Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 376 - 32: Slaughter

...

Meanwhile, on another operation route.

"Ahead is the No. 6 observation post." Candle Dragon said cautiously as he walked, surveying the surroundings, "I don't believe the heavy rain and landslides could take out those seasoned special ops agents... You understand what I mean, right?"

"Aren't we talking about paranormal entities?" said one of the hunters assigned to Candle Dragon's group. "It's our job, really."

"Speaking of which, Candle Dragon, among these people, your sense detection is probably the strongest, right?" Ye Jiu asked, "Can you tell from which direction the presence of paranormal entities is the strongest?"

Candle Dragon shook his head, "It's everywhere. Even where we are is filled with strong paranormal presence... I'm not sure whether these presences are truly from paranormal entities or from the disturbance tactics of Chimera 17."

"Ho, disturbance tactics? Is it scared of us?" Ye Jiu hung the Wolf-tooth Spear behind his back, grasping the Tang Saber named Frost Cutting. The tip dragged across the ground, freezing everything it touched, whether mud or rainwater, forming an ice-road beneath Ye Jiu's feet.

Thanks to him, the other hunters in the group avoided the embarrassment of trudging through the mud, all following closely behind him upon this icy path.

"Speaking of which, how many weapons do these missing special ops agents have?" asked a hunter at the end of the team.

"They are not equipped with weapons," Candle Dragon replied. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"No weapons? Are you kidding me?" The hunter had just arrived in Tianfu City yesterday and clearly wasn't familiar with the situation. "Even a sheriff needs a baton and a taser to catch a thief, and you're telling me these special ops agents don't carry any weapons?"

"Not even a tactical nuke can kill Chimera 17, what weapons would you suggest they carry? Big Ivan?" another hunter, who had arrived a few days earlier, retorted, "In this harsh weather, every gram of weight needs to be meticulously calculated. Bringing one less gun, one less magazine, might mean bringing a whole set of monitoring equipment... Do you think they don't want to bring weapons?"

"Then what if they encounter a paranormal entity, will they be unable to retaliate?"

"When Chimera 17 first appeared, all the existing paranormal entities in this area were killed by it, and with the nuclear strike, theoretically, this area should have no other paranormal entities besides Chimera 17." Candle Dragon patiently explained, "The biggest threats they face are actually the heavy rain, radiation, and landslides... But no one expected a batch of paranormal entities would suddenly appear in this region."

"By the way, the paranormal frequencies detected later, have they been confirmed to be separate paranormal entities?" Ye Jiu asked, "Where did these paranormal entities come from? Is Chimera 17 just watching them wander near its territory? What happened to 'two tigers cannot coexist on one mountain'?"

"Yang Qi believes these newly-appeared paranormal entities could be 'guards' created by Chimera 17—" Candle Dragon stopped mid-sentence suddenly, "Watch your step!"

The mud near the icy path exploded, and several mud-covered figures sprang out of the sludge, lunging at the hunters standing on the icy road.

"Shit!" the hunter at the back instinctively cursed, but his arm, already conditioned through muscle memory, had lifted a specialized shotgun, directly targeting the nearest figure and pulled the trigger!

"Bang!!"

The thunderous gunshot instantly drowned out the noisy rain, and a large burst of flames erupted from the shotgun's muzzle. The figure that had leaped from the mud was pushed back swiftly by the tremendous impact, flipping through the air.

Ye Jiu was quick too, sending out several Qi Blades with Frost Cutting in hand—the mud froze wherever the Qi Blades passed. The attackers, who had just leaped up and not yet fully escaped the mud, were immediately frozen and fell heavily onto the ice.

"Not much to it," Ye Jiu said as he dashed out with the saber, beheading two of the fallen attackers in a flash.

All present were seasoned hunters with extensive combat experience. Except for the hunter who had cursed, none were particularly surprised by the attack. They all sprang into action, using either their abilities or modern weaponry, and swiftly repelled the attackers lying in wait in the sludge.

"These guys... seem to be the missing special ops agents?" said one hunter, glancing at the head Ye Jiu severed, still wearing a helmet, and frowned.

"They've been infected," Candle Dragon said with a deep breath, "It seems those previously detected paranormal figures might be these infected special ops agents."

However, the two "infected" that Ye Jiu had decapitated were not dead. Their headless bodies struggled, rising to sit upright as a mass of tentacle-like things emerged from their necks, writhing frantically.

"Ugh, disgusting."

Ye Jiu spat with distaste, stepping onto the shoulder of a headless body and plunging Frost Cutting straight into the neck!

The tentacles immediately froze into ice sculptures, and with a shake of Ye Jiu's wrist, the blades lightly vibrated, shattering them into fragments that scattered over the ice.

"Quite weak, aren't they? Did Chimera 17 really rely on these things to stop us? If you ask me, Candle Dragon, we should... Candle Dragon?"