The two dragons wrestled for a moment, and the one whose tail blade was caught was forcibly dragged over by the other.
Gaining the initiative, Jin Mie Ren retreated, its tail blade rising in a curve, its tip aimed at the throat joint crucible sac of Zhan Zhan, launching a direct stab.
Li Fan was about to remind Zhan Zhan to turn quickly to dodge the attack aimed at its throat.
But remembering the training philosophy of fighting to the death, he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.
As Zhan Zhan turned its head, its paws suddenly leaped, lifting off the sand.
Pulling its tail blade with all its might, Jin Mie Ren, who was dragging it back, clearly did not expect this move. Its paws stumbled backward, and the direct stab of the tail blade was forced to stop.
Zhan Zhan seized the opportunity to turn its body sideways, lowered its head, and leaped to bite the tip of the opponent's suspended tail blade.
Just as this counterattack was about to succeed, the drag from the tail blade pulled it down forcefully.
At the same time, the tail blade, flashing red, stabbed downward diagonally.
*Puff! Boom!*
To prevent its crucible sac from being hit, Zhan Zhan lowered its head and neck, taking the blow with its head.
Its already unbalanced body, under the heavy slash and the explosion of dust, could no longer maintain its balance. It fell to the sand, tumbling sideways.
At this moment, Jin Mie Ren had already let go, retreated two steps, and crouched with its knees, intending to finish Zhan Zhan with a leaping slash.
*Whoosh~*
Seeing the huge spherical shadow on the sand in front of it, Jin Mie Ren immediately changed its charging leap into a backward jump.
*Bang! Boom!*
A giant sphere made of debris smashed into the sand.
This was the solid fist of the Mantis Captain.
When planning the construction diagram, Li Fan had considered various weapons to use.
However, the problem was that the weapons constructed from the墟城 (Xūchéng - a fictional place name, translated as "Ruined City" or similar, but kept as is for now) could not even match the basic strength of Hunter weapons, let alone replicate the structure of Hunter weapons.
Coupled with the lack of sharp edges, Li Fan realized that imitating Hunter series weapons and applying them in actual combat would only make the Mantis Captain weaker. Therefore, he decided to research in a more practical direction.
After constant consideration in terms of destructive power, durability, ease of use, and replaceability, the solid fist scheme made of debris finally stood out.
It should be emphasized that the solid fist was not worn on the Mantis Captain's hand but replaced the entire hand structure.
*Bang! Bang!*
The Mantis Captain blocked in front of Zhan Zhan, and its solid fists collided twice.
Jin Mie Ren advanced slowly with a low growl.
"Five blades, I'll kill you. Jin Mie Ren's combat skills are superb, but its intelligence seems to be not very high. It doesn't understand absolute physical crushing with size and strength. Shanshan, establish the referee's authority!"
The Mantis Captain stepped forward, swung its left solid fist backward, and downward.
Jin Mie Ren did not flinch. It turned its body, swung its tail blade, and slashed to meet the attack.
*Clang! Bang!*
The solid fist and the tail blade collided for a brief moment, then Jin Mie Ren was sent flying backward.
*Screech! Screech!*
After rolling several times on the ground, it slid tens of meters along the sand with its side pressed to the ground before stopping its momentum.
"Good job, Shanshan, that's the feeling. The Mantis Captain's center of gravity can be even lower."
After Li Fan's evaluation, Shanshan immediately began to try.
*Whoosh~ Whoosh!*
The Mantis Captain bent its body slightly and threw another punch, a sound of breaking air.
*Boom! Whoosh!*
The left solid fist suddenly exploded, and a large amount of stone fragments shattered and fell.
"It's the explosive dust attached to Jin Mie Ren's tail. That slash had enough power."
Li Fan immediately analyzed the cause of the explosion.
In the distance, Jin Mie Ren stood up, shaking its head. The strongest impact it had ever suffered was from a Diablos charging from the side.
That level had already left a deep impression on it. However, the spherical fist that attacked today had refreshed Jin Mie Ren's understanding.
*Bang! Bang!*
The Mantis Captain walked in front of it, and Jin Mie Ren immediately became vigilant.
The expected terrifying solid fist did not come. A strangely dressed hunter leaped down from above.
Dilu inserted the Super Regeneration Disc into the disc slot and shouted downward, "It's in, meow!"
"Phew~ Zhan Zhan's special training is over. It's my turn next."
Li Fan let out a long sigh, drew his Thunder God Blade, and walked towards Jin Mie Ren.
Dondruma, outskirts jungle.
Pabobo and Eudora were moving forward, looking at the map.
Half a month had passed, and the number of hunter trainees recruited by Pabobo had dropped from five to only Eudora.
The main reason for this was that the mentor, apart from helping the trainees accept contracts and occasionally observing them fight monsters, did not provide any further guidance.
Eudora had also wanted to end the training, but realizing that the contracts assigned by Pabobo always had appropriate difficulty, allowing her to gain sufficient experience, she persisted.
Pazhizhi's opinion also played a role in this.
The day after Eudora became a hunter trainee, she learned some not-too-surprising news.
Pabobo and Pazhizhi were siblings. However, when mentioning her brother to Pazhizhi, she directly stated that they were not very close and listed many of Pabobo's shortcomings.
Such as never caring about the town, having no sense of crisis, being unkempt and only wearing shorts for hunting, and so on.
But when it came to his Great Sword skills, Pazhizhi gave extremely high praise.
She said that Pabobo's use of the Great Sword was the highest level she had ever seen.
