Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 586 The Limb-Setting Monster
After treating the wounded, Cheng Ming led the remaining hunters slowly toward the location of the monster's main body (the place at the bottom of the pit where the memetic reaction was strongest).

Of the twenty-eight hunters who formed the assault team, only six, including Cheng Ming, are still capable of fighting... Six people trying to take down a monster of this level seems like a pipe dream.

"Keep communication open and keep moving forward," Chen Jing instructed over the communication channel.

Cheng Ming glanced back at a hunter who was over two meters tall following behind him. This hunter was not a freelance hunter who had been temporarily recruited, but a "private hunter" belonging to the Batu family, one of the three major families.

Batu's family was once a nomadic people on the Ulan Grassland. Later, for various reasons, they migrated to Longcheng and settled there, gradually developing into one of the three major powers in Longcheng.

Unlike the Chen and Bai families, who are "purebred" local forces in Dragon City, the Batu family also has considerable influence in the Ulan Grassland. After Dragon City rose to prominence, they sent a branch of their family back to the Ulan Grassland to establish a branch family and used Dragon City's resources to give back to their former homeland.

The most important task of the Ulan Grassland branch is to use its influence on the grassland to continuously provide fresh blood for the main family in Longcheng.

These loyal and fierce Tatar men, in terms of combat prowess alone, were in no way inferior to the retired veterans hired by the Chen and Bai families at great expense.

The hunter's name was Batuhan—this wasn't his original name. Tatar men sent to Dragon City were given the surname Batu, which was considered a symbol of honor for them.

The only remaining signal amplifier among the survivors was carried on Batuhan's back. He was also the only one in the team who could carry such heavy equipment without being significantly affected by it, without the aid of an exoskeleton.

Moreover, two small Gatling guns were fixed to the outside of his arm armor, and long ammunition belts rolled over his shoulders and connected to two ammunition boxes hanging on either side of his belt.

It's no exaggeration to say that Batuhan's firepower alone is greater than that of the other five combined.

The six hunters walked about a hundred meters further into the open pit when one of them, wearing a gray cloak and always walking with a stoop, suddenly raised his right fist and made a "stop" gesture.

"Shh." The hunter gestured for everyone to be quiet, then lay down and pressed his ear to the ground.

A dozen seconds later, he quietly got up and entered a string of information into the combat terminal.

“Ahead, about 150 meters away, there is a living creature, numbering one, weighing at least 300 kilograms, slowly approaching this place.”

The group exchanged bewildered glances. Cheng Ming subconsciously looked at the screen connected to the memetic detector, but the data displayed on the screen was a jumbled mess.

The location is too close to the main body of the monster, making the meme detector easily interfered with by the monster itself, thus "missing" those independent individuals located near the main body.

"Everyone, stay alert! Keep pushing!" Chen Jing said in the communication channel.

Compared to Cheng Ming, who didn't like giving orders, Chen Jing was the actual commander of this assault team.

After giving the order, Chen Jing glanced at Bai Lingqiu sitting next to him out of the corner of his eye, seemingly wondering why the other party would choose Cheng Ming, who looked "ordinary," as the deputy commander.

In fact, Chen Jing would prefer that Cheng Ming take full control of his command work—remote command has many problems, the most fatal of which is signal delay and interference.

Accidents caused by delays and interference are common in hunting operations. Some monsters can even tamper with what both sides see and hear, using this ability to lure frontline combat personnel step by step into a pre-set trap.

The six hunters advanced another sixty meters in silence, and the "living thing" that the cloaked hunter had previously detected finally came into their view. It was a monster pieced together from the remains of countless mycelium puppets—and among these limbs, the "torso" was none other than the hunter who had first asked to turn off the thrusters.

Some of those limbs seemed to have been crudely inserted into his body, some seemed to have sprouted from under his skin, and others had merged with his original limbs, becoming something like fleshy vines.

His body was covered with festering wounds, which were covered with spiderweb-like mycelial membranes. Countless tiny granulation tissues were wriggling beneath the mycelial membranes, just like insect larvae about to hatch from their eggs...

The hunter's eyes had become cloudy, his mouth was slightly open, and bloody saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth. He kept making strange "hoohoohoohoohoo" sounds from his throat.

Besides the strange noises coming from his throat, his heartbeat was exceptionally clear—so much so that Cheng Ming and the others could hear the powerful throbbing even from dozens of meters away.

"How did that guy... become like this?" a hunter asked in a trembling voice.

“It’s obvious he’s been parasitized,” another hunter said, checking his protective suit for damage. “If you don’t want to end up like him, you’d better put on your breathing mask.”

"Holy crap, I thought there was no spore fog down there, so I threw away all my protective gear as soon as I landed! What am I going to do?!" the hunter exclaimed in terror.

"Then try to keep your distance." After checking his protective suit, the hunter picked up his gun and glanced at Cheng Ming. "Captain, the monster should have seen us by now. Request permission to fire."

Cheng Ming nodded: "Fire."

The hunters opened fire, but the sound of Batuhan's two Gatling guns drowned out the gunfire of the others. Brass shell casings fell to the ground at his feet, and the monster, riddled with bullets, slowly collapsed.

"Thank goodness, the bullets can kill this guy." Seeing this, Chen Jing in the command post couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

But this time, neither the hunters at the bottom of the pit nor the people in the command post cheered.

Everyone knows that bullets alone cannot completely destroy the mycelium golem. Before long, these shattered limbs will crawl back together and reassemble into an even more grotesque monster.

"Hurry up and go around this monster," Cheng Ming said. "It's not moving fast. If we keep pushing, it won't catch up with us."

The other hunters remained silent and followed closely behind Cheng Ming.

Fearing the spread of spores from the monster, the group took a long detour before finally getting behind it.

This position is very close to the monster's main body.

"Strange... Where is the monster itself?" A hunter glanced at his terminal and asked in confusion, "Something that big shouldn't be able to hide at this distance... How come there's nothing around?"

“Look up,” Cheng Ming whispered. “It…is above our heads…”

(End of this chapter)