Chapter 105 - Night Hunt Part 2

Heart of the Inhabited Island’s Forest

"Hey, hasn't some time already passed since the last report? Shouldn't we worry?"

"Don’t worry. I was the one who said to report only if necessary. We don't know who is on that ship. If those people find spirit power’s fluctuations because they tried to communicate with us, it would be worse instead."

"Right, I hadn't thought of it. Well, if they merely observe from a distance covered by the vegetation, there is no risk of them being discovered. In the first place, nobody knows we're here."

"But is it isn’t risky to send only two? Seon is wounded because he has lost his spirit beasts and is unable to fight."

"Idiot, precisely because he lost his spirit beasts and is wounded that he was sent. If they are discovered, he will act as bait while Hyo comes to warn us. Or do you want to take his place?"

"No, for heaven's sake. Indeed, it’s better this way. That’ll show him not to play the big man due to the strength of his spirit beasts when he is unable to resist in a one vs. one match."

"No more fooling around, let's keep looking. Only this place is left now, so we should find out as soon as possible what the captain wants."

Various male voices were overlapping with each other. They belonged to the eight companions of the two men killed by Hei. Unaware of the fate of their companions, they were carefully searching the heart of the deserted forest.

However, they didn’t know that a pair of eyes were watching them from afar. Hei was, in fact, hidden not too far from the group of pirates along with Lian and his little sisters. At his feet, the little creatures with whom he had allied were frantically reporting. They were warning him about the shape of the forest and where each of the pirates were.

"Alright. Good job. In the meantime we settle these pirates, do me another favor. Those humans are looking for something. I don't know what it is, but it must be something that shouldn’t be here, or that contains spirit power. Bring me everything you think can match these descriptions nearby."

The little animals nodded their heads as if they understood. Then they went down into the ground, completely disappearing from Hei's sight.

"Good, then. How to proceed? There are eight of them, and all are sixth stage spirit apprentices. The wisest thing would be to go to Captain Fu and have him participate in the attack with his men," Hei commented as he pondered how to act.

‘But if we do this, it means that the treasure we find will be shared with the crew. If things go wrong, then we will be forced to kill all of them.’ Xing analyzed, visualizing the consequences of such a choice.

‘Let them try it. We'll take down all of them.’ Ye was ready to fight. She didn't care if she had to kill the entire crew of Captain Fu. After all, anyone who dared to hurt his big brother deserved to be punished.

"Silly. It's okay to be pumped for the fight, but always remember not to overdo it if you can avoid killing. There is no need to create unnecessary conflicts." He tickled Ye slightly to scold her for being too belligerent.

The small snake began to wriggle on the ground until she admitted her defeat.

‘Enough big brother. I give up, you're right. Sorry.'

‘No, you haven't learned yet. Another tickle for you.' Taking advantage of that opportunity, Xing piled on the poor Ye and tickled her with her eight legs at the same time. Meanwhile, Lian raised her head from that gracious sight and proposed her point of view.

"If they are in the sixth stage, we can face them alone without asking for help from Captain Fu. Being subordinate pirates to another pirate, I doubt they could be considered as strong as the geniuses of the big sects. Their foundations are probably very unstable, and it isn’t certain that everyone has completed their elemental conversion and formed their elemental seed."

Hearing her words, Hei thought for a moment before deciding.

"You're right. There's no need to think about it too much. We will attack the enemies simultaneously so they will have no way to react. We will take two each. Aim to eliminate one of the two on the first attack. Don't spare yourself and aim directly at killing, okay?"

Lian, Xing, and Ye nodded their heads before turning serious. The break was over. Now they had to go back to hunting and kill.

Thus, Hei, Lian, Ye, and Xing separated, each focusing on different targets. Fortunately, the enemy pirates had scattered around the area. Their attention was also focused on scouring every corner of the land.

Suddenly, from under the ground, the myriad of animals under Hei's orders showed their presence, generating confusion in the hearts of the eight pirates. They didn’t understand why suddenly such a large number of disgusting animals had appeared under their feet. But, unfortunately for them, that was the signal to start the attack.

