With skill and quick reflexes, Shen Zuo caught it in his hand,
but what he noticed next froze him in place for a moment;
beasts dying every second, Phantoms leaking out of their bodies,
some fleeing into the air,
others rushing straight toward other beasts' bodies to hide inside them.
But the hawk-like bird that had been watching the scene
moved forward the instant it saw the pink Phantom heading toward Shen Zuo.
Its blue eyes ignited with a strange flame,
and in the blink of an eye, it fired that blue flame directly at Shen Zuo.
A flame that didn't burn his body, but paralyzed him completely.
Shen Zuo tried using his Rock Mutation Phantom;
the Phantom did respond, but the effect was weak.
His energy was nearly gone, and any further use of the Phantom would be a dangerous drain.
The hawk drew closer, and with cruel calm,
pecked its needle-sharp beak into his right big toe,
severing it with barely any resistance.
Shen Zuo tensed against the pain, but that shock alone was enough to break the paralysis.
He lunged forward immediately, raising his axe with whatever strength he had left,
and struck toward the hawk's head.
But it dodged the blow with fluid ease,
as if its body could read the intent of an attack before it was even carried out.
Shen Zuo struggled to breathe, pain hammering through his skull, blood dripping from his foot.
But the Phantom in his hand still pulsed with life...
"You want this, huh?!"
Shen Zuo shouted, raising the Phantom in front of him, challenging the bird directly.
And in the next instant, the hawk seemed to smile... its expression didn't actually change, that rigid beak didn't allow for such a thing, but that look, the slight tilt of its head, that stance... all of it said one single thing:
"Yes, I want it."
"And also... you can understand me?"
Shen Zuo spoke in an easy tone, as though talking to an old companion, then continued with forced confidence:
"Well, it's not that strange you'd understand me, seeing as you're Level Three, right?"
He raised the Rock Mutation Phantom slightly, then glanced sideways toward the second Phantom he'd caught earlier.
"What do you say? Take both of them, and fly me over to the other side? Sounds like a fair deal, doesn't it?"
The bird didn't move at first.
But it leaned forward slightly, then spread its wings for a moment, angling its beak toward the two Phantoms, before folding them back and staying exactly where it was...
Its gaze never left the two Phantoms, but there was no movement suggesting it would actually help.
It looked as though its desire to claim the two Phantoms outweighed every other intention.
While Shen Zuo stood there gripping the pink Phantom, facing down the fiery hawk with its twin blue flames burning in its eyes, a violent crashing sound erupted from behind him, accompanied by a faint tremor in the ground. He spun around quickly, but before he could even process what was happening, an enraged bull tore its way through the fighting beasts, charging with wild force, as though madness itself had taken hold of it.
Its brown fur-covered body was torn open in several places, bits of claws and teeth still lodged beneath the skin, its horns tinted red with fresh blood. This beast, which looked as though it had just escaped dozens of battles, wasn't running randomly, it was charging directly toward the small stone tunnel Shen Zuo had climbed out of just minutes earlier.
Six wolves were chasing it down with merciless determination, their bodies lean, their eyes burning with hunger, sticking close to the trail of its blood, tracking its every step and closing in bit by bit.
Startled by the sight of the massive hawk, the bull suddenly stopped right in front of Shen Zuo, letting out rapid breaths that sounded like volcanic exhalations. It looked as though it hadn't even registered Shen Zuo at all, seeing instead a new enemy in the hawk, one blocking its path to survival.
As for the hawk... it suddenly spread its wings wide, as if it had taken personal offense.
The bull's tail instinctively recoiled. The wolves stopped at a distance, watching cautiously. The hawk made no sound, but it stretched its wings out to their full span, casting its shadow over the entire scene.
At that moment, the scene stopped being a struggle for survival... and became a standoff between two predators, each waiting for the other to make the first move.
The first to move was Shen Zuo. He raised the axe with unmatched force and delivered a lethal downward strike to the bull's neck, severing its spinal cord and half its neck. The bull collapsed to the ground motionless, its half-severed neck hanging in a silent, bloody scene.
The Phantom that emerged from the bull shot directly toward the hawk and entered its body instantly. Generally, Level One beasts carry only a single Phantom, while beasts Level Two and above vary depending on luck, and clearly, the pink bird hadn't been lucky, carrying only a single Phantom, its death at the hawk's hands only confirming its bad fortune.
Shen Zuo's move broke the standoff, and the wolves crept closer toward the bull's corpse, but the hawk snapped its wings up sharply, aggressively, as though warning the wolves: "This is my territory!" Six Level Two wolves now faced off against a Level Three hawk, an equation with no clear outcome, no one could say who'd die first, but it was obvious the hawk's patience with Shen Zuo was running out, its hostility toward him growing more apparent by the second.
Shen Zuo called out loudly:
"Alright, there's your bull, eat up... I'm out of here."
Shen Zuo raised the pink Phantom and hurled it toward the wolves, then took off running north. The hawk moved toward the wolves, determined to seize the Phantom, its eyes blazing a sharper shade of blue, the glowing blue flame pulsing with even more force.
All Shen Zuo heard was a terrifying howl from a slaughtered wolf, which set off alarm bells and forced him to pick up his pace.
He tried to focus enough to apply the energy-recovery technique, but couldn't gather the concentration needed amid all the chaos and noise. He gave up on that for the moment and focused instead on avoiding direct confrontations with the scattered beasts around him.
As he caught his breath, he spotted a few Phantoms ahead, moving slowly but cautiously, giving him an opening to strike. He lunged at them quickly, exploiting the element of surprise before they could react.
At the same time, his mind worked through the details of the map he'd memorized by heart, determined to reach the observation post near his lookout tree. He knew that spot could give him a defensive edge and a chance to regroup amid all this chaos.
As he ran toward the observation post, he spotted, in the distance, another group of Phantoms fleeing sluggishly, clear signs of exhaustion and weakness on them. It was obvious the long beast battle had worn them down, and several of them were trying to hide inside other bodies or flee to avoid confrontation altogether.
Shen Zuo saw an opportunity that wouldn't come twice, so he drew his sword and tried to grab as many as he could before they scattered away. He started firing his poisoned arrows at the weak, slow-moving Phantoms, then pushed off with his feet to accelerate further and reached out his hand, curling it into a claw shape. He quickly latched onto two exhausted Phantoms that had been on the verge of escaping.
The first was small, dark-colored, with sharp, crystal-like edges. It tried to resist, but was clearly weak. The second was slightly larger, wrapped in a faint blue mist, but it couldn't break free from Shen Zuo's firm grip either.
Tightening his hold, he gathered both of them while keeping a wary eye on the beasts
moving around him, fully aware that this catch could be the key to his survival and the success of his mission.