Chapter 57: The Shape of a Hunter
The forest had become a prison.
Without a single shout or unnecessary movement, the Northern Wolf Escort Company spread through the trees with practiced precision. Frost Wolves disappeared between ancient trunks until not a single escape route remained uncovered. Some climbed rocky outcrops overlooking the woodland. Others slipped silently through the undergrowth, their noses constantly testing the air.
Nothing entered.
Nothing left.
If the Thorncap Raptor attempted to flee...
It would run straight into another waiting wolf.
Elder Ruan stood at the edge of the forest with his arms folded, his expression unreadable.
"This hunt belongs to Yun Che."
He looked at every guard in turn.
"No one interferes."
"Unless I give the order."
Every escort nodded.
They trusted his judgment completely.
A short distance away, Lin Xia watched the dark forest with tightly clenched hands.
She had no desire to charge after Yun Che.
No foolish dream of proving herself.
She knew exactly how dangerous a Foundation Establishment beast was.
That wasn't what troubled her.
What troubled her...
...was knowing that even if someone she care for was dying inside that forest...
She couldn't help them.
Not truly.
She could repair armor.
Forge runic equipment.
Strengthen weapons.
But if the enemy reached her...
She would die before completing her first rune combination.
That thought had never bothered her much inside Mistforge.
Everyone there had a role.
Blacksmiths forged.
Hunters hunted.
Tailors sewed.
Life simply worked that way.
Yet since leaving home...
The world had become larger.
Crueler.
There were no city walls in the wilderness.
No guards around every corner.
Sometimes...
Danger found you first.
She looked toward Elder Ruan.
Then toward Bao Kun.
Shen Rui.
Even Jin Wei carried enough talismans to survive an ambush.
Everyone possessed some method of protecting themselves.
Everyone...
Except her.
She swallowed quietly.
I don't want to become a warrior.
The thought was firm.
She admired people like Shen Tianyu.
Respected people like Elder Ruan.
But she had never wished to become them.
I only...
Her fingers tightened.
...want to survive long enough to keep doing what I love.
For the first time in her life...
She genuinely wanted to learn how to fight.
Not to win.
Not to seek glory.
Simply...
To make sure she could return home.
Yun Che stepped beneath the shade of the ancient trees.
The sounds of the village disappeared almost immediately.
Only rustling leaves remained.
Mirage flew several meters overhead, her brilliant blue wings flashing between shafts of sunlight.
Whisper drifted soundlessly beside him.
Amon padded behind, his heavy footsteps surprisingly quiet for a creature his size.
Yun Che slowed.
His mind sorted through everything they had learned.
Foundation Establishment.
Forest habitat.
Fungal body.
He reviewed the information carefully.
"It uses spores."
He spoke aloud, partly for himself and partly for his companions.
"Those can paralyze."
"Or put us to sleep."
Whisper bobbed once.
"It controls roots."
Mirage fluttered lower.
"It can manipulate surrounding plants."
Amon growled softly.
"It heals quickly."
"It drains life from nearby plants."
"And..."
Yun Che looked toward a break in the canopy where sunlight poured through.
"It has that charging attack."
"The one that gathers sunlight before striking."
He stopped walking.
"So..."
"...how do we beat something like that?"
His first thought was the puppet style.
Steel wires.
Floating weapons.
Control.
He imagined the battlefield.
Dense trees.
Roots.
Moving vines.
Limited visibility.
Too many variables.
He shook his head.
"No."
"Too complicated."
Plans failed.
Battlefields changed.
Trying to force a carefully prepared strategy through unfamiliar terrain often ended badly.
He needed something simpler.
Something reliable.
Something that minimized risk.
His hand unconsciously touched the bracelet on his wrist.
Then...
He smiled.
"...I've been forgetting one of my greatest advantages."
The Bloodline.
Ever since obtaining it, he had treated his transformations almost like emergency tools.
Useful.
Powerful.
Rarely used.
Perhaps because...
Some small part of his human mind still resisted becoming a monster.
That hesitation vanished.
"This isn't pretending."
He whispered.
It's part of what I am now."
He looked toward Amon.
"I've been asking you to fight beside me."
The young drake tilted his head.
"I should do the same."
Yun Che climbed down from Amon's back.
One by one...
He removed his equipment.
Sword.
Armor.
Steel wires.
Grenades.
The anti-material rifle remained inside the storage bracelet as well.
