Mighty Hooves — Xue Longyan

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"Hey… stay here and keep an eye on the iron-toothed crocodiles. I think I see a good flower from here," muttered Long Tian, his eyes locking onto a purple flower in the distance.

"Mm."

Han Sen nodded, staying in place. He looked at Long Tian from the corner of his eyes, disappearing behind a tree before resuming to look at the crocodiles.

They had been here for almost an hour, but not a single crocodile had come out of the pond yet. They were extremely dangerous within the water, which is why they were waiting for them to come out to land.

Rustle!

Hearing something behind him, Han Sen turned around vigilantly and found a man walking towards him. His breathing was heavy, a couple of wounds over his body, and his clothes being torn.

The young man didn't notice Han Sen and he directly went to the pond. Seeing the young man's actions, Han Sen quickly stepped out from the bush he was in and warned the young man.

"Friend, there are iron-toothed crocodiles in the pond! They're dangerous!"

Han Sen didn't only want to help keep the young man alive, but to also stay away from the pond. If he disturbed the crocodiles, then all the waiting he and Long Tian had done will be for nothing.

The young man turned to look at Han Sen with an ecstatic look on his face. "What is this place? I've been walking forever, how do I return to Glory Shelter?" he asked, staring at Han Sen.

"Glory shelter?" Han Sen frowned and shook his head whilst looking at the man strangely.. "I've never heard of Glory Shelter. We are in Tekees Mountains, north of Steel Armor Shelter."

"Steel Armor Shelter…" the young man frowned whilst whispering to himself. "I've walked so far that I'm now in another shelter's territory?"

Furrowed his eyebrows and turned to look at Han Sen calmly as he spoke out in a commanding tone, "Take me to Steel Armor Shelter."

Hearing the impolite tone, Han Sen frowned. "Head down south, if you're not too slow or distracted, you should get there before dark."

With that said, Han Sen turned around. He no longer wanted to deal with such an impolite person. Planning to instead return to his hiding spot and not talk to the young man.

Pa!

Unexpectedly, Han Sen felt a strong punch on his back, sending him hurling to the floor and hitting his head on a rock. With blood oozing out of his new injury, Han Sen glared at the young man.

"What are you doing?!" Han Sen yelled out in an angry tone as he covered his wound and stood up.

The young man snarled and shook his head, "I want obedience, not this bullshit you're giving me. Take me to the shelter, now."

Thoroughly enraged now, Han Sen summoned his own copper-toothed spear and poked it at the young man.

"The basic spear skills taught in the integrated compulsory education is trashy! Even with all my beast souls destroyed, dealing with you is a piece of cake! You can't compare to me, scum!" The young man laughed as he raised his hand and sent it down in cutting motion to Han Sen's spear.

The young man's hands didn't look normal. Giving off a light sheen, Han Sen felt as if they were sculpted out of jade. He looked as the hand fell down and touched his spear.

Crack!

It cut through!

The young man's hands cut through Han Sen's primitive beast soul, destroying it. Like a steel knife cutting through a piece of wood. Han Sen couldn't believe it!

'Hyper Geno Art!' Han Sen exclaimed inwardly.

"This is your last chance, scum. Lead the way, or die."

The young man raised his arm again, ready to slash it down at Han Sen. Seeing the hand, Han Sen rapidly summoned his black beetle armor whilst cursing at the young man.

"Kiss my ass!"

After coming this far, Han Sen won't simply beg for forgiveness or even give up. He will die fighting!

The young man's face contorted and he glared at Han Sen. "You asked for it!"

He swung down his Jade-like hand at Han Sen's leg.

Clank!

Both hand and leg were bounced off each other.

Being pushed back from the kick, the young man revealed a surprised look on his face. He looked at the white mark on Han Sen's golden armor and revealed a look of greed on his face.

There was only one thing that could defend against his attack in such a manner, and that was a sacred-blood armor. Even mutant beast souls would be chipped or heavily damaged, but the golden armor Han Sen was wearing was able to defend his attack.

"It didn't break under my Jadeskin! Your sacred-blood geno armor is a heaven sent gift if a scum like you has it. Hand it over to me and I'll spare you," laughed the young man.

Not saying anything, Han Sen turned and kicked out to the young man. He watched as his kick didn't land on its target, instead, the young man grabbed his leg and twisted it.

It forced Han Sen to turn his body, making his back face the young man. With a simple push and pressing forward, the young man dropped his knee on Han Sen's spine.

Even if Han Sen's armor could defend against attacks, it could defend against forceful bending of the armor's joints.

"Ahh!" Han Sen cried in pain as the young man pressed hard on Han Sen's back.

Bang!

Suddenly, the young man was smacked off Han Sen's back. He flew to the side and crashed against a tree, forcing him to cough up blood from the force. From the tree to the floor, the young man struggled to get up off the floor and looked at the cow-headed centaur creature before him in shock.

MOO!

The creature roared and galloped towards him wjth great momentum. It was wild and brutish, it caused the young man to widened his eyes in horror.

