A wyvern looked similar to a dragon, except that it only had a pair of wings and a pair of hind legs, unlike its more powerful relatives that possessed an additional pair of front legs.
But even though it was regarded as the weaker of the two, it was only because the wyvern was being compared to the mighty dragon race that reigned supreme at the top of the world.
In comparison to the Hunting Team gathered there, a wyvern was still way out of their league!
Yan Bingru's teammates turned pale the moment they caught sight of the approaching beast, but still barely managed to muster enough strength and scamper aside, avoiding the wyvern as it landed with a loud crash.
At the moment of impact, even Yan Bingru could feel a slight tremor propagating through the ground despite the distance she was at.
The short trees of the forest were unable to stand up to the force of the collision, and were directly crushed under its feet.
It did not land directly on the nest, but with its size, just a few steps and the wyvern would be right on top of it.
Greedily eyeing the pile of lizard carcasses at the exit, it did not even bother looking around before making its way towards the nest.
Why would it?
It was the apex predator, standing right on top of the food chain!
What else could it be bothered with when food was already being nicely served?
Yan Bingru nervously swallowed a mouthful of saliva as she turned to look at her teammates, beads of cold sweat starting to appear all over her forehead.
She was lucky to be positioned this far away, but the same could not be said of them.
The two men who were valiantly cutting down lizards just a few minutes ago, now sat motionlessly on the ground, their eyes opened so wide that they were almost popping out of their sockets.
It was obvious to Yan Bingru that it had taken all of their power just to scamper away at the start, and were now too frightened to move.
"zz…do…zz…stay…"
Unintelligible words from the communicator woke them up from their daze, but they still remained still, not daring to move an inch.
What a joke!
They were barely 20 metres away from the wyvern right now!
Who would want to draw its attention by running?!
At this moment, they were only cursing the fact that there wasn't a hole nearby for them to hide in!
Since she was further away, Yan Bingru did not feel as much pressure and could still bring herself to leave, but what was the point of getting to the rendezvous point alone when her teammates were obviously still stuck where they were?
Because of that, she chose to return to her prone position and silently set up her rifle once again.
After getting back into that familiar position, Yan Bingru's trembling hands immediately calmed down once again.
She was a sniper.
Snipers do not tremble while standing by the trigger.
Yan Bingru watched carefully through the scope of the rifle, her aim trained directly on the wyvern's neck, patiently bidding her time as the wyvern started devouring the carcasses with its voracious appetite.
Seconds quickly became minutes, and minutes became an hour.
It was the longest hour of her life, but even after such an excruciating wait, their pickup had still not arrived, or else they would have been able to at least see the shuttle descend from the skies.
It was no wonder too.
What kind of idiot would send a pickup shuttle down to them when there was clearly a wyvern in the vicinity?
Something that stood out so much would instantly grab the attention of the wyvern!
All Yan Bingru was hoping for right now was that the wyvern would quickly leave after eating its fill, so they could finally be like parallel lines, never crossing each other's paths again!
But to her disbelief, the wyvern actually lay back down after having its meal, ready to take a nap right where it was.
Damn this lazy wyvern, did it not know that sleeping in public is a disgrace?
Even so, at least its eyes were closed now, and that finally gave her teammates sufficient courage to start inching away from the wyvern.
Bit by bit, they starting pushing themselves away from the great beast.
Their eyes were permanently fixed on the wyvern as they were doing so, neither of them daring to make any huge movements at all.
Leaves and grass stuck to their skin that was wet from the cold perspiration, but they could not even be bothered to wipe them clean.
Snap-!
One of them had accidentally pressed on a fallen twig, snapping it into two!
Both of them immediately froze up, looking to see if the huge beast before them would react in any manner.
Their worse fear materialised as its eyes snapped open instantly!
The wyvern raised its head towards the sky and roared in anger.
At that instant, the two men could see snippets of their lives rapidly flash past before their eyes, and a warm sensation started to spread around their groin area.
The powerful roar echoed across the land, causing Yan Bingru to tense up considerably as well.
As it roared, a golden ray of light fired out from the wyvern's mouth, headed straight towards the sky.
Surprised, Yan Bingru looked up to see where the wyvern was firing its breath attack, but what she saw caused her to fall deep into despair.
Heavens! It was their pickup shuttle!
They must have sent down the shuttle after seeing that the wyvern fell asleep, but who knew that it would be so alert?!
Or perhaps it was that idiot teammate that woke up the wyvern!
After getting struck by that one breath attack, the pickup shuttle simply fell from the sky and crashed right into the ground.
Yan Bingru bit her lower lip in resentment.
Why were they so impatient in sending out the pickup shuttle?!
Now that even the pickup shuttle was destroyed, what else could she hope for?!
She watched in despondence as the wyvern lay back down after that, peacefully continuing with its nap as though it had nothing to do with what just happened to their pickup shuttle.
---
Far above them, even beyond the atmospheric layer of the planet, a vessel was currently floating in space directly above the wyvern.
The atmosphere was tense in the main control room, highlighted by the pin-drop silence as the crew stood by and awaited further instructions from the man in charge.
However, the man seated at the command table had his head buried in his hands right now, an extremely unsightly image to portray to his subordinates.
Ying Min was the Hunt Director for this Hunt Operation, the man who was tasked to oversee every single detail, from the picking of Hunters to the deployment locations.
At this point, it was crystal clear to everyone that he had fucked up on his job!
When Hunt Director Ying Min first received the request for this Hunt Operation, he had thought that it would just be a walk in a park.
They were merely supposed to hunt some low tier beasts that had been threatening the lives of the vulnerable locals, a common scenario that he had already completed countless times without fail.
Wanting to get it over and done with, Hunt Director Ying Min had committed one vital mistake – complacency.
He had actually neglected to research the other lifeforms on the planet, and now it had come to mercilessly bite him in the ass!
He had not prepared anything that was even remotely capable of matching a wyvern!
Hunt Director Ying Min was now at his wits end, and even the pickup shuttle was taken out due to a moment of carelessness.
How could he be this unlucky?!
Now, there was only one option left, and that was to send an S.O.S. message back to Planet S, requesting for the assistance of an Emergency Hunting Team to take out the wyvern.
Otherwise, extraction of the Hunting Team would be impossible!
If possible, he wanted to avoid doing this since it was tantamount to broadcasting his own failure.
However, he truly could not come up with any other ideas.
With the greatest reluctance, Hunt Director Ying Min sat straight up and let out a deep sigh.
"Connect me to the Hunter Union!"
The crew knew how dire the situation was as well. Finally receiving some form of directions from their boss, the crew did not hesitate and sprang into action immediately.
"Yes, Director! Initiating connection!"
…
…
"Connection established!"