Chapter 36

The long-awaited attack never came, so Zena opened her eyes only to see the alpha Raptor's head directly in front of her with its jaws opened wide, but that was all.

It did not move or make a sound, however, in the next moment, its head slid off its neck and onto the ground, its eyes lifeless. Zena's jaws dropped in awe when she saw Fares standing behind it with a sword in his hands.

Drawing back his sword, Fares had mixed feelings. Firstly, there was Zena, who fights as if it was her last day to live. Secondly, his speed has shot to a whole different level, and he was not used to it yet.

So much so, that the hype every man feels about getting a sword had been gone, as control of the sword became slower than his movement speed. It was not like he wants to fight barehanded, but more like he wanted Asa ranged weapon, something he could use his excess energy on. Like a magician, but with his speed, he would be an evading magician.

"Are you okay?" Fares asked, extending his hands towards Zena. Zena happily took it and gave him a warm smile.

However, not even a second later it turned to absolute fear. She saw the last Raptor right behind Fares, its maw already at the sides of his neck ready to snap shut, crushing his head in a gruesome scene.

Fare has already seen the reflection of the Raptor in her bright eyes and could have easily dodged, but he did not. Instead, he smiled and relaxed even more.

Before the Raptor's jaws snapped shut, its head had been sent flying while its body could not handle the momentum and staggered to the side, a few meters before finally coming to a halt falling on the ground.

Zena opened her jaws wide in shock. Unlike Fares, she did not have enough soul energy as she could not yet cultivate it, and her eyes could not keep up with the insane speed. Only when Smooka came to a halt beside Fares did she realize, what had happened.

However, her fear for the cute, fluffy creature only grew. She could not believe that the creature she was about to attack not long before was this disastrous, what would have happened if she had angered it.

Fares rubbed Smooka's head as he looked at Zena seriously, making her nervous.

"What is the matter?" She asked, fidgeting on the spot. Did she annoy him somehow?

"What was that about? Your fighting style is too destructive. Your reflexes and instincts are great, too great, but you just threw the most important part out of the window just like that." Fares explained.

"W-what do you mean?" She asked as if she had never realized that before. Didn't everyone fight like this?

Fares took a deep sigh and said, "Listen, Zena, from where I come from, hunting was a lot more complicated than just killing or catching the prey. Hunters had to have patience, intelligence, and adaptability.

I am not a great hunter, hell I am not even a good one, but if I were to hunt with the intent to survive, I would have divided a group this big first and hunted them one by one. A famous person back home once said, 'Hunting forces a person to endure, to master themselves, even to truly get to know the wild environment.'

You must integrate your environment into your fighting style, and never think of taking any damage. If it was a stronger enemy it would have incapacitated you, stopped you, or killed you, before you could even reach them."

As Fares said that, revelation appeared in Zena's mind as if she could finally see what she was doing wrong. By then, she got scared, she could have died countless times fighting like that, she would have left Mona all on her own.

Once she realized that, resoluteness appeared over her complexion, she must not do anything like that ever again. She turned to Fares and said with pleading eyes, "Please teach me how to hunt."

"Relax, that is what we were doing anyway, so let us first collect our loot and leave this place before other stronger beats come by."

After a while, they had gathered the orbs and grabbed the alpha Raptor's dead body, strapping it over Smooka's large back.

"Why did you collect that? It is not even helpful and harms us instead." Zena asked perplexed. Grabbing the Raptor, she could understand, but why would he take that useless orbs too?

"You cannot, yes, but I can." Fares said mysteriously.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, even more perplexed, why would he say confusing stuff like that? Zena still did not know that his body had no physical form and just thought that his energy feels weird somehow.

However, Fares and Smooka were already on the move towards a certain direction. During their travel, she kept pestering him for an answer, until he finally told her that he would explain sometime later. Knowing that he would not say any more, she just agreed.

After walking for a few miles, they felt a slight trembling of the ground. Fares immediately lifted his fists, halting their pace. They stopped abruptly and looked at Fares to see what he was planning to do.

Fares climbed a nearby tree, high enough so that he could see a few hundred meters into the distance, but not enough to be spotted by giant beasts.

Looking ahead towards the source of vibrations, Fares noticed a single huge figure nabbing at a tree branch with ecstasy. Fares could immediately identify the beast, it was a Saltasaurus.

Saltasaurus was a dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period, its height was 3-4 meters tall, however, the one in front of him was beyond 30 meters tall.

Fares formulated an idea in his brain and climbed down the tree and explained how the monster looked, hoping Zena would know this mutated one's weakness.

Unfortunately, Zena shook her head, she had never even thought of fighting something that big on her own and did not have time to ask others about such giant creatures. For her, the Quetz was not huge but had a huge wingspan, so as long as you could hold the wings down, you could kill it easily.

Fares was not expecting much, as he knew how hard it was for her, so he just explained his plan to them while they listened intently.

After he was done, Zena was the first to go. She sneaked up to the Saltasaurus' back slowly until she was in position a tens of meters behind it. Being a herbivore, the Saltasaurus had no fighting experience and did not notice her, it just kept munching on the tree leaves happily.

Fares and Smooka also went into position and got ready. Both Fares and Zena drew their swords and got into a fighting stance.

When Fares gave the signal, Zena charged out silently towards the Saltasaurus' hind legs. When she was 5 meters away, the Saltasaurus looked at her vigilantly, what was this two-legged beast charging at it for.

It swiped its huge tail sideways, trying to shake her off. But Zena easily rolled forwards on the ground, dodging its tail. She then was right behind its legs and ready to slash at it, however, the beast just kicked back with its hind legs towards Zena's sword.

Its kick looked deadly, and Zena knew she was not going to survive a hit from that. Remembering Fares' words from earlier, Zena abandoned the idea of defending and dashed to the side, dodging the legs completely.

The beast could not believe how can such a tiny two-legged beast evade its attack twice, and it swiped its tail more quickly this time breaking the speed of sound almost as if a giant whip was attacking.

Zena noticed it coming, but she had already completed her goal, was retreating away. Right as she left its attack range, the tails hit the space behind her, producing enough air currents hurling her off her feet.

The Saltasaurus was even more infuriated at this tiny beast and followed after her. However, before it could reach her, it felt danger from underneath it and stopped in its tracks, infusing energy into its belly.

At that moment, Fares was aiming his sword imbued with energy at the site he thought where its heart should be. But to his dismay, the sword did not even scratch its skin and just slid right off.

Knowing that his plan failed, Fares ran as fast as he could, and he was too fast, even faster than Zena. As soon as he fled from under the beast, it threw its weight down, crushing everything underneath it and forming a five meters wide crater surrounding it.

Fares gulped, he would have died the worst possible death had he not been fast enough. 'Never attack a huge four-legged dinosaur's abdomen again, that was scary.' He thought.

The Saltasaurus was even more infuriated, it was attacked twice and one even landed a hit. It decided to chase the one who managed to land a hit first out of anger.

However, a few steps later, it noticed a figure falling from a tree above it and slicing at its neck.

Blood oozed out as a five-claw wound appeared on its neck.

Roaaaaar~

It roared in pain, this was the first time something got by its skin. Even though Smooka got a hit in, Fares' complexion turned sour. That was too shallow of a wound, it was like a mere paper cut to it.

'What am I supposed to do now?' He thought, looking at the beast deeply.