My Last Hunt

Level Four (16)

Hunting Echo Hull:

During the time they were talking, they reached the most damp part of the Snow Island. The snowflakes were falling just like before but here they were melting into small puddles and the ground was damp due to that. The soil turned soft with this and if someone was not careful, they would find their feet deep in the ground. 

They observed this and made precautions so that their long fleeces did not get dirty from getting muddy. But they couldn't prevent that from happening as the whole area was probably covered with this soft ground. 

"Carefully search for the monster and be careful of your movements in this area." 

The team leader spread them around to look more efficiently. From the look, the monster might have a preference for this type of habitats. 

"Is it possible that the monster likes to wade around in mud or similar conditions?" Qiao asked.

The time he had been in this this world was still less and the monster he had encountered were still not considered high. He had ventured to few regions wide and did not know a lot still. Right now it seemed to him that the monsters could have also created their own favourite conditions in their territories and live the way they want to live. 

"Indeed, I can just imagine from the name given that this will be different from the previous one." Team leader agreed on his speculation. If the monster chose a damp place then it must be wading in the mud or relaxing by covering the mud over its complete body or something similar. With this revelation, the team leader immediately voiced it to others to alert his men. 

"Look at your feet, it can be under your very eyes and you might walk right past it. Be extra careful." 

In search of huge-sized monsters, chasers usually neglect the smaller details around them due to negligence. One of the chasers heard his team leader's warning and immediately paused his steps. The thing which he thought was a big wet bough of some tree was not looking the same after a careful glance. He looked again to confirm his hunch.

Earlier he had thought to make a round around it and walk past straight forward, but now he was silently looking at the thing which were probably the feet of the monster. His head felt too heavy to move his eyes toward the rest of the area in mud. 

"I found it..." he barely spoke in a screeching voice. He was standing away from the rest of the team and the mud was all around and everywhere on the ground where there were only a few trees and nothing else to take support against. 

The team leader heard his sound and hurriedly reached his position. He looked in the direction the chaser was pointing and inferred from the surrounding quickly. From the uneven mud, it was apparent that the monster was relaxing in the mud. 

If no one cared to glance at the ground, one might not be able to spot it as a monster and would only consider it a group of broken boughs and a slightly uneven part of the ground. But the screeching voice from earlier had definitely waken up the monster. It suddenly moved its huge body in reaction and to confront them by splashing the mud on them when it shook its body. The chaser who first spotted this monster was standing right in front of the feet and when monster moved, he fell in the mud face down. 

Their feet were already starting to sink if they were not careful about it. A giant eight feet Echo Hull was disturbed from its slumber. It was frightening just from its appearance. And the chaser who at its feet was crawling to make some distance from it. 

The Echo Hull moved its big feet and a ton of mud fell on the chaser and then the monster started groaning. It sounded like groaning but that must be its scornful laugh. It was laughing at the plight of the chaser who was in its feet. The person was buried under mud now. 

It then again moved its giant body and kicked the chaser out of the mud. 

The chaser was thrown and he fell unconscious from the kick. For a human, a direct hit from such a big monster was considered fatal and if he had not died already and was still somehow alive, it was already a blessing for him. The team leader sent someone to check on the pulse of the chaser as such an unexpected encounter could be fatal for a chaser who has not reached level five yet. He had to try to save him if he could.

The monster always dominated with their insane power over humans and this was what made them such difficult opponents to the teams who came to hunt in numbers. It was the fact that a single monster can eradicate a whole team, especially those high level monsters were strong to the point of making mincemeat of every human team who dared to hunt them. 

Now only four of them were left to face this monster. The monster brought its big head down toward a chaser who was looking blankly and roared. Large amounts of mud and echo sounded which was deafening to the point of making someone insane. It was the worst ever situation that this team had faced until now. The chaser seemed glued to his feet and could not move. They tried to cover the ears which might explode if the monster again roared like that. 

The chasers with the increase in level, start to temper their hearing which greatly improve their capability. It helps them to differentiate between vague voices which cannot be heard with normal hearing. Normal humans cannot listen to those resonance sound made by the monsters but hunters could. 

This time the team leader and Qiao both covered their ears before they started bleeding. 

This monster was named because of its certain quality of creating echoes with the specific vocal cords or perhaps it learned with the time and developed this quality but it was truly a weapon against humans. 

With the time it could learn how to control for specific attacks and not to waste the energy in all directions. 

This mission was among the most difficult one. The mission were assigned from a descending order and it was considered that only stronger teams vie to get them. Else which of the weak team would wake up early in the morning and stood first in the row to get the mission. The team leader was also aware of it but he did not tell his men. 

First, they would get scared and second, he somehow had a strong belief that Qiao would have a solution to every monster and he could plan even at the time of crisis. But it was going to take the life of his team now if they continued like this. He was horrified when the monster kicked a man and he fell unconscious. He was directly responsible for this plight. 

Qiao was unable to understand why the team leader was not reacting. He looked at him and glared; 

"What are you hiding?" From his expressions to his reaction everything was evident that he was hiding something. 

"Qiao, I am sorry it was my fault. The organizer asked me but I assured him that my team is capable. This monster is called Echo Hull and is very dangerous." Shiguan stepped back, away from the monster. 

How were they supposed to attack when the monster can attack from afar with its resonance which was fatal for their sensitive ears. The chasers started listening to resonance from level two but controlling and tempering it required them to be at level five. 

They had no means to face a monster who could use it's resonance for attack unless they had some special stones or they were prepared beforehand. This was also the mistake of the team leader that he did not prepare his team before facing such a monster. 

"I never knew that you would commit such a grave mistake, do you know the outcome?" Qiao was shocked to hear him. They were short of time to think of a way to tackle this problem. No matter how smart Qiao was, this sudden revelation was equal to a atomic explosion for him. 

In this situation if he could secure his senses and survive, it would be enough for him, much less being able to fork out a sudden plan to defeat it. Was this team leader taking him as a supper computer which could give analysis in a thousandth fraction of a second? 

Sigh he even didn't know what to do now, but Qiao still wanted to curse at this moment. 

He looked towards the monster and then the scattered team then again looked the monster and the mud and a sudden idea hit his brain. He happened to see such a movie where an alien who wanted to destroy earth happened to use the resonance to kill the humans.