The Blue Velocidromes, seeing the hunter slow his pace, thought he had expended too much stamina and boldly quickened their steps, splitting into two groups to pounce.
Estimating the Blue Velocidromes' speed.
Gordon lowered the tip of his Great Sword, and when the Blue Velocidrome approached within about three meters, he suddenly stepped forward, simultaneously sweeping his Great Sword upwards.
The Burst Blade's massive, hook-shaped tip precisely brought the Blue Velocidrome into its Attack Up range.
"Gugagagaga!"
The Blue Velocidrome was too slow to dodge, and a huge wound was slashed across its chest. Amidst its sharp, tragic cries, Gordon stepped forward again, crossing his legs, twisting his waist, and swinging his Great Sword.
The wide-ranging horizontal slash cleanly and decisively severed the Blue Velocidrome's head, along with a small portion of its body.
The headless corpse fell heavily into a pool of blood, its limbs still twitching slightly.
At the same time, the last Blue Velocidrome, taking advantage of its companion's demise, had already approached Gordon's side.
Its bird-like beak, full of sharp teeth, opened to nearly ninety degrees, about to bite Gordon.
Gordon showed no panic. He shifted his stance, pulling his Great Sword in front of him, preparing to block the attack with the Burst Blade's broad, thick steel blade as a shield.
However, just then, a small figure darted out from behind Gordon and leaped high.
It was Zhu Pa!
"Meow!"
The sharp bone Hunting Cat pick, swung with all its might, struck the Blue Velocidrome's side face, knocking the latter's head aside, causing its pounce on Gordon to miss.
"Well done, Zhu Pa!"
Gordon praised loudly without reservation, simultaneously seizing the opening, and thrusting forward with his shoulder and elbow as a ram.
Iron Mountain Lean!
The repeatedly struck Blue Velocidrome staggered backward. Before it could regain its posture, the heavy steel Great Sword slashed down again, and peace was restored to the grasslands of Shuretsusen Hill.
In less than a minute, all three Blue Velocidromes were dead.
"Not bad, Zhu Pa, your timing was excellent!" Gordon patted Zhu Pa's head, encouraging him.
Even if the latter hadn't helped, he would have been fine, but what about next time? Perhaps next time, Zhu Pa's timely assistance would save his life.
Zhu Pa shyly scratched his whiskers.
He suddenly felt that these Blue Velocidromes, which often appeared in his nightmares, weren't so scary after all.
"I'll carve the materials first, you keep watch."
"Okay, meow!"
Gordon smiled and hung the Burst Blade back on his back.
It must be said, having a Hunting Cat companion is truly convenient. Even setting aside combat prowess, just the ability to share the lookout duty is extremely useful.
Airou possess senses of smell and hearing far superior to humans. With them standing guard, collecting materials, and carving monster corpses, there's no longer any need to worry about being ambushed by lurking predators.
Gordon, holding his carving knife, squatted down with a chuckle. The next second, his face began to turn green.
None of the three Blue Velocidrome corpses were relatively intact.
The one he had cut in half first was the worst off; let alone skinning it, there weren't even a few intact claws or teeth left.
The latter two were relatively better, but only by a tiny bit. From all three Blue Velocidromes, he only managed to skin half a Blue Velocidrome hide in total, which he estimated could only be used as scraps.
He did collect some Blue Velocidrome scales, claws, and teeth, but it was far from the quantity he needed to craft the Blue Velocidrome Set.
"Looks like I'll have to be more careful with the upcoming hunts," Gordon muttered, putting away the three crests that served as quest proofs. "At least, leave them a complete corpse."
Two days passed in a flash.
The required ten Blue Velocidromes had long been hunted, and he could return to the village and submit the quest at any time.
But Gordon decided to wait.
He still needed a larger, more complete Blue Velocidrome hide to serve as the main material for his new armor.
He already had quite a few Blue Velocidrome hides on hand, but most were not complete enough. These hides weren't unusable, but they just felt like they were missing something.
Gordon even fantasized about directly hunting a Blue Velocidrome and skinning it for armor.
But that wasn't realistic.
He had asked the workshop owner, who replied that while the Blue Velocidrome's hide was tougher, it was also stiffer and only suitable for making greaves.
Making it into armor would offer very limited defensive improvement but would affect flexibility, making it not worth the effort.
Besides, he hadn't accepted a quest to hunt a Blue Velocidrome. Even if he successfully hunted one, there would be no reward; the risk and reward were simply not proportional.
"Come on, Zhu Pa, let's go look again and see if we can find a larger Blue Velocidrome. If we don't find one today, we'll head back tomorrow!"
Zhu Pa, who was gnawing on roasted meat in his paws, quickly stuffed the remaining bit of meat into his mouth, "Okay, meow!"
The hunter and the Cat once again left the Hunting Camp.
After two days of continuous hunting and combat, a considerable degree of tacit understanding had formed between them.
If the opponent was a lone Blue Velocidrome, Zhu Pa would attack first, attracting its attention and creating an opening, while Gordon would deliver a fatal blow, ensuring the integrity of the hide.
If it was a group of Blue Velocidromes, they couldn't afford to be so careful. Gordon would fight freely with wide, sweeping movements, while Zhu Pa would help guard his back, preventing any Blue Velocidromes from ambushing him.
"Meow?" Zhu Pa, who was following closely behind Gordon, suddenly stopped.
He straightened up and closed his eyes, sniffing left and right with his furry nose.
"What's wrong, Zhu Pa? Did you find something?" Gordon also stopped.
Zhu Pa's sense of smell was very keen; he had relied on his nose to find targets more than once in the past two days.
"There's a smell of blood, meow. Very fresh blood. It's not Herbivore Dragon blood, it should be Great Wild Boar, meow!" After carefully distinguishing for a while, Zhu Pa opened his eyes and said.
"Great Wild Boar?" Gordon's eyes lit up slightly.
Although far smaller than Herbivore Dragons, Great Wild Boars were much harder to deal with.
Lone Velociprey generally wouldn't provoke these clumsy creatures with sharp tusks, and groups of Velociprey were more inclined to hunt docile large creatures like Herbivore Dragons.
So, was it possible that a relatively powerful loner had hunted the Great Wild Boar by himself?
"Which direction, and how far?"
"Sniff, sniff, umm, meow, northwest direction, no more than five hundred meters in a straight line, meow."
"Are there any other large monster scents?"
"No, meow. This is the Blue Velocidrome tribe's hunting ground, so it must have been done by Blue Velocidromes, meow!"
"Then let's go see!"
Gordon ran out first, and Zhu Pa quickly followed.
Ten minutes later, they approached the target.
As expected, it was a rather large Blue Velocidrome. The average ridge height of a regular Blue Velocidrome is about 150 centimeters, but this one's ridge height exceeded 170 centimeters!
Don't underestimate the mere 20-centimeter difference; its physique was a whole size larger than a normal Blue Velocidrome!
"Goodness, if this keeps growing, it might even contend for Blue Velocidrome?" Gordon clicked his tongue.
The so-called Blue Velocidrome is the king of the Blue Velocidrome tribe, with a ridge height generally between 190 and 200 centimeters. This extraordinary physique is sustained by the entire tribe's hunting efforts.
In comparison, the loner before them seemed quite unusual.
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T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
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