From four different points of the forest, four dark shapes formed in front of four different pirates. These silhouettes then brightly shone as they pounced on their targets.

Spider Lance!

Slash!

Taking advantage of the enemy’ opening, Hei used his most powerful move to aim directly at the head. The hit pirate, without even having a chance to understand what was happening, was killed instantly when Hei's hand destroyed his skull and brain.

Without wasting time, Hei slipped his hand from the enemy's head. Shreds of brains mixed with blood were stuck on his sharp blades-like nails.

"What the fuck -?"

"Intent of the Spear, Spider Thrust!"

After killing the first man, Hei immediately pointed toward his next prey. This time, the second pirate, having witnessed the death of his companion, managed to activate his spirit power and draw his sword.

Peng!

The tip of Hei's spear hit the flat part of the sword. The pirate, although he had successfully parried, was made to step back several steps. His arms were trembling with the powerful impact just suffered.

"Bastard. Law of the Wind, Sharpening!"

The pirate condensed his spirit power into the blade of his sword and then hurled himself at Hei using his footwork technique. He was pretty quick for being a normal sixth stage.

Without being preoccupied, Hei backed away and simply dodged without using the two-legged mode of the Spider Run. It was because, at the time, he was still wearing his boots. But even so, Hei's speed was quite high, given his athletic musculature.

However, when he thought he had dodged, he was grazed with the spirit power poured on the sword’s blade. Indeed, the spirit power, after absorbing the properties of the Wind Law, was like a continuation of the sword’s blade.

"I see. In that way, you increase the reach of the weapon, while maintaining the light weight of a one-handed sword," Hei commented as he examined the spot where he had been hit. Fortunately, the protective layer of his spirit power had allowed him to get away with a small cut.

"Even if you understand it, it will get you nowhere, kid. Don't hope you can dodge forever. Get ready to be cut by my blade."

With a grin on his face, the pirate prepared to strike again. As before, his footwork allowed him to move quickly over the rugged terrain of the desert island's forest.

Knowing that it was dangerous to try to avoid the blade of the sword, Hei then tried to block it using the shaft of his spear.

"Haha, stupid. My technique increases the sharpness of my blade. Meaning, I can even cut metal weapons in half."

As if he had foreseen his imminent victory, the pirate added even more force to his strike.

Peng!

With a metallic sound that resounded in the air, the pirate's sword was stopped in mid-air. To his astonishment, his weapon had been blocked by the boy's spear in front of him.

"And so you think that such a trivial technique can cut the spear my mother made for me? Even just having thought of it is an insult."

With a violent rage burning in his heart, Hei pushed the enemy's sword upward. Then he spun his spear to sink the tip of the spear onto the pirate's stomach. The pirate, although shaken because his technique had failed, avoided the sharp point sideways. But this was still part of Hei's calculations.

Crack!

Taking advantage of the pirate's lateral movement, Hei instantly changed the direction of his lance. The hard shaft of the spear crashed into the pirate's right side, sending him flying several meters. From the noise that was produced on contact between spear and man, it was clear that some bones must have broken.

"Cough!"

Coughing a handful of blood, the pirate tried to get up quickly. Falling to the ground and losing sight of the enemy, even for a moment, was dangerous in the middle of a fight. It was especially true now that he was fighting alone.

And indeed, as soon as he got up from the ground.

"Intent of the Spear, Poisonous Spider Thrust!"

The tip of Hei's spear finally found its target. The Law of Poison concentrated on the tip began to corrode the pirate’s protective layer of spirit power.

Sizzle! Stab!

The spear finally succeeded in breaking the protective layer of spirit power and finally met the flesh. The pirate was violently impaled on the trunk of a tree while regurgitating blood from his mouth.

There was nothing more he could do. The attack was so violent that it killed him instantly. He didn't even have time to attempt a last desperate attack.

"My mother's spear cannot be broken by any attack. Not even if that attack could break my body."

