Seeing the ongoing battle between the D-rank hunters and the Commander-tier beast, Mike stood keenly observing every movement, his eyes locked onto the field like a hawk. He wasn't just watching—he was studying, trying to speculate each move, how tactically David was fighting against the beast, how he adjusted every strike and reaction based on the panther's movements.
Not only David—Mike was gauging the abilities of others too.
From his sharp observation, Mike confirmed certain things.
David was wielding a Wind-type ability, seamlessly blending it both into his weapon strikes and even augmenting his body movements.
Bron, his twin, clearly controlled Stone Manipulation, summoning rocks from the earth as barriers and weapons.
The two other D-rank hunters—one was blessed with Superspeed, flickering across the battlefield, while the other used Invisibility, striking the beast in unseen attacks.
And then there was the last D-rank hunter standing a distance away, doing absolutely nothing visible. Mike couldn't figure out yet what he was doing... but something about his calm posture made Mike wary.
As he was caught in these thoughts, a sudden rustling erupted from the dense forests beyond the battlefield. The ground vibrated slightly, the trees trembling under the oncoming stampede.
Mike noticed it immediately:
The Commander-tier Thunderclaw Panther was charging its electric field again—but this time, the energy surging out of its body was larger and wilder than before. The electric arcs crackled furiously around its sleek frame.
Bron reacted quickly, forming an enormous stone shield just in time. The Panther unleashed a massive electric pulse, hitting the shield with brutal force. Although the shield absorbed the brunt, the sheer impact sent both the shield and Bron himself crashing backward through the dirt.
Drops of black blood spilled from the Panther's earlier wounds, and its yellow-patterned fur bristled violently. The beast was furious now. Hurt, cornered—and dangerous.
The Panther reared back and released a great roar, a chilling screech that shook the very air.
David, turning toward the group, barked out a command:
> "Now all hunters—charge!"
As the order echoed through the field, everyone inside the camouflage barrier prepared themselves. Mike gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, heart pounding against his ribs.
The rustling grew louder. The trees split apart.
An enormous horde of over a hundred basic-tier panthers emerged, their sleek bodies moving like a black tide across the field, rushing straight toward them.
The E-rank hunter who maintained the camouflage barrier deactivated it instantly.
At once, 10 E-rank hunters and 50 new F-rank hunters dashed forward, meeting the beast horde head-on.
Mike could see it vividly now—abilities blossoming all across the battlefield:
One hunter hurled fireballs that exploded against the oncoming panthers.
Another launched jets of high-pressure water, knocking beasts backward.
A young girl created a barrier wall in front of her and bashed a panther aside like a shield.
Someone transformed into a beast-like humanoid, resembling a panther themselves, and engaged the beasts with savage claw attacks.
Another hunter formed a web of chains made of light, binding several panthers mid-leap.
Mike's eyes widened—he could see all forms of abilities. It was chaotic yet beautiful.
Amidst the chaos, Mike spotted Alex Bredenen fighting nearby.
Alex's hands transformed into giant wooden shields, blocking the sharp claws of an incoming panther. His other hand morphed into a massive wooden fist, which he slammed into the panther's face, sending it crashing back.
Now as Mike was at the far end of the group, he saw a lone panther sprinting towards him—its fangs bared, its eyes bloodshot.
The beast lunged straight for Mike's throat.
Instinctively, Mike swung his sword in a desperate arc.
The blade grazed across the panther's nose, leaving a shallow bloody slash—but not deep enough to seriously injure it.
The panther snarled in rage and lunged again.
This time, Mike dodged sideways, using his gauntlet-clad arm to deflect the beast's claws, although he could feel the force shaking his bones.
Seizing the opening, Mike punched the panther squarely in the face, staggering it slightly.
Feeling a surge of excitement, Mike stepped forward—but the beast, faster than he expected, pounced, tackling Mike to the ground. His sword slipped from his grasp, clattering away.
Pinned under the creature's weight, Mike gritted his teeth.
He could barely keep the beast's snapping jaws from tearing into his face, holding it back with both hands, while the panther's claws scratched violently against his chestplate and shoulders, leaving deep claw marks on the armor.
"Dammit!"
Without wasting any more time, Mike activated his ability.
Dark yellow energy surrounded the soles of his boots—the chaos aura swirling menacingly.
Mike kicked upward with both legs, landing a brutal double strike into the beast's stomach.
The panther screeched and tumbled off him.
Mike scrambled to his feet. His breath ragged.
Without hesitation, Mike activated chaos aura around his knuckles—the destructive force pulsing angrily across his fists.
The panther rose again, but Mike was already moving.
He punched.
Again.
And again.
Each strike landed like a hammer, breaking bones, rupturing flesh. The destructive aura corroded the beast's insides with every hit. The panther's roars weakened into whimpers.
At last, gathering all his strength, Mike delivered a final pulled punch straight to the panther's skull.
The beast's body spasmed once—then went limp.
Black blood oozed from the cracks across its head and mouth.
Mike stood over the fallen beast, panting heavily.
Grinning despite himself.
His first true kill.
As he looked around, Mike could see the battle was nearly over.
