Seeing the hunter slow down, the Blue Velociprey assumed he had exhausted much of his stamina. Emboldened, they picked up their pace and split into two groups to pounce.
Gordon gauged the Blue Velociprey's speed.
He lowered his sword's tip. When the Blue Velociprey came within roughly three meters of him, he lunged forward and swung his Great Sword upward.
The Buster Sword's massive, hooked tip caught the Blue Velociprey squarely within its reach.
"Gugagagaga!"
Unable to dodge, the Blue Velociprey took a deep slash across its chest. Amid its shrill, agonized cries, Gordon stepped forward again, crossed his feet, and twisted at the waist to swing his sword.
The sweeping horizontal slash cleanly severed the Blue Velociprey's head, along with nearly half its body.
The headless corpse crashed into a pool of blood, its limbs still twitching faintly.
Meanwhile, the last Blue Velociprey took advantage of its companion's death to close in on Gordon's flank.
Its tooth-lined, birdlike beak gaped almost ninety degrees, poised to sink into Gordon.
Gordon remained calm. Pivoting, he drew his Great Sword in front of him, ready to use the Buster Sword's broad, thick steel blade as a shield to block the attack.
Just then, a small figure darted out from behind Gordon and leaped high into the air.
It was Porkchop!
"Meow!!"
With all his strength, he swung his sharp, bone Felyne Pickaxe into the side of the Blue Velociprey's face. The blow knocked its head aside, causing its lunging bite at Gordon to miss.
"Nicely done, Porkchop!"
Gordon shouted his praise without reservation. Seizing the opening, he drove forward, using his shoulder and elbow as a battering ram.
Iron Mountain Lean!
Reeling from the successive blows, the Blue Velociprey staggered backward. Before it could recover its footing, the heavy steel Great Sword came slashing down once more, and peace returned to the grasslands of the West Schrade Hills.
In less than a minute, all three Blue Velociprey were dead.
"Not bad, Porkchop. Your timing was excellent!" Gordon patted Porkchop's head encouragingly.
He would have been fine even without Porkchop's help, but what about next time? Perhaps next time, Porkchop's timely support would save his life.
Porkchop scratched his whiskers shyly.
Suddenly, he felt that the Blue Velociprey that had so often haunted his nightmares were not all that frightening after all.
"I'll carve the materials first. Keep watch."
"Okay, meow!"
Smiling, Gordon returned the Buster Sword to his back.
He had to admit that having a hunting cat companion was incredibly convenient. Even setting aside combat ability, simply having someone share lookout duty was enormously useful.
Felynes possessed a sense of smell and hearing far beyond those of humans. With them standing guard, there was no need to worry about ambushes from nearby predators while gathering materials or carving monster corpses.
Carving Knife in hand, Gordon crouched down with a cheerful smile. A moment later, his face turned green.
Not one of the three Blue Velociprey corpses was even relatively intact.
The first one, which he had cleaved in two, was the worst. Never mind carving off its hide-hardly any intact claws or teeth remained.
The other two were slightly better, but only slightly. From all three Blue Velociprey, he managed to carve just half a blue velociprey hide, and even that would probably only serve as scraps.
He collected some Blue Velociprey scales, claws, and teeth, but he was still far short of the quantities needed to craft his Blue Velociprey Armor Set.
"Looks like I'll need to be more careful on the next hunts." Putting away the three crests that would serve as proof of completion, Gordon muttered, "At least leave them in one piece."
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.
He had already slain the ten Blue Velociprey required for the quest and could return to the village to turn it in at any time.
But Gordon decided to wait a little longer.
He still needed a larger, more intact blue velociprey hide as the main material for his new armor.
He already had quite a few blue velociprey hides on hand, but none were intact enough. They were usable, yet he could not shake the feeling that they fell just a little short.
Gordon had even fantasized about hunting a Blue Velociprey King and carving off its hide to make armor.
But that was not realistic.
He had asked the Workshop owner, who explained that although a Blue Velociprey King's hide was tougher, it was also stiffer and harder, making it suitable only for greaves.
Using it for armor would offer only a very limited improvement in protection while compromising flexibility. It was not worth the trade-off.
Besides, he had not accepted a quest to hunt a Blue Velociprey King. Even if he succeeded, he would receive no reward. The risk was completely out of proportion to the return.
"Come on, Porkchop. Let's look again and see if we can find a bigger Blue Velociprey. If we still can't find one today, we'll head back tomorrow!"
Porkchop, who had been gnawing on the roast meat in his paws, hurriedly stuffed the last bit into his mouth. "Okay, meow!"
The hunter and cat left camp once again.
After two days of constant hunting and fighting together, they had developed a considerable degree of coordination.
If their opponent was a lone Blue Velociprey, Porkchop would attack first, drawing its attention and creating an opening. Gordon would then kill it with a single stroke, keeping its hide intact.
If they encountered a pack of Blue Velociprey, they could not afford such care. Gordon fought freely with broad, powerful swings, while Porkchop guarded his back to prevent any Blue Velociprey from ambushing him.
"Meow?" Porkchop, who had been following close behind Gordon, suddenly stopped.
He straightened up and closed his eyes, sniffing from side to side with his furry nose.
"What is it, Porkchop? Did you find something?" Gordon stopped as well.
Porkchop's sense of smell was exceptionally keen. Over the past two days, his nose had led them to their targets more than once.
"I smell blood, meow. Very fresh blood. It's not Aptonoth blood. It should be Great Bullfango blood, meow!" After carefully distinguishing the scent for a while, Porkchop opened his eyes.
"Great Bullfango?" Gordon's eyes brightened slightly.
Though far smaller than an Aptonoth, a Great Bullfango was much harder to deal with.
Lone Blue Velociprey generally avoided provoking those thickheaded creatures with their sharp tusks, while packs preferred to surround and hunt gentle giants like Aptonoth.
Could a particularly powerful loner have hunted a Great Bullfango by itself?
"Which direction? How far?"
"Sniff, sniff... Hmm, meow. Northwest, meow. No more than five hundred meters in a straight line, meow."
"Any scent of other large monsters?"
"No, meow. This is a Blue Velociprey pack's hunting ground. It should be a Blue Velociprey's work, meow!"
"Then let's take a look!"
Gordon broke into a run, and Porkchop hurried after him.
Ten minutes later, they closed in on their target.
As expected, it was a rather large Blue Velociprey. An ordinary Blue Velociprey stood about a hundred and fifty centimeters high at the back, but this one stood over a hundred and seventy!
It might have been only a twenty-centimeter difference, but its overall build was a full size larger than that of an ordinary Blue Velociprey!
"Wow. If it keeps growing, it might be able to compete for the position of Blue Velociprey King," Gordon said, clicking his tongue in amazement.
A Blue Velociprey King was the king of a Blue Velociprey pack, generally standing between a hundred and ninety and two hundred centimeters high at the back. That extraordinary size was sustained by the hunting efforts of the entire pack.
By comparison, the loner before them was truly unusual.
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