Chapter 20: Commander Level Monster
Qin Mu played with a dagger-like horn in his hand, which the worker bugs had collected from the head of a high-level beast soldier Single-Horned Wild Boar. This horn was indeed the essence of the Single-Horned Wild Boar. In terms of hardness, it surpassed even Qin Mu's A2-grade Vanquisher Spear.
With a light toss, the horn steadily hovered in midair. Three identical horns were lined up in front of Qin Mu, performing various intricate maneuvers under his control.
The spearhead of the Vanquisher Spear had been damaged in the battle and was difficult to adapt to high-intensity combat, so Qin Mu turned his attention to these horns.
While Qin Mu was training to operate the horn daggers, the surrounding Zerg units, except for those on patrol and guard duty, were feasting on the bodies of the Single-Horned Wild Boars, devouring their flesh and blood. The bodies of more than twenty Single-Horned Wild Boars were enough for the swarm to have a hearty meal. Zerg creatures also needed to eat.
In fact, this was also a way for the Zerg to evolve. After countless bloody battles, devouring the flesh and blood of enemies had a small chance of breaking through their own strength and evolving.
The swarm had been traveling for several hours, and they were now eating and resting.
"When I return to the base, I must buy several suitable Spirit weapons, otherwise, I won't be able to unleash my true combat power." Qin Mu sighed. Although the horns were hard, manipulating them was still inferior to real weapons, and they could only be used as a makeshift solution.
While the swarm was eating, the farthest team of scouting Tiger Mastiffs encountered a crisis. In the darkness, the Tiger Mastiffs formed a battle formation, warily watching the surrounding jungle. Just moments ago, they were attacked by some kind of monster, and one of the Tiger Mastiffs had a large wound on its body, with blood flowing freely.
"Swish—"
A shadow flashed through the jungle, too fast for the Tiger Mastiffs to see the monster's appearance.
"Crack—"
The sound of flesh being torn and bones breaking echoed. The back of a Tiger Mastiff was suddenly slashed by a monster that leaped out, creating a large wound.
The monster looked similar to a fierce tiger, with spots on its body but two tails. When Qin Mu transferred his consciousness to the scene, he carefully identified it and discovered that it was not a tiger at all, but a Two-Tailed Tiger Cat.
The Tiger Cat clan was a very powerful type of feline monster, and their strength was easily recognized mainly by their tails. A single tail indicated a high-level beast soldier rank, a Two tail was a primary level Commander, a triple tail was a mid-level Commander, and so on. The strongest eight-tailed Tiger Cat had surpassed the Horde Leader level and was an undisputed king-level monster.
The Two-Tailed Tiger Cat in front of him was a primary level Commander monster. Facing a Commander level Two-Tailed Tiger Cat, the Tiger Mastiffs were powerless to fight back.
As the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat attacked, strange roars that sounded like both tigers and cats echoed through the jungle. A dozen single-tailed Tiger Cats slowly emerged from the jungle, surrounding the Tiger Mastiffs. These Tiger Cats, led by the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat, continuously launched attacks but did not go for the kill. They only injured the Tiger Mastiffs, causing them to bleed all over, but did not rush to kill them, as if they were toying with them.
"A Two-Tailed Tiger Cat? You're "courting death"!"
Qin Mu's expression turned grim when he saw this. Many feline monsters had vicious natures. When they had overwhelming strength, they often liked to torment and kill their opponents, similar to how many cats before the Great Nirvana would not kill the mice they caught but play with them until they died.
"I never expected the first beast Commander level monster we encountered in the wilderness to be a Two-Tailed Tiger Cat."
Qin Mu quickly recalled the information about the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat he had seen on the HR Alliance platform. The Tiger Cat clan was a type of monster that did not like to live in groups. Even a Commander level Two-Tailed Tiger Cat only had a dozen Tiger Cat monsters around it.
It was known that once monsters reached the Commander level, their intelligence greatly increased, and they often gathered many of their kind around them. Having tens, hundreds, or even thousands was very common. The fact that the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat only had a dozen was quite rare.
At this time, the swarm had almost finished eating, and the more than twenty Single-Horned Wild Boars had become a pile of broken bones and tattered fur. Qin Mu decisively ordered.
"Swarm, Stop eating and support the scouting team." The swarm began to run, sprinting towards the location of the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat.
At the same time, he ordered the other two Tiger Mastiff scouting teams to quickly move closer to the attack site but not join the battle. Instead, they were to monitor from a distance. With the strength of these Tiger Cats, throwing both scouting teams into the fight would be futile, but tracking and monitoring them was not a problem.
