novelraw Chapter 284: Silent Hunt
Chapter 284: Silent Hunt
The icy night wind, carrying the scent of decaying vegetation, brushed against Lin Jie's cheeks, cooling his somewhat feverish mind.
After jumping off the train, he didn't choose to linger. With a tactical roll, he slipped into the shadow of the bushes beside the tracks, merging his form into the darkness.
This action took the Slick-Skin Devils by surprise.
The slender, dark shadows that had been closing in from the forest all halted their steps in unison.
Their "faces," hidden in the darkness and impossible to see clearly, seemed to turn towards the direction where Lin Jie had vanished, falling into brief confusion.
In their predatory logic, trapped prey should cower in fear within a safe nest, trembling as they awaited death's arrival.
They had never encountered prey that would actively abandon its nest and leap alone into the perilous hunting ground.
However, this confusion did not last long.
"Thump... thump-thump..."
From within the lonely carriage stranded on the tracks, the massive lead-gray cargo container emitted a muffled, angry pounding sound.The frantic spiritual fluctuations seeping from the cracks in the container were now more intense than ever before.
To the Slick-Skin Devils, creatures that fed on spiritual beings, this aura was the sweetest, most irresistible scent of blood in the night.
Their attention was immediately drawn back.
A small portion of the Slick-Skin Devils began cautiously approaching the metal can emitting the alluring aroma of a delicious meal from different directions.
The majority that remained lurked in place, maintaining surveillance and a blockade over the entire battlefield.
This highly disciplined species possessed hunting intelligence far superior to ordinary beasts.
And this was precisely the result Lin Jie wanted.
Kneeling on the cold soil, he adjusted his breathing to a frequency that blended with the ambient sounds.
Lin Jie didn't look at his fellow beings approaching the train. He focused all his attention on the spiritual spectrum analyzer modified by Evelyn in his hands.
The analyzer's needle was making subtle deflections.
At this moment, it was a compass, guiding Lin Jie to the locations of those invisible "ghosts" within this dark forest.
He intended to do something insane and dangerous.
He was going to hunt them.
He wasn't doing this to escape or for self-preservation. He aimed to act as a hunter in their own territory, ferret out these predators from their hiding places, and erase them.
Only by doing so could he break the inescapable encirclement constructed by the Slick-Skin Devil pack, carving a path to survival for himself and for that trapped train.
Lin Jie's mind raced at high speed.
He rapidly performed a three-dimensional overlay and analysis in his mind, combining the faint signals representing spiritual fluctuation sources fed back by the analyzer with the topographic map of this valley stored in his memory.
Soon, he found his first target.
— Behind a massive oak tree approximately one hundred and fifty yards to his true north.
There was a faint yet stable spiritual signal, lying in wait quietly like a dormant venomous snake.
Lin Jie moved into action.
His movements were light. Avoiding a direct assault, he used the shadows of rocks and bushes to silently advance toward that target along an irregular "Z"-shaped route.
The Zen characteristic of [Serene Heart] was fully utilized by him at this moment.
He even deliberately controlled his heart rate, suppressing all his vital signs to the lowest possible level.
He spent nearly five minutes covering the distance of one hundred and fifty yards.
Finally, he reached a crevice in the rocks about thirty yards to the side and rear of the oak tree.
From this angle, he still couldn't see the front of that Slick-Skin Devil.
All he could see was the thick trunk of the oak tree, sturdy enough for three or four people to wrap their arms around.
But the violently swinging needle on the analyzer in his hand was telling him that his prey was right there, right behind that tree, separated from him by only a single wall.
Lin Jie wasn't in a hurry to fire.
"Let me see what you really look like." He picked up an ordinary pebble from the ground.
Then, with calculated force, he gently tossed the pebble toward a pile of fallen leaves about ten yards to his left front.
"Rustle..."
A faint, light sound arose in the forest, indistinguishable from the sound of wind rustling through leaves.
Yet, to certain things, this light sound was no different from a bomb.
A slender, somewhat twisted black shadow from behind the oak tree moved at a speed difficult for human vision to capture.
