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Chapter 569 - Hunt continues
🕑 Added 2025-03-05 09:37:57 +0000 UTCThe third beast I was able to detect is the Stormscale Basilisk. It is serpentine, as mentioned, and the size of a building, yet impressively fast despite its mass.
It's immediately clear that it is much stronger than the beast I killed.
Its serpentine form carves through the forest, shimmering scales flashing with every movement. Every movement tears into the earth, splintering roots and crushing undergrowth beneath its weight. Trees bend and snap as its coiling body smashes through them, sending broken trunks crashing to the ground. Lightning crackles along its hide, leaping to nearby branches in sharp, blinding arcs. Even far away from it, leaves shrivel and blacken, their edges curling from the raw energy surging through the air.
The ground trembles, the forest collapsing around it as if nature itself were being torn apart. And the beast is currently fighting.
Explosions of fire, mana projectiles, trees bending and trying to hold it, ground around it moving to grab it. There is also a huge golem made of earth in its path, and around that golem black smoke surrounds it.
Sophie, Gareth, Savant, and Klara are there, fighting it, together with some guys I do not recognize, but judging by their mana signature they are Hell difficulty at least.
A burst of orange light suppresses the lightning and attempts to poison the beast. Sophie and Blackie controlling her golem. Gareth, with a silver crown over his head, enduring the incredible attacks of the beast. And Klara, in her armor and wielding a big ax with a sticky red light coating its surface, strikes the beast. Every time she cuts into the beast, some of that red light, smoke, or whatever it is, remains and lingers in the wound until the Basilisk releases a burst of lightning around its entire body and burns it away.
Sophie connects to me through the link and immediately shouts, (Don't look into its eyes!)
Just in time, I look away.
The Stormscale Basilisk destroys trees in its path, throws aside the golem, and charges at me only to be stopped by Gareth, who stands in its way with silver armor and a huge shield in his hand, blocking the lightning. The Basilisk tries to strike him, but a silver bubble surrounds Gareth. The beast crashes against it, and instead of breaking or pushing him away, the building sized beast bounces back.
It attacks again with the same result, and the barrier does not move at all even though it should. It should be torn from the ground and thrown away together with Gareth inside.
(It has something like mana poisoning, which it can use through its eyes to cause your own mana to paralyze you. It does the same with its domain, but to a lesser extent,) Sophie explains.
Klara jumps from the side onto the back of the beast and swings her ax. All the lightning crackling there channels through her armor, and some arcs of lightning crash against the blade of the ax, heating its surface and turning the metal red. The red-haired woman swings it down, only to make the huge beast coil and move through dozens of trees until it shakes her off.
Sophie's mana rises up and the trees around the bend, their branches extending and trying to grab the beast to slow it down. Her golem shrinks, the dirt falling to the ground, and changes from that rough humanoid shape into the form of a snake that slithers toward the Basilisk.
The golem coils around the Basilisk, which moves, tearing chunks of earth, and opens its mouth to release a powerful, stream-like barrage of lightning that sets the trees around on fire and carves chunks out of the ground.
Savant, with orange light surrounding his body, stands in the way of the beast and lifts his sword. The still partially missing blade glows in the same orange light and extends, radiating a lot more mana now. The light around Savant expands, forcing Klara, Gareth, and the others to move back as it collides with the beast's domain. Lightning crackles and fractures upon reaching deep into [Dawn].
I could join in and get the last attack. I could probably just hunt the other beasts in the meantime and let the others work just to try and killsteal this one later.
But at the same time, I know Lissandra is watching and this is not what she had in mind. Even if I did get the most points this way, she would not accept it.
I know because, in this, our thinking is the same.
Just as I'm about to leave, I detect a presence.
Tacita appears out of thin air, standing within Savant's [Dawn].
She smiles widely, untouched by the orange mana radiation that once seemed to poison everything. Her modified field shields her, countering its effects.
Savant detects her and shifts his body, moving with incredible speed for a moment—just fast enough to counter her.
But Tacita accelerates further, circling him with a playful grace that feels almost taunting. Her dagger flashes several times.
Savant loses one of his legs below the knee and is about to lose his arm at the shoulder, but he shifts and her dagger stabs into his forearm, unable to pass through the bone. I'm sure that bone is not the same as other pieces of his body.
[Dawn] shrinks and he changes frequency. Just a moment is enough for him to grasp Tacita's field, and with an incredible show of skill, he modifies his domain on the spot to counter her.
But Tacita knows it as well; as a final goodbye, she stabs her dagger with a green blade into his side and slaps him across the face before disappearing.
The Stormscale Basilisk uses the opportunity, and its lightning presses against the weakened [Dawn] and almost hits Savant, who barely absorbs part of that attack, and then the silver bubble surrounds him and deflects the rest.
Gareth groans and rushes against the beast at the same time as Sophie's golem, which grows in size.
I track the shifting air and glance to my left just in time as Tacita appears nearby.
Noticing that I’m looking exactly where she planned to appear, she falters briefly, then shakes her head and disappears.
