Island HQ, Meeting Room.
"Sir everything and everyone are in their positions sir!" Soldier.
"Good, now give us constant reports on the situation of the ape" Mr.Smith
"Sir the scout has anticipated your request and asked me to report the situation to you sir, according to them the ape seems to have slowed down and would suddenly sink constantly causing small scale tremors on the island, we believe that it is falling into the pits created by the third party, one scout reports that the flames are corroding the apes flesh thus it can be concluded that it is fighting sir" Soldier.
"Fighting with something that can damage it albeit slowly, thats indeed a more problematic being than the ape but we cant let this opportunity slide, ladies and gents it seems that the gods have blessed us, let us take this ape down and add it to the research of our nations" Mr.Smith.
"Agreed" All the admirals responded before mobilising their soldiers while leaving some to defend the HQ, jeeps and trucks filled with many soldiers began to start up and then move towards the apes location planning to kill steal the ape from lizzy.
...
lizzy location.
"Oooh thats taking nut cracking to a whole nother level"
Lizzy watched as the ape once again fell into a trap hole, she had to admit she had talent on this field, the apes groin was bleeding from both the flames and the constant crushing, the ape could basically say goodbye to his future generations, lizzy would climb trees from time to time to randomly eat the fruits on them to regain a miniscule amount of energy, her ability allowed her to eat rocks but why would she?
It took a while before lizzy noticed that she was close to the encampment, too close for comfort, she decided to turn to another direction to lead the ape away and to stay away from massive conflict that was larger than the ape combined, as she began to run, she could feel the ground shaking not from the ape but from the vehicles travelling towards their direction, she could tell it was vehicles due to the mechanical roar the loud engine produces.
"No kill stealing! thats just unfair! im the one who made the effort!"
The ape followed her and was still quite fast but compared to the earlier pursuit it was a tad sluggish and out of breath, lizzy could easily tell it was due to the large amount of blood loss the ape had incurred from the abyssal flames that corroded it, the speed of the vehicles was not easy to surpass physically especially for her who is just a tier 1 evolved being and while the ape was tier 2 it was a strength focused being so it wasnt that agile unless it jumped.
Lizzy looked back slightly behind the ape and could already see the headlights from the vehicles that followed, she didnt want to collide with them this early on but she had no choice, she opened her maw wide and spewed a reasonable amount of flames towards the vehicles, enough to stop them or they will burn till nothing was left.
The ape repetitively broken trees to make its path, similar to how the author is repeating almost everything in this chapter, lizzy has very little combat oriented skills so she couldnt do much but just run the chase went on for hours after she stopped the vehicles.
...
Ape chase, Military vehicles.
"Captain, we are nearing the apes location and the recording equipment of the vehicle is now all green" Soldier.
"Good, if those researchers didnt ask for footage of what the ape is fighting, i wouldnt have brought these useless cameras with us" Captain.
"Well atleast they promised us that we can get the latest equipment they make first Cpt.Price" Soldier.
"Did you become stupid or were you born dumb?, they wouldve done so anyway even if we didnt agree since theyll need live guinea pigs for their tests, have you forgotten what happened to that other team that underwent their new equipment prioritization?" Cpt.Price.
"Im sorry sir for being dumb and no i have not, those poor soldiers the latest equipment turned out to be faulty and they died fighting against the worms" Soldier.
"We were the next choice sooner or later, as for why its because they believe that even with faulty equipment the elites can survive, anyway if not for the orders of high up i wouldnt have agreed" Cpt.Price.
The vehicle went silent as they drove faster towards the location, they made easy to traverse dirt paths along the forest and it just so happens that the ape was in one of the paths, they saw the ape but then moved their eyes towards the apes target which was an average sized alligator with pitch black scales, that was the only abnormality they found till they began chasing, as they were preparing to rain bullets on the ape, they were suddenly met with dark flames that blocked their way, Price sensing danger from it stopped his vehicle and the others not noticing him stop passed the flame but was then burned to ashes after a few seconds of contact.
"Soldier did you get some footage of that alligator thing?" Cpt.Price.