Therefore, Eudora firmly believed that although Pabobo's teaching methods might be unusual, his abilities were definitely not a problem.
The contract they had currently accepted was to hunt or capture a Blangonga that had escaped from the arena.
According to the contract information, a Ruined City giant's rapid movement in the city's combat street caused the arena walls to collapse.
A total of 21 monsters escaped. In fact, if these monsters had escaped further, the guild, busy with cleanup work, would not have issued contracts to hunt them.
The problem was that many of these monsters had settled around Dondruma.
This posed a considerable threat to merchant caravans and the local ecosystem.
This Blangonga was one of them, and because it had been confined in the arena for a long time for hunters to train, it was particularly difficult to deal with.
"The claw marks seem to be fresh. It must be nearby."
Pabobo informed them as he examined the tracks.
"Shall I fly up high to observe?"
Eudora tentatively asked.
"I'd appreciate that, but just confirm the location. I'll hunt this time, and you can watch."
Pabobo replied.
"Alright."
Eudora was quite surprised by Pabobo's sudden decision to hunt.
After searching in the air for a while, Eudora found the escaped Blangonga by a lake.
It was slightly larger than Kuku, with its entire body covered in scars and injuries.
As the giant beak prepared to lower to drink water, it still scanned its surroundings, appearing very cautious.
After landing and marking the location, Pabobo, carrying the Frozen Swordfish Great Sword, hurried over.
While chewing on a Power Seed, crystalline Ghostly Powder was sprinkled into the wind.
Observing from the air was too conspicuous and could attract the attention of other monsters, so Eudora descended to the ground and hid in the bushes by the lake.
*Woo~ Woo~*
About thirty meters away from the Blangonga, Pabobo took out the horn from his waist and blew it.
*Clatter!*
The tattered fan-shaped ears immediately unfurled. The Blangonga's head shot up from the water, and it turned towards Pabobo's location.
"Eudora, your biggest problem is being too impatient when drawing your sword."
*Roar. Roar.*
As Pabobo pointed out her flaw, the Blangonga lowered its body and let out a probing roar.
"Your attention doesn't need to be on the Great Sword you're holding. Sense the monster's movements more, don't miss any subtle actions."
*Screech! Screech!*
Purple claws with sharp tips dug into the grass, scraping continuously.
*Roar!*
The Blangonga roared and charged forward like a bird.
Pabobo stepped back half a step, swung the Frost-emanating Swordfish Great Sword, and began to charge.
*Bang! Crash!*
Just before the Blangonga arrived, the fully charged three-stage Swordfish Great Sword accurately struck its beak, sending large shards of ice crystals flying.
The Blangonga, thrown backward, shook its head. After stabilizing, it realized the hunter in front of it had disappeared.
However, its hearing detected the hunter's footsteps behind it, and its venomous tail swept sideways.
The tail spike, covered in purple venom, grazed past Pabobo's face. He took a step forward and raised his sword to charge again.
The Blangonga wanted to attack the hunter in front of it immediately, but its rotating body could not change its posture in time.
The Great Sword completed two stages of charging and was directly unleashed.
*Bang! Ice crystals shattered!*
The Blangonga's head was hit accurately again.
*Whoosh! Swish!*
A flash bomb emitted a bright light, and Pabobo hid in the bushes.
"Mentor Pab, so you've been summarizing the shortcomings of the hunter trainees all along."
Eudora realized why he had always been observing and was touched for a moment.
"Well, to be honest, I didn't pay much attention to your performance. I was actually after the mentor's funding. The sooner you finish and leave my guidance, the sooner I get paid. But when I saw your talent, I felt it should be further stimulated, so I decided to guide you a bit."
Pabobo frankly explained.
"Alright, I was overthinking it."
Eudora said with a hint of disappointment.
"Your strength is outstanding, and your judgment of attack timing against monsters is also very accurate. With just these two qualities, you already have excellent potential. However, what puzzles me is, why do you possess these traits at such a young age?"
Pabobo looked puzzled.
"Perhaps it's because I have a rich experience in my hunter career."
Eudora was unsure.
"No, I feel like someone must have guided you. Are you a lone wolf?"
Pabobo guessed.
"Huh? Mentor Pab, are you well acquainted with Lone Wolf?"
Eudora asked vigilantly.
"Not really well acquainted, but he asked me to look after you. That's quite rare. But I didn't take it too seriously."
Pabobo replied.
"No wonder you made that assumption. I hate it."
Eudora gritted her teeth.
"You dislike Lone Wolf very much?"
"Hmm, it's okay. In short, I don't really want to interact with him."
"It's up to you now. I'll help you throw marking balls. Remember to observe more and correct the problem of impatient sword drawing."
"Okay!"
Eudora said, and rushed out of the bushes.
Desert unknown region, an evening in a cave.
"This Jin Mie Ren is truly a beast. Ouch! Dilu, be gentle."
Li Fan, leaning against the cave wall, let out a cry of pain.
Dilu, who was applying ointment to Li Fan's burned wrist, could only try to be more gentle.
"The Super Regeneration Disc caught fire when it was taken out, meow. I was so worried you'd be in trouble."
Dilu sighed.
"It was quite aggressive, but I feel like it's already restrained a lot."
Li Fan didn't think so.
"It's time to change your legs, meow."
"Actually, if the tail blade's flame hadn't missed in the last wave, I wouldn't be this badly injured. Ouch! Dilu, be gentler."
"I'm already being gentle, meow. Can you not be so aggressive tomorrow?"
Dilu asked.