Its paper-thin, flat body stretched into a blurred, un-lockable afterimage the instant it appeared, pouncing toward the direction of the sound.
Its target was that pile of fallen leaves that had made the noise.
And its true body, hidden behind the tree trunk, was now completely exposed to Lin Jie's gun muzzle.
Lin Jie had utilized the Slick-Skin Devil's hunting instinct to react to abnormal movements, creating a fleeting, perfect kill opportunity for himself.
There was no ripple in his eyes.
At the exact same moment that dark shadow pounced, he pulled the trigger.
"..."
Silence.
The specially crafted bullet, its tip coated with a strange, semi-transparent mucus, sliced through the thirty-yard distance in an instant, accurately embedding itself into the completely unprepared leg of that Slick-Skin Devil.
That Slick-Skin Devil didn't even feel any pain.
After pouncing to the leaf pile and finding no prey, it let out a whimper tinged with confusion.
Only then did it belatedly lower its head to look at the leg struck by the bullet.
The wound was small, just an inconspicuous bullet hole, with very little blood flowing out.
Lin Jie didn't stay put to admire his handiwork.
After firing that shot, he immediately and swiftly changed his position, silently taking cover in another, more distant patch of shadow.
Like a seasoned, patient hunter, he wouldn't easily approach prey that wasn't completely dead after delivering a fatal shot.
He merely observed from his new hiding place.
The Slick-Skin Devil he had hit examined the wound on its leg in confusion, seemingly finding nothing amiss.
Its simple brain couldn't comprehend what had just happened.
It once again pressed its paper-like body against the back of another tree, re-entering a lurking state.
Everything seemed to have returned to calm.
However, less than half a minute later.
That Slick-Skin Devil, which had re-entered its lurking state, suddenly began to grow restless and agitated.
It started frequently poking its un-seeable "face" out from behind the tree trunk, scanning its surroundings warily, as if sensing some intangible, approaching threat.
Another half minute passed.
Its agitation began to transform into a clear, uncontrollable fear.
It abruptly leaped out from behind the tree trunk.
It no longer hid its form. Lowering its head, it stared with an incredulous gaze at its own leg, the one struck by the bullet.
Soon, it performed a bizarre act that sent a chill down even Lin Jie's spine.
It raised its razor-sharp hand and viciously chopped down towards its injured leg.
"Crack!"
The sound of a dry branch snapping.
Under its own attack, the injured leg bent outward at an unnatural, twisted angle.
The bone was clearly broken.
But no expression of pain appeared on that Slick-Skin Devil's face.
On the contrary, what showed on its face was immense terror born from the realization that its own attack had produced "absolutely no sensation."
The neural transmission blocker from the Ghost Jellyfish mucus used in the [Sensation-Nullifying Bullet] finally unleashed its true power at this moment.
It didn't bring pain or paralysis. It simply severed "sensation."
It completely stripped that Slick-Skin Devil of all ownership over that leg.
In that UMA's perception, that leg was no longer a part of its body, but a strange, senseless, yet stubbornly attached foreign object.
This existential fear, born from the forcible deprivation of self-cognition, was far more cruel and lethal than mere physical pain.
"Hsss——!!!"
That Slick-Skin Devil descended into chaos.
It began frantically using its sharp claws to tear at and attack the leg that no longer "belonged" to it, trying to rip this terrifying "parasite" from its own body.
It was self-mutilating!
Finally, after a bout of frenzied tearing, the already broken leg was ripped clean off its body by its own efforts.
Yet, this self-mutilation didn't bring it relief. Instead, the massive blood loss plunged it into a deeper, death-throes madness.
It spun around in place like a headless fly, finally losing its balance and collapsing to the ground.
Lin Jie calmly stepped out from the shadows.
He walked up to the UMA that had completely lost all ability to resist and raised his [Serene Heart].
"Rest in peace."
He murmured softly and pulled the trigger.
An ordinary alchemical bullet silently ended the life of this predator.
The first one.
Lin Jie didn't linger.
He quickly dealt with the traces at the scene, then vanished once more into the vast night.
The analyzer in his hand had already locked onto his next prey for him.