Chapter 117 A Hunter?

Hao Ren quickly realized that his Inspector-issued sidearm wasn't suitable for dealing with the current situation—not because it lacked power, but because it had too much!

One shot from that thing could create a crystalline area with a maximum radius of ten meters, and its range could hit anything within Hao Ren's line of sight. Using it in a town where residents hadn't been fully evacuated could easily cause accidental injuries. Furthermore, the crystalline dust produced by the Inspector's sidearm had a certain amount of radiation, making it extremely dangerous for untrained civilians to come into contact with. Therefore, he had no choice but to put away his sidearm and use the most primitive method to deal with the tentacles: close combat.

Fortunately, with the shield holding up, it wasn't too difficult.

He found a suitable weapon from his portable space: an alloy staff with a sharp tip. It wasn't made by the Empire but was a souvenir he had taken when he left the Aerym elves—a type of melee weapon used by those elven soldiers. He hadn't received any related training, but relying on his enhanced physical abilities far exceeding ordinary people, he could still wield this two-meter-long alloy spear with impressive force.

The wind whistled past his ears. Hao Ren deftly dodged a tentacle that whipped out from behind him and, at the critical moment, thrust the alloy spear into the middle of the tentacle. A tremendous force came from the spear, and the tentacle, sensing the attack, frantically pulled back, trying to throw the attacker off. Hao Ren was lifted into the air, but he didn't panic. Instead, he twisted a small section of the handle at the end of the alloy spear. As a blinding white ball of light burst from the tip of the spear, the entire tentacle was blasted into two pieces from the middle.

"I'm finding that this thing is sometimes more useful than my professional equipment," Hao Ren said, catching his breath as he landed, looking at the spear with satisfaction. "If I had known, I should have asked Hilda for more low-powered weapons back then. That's what I need most right now."

The data terminal, hovering next to Hao Ren as a smart interceptor of flying brickbats, casually replied, "That's work experience. Every Inspector goes from being a cool warrior wielding a divine weapon to a coat rack covered in miscellaneous weapons. Sooner or later, you'll find that in the struggles of mortal civilizations, low-powered mortal weapons are more useful than your divine creations."

Hao Ren dodged a tentacle: "You should have told me sooner! I only had time to ask Hilda for a stick!"

These tentacles attacking from underground had a very monotonous attack style, seeming to only perform simple physical strikes such as sweeping and piercing. There were no special types that could release mental shocks or nerve toxins as previously speculated, so Hao Ren and the others could still deal with them using traditional combat techniques. Lily, wielding a pair of ice-fire claw blades, spun like a whirlwind, cutting off the tentacles that were entangling her. She jumped to Hao Ren's side and happily shouted, "Ahaha, it's payback time! They scared me so much that night. Turns out they're not that strong after all~~"

"Be careful!" Vivian's voice came from the air accompanied by a thunderous roar. A lightning strike formed by the swarm of bats charred the tentacles that Lily had cut off but hadn't completely died, saving the husky once. "These things are very tenacious. They can still be active for a dozen seconds after being simply cut off."

A scorching whirlwind retreated from the front, and Becky's figure appeared from within. Despite being a seasoned mercenary, she was still the weakest of the group here and was already panting. "Why… why did they appear so early… weren't they supposed to awaken in two days!"

Hao Ren frowned as he watched the tentacles that continued to burst out from the ground. "I don't know… maybe something changed. Data terminal, say something."

The data terminal's tone was devoid of tension: "It's normal. This unit only said that the thing would fully awaken in two days, but didn't say it couldn't roll over before waking up—what do you guys do before you open your eyes when you wake up in the morning?"

Lily answered amidst the chaos, "I usually yawn first!"

With a loud bang, another tentacle emerged from the nearby street. The data terminal's voice followed closely: "Exactly, it's yawning now!"

Hao Ren was about to take the opportunity to mock the data terminal when he suddenly frowned: he felt an abnormal shaking coming from under his feet, slightly more subtle than when the tentacles had ambushed before, but it gave him an extra sense of danger.

At the critical moment, Hao Ren and Lily reacted simultaneously: "Get out of the way!"

Just as the two jumped away, the stone-paved street suddenly erupted in another roar. The heavy gray-white paving stones were shattered like foam, and another underground tentacle burst up from below!

This tentacle was completely different from the previous ones. It had a rougher surface and a strange, pale purple outer skin. The purple protrusions at the end of the tentacle were covered with mysterious and difficult-to-understand patterns. Hao Ren only had time to glance at those patterns before suddenly feeling a strong sense of dizziness.

Just when everyone thought only ordinary tentacles were attacking, a mutated attacker appeared!

Becky was closest to this tentacle and also the weakest. She was hit head-on by the mental shock with almost no resistance. Her eyes glazed over for a moment, and she actually withdrew the magic radiance protecting her body, walking towards the tentacle without any guard!

But at this moment, a piercing sonic boom came from afar. A streak of silver-white light flashed past, and the tentacle with the ability to launch mental attacks suddenly froze in mid-air. Then, with a "bang," it was engulfed by a ball of silver-white flames and turned to ashes in the blink of an eye.

"Are you all alright?" Aufra's voice came from a distance. Hao Ren turned his head and saw the dashing female marshal, never without her armor, leading a team of knights appearing at the end of the street. The silver-white longsword in her hand shimmered with afterglow, clearly indicating that the attack just now had been launched by her.

Hao Ren had just waved his hand in greeting when he saw Aufra's figure suddenly distort, and then she teleported directly to his side without warning!

"We'll talk later." Aufra said after teleporting over. With a wave of her longsword, she charged towards the tentacles, wrapped in a layer of silver-white holy flame. Where the flames passed, only pale ashes remained. The knights she had brought didn't even have time to attack much. All the soldiers stood outside the circle as if they were used to it, watching their supreme commander wreaking havoc in front.

Hao Ren and Vivian retreated from the battle, but their eyes narrowed at the same time. The latter looked at the silver holy flame surrounding Aufra, the silver-white longsword that was different from the standard knight weapons, and her constantly teleporting figure in battle, subconsciously letting out a low cry: "This…"

Activating silver-white holy flames in battle, using exorcism longswords engraved with special runes, and the near-instinctive ability to teleport… this combat style was unusually familiar!

"It's a Hunter!" Nangong Wuyue also retreated and exclaimed in surprise after seeing Aufra's fighting stance.

Becky was pulled out by Izhaks and had just broken free from the mental control. She shook her dizzy head and glanced at Hao Ren and the others. "Hunter!? Hunters have come to this side from the real world?"

Hao Ren quickly pointed at Aufra: "We're talking about her!"

At this moment, Aufra had already resolved the last few tentacles on the field. Most of these "underground monsters" had been eliminated by Hao Ren and the others, and now they were scorched by Aufra's silver flames. They seemed to finally realize that this was not a suitable breakthrough point and quickly retreated from here after a rumbling sound came from underground. Aufra put away her longsword and flashed to Hao Ren's side. "Is everyone alright… huh? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Hao Ren blurted out, "That fighting style of yours is…"

"Oh, so that's what it is. It's indeed not common," Aufra said nonchalantly, dusting the ash off her cloak. "Just an ancient species' innate swordsmanship. What, is there a problem?"

Hao Ren's heart was in turmoil: The ancient species of the Dream Plane… were they the Hunters of the real world?

But they had no inclination to attack other species! Aufra showed no hostility towards Lily and Vivian either!

What exactly happened on Earth back then?

But he didn't have the opportunity to ask about these things in detail because soon, alarm bells rang out from all over the town, signaling the appearance of monsters!