Immediately after giving Yi Qiang his task, the Absolute snapped his fingers and disappeared - a completely unnecessary gesture, the marksman was sure. But he was just the type to be thematic with his abilities.

Three worms, three days.

If it were the previous worm that the Absolute told him to kill, the marksman was confident he could complete the task in a single day. However, he wasn't so sure about whatever monstrosities resided in this comparatively monstrous hill.

Yi Qiang's question was quickly answered as a massive hole opened up in the side of the mountain, and out emerged the most dangerous-looking creature the marksman had ever seen.

Covered in interlocking, gray stone plates, the leaping worm writhed in the air, its massive body arcing perfectly. With the higher flight path, Yi Qiang got a good look at the thing - a mixed blessing, surely. There were no visible eyes, and the only distinguishing feature between the top and the bottom was the head lacked everything but a gaping mouth, taking up the entire space. Layer upon layer of paper-thin teeth was visible in the mouth, a dull gray.

If I get swallowed by that thing... there's no chance of coming out alive.

The marksman booted out any errant thoughts, Analyzing the creature. I'm not sure if it'll care, but worst-case scenario, I take off full speed towards everyone else. I doubt the Absolute would let that giant worm get too close.

His eyes widened when he saw the result.

Colossal Eartheater

Level: ????

Epic

HP: ????/????

It could be arbitrary... but I'm reasonably sure this is the first time I've seen four question marks as the level. Three and two, but four?

Even if it means nothing, I can't take that risk. I have to be careful.

Unknowingly, a small grin crept onto Yi Qiang's face as he thought of what exactly he'd have to do.

A realization Yi Qiang was quick to come to was that the area was, almost as if by design, utterly devoid of any natural resources. That included wood, water, or any vegetation other than the bountiful grass covering the hills.

All the resources of value might have been underground -naturally, a domain into which the marksman was reluctant to delve. It would be quite the unfortunate accident if, even after the chance granted to him after failing the Cloud Court, he would die by being swallowed by a leaping worm when digging around for anything of use.

As for why he needed these materials, the marksman planned on bringing part of his expertise back on Earth into Ascend. Traps.

It was extremely likely a single shot of Yi Qiang's would be incapable of piercing through his prey's tough hide. After some investigation that involved throwing small Qi stones at any jumping Eartheater's 'scales'. What looked like stone was some sort of alloy, a dull, solid material unscarred even by an ordinary arrow shot.

Any full-blown attempt to test the creature's defenses would surely attract unwanted attention, though, so the marksman had to resort to other ideas. After all, if the plates a Colossal Eartheater was covered in could withstand the impact force of such a substantial body sliding below the mountain without any scratches, Yi Qiang doubted he could break through very smoothly. It was, after all, not the soft earth beneath the hills of the lesser prey which the others had to handle. No, it was the cold, hard stone of a mountain through which they were effortlessly sliding.

Even that was in question, as he doubted ordinary stone could withstand the impact of leaping giant worm after leaping giant worm.

Luckily for, well, the world, the mountain range that extended behind the jagged peaks he surveyed then was not inhabited by Eartheaters. Perhaps it was something special about this particular mountain or some sort of survival mechanism to ensure the species didn't spread out too far - either way, the marksman wasn't there to study the beasts.

He was there to kill them.

Nevertheless, Yi Qiang had experience beating the unbeatable. He had been given systematic training in identifying the flaws of a target and capitalizing upon them. He had countless strategies(traps, skills, and strikes were only some of the items in his repertoire) to pick apart countless weaknesses, some taught, some self-learned. The single common point among them was that the intent in each one was to kill or to assist a kill. Each was field-tested and had not only brought down many but would continue to bring down more in the future.

He had long since lost count of how many fell under his traps, but they called every unfortunate target unassailable. Still, though, they fell.

The Colossal Eartheaters were no different.

There was no single attack that could take down one of these monstrosities. Even if the marksman replicated his previous attack, unheeding of the many risks inevitably undertaken by the depletion it required, by his estimate... it would be damaging, not fatal.

The issue was, mostly, the sheer size of the thing. Yi Qiang's arrows could only do so much damage to so large an area - it was large enough to shrug it off even if he managed to destroy an entire space within the Eartheater.

As such, the marksman had two options - utilize area-of-effect attacks to deal damage over a large enough space to kill it, or put it into a situation where the environment would do the same. That was drowning, suffocating, starving; the list went on. As impermeable as the beast was, Yi Qiang doubted it was devoid of any bodily functions.

The problem with area-of-effect attacks was that as effective as they would be, that was assuming they could get through the Eartheater's plates. Something Yi Qiang was far from confident achieving, even with focused attacks, would only become impossible if he spread out the same force. Dragon's Devastation was sufficient on a single-arrow basis, yes, but less so than Dragon Marksman's Judgment.

The second method had its problems as well. The lack of information Yi Qiang had was debilitating, and it wasn't as if he could spend weeks collecting it gradually, as the sniper had before. He had three days for three worms, leaving a day for each, not exactly a comfortable timeframe.