Everything disappeared into the bracelet with faint flashes of light.
Mirage blinked.
No weapons?
Yun Che smiled.
"I have weapons."
He placed one hand against his own chest.
"They've simply been here all along."
Cold Ki spread through his body.
Scales emerged.
His bones shifted.
Muscles expanded.
The familiar ache passed through every limb before settling into something strangely comfortable.
Moments later...
A massive Iceback Glacier Drake stood where the young man had been.
Powerful shoulders supported a long, heavily plated body. Frost-white ridges ran from the back of his skull to the end of his thick tail. Four clawed limbs pressed firmly into the earth, and crystalline horns curved behind his head.
The transformation was larger than Amon because Yun Che was foundation realm.
Nearly a quarter larger.
For several seconds...
The forest remained completely silent.
Then Amon's eyes widened.
The young drake circled Yun Che excitedly, sniffing his larger counterpart from every angle.
He gave an enthusiastic roar.
Mirage burst into delighted loops through the air.
He's one of us!
Whisper happily spun in tiny icy circles.
Yun Che laughed.
The sound came out as a deep draconic rumble.
"I know."
"It's different."
He looked at each of them in turn.
"We've trained together."
"We've hunted together."
"But today..."
"...we fight together."
He lowered his massive head toward Amon.
"You know this body better than I do."
Yun Che lowered his head toward Amon.
"You know how our kind turns, braces and uses its weight. If I move incorrectly..."
"...warn me."
Amon puffed out his chest proudly.
Mirage landed atop one of Yun Che's horns.
I'll scare him.
Yun Che chuckled.
"Eventually."
"Listen first."
She made an exaggerated sigh.
Whisper floated beside Yun Che's shoulder.
Ready.
Patient.
Waiting for orders.
Yun Che looked at his three companions.
Three completely different creatures.
Each with different instincts.
Different strengths.
Different ways of seeing the world.
If they fought as four individuals...
The Thorncap Raptor might defeat them.
If they fought as one hunting pack...
The outcome would be very different.
"Amon, stay beside me. Do not chase beyond the nearest tree line. If it enters our space, hit it."
Amon was already feeling excited and ready to fight beside Yun Che now since his partner was his species.
"Come on, Let's start. I want to show you how we do this."
Yun Che told him to calm down.
"Mirage, Confuse its sense of distance. Use whatever illusions you want, but never hide Amon or Whisper from me."
Mirage harrumphed, she knew that. She wasn't stupid.
"Whisper, Watch the ground. If fungal cords emerge, freeze the first one that reaches either of us."
Whisper was the only one who gave a warm response as he nodded. Whisper was like a young child, maybe that was it.
He turned toward the dark heart of the forest.
Golden eyes narrowed.
"All right."
A slow cloud of icy breath escaped his jaws.
"Let's find out..."
His claws pressed into the forest floor.
"...whether this mushroom can hunt in winter."
---------------------------
The Thorncap Raptor understood one thing with perfect clarity.
It was trapped.
Its senses stretched through the vast fungal network beneath the forest floor. Every root carried vibrations. Every mushroom whispered fragments of movement. Every thread of living fungus painted a picture of the battlefield.
Wolves.
Every direction.
Every escape route.
Every path toward freedom ended with the scent of predators.
Its instincts screamed at it to run.
Its mind answered with silence.
There was nowhere to run.
It remained motionless for only a heartbeat before another thought emerged.
Hostages.
It need hostages.
The villagers were of no use. The guards had no connection to them. It needed to capture one of the guards.
Perhaps then the wolves would hesitate.
Perhaps.
Its attention shifted toward the approaching group.
Four opponents entered its territory.
One Foundation Establishment human—now wearing the shape of an Iceback Glacier Drake.
One true Iceback Glacier Drake at the peak of the Mortal Realm.
One Seventh-Stage Azure Mirage Butterfly.
One Eighth-Stage Frost Wisp.
Its senses lingered upon the larger drake.
The shape had changed.
The weight had changed.
Even the scent had become almost identical to the younger reptile beside it.
Almost.
The fungal network remembered the human who had entered the forest.
Transforming could not erase the vibrations of his footsteps, the rhythm of his Ki or the scent carried into its territory before his body changed.
The creature did not understand it.
It didn't matter.
The battlefield would decide everything and this was its chance for a hostage.
Slowly...
