Hunting tournament, third-tier zone.
The outskirts, where it met the first-tier zone.
To prevent powerful prey from the third-tier zone from entering the first-tier zone and causing unnecessary casualties, the Red Maple Clan had stationed some troops here.
Dressed in rags, Jiesita used his unique camouflage talent to hide in the grass, keeping a wary eye on the sentries nearby.
Although the soldiers were well trained, most were ordinary people, and Jiesita paid them no mind. Their weapons, however, were extremely powerful, so he couldn't act rashly.
The unremarkable-looking metal gun barrel on the armored vehicle had once terrified Jiesita.
The six-barreled, 24-millimeter vehicle-mounted autocannon had a firing rate of up to 7,000 rounds per minute. As a transcendent at the peak of the third tier, Jiesita had a strong physique and a supernatural ability that boosted his physical defense. He was confident he could withstand a few dozen rounds.
But if the firing lasted a little longer, he would have to flee for his life, and might not even manage to escape.
Besides, the autocannon wasn't the only weapon here. There were other types of advanced weaponry, as well as a pure-blooded Gendaya in a red military uniform. This person gave Jiesita an extremely dangerous feeling. It was the natural intuition he possessed as a druid, and it was rarely wrong.
This doesn't seem to be the agreed meeting place. I should go farther east!
Jiesita considered it, then dropped onto all fours and slowly backed away. He returned to the jungle and headed east.
His half-elf bloodline gave him exceptional affinity with nature and agility, letting him run and leap through jungle and grassland as though on level ground.
Before long, he reached another checkpoint and found the agreed-upon mark on the trunk of a large tree nearby.
Jiesita activated his ability and transformed into a harmless-looking brown bear. Six hundred meters from the checkpoint, he ambled through the low bushes toward the first-tier zone.
"Report, company commander. A brown bear is trying to cross the border. Should we drive it back into the third-tier zone?"
"Leave it alone. It's just an ordinary beast!"
Radon waved a hand, looking utterly unconcerned.
"But our superiors ordered us not to let a single beast through..."
"Hm?" Radon's eyes widened. "Are you telling me how to do my job? Carry out your orders!"
"Yes, sir!"
The soldier had no choice but to withdraw, and Jiesita, in the form of a brown bear, swaggered into the first-tier zone.
As Jiesita walked across the grass, a scene surfaced in his mind.
In a dark, damp underground prison, the silence was broken by a clicking sound.
A tall, shapely woman in a hood came before him and looked at him through the metal bars.
Her hood concealed the upper half of her face. The prison was dim, and because of the angle, Jiesita couldn't make out her features. He noticed only her lips, as red as flames.
Jiesita hadn't wanted to speak. He had already fallen into despair, his sky filled with gloom and darkness. The only person he still worried about was his daughter.
"Do you miss your daughter?" the woman asked.
Jiesita froze, his emotions surging as he staggered toward her.
"What have you done to Annie?" Jiesita roared, gripping the cold bars.
Rage filled his heart. His daughter was his lifeline, and for her sake, he would give anything.
"She's fine. If you behave, she'll be even better off." Catherine was pleased with Jiesita's reaction. The feeling of controlling another person's fate was like a hallucinogenic drug, leaving her unable to resist. In a pleasant mood, she unconsciously curved her lips into a smile.
"What do you want me to do?" Jiesita wasn't stupid. He quickly caught on and asked warily.
"Remember this scent, find him, and tear him apart!" Catherine tossed him a bundle containing some miscellaneous items that bore Logo's scent.
There was also a bottle of potion, which primarily suppressed injuries and drew out one's potential at the cost of vitality.
The side effects were severe, but who cared?
A craftsman must first sharpen his tools if he wanted to do his work well.
To Catherine, Jiesita was just a weapon. There was no reason to regret throwing him away after using him.
Jiesita didn't care about any of that. At that moment, he was like a drowning man grasping at his last straw.
"I'll do as you ask. Please spare Annie. She's only a child," Jiesita pleaded.
"Hehe, that depends on how you perform!" Catherine, who had already turned to leave, turned sideways and spoke playfully. It was then that Jiesita, slumped on the floor, caught sight of her face in the faint light.
Annie...
Jiesita murmured his daughter's name in his heart, his gaze growing fierce and resolute.
A bear's sense of smell was six or seven times stronger than a dog's, to say nothing of a transcendent brown bear's.
As his nose twitched, Jiesita precisely detected and analyzed every scent within ten kilometers of himself.
