Hunt

So fast!

At this moment he felt that his past training was ridiculous as he was shooting at fixed target. Right now the skeleton was moving at high-speed. Moreover its body wasn't like a normal human's but twisted and turned into elusive postures as it moved. It was very difficult to predict its movement trajectory.

Cold sweat accumulated on Dudian's forehead as he looked at swinging body of the skeleton. There was about 120 meters distance between them and it was reducing very rapidly. Dudian couldn't find a logical trajectory to skeleton's movement but it had already ran nearly of the distance between them.

Whoosh!

An arrow shot as the skeleton was about sixty meters away from Dudian. Puff! The skeleton was hit in its chest. It's body came to a sudden stop and it opened its mouth to make a ferocious roar. However, the next moment skeleton began to rush over Dudian again.

Dudian pulled the string and made the second shot. He turned back to retreat however he was still calculating an action trajectory to predict its movement. As the distance between them was about twenty meters he made the third shot.

Puff! The arrow hit the skeleton's forehead. The arrow pierced several inches but was stuck in its head as it couldn't penetrate more.

"What is its head made of?" Dudian's face slightly changed. He quickly put away the bow and arrows and pulled out dagger as he saw the skeleton was about to reach him. In about a second the distance between them was going to close. Dudian carefully looked at skeleton's arms to see which way it was going to attack.

Roar!

The thick smell radiating from skeleton's mouth rushed to Dudian's face. The skeleton raised its right arm and the protruding sickle was coming toward Dudian.

Dudian bent as he went to kick skeleton's lower leg.

However, he hadn't paid careful attention to this enermous skeleton's legs. At the moment he saw that his feet and legs were covered with gray scales up to its knees.

Dudian's feet kicked its leg. However it felt as if he had kicked a steel pillar. It felt very painful but his strength was equal to an intermediate hunter's. Because of the collision the skeleton tripped over.

As the skeleton fell over Dudian made a sommersault and rolled close to the skeleton. While at it he pulled out his dagger and attacked its neck to finish it once for all!

Puff! The blade of the dagger cut the flesh and went half the way before it got stuck.

Dudian's face slightly changed as he didn't think that the skeleton's cervical vertebrae would be so hard. How come a dagger made out of finest iron couldn't cut through?

Dudian was surprised but he didn't daze over the issue. He saw that the enermous skeleton seemed to have a bit consciousness. It began to roar in pain. Although its body was lying on the ground but its two meter long arm swept over to attack Dudian.

Dudian quickly loosened his grasp over the dagger and pedalled back to escape. He quickly turned over and glanced around but didn't find any tall buildings which would be suitable terrain for long distance shooting. His face slightly changed. Insinctively his body had acted faster than his brain had made the judgement. He rushed over the rubble covered in moss.

Skeleton rose up, roared and rushed after him.

Dudian was agile as he was able to open the distance between himself and skeleton. He found that the speed and strength of the large skeleton was stronger than an ordinary undeads but compared to him it wasn't up to par. However, it was hard to parry against the skeleton as he wasn't good enough at close combat to fight against it.

Whoosh!

Dudian quickly ran.

The skeleton roared as it rushed after him. There were too many hindrances as the skeleton went after Dudian. Dudian expected that skeleton was larger and stronger than an ordinary undead but it had great drawback in sense of balance and flexibility.

Dudian ran two or three hundred meters through the ruins. Finally he was able to open the distance. As he ran away he also paid attention to the surroundings. Especially he tried to sense all the smells so that no other monster would attack him while he was running away. Moreover he was focused on observing the posture and habits of the skeleton as it ran after him. He stopped and took out his bow and arrows and tightly stared at skeleton which was getting close to him.

"I gotta hit it!"

Dudian's mind was in peace as the distance had decreased to forty meters. At that moment he let go of the string.

Puff! Five seconds later the arrow had shot the skeleton.

The skeleton's fast running body suddenly lost power. It's legs paused and skeleton's upper body dumped and rolled over for four or five laps because of the initial inertia. Black blood scattered out.

Dudian was relieved and walked over. He saw that the arrow hadn't hit skeleton's skull but its eye! It had pierced all the way into its skull and destructed the intracranial tissues which had resulted in killing it.

Dudian adjusted his breath and checked the surrounding environment. He didn't feelt any movement. He went back to the first fighting arena and picked up the dagger and gunpowder boxes. Dudian came back to the place where skeleton's body lay. He used the dagger to cut its head.

It took him several times to cut off its cervical spine.

"I have never seen or heard of such a strange skeleton. There were no records about it in the atlas too. Is this a new mutation of the skeletons?" Dudian used the dagger to cut off along its jar join to pry open skeleton's head. "According to its speed and strength it should be somewhere along level twelve to fourteen monster. Combat power-wise this skeleton is comparable to an average intermediate level hunter."

It didn't take him long to empty the skeleton's head. The tissues of the brain were same with an ordinary undead. Everything was frozen and colored black. He took out the cold crystal. The color of the cold crystal was much deeper and purer in comparison to an ordinary undead's.

Dudian left the place to avoid extra danger as he grabbed the cold crystal and his own things.

Dudian leaned on a piece of moss by the boulder as he came to an open area. He took out the dark blue cold crystal. He was hesitant for a moment but made a small cut on his palm and put the cold crystal into his palm. The cold crystal gradually melted and penetrated into his body through the wound.

Dudian's left hand didn't feel anything at first but the next moment coldness flowed from his shoulder to his body. He was scared the moment that cold feeling dispersed in his head. However it was as if his body was stimulatted as his consciousness cleared up. It seemed his line of sight also become more increasingly bright and colored.

At the same time the chill flowed all over his body. Dudian thought that the coldness has spread all over his body through the blood. His body became normal as the heat radiating off from his body neutralized the coldness. His body was full of strength. His loss of energy because of fight with the skeleton was completely recovered.

Dudian knew that the experience of absorbing skeleton's cold crystal was the same as the one from an ordinary undead. However the effect was much more different.

"It's interesting. Because of mutation and evolution of the skeleton, the quality of the cold crystal has also changed." Dudian whispered. He cleaned his dagger and put it away. He took out the map and began to paint and draw the roads and places he has been too. As he was the only hunter under the command of New World Consortium so depiction of the map had to be naturally worked out by him. It was also to facilitate the future hunting to be more productive.

Dudian put away the pen after he finished mapping the area. He took out an arrow from the quiver. This one was colored dark silver. He held onto it as he looked at the gunpowder.