Timeless Hunter: Blood Of Old-Chapter 65: New Echo

After resting and regenerating their lost mana they cut up the hawk andit up a fire then started eating.

The hawk was very delicious, it tasted like chicken which compared to what they’ve been eating, was magical.

While they were eating, Akaris paused because something had just dawned on him.

Since he’s been in this trial, he hadn’t drank water even once but he didn’t feel thirsty. He didn’t notice this before but now he did.

It was hard to attribute that to the trial since he still got hungry, he asked Oriana and she paused.

" Now that you mention it, it is strange isn’t it?" She too sounded just as confused as he was.

( Answer- The trial ground has no drinkable water source, while it’s designed to be hard it must give a survival chance to the players.

As such, any who enter the trial ground would never feel thirsty.) They both immediately understood.

It’s why they can still get hungry because procuring edible food was possible but drinkable water was not.

They nodded and stopped thinking about it, the blood moon continued moving across the sky.

After they had fully rested and had full stomach they moved, they had expected to be attacked while resting but they weren’t.

What neither of them understood was that, the aura of the tempest Hawk King was keeping other monster away even after its death.

But as soon as they left the range of that aura those monsters smelled them and humans were more appetising than other monsters.

Sentient or rather any living being not a monster gave more experience to monsters if consumed.

Just as monsters give more experience to those being if killed, it was a system designed to have both sides murder each other.

The two of them ran through the forest like shadows, a flood of monsters chased after them.

Fortunately, not a single one was at the level of a king, the strongest was a mantis looking monsters.

It dark grey in colour and moved as fast as a shadow, it was called an elite instead of a king.

He didn’t know how far below an elite was from a king but it shouldn’t be far considering this iron mantis was a rare monsters.

A single grade below epic but then again there were differences in strength between the same grade let alone different ones.

The mantis attacked, its sharp blade collided with Oriana’s claws creating sparks, he turned and shot his arrow at it.

The arrow grazed its wing but failed to take it down, he clicked his tongue with annoyance.

He ignored the mantis, Oriana was going to deal with it, her speed in her tiger beast soul was still less than that of the mantis but it was faster than his.

Combined with her premonition like senses, the mantis couldn’t land even a minor wound in her body.

Of course her new wind barrier played a significant role in that or that bastard creature could’ve killed her long ago.

Akaris also realised future sight didn’t make him invulnerable, a high enough speed could deal with him.

Knowing your enemy is coming is not enough when you can’t dodge in time, this mantis had an agility above 100

He couldn’t see the exact numbers above 80 let alone 100. He drew his bow and took out a few other monsters.

His experience value was still stuck at 99%, had the system not stop telling him his experience dissipated, he would’ve thought the limit breaker orb had failed.

After taking out a few monsters he turned towards Oriana’s fight, a grey light flashed and hit her on the side.

She flew through the air for a dozen metres and landed on her feet, the air exploded and it was already upon her.

The mantis stood nearly as tall as he was, Akaris used future sight and aimed at where it will be.

Oriana jumped in that direction and it followed, he realised his arrow and just as it was about to touch the mantis, it flapped its wings and dodged.

This kept happening no matter how many times he attacked but he understood it was because of his lack of experience.

He relied too much on the speed of his arrows, even with future sight, while most couldn’t dodge in a split second, this mantis obviously can.

He had to calculate precisely when to release the arrow, and he would need to be sneaky.

If he released it too early, the mantis would clearly see it, too late and it would easily dodge it as it had been doing.

From such a distance, those two were the only viable options. The mantis was just as fast if not faster than his arrows.

Akaris would need to get close but that would be extremely dangerous, Oriana who was much faster than him was barely holding on.

If not for her strong wind barrier, she would probably be dead by now, Akaris realised how troublesome speed type monsters were.

It was weaker than the tempest Hawk King in every aspect besides speed but that alone made it harder to deal with.

Akaris shot down a large bird, there were nearly a hundred monsters after them, fortunately they weren’t united either.

The monsters killed each other and ate the corpses of those he took down, their focus was not solely on him.

Plus they seem to be trying their best to avoid getting close to the mantis as possible, those that did died.

Akaris took a deep breath, it was time to go all out, he summoned his new echo, this would be it first battle.

Immediately he lost a hundred points of mana, 103 to be exact just for summoning it and he could feel his name being drained.

But this did not discourage him, needing so much mana to maintain was a testament of its strength.

Even though it was slightly weaker than its peak, it was still a tempest Hawk King, its appearance drew attention.

The mantis paused as soon as the tempest Hawk King appeared, Oriana did not waste the opportunity and attacked.

Her claws drew three blue streaks across the air but unfortunately the mantis reacted too fast.

She managed to take one of its legs causing it to stumble, he followed with an arrow, it tried to dodge but he hit its side.

The mantis flapped its wings and retreated dozens of metres away and watched them cautiously.

The hawk king echo attacked the other monsters stopping them from attacking either he or Oriana.

No longer distracted, the two of them pounced towards the mantis, it shrieked and attacked.

Akaris poured nearly two hundred mana points into his mana wave, Oriana being faster than him reached the mantis first.

Her claws collided with its blade and the force pushed them both back, it flapped its wings and circled around her.

It attacked from behind but she twisted and blocked with her claws, sparks flew and she kicked.

Her leg cut through the air but the mantis easily avoided her then followed with a slash of its blade.

She had already expected that and pulled back her leg avoiding it, before it could attack again it was forced to dodge a mana arrow.

With the two of them fully focusing on it, even with its speed it could barely hold on.

The mantis exchange blows with Oriana dozens of times but failed to break through her wind Barrier.

Even Akaris would need multiple mana arrows to break through that barrier, its only downside was its mana expenditure.

With her low mana pool, Oriana couldn’t maintain the barrier for too long and they would need to end this fight quickly.

The mantis cut twice hitting her on the chest but the wind barrier deflected its blades, the force pushed her dozens of metres away.

BOOOOM, the wind broke and the mantis turned into grey streak heading straight for Akaris.

He could see it clearly with his hawk eyes and saw its next move with future sight but his body couldn’t keep up.

But he had been waiting for this and as soon as it got close he released his mana wave, a dense wave of mana spread out.

The mantis was caught by surprise and failed to stop, it collided with the wave of mana and flew back like a ragdoll.

Its body spun uncontrollably mid air but before it could adjust itself, a mana arrow pierced through its head.

The mantis froze, it was confused on how it had just died then it fell down dead. ( Killed level 13 elite Iron mantis, experience gained.

Congratulations players you’ve leveled up to level 10, + 10 strength, +10, agility, + 10 perception.

+ 10 endurance, + 10 vitality, + 10 will, + 10 spirit)

" Holy fuck." Akaris cursed outloud, no wonder masters above level 10 all so strong in comparison.

He also realised how abnormal the two of them were for being able to fight monsters of that level.

Another crystal ball fell near the mantis and Akaris grew excited, he wondered what this one was going to be.