Before leaving as well, I send a message to Sophie, (Jean is coming here from your right and will be here in a few minutes. On your left, there is that Chinese tournament winner, but she is further away than Jean.)
After delivering the message, I teleport away into the air and use kinetic energy to fly higher.
So Nightshade Stalker, Witherclaw, and Onyxscale Hydra, for which I have something prepared, remain. Killing two out of the Special grade beasts should get me first place combined with all the other kills. But there is also a chance someone will killsteal the Stormscale Basilisk and another beast and push for the 1st spot.
My decision not to killsteal the Basilisk only puts more pressure on me, but I'm just sure I know how Lissandra would look on it.
I boost myself to the ground where I estimate the first floating island will crash.
The first attendee I meet is some Hell difficulty guy; he turns his gun and points it at me. It reminds me of a sniper rifle, made out of materials I recognize as endurium and arcanadium. I also sense a bit of voidsteel, likely used for bullets.
I wonder what he has used to replace gunpowder. Or does he even need it? If he has telekinesis, he can make it bounce inside the rifle or store it to launch the bullet quickly. Maybe there is some inscription that does that. Kinetic energy could work here too, or even some fire skill that would create a small explosion.
I shake my head to put these thoughts away and say, "The floating island will fall soon. I would leave this area."
He follows my finger as I point at the island.
"It seems like it," he says. "I have noticed that fucked-up amount of mana up there. Someone pulled some crazy shit up there…"
Before he can finish, I teleport away.
Moving forward, I come across a pair who feel like they are from Easy difficulty. They don’t even notice me before I teleport them away.
I dash further to the right between the trees and boost myself onto a branch. A Hell difficulty, around 15 years old, notices my movement as I pass through the leaves. He shoots lightning at me and I swing my hand, deflecting the lightning with a barrier I quickly create around my hand, and make it hit the nearby tree.
Before he can do anything else, I punch his belly to make him lose concentration, and then teleport him away.
I continue doing so for the following 10 minutes, cleaning the area of everyone I can, and only then do I lift back up into the air.
Just then, the first floating island plummets, not gradually, but instantly, like a dropped stone. Whatever kept it aloft is gone, taking with it all support systems, fail safes, and backup mechanisms.
Even from here, I can see the monstrous pull on the surrounding mana from the island's center, the black spear already on the brink of destabilization.
The sky rumbles with the weight of what is coming. The floating island, vast enough to hold a city, begins to fall, not as a slow, drifting descent but as a sudden, violent plunge. The sheer pull distorts the wind, sending shockwaves outward and bending the clouds around it as if the sky itself were being torn open.
From below, it looks like the sky is collapsing.
The forest on top of the island writhes as the fall speeds up. Trees sway violently, some uprooted entirely, their massive trunks flung into the air like twigs caught in a storm. The ruins, weathered stone structures half-buried in moss, begin to fall apart, the force of the fall shaking them apart before they even reach the ground.
And then there are the beasts. Tens of thousands of them.
Some leap from the edges, trying to escape. Beasts of all kinds, including serpentine, winged, and phantom abominations, all desperately seek the sky. Others, either too stubborn or too oblivious, remain on the island, roaring, screeching, and howling.
The massive crystal embedded in the island’s underside pulses violently, its cracks spreading even further. Roots all around it, once stretching into the air, now lash wildly as the fall tears chunks of rock around them. Some roots snap under the strain, while others whip around like frenzied tendrils, slashing through the air.
As the island plummets closer, the pressure in the air changes, so intense that it feels as if the atmosphere itself is being crushed beneath its weight. The ground below begins to react, with tremors sent through the area even before the island reaches it.
Then there is the impact. The world doesn't just shake, it detonates. The ground erupts on contact, an explosion of dirt, stone, and raw energy blasting into the sky like a volcanic eruption. A shockwave, heavy with debris, erupts outward, leveling everything near the impact.
Trees obliterated, their remains scattered into the wind as splinters. The part of the forest is reshaped in an instant.
In addition to the beasts on top of the island, more of them are caught in the destruction and are vaporized, reduced to nothing as the sheer force of the impact tears through them. Those lucky or unlucky enough to survive are thrown through the air, their bodies broken, limbs twisted.
And at the center of it all, surrounded by a huge dust cloud, lie the remains of the floating island, half-buried in the ruined landscape.
It looks like it's all over, but deep within the shattered ruins, something stirs.
At the island's core, the black spear finally destabilizes.
For a brief moment, everything goes silent—even the screeches of the beasts around cut off.
Then it erupts. Blinding white light fills the ruins, followed by a massive mana disruption pulse tearing through the forest. Everything within a mile or more is affected. Magic flickers and dies. Inscriptions collapse.
Then the shockwave hits. A violent blast rips outward, sending debris in every direction. The nearby beasts that survived the impact are flung like ragdolls, their bodies crushed midair. Chunks of rock as big as buildings fly through the air, hitting and crashing into the trees of the forest and rolling much further. Some even fly through the air and fall into the sea, sending geysers of water into the air.
The heatwave follows, a wave of searing air that scorches the land and ignites parts of the forest.
The following implosion pulls everything into a vortex of crushing force. Dust, flames, even the very air twist and vanish, pulled into the vacuum.
For a moment, there is again nothing but silence. Then comes the final release, a concussive blast that carves out a deep, empty crater where the ruins once stood.
And the hunt continues.
***
Comments
Zaim İpek
I guess I don't remember the system announcement properly. I thought it penalized people for just hurting others.
anonymous patreon
She didn’t kill him - so she didn’t lose any points. She just wounded him to mess with his rest of the event.
Tee
The amount of disrespect Tacita have shown to my boy savvy is unacceptable. I can’t wait for the boy to eviscerate her 😤stay strong savvy 💪
Funny guy
Danks fur da chappie! Weapons of mass destruction indeed
Vladimir Khorikov
Let's just assume it didn't free-fell from all the way up and fail-safe mechanisms allowed it to glide for some time.
FarFromLogic
I really wanna read the pov of the others on this one, everyone is having a grand old time hunting monsters until some psycho nukes the field, I wonder how many people realise who was responsible vs assuming it was part of the event
RingoSeto
kaboom!
RingoSeto
best girl .. tied with lily ruby is next then tess
P K
4. These monsters are not just Earth things Though I think it's number two and I think that was talked about briefly when it was describing The legendary creatures at the start,
Cnote
He leveled off the emberhorn thingy
Zaim İpek
The utter pettiness and disrespect from Tacita is beautiful. Finishing with a face slap is peak. I love how she completely disregards how this will destroy her score for the event just to make her point. Such a free spirit. And now she has observed how Savant is able to compress and adapt Dawn to compensate for her skill, so she can prepare for that next time. Tacita is definitely my second favorite character after Biscuit at this point. Vega needs to really impress me in her next scene if she is going to take back her #2 spot.
Nikolas Maniotis
i dont think he can get exp in the tournament
David McCreight
And power armor
Memelord Steambath
Wana bet?
Nictis
I think that's a penalty
Kirin
Thank you for the chappie! Kaboom!
Paul Kowalski
Even falling from just a few kilometers, a city-sized island impact generates immense energy, around 1640 megatons of TNT. Expect a crater roughly 20-50 kilometers in diameter. The zone of total destruction will extend for 50-100 kilometers radius from the impact. P.S. In comparison, human thermonuclear weapons, even if the protagonist has two warheads, are utterly insignificant against this scale of destruction. It's like comparing firecrackers to a volcano.
William Johnson
Boom brought.
Belmont Igneul
Tis part of her charm
Belmont Igneul
You wouldn’t nuke the world
Cnote
Two? He only witnessed her home world that I recall. The prison moon was a different instance. Or was there another?
CptJimmy42
She did personally show him how she used only mana to obliterate two planets out of existence, so he'd better step it up a bit to get to her level.
Michel Kommers
She went there just to slap Savant lol
Andrew
Thank you!
Vinnie
Tacita is adorable !
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
11335577
Considering what happend with the ant explosion, he should level up. A lot.
Woojoe
“Kaboom”, quoth the minion forever more.
vEnviouz
Or "Sophie's mana, and the trees around the bend, rise up"
Michael Sramek
Does nat get inundated with notifications after that. Would be a shame if that were to annoy him slightly…
Val the mysterious Jedi
Not knowing the score is killing me
Val the mysterious Jedi
Tutorial round 2 winner, red head with axe
TWA32237 .
Subtlety is not Nathaniel's special ability that's for sure.
Josh
Why do I think the whole obliterating island thing is exactly what liss had in mind?
Joe Woodhouse
Master used the special kick on the whole world!
zoarian
Seems like the special beasts grow stronger the more of their fellows die... which would make the last one most powerful. Nat killed the 1st one and he'll get the Hydra, the others will get a Basilisk, probably another group will get the 4th beast and the last one will be the juiced up Witherclaw, probably primed by Liss to be immune to all sorts of mana attacks. A special present for Nat.
Josh
"Sophie's mana rises up and the trees around the bend, their branches extending..." Should be "the trees around her bend", or "around the basilisk bend" I think
Oaktree
In the words of minion “kaboom”
Oaktree
I love tactia’s little revenge antics.
Midy
All these people playing Monster Hunter while Nat is destroying the game 😃
Oaktree
A difficulty feeling pair who look like they are married doesn't even notice me and they disappear, teleported away. Missing what difficulty though im guessing easy
Shawn Treants
Awesome!! Tftc!
Poutine Au Syrop d'érable
I forgor Klara. Who she?
Poutine Au Syrop d'érable
Question. Since these beast have names and appearance which follows earth lore. Is it 1. Just you using earth to not have to invent every monster. 2. A system language thing, where their name is translated to the closest monster of the folklore. 3. Time traveller inventor of culture. other then 1 might be spoilers, but the story is good enough that I didn't think it was 100% gonna be purely 1.
Venno
Haha fantastic
Leyphelio
That slap was personal
vEnviouz
TFTC!!