For example, starving had potential - such large creatures need high amounts of nutrients and energy to keep going, especially when they're as active as the Colossal Eartheater. The number of calories required would be astonishing. If Yi Qiang could cut those off, the results would be almost immediate.

The only issue was that he didn't know where the worms got their energy. So, starving was out.

Yi Qiang ruled out drowning, for obvious reasons.

Suffocating was possible, but Yi Qiang couldn't be sure. Perhaps the Eartheaters breathed air and leaped out every few minutes to take a new breath - it would certainly explain the impractical behavior - but there was no way to know, as there were countless other explanations. It was possible that if he managed to stop them from jumping out, he could trap them in the ground, slowly running out of air until they died, quietly, untraceably.

Or they would remain there until Yi Qiang went to collect the corpses to prove their defeat, suddenly popping out and swallowing him whole.

The method the marksman eventually decided to place his bets on was bleeding. By inflicting long, deep wounds with traps or attacks, he could hopefully drain the Colossal Eartheaters of their blood, slowly killing them. Even if they recovered through some freak healing factor, such healing would waste energy, placing the marksman one step closer.

The next question was how to inflict these wounds. Traps were useful, but also unreliable - where the worms jumped from seemed arbitrary, and likely was. That meant that with the traditional trap, Yi Qiang had to place his hopes in sheer chance. Not only was that unreliable, but it was wasteful. However he decided to set up his traps in this hypothetical situation, all it would take was one slightly off worm to come bursting through the surface and destroy it. So the marksman had to think outside of the box.

I can't place traps on a set location. They have to, essentially, move based on the worms. But... how does that work when the target's underground, invisible?

Absentmindedly, Yi Qiang tossed an intricate coin made of Qi up in the air with his thumb, deftly catching it and flicking it up again. It was a habit he'd developed to train the Qi Control skill, back when it still advanced quickly through the ranks. His mind mulled over the possibilities, endlessly visualizing the scene of an Eartheater sliding through the ground.

The marksman closed his eyes to see it better in the darkness. As opposed to his arrival at the area ten minutes or so ago, the marksman wasn't worried about surprise attacks from the Eartheaters. As he had long since discovered, he could hear them rumbling in the earth before their surfacing. It was far from an exact science, or his problem would already be solved, but it was close enough for Yi Qiang to be aware of when danger was about to strike, and avoid it.

As Yi Qiang emptied his mind, brainstorming, he felt vibrations deep in the earth even as the coin flipped in the air.

A small grin formed on his face. If the Absolute's watching... let's give him a good show.

Invisibly, the marksman's legs tensed, power building up in them. Even as the Colossal Eartheater barreled through the ground towards him, the coin flew through the air. Up and down. Up and down. Up and...

Just as the earth started to give way to the Eartheater's layers upon layers of sharp teeth, Yi Qiang sprang up, spiraling through the air.

In a perfect parabola, the marksman spun in the air, streamlining his movement to arc gracefully in the air, just barely avoiding the Eartheater's terrifying maw.

In the middle of the air, a mental command from Yi Qiang caused the coin, still flipping in the air, to glow brightly with radiant golden light. It shimmered with the same noble hue of Shenyu's unscarred scales; a color Yi Qiang would, hopefully, reacquaint himself with soon enough.

Still, though, with a light flourish, the Dragon Marksman landed on the ground without a sound. His eyes having remained shut, the marksman waved a hand, grabbing the still-shining coin from the air perfectly. He had never lost track of its position even as the world moved around him - even an arrow's location was perfectly known to him until it dissipated, yet another benefit of the effects of Empyrean Dragon's Armaments.

Unknown to him, a mile or so away, the corners of the Absolute's mouth twitched. He muttered to himself, "Cheeky kid."

Tossing the coin up into the air, Yi Qiang focused himself entirely on the construct, adding Qi and transforming the shape into a flying dragon, intricately designed as it soared through the skies on golden wings.

Suddenly, his eyes widened.

I can easily track the location of all my Qi.

The rare urge to slap his forehead arrived as Yi Qiang realized all he needed to do to locate a burrowing Eartheater was attach it to the creature somehow.

A minute, dense grain of Qi appeared in the marksman's hand, pumped full of 10 entire Qi points - more than he would typically put into a whole arrow.

I don't know what kind of stress it might undergo. Should put more.

Twenty more points disappeared as it glowed even brighter before Yi Qiang dulled the light coming off of it.

This moment was also when Yi Qiang realized how strange it was that Qi had no weight, but substance. The grain on his fingertip, though even denser than the marksman's most Qi-intensive bow yet, weighed nothing. Maybe that'll be useful someday, too, he grinned to himself.

Tapping the grain with his fingertip revealed just how dense it was. The sound it produced was almost metallic, but not quite. It was a deeper sound, more resonating, perhaps expected from the traits Empyrean dragons showed as of yet.

A small smile tugged at Yi Qiang's face; that should be enough.