After seeing which trees they quickly chose and climbed up, Gaston selected one that was in the middle of them, so that he could remain within range to communicate.
All 5 of them were perched up on top of trees, hidden, lying in wait for their prey.
Sure enough, what Gaston had heard was correct.
Less than a minute after they all got into their positions, their prey had revealed itself.
A group of four blue-skinned Great Apes, each standing at over 6 feet tall, rushed over, travelling tree to tree, making minimal noise while covering far more distance than even if they were to run at full sprint.
One of the Blue Apes, standing at nearly 7 feet tall, which looked to be the strongest and the leader of the group, travelled slightly ahead of the other three, leading the way.
According to past Gaston's judgements, the leading Blue Ape was actually a Qi Refining creature!
This was the first one he had ever encountered, and it came shortly after arriving on this land.
Similar to humans, the Qi Refining Stage was a major barrier on the path of cultivations for other beings as well.
The gap between those that have reached the Qi Refining Stage and those that have not, is simply insurmountable.
It was so extreme, that a case could be made that Gaston, as a Qi Refining Cultivator, was closer in race to the Blue Ape Leader than he was with his men!
The gap was that large.
After reaching the trap's location, the Blue Ape Leader, wearing a rather strange looking leather armor, and holding a large wooden staff in its hands, stopped and took a look around.
The good news was, that it hadn't immediately found them, meaning that it's detection ability was inferior to even Gaston's.
If it had been Gaston in it's position, he would have located the four Peak Innate Realm Warriors in an instant.
"Wait for the other three to arrive, then we'll strike.
"Leave the big one to me, you four focus on killing the other three as quickly as you can."
Gaston was locked in on to the Blue Ape Leader's movements as he was relaying his orders to his men.
As soon as he used his energy to transmit his thoughts however, he saw the Blue Ape Leader halt it's movements for just a split second, before it continued looking around as if nothing had happened.
"I'm exposed, the Blue Ape Leader can detect energy fluctuations."
A surprised look appeared on Gaston's face for a second, before he quickly notified his men of the changes in the situation.
The Blue Ape Leader hadn't managed to detect their presence, yet it could detect even such a small fluctuation in energy.
Gaston couldn't make sense of it, but he quickly regained his bearings, now openly revealing his tracking of the Blue Ape Leader, by enveloping it with his consciousness.
"Plan's changed.
"I'm going to kill this Ape, the four of you make sure to kill the three Innate Realm monsters while they're focused on me."
After relaying his orders, Gaston stopped paying attention to them, trusting in their ability to handle the matter.
Trust aside, this would be his first battle against another being in the Qi Refining Stage, human or non-human, so he couldn't afford to think of anything else.
On top of that, it was common knowledge that monsters were stronger than humans within the same stage, so this would be far from an easy task.
Equipped with his short halberd, merely 3 feet long, and a large circular shield made of a refined metal, Gaston jumped down from over 20 feet, using the momentum to give the Blue Ape a devastating blow right from the start!
The Blue Ape Leader abruptly turned towards Gaston's direction and locked eyes with him.
It did detect the energy fluctuations just a few seconds ago, but it didn't realize that they were caused by a human!
Before it could question him however, it had to deal with the unexpected attack.
Just a second ago, it had been intending to fool the perpetrator for a while, until his reinforcements arrived in order to deal with the matter in the easiest fashion.
Yet for whatever reason, the perpetrator had suddenly revealed himself and even launched such a decisive attack!
Unable to dodge and unwilling to wait for the attack to arrive, the Blue Ape Leader used all its strength to desperately swing its staff at the short halberd.
"CRACK!"
Right before the axe blade on the halberd connected with the wooden staff, a wide grin appeared on Gaston's face.
Gaston had spent a large amount of his energy in preparing a magic technique in order to end the battle as quickly as possible, he was just waiting for the perfect moment to unleash it.
And right after the Blue Ape Leader made his move, was that moment.
Without any required movements, just the mental guidance of his cultivation energy, he applied the "Earth Strengthening" magic technique on the axe blade.
The axe blade on his halberd was good at cutting through things anyway.
With the additional effects of the "Earth Strengthening" magic technique that he had invested more than half of his energy into, the final result could be imagined.
Cutting through the Blue Ape Leader's weapon in one smooth motion, the sound reverberated through the forest like a gunshot!
But much to the pleasure of Gaston, and the fear of the Blue Ape Leader, the halberd swing still had more strength left.
Desperately trying to avoid the axe blade that was coming towards it's head, the Blue Ape Leader could do nothing but try to dodge to the side.
Unfortunately for the Ape, it's momentum was going forward due to its swing of the staff, so it's range of movement was extremely limited.
It managed to get it's head out of the way, however the axe blade still struck it right in the middle of it's chest, firmly embedding itself in there and pinning the Blue Ape to the ground!