The Thorncap Raptor rose from among the towering mushrooms.
Its broad fungal cap brushed against low-hanging branches.
Powerful hind legs flexed beneath a thick, muscular body.
Its thorn-covered tail lashed once, scattering leaves into the air.
The deceptively small forearms unfolded.
Bones shifted.
Muscles stretched.
Hidden claws extended until each arm became several times longer than before.
Its yellow eyes fixed upon the approaching hunters.
Then...
It charged.
The forest answered immediately.
Roots burst from beneath the earth.
Vines twisted through the undergrowth.
Mushrooms released dense clouds of drifting spores.
Ancient trees groaned as living branches bent toward the intruders.
The entire woodland seemed to awaken.
Yun Che's golden draconic eyes narrowed.
"So that's how you fight."
He didn't retreat.
Instead...
He grinned.
"Amon."
The younger drake answered with a deep roar.
No further explanation was needed.
Both Iceback Glacier Drakes slammed their forefeet against the forest floor.
Frost Aura.
Cold exploded outward.
Whisper answered instantly.
A wave of crystalline frost spread through the air, reinforcing the expanding field.
Mirage circled high overhead, her wings scattering shimmering blue light across the battlefield.
Within moments...
The forest changed.
Grass froze solid.
Leaves turned white.
Roots emerging from the earth slowed as thick layers of ice crawled across their surfaces.
Mushrooms glittered beneath fresh frost.
The humid woodland transformed into a frozen hunting ground.
The Thorncap Raptor hesitated.
Only for an instant.
That instant was enough.
"Now!"
Four streams of icy Ki surged together.
Dozens...
Then hundreds...
Of razor-sharp icicles erupted from the frozen landscape.
The ground itself became a weapon.
Towering ice spikes burst upward before shattering into countless frozen shards that shot forward like arrows released from invisible bows.
The air howled.
The Thorncap Raptor's eyes widened.
It had expected cold.
It had not expected the battlefield itself to attack.
Its powerful legs exploded into motion.
It zigzagged between the incoming barrage with astonishing agility.
One claw swept sideways.
Three icicles shattered.
Its extending arm lashed outward again.
Another wave disintegrated into glittering fragments.
Several struck its thick fungal cap and glanced away harmlessly.
Others gouged shallow cuts across its shoulders.
It never stopped moving.
Every step brought it closer.
Faster.
Closer.
It wasn't trying to win the exchange.
It was searching for weakness.
Its eyes settled upon the smallest member of the hunting party.
The butterfly.
Fragile.
Light.
Easy.
The Thorncap Raptor suddenly changed direction.
Its muscular legs compressed.
The forest floor cracked beneath the force.
It launched itself into the air.
The enormous fungal predator spun, extending one leg in a devastating flying kick powerful enough to shatter stone.
Mirage didn't move.
At least...
Not the one it saw.
The kick passed cleanly through her body.
The butterfly dissolved into countless shimmering blue fragments while the real one stayed in the bright sky directly under the sun.
An illusion.
The Thorncap Raptor's pupils contracted.
Wrong.
A deep roar exploded behind it.
Too late.
Two massive tails descended simultaneously.
Amon struck first.
Yun Che followed a fraction too late.
Their tails did not land as one.
But the second blow caught the creature before it recovered from the first.
Both Iceback Glacier Drakes twisted with all the strength in their powerful bodies, their frost-covered tails striking like colossal war hammers.
BOOM!
The combined impact landed squarely across the creature's side.
The Thorncap Raptor hadn't even finished turning before the blow hurled it sideways through the frozen forest.
Trees splintered.
Ice-covered trunks snapped apart.
The beast smashed through one after another before crashing heavily into a massive boulder, sending cracks racing across the stone.
As its body flew...
It unknowingly passed straight through Whisper.
The tiny Frost Spirit stretched out both translucent hands.
A pulse of icy energy flowed directly into the wounds already opened by the tail strikes.
The freezing power seeped deep into torn flesh, slowing blood flow and stiffening damaged muscles.
The Thorncap Raptor rolled to its feet with a furious screech.
Its healing instinct immediately activated as its roots connected to the forest.
Then...
It paused.
The wounds...
Were closing.
But not nearly as quickly as before.
It looked toward the silent Frost Spirit hovering calmly behind the two drakes.
For the first time since the battle had begun...
The Thorncap Raptor realized something unsettling.
It was not ready to fight another predator.