45 Chapter 45

Needless to say, the beasts were enraged by Thirteen's sudden action that killed their fellow species. He also purposedly shot at least one beast from each species to further provoke them. Because the beasts almost didn't move at all, it was an easy feat for him.

The beasts roared and marched to chase the murderer. The light from Thirteen's shoulder was faced to the back and was flickering intermittently, increasing their agitation and aggressiveness.

The ground, wall, and even the ceiling shook from their high-speed stomping.

A flying beast swooped in to attack with its beak opened wide. Thirteen aimed back the gun and shot into its mouth, resulting in the bird's neck down to blast in the air. He quickly looked back to the front and increased his speed.

Suddenly, the ground shook and a wall emerged from the cave ground. Before it could reach up, Thirteen boosted his feet and leaped up, smoothly sliding into the other side. He rolled several times on the ground using a safety technique to make sure he didn't injure himself.

That was too f*cking close.

Just as he got up, he saw the beasts brake through the wall with the Rhine who made it in the front. Thirteen inexplicably grinned in excitement before he continued running away. It's been a while since he has this many pursuers.

The Rhine with earth ability kept launching walls and pillars from the ground and his sides. Either because of the dark or the distracting light, it couldn't accurately time its attack and distance, so Thirteen has slim chances to dodge them. But one wrong move or a late split-second reaction could instantly cause him to be pummeled to his death.

Since then, not only did he have to watch out for obstacles coming out from here and there, the beasts behind him also kept shooting elemental attacks. Thankfully, his light shield was still functional, or else he would've been sliced, cooked, buried, drenched, and became an unknown glop of something.

Finally, he saw the end of the path. He adjusted the mechanism of his plasma gun as he sped up. When he almost reached the next part of the cave, 2 earth pillars shot out from both of his sides in a diagonal way intending to block his path. The Rhine's energy must be depleting looking at how crooked the pillars were.

Thirteen hopped onto the first pillar before jumping to the next easily. Instead of jumping down, he sprung up and activated his anti-gravity function.

As the beasts smashed to the pillar their comrade made, he aimed his gun up to the ceiling and pulled the trigger. The blue lining on the gun gradually turned red with a whirring resounding from its inside.

The beasts didn't expect that on the other side of the pillar, there wasn't any flat ground to step on. Instead, the ground was concaved with many sharp stalactites inserted into the ground. They didn't have time to stop or reduce their momentum and fell down one after another.

It was just in time that Thirteen's gun completed charging and shot out a red plasma bullet, bigger, hotter, and denser than the regular blue plasma bullet.

The ceiling exploded with a huge bang and all the stalactites hanging on it crashed and plunged down. The other stalactites in a radius of a few hundred meters were also struck down by the shock wave.

The flying beasts that managed to avoid the trap below were caught off guard by the surprise attack from above and couldn't avoid the falling stalactites. Their wings were pierced along with their body as they touched down with agonizing cries.

For the majority of the beasts with ordinary skin toughness, they were immediately killed from being stabbed or struck by the stalactites whether from above or below. But for beasts like the Rhines with thick or hard skin, the stalactites didn't have enough density to penetrate through them and shattered upon contact.

Thirteen detached the light on his shoulder and threw it near the surviving beasts. The beasts reacted to it, thinking the man they were chasing was there. Thirteen aimed to the ground and pulled the trigger. Because the modified energy output exceeded the capability of the hardware, it needed some buffer time to charge.

He already calculated how long it took for the gun to charge from his first shot. So when the plasma bullet finally discharged, it was when most of the surviving beasts have gathered near the flickering light.

The ground blew up and the shock wave flung back the beasts who were falling behind. The gun in his hand emitted smoke from overheat and it was completely fried. Thirteen threw away the gun.

While the beasts were still in disarray, he used this chance to drop a one-hit attack to finish them off. He hovered right above one of the Rhines before deactivating his anti-gravity function. Using his weight from free-falling, he pointed his tactical knife straight down, following the trajectory, and stabbed the beast right into its throat where it was the most vulnerable. He ruthlessly ripped its throat open.

Finishing one, he went up again before doing the same routine to the rest of the beasts. Other than the Rhines, there were also Armored Alligators and a level 3 Dirt Rat with a hardened mutated body. Fortunately, there were no metal-based beasts or things would be more complicated to accomplish.

Looking at the scattered beast corpses around him they were now mostly without an intact body. The cave ceiling and floor were ruined and the blast he shot to the ceiling actually made a big hole connecting to the mountain's upper level.

He collected every part of the dead beasts. With his extensive knowledge, he knew every beast littered around him, so he didn't waste time confirming the beasts' species or level. He remembered the beasts they already have collected and didn't bother with them anymore.

Just as he was cutting a Sonic Bat's ear, he felt the entire cave shook and Lixue called him.

'I'm collecting their parts now. If this tremor isn't from you, then the boss might be on its way here.' Thirteen reported before Lixue asked him.

'No, not from me,' Lixue looked at the creature inside that was as huge as the door, 'Not yet at least.'

'I need the space storage for these parts.' Thirteen looked at the pile of beasts' body parts a few meters away from him.

Lixue also saw it from the butterfly and lamented, 'Why does it look normal if its beasts', but people go hysteric if its humans'?'

'Because they also have those body parts and couldn't help but imagine if those were theirs,' the cave shook more intensely and Thirteen could hear something coming his way from above, 'It's coming.'

Lixue grinned, 'Then, what do you say we crash this exam?'

Thirteen grinned equally malicious, 'I'm not saying no to coming back to civilization earlier.'

On the side of the lake, Bai Shui and He Ruiqi were still waiting for the two of them. It was already past 1 hour a long time ago, but they decided to wait for another 5 minutes. Now that it was also over 5 minutes, He Ruiqi finally told Bai Shui that they better leave according to the plan.

"You sure we should leave them? That earthquake earlier… what if something happened to them? Shouldn't we check first at least?" Bai Shui asked.

"We already agreed to go first if they didn't come back. They have amazing skills. Way above the average of people I know. I'm sure they're fine. There's also the drone from the military monitoring them. But if we don't follow the plan, they will be the ones who'll be troubled." He Ruiqi persuaded.

Bai Shui spent more time with them than He Ruiqi, so he of course knew how capable that pair was. And more than that, he knew how dangerous exactly the forest was now because of the Irregulars. Because he knew, that was why he didn't want to venture into the forest without them.

It wasn't like he didn't trust He Ruiqi, but this guy was injured. Although it could be said he was already somewhat recovered, which was actually kind of strange, he wasn't in his most optimal condition.

Bai Shui couldn't properly protect himself in front of an Irregular, much less covering for someone. From the fight earlier the day, it was clear that although He Ruiqi's combat skill was better than him, he also couldn't beat the Irregular without either Lixue or Lin Shisan's help.

He Ruiqi was about to speak again when he saw the water surface rippled heavily. It wasn't from something touching it, rather, it was caused by vibrations from under it. He Ruiqi became alarmed.

That couldn't be caused by Lixue or Lin Shisan.

"Something is surfacing! Run!"

He Ruiqi quickly pulled Bai Shui away and ran. Behind them, the ripples intensified and a huge creature, almost half the size of the mountain, emerged with a roar.