Not here! Not here either...
The brown bear set off. By now, he was out of the sentries' sight, and he raced along, searching frantically for Logo's scent.
At last, Jiesita found something in a patch of grass!
Found you!
He gave a savage laugh. The suffering he had endured as a prisoner of the Gendaya People had filled Jiesita with hatred for their race.
It was not only for his daughter, but also for himself-to take revenge!
If he could kill a pure-blooded Gendaya People before his life ended, his death would be worth it!
He raced onward. As the distance closed, Jiesita activated his stealth ability. His fur changed color, blending into the jungle like a chameleon, while his scent changed as well, giving off a faint earthy smell.
Little by little...
He drew closer.
Jiesita gradually got a clear look at his target.
He was a young Gendaya with youthful features. A long-handled gun-scythe was strapped to his back, and he held a slender firearm in his hand. He was moving swiftly through the jungle, following a blood-colored hound.
After finding his target, Jiesita didn't rush to attack.
To kill him in a single blow, he had to get close enough.
Like a seasoned hunter, he followed Logo from a distance, using the terrain and obstacles to gradually close in.
Logo was completely unaware. Although his senses were sharp, they were effective only at close range. At a slightly greater distance, their acuity dropped sharply.
The Eye of Insight could only detect enemies in front of him; his back was a blind spot.
Time passed bit by bit. When the distance had narrowed to 150 meters, Jiesita moved.
Boom!
His foot left a large crater in the ground, sending dirt flying. Jiesita left afterimages in his wake as he crossed a hundred meters in an instant, then leaped into the air.
He raised a massive paw high, his claws over ten centimeters long gleaming coldly. His bloody maw stretched as wide as it could, fangs bared, as he pounced on Logo like an eagle diving on its prey.
Thirty meters was within the range of Logo's perception. The moment Jiesita entered that range, Logo detected him.
His sense of danger spiked instantly. It was the first time he had felt such spine-chilling dread since his memories awakened.
At that moment, an instinctive reaction long ingrained in his body saved Logo's life.
The instant danger struck, his body automatically used the secret technique, Flash Step.
It was a highly practical Combat Skills for martial artists in the early and middle stages.
By rapidly contracting the muscles in the legs to generate powerful propulsion and combining it with bodily energy, one could maneuver within a small area to evade an enemy's attacks.
With a whoosh, Logo used Flash Step and vanished from where he stood. He moved so quickly that he even left a fairly distinct afterimage.
Boom!
Jiesita landed, and a powerful shock wave tore apart everything within ten meters of him. The ground split, and flying clods of dirt struck like bullets, snapping several small trees in half and leaving the area in ruins.
More than fifteen meters away, Logo's chest heaved. Gasping for breath, he reached behind himself with his right hand and drew his gun-scythe.
His ten fingers moved swiftly. Golden-blue energy formed by the Fire of Birth flowed from his fingertips, enveloping the gun-scythe and seeping into the gaps in its metal.
The next moment, the gun-scythe became a cloud of flying components.
Clack, clack, clack-
Logo's hands had never moved so fast. Under the threat of death, his adrenaline surged, and the Fire of Birth entered an active state as well.
This time, it took him only 0.6 seconds to finish assembling the Shadow Spike.
Just then, Jiesita launched his second pounce.
Only three or four meters separated them. Their gazes met across the space between them, and they could even clearly see each other's eyes and expressions.
Jiesita's eyes were wide with rage and bloodshot, filled with a madness that would not relent until one of them was dead.
Logo's expression was cold, his gaze rational and indifferent, as though he had trampled death beneath his feet.
The Shadow Spike rested in his palm. The high-quality magic crystal embedded at its center pumped out streams of pure Magical Energy, which flowed through its complex energy circuits and into the runes.
The runes glimmered, and the Shadow Spike silently vanished from Logo's hand, looking very much like spatial movement.
But Logo understood that it wasn't a spatial ability.
The Shadow Spike had burst forward so quickly in that instant that it created the illusion of teleportation.
Puchi!!
Empowered by layers of rune enchantments, the half-meter-long spiral spike pierced straight through Jiesita's skull.
His fur and bones, tough enough to withstand a barrage from an autocannon, were like paper before the Shadow Spike, pierced with a single thrust.
Boom!!
The three-ton corpse crashed heavily onto Logo. Its momentum was so great that man and bear scraped a trench half a meter deep and three meters wide into the ground.