Many hunters had already finished off the majority of the panther horde, while others finished the stragglers together.
Meanwhile, the battle against the Commander-tier beast raged fiercely.
David was preparing for his final strike.
Gathering massive swirls of green wind around his machete, the weapon now appeared like a spinning hurricane blade.
While David gathered energy, Bron used stone spikes summoned from the ground to trap and injure the Commander Panther, pinning it partially.
The superspeed D-rank hunter blurred across the beast, carving deep dagger wounds.
And the crossbow-wielding hunter fired an arrow that multiplied into four mid-air, embedding themselves deep into the Panther's body.
Then David's voice thundered:
"Move away!"
All hunters immediately scattered.
David slashed his machete through the air.
A giant green slash of condensed wind, about one meter wide, flew toward the Panther with terrifying speed.
The slash struck true—tearing a deep wound across the beast's body.
Following immediately after, David, using the boosted wind currents around his boots, rocketed forward.
His machete, now almost twice its normal size due to the swirling wind aura, cleaved horizontally across the beast's neck with devastating force.
The Commander-tier Thunderclaw Panther's head flew cleanly off, rolling across the ground.
Its massive body collapsed like a felled titan.
The battlefield fell silent.
David, panting heavily and drenched in sweat, finally lowered his machete.
At the same time, the last of the basic-tier beasts were finished off by the other hunters.
Seeing that all hunters were either resting or slowly recovering from the intense fight, David turned to Bron and nodded.
Bron raised his voice and shouted:
"Good job, team! Congratulations to all new recruits for their first successful hunt!"
Cheers, claps, and exhausted sighs spread through the ranks.
Bron continued:
"Now, each of you carve out the beast crystals from the bodies. Hand them over to me. Don't try anything funny. There's a scanning bar at the entrance of the ship—we'll know if anything's missing."
Now all started to carve out crystal fron the dead beast's neck and heart region ,because each person knew each beast had an crystal like ball inside beast's body enveloped inside the beast core, which acts like the same way how humans energy centre acts an storage foe energy ,but in beast's this energy is like higher in amounts as the higher the tier the energy also gets higher and higher amount .
now David started walking towards the Commander tier beast and carved out the crystal ,this crystal is slightly shiny ans had an yellown glow around it indicating that this crystal had the properties of electrical energy .
And now he using his fingers he pointed out an ring in his hand ,in which the ring suddenly absorbed the crystal into it ,( this is an storage ring in which items can be stored to certain extent ,these storage rings or storage containers are usually costlier in price because creating an storage ring requires Nexus Mages ( people with arcane nexus ( spiritual energy ) who uses magic symbols ,circles ,runes to create different kinds of magic such as space , teleportation, defensive barrier , elemental runes, Refining weapons etc ) an nexus Mage with the help of compression of space inside an ring or device creates them .
As all carved out crystal including Mike carved out an crystal size of an golf ball which was dull grey ,gave to bron inturn he stored them all into an storage ring .
Mike pulled out his own crystal—dull gray, about the size of a golf ball—and handed it to Bron along with the others.
Then, everyone slowly started moving toward the parked ship.
Mike noticed two D-rank hunters carrying the headless corpse of the Commander-tier beast as well—likely for later use in creating weapons, elixirs, or beast-crafted gear.
As Mike swung his head back to the side, he saw Alex walking casually toward him, grinning.
> "Hey, Lone Nerd! How was your first fight?" Alex teased.
Mike smirked, still catching his breath.
"Hmm, not bad. Bit nervous at first… but now, I feel good."
Alex chuckled loudly.
"You should see your face, man. You're grinning like a madman!"
Mike jerked his head back in mock offense.
Alex continued:
"Saw your fight too. You were using only fists and legs. Don't you have any ability—or you just like street fighting?"
Mike chuckled and said:
"Nah. My ability's a close-combat one. Anything my chaos aura touches gets damaged, but I have to actually hit it for it to work."
Alex nodded thoughtfully.
"Interesting. Looks brutal."
Before Alex could ask more, Mike interrupted:
"Hey, I saw you turning your arms into wood. Is that wood manipulation or some kind of transformation ability?"
Alex laughed:
"Nope. I can manipulate and create wooden objects from my body. Anything—shields, spears, fists—you name it."
Mike felt more comfortable now, smiling genuinely.
He asked something that had been bugging his mind:
"Hey Alex... do you know what level David is? He was fighting toe-to-toe against that Commander-tier beast without even flinching!"
Alex grinned knowingly.
"Ah, curious about the real big dogs, huh? Well, you asked the right person. David is a D-rank hunter, currently at Human Grade Level 8, and soon to break into Level 9."
Mike's eyes widened.
Alex continued:
> "Normally, even a Level 8 cultivator shouldn't physically match a Commander-tier beast... but David's wearing a full Commander-tier armor set. That boosts his physical stats by 10 to 15 points easily."
Mike gasped slightly.
"That much?"
Alex smirked:
"Yep. Commander-tier equipment can make all the difference in real fights."
Mike looked back toward the horizon, heart pounding with excitement.
This was just the beginning.