With those last words, Hei removed the spear from the pirate's stomach. The lifeless body of man fell to the ground like a puppet whose threads had been cut. Hei looked indifferently at the dead pirate before cleaning the blood from his spear. Then he took the bodies of the two men he had killed and went to find Lian and his little sisters.

In three other points of the desert island forest, three other clashes occurred, being concluded as quickly as Hei's.

Lian came out from a big bush. Behind her, two men were being dragged. Their red face indicated that they had died of asphyxiation. On their neck, there were, in fact, two strongly tied silk ribbons.

Xing instead, after having killed and stripped her prey, hung them on the trunk of a tree. At the moment, she was searching to find something of value. Next to her was Ye with her two other prey. Ye's prey were the ones that presented the most horrible conditions among the eight pirates. The two poor unfortunates had indeed been crushed to become a shapeless mass.

Unlike Xing, who used her sharp legs and fangs to cut the opponent clean, Ye preferred to use her whole body and literally crush the opponent. It went by itself that she was also the one who ended up getting dirtiest as the blood and guts of her enemies would stick to her scales. But she didn't care much about it.

In a short time, Hei and Lian reached the two little divine beasts. All eight pirates had died brutally, and none of them remained. Unfortunately, it also meant that they couldn’t question them and see if their answers matched with those of their companions. But Hei didn't care.

It was he who said they had to aim to kill rather than capture. After all, they were at a numerical disadvantage, four against eight, and it wasn’t certain that what the two pirates had said before was correct. If he had tried to capture them and then discovered that they were far stronger than what the two pirates had said, Hei, Lian, and the two little divine beasts could have been in danger.

To avoid this, it was preferable to kill the enemy. In any case, they could always rummage through their bodies and discover something from their objects. Besides, they currently had a whole squad of animals that was patrolling the area for them.

"Good work, Lian, Ye, Xing. Did you find out anything? ”Hei asked as he took the robe of one of the dead pirates and began to clean his blood-stained little sisters.

'No, nothing. I mean, I haven't checked yet. Come on. I will take a bath later.’ (Ye)

"No, you have to cleanse yourself now, or the blood then dries, and it becomes more difficult to remove it. Xing, did you find anything?"

‘Yes, I found a couple of space rings. But there is little stuff and nothing really valuable.’

"Lian, you?"

"No, nothing. If these pirates have nothing with them, it may be that they left their things on their artifact ship. But we don't know where it is. "

"We'll find out. Our scouts are about to arrive. "

Indeed, the horde of animals sent to explore by Hei was returning. From how they moved slowly, it looked like they were carrying something. And indeed, when they were visible, he could see a wooden crate being carried by the colony of ants.

"Good job. I'll take this.” Hei said as he took the burden off the backs of the little ants. "Xing, Ye. Cut the bodies into thin pieces so they can be easier to transport."

"Yes, big brother." The two little divine beasts answered in unison.

Meanwhile, the other groups also returned. Each was carrying various objects ranging from spirit stones to medicinal plants. However, between them, the group of centipedes had returned empty-handed but didn’t seem that they had found nothing.

Listening to their story, Hei immediately understood why they presented themselves without bringing anything.

"The artifact ship!"

Yes, the group of centipedes had indeed found the artifact ship used by the pirates. They had hidden the ship inside the forest so as not to be visible from outside.

"Good work, all of you. You can go to my little sisters to take your part. There's enough for everyone. For those who haven't helped, wait before the others are full and take their part. Then you can have the leftovers. Obviously, if you try to be clever, you will be eliminated," Hei shouted.

At this time, he wasn’t addressing the groups of animals that had helped him, but others who were hidden not far from their position. As it happened, the smell of blood had attracted other predators. After all, on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean, the amount of food available was limited. So, everyone wanted a slice. However, hearing Hei's warning, the animals waiting to act and steal part of the 'booty' froze on the spot.

They could clearly perceive that it was better not to joke with that human and not to force his hand. Thus, they could only wait for their turn, hoping that the antecedent groups would not consume the eight human bodies completely.

Hei, at that point, inserted the various objects received in his Secret Dimension. After that, he turned his attention to the wooden trunk found by the ant colony.