Chapter 307: Hunting Squad
Carlos suddenly threw out a theory:
"If there weren't any Whale Scale Hunters like you around, considering how monsters stack up against regular humans, humanity would be toast in just a few years, right?"
"Yeah... that's about right..."
Timira nodded without thinking. Nobody knew monster firepower better than Whale Scale Hunters.
In other words, right after monsters showed up, Whale Fort also cooked up the first batch of Whale Scale Hunters...
Timira connected the dots almost instantly.
Did fate step in to save humanity's bacon?
Under bright sunshine, raindrops started quietly falling from the sky, pattering against her face.
It was starting to rain...
Timira glanced over. That mysterious guy had already ducked back into the tent and was chilling out...
While she stood there in the rain, her mind drifting back to everything she knew about Whale Fort...
...
...
By a river near Carlo City, there was this weird jutting rock.
On the rock, a blue-robed guy was fishing.
Splash, splash...
The sound of someone wading through water. A beat-up, freaky-looking woman with ice-cold eyes walked up.
"Looks like you ran into her."
Blue-robed Roz had a gut feeling that Melinda's scouting results were gonna blow everyone's minds.
"She's changed big time—has a human-like body but also some kind of outer armor that looks like whale scale form, like some fairy stepped right out of a storybook..."
Melinda laid out the whole battle scene with Timira.
"...She took me down with one hit."
Melinda felt like crap inside.
What the hell was that about? They were only two sequences apart—how could she not even take one punch?
"After getting dragged off by some unknown monster or traitor, did she fall?"
Blue-robed Roz's face went grim as he worked out a theory.
With Timira's scary-ass power when she was normal, if she'd fallen and completely cut loose with her whale magic, she'd definitely turn into some nightmare monster on par with Fallen Commanders.
Just Sequence 3 Melinda getting flattened in one shot wasn't exactly shocking.
As for her totally different look and letting Melinda live—Roz didn't find that weird at all.
Whale Scale Hunters naturally changed appearance after falling, and sparing Melinda was probably because she hadn't been fallen long and still had some human decency left in her.
But down the road...
Blue-robed Roz knew they couldn't sit on their asses any longer. He had to get word to the brass right now.
"Melinda, go patch yourself up. I'll brief the higher-ups on what comes next."
...
...
Several days later, by a lake, some weird woman stared blankly at fish swimming around, her eyes showing just a hint of jealousy.
"Mission wrapped up, Kana?"
A blue-robed guy slowly stepped out of the woods and walked over to her.
The woman called Kana didn't even bother looking up.
"What mission."
Her tone was flat as a pancake, like she was talking to some random stranger.
The blue-robed guy didn't seem bothered. He shrugged:
"You called it. But this is one hell of a dangerous gig. One screw-up and you might end up dead."
Hearing that, the ice-cold woman finally looked at the blue-robed guy. Her eyes didn't show even a flicker of fear, still cold as winter.
Before Kana could say anything, the blue-robed guy dropped the bomb:
"Sequence 0 Timira has fallen."
For the first time, ripples showed in Kana's frozen stare. Obviously her heart wasn't as stone-cold as she let on.
"Where."
But the blue-robed guy shook his head:
"Even though you're Sequence 1, right under Timira, you could never take down Timira after she's gone dark."
Kana's gaze turned razor-sharp, clearly not buying the blue-robed guy's assessment.
"To make damn sure nothing goes sideways, this hunting squad going after Timira is gonna be loaded like never before."
...
...
Several days later, at some monster hideout:
SLASH!
Some freaky woman's whale tail flashed, turning several monsters into hamburger meat.
"Pathetic, pathetic, too damn pathetic!"
Suddenly, several monster corpses came flying at her. The weird woman casually swatted with her tail, turning them into blood mist.
"Edrin, you looking for a fight?"
"Oops, my bad Dell. Didn't see you were hanging around here."
A tall figure slowly walked over, casually wiping out the attacking monsters.
She looked down at the short Dell, pretending she hadn't spotted her.
Dell's fist clenched tight as anger marks popped up on her forehead.
"You're asking for it!"
Edrin covered her mouth and giggled:
"Don't get your panties in a twist—we're supposed to be battle buddies!"
"Edrin!"
But Dell didn't give a damn. Her figure flashed as her powerful whale tail whipped out.
BOOM!
One big and one small whale tail smashed together. The brutal impact shattered rocks.
Monsters tried to jump them while they were distracted. Both women snorted with disgust almost at the same time and spun around.
BOOM!
Blood mist exploded everywhere as tons of monsters got splattered.
"My head's killing me. Why are you two going at it again?"
Another freaky woman showed up—Melinda, who'd just gotten over her ass-kicking.
Seeing her two teammates' hostile vibes, she felt a headache coming on.
"Weird. Why would all the Sequence 3s pile up at some dinky mid-level monster nest?"
Edrin was curious. Any one of the three of them could've cleaned house solo—this wasn't Whale Fort's usual MO.
"Wrong—it's not just you Sequence 3s."
Suddenly two more freaky women appeared.
They were built like brick houses with serious muscle definition on their bare arms.
Without even using their whale tails, they just threw punches and brutally smashed monsters to bits—pretty damn vicious.
Dell yelped in surprise:
"Ursula, Julian!!!"
The new arrivals were two Sequence 2 Whale Scale Hunters.
Edrin's eye twitched:
"Don't tell me there's also Sequence 1 and Sequence 0 showing up..."
Right then, a cold voice cut through the air:
"No Sequence 0."
A cold figure had materialized out of nowhere. Behind her, hordes of monsters had turned into ice chunks like some frozen wasteland.
Sequence 1, Kana!
Edrin and Dell's jaws dropped.
All the heavy hitters among Whale Scale Hunters except Sequence 0 had rolled up.
What kind of major shit were they gearing up for?
Were they hunting a Fallen Commander?
"Kana, what the hell is this mission that needs everyone from Sequence 1 to Sequence 3 all in one place?"
Sequence 2 Ursula spoke up, asking what everyone was thinking.
"Melinda, you fill them in."
Kana crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, looking like her mind was somewhere else.
Seeing this, Melinda reluctantly stepped forward and dropped the bombshell:
"Sequence 0 Timira has fallen."
"What the hell!"
"No freaking way!"
"That's Timira we're talking about!"
Everyone lost their shit.
Even if they didn't know Timira personally, anyone who earned the title of strongest naturally grabbed everyone's attention.
"So... this time we're gonna hunt her down..."
Dell was putting the pieces together.
Edrin asked, confused:
"But even if she is Sequence 0, do we all really need to mob up together?"
Despite the differences in power, though Edrin was only Sequence 3, she didn't think she was that much weaker than the higher sequences.
"No... it's not just us..."
Kana suddenly spoke up.