The Dark King

"Come up quickly!" Ian urged while squatting on the edge of the hole.

Needless to say, Ruby grabbed the rope with one hand, held a torch in his other hand, pinched the rope with his feet, and climbed up with everything he had. Suddenly, a gust of wind came out of nowhere. The torch's flame fluttered slightly, seemingly extinguished.

Ruby was panic-stricken and couldn't help but to look around. In the surrounding darkness, it seemed that the monster would suddenly leap out.

He thought of the terrible scene of Luna's death; his throat weltered slightly. He didn't dare to wait any longer, tugging the rope with one hand and climbing quickly.

When he climbed halfway, suddenly there was awhooshsound.

Ruby's pupil shrank, looking at an arrow coming from above the hole with dismay. The arrow scraped the torch; the air flow made the flame erratic. With aclangsound, the arrow seemed to hit a metal.

"It's behind you!!" Ian shouted hastily, "Come up quickly!"

Ruby's face turned pale. Not waiting to look back, he abandoned the torch and quickly climbed the rope with both hands. In an instant, he reached the top of the hole. After his hand was pulled by Ian, his tight heart relaxed a little bit. Suddenly, he felt that his foot was pulled by something, and his body abruptly sank down.

"No—" Ruby was frightened and lifted his other foot hastily.

Whoosh!

Another arrow swept past.

Clang! Ruby felt his foot was free; he flew upward immediately as Ian was pulling him from above the hole. He was still somewhat shaken; his suntanned face was covered with cold sweat. Sitting on the edge of the hole, he turned his head to look at the bottom of the pitch-black hole. The fallen torch's feeble flame was gradually extinguished. Before it was extinguished, it seemed that there was a shadow passing by the flame.

Ruby swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He felt like he brushed past the grim reaper. He looked around and sawDean¹slowly hung the bow on his back. Obviously, the previous two arrows were shot by Dean.

He didn't expect that Dean, who previously had a gap with them, would help. His heart was warm and grateful, "Thank you for the arrows. Thank you!"

"Never mind," Dean glanced around and said, "It's not safe here. It's very likely that the monster will climb out to pursue. We have to leave as soon as possible."

Ian was relieved to see that Ruby was all right, nodding, he said, "Yes, apply the Zombie Powder. Be careful not to disturb the big guy outside."

Martin looked at Dean, the hostility in his eyes dwindled a bit. He took out the Zombie Powder from the backpack to cover his smell, then waited until everyone else was finished.

Following the passage they came from, the footsteps of these people didn't make the slightest sound even though they trod on bones.

As the crowd got closer and closer to the cave's entrance, everyone became more and more nervous. Even Dean couldn't help but to hold his breath. He already made the second step of the plan — once the monster was alerted, he would immediately rush out of the cave. As soon as he was out, he would be able to fly away with his wings. Although this would expose his ability to the eyes of Ian and others, it was still a question whether they could survive; moreover, he couldn't consider much in this life and death moment.

In the dark and damp cave, in addition to the putrid and bloody smell, there was a strange smell. It was a bit like the smell of a rotten drowned corpse, somewhat similar to the smell of the nest inside the previous hole, but there were some differences.

They smelled the strange smell, and their expression became dignified. They knew that the monster was not far.

Dean's whole muscle was stretched taut. He was ready to rush out at any moment.

Ian gave Martin a meaningful glance, indicating that the monster was likely to be at the next corner. Martin also noticed that the smell here was so strong that it assailed his nose. He could feel the distance between them was very close, which made his heart tense. He tightened his grip on the weapon and controlled his footsteps so it made no sound.

He summoned up his courage, poking a little bit of his head out from the corner to peek.

They immediately perceived that Martin's body became slightly stiff. Their hearts couldn't help but to palpitate — they were ready to respond at any time.

After a while, Martin slowly retracted his head and gave a hand signal so they kept quiet, then he bent his body and walked forward slowly.

Dean's eyes flickered. He controlled his breath, then followed Martin quietly. When he saw the monster behind the corner, he immediately knew why Martin became slightly stiff. There was a huge horrible shadow lying in the middle of the passage to the cave entrance, resembling both lizard and scorpion. It was huge in size, but the body was slender, just enough to fit into the cave. The whole body was covered with silver scales. There were several forked scorpion tails. There were also strange limbs, both long and short, on both sides of the body; it resembled the spider's legs, but also resembled the centipede's legs.

Dean felt a terrible feeling the moment he saw this monster. But what really shocked him was that he recognized the appearance of this monster. It was one of the eight legendary monster — Shadow Hunter!

This super monster was equally famous like Splitter!

Unlike the extreme attack-type Splitter, Shadow Hunter was good at lurking and using sneak attacks. It was ranked at the top of the lurking monsters. To a certain extent, it was even more daunting than Splitter. Even higher level monsters that exceeded Shadow Hunter could also be killed by the sneak attacks. Some of the top human powerhouses also couldn't escape its clutches.

Their faces were full of horror. They also recognized the identity of this monster and never imagined that they would encounter a legendary monster that had never been seen for a century in this Orange Wasteland!

Ian's eyes flashed a trace of greed, but it was quickly covered by fear. He held his breath, his muscle stretched taut. In front of Shadow Hunter that excelled in lurking skill, their lurking skills were like a newborn-baby-level — not even worth mentioning.

He suddenly regretted. If he knew that this big guy was the legendary Shadow Hunter, he would rather starve to death inside the nest hole. But now he had already walked halfway, he could only continue and pray that this monster wouldn't be awakened by them.

"This looks like a mature Shadow Hunter, hunting level about 64–67." Dean glanced at the Shadow Hunter's shape. Monster Atlas had a brief description of the legendary monsters, but it only had the mature stage and the complete body stage depiction. He suddenly noticed that the silver scales on this Shadow Hunter were similar to the silver scales they saw when entering the cave.

In addition, this Shadow Hunter's extremely fierce triangular head was also somewhat familiar; it was similar to the terrible monster that hatched in the nest. It's just that this triangular head was slightly sunken inwards, making the triangle bulged outwards, like a pointed thorn, looking sharp and ferocious.

Dean immediately understood and couldn't help but to look ugly. Obviously, this whole cave was its territory. TheWind Listener¹and the Blood Sender were most likely the food that had been caught by Shadow Hunter! The eggs in the nest were Shadow Hunter's; however, the previous Shadow Hunter's shape was different, causing them not to think of it.

After all, monsters would transform at every growth stage, and some monsters might even transform differently without any resemblance to the previous appearance.

Dean felt the same horror as when he got caught by the Splitter back to its nest. His line of sight slowly shifted toward the cave's entrance in front of him; it wasn't far behind the Shadow Hunter. As long as he rushed out and used his wings, it was absolutely possible to escape!

"Almost!" He carefully moved forward.

Ka!

Suddenly, a loud noise came from behind.

Dean's pupil suddenly shrank. Although he didn't turn back, his line of sight could see the source of the sound — Ruby accidentally stepped and broke a bone on the ground.