Li’s position but felt a gust of wind from the flapping wings that caused the entire lotus leaf to tilt to one side.

The already weak lotus spirit couldn’t withstand the overwhelming winds and flew back into Xu Qiao’s body.

When the spirit leaves the awakened, their senses no longer share a connection, and they can only communicate through thoughts. However, if the spirit encounters an unbearable attack, the released part will directly affect the awakened one.

A sharp pain shot through Xu Qiao’s mind, and she collapsed into Sun Fushan’s arms.

But she had traded her serious injury for the tiger-patterned hawk’s missed attack. The hawk flew back up high into the sky, its eagle eyes scanning below and spotting the “scorpion-scented woman” lying in the grass, hurriedly putting on a piece of black clothing. Realizing that this black clothing might cause it trouble, the tiger-patterned hawk turned and dove down once more.

Its speed was so swift that the offensive and defensive actions of the trio were measured in seconds.

Meng Li still needed at least ten seconds to put on her armor.

“Don’t move!”

Sun Fushan roughly removed Xu Qiao’s helmet and stuffed a green wood-type crystal core into her mouth, shouting loudly to Meng Li.

Meng Li chose to cooperate.

Lying on her back, she saw the tiger-patterned hawk approaching rapidly, and just as she was able to see its scythe-like sharp claws clearly, a larger shadow suddenly loomed over her. Only then did she notice the yellowish, armored substance above her. The shadow quickly vanished as the flying tiger-patterned hawk soared into the sky, revealing a giant turtle peeking down at her.

The tiger-patterned hawk seemed to know that the transparent “prey” could disappear at any moment, and it tightened its grasp with its sharp claws.

Just as Meng Li leaped up to put on her helmet, she witnessed the motionless, unstruggling giant turtle getting its shell torn apart, scattering in a flash.

If it were truly a regular turtle, its shell would surely be stained with blood at this moment.

But the absence of blood didn’t mean the spirit wouldn’t feel pain.

At the moment the turtle spirit vanished, Meng Li coldly donned her helmet. Facing the roaring tiger-patterned hawk, she turned and ran wildly.

The shadow that blotted out the sun approached in an instant. Meng Li made a diving motion forward.

Convinced that the scorpion-scented woman couldn’t escape, the tiger-patterned hawk snatched up its prey, now clad in new clothing, and took to the sky. It didn’t notice that Meng Li had turned around before falling into its claws, flying upwards with her back facing the sky.

The enormous talons tightly gripped Meng Li’s chest and abdomen, and the sharp tips instinctively increased their pressure inward to pierce the prey’s flesh.

The A-level armor stubbornly withstood the first wave of the hawk’s force.

The tiger-patterned hawk sensed something was off and looked down to inspect its prey.

Meng Li raised her energy gun and fired three shots at the hawk’s underbelly above her.

The tiger-patterned hawk released its claws in agony.

Meng Li plummeted rapidly, activating the flight mode of her armor mid-air, quickly stabilizing her position.

The tiger-patterned hawk was a high-speed, high-attack creature, but its defense was relatively weak. Previously, three A-level energy bullets had barely penetrated the armor of a mother lizard, but now Meng Li’s three shots directly pierced the hawk’s abdomen.
—-
As the momentum of flight dissipated, the tiger-patterned hawk’s body fell straight down.

Meng Li didn’t chase after the corpse of the A-level flying beast; she was about to descend to check on her teammates when she saw the other two flying beasts, which had already flown some distance away, suddenly veer toward her, followed closely by a swarm of smaller flying beasts.

Meng Li’s expression darkened. She descended beside Xu Qiao and Sun Fushan, and the fire scorpion spirit appeared again, raising its massive pincers to dig a hole nearby.

Meng Li fastened her teammates’ helmets and, with one under each arm, jumped into the hole the fire scorpion had dug.

By the time the second tiger-patterned hawk swooped down, the hole was already over five meters deep. Meng Li embraced her two teammates at the bottom, while the fire scorpion propped itself up, shielding the three of them, its tail sting hidden beneath the deliberately disturbed soil.

The tiger-patterned hawk landed at the mouth of the hole, its long, sharp beak aiming toward the hollow center of the entrance.

The fire scorpion suddenly thrust outward, its tail striking the hawk’s beak with a powerful force, and the tip released a dense cloud of toxic mist.

The toxic mist enveloped the hawk’s head, which had no time to retreat, clinging to its beastly eyes that were still open.

Enhanced resilience didn’t mean it was immune to all poisons. While a B-level ordinary beast struggled to kill an A-level beast, B-level toxins could directly damage the internal structure of an A-level beast. Even if they didn’t cause immediate death, they would still inflict suffering on the A-level creature.

It was as if it had been splashed with chili water; the second tiger-patterned hawk let out a miserable shriek, flapping its wings as it soared into the sky, instinctively searching for a water source to wash its eyes.

The third tiger-patterned hawk circled down and landed on a nearby tree.