"At our current speed, it will take an hour to reach the attack site. I hope it's not too late."
Qin Mu was somewhat annoyed, not because of the casualties of the Zerg units, but because of the way they died. As Zerg warriors, death was their destiny, but it was not to be tormented and killed like this.
***
"We're almost there! There are still three Tiger Mastiffs alive!"
Qin Mu's expression was filled with anger. During this time, he had watched helplessly as one Tiger Mastiff after another was tormented to death, and his heart was already filled with rage. However, the closer he got to the battlefield, the calmer Qin Mu became.
The backpack behind him was opened by an invisible force, and more than twenty horns like daggers flew out, rotating and flying around Qin Mu.
Connecting his consciousness to the Nest, he began to calculate the best attack angles with the Nest's assistance.
Qin Mu wanted to kill all the Tiger Cats with one strike if possible. Even if he couldn't kill them, he would severely injure them to create an opportunity for the swarm!
"Thud, thud, thud."
The momentum of more than a hundred Tiger Mastiffs and worker bugs running was astonishing, causing the ground to tremble. The Tiger Cats, who were still toying with their prey, noticed the swarm from afar and tried to avoid them.
However, the three already dying Tiger Mastiffs suddenly erupted, entangling the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat that wanted to escape. At some point, twenty scouting Tiger Mastiffs also surrounded them, launching a frenzied attack.
The Two-Tailed Tiger Cat instantly flew into a rage, unleashing its full strength, easily killing the three severely injured Tiger Mastiffs, and then killing several more Tiger Mastiffs, but it still couldn't break free from the entanglement.
While they were entangled, the swarm finally arrived from several hundred meters away. More than twenty horns like daggers shot out into the air, each aiming at a vital spot of a Tiger Cat under the Nest's assistance. The leading Two-Tailed Tiger Cat was even targeted by three high-level soldier-ranked horns.
"Thud—" "Thud—"
The sound of horns piercing flesh rang out in succession. The Tiger Cats, which had been wantonly tormenting their prey, were now panicking and trying to scatter and escape.
The face of the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat, which was originally ferocious, actually showed a human-like expression of fear. Its intelligence was already no less than that of humans, and it knew what the horns flying through the air meant. This was the method of a spirit master.
In the face of death, the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat erupted. Its body dodged rapidly, and its huge claws even left afterimages, actually managing to hit a horn dagger.
"Crack—"
The force transmitted by the horn dagger was not as immense as imagined and was easily deflected. When hit by a horn dagger on its back, it only managed to pierce its fur with difficulty, getting stuck in the muscles and bones. It should be noted that Tiger Cats were not known for their defense, yet this attack only broke the skin.
However, before it could rejoice, the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat watched helplessly as the bodies of the dozen or so ordinary Tiger Cats around it stiffened and collapsed to the ground simultaneously. This strike was not aimed at it but at those high-level soldier-ranked ordinary Tiger Cats.
Qin Mu's psychic power was strong, but when dispersed into more than twenty parts, it was naturally not enough to kill a primary Commander Two-Tailed Tiger Cat. Therefore, Qin Mu's initial target was not it.
As long as he killed those dozen Tiger Cats, without their cover, it was just one monster, more than a hundred Tiger Mastiffs could wear it down to death.
In the next moment, more than a hundred Tiger Mastiffs surrounded and killed the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat.
In the sky, more than a dozen horn daggers returned to Qin Mu's backpack like swallows returning to their nest, leaving only three high-level soldier-ranked horns circling in the air, looking for an opportunity to attack.
By manipulating only three horn daggers, Qin Mu could make each one erupt with the attack power of a mid-level warlord.
"Whoosh—"
A horn dagger whistled towards the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat. The Two-Tailed Tiger Cat, which was already on guard, unleashed its full strength to dodge rapidly. However, just as it dodged one horn dagger, the next one followed closely.
The Two-Tailed Tiger Cat's eyes were bloodshot, and it went crazy, avoiding the vital parts but still being pierced through its left leg. The moment its left leg was injured, its speed suddenly dropped, and a Tiger Mastiff seized the opportunity to pounce on it.
The Two-Tailed Tiger Cat was furious. Its head turned, and it roared, biting the Tiger Mastiff and throwing it more than ten meters away. But in that brief moment, several more Tiger Mastiffs bit its body.
The other Tiger Mastiffs seized the opportunity, leaping high into the air and pouncing, piling up the place where the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat was into a mountain of flesh. Only a few cries of distress were heard, and the voice of the Two-Tailed Tiger Cat gradually weakened until it completely disappeared.