Chapter 25: Take Action
Boggy resolved his opponent before him with a textbook-like perfect battle.
Seeing this fierce prey, as notorious as the Thousand-Tooth Sand Bream, fall at his feet, Boggy felt a surreal sense of disbelief, as if he were dreaming.
Just a few days before, he hadn't even been able to scout properly, yet today he had already managed to solo-kill the Giant Claw Lord.
This was the first time he had hunted such a heavyweight prey since he had become a hunter.
Boggy stood dazed on the spot for a while before jumping off the back of the Giant Claw Lord.
But before he could celebrate the successful hunt with Ma Lu, he was distracted by a commotion in the distance.
A motorcycle gang was rapidly approaching them!
The riders meant ill, saying nothing as they encircled Boggy, Ma Lu, and the Giant Claw Lord on the ground.
Before the gang had completed their encirclement, Ma Lu quietly squeezed a Young Flame Lizard he had just found in his hand.
"Which Hunting Group are you from, and why do you want to snatch our prey?"
Once everyone had assembled, a bald man spoke up and questioned them aggressively.
Boggy found the question somewhat baffling but still managed to reply patiently, "I am Boggy, the leader of the Twin Sunflower Hunting Group. Where is your prey?"
"Are you playing dumb, kid?" Another person dismounted the motorcycle, removed her face covering, revealing a woman with a wolf tattoo on her neck.
She pointed to the Giant Claw Lord behind Boggy and Ma Lu, saying, "This is our prey."
"How can you prove that?"
"Why bother talking to them?" someone said impatiently, "Just tell them to get lost!"
Baldy gestured with his hand, signaling his men to calm down, then turned to Boggy and asked, "Is that Giant Claw Lord behind you missing a pincer?"
Boggy was slightly startled; he had noticed that the Giant Claw Lord had used only one pincer throughout the attack. When he'd dragged the creature from beneath the sandy ground, he indeed found it missing one pincer.
"We've been tracking it for over a week and had a few battles with it. Its right pincer was chopped off by us, but every time it was in danger, it would burrow into the ground. Luckily, we had already installed a tracking device on it."
Baldy said, "If you don't believe it, check its left second leg."
Upon hearing this, Boggy went to inspect and indeed found a tracker still flashing red among the fur.
The woman with the wolf tattoo sneered, "See for yourself. This Giant Claw Lord must have been exhausted from us chasing it, and that's why it ended up here, giving you an easy find."
Boggy frowned and said, "You may indeed have fought with this Giant Claw Lord before, but in the end, it was us who killed it. Moreover, when we fought it, it was still spirited. According to the Hunter's Code, this Giant Claw Lord should belong to us..."
He was interrupted before he could finish.
"Just the two of you, hunting a Giant Claw Lord?"
The eight on the other side laughed as if they had heard something amusing, "Ha ha ha ha, at least make your lies a bit more believable. You don't even have a Heat Cutting Saw, how could you break through this guy's shell?"
"Boss, like I said, no need to talk to them. Just give them a beating and they'll come around."
A young man on a motorcycle with a skull logo was already cracking his knuckles, ready to pounce on Boggy and Ma Lu as soon as Baldy gave the order.
Though Baldy looked fierce, he was quite thoughtful and continued searching his mind for information about the Twin Sunflower Hunting Group.
As siblings, no one knew Baldy better than the woman with the wolf tattoo. She felt a flicker of recognition when she first heard the name Boggy.
After staring at Boggy for a while, she suddenly remembered something and blurted out, "It's you, Li's that..."
"Exactly," Boggy cut in, "though I've already left Harpist and established the Twin Sunflower Hunting Group."
The mention of Harpist caused Baldy to stiffen. No matter the current state of this hunting group, it had once been one of the Giant Curtain's three great hunting groups, with many legendary stories attached to it.
Team leader Li was the idol of countless young hunters.
Unfortunately, Li had died a few years ago, and after that, the Harpist's situation went downhill… As for Twin Sunflower, Baldy hadn't even heard of it.
It seemed from what Boggy said that it had only been established a few days ago, no wonder his hunting group only had two people, daring to venture into the Level 2 Hunting Area, they certainly had guts.
Now that he had a clear understanding of the two opposite him, Baldy also relaxed and spoke up again.
"I won't bully you, just leave the Giant Claw Lord behind, and I'll let you go," he said.
However, the young man with the skull on his motorcycle was somewhat dissatisfied with that decision.
"Boss, we can't just let today's incident slide like this. We need to teach them a lesson, otherwise, if the word gets out, more and more people will think our Hunting Group is easy to bully," he argued.
His proposal received support from many others, "Exactly! A newly established small hunting group dares to provoke us, if we let them off lightly, how can we hold our heads high in the Giant Curtain in the future!" they exclaimed.
Some people who were quicker to act had already arrived beside Boggy's motorcycle and untied a hanging bag.
"Tsk, Angular Belly Black Swift Snake, nothing interesting," someone scoffed.
"Hey, there's a Short-Eared Lync Hedgehog here, not bad," another noted approvingly.
Meanwhile, a female hunter exclaimed in surprise, "Come here, come here… these bags are filled with Bloodsucking Tail Weasels, there are more than a dozen of them, they should sell for 4000 Electric Degrees together," she said excitedly.
Hearing the female hunter, greed also appeared on Baldy's face, "In that case, leave these too as the price for your wrongdoing," he decided.
Boggy narrowed his eyes, "Are you planning to rob us openly?" he questioned.
"So what if we are?" the young man with the skull on his motorcycle grinned teasingly, "You can go to the guild to report us, but how do you plan to prove these were hunted by you?" he mocked.
Boggy didn't reply but exchanged a look with Ma Lu.
In the next moment, he suddenly lunged out, swinging his fist at the young man's face!
The latter had not expected Boggy to strike in front of so many people and was caught completely off-guard; moreover, Boggy's speed was much faster than he had imagined.
He felt like he wasn't facing a human at all, but a cheetah!
With no time to dodge, he took a solid punch to the face.
That simple punch burst his nose, and blood spurted out like water rushing from an open faucet.
Ma Lu estimated that the punch must have triggered the [Endless Blood Flow] bleeding effect.
The others were also stunned by Boggy's sudden punch.
Only Boggy's feet didn't stop, and after knocking out the young man, he charged towards his next target.
A greenhorn, huh? Baldy was still pondering where Boggy got the courage to make a move when already another one of his men was down.
Baldy now realized something was wrong; what kind of monstrous speed and strength was this?!
Having dealt with the Bloodsucking Tail Weasel pack, even without triggering any effects, Boggy's base attribute enhancements had already reached 102%, 91%, 93%, and 120%.
He had surpassed the limits of humanity.
In the blink of an eye, Boggy knocked down the woman with the wolf tattoo around her neck too, and she wasn't even able to use her psychic power.
But by then the others had also come to their senses, and six fist-sized fireballs hurtled towards Boggy's body.
However, three of them were blocked by blood shields the size of thumbnail caps, and with just a slight sidestep, Boggy easily avoided the remaining three.
Then he locked his gaze on the person who had released the fireballs, the same female hunter who had discovered the Bloodsucking Tail Weasels in his motorcycle bags. Stared down by him, she inexplicably panicked and even pronounced the spell wrong.
Just as Boggy was about to charge at her, a chain formed of yellow sand suddenly wrapped around Boggy's right leg.