Its sharp beastly eyes focused on the faintly visible red-black scorpion tail at the cave entrance. This tiger-patterned hawk twisted its head and emitted a series of short calls to the lower-ranking hawks that had not yet arrived.

Among the numerous following tiger-patterned hawks, there were both B-level and C-level ones. Upon receiving the orders from the higher-ranking hawk, they flapped their wings and landed, probing into the cave with their claws or using their long beaks to reach inside. One of them, specifically vigilant of the fire scorpion, sprayed toxic mist whenever black fog burst forth, immediately waving its wings to sweep the mist aside.

The other hawks that couldn’t fit in started digging with their claws, trying to unearth their prey.

The claws of the C-level tiger-patterned hawks were as sharp as the most pointed rakes, and the ground was visibly deepening.

More and more tiger-patterned hawks capable of attacking the fire scorpion appeared, and finally, Meng Li’s mental energy was nearly depleted; the fire scorpion was reluctant to fade away.

Meng Li immediately switched to using her gun; a single A-level energy gun could kill the ring of tiger-patterned hawks surrounding the cave entrance.

However, there were too many hawks, and the bullets in the energy guns were limited.

Xu Qiao awakened amid the continuous gunfire.

While she was unconscious, the lotus spirit had automatically absorbed the wood-type crystal core that Sun Fushan had stuffed into her, healing Xu Qiao’s injuries and restoring three layers of her mental energy.

Realizing the urgency of the situation, Xu Qiao hurriedly searched for the gun that Sun Fushan had given her.

Meng Li smiled wryly, “Two guns are already empty. This is the third one, and there’s at least one A-level tiger-patterned hawk guarding outside, with countless lower-level ones.”

Sun Fushan had only brought out three energy guns in total.

Xu Qiao glanced at Sun Fushan, who was still unconscious beside her, and tried to heal him. However, her healing abilities couldn’t restore his exhausted mental energy, which was the real reason for his unconsciousness.

Suddenly, a tiger-patterned hawk poked its entire head into the cave.

Xu Qiao instinctively aimed at its slender neck and released a water blade.

She was accustomed to using water arrows and water balls and had thought that it would take at least two water blades to sever the head of this C-level tiger-patterned hawk. To her surprise, one cut was enough to separate the head from the body.

Meng Li, who was exhausted from the battle, glanced over.

There was no time for the two to discuss this change; Xu Qiao directly used the continuously probing bird heads or claws as subjects for her experiments.

Wherever the water blades passed, bird heads and claws fell like rain, occasionally requiring two cuts to succeed.

Meng Li exclaimed in delight, “B-level!”

Xu Qiao released a smaller version of her spirit. The lotus still had thirty-three petals, but the water mist beneath the lotus leaves had turned into slightly swirling deep water.

With her combat power enhanced, Xu Qiao immediately said, “You focus on absorbing the crystal cores; I’ll handle these low-level hawks.”

Ability users could only absorb crystal cores of the same attribute. The three of them had obtained two fire attribute crystal cores that day, but Meng Li had been too caught up in the battle to have time to absorb them.

“Okay.”

Holding the energy gun that had only two bullets left, Meng Li gripped a crystal core in one hand and was about to absorb it when a group of tiger-patterned hawks outside suddenly ascended into the air.

Some of the hawks were even hanging upside down with their wings drooping, clearly controlled by an external force.

The two teammates exchanged cautious glances but did not move, silently observing through the cave entrance.

A flash of red light appeared, and the air filled with dozens of tiger-patterned hawks suddenly ignited into a sea of flames.

Xu Qiao’s eyes lit up. Had the patrolling soldiers finally arrived?

As the sea of flames gradually extinguished, a gust of wind swept away the ashes of the beasts, carrying away countless crystal cores.

A few seconds later, a tall figure in S-level black battle armor appeared above the cave entrance, its face hidden beneath a helmet.

The figure tossed down a rope.

Meng Li quickly grabbed the rope and adeptly climbed out. Confirming that there was no danger outside, she thanked the newcomer before going to retrieve Sun Fushan, who was being lifted out by a large lotus leaf.

As Xu Qiao climbed out of the cave, she only caught a glimpse of a pair of long, straight legs outlined by the battle armor. The figure then took to the wind and flew north toward An County.

Meng Li looked around and noticed that the A-level tiger-patterned hawk was also gone. She said in shock, “He’s S-level.”

Only an S-level powerhouse could so easily control and kill an A-level beast.

Xu Qiao glanced in the direction of Jing City. “There must have been some kind of incident at the second school, causing so many high-level beasts to roam. The base has sent an S-level powerhouse to handle it.”

Meng Li nodded. “Yeah, while it’s still relatively safe, you dig for crystal cores here, and I’ll go look for the other A-level tiger-patterned hawk’s corpse.”

Having used so many energy bullets from Sun Fushan, they relied on this batch of tiger-patterned hawks to recover their losses.

Xu Qiao nodded. After Meng Li flew off, she prepared to dissect the tiger-patterned hawk when she noticed a small pile of transparent crystal cores next to the cave entrance, including one A-level core.

Could this be a compensation from the base for the second school?