Hunting: The Dawning

Chapter 16: Should Leave an Intact Corpse

The Velocipreys, noticing that the hunter had slowed down his pace, thought that he had consumed too much strength and boldly quickened their steps. They split up and pounced on him.

Estimating the speed of the Velocipreys.

Gordon lowered the tip of the sword. When the Velociprey approached to a distance of about three meters in front of him, he suddenly advanced and at the same time, lifted the greatsword upward.

The huge hook-shaped tip of the Burst Blade accurately brought the Velociprey within the attack range.

"Gugagagaga!"

The Velociprey couldn't dodge in time. A huge wound was cut on its chest. Amid the sharp and miserable howling, Gordon took another step forward. At the same time, his feet alternated, and he twisted his waist and swung the sword.

A horizontal s***h with a very large attack range neatly chopped off the head and a small part of the body of this Velociprey.

The headless corpse crashed heavily into the pool of blood, and its limbs were still twitching slightly.

At the same time, the last Velociprey, taking advantage of the gap when its companion was killed, had already approached Gordon's side.

The bird-like beak full of sharp teeth opened wide to nearly ninety degrees and was about to bite Gordon.

Gordon was not panicked. He turned his pace and pulled the greatsword in front of him, preparing to use the wide and thick steel blade of the Burst Blade as a shield to block this blow.

However, at this moment, a small figure sprang out from behind Gordon and leaped high.

It was Pig Chop!

"Meowww!!"

The sharp bone cat pickaxe, under its full swing, hit the side of the Velociprey's face hard, causing the latter's head to turn aside. The pounce aimed at Gordon thus missed.

"Well done, Pig Chop!"

Gordon praised loudly and generously. At the same time, he seized this opening and, with his shoulder and elbow as the ramming angle, suddenly charged forward.

The Iron Mountain Charge!

The Velociprey, which had been hit one after another, staggered backward. Before it could adjust its posture, the heavy steel greatsword swung down again, and the pasture of the Western Schreiter Forest Hills regained its calm.

In less than a minute, all three Velocipreys were killed.

"Not bad, Pig Chop. You grasped the timing very well!" Gordon patted Pig Chop's head to encourage it.

Although he would have been fine without Pig Chop's help, what about next time? Perhaps the next time, Pig Chop's timely assistance would save his life.

Pig Chop scratched its whiskers a bit shyly.

It suddenly felt that these Velocipreys, which often appeared in its nightmares, didn't seem so scary anymore.

"I'll skin and collect the materials first. Keep watch of the surroundings."

"Okay, meow!"

Gordon smiled and hung the Burst Blade back behind him.

It had to be said that having a hunting Felyne partner was really convenient. Even setting aside combat power, just the fact that it could share the task of keeping watch was very useful.

The Ailyrans had a sense of smell and hearing far superior to that of humans. With them standing guard and collecting materials, when skinning the corpses of monsters, there was no longer any need to worry about being attacked by predators lurking nearby.

Gordon, holding a skinning knife, squatted down with a smile. The next second, his face began to turn green.

None of the three Velociprey corpses was relatively intact.

The one that was first cut in two by him was the worst. Let alone skinning it, there were hardly a few complete claws and teeth left.

The latter two were a bit better, but really just a little bit. From the three Velocipreys, he only skinned half a Velociprey hide in total. It was estimated that it could only be used as scraps.

Some Velociprey scales, claws and teeth were collected, but the quantity was far from enough for him to make a Velociprey set.

"It seems that we need to be more careful in the following hunts." After putting away the three crests as proof of the task, Gordon muttered, "At least, leave them an intact corpse."

...

Two days passed in a blink of an eye.

The ten Velocipreys required by the task had already been hunted. They could return to the village and submit the task at any time.

But Gordon decided to wait.

He still needed a larger and more intact Velociprey hide as the main material for his new armor.

The number of Velociprey hides at hand was already quite a lot, but most of them were not intact. These dragon hides could be used, but it always felt a bit lacking.

Gordon had even fantasized about directly hunting a Velociprey Lord and then skinning it to make armor.

But this was not realistic.

He had asked the workshop owner. The workshop owner's answer was that although the hide of the Velociprey Lord was more durable, it was also stiffer. It was only suitable for making greaves.

The improvement in defensive performance when made into armor was very limited, but it would affect flexibility. It was not worth the loss.

Besides, he hadn't accepted the task of hunting the Velociprey Lord. Even if he hunted it successfully, there would be no reward. The risk and return were simply not proportional.

"Let's go, Pig Chop. Let's go and look again to see if we can find a larger Velociprey. If we can't find one today, we'll return tomorrow!"

Pig Chop, who was gnawing on the roasted meat in its paw, quickly stuffed the remaining bit of meat into its mouth. "Okay, meow!"

The hunter and the cat left the camp again.

After two days of continuous hunting and battle, they had formed a considerable degree of tacit understanding.

If the opponent was a lone Velociprey, Pig Chop would attack first to attract the other's attention and create an opening. Gordon would then kill it with one blow to ensure the integrity of the dragon hide.

If it was a group of Velocipreys, there was no time to worry about that. Gordon would fight freely with wide and powerful strokes, and Pig Chop would help guard his back to prevent Velocipreys from sneaking up.

"Meow?" Pig Chop, who was following closely behind Gordon, suddenly stopped.

It stood up straight, closed its eyes, and sniffed left and right with its furry nose.

"What's wrong, Pig Chop? What did you find?" Gordon also stopped.

Pig Chop had a very sharp sense of smell. It had discovered targets more than once in these two days.

"There's a smell of blood, meow. The smell of very fresh blood. It's not the smell of herbivorous dinosaur blood. It should be that of a Great Wild Boar, meow!" After carefully distinguishing for a while, Pig Chop opened its eyes and said.

"A Great Wild Boar?" Gordon's eyes lit up slightly.

Although its body size was far smaller than that of a herbivorous dinosaur, a Great Wild Boar was much more difficult to deal with.

A lone Velociprey generally wouldn't provoke these stupid guys with sharp tusks. A group of Velocipreys would be more inclined to hunt a gentle giant like a herbivorous dinosaur.

Was it possible that it was a relatively powerful lone ranger that had hunted a Great Wild Boar alone?

"In which direction? And the distance?"

"Sniff, um, meow. It's in the northwest direction, meow. The straight line distance won't exceed five hundred meters, meow."

"Is there the smell of any other large monsters?"

"No, meow. This is the hunting ground of the Velociprey group. It should be the work of a Velociprey, meow!"

"Then let's go and have a look!"

Gordon ran out first, and Pig Chop quickly followed.

Ten minutes later, they approached the target.

As expected, it was a rather large Velociprey. The average ridge height of an ordinary Velociprey was about 150 centimeters, while this one's ridge height exceeded 170 centimeters!

Don't underestimate the mere twenty-centimeter difference. Its body size was a whole circle larger than that of an ordinary Velociprey!

"Good guy. If it continues to grow, it might be able to compete for the title of Velociprey Lord?" Gordon exclaimed.

The so-called Velociprey Lord was the king of the Velociprey group. Its ridge height was generally between 190 and 200 centimeters. This extraordinary body size was nurtured by the hunting and feeding of the whole group.

In comparison, the lone ranger in front of them seemed very special.