My Last Hunt

Quests: Making A Team (part 12)

War between Teams;

They were carefully advancing to the left part of the forest.

It was considered habitat for level two monsters and usually stronger chaser came here for hunting. 

Qiao lead them very slowly.

"Spread and look for a monster but be careful too," after some time he ordered.

…

The senior teams got their hunt quick and made sure to deal with it fast. 

"Since we are done now, let's move out to search for the youth," the team leader spoke to others and then they headed out. 

They were familiar with areas where they could find them so it was simple to reach them. They were experienced and quite familiar as to which part of the forest was safe to venture at what time of the month or days. They had much information about the forest and its various habitats and directions.

Compared to them Qiao was point blank with almost zero information. Members of his team were similar to him, Linwin was also a newbie while Quipu had only learnt the responsibility to distinguish among the levels of the monsters in his previous team. 

The team leader could gather such sources from the Guild based on his experience. But Qiao had only been in this world for one and a half week and since had been facing endless troubles and arrogant seniors. Where would he have the time to learn crucial knowledge? 

Moreover the arrogant seniors were sharp to keep it away from newbies so that they end up in disappointment, go back to their towns or just live and work under their orders.

As soon as the three teams appeared near them, Qiao sensed the changes in his surroundings. They were silently encroaching them, leaving no path for escape today. 

Though he was prepared for this today and given instructions to his team in advance, to face three teams was a grave matter. 

"If you surrender yourself, we will only give some injuries but if you try to act smart then we will definitely kill you," the team leader voiced. 

He had told other teams what happened yesterday so they were all alert. 

Qiao heard this warning and snorted. Currently the three of them were thinking how they would implement their plan since there were three teams, and possibly seventeen to eighteen chasers in total. 

They had to first see locate the other two team leaders too to include them in their plan calculations as well. 

The question when they would complete their hunt today was also there. 

"Are we going to hunt or not?" Linwin asked because to live in the Guild they had to hunt daily. 

"Why not combine both the tasks? Can you see the monster on your left?" Qiao unhurriedly pointed. He had noticed the monster just now.

"Oh, what a bad timing. Where were you when we all looked around?" Linwin voiced to the monster and its attention was picked. Well the presence of many chasers in the surrounding was what alarmed it actually. 

Mostly monsters consider that they could trample a small team but when it comes to one or more teams together, they had to be serious, or else death was all that awaited them. 

Qiao gestured at Linwin and Quipu and then himself ran toward the monster.

The team leaders were angry that the youth ignored them and started hunting in the middle of the grave life-threatening situation he was in.

Qiao did not directly attack the monster, instead he waved the weapon in front of the monster and moved a bit to make it aware of the danger. He was going to bait the monster towards the team that was harassing them instead.

As soon as the monster noticed the attack, it dodged and pounced after Qiao who had changed his direction toward the team leader. 

The chasers feared only one thing and that was a running, rampaging monster. Especially when they stood in its path. Qiao had successfully managed to enrage the monster with his attack and then normally led it towards the enemy team.

Now running away from it should be easy for them, but the sudden change and approach of the monster shocked them. 

Qiao made sure to reach the team as earlier as possible while Linwin made use of this opportunity and ran as fast as he could to hide and then make an attack of surprise. He knew he could not break the encirclement, so he chose to hide for a while from the notice of other teams.

As Qiao took the responsibility to distract all of them with the help of monster, right now the opposite team was terrified when looking at a monster coming straight at them. 

A few of them remained rooted to their position when the monster arrived. Instead of bringing out their weapons, they panicked, calling out for help. But there was no way anyone would help them now. The team leader was irritated seeing the panic.

The team quickly tried to run out of the way of the monster, creating a chaotic scene. Only the leader was still standing, shocked by this development. Right then he noticed the mocking smile on Qiao's face.

The team leader was unable to understand this new tactic and he was about to run as well, confidant in his ability to avoid the monster. But this smile which was more than mocking him stopped him from running. At that moment, Qiao changed his direction with a sudden move and the monster barely managed to follow behind. Its first target was the chaser who dared to attack and enrage it. 

In this sudden twist, Linwin and Quipu suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked at once when the team leader was still standing dumbfounded. 

Their aim was to waste his experience as much as they could in this attack, after all he was not going to give another similar chance no matter how clever Qiao planned. 

They attacked from both sides in a pincer style and the team leader could only choose to dodge one at a time. 

When he turned to stop one, the other one landed a strike. The only warning from Qiao was that they had to waste a whole level experience within few breaths. This was not only warning but a threshold to determine whether they could win against many or not. 

Time was an important key factor, especially when Qiao planned something. Every moment counted against stronger opponents, so they were trying to follow the hard time tempo. 

The leader was unable to grasp the situation quick, and at the right time bore the brunt of attack. The reckless and fast attacks almost baffled him to the point that he could only struggle now.

But this struggle bought him nothing in return. 

Only a few breaths were used. Just enough time for the other team members to realize to give cover or run to the help of the leader. But while the leader was level three his attackers has better weapons along with their sharp moves which were not attacking with any concern of counter.

In the end, he covered his head with his weapon, protected his vitals and sat on the ground.