"Yes sir, from start to finish its crystal" Soldier in the same vehicle.
"Splendid we will need to ask those lunatics for some fireproof gear if we want to fight that thing" Cpt.Price.
The vehicle proceeded to back away from the dirt path, then drove back to the encampment, as for the reason why they didnt chase on foot is because Cpt.Price didnt allow them to do so due to the reason of unnecessary casualties the flames might cause them, the flames were able to burn the car in a few seconds and then wipe the soldiers in it after, why should he risk his men only to have their expedition be in vain.
...
With the car out of sight lizzy began to slow down to conserve her remaining energy, she no longer needed to run fast since the ape has slowed down to a walk, bones on some parts were now visible and even the abyssal flames werent able to corrode them, it seemed she needed to level it up but she didnt know how nor did the system tell her and if she did ask she could already hear the system telling her to explore it herself.
"Luckily the guys in there were smart enough not to follow otherwise id be having a festival feast"
Lizzy walked up towards a tree and then flipped herself over with her alligator back pressed against the trunk as if a human sitting against a tree, she kept her eye on the slowing ape until it reached her front and lifted its arm to slam down towards her only for the tendons holding the bones of the arm to snap and then the arm would drop beside it, the flames kept on going till the ape was at a full stop dropping to the ground lifeless, blood loss will always be a problem for biological beings that have them and its the same for those that are powerful, the apes body was massive and its arms even more, allowing the blood to easily flow out without hindrance.
"Wait a minute! why did i kill the ape now? i couldve waited for the system to add a task for it!"
With a little regret she would take back the flames and then ensure that the ape was dead by... poking it with a tree branch she broke just to keep some distance and ensure her safety, after she was sure it was dead she would get close and then place it in her inventory, it entered so it was dead for sure, she smiled as the third most annoying creature was dead, as for which one were the second and first?, well the first would be the giant centipedes albeit only being 1st tier evolved they were massive and their carapace was the focus of their evolution, causing them to have even harder skin than the ape though just slightly.
She walked towards the mansion while placing the regrets on killing the ape early deep into her mind so she would forget it.
...
The next day.
"So what do you think about the thing Dr.Wattson?" Cpt.Price.
"Honestly it is indeed a rather new discovery, we have seen plenty of crocs and allis being hunted by the mainland forces but we have never seen one breath fire, its so similar to the stories about dragon and we even have dragon bones, though why is it so small? i expected it to be bigger similar to our dragons bones" Dr.Wattson.
"It might be a youngling" Cpt.Price.
"Good observations captain but even a young dragon has wings, this one doesnt so thats why im thinking it might be another species or our evolutionary chart for dragons of fantasy are highly flawed and that dragons wont have wings when theyre young, i believe its the former though" Dr.Wattson.
"Then can the lab produce fireproof equipment that can withstand its flames? from what you see on another frame the flames can burn our vehicles and soldiers to ashes, not instantly though since it still takes plenty of seconds" Cpt.Price.
"We can make rudimentary fireproof equipment but in order to counter this things flames we will need to research its flames and we hope that captain has brought a sample? or we will have to ask captain to capture the creature? honestly id rather have the creature captain since it can make our weapons tech rise swiftly, flames that can burn that ape and metal in mere seconds is already quite powerful" Dr.Wattson.
"We dont have any samples but i can try to capture it, as long as you ask the admiral to add more soldiers to the hunt, in order to capture such a thing some "Heroes" must be born" Cpt.Price.
"I can try to ask him then, expect some good news captain" Dr.Wattson.
"Oh i will doctor" Cpt.Price.
Price left after talking with the doctor with a smile on his face, the doctor once the room was clear let out a soft sigh.
"Haaa the files about him are indeed accurate, he never sacrifices people if he gets nothing but is willing to do the opposite once something of value is added to the table, in this case better equipment for him in exchange with a couple of deaths from soldiers he doesnt even know, bob! begin writing some letters for the family of the selected martyrs, tell them they died honourably in the line of duty and in order to protect the human race" Dr.Wattson.