"A sacred-blood creature?!"

Bang!

The hooves fell down, carrying the entire weight of the cow-headed centaur. It poured its weight into it legs and swung down to the young man's body.

Crack!

The young man's bones broke in an instant and his body was deformed. Blood oozed out his mouth and orifices, dead.

Moo!

With one last roar, the cow-headed centaur transformed back into Long Tian, canceling the transformation of the Bloody Slayer.

He turned to look at Han Sen who was still feeling angry. He was taking deep breaths, calming himself before letting out one long drawn out breath.

"Scum… he's scum!"

Long Tian looked at Han Sen from the corner of his eyes before approaching the young man. He checked the young man's clothes and searched for anything valuable, finding a wallet and a small memory chip.

Pocketing the memory chip, he looked at the wallet curious. Aside from the many crystal credit cards with high credit lines, there was an identity card. Reading it, Long Tian saw the name on it, Xue Longyan.

Seeing the last name and recalling the mysterious hyper geno art the young man had, Long Tian realized something. Xue Longyan was part of the Xue Family, a mysterious and hidden family that hardly reveal themselves.

There wasn't too many articles on them, so Long Tian's information in them was poor.

Long Tian destroyed the wallet along with every card within it before turning to look at the dead body. Looking at each other, Han Sen and Long Tian nodded before grabbing Xue Longyan together and tossing him into the pond.

Sha!

With the appearance of Xue Longyan's corpse, all the hidden iron-toothed crocodiles jumped out and started eating the corpse. While Han Sen turned around to leave, Long Tian stayed behind, looking at the crocodiles curiously.

Watching how they ate and even battled each other for some piece of meat.

 Eventually, Long Tian stopped looking and turned to leave as well. They both headed back to the shelter, no longer capable of continuing to hunt for the day.

Han Sen broke a couple of bones and his head was still bleeding. On the other hand, transforming into the bloody slayer made Long Tian feel pretty weak.

"Sen, I won't be joining you for the next couple of days," Long Tian said on the way back. "I need to go do something."

"I'll see you some other day then." Han Sen nodded, a bit disappointed but not dwelling on it entirely. "When do you think you'll return?"

"I'm not sure. It's something a little spontaneous," he muttered. He sighed as he placed his hands in his pockets before feeling the memory chip. "I won't leave until a day later."

"Are you resting till then?"

"Yeah. I'll be checking the memory chip I got from Xue Longyan first. If I find any useful information, I'll tell you," Long Tian muttered in a low voice.

"Sounds good. I'll head to the hospital in the meantime. Go to my house, I have a computer in my room that can read that type of memory chip," Han Sen suggested. Pointing at the comlink on his wrist, he mentioned his family. "As soon as we step out, I'll call my mother and tell her you're visiting and to let you head to my room."

"Alright, make sure that you have a thorough check up. We can't leave any hidden injuries stop us just yet," warned Long Tian as he looked to the distance, Steel Armor Shelter slowly appearing in their view.

Han Sen nodded before suddenly exclaiming, "Ah! Don't tell my mom about what had just happened. Just tell her that we were hunting in a large group and I got careless. We can't mention anything about us hunting solo, she'll get worried." He paused and lowered his voice, his gaze turning a little downcast. "I can't have her worry any more than she already is."

Long Tian nodded and they soon arrived at Steel Armor Shelter. They left God's Sanctuary where they found each other at the Alliance outside of the teleport station. They stepped onto the same maglev train before heading off.

With Han Sen remaining on the maglev train, Long Tian got off at the fourth stop before heading straight to Han Sen's house.

Ding!!

Long Tian rang the doorbell and patiently waited at the entrance. He heard footsteps behind the door before it opened with a wide swing and a little girl standing behind it.

"Ah?"

The little girl exclaimed in confusion, looking at Long Tian curiously and with vigilance.

"Hi there, Han Yan," Long Tian said, with a light smile.

Han Yan looked at Long Tian dazedly before running back inside.

"Mommy! Brother's friend is here!"

Long Tian could hear the little girl yell as she ran back to the house, calling for her mother. Shortly after, he heard some footsteps coming to him.

An older woman with black hair appeared. She looked at Long Tian, recognizing him.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Luo," Long Tian said. "It's been a couple of days since I've seen you and your adorable daughter."

"Thank you." Luo Sulan smiled, "Enter, please."

Nodding his head, Long Tian entered the house. He looked at the familiar surroundings before turning to Han Yan who was now hiding behind a wall, looking at him curiously.

Waving his hand at her, Long Tian turned to Luo Sulan.

"Could you tell me where Han Sen's room is at?"

"Don't worry, I'll take you there myself."

"Thank you."

Luo Sulan gave Long Tian a heartwarming smile and led the way.

Han Sen's family home is a large two-story house with many rooms. It wasn't complicated to navigate through, but it was large and a lot of room to cover.

"It's been so long since my little Sen had any friends over. I was starting to think that he had been ignoring them and focusing on God's Sanctuary," she spoke softly to him.