Derek Torres was jolted awake by the tremors from the ground, thinking perhaps it was an earthquake or a landslide.
Yet, what he expected did not occur.
If that was the case, then the ground shaking must have been caused by something else.
At this thought, Derek’s face turned instantly pale.
Neither a deadly mutated creature nor a City-breaking Level one; he was no match for either.
"Detect the epicenter!"
Derek muttered in a low voice, and the exoskeleton’s system connected to the radar. It emitted electromagnetic and sonic waves, then analyzed the signals that bounced back and quickly presented the results before Derek.
The epicenter was a moving entity, very close to Derek, two hundred meters, one hundred seventy-two meters, one hundred forty-three meters...
Derek hadn’t had time to react when the massive object abruptly closed in by over fifty meters.
He was so frightened he turned to flee, but after only a few steps, a roaring came from behind him.
A massive bison charged, recklessly ignoring whatever lay ahead. Its high, prominent back emerged over the treetops, snapping tree after tree in its path.
Derek dodged the bison’s charge, but couldn’t avoid the tree trunks broken and sent flying by the bison.
A massive trunk suddenly flew over and struck Derek’s back, instantly snapping his spine.
Derek’s body was propelled by the trunk, flying out together with it.
He let out a scream, seeing a giant tree swiftly approaching, and then all went black.
The flying log crashed into another tree, taking Derek along with it, pinning him against it.
"Ugh! Cough cough..."
Blood spewed from Derek’s mouth, and as his body slid against the trunk, he kept coughing.
His internal organs were shattered, and even his brain was muddled.
On the verge of death, flashbacks played before Derek’s eyes like a fast-forwarded movie. In this moment of clarity, he sharply captured a few scenes.
"It’s Yan Luo... they... I... got caught up..."
The backers behind them wanted to deal with Yan Luo, so they released a City-breaking Level mutated creature that Yan Luo could certainly not handle.
Derek understood that his death wasn’t due to anything special, just that he was located between the deployed mutated creature and Yan Luo’s position.
And the reason he was there in the first place was to stop Yan Luo from scoring more points; he was working for those people.
The world before Derek gradually darkened, his consciousness drifting away from his body.
In those final moments, Derek used a voice as weak as a whisper to express an abyssal-level of hatred.
Besides the audience watching Derek’s stream and the spectators in the main live broadcast room, no one knew a contestant had died.
Faced with the situation, the two commentators responsible for explaining the situation in the main broadcast room looked at each other, perplexed.
Fortunately, a script was quickly projected onto their retinas, so all they had to do was read it.
"We deeply mourn the death of contestant Derek Torres. This is the first time a contestant has died since the inception of the Hunter Skills Competition in its seventh edition due to an unexpected event..."
As the commentators solemnly and heavily recited the eulogies, the massive bison had already run to the pre-set hunting ground below Yan Luo.
Yan Luo stood high on the cliff, gazing at the enormous bison below and immediately detonated the mines.
A loud blast erupted from underground, exploding nearby the bison.
Startled by the deafening noise, the bison turned to look, saw only a crater, and its feeble brain couldn’t comprehend what happened, so it looked back towards the red dot standing firm on the cliff.
The closer it got, the larger the space the red dot occupied in its vision.
Letting out another bellowing roar, the massive bison charged up the slope, sprinting for the cliff top.
Yan Luo calmly awaited the massive bison’s approach, then, when it was halfway up, he hooked an iron rod to a cable connecting his cliff and the opposite cliff, leaping from the higher ground, sliding to the other side.
The cable was tied to two trees. Yan Luo’s weight, plus that of the exoskeleton, almost ripped the trees from the ground.
The distance between the cliffs wasn’t long; if Yan Luo dropped his exoskeleton, he could have jumped across.
Since seeing the massive bison, Yan Luo knew the gap between the cliffs couldn’t restrain it. It could leap over from the other side with ease, as any City-breaking Level creature could.
Even so, Yan Luo remained, watching smoke and dust rise from afar.
Tap, tap... Swish swish swish!
A hailstone fell, hitting the branches. If the snow on the branches hadn’t already been shaken off by the massive bison’s movement, there would have been a spectacular cascade of snow from the treetops now.
Hailstone after hailstone fell from the sky, rattling against the ground in successive ripples that instantly filled the air.
Silver streaks danced wildly within the clouds, deliriously chanting, gifting the darkness before dawn a touch of light, letting those on the ground glimpse a back running across the mountains.
The massive bison’s spine pierced the canopy, cleaving through the forest, enflamed as it charged for the precipice.
At the moment the bison appeared on the opposite cliff, Yan Luo turned to run.
He only heard a thunderous crash, with vibrations rumbling up from beneath.
The massive bison leaped, chasing Yan Luo down, vaulting towards the opposite cliff.
With no expression, Yan Luo detonated several mines placed at the cliff’s weak spots.
The surging storm blew from behind Yan Luo; rocks and earth enveloped him. He narrowly avoided a stone that nearly smashed into his head, luckily dodging just in time.
The violent blast destroyed the cliff, and the massive bison could only watch as its foothold vanished. It stretched its forelegs forward, yet couldn’t grasp any remaining part of the cliff.
The massive bison plummeted from the hundred-meter-high mountain, falling heavily upon a stand of trees, instantly breaking several.
Splintered wood scattered in all directions, breaking more trees. Finally, a plume of snow burst from the ground, enveloping the massive bison’s form.
Gravity, a challenge every earthbound creature must face.
Yan Luo walked to the broken cliff edge, looking down, wanting to see if the massive bison had died from the fall.
However, he believed there was a ninety-eight percent chance the answer was ’no.’
City-breaking Level creatures don’t die so easily.
Just as Yan Luo thought, the thick snowy haze suddenly dispersed, scattering as the bison let out a sky-shaking roar.
The massive bison stood firm on the ground, appearing completely unscathed.
The concept of City-breaking Level originated from entities capable of withstanding artillery and missile attacks to breach a city’s defensive system, like tanks become mere itch-scratchers in front of them.
Even coastal defense-grade electromagnetic cannons couldn’t penetrate their muscle with one shot.
They are enormous, their Life Force tenacious.
Never mind the equipment Yan Luo had at hand; even space-based weaponry would need to focus fire ten times to kill a City-breaking Level mutated creature.
Yan Luo couldn’t face this massive bison head-on; even fully revealing his capabilities offered no chance of defeating it directly.
In fact, to combat a City-breaking Level entity, one must employ thermal weapons or chainsaw weapons; otherwise, they can’t even breach its defenses.
With this in mind, Yan Luo watched the massive bison limp, taking steps toward him standing on the mountain, his lips curled slightly as he turned and walked to a large boulder, kicking it with force to send it tumbling down.
The boulder rolled along the mountainside, sweeping up the snow on the ground layer by layer, growing ever larger as it was wrapped in circles and layers.
And then, it clashed